We stopped off at Nundroo for some ice and put half of the bag in the fridge to try and help it get down to a cooler temperature where it could start operating more efficiently. This worked quite well, and we set up in the caravan park before heading out to the ledge for a look.
As always, the ledge looked supremely 'fishy' - but we couldn't resist the allure of Scotts Beach and all its salmon schools.We headed back to Scotts and checked out the schools - they were all out of casting range. After a small amount of time, we went back to the caravan park to have a shower, clean up a bit, and cook some dinner. We had a plan to hit the jetty that night, which we did. It was very windy out on the jetty and not even a single squid was caught. A brief mention also goes out to a character at the Caravan Park we called the "Camel Back Hero" - look out for him if you're ever there. He's the guy who looks like he is ready to run a 44km marathon, at all times.
The following morning, after a quick trip to Scotts to restock the bait supply (yes it was that easy), we debated about whether to stay another day in the Caravan Park, and spent the day out at Cabbots Beach, or pack up immediately and head out to a Beach called Tuckamore. I spoke to one of the locals who told me that Cabbots rarely has mulloway come through, and Tuckamore, whilst quiet this year, has seen plenty in the past. Given that we were here to catch mulloway - we opted for Tuckamore, even though I didn't really know where to go.
We dropped into Penong for Will to top up on fuel, and grab some 'emergency' beers, and then headed off into Chadinga Conservation Park. I followed the only track on my GPS that lead somewhat close to the coast line and after 45 minutes of winding through what looked to be a fairly unused track, we met the ocean once more. This picture is of us letting the tyres down as the track became quite soft nearer the ocean.
The beach appeared soft and we didn't wish to drive down it to check for more gutters, but luckily there was one right out front of the beach access point. A real deep and long gutter - it looked prime. We parked the cars close together and again assembled a big shelter with my 6x6 metre tarp (which now has a severe lack of eyelets). This time we made one entire side go down to the ground to stop the northerly wind howling through our shelter - worked well until the wind changed direction.
After cooking up lunch, I ducked around the back of camp for a nature visit when I heard the others screaming out that I had a bite. I quickly ran back around to see my rod sitting in its holder, lifeless. I wound in and rebaited, and then not long after I had another bite - this time I was on to it and after a brief fight, wound in my first ever Snapper - and a good size too. Finally, I join Matt & Will in the Snapper Club! Unfortunately, the video camera and the brag mat were still packed away in the car, so we didn't have time to get a measure on it or any footage before returning it to the water (November being Snapper ban month)
This catch also brought me one fish away from 'The Trifecta'. The Trifecta is when you catch 3 prize species (in this case, Shark, Mulloway and Snapper) all in one trip. I just needed to land a legal Mulloway now. Just a few hours later, Will completed his very own Trifecta. He landed a legal Snapper of his own, continuing his dream run this trip.
Will had literally just released his Snapper when his other rod started shaking about and he was immediately on to something else. Not content with already having the Trifecta, he was now upgrading on sizes previously caught, landing this terrific Bronzy.
Despite it being a very hot day (the thermometer sitting around 38 in the shade most of the day), it was clear the there was a storm brewing as the day wore on. We could see showers in the distance and the clouds were ominous. We spent a lot of time looking out at this view:
As night fell, we were treated to some awesome lightning storm action off on the horizon, but as we slept at night, that storm got worse and worse. I awoke in the middle of the night to the wind howling through our shelter, which instead of blocking the northerly wind, was now catching the southerly entirely. I'm surprised it held up. Credit goes to Harry for putting more support beams and guy ropes onto that thing than you could poke a stick at (Although Matt wasn't as impressed when he went arse over tit, tripping over a seemingly pointless rope tied 10 cm above the ground. It made things worse (read: funnier) when he brought down a heavy cast iron pot onto the back of his foot, resulting in a blackened heel). The frequency of lightning strikes during the night was unreal.
On the Friday, we woke up to see masses of seaweed floating around in our once pristine gutter. It would make fishing near impossible, and we just sat and looked out at it mostly. We did notice that the majority of the weed was lumping together in what Matt dubbed Weed Island. It would slowly shift up and down the gutter all day long, but never actually move out of the gutter. We all had small attempts at fishing in 'clear' spots, but they were short lived as the weed soon came and made a mess of things. Will persisted for hours, trudging up the beach from one end of the gutter to the other in attempts to avoid Weed Island. His persistence paid off after lunch as he landed two gummies in quick succession. Both were dispatched for a post FWC BBQ.Despite Wills success, we decided that if the following day (our last full day) was going to be full of seaweed, we may as well pull the pin a day early and head home. There wasn't much point staring out at sea weed all day long. Luckily, as we awoke for our final day, we noticed the weed was visibly less. Still there, but not bad enough to send us home (possibly to Kym's disappointment, who looked to be sick of watching Will catch all the fish - excuse me.. I caught two!).
The day fined up nicely and we sat down, enjoyed the last of the emergency beers, and watched Will make another upgrade on his Trifecta. This time an absolute horse of a snapper pulled from the gutter. People in boats would be envious of this one! It measured 92cm, which wasn't much longer than the others we caught, but just looked so much bigger overall.
With a lot of bacon and eggs left over, our last days diet consisted completely of those ingredients, and I must say - it was awesome. We consumed 1.5kg of bacon that day, and probably over a dozen eggs. But, with the day getting later, we thought it would be best to pull down our magnificent shelter, and get everything besides the swags packed away in the car - to make for a quick and easy get away the next morning. Chadinga/Tuckamore had been quite successful, and I reckon we'll make another visit there some day. We were hoping to get a legal mully in the final days to take home and freeze up, but we can't complain with three awesome snapper off the beach - usually such a rare catch.
Despite Will's dominance, for me, this was our best trip ever by a long shot. Any day of the week I'd rather see my mates pull in fish than for no one to catch a thing. The sharks were everywhere this trip too! We could have fished wire trace all day long and probably had 6 more pictures of sharks in this story, but they do say the Mullys avoid wire. See you all next time, unless EVIL HARRY gets us!
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