With Andre's late pull out due to an injured back/hip/whatever else is wrong - it was down to 5 people on the biggest trip of 2010. Will, Matt (returning to the FWC after previously announcing himself never to return), Kym, Harry, and myself.
After the long 10 hour drive, we arrived in Fowlers Bay, and proceeded to let the tyres down before taking the 4wd's across the huge sand dunes over to the fabled Scotts Beach. Upon arrival on the beach, we immediately sighted a huge school of Salmon out the back of the breakers. We pulled up and quickly tied on lures, but with a strong wind in our face, were unable to to cast far enough to reach them. It wasn't long however, before the school moved in close and we were on in a big way. 4kg Salmon were being hauled up the beach. We needed to get quite a few for bait, and things were looking very very nice, instantly.
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| Matt with one of many Salmon landed |
Unfortunately, it didn't take too long to realise he didn't have a fish of any sort on his line, but instead a huge eagle ray taking a lot of line away from him. After a long battle, and Will with a now very sore back - I managed to get the gaff into the Eagle Ray's wing and slide it up the beach. 30 minutes later, and with a half broken back, Will's Rod buckles over again, and he is set for another huge battle against a monster Eagle Ray. We thought it may have been the same one just screwing with us - but it turned out to be a slightly larger one. This one was again landed and released - and with night fall not far away, we set up some wire traces and got the glow sticks ready!
There was plenty of action once it became dark. A lot of bust offs on those who didn't put a wire on, and even those that did - my line was bitten off above the wire trace. Note for next time: make wire longer. Of course there was one person who didn't get bitten off though - Will. He hooked on and brought in a massive Gummy Shark. Biggest Gummy I've ever seen caught by a long shot.
We all arose the next morning, and found a school of salmon right in close, directly in front of our campsite. It was one of probably 5 or 6 large schools all along Scotts Beach. We again got the lures out proceeded to catch fish after fish of monster Salmon. They went off like freight trains when hooked. We chased the school as it moved down the beach lobbing salmon high up the beach as we caught them and recasting immediately. The worst bit was walking back to camp holding 10kgs of salmon each. It was one of the finest Salmon fishing session's we've ever had, and after 4 Far West Coast trips, Scotts Beach finally lived up to its reputation as the best Salmon beach in South Australia.With a large esky full of salmon fillets, we headed off towards the Dog Fence. The initial plan was to check out the beaches on the eastern side, as I'd heard some recent good reports there. There were a surprising amount of campers tucked away in the dunes as we traversed our way through the sand dunes. The main problem with the eastern side is you can't drive on the beach so you only get an opportunity now and then to check out the beach.
We pulled up to the beach at one of the access points and sighted a large gutter about 1.5 kilometres down the beach - and set off in search of a way to get to it. The track came to a stop about 500 metres later though - but close enough to the beach that we were able to duck across some sand dunes (tsk tsk, Will!). Will went down on to the beach and immediately got into trouble.. the sand was undriven on and very soft. He managed to do about a 300 point turn and get the car pointing back up onto the track but couldn't make it up the small hill. Surf to the rescue! We hooked up the snatch strap and after a number of attempts, we got the hilux up on to safe ground. We made it back to the main track and stopped to allow Will to get his tyres back up to a safe pressure. We also took the opportunity to have a cold beer and pose for the camera.
Since we couldn't find a decent gutter with a nearby area to camp at - we opted to go over to the western side of the fence instead. We found a decent gutter adjacent to some reefy structure, and set up camp there. Will immediately got his rod holder out and planted it right near the reef - a move that would later pay off in a big way.
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| Dog Fence Beach Campsite |
On Day 3, most were up around 7am and a few extra Salmon were caught early. Given the amount we had for bait, all were released except one kept for lunch. Soon after, Will's rod looked to have a bit of interest - and soon he was battling a big fish. Fingers were crossed for a big Mulloway, but Will was still excited to get a nice bronze whaler shark up onto the beach. It had a weird cut in its gills - perhaps been gaffed in the past. A few photos were taken and it was released.
An hour and a half later, and again Will is onto a decent fish. As it came into the wash, I could see it was a Mulloway and called it - "its legal!". But Will couldn't see it as well as me and thought it was undersized. It didn't truly sink in for him until Harry ran down with the brag mat, and showed it to be 83cm. Will let out a massive cheer for his first ever legal mulloway. After years of catching undersizers - it's a great feeling! There was a round of high fives and plenty of photos taken - then the first was dispatched and fillets put into the fridge. Catching fish to eat was necessary this trip to avoid having to live solely on canned food. We had enough meat to only last us about half the trip. As a side note - I was still president of the "Mulloway Club" having a bigger PB at 91cm.
Around 6pm, I had my first taste of some Dog Fence action - my rod bending over onto a nice fish. As always when you get a big bite out west, you hope like hell that there is a big fat mulloway on the end of your line. No such luck on this occasion, but I was still absolutely stoked when this great looking Bronze Whaler was landed. My first ever Shark.
An hour later, and Will is onto another big fish. This one is going really hard though. When he pulled in a 112cm Mulloway, the cheers and high fives were even more jubilant than the first. I handed over the presidency. This fish looked really massive laying on the sand, we estimated it to be around 30-35lbs. I can only imagine what a 50 or 60 pounder would look like. With one Mulloway already in the fridge, and us still 6 days away from a freezer - Will decided to let it go. After a photo or 5 of course. What an amazing days fishing.
On Day 4, a northerly breeze started blowing, as the hot weather started to roll in. Matt seized the opportunity to set up a balloon in hope that the wind would drag it far out to sea. It worked to some extent, but couldn't get past the breakers on the first sand bar. It must have had the bait in a good spot though, as he was bitten off by a Shark soon after. Matt then set up a new balloon, but with a wire trace - unfortunately it didn't get any more bites and he soon changed back to his usual sinker rig.
Kym also "got sharked" shortly before Matt again had a big run on his line. He had a battle for about 2 minutes before the fish spat the hooks - a suspected Mulloway lost there! With no actual fish landed, it was a quiet mornings fishing, but after lunch Will landed a small Gummy Shark, and this one was kept to eat up later.
Sitting around camp eating lunch all our ears pricked up as we heard the sound of a drag going off. But before we could get too excited, we realised it was just a big blow fly stuck in the garbage bag! But that disappointment didn't last long as Matt was again hooked onto something large. We were convinced this must be a big Mully, as it took off sideways down the beach, following the gutter. It was going hard and after a long battle, Matt had it in close to reveal it was actually a big sting ray - disappointing, but a bit of fun anyway. His line snapped as the ray came into the wash, saving him the task of getting it back into the water. He re-rigged and caught a nice Salmon shortly after - so not all was lost!
With sunset approaching, Will hooked onto, and landed his third legal mulloway of the trip - which at this stage left the rest of us shaking our heads wondering what the hell we had to do to make them take our baits! With his first Mulloway mostly consumed, he kept this one. It went about 103-105cm in length and weighed 10.5kgs (23 pounds).
Will caught his fourth legal Mully shortly after that one, but at 'only' 76cm, it was thrown back. If anyone else landed it, there would have been a lot more excitement I suspect. As nightfall set in, Matt had his third big run of the day and again, he pulled a big sting ray into the surf. I made an attempt to gaff it, but in the dark proved too hard to see where it actually was. It snapped off and again saved the task of releasing it. I think Matt was actually pleased with that one snapping off. A swinging sting ray barb in the night probably isn't a good thing. Certainly not after 12 beers!
As I got up on Day 5, and peered over to the thermometer and noticed the fridge was at 13 degrees. I checked it out and sure enough, the fridge battery was flat. It seemed that we neglected to have a rotation system going when it came to getting beers out the fridge - which meant before going to bed we loaded it up around 60 warm cans - the fridge in an attempt to cool them all down chewed through the battery power quickly. I started the car so that the fridge could get going again, and then someone opened the bait esky. The worst smell you could possibly imagine came wafting out and the realisation that our bait supply had gone very bad also came to light. We dug a big hole down in the surf and poured all the remaining fillets in to it. Even covered up the smell was amazingly bad - I came extremely close to throwing up on the beach.
With no fresh salmon fillets for bait, and the food eskies ice getting low, and the fridge without cold beer, we decided we'd have to pack up and head back to Fowlers Bay for a night to get the fridge going again, and restock our ice supplies for both food and bait eskies. We didn't want to risk a fresh 11kg Mulloway going bad either.
Now, go onwards to Part 2
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