I still have a fair few of the Gashes trophy trips to put up a report on - but Will is hopefully working on one at the moment from the August 07 trip over to Elliston/Sheringa.
The next trip will be in late August, down to Beachport for the first time. I've been wanting to check out this area for a long time.. I can't wait. Hopefully get to do a bit of 4wding in the national parks down there too.
It also marks Andy's second attempt on the Gashes... its fair to say, he won't win it :)
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Coorong - June 2006
Matt and I teamed up with Harry for the June long weekend, and took the trek down to the Coorong national park. Was some hairy 4wding to be done to reach our final camping spot, but we found an 'alternate path' which made things a bit easier.
I actually took that photo on the way home. I swear we didn't see it on the way in! We must have joined up with this track from another section. The alternative was traveling along the beach which was completely washed out - one of the worst conditions I've seen it.
We had to make a good setup with some forecast rain over the weekend, and we were pretty happy with this effort. It did blow down in the night, confirming our thoughts that perhaps a few more poles were needed next time! At least it stayed up as long as we were awake.
Credit to Harry for spending much time leveling out the "floor"
Finally, we got some lines in the water, and within half hour I hooked onto a nice pan hotplate sized salmon at 47cm. I was quietly happy to be leading the 'gashes'. Landing a fish that quick was a good sign and we expected to be pulling in loads. But nothing else was caught for the rest of day 1. Just after sunset we headed back to get a fire going and settle into to many beers, port and a bit of a feast of fish, chops, and burgers.. mmmm
Day 2 provided not a single fish. Matt looked to get a good bite, but couldn't place his beer down quick enough to go wind it in before it got off. I was hungover as hell that morning - damn Harry and his damn port. Had to sleep in a bit before hair of the dog finally cured me.
Day 3 we decided we'd head home around 12ish, and get in a bit of a morning fish. Around 9:30am Matt pulls in a salmon and we measure it to be exactly 47cm - the same size as my fish. We hadnt previously discussed what would happen in the event of a tied gashes, and it was looking very likely for awhile. I still don't know what we would've done, but later that morning about 30mins before heading off, Matt goes out to check his rod which he'd left planted in the sand to find it dancing around like mad. The bastard had hooked onto one whilst we were back at camp packing up. Yet another 47cm salmon, but now he was up 2-1 and the gashes were all his.
We pulled in the lines, threw em in the car and headed off home.
I actually took that photo on the way home. I swear we didn't see it on the way in! We must have joined up with this track from another section. The alternative was traveling along the beach which was completely washed out - one of the worst conditions I've seen it.
We had to make a good setup with some forecast rain over the weekend, and we were pretty happy with this effort. It did blow down in the night, confirming our thoughts that perhaps a few more poles were needed next time! At least it stayed up as long as we were awake.
Credit to Harry for spending much time leveling out the "floor"
Finally, we got some lines in the water, and within half hour I hooked onto a nice pan hotplate sized salmon at 47cm. I was quietly happy to be leading the 'gashes'. Landing a fish that quick was a good sign and we expected to be pulling in loads. But nothing else was caught for the rest of day 1. Just after sunset we headed back to get a fire going and settle into to many beers, port and a bit of a feast of fish, chops, and burgers.. mmmm
Day 2 provided not a single fish. Matt looked to get a good bite, but couldn't place his beer down quick enough to go wind it in before it got off. I was hungover as hell that morning - damn Harry and his damn port. Had to sleep in a bit before hair of the dog finally cured me.
Day 3 we decided we'd head home around 12ish, and get in a bit of a morning fish. Around 9:30am Matt pulls in a salmon and we measure it to be exactly 47cm - the same size as my fish. We hadnt previously discussed what would happen in the event of a tied gashes, and it was looking very likely for awhile. I still don't know what we would've done, but later that morning about 30mins before heading off, Matt goes out to check his rod which he'd left planted in the sand to find it dancing around like mad. The bastard had hooked onto one whilst we were back at camp packing up. Yet another 47cm salmon, but now he was up 2-1 and the gashes were all his.
We pulled in the lines, threw em in the car and headed off home.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Gleesons Landing - May 2006
The second ever "Gashes Trip" was down to a place on lower Yorke Peninsula called Gleesons Landing. We'd been down here once before with little success, but its a nice enough spot to try again!
Matt, Will, Myself and one of Will's mates, Mike (I think his name was - its a long time ago now) were all in on this trip. We set up camp and then headed straight down to the beach.
Myself and Will threw the smaller rods in with some cockles and managed to get a small feed of Mullet - but they were destined to be used as bait anyway.
The reason Gleesons Landing is a good spot, is because its right next to a place called 'the Dust Hole'. We headed over here the next morning, and spotted a likely looking gutter from the top of the cliffs.
After the descent down the stairs, and the loonnnng walk down the beach, we reached our desired spot and set up the rods. I stopped to take a photo of how far we'd walked. The car was on top of the cliff at the end of the beach, far off in the distance.
After an hour or so, my rod got some bites, and I pulled in a small salmon. Nothing special, but enough to sit me on top of the leaderboard on an otherwise quiet weekend. Not to be out done, Will pulls in a Salmon of his own a bit later, and it goes a bit bigger than my own. Damnit.
We headed back to Gleesons and our campsite to cook up some lunch, before heading north to a place called Swincer's Rocks. We'd also been here recently without success, but with good reports of garfish coming from there, we gave it a shot anyway.
Once again (at the time of writing, there have been 3 attempts at this location) we came up with no garfish. I think its a myth.
Back to camp for a few beers before hitting the beach again to fish through to sunset. It was incredibly cold on the beach and the lack of fish just made it even colder. Bella had the right idea of sitting in the car to keep out of the chilly wind.
Back at camp at night, we got the fire going and cooked up the Salmon we'd caught earlier over the fire, along with a couple of steaks. Mike (once again, I think thats his name :)) LOVED that grill.
Heading back home early the next morning meant no fishing, and Will taking home the trophy again. The tally for the whole weekend was 2 small salmon, and a probably a dozen mullet. At least Yorkes is reliable for Mullet in Autumn!
Matt, Will, Myself and one of Will's mates, Mike (I think his name was - its a long time ago now) were all in on this trip. We set up camp and then headed straight down to the beach.
Myself and Will threw the smaller rods in with some cockles and managed to get a small feed of Mullet - but they were destined to be used as bait anyway.
The reason Gleesons Landing is a good spot, is because its right next to a place called 'the Dust Hole'. We headed over here the next morning, and spotted a likely looking gutter from the top of the cliffs.
After the descent down the stairs, and the loonnnng walk down the beach, we reached our desired spot and set up the rods. I stopped to take a photo of how far we'd walked. The car was on top of the cliff at the end of the beach, far off in the distance.
After an hour or so, my rod got some bites, and I pulled in a small salmon. Nothing special, but enough to sit me on top of the leaderboard on an otherwise quiet weekend. Not to be out done, Will pulls in a Salmon of his own a bit later, and it goes a bit bigger than my own. Damnit.
We headed back to Gleesons and our campsite to cook up some lunch, before heading north to a place called Swincer's Rocks. We'd also been here recently without success, but with good reports of garfish coming from there, we gave it a shot anyway.
Once again (at the time of writing, there have been 3 attempts at this location) we came up with no garfish. I think its a myth.
Back to camp for a few beers before hitting the beach again to fish through to sunset. It was incredibly cold on the beach and the lack of fish just made it even colder. Bella had the right idea of sitting in the car to keep out of the chilly wind.
Back at camp at night, we got the fire going and cooked up the Salmon we'd caught earlier over the fire, along with a couple of steaks. Mike (once again, I think thats his name :)) LOVED that grill.
Heading back home early the next morning meant no fishing, and Will taking home the trophy again. The tally for the whole weekend was 2 small salmon, and a probably a dozen mullet. At least Yorkes is reliable for Mullet in Autumn!
Thursday, July 10, 2008
The End of a Gashes Icon?
I've cleaned it like its never been cleaned before, but that left side burner is just getting no flow through it. We're gonna be suffering some hour long cook times on the snags!
Look how clean it is! I don't know what that white shit is, but theres no grease on it anymore! Sadly, I think it may have had its day. Definitely had its money worth.
Look how clean it is! I don't know what that white shit is, but theres no grease on it anymore! Sadly, I think it may have had its day. Definitely had its money worth.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
West Coast - August 2006
This trip could have started better.
Friday night and I get a call from Luke who has just come over from Sydney unannounced. So I meet up with him at the Pub after work for a "few beers" and to catch up. I know me and Matt are leaving for Elliston at 8am the next morning, so it will have to be a quiet one. I call Matt and tell him to join us. He, sensibly, says he'll give it a miss and go home to get stuff ready for the trip. Thirty minutes later he turns up at the pub. I think Will even made an appearance out of nowhere and declared that despite this being a two-man trip (Matt and I) - it should count as a gashes trip due to the largeness of it (distance travelled, nights away spent). We agreed :)
Many beers are consumed, and I (in a moment of clarity) decide to catch a bus home around 11pm, leaving Matt and Luke behind. I found out the next day that Matt hit the casino playing blackjack til 3am.
So Saturday morning arrives, and Matt rocks up feeling seedy, much later than planned and we're on our way. Five minutes later I get a phone call and it's Sani. I forgot to pack my clothes bag.
10 minutes later, we are on our way again.
Things were fairly uneventful for most of the drive - the sun shining in was making the car quite warm for winter - it was about 30 degrees on the thermometer on the dashboard. The fridge sat at a nice 1 degree though, tempting us with icey cold beers the whole way. Once we hit the dirt road to shortcut down to Elliston, we were travelling along at 100km/hr, windows down enjoying the fine weather, when I scream "aarrrrrrghh" grasping my neck. A bee had managed to get through the open window at speed, and fly straight into my neck landing a sting. It hurt like hell. And it itched for the remainder of the trip.
Pulling into the final 10kms before Elliston, the sun was low and there were bugs EVERYWHERE on the windscreen. We could barely see, so had to drive really slow until we got to the caravan park!
A small sampling of bugs on the windscreen
We set up the tent, and got our tickets to enter the Salmon competition.. biggest Salmon caught over winter and weighed in wins $2000. Naturally, we were shoe-ins. After some food (the camping burger, of course) we went down to the jetty in search of some tommy ruffs.
It wasn't long before the tommies showed up in numbers, and we were pulling in fish after fish and double headers too. Half our catch probably dropped off whilst pulling them up too.. blunt hooks perhaps.
The next morning, we left early for Locks Well, and as I'd heard the beach was quite washed out at the bottom of the stair case, we set down the cliffs towards the left hand side of the beach. There was some verrry fishy looking water here, but just 4 salmon were caught in the morning session. We headed back to the caravan park to clean up the salmon and the previous nights Tommy catch.
Matt cleaning up the tommies from night time jetty fish. A salmon from Lock's Well is on the left.
Headed over to Anxious Bay for a fish after lunch and managed to catch a lonely King George Whiting. I was happy with that as I hadn't caught one for many years.
The second night on the Jetty produced more tommies again, but without the numbers of the first night.
The next morning called for another trip to Locks Well in search of a competition winning Salmon - and things looked good when we arrived with a massive school of salmon just out of casting range. You can see it in the next picture, but may need to click on the larger version.
We headed down the stairs this time, and headed out to the deep gutter. We started casting pilchards and surf poppers with limited success - then some other guys came along with big lures and starting pulled in some big salmon from the school. I quickly changed over to my one and only large metal lure and instantly hooked onto a big salmon. In came this beauty that we later weighed in at 2.45kgs
Second cast, and another huge strike.. and the salmon is on a big run - then snap.. my line breaks. DAMNIT.
Matt had no lures in his bag and was desperately trying with pilchards but they just weren't interested. I changed to a smaller lure I had, and managed to catch a few, but none of the big fish were interested in it.
Defeated, we headed back up the stairs, first of all having to negotiate the rocky ledge where the beach was all washed away at the bottom of the stairs. You'd have no idea there was even a rock there in summer.
Back at the caravan park we spoke to some guys over from Victoria who we saw at the beach with some huge salmon. They weighed theirs in at just under 4kg's.. nice effort!
One thing was clear. We needed to get some big lures.
So we bought some at the caravan park shop.
We hit the Elliston pub for a few pints, and an awesome beef schnitzel. The caravan park owner, Troy was there too - he didn't hesitate in giving us shit for only bringing in one fish for weighing when everyone else was bringing in 3 fish of bigger size (3 is the max you can weigh in per day).
The next morning, armed with some shiny new lures, we hit Locks again, but the school was gone :(. A few decent fish were beached, but nothing worth weighing in.
We decided to pack up the tent and move down the coast to Sheringa, as we'd never fished there before and had heard good things. It would also give us a chance to burn off some of the firewood we'd been hauling around everywhere.
Heres the campsite at Sheringa:
What a great spot to camp this is.. protected behind the dune on nice solid ground, and just a short walk over the dune to an awesome salmon fishing beach. I imagine it'd get pretty busy around holiday times though.
We fished through to sundown, and as it got dark, the salmon started hitting the poppers hard. All the salmon were probably around the 2kg mark and put up a good fight.
We kept a couple to put on the fire, and threw the rest back in to catch another day. After eating dinner, we went to sleep early.
I arose around 7am and strolled to the top of the dune to check out the beach. As it came into view, my eyes lit up. A massive school of salmon RIGHT on the water line. It was literally a 5 metre cast into them. I bolted back to camp and quickly changed over my rig - putting on one of the new lures. Yelled at Matt to get a move on, and bolted straight back over to the beach and begun casting. Instantly I had a fish on the beach, and back in the water before Matt even made it onto the beach.
We spent a good hour catching and releasing 2kg salmon and our arms were so tired that we were relieved when the school headed out of casting distance. It gave us a chance to sit down and rest a bit.
As we sat there resting talking about the amazing fishing session we'd just had, we looked out to the school and the conversation went something like "I reckon they've moved closer, I think I can cast that far" "Yeah I think so too" - and so we both got up and casted simultaneously, our lures landing no further than a metre apart in the water, and 2 seconds later, we both were hooked on. After a short battle, I had mine landed on the beach, but Matt was struggling with his fish going on huge runs. We thought it must be a stomper, but when he finally got it on the beach we saw why. It was hooked in the tail and was swimming directly out to sea! No amount of winding could turn its head towards the beach.
Something we've probably never said before happened next. "we need to go somewhere we can catch smaller fish" the arms had just melted.
So we headed down the coast towards Coffin Bay, and fished the rocks down at Gallipoli Beach. Managed to get a good feed of trevally here which is a suprisingly hard fighting fish for its size.
Afterwards we found a spot on the Coffin Bay ledge where we set up for our final night, and lit the fire and threw out some big baits in hope of something huge swimming past. We sat by the fire waiting for the drag to start screaming but it never happened.
Matt said I was the gashes winner due to my bigger salmon, and more of them.. and who was I to argue? We packed it up and headed home the next morning. An awesome trip.
Friday night and I get a call from Luke who has just come over from Sydney unannounced. So I meet up with him at the Pub after work for a "few beers" and to catch up. I know me and Matt are leaving for Elliston at 8am the next morning, so it will have to be a quiet one. I call Matt and tell him to join us. He, sensibly, says he'll give it a miss and go home to get stuff ready for the trip. Thirty minutes later he turns up at the pub. I think Will even made an appearance out of nowhere and declared that despite this being a two-man trip (Matt and I) - it should count as a gashes trip due to the largeness of it (distance travelled, nights away spent). We agreed :)
Many beers are consumed, and I (in a moment of clarity) decide to catch a bus home around 11pm, leaving Matt and Luke behind. I found out the next day that Matt hit the casino playing blackjack til 3am.
So Saturday morning arrives, and Matt rocks up feeling seedy, much later than planned and we're on our way. Five minutes later I get a phone call and it's Sani. I forgot to pack my clothes bag.
10 minutes later, we are on our way again.
Things were fairly uneventful for most of the drive - the sun shining in was making the car quite warm for winter - it was about 30 degrees on the thermometer on the dashboard. The fridge sat at a nice 1 degree though, tempting us with icey cold beers the whole way. Once we hit the dirt road to shortcut down to Elliston, we were travelling along at 100km/hr, windows down enjoying the fine weather, when I scream "aarrrrrrghh" grasping my neck. A bee had managed to get through the open window at speed, and fly straight into my neck landing a sting. It hurt like hell. And it itched for the remainder of the trip.
Pulling into the final 10kms before Elliston, the sun was low and there were bugs EVERYWHERE on the windscreen. We could barely see, so had to drive really slow until we got to the caravan park!
A small sampling of bugs on the windscreen
We set up the tent, and got our tickets to enter the Salmon competition.. biggest Salmon caught over winter and weighed in wins $2000. Naturally, we were shoe-ins. After some food (the camping burger, of course) we went down to the jetty in search of some tommy ruffs.
It wasn't long before the tommies showed up in numbers, and we were pulling in fish after fish and double headers too. Half our catch probably dropped off whilst pulling them up too.. blunt hooks perhaps.
The next morning, we left early for Locks Well, and as I'd heard the beach was quite washed out at the bottom of the stair case, we set down the cliffs towards the left hand side of the beach. There was some verrry fishy looking water here, but just 4 salmon were caught in the morning session. We headed back to the caravan park to clean up the salmon and the previous nights Tommy catch.
Matt cleaning up the tommies from night time jetty fish. A salmon from Lock's Well is on the left.
Headed over to Anxious Bay for a fish after lunch and managed to catch a lonely King George Whiting. I was happy with that as I hadn't caught one for many years.
The second night on the Jetty produced more tommies again, but without the numbers of the first night.
The next morning called for another trip to Locks Well in search of a competition winning Salmon - and things looked good when we arrived with a massive school of salmon just out of casting range. You can see it in the next picture, but may need to click on the larger version.
We headed down the stairs this time, and headed out to the deep gutter. We started casting pilchards and surf poppers with limited success - then some other guys came along with big lures and starting pulled in some big salmon from the school. I quickly changed over to my one and only large metal lure and instantly hooked onto a big salmon. In came this beauty that we later weighed in at 2.45kgs
Second cast, and another huge strike.. and the salmon is on a big run - then snap.. my line breaks. DAMNIT.
Matt had no lures in his bag and was desperately trying with pilchards but they just weren't interested. I changed to a smaller lure I had, and managed to catch a few, but none of the big fish were interested in it.
Defeated, we headed back up the stairs, first of all having to negotiate the rocky ledge where the beach was all washed away at the bottom of the stairs. You'd have no idea there was even a rock there in summer.
Back at the caravan park we spoke to some guys over from Victoria who we saw at the beach with some huge salmon. They weighed theirs in at just under 4kg's.. nice effort!
One thing was clear. We needed to get some big lures.
So we bought some at the caravan park shop.
We hit the Elliston pub for a few pints, and an awesome beef schnitzel. The caravan park owner, Troy was there too - he didn't hesitate in giving us shit for only bringing in one fish for weighing when everyone else was bringing in 3 fish of bigger size (3 is the max you can weigh in per day).
The next morning, armed with some shiny new lures, we hit Locks again, but the school was gone :(. A few decent fish were beached, but nothing worth weighing in.
We decided to pack up the tent and move down the coast to Sheringa, as we'd never fished there before and had heard good things. It would also give us a chance to burn off some of the firewood we'd been hauling around everywhere.
Heres the campsite at Sheringa:
What a great spot to camp this is.. protected behind the dune on nice solid ground, and just a short walk over the dune to an awesome salmon fishing beach. I imagine it'd get pretty busy around holiday times though.
We fished through to sundown, and as it got dark, the salmon started hitting the poppers hard. All the salmon were probably around the 2kg mark and put up a good fight.
Matt with a nice Sheringa Salmon.
We kept a couple to put on the fire, and threw the rest back in to catch another day. After eating dinner, we went to sleep early.
I arose around 7am and strolled to the top of the dune to check out the beach. As it came into view, my eyes lit up. A massive school of salmon RIGHT on the water line. It was literally a 5 metre cast into them. I bolted back to camp and quickly changed over my rig - putting on one of the new lures. Yelled at Matt to get a move on, and bolted straight back over to the beach and begun casting. Instantly I had a fish on the beach, and back in the water before Matt even made it onto the beach.
We spent a good hour catching and releasing 2kg salmon and our arms were so tired that we were relieved when the school headed out of casting distance. It gave us a chance to sit down and rest a bit.
A couple of nice salmon
As we sat there resting talking about the amazing fishing session we'd just had, we looked out to the school and the conversation went something like "I reckon they've moved closer, I think I can cast that far" "Yeah I think so too" - and so we both got up and casted simultaneously, our lures landing no further than a metre apart in the water, and 2 seconds later, we both were hooked on. After a short battle, I had mine landed on the beach, but Matt was struggling with his fish going on huge runs. We thought it must be a stomper, but when he finally got it on the beach we saw why. It was hooked in the tail and was swimming directly out to sea! No amount of winding could turn its head towards the beach.
Something we've probably never said before happened next. "we need to go somewhere we can catch smaller fish" the arms had just melted.
So we headed down the coast towards Coffin Bay, and fished the rocks down at Gallipoli Beach. Managed to get a good feed of trevally here which is a suprisingly hard fighting fish for its size.
Afterwards we found a spot on the Coffin Bay ledge where we set up for our final night, and lit the fire and threw out some big baits in hope of something huge swimming past. We sat by the fire waiting for the drag to start screaming but it never happened.
Matt said I was the gashes winner due to my bigger salmon, and more of them.. and who was I to argue? We packed it up and headed home the next morning. An awesome trip.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Random Photo 1
Waiting for a fish at the Dust Hole.. the fish didn't deliver (themselves) but Sani took this awesome photo! (click for large version)
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