Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Ryan & Kym Hit Salt Creek

Kymbo and I decided to brave the rain and head down to Salt Creek over the long weekend. On the way we were trying to spot patches of blue sky amongst all the rain clouds. Any tiny speck of blue was considered a sign of incoming great weather.

Arriving on the beach we travelled down about 3kms to find that the beach was completely washed out and some beach closed signs were set up. We turned around and settled on a free spot about 2kms from the crossing entrance.

Although the weather was surpringly nice.. we decided on setting up some shelter first thing.

Camp site

This was cool.. we could see our rods from the comfort of camp. The only problem was the first cast saw some seaweed brought in and it was there to stay. We were able to sit under the tarp and keep an eye on our rods which was good.. apart from the fact the only action happening was sea weed tuggin on the line. At least we stayed dry when these storms rolled past

Incoming Storm

I kept persisting with the fishing into the night, but a massive tangle bought that to a halt. The next morning I woke up and spent a good hour untangling the mess - determined not to lose much (or any if possible) of my new Shimano Technium line

I finally managed to untangle the whole thing, and loaded up a pillie and casted in. I hooked onto a mammoth pile of seaweed and the line snapped.. fantastic!

Kym arose and wandered off deep into the dunes for a nature visit, and then proceeded to get rained on. I sat under the tarp - laughing as he made the big run back to camp with shovel and toilet roll in hand.

Sunday was pretty much a non event for fishing as the seaweed was a worse problem than the day before. We barely casted a line all day, until it cleared up a little around sun set. We put on some glow sticks, baited up and cast out, then sat around the bonfire sinking a few beers.

I never saw my glow stick move, but on a routine bait check, I wound in my line to find I had landed a nice little elephant fish!

My Catch

Kym, in a great show of foresight, had printed out some "how to prepare elephant fish" instructions, so we set about gutting, bleeding and finning it before popping it in the fridge. A late birthday present for Mum.

Kym then keened up to get his line back in the water, and was rewarded with some spikey looking puffer fish.. a fine effort!

After the last remaining beer was drunk, we headed off to sleep. I was awoken in the night by the sound of our shelter flapping around madly, and when a recently dropped fart seeped up through my sleeping bag I had no choice but to open up my swag for some air. My fears were confirmed when I saw the tarp flailing around in the wind, but I figured it'd be fine and closed up the swag again. Then I felt water dripping on my head and some large puddles forming.. doh! Given that I setup the swag under the safety of our shelter, I didn't bother to peg it in or put the poles up that may (I'm not convinced after my second in-swag soaking) have prevented the water pooling up and dripping through the canvas.

I decided to go sleep in the car, which first required closing up the rear window and securing the tarp by closing it in the car door as I got in. All this running around in the freezing rain in my jocks! And then the tarp whipped around in the wind and slapped me right in the face.. it hurt! Once inside, all was well again, and I went back to sleep ready for the morning fishing session.

We woke up to extremely strong winds and decided to call it a trip and head back to Adelaide. The guy at the Salt Creek servo told us fishing crews further north (passed the closed section of beach) had no problem with weed and a few sharks and mulloway were landed. Doh!