Far West Coast - December 2011

Despite the success of last years Far West Coast journey, only three of us made the long trip over this time around. Will, Kym and myself hit the road at 3:30am. We were travelling over the great dunes of Fowlers Bay around 1:30pm, hoping to see big black schools of salmon in the water as we had a year ago.

It wasn't to be though, as all we saw were patches of weed and really rough water. We thought we spotted one small school, so pulled up to have a cast, but with a strong headwind, couldn't cast out far enough. Quite likely that it wasn't salmon in any case, as we were more hopeful than certain. Instead, we headed for the deep gutter in the middle of the beach, and set up camp to cook up lunch.

After eating, we cast out some pilchards in to the deep water, and after an hour or so, Will had a good bite and wound in a big salmon. As he unhooked the salmon, a wave rushed under his feet and the salmon wriggled its way free straight into the rushing out water. Both Will and myself tried to block its path, but it zipped straight through my legs. Will didn't mind as he said there'd be plenty more where that came from. Little did we know at that point how hard it would be to catch a Salmon.

The following day, Will and myself were up early, Will throwing out pilchards, and me casting lures walking down the beach. I managed to hook a flathead in the tail, and whilst ordinarily I would love to catch flathead - I was at this point disappointed it wasn't a salmon. We really needed fresh bait and flathead were destined for the dinner plate.

After the morning fish, we drove around the headland and nearby beaches, still on the look out for schools of salmon, but there were none to be seen. Heading back in to Fowler's, via the beach, I managed to get very seriously bogged, going over some seaweed. I knew it would be soft, but there was only 50 metres of it so I thought we'd be fine. Half way through we bogged down hard.. so out came my newly purchased max trax. They're expensive things, but now I think they're worth every cent! They did only help to move us a few metres at a time, and each time we moved forward, the car skidded sideways towards the water. We got about 3 metres from the end of the weed - firm sand in sight, and the car bogged down hard. The incoming tide was swirling around the right side of the car and I was getting seriously worried. Kym and Will were shovelling weed out the way, and trying to jam the max trax under the tyres, but they would just not grip now. Luckily, a local came driving down the beach and offered to snatch strap us out. He then started reversing his car up toward mine in the most painfully slow manner I could ever imagine. My car is on the brink of drowning, and he was coming back at about 1 km/hr. We got there eventually though and with 3 pulls, the car popped out onto the firm sand. I thanked him profusely and made a standard payment in beer, and then downed a beer quickly myself - thinking just how badly that could have gone.

Speaking to other fisherman about the place, the stories were all the same. Can't find a salmon anywhere. Some had been catching bags of tommies of the jetty - so that was an option for us if we still struggled. We headed back to our Scotts beach camp, where some other fisherman were set up nearby fishing the same gutter as us. We had a chat to them and and as we were talking, Will finally hooks a salmon, and its pretty huge. Unfortunately, its another rogue Salmon, and no more followed - but he did get a couple of flat head to join the one I had caught earlier.

We decide to head to the jetty that night to see if we can get some tommies, but with no berley, we only manage to get two. We really expected that to be much easier! We decided that since we weren't catching any Salmon around Fowler's Bay, we may as well head to the dog fence and not catch salmon there either. But first we'd need to head back to the Kiosk to pick up some pilchards. When we got out of the car, a fisherman at the store recognised Will from the article in Wild Coast... his notoriety is spreading! He suggested we try the shallows at the end of Scotts Beach for small salmon, so we grabbed a few cockles and head that way.

We did manage a few a few small salmon, and some big mullet and even a king george whiting - just undersize. So desperate for good fresh baits, if it was legal I think it would have been bait. With a few more fresh fish in the esky, we headed off to the Dog Fence, and not far up the beach we spy an excellent looking gutter in close. Taking note of the spot, we press on down the beach to our spot from last year (marked in the GPS) but there was no good gutter adjacent the reef like last time, so we headed back to the gutter we first spotted, and set up our shelter.

As dusk approached, Will had a solid bite, and after a short fight pulled up a fiddler ray (and according to my quick google search, also known as a banjo shark, guitarfish, or shovelnose ray - that's a lot of names!). As he was releasing that one, my rod buckled over and I was hooked on to what was sure to be a stingray. Sure enough, a few minutes later I had a large stingray on the beach.

A few hours later, now night time, I hooked another stingray, but this time it felt really big. I was fighting for a long time before slowly making some headway, getting some of my line back onto the reel. It was in close, and the hooks pulled out - probably a good thing in the end, so I could keep fishing without needing to re-tie any hooks. We were now 100 metres down the beach though, and all had to trek through the soft sand back to camp. Not long after settling back in to a beer, Kym's rod goes off and he too has a short battle before beaching another fiddler ray. Not the greatest catch, but the biggest thing Kym has ever caught so he was happy.

As it approached midnight, I had a huge bite, and this time had the headshakes to give me good hope that it wouldn't be another ray. I was fighting the fish for five minutes before the headshakes disappeared and instead just got dead weight.. and in came a big pile of seaweed.  Heart breaking.

When we woke up the next day, the gutter was looking all washed out and sandy - the photo I took still makes it look quite good.. but it might have been a well timed shot.

We fished it hard all day, for no result. As it went dark, we decided to pack it in, and as I wound my line in, I see I've managed to catch a little gummy shark - my first ever, so I was happy with that catch (they're also reportedly very good eating).

The gutter was again looking poor in the morning, and we decided to head back in to Fowler's Bay to once again try to get a good supply of fresh baits. The plan was to set up in the caravan park, and then hit the jetty at night time, and burley up to gather some tommies. Coming back across the big sand dunes to Fowler's Bay was very interesting... the strong winds had blown over most of the track and created big new hills where hills didn't exist before. I was trying to follow previous marks on the GPS, but that proved difficult and I went off course often. Will did manage to spot a knife poking out the sand whilst we were off track though. Perhaps the best catch of the trip so far! We eventually got on the right path and made it through to Fowlers.

After setting up our swags, and cooking up a feed for lunch, we set off in the car to check out all the surrounding beaches. Half hoping to chance upon a school of salmon, and half scoping out potential mulloway spots for the next portion of our trip. We spent a good part of the day doing this, before heading back to Fowlers to execute our "catch tommy ruff" plan. As night set in, the wind was howling, and we rugged up with multiple layers to brave the conditions out on the jetty. Even armed with berley, after a few hours without a single bite, we threw in the towel and walked back to the caravan park to get some sleep. Plan B was to hit the rock ledges around the headland the following morning, and at the very least, catch some rock cod and other small fish we could use for bait.

We arose early and jumped in the Surf, arriving at our rock ledge around 8am. We berleyed up and and before long had a couple of tommies in the esky - it was a good start. Kym pulled some luderick, which we also kept, but the fishing slowed down rather quickly. We could see loads of fish in the water attacking the berley, but they just weren't interested in taking our baits. Just when hope was fading, the water turned completely black right at our feet, and I sighted some yellow fins and immediately called it as kingfish - wishful thinking - it was thousands of salmon. This would be great for our bait supply. Will hooked on and his rig busted off instantly. All our surf gear was up the hill in the car and we didn't know if we'd have time to get them before the school moved on. We quickly tied on lures to our light outfits, and cast away. Pulling the salmon up 3 metres from the water was quite a challenge on light gear, but soon enough there were half a dozen on the deck, and the water still bubbling. It was as simple as dropping the lure straight down and then jigging it up. We lost probably twice the amount we landed as they dropped off when trying to pull them up onto the rocks. The school then disappeared and Will raced off around to the next point to see if they were there and soon he was yelling for us to get over there. Dolphins were rounding the school in close and we continually hooked up, cast after cast, in one of the greatest salmon fishing sessions we've ever experienced. The light gear made it a real challenge and awesome fun. The seals and dolphins zipping around made great viewing too. We kept around 18 fish for bait and then had a good catch and release session, before we were too exhausted to fish on. We left them biting, and headed back to the car - now ready to move on to the next phase of our trip - well armed with fresh baits. We had to work hard to find them, but we got there eventually!

Back in the fishing cleaning area at the caravan park, one of the employees came over and made the odd statement that the fish cleaning area was not for cleaning "lots" of fish - only for people to clean a few fish here and there. Quite a bizarre statement we thought, when a lot of their customers would be coming purely for the fishing. She gave us a garbage bag to take our frames to the local dump (which is quite a sight.. fish skeletons everywhere!).

We headed off to our next location, and searched the coast up and down looking for a nice gutter that we could fish for the remainder of our trip. We finally settled on one that was slightly further out than desired but looked good, and we could get a camp site in close by.

There was a strong headwind  and huge waves crashing on the shore, causing havoc with our rigs. It was hard to cast far enough to reach the gutter, and the surging water constantly pulled the grapple sinkers out and sent them sideways up the beach. Regardless of all of those troubles, within an hour of setting up, Will had a good bite, and had a quick battle before sliding a very nice sized snapper up on to the beach. My frustration with my grapple sinkers rose as the thin wire continually bent straight - sending me digging through all my tackle looking for one with decent strong wire on it.

The next day it wasn't to be an issue though, as the wind swung around and was blowing from behind us, making casting out in to the gutter an easy task. Both myself and Will were up early and Will soon opened the days account with a nice little gummy shark. It went quiet for awhile as we cooked breakfast, but about an hour and a half later, Will again got a solid bite on his line, and again, brought in a very nice snapper. This one was a monster from the surf.. weighing in at 8kgs.

No more than ten minutes later, Will is sliding Snapper number 2 up onto the sand, and we could now sense that there must be a school of them patrolling the gutter. I ran down the beach to where my rod was, to change over baits, only to pick up the rod and find it go heavy with an obvious big fish on the end. I wound in a good 82cm snapper myself. That was 3 great snapper in the space of 25 minutes. Unbelievable fishing from a beach!

Kym found himself snagged in the gutter, and ended up breaking his line off, losing a few hundred metres of line in the process, and he set off to respool his reel. I probably would have chucked on the spare with the action as good as it was! But, things did slow down for awhile, until I noticed a good bite on my rod, but when I wound in, I noticed my hooks baitless, and a whole heap of line tangled about mine. It was Kym's rig that he'd busted off 15 minutes earlier! I could still feel a fish fighting, so Will and I tried to bring the fish in by hand, using our shirt sleeves to not lose any fingers. We had it coming in, but without any drag, the fish got free. What a catch that would have been. Kym was wondering if the opportunity to join the snapper club had passed, but about an hour and a half later, at around 11:30am, Will again pulled in a snapper. This set up a good little chain of action, with Kym finally getting a solid bite on his new rig, and having a good battle with something solid. After a few minutes, we sighted a bronze fin cruise through the shallows, and soon he had it up on the beach for a quick photo before releasing.

Then, it was my turn again as the rod bent over hard and I quickly struck into a good fish. I felt the solid thumps of a snapper trying to make its way deep into the gutter. I knew it was something really good, but did not expect to see a snapper and a gummy shark appear in the wash. I'd managed to this time snag one of Will's lost rigs, which had a gummy shark attached - along with the snapper on my hooks, it all came up the beach. I'll claim that one as a double header! It was still before noon and we'd just had one of the best days fishing of our lives.

The action wasn't over yet though, with Will again landing a snapper in the early afternoon, and then myself catching a gummy shark (on my own hooks this time). It started drizzling later in the day, with rain setting in right up until night time - but it didn't deter the fish, with Will landing his final Snapper of the trip. All of the Snapper caught went around the 6.5kg mark - with the exception of Will's earlier 8kg fish. It was hard to be disappointed with a stumbling across a school of such fish, but Far West Coast is about chasing dream mulloway, and we were yet to land one even close to legal.

Leave it up to Will to remedy this "problem", as in the early evening, as the rain was really coming down, he sprinted from our shelter to grab his rod and set the hooks. Soon enough, he had a 94cm mulloway in hand, and was dancing around in the rain as happy as anything. Those two day fishing were some of the finest.

Kym checked the weather reports on his phone, and it looked like the rain wasn't just setting in, it was going to get a whole lot worse the following day. With a bag limit of snapper, an almost bag limit of gummy shark, and a fresh mulloway all filleted in the fridge, we decided we'd be better off hitting the road for home, rather than spending our last day getting drenched in thunderstorms.

We woke up to somewhat fine conditions, but there was a massive thunderstorm brewing in the distance and we scurried to get the car packed. We didn't make it as huge drops of rain started pelting us, drenching us from head to toe as we got the last bits of gear in to the car. The whole way home we were driving through massive downpours, making visibility extremely poor, but we got there eventually! The total tally for the trip was 8 Snapper, 1 7kg Mulloway, 5 Gummy Sharks, 1 Bronze Whaler, 4 Flathead, a few dozen Salmon and a bunch of small fish when we were desperate for bait in the first half of the trip. It certainly started slow, and once again shows that just because its FWC, doesn't mean the fish will be there.. but persistence paid off. The 60 pound mulloway still alludes us though, and we'll be back chasing it again next year.

Coorong - August 2011

When worked approved a day off, I very quickly sent out the email to organise a quick trip away to the Coorong, and a few days later, Will, Kym and myself are on the way to the 3rd Gashes outing of the year.

Good reports were coming from the area between 42 mile crossing and tea tree crossing, so we were on the look out for a good gutter in this region. On the way in, the water was very rough and churned up, making spotting any gutter very difficult. We eventually settled on a spot though, and backed the car in to one of the dune cut outs - number 32!

Baits were soon soaking in the water, and Kym and myself set about making a shelter, just in case the predicted showers came through. Turns out it wasn't needed as the weather was brilliant all weekend. Will had a salmon on the board early and Kym and I soon followed. We took a few for eating, a few for bait and the rest were returned.



I got a solid bite on my rod and struck hard to latch on to something decent. It's fight was short lived though and I soon had a 60cm+ mulloway on the beach.  A good size, but not quite enough to land into the keeper range. Will landed a couple more salmon, as I pulled in a couple more undersized mulloway - another around the 65cm mark, and then a couple of smaller types - which I am showing here - struggling to lift its enormous weight!

Will got a solid bite on his line, and the drag peeled off quickly. There was definitely something solid on the end and we were thinking a mully or perhaps a gummy shark. As it came in to view Will called it for a legal mulloway, so I raced back to the car to get the brag mat. It came up devastatingly close to legal. 74 cm. So, back in to the surf it went. There was obviously quite a few small mulloway about though, so hopes were high that one would nudge over the 75cm mark. The wide angle lens makes it look huge.

As the sun was going down, we decided to get the fire going and prepare for a bit of night fishing. As is becoming a bit of normal practice for the Coorong, I caught a nice little elephant shark - which went straight into the Esky after a terrible attempt at filleting. Certainly a great first days fishing. The Gashes leader board would have been pretty close at that point. Will had the most Salmon, and a very near legal Mully. I had a mixed bag of around 4 Salmon, 4 undersized Mulloway, and the Elephant Shark. Kym was lagging behind with a couple of Salmon.

The next day we were a bit slow to rise, but Will had a line in the water earliest and was rewarded with a couple more Salmon. Seaweed begun to be a problem with masses of it floating in the waves. I took that as a sign to go back to sleep for awhile - only to wake up an hour later and most of the weed had already moved on. It was still a bit of a problem but not so bad that we couldn't fish.

I only managed one Salmon for the entire day whilst Will pulled in at least half a dozen more. Kym got a couple more too, which meant we had a few to take home, and a few more for bait. Fisheries paid a visit to camp in the middle of the day, arriving on quad bikes which looked like great fun. They asked if we had caught anything and Will replied "I threw back a 74cm Mulloway... which I'm now very glad I did". Apparently some fisherman further up the beach had landed a legal Mulloway that day too.

Night fishing was always going to be a chore with bits of weed floating around, but no one expected the scale of knot that we ended up with. Both of Will's lines, and my line some how got in to a 3 way tangle which we had no choice but to cut off and lose hundreds of metres of line. We gave up on that idea and retired to the fire and got stuck into some beers instead. A good choice.

The final morning was very quiet on the fishing front. Will pulled in a Salmon and another undersized Mulloway (making I believe 7 in total for the weekend). We cooked up a breakfast and were soon on our way home. Will grabbing another Gashes win.

Coorong - June 2011

After last years departure from June long weekend tradition, opting to goto Hillocks rather than Coorong, things were back to normal this year, and we had a large group raring to go. Raring to go until the weeks leading up, as people pulled out in the masses, leaving just four of the original Gashes members to embrace the cold weather.

We split up into two cars to make the ride a bit more comfortable - Andre in my car, and still feeling the affects of the night befores wine. He soon discovered some "cold" beers on the back seat and the cycle starts again. They weren't actually drinking temperature, just the air temperature was cold enough to make them bareable.

Hitting the beach at Salt Creek, we decided to head north of Tea Tree Crossing. The beach was in a mess and not many were brave enough to drive along it, but there was a well used path behind the dunes, and we stuck to that with out any issue. There was some good looking water just before Tea Tree, but we plowed on, and on... and on. We were soon some about 30kms from 42 mile and the water wasn't looking good at all. It was tempting to turn back, but just before we did, we spotted a decent looking gutter, and decided to pull up and set up a very makeshift camp.

Andre stumbled out of the car, and into his chair, beer in hand. After the long drive, I was pretty keen for a couple myself and joined him. Will was onto the fishing straight away, so I also set up and got a line out there and came back to camp to join Matt & Will - still preferring to sit back rather than put any effort into the fishing

It wasn't too long before I had 3 salmon beached, and Will was in the odd position of wondering why he was getting nothing. Exactly how the rest of us feel normally! Matt, seeing that there is a few fish about finally got rigged up and casted out. Soon enough, we all had a salmon landed - apart from Andre who declared it a drinking day only. Just before sunset, Matt and my rods both had bites and within 5 minutes of each other, we had a couple of Elephant Sharks landed - Matt's a bit larger than mine and both destined for the frypan later that night.

Night fishing was short lived with no action, and everyone was soon huddled around the fire and the beers were flowing freely. A feast of spuds, steaks and elephant shark was cooked and consumed, and since we didn't have a great deal of firewood, almost all of it went on night one!

Matt & Andre stayed up the latest, and were paying the price the next morning. Both rose early to see Will already out fishing, but couldn't overcome the feeling of sickness enough to stay out of bed for long. I wasn't feeling too crash hot and was surprised to find myself the second one up, but not before Will already had 6 salmon landed. I threw out my line and waited for the salmon to frantically jump on, but it never happened - instead I mostly pulled in sea weed.

It took a long time for Matt to finally rise, and he put out a rod too, but we were all getting plagued by seaweed. Andre wasn't to rise for awhile yet.

I was cooking brunch when Will hooked on and it appeared to be a mulloway - Matt came running up to the car to get a tape measure as it was going to be a close call, and it was at 77cm - the second ever legal mulloway caught at the Coorong for our group!

A while later, Will again hooked on to a fish, and knew it was something large straight away. It was in close though and he got a look at a huge fin come thrashing out the water and called it for a huge gummy. It was in pretty close when the hooks pulled and the huge beast slowly swam back out to deeper water.  We were all disappointed to not see it landed, but this was just the first of a few encounters with this shark.

As lunch was cooking, Will again interrupted the cooking process with another mulloway on the line, but this time it was undersized, and quickly released. Andre got up briefly and thought there was too much weed to fish, so returned to bed.

It was then my turn for a big run, and the Penn 950ssm started screaming  as I saw a big fin once again start thrashing around in the surf. It was seriously massive and I too thought it was a huge gummy shark as I fought it whilst walking 50 metres along the beach, following it along the gutter. Then more devastation as my hooks went too - only once I wound I found I'd been bitten clean off. This was no gummy shark. I immediately set about getting a wire trace set up, as this guy was obviously hanging around to mess with us! Will liked the idea and swapped his rig over to wire too.

Naturally, it was Will's rod that hooked on to the beast for a third time, and this time with 100 pound wire attached, it was going to be a fair fight. The shark shot off to the right, continuously thrashing around in the water as it had done in the previous hookups - and leading Will on a long walk down the beach. We all followed, watching intently, before I remembered the camera back at the car, and raced back to get it. I was back in time to see the shark up in the shallows, and saw it was a seven gill - a new species for us. It was every bit as huge as we'd thought too. Matt & Will wouldn't go grab its tail as it didn't seem to have any problem turning on it self and just about chomping its own tail - but it was in ankle deep water now, so I handed over the camera and quickly dragged it another metre up the beach so we could safely get some photos. I couldn't drag it much further as it must have weighed in close to 100 kilos!

After taking as many photo's as we could in a small amount of time, Will pushed him back into the water and he slowly made his way off into deeper territory once again. I say he, as we named him "Stuart MacSevenGill" after spin bowler, Stuart MacGill. Also referred to as Ol' Seven Gill, or simply OSG. The score line was at Stuart 2, us 1.

Amongst the constant weed troubles, Will managed a couple more undersized Mullies, and the odd Salmon would pop up just as needed some more fresh bait too. The weed was annoying, but the fishing reasonably solid. For some anyway - besides my quick battle with Stuey, I hadn't had a touch all day.

With everyone back at camp, and Matt working on his swag set up, Matt had a solid bite on his rod. We yelled at him to get down there, but when his rod fell over and started sliding towards the water, there was no time. Andre has never moved so fast and was belting down towards the rod as it edged ever close to impending doom. Matt was in full flight a few metres behind him too and I watched on in amusement. Andre successfully grabbed the rod right on the waters edge, struck hard and handed over to Matt, who was well and truly on. Of course, it was none other than old friend Stuey! This was Matt's chance to even the scores at 2-2, but without wire trace it was a one sided affair. A minute in and another set of hooks was taken away from us. Matt set his drag a bit lighter next time.

This excitement almost had Andre keen enough to throw a line in, and he got as far as planting his rod holder in the sand and his rod in the rod holder - but never actually casted out. Seeing much more sea weed being wound in, he took the whole set up back to camp.

With night setting in, we packed it in, knowing that a night fish would be near impossible with the amount of weed floating around. With a lack of firewood, we tried desperately to find nearby driftwood, but it wasn't all that successful and resulted in a somewhat early night.

Surprisingly, I was first up on the final morning. I guess Will was feeling pretty comfortable in his Gashes lead! I was hoping to get a few fresh salmon to take home, but the weed was still being a big pain and making life difficult. Will got up shortly after and managed to pluck a couple amongt the weed, but we soon decided to pack it in and head home. Without a doubt, the best fishing session we've had at the Coorong, even with the persistent weed problem! Will takes another Gashes win in easy fashion.

Convention Beach - April 2011

The long awaited return to Gashes action occurred on the long awaited visit to Convention Beach on the lower Eyre Penninsula. Gashes rookie Josh was joined by Will, Dana, Sani, Dan M, and myself for a big easter trip.

After the 7.5 hour convoy we reached our destination and proceeded to wind our way through the rocky tracks in search of a campsite. Finding some flat terrain near the beach proved difficult, and after 30 minutes of searching, we picked out a good spot further up the hill. It required a bit longer walk to the beach, but it was relatively easy still. 

Camp was set up and lunch cooked, and before long, Will was already marching down to the beach first, whilst the rest of us tried to get some rigs tied up.. and drink some more beers.

With only a few hours before sunset, I made my way down to the beach and found Will already had a salmon tail poking out the sand. Good signs. I baited up half a pilchard and launched it into the gutter - getting ready to take a seat, my rod went off with a small bite, and shortly after I had a salmon on the beach myself. 

The others made their way down (following a quick knot tieing lesson from Sani) as I casted out the other half of the pilchard, and as they picked out their spots on the beach, I get a another bite, and land another small salmon. Two casts, two fish. This is how its done. I was tempted to retire for the weekend on a 100% cast efficiency, but that would have been rather boring. Will had also landed a couple more fish, and although our catch wasn't consisting of huge 4kg Salmon ala Scotts Beach last November, it was good signs for the weekend.

Josh casted out only to discover the 20 year old Jarvis Walker reel he brought along (one of two), was pretty much disentegrating in his hands. Dan, using the other Jarvis Walker reel, some how managed to pull in a salmon before that reel also packed it in. Normally I bring a spare surf reel, but this was one occasion where I didn't. Luckily Will had a spare, and I had a smaller reel which was capable of pulling in the smaller salmon - so Josh & Dan remained amongst the fishing action.

With a healthy supply of salmon for dinner, we packed it in, and headed back up to camp to get the fire going. A feast of Salmon, Spuds, and Burgers was cooked up, and many beers consumed.. before eventually everyone got to bed, quite late in the night.

I arose early, feeling the affects of a possible bad burger, and Will soon joined me. He was soon on his way down to the beach for the morning fish, whilst the rest continued to sleep. Eventually regaining my health, I went down after him - only to find him 100 metres down the beach, adjacent an admittedly much better gutter, but still, 100 metres down the beach. The others eventually got up and made their way down, and the fishing was once again solid - but not spectacular. We all headed back to camp around lunch time for a feed. Food was had, beers consumed, and Dan fell asleep in the sun. He is lucky Sani is there to cover him up, as the rest of us watched on in amusement at his skin getting redder by the minute.

Me with one of many Salmon landed

Dan having a midday snooze

Everyone besides Josh and I was having an afternoon nap, so we turned the radio on and listened to the first quarter of the Port vs Suns game - but with the Power heading out to an early lead it seemed like a predictable demolision of the Suns. Instead of sitting there, we decided to go sit down on the beach instead, with a rod in the water. We couldn't be bothered walking to the futher gutter so went to the beach directly in front of camp only to find a bunch of rods standing up against the sand dune. No owners in sight. "Do we still fish there?" asked Josh. "Why not? They arent." was my reply.

Will made his way down, slowly followed by the others, and then the owners of all the rods standing in the dunes. Rather than grabbing their gear and fishing to the side of us.. they simply sat with their gear and stared at us like we'd committed some enormous fishing sin. Leaving a few rods on the beach unattended does not translate to "this spot is reserved" in my book! I stand by my decision. If they bothered to throw a line in, they might have caught some fish like we did.

That night consisted of another great fire, more fish on the fire, steaks, spuds, and a generally great feast all round. The only downside was the Crows going down by 6 points!

Sunday (day 3 now) gave another quick morning fish for the usual mixed size salmon we'd been getting, before coming back to lunch for some "planking" as demostrated by Sani here...

We decided to go for a bit of an explore, and after a quick look over the cliffs at the southern end of Convention Beach, we instead went for a drive to Coffin Bay as most of the group had not been there before.

Certainly couldn't complain about the weather!

Coffin Bay was as packed as you could possibly imagine.. people everywhere! We stopped for an ice block and Josh grabbed a Sunday Mail to discover Port had self destructed and lost to the Suns! It was laughs all round, and on to some more Coffin Bay sight seeing before heading back to camp. Unfortunately we couldn't go into the national parks because of having the dogs on board.

Dan was keen to get some 4wding done in the nearby sand dunes, but after cooking lunch, we thought we'd best leave that until the day after, and get down to the beach to fish the final hours before sunset.

With Will consistently pulling in Salmon after Salmon and with the odd double header for good measure, he had a healthy lead on the imaginary gashes leader board. Seeing him wind his line one time with no fish on on the end, Dan commented to Josh "You don't see that often".. only for Will to walk into the water and pick up slack line with a Trevally attached. They begun to see what the rest of us regulars cry about all the time.

Sani & Dan pleased with the catch

Since Sani can't cast far enough, I was allowing her to wind in my line each time I got a bite. Shortly before sunset, I noticed a bite on my rod and alerted Sani to it, who ran over to grab the rod. As she grabbed it the rod bent forward in a big way and I was quickly on the scene to claim my rod back. The drag peeled out at a hundred miles an hour and it was clear to me that I had some form of big ray on the end, due to the lack of head shakes.

After a massive battle, very sore arms, and knots that surprisingly held up, I had a huge eagle ray in the shallows. It was about 30 minutes from hook up to getting it nearby, and after patiently waiting for a good wave to wash him up further I had him in close enough to get a photo. I pulled tight on the line and snapped off the hooks as there was no way I was going to attempt to get them out on this monster.

With a few larger waves for help the stingray slid back out into the sea and swam off. With that excitement over, we packed up our gear and head back to camp. I wouldn't normally give a stingray catch much credit in the Gashes ratings, but this thing was seriously huge - and everyone was mighty impressed - so yes, me now leading the Gashes!

Dan celebrated in big fashion, especially when he found Will & Dana had brought along a 1.25 litre bottle of bourbon. Helping himself to a couple, he was well on his way, declaring "Don't cook me dinner, I'm getting drunk!". The trips only camping vomit came a few hours later.

Surprisingly, Dan was up early the next morning and feeling pretty chipper - only to crash out after a few breakfast beers, and remain sleeping for the greater part of the day (4wding plans flying out the window). Down on the beach, we were getting in to a few more salmon, when Josh pulled in a nice sized Tommy Ruff - he was especially pleased given how he had talked up the eating qualities of the humble Tommy all weekend. Not so pleased when we called it bait. Getting a dozen would have made good eating though, so we both tied on smaller rigs to have a go. A just legal mullet was landed and Will grabbed it and put it on his big 10/0's and casted it out.

Josh with a small salmon

As lunch approached, we were getting ready to head back in when Will gets a massive bite on the mullet, and his drag is screaming out to sea. He hooks the fish, and feeling the headshakes calls it for a shark or mulloway. A minute later and we're pretty sure it was definitely a shark, as his hooks are bitten clean off... disappointing! As we gathered our gear together to head back, we spotted a massive black ray cruising along the shallows. It was tempting to launch a fish out in front of it, but it was bigger than the one I had landed and probably would have just resulted in a snap off.

After listening to the Anzac Day footy game, we headed down for a final fishing session. It was the standard affair of average sized salmon coming in until at about the same time as I had hooked a stingray the night before, Will hooked in to one and off it went.. straight out. Will just had to get it in, and clinch yet another Gashes title. He fought the ray for about 5 minutes when his line snapped again - leaving him with 3 big hook ups for the weekend, all snapped off!

With darkness setting in, we made our way back to camp, where Sani already had the fire raging. The remaining beers were polished off and I was declared Gashes winner - finally! Great spot and I think we'll definitely be back again in the future.

Dust Hole Quicky

Kym, Andre and I headed over to Yorkes last weekend. Stopped at Ardrossan and Stansbury on the way for not much at all, and then set up camp at the Dust Hole. Had a nice gutter and caught 10 salmon in a quick time frame before it went quiet, and then we got nothing else for the rest of the night/day.