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.
