Harry, Matt and Will arrived about 30 minutes before Kym and I, and it wasn't long before the tents/swags were up and the camp fire cranking. Given that it was past 11pm before we settled into a few beers, Will hit the swag first with a grand plan of getting up early and into the Salmon. The rest of us drunk beer until we convinced each other it was wise to stop.
Everyone was up around 8am and we soon set off to the beach. Matt and Will raced down that cliff and set up in our favourite spot, though, a little left of the gutter due to another group of fisho's already there.
By time I made it down to the beach, I realised I had left my camera bag on the bull bar of my car. $3k worth of camera gear sitting there for the taking. Enough incentive to run my unfit arse back up that cliff! I was buggered when I got back down and the only response I got from the others was "why didn't you bring beer?" (it was about 10am.. but regardless...)
It wasn't a long wait before a Salmon was landed, and not long again before Will's new Daiwa Sensor Surf buckled over to what appeared to be something very large. It turned out to be a double header of estimated 2kg Salmon.
Matt landed one or two smaller salmon, but for the rest of us, it was very quiet. Kym landed a few small fish on his bait rod, but me and Harry came up with zilch. Harry opted for his preferred method of fishing - asleep.
Just as high tide was approaching, we decided we needed food and set off for camp, leaving behind what was soon to be some prime fishing time. Our priorities are always a little twisted when it comes to fishing, and some food and beers around camp sounded pretty good!
After lunch we debated on where to fish with an hour or two before sunset to go. Salmon beach had a fair bit of weed earlier, so we figured we'd go to Butlers Beach if our usual spot was taken. I drove up to check it out and radio'd back to the others that it was indeed taken, but the rocks looked calm enough for a fish. A quick vote and we set off on the long walk to the rocks.
I set up my surf rod with a big bait and cast out, and set about some drunken photography whilst the others toyed with some small fish that were schooling around the berley bag. Lots of beers, rock fishing, and expensive camera gear. A quality combination. I had been wanting to try some long exposure shots though, and managed to get one or two I liked.
Looks like Harry has caught a small fish here - leaving me the only person without a single fish.With darkness setting in, we headed back to camp and Harry set up a huge campfire - well needed given how cold it was going to get that night! The guys fishing the beach said it'd been a bit of a bumper session over high tide..
After a big night around the fire, everyone was up pretty late on Sunday, and we headed down to Salmon beach to spend the whole day fishing. Again the fishing was slow...
As high tide approached, a few other people appeared and set up close by. There was an enormous amount of rods in a close vicinity for awhile there, thankfully no more than a minimal tangle
I did manage to get a fish on the board at some stage - a bit of a fluke as I reckon it jumped my popper as I wound in. Just a small salmon but at least I had something for the weekend. Will and Matt got a couple more Salmon, and Kym continued to catch the smallies, but with the fishing just not firing big time, we headed back up to camp at sunset to set up the fire again. It got down to 0.5 degrees that night, but not cold enough to stop Matt and Will heading off at 6am for a big morning fish session. They didn't get back to camp until around 10am, but had managed to get six more fish between them. Three each if my memory serves me correctly.
The rest of us didn't bother doing any more fishing, and Will was awarded The Gashes, for his big double header and another big salmon to go with it. We packed it all up and headed home around 11:30am.
Far West Coast is locked in for November - looking like 5-6 people, our largest yet. Hopefully we'll get away a few times before then as well.
1 comment:
This is absolutely fantastic. Now I really know that these weekends away are fishing trips! great work Ryan and great piccies!!
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