Coorong - April 2013

After many months without throwing a line in, the planets finally aligned and we were able to organise a quick get away. The Coorong had been getting solid reports of Mulloway catches all summer, and although those reports had dried up, we had to get down and try it out before it got too cold.

We aired down and hit the beach around 11am, and soon found a massive wash out which meant driving down near the water's edge. I held my breath and put the foot down and we got through unscathed. After that it was pretty easy driving, but no gutter formations got out interest enough to set up camp, so we plowed on past Tea Tree Crossing.

At around the 5km mark, we finally hit upon a nice patch of water, with a cut out in the dunes to get camp set up and we pulled in and quickly cracked open the first beer of the trip, at 5 minutes before noon. We gave a call to Will, who was heading up later that day and let him know where we were, and warned him of the beach conditions at 42 Mile.

After just a couple of casts, we found a bit of seaweed causing problems, and sat back to have a few more beers and cook up some lunch. The fishing didn't get any easier through the afternoon with a large swell breaking right on the shore, and masses of sea weed getting tangled up in our lines.

Will turned up soon after and since we hadn't unpacked much gear, we decided to move further up the beach in hope that the weed wouldn't be else where. We travelled a further 15 kms or so before settling on a new gutter.

Things looked good when on our first cast, both Kym D and myself were soon winding in a nice little Elephant Shark.

Not very long after, Will too had an Elephant Shark on the sand. It was getting late, and the sun was low in the sky, so hopes were up for a good session, but the weed was rolling back in again, making life difficult.

Despite being one of the warmest evenings I've experienced at Salt Creek, we got a fire cranking and settled in for a few night beers, and the keenest of us even cracked open the glow sticks. This keenness didn't last too long though as the weed continued to be a nuisance. Not before Kym A had landed his first ever Elephant Shark though!

The next day was weed, weed and more weed. I managed to get another Elephant, and a small, undersized mulloway, but they were the only fish landed for the whole day. The weather was still great though, so much sitting about sinking cans of beer was done (so, really, not a lot different to normal).

It was another fine night, but the seaweed made any attempt of a night fish not doable. We woke up early to some light rain, and still no improvement in the sea weed department - so I was handed rare Gashes victory.

Coorong - August 2012

Two weeks ago, a quick message to Will about his availability to fish on an upcoming weekend was instantly replied to positively. The wheels were set in motion, and messages sent, and surprisingly, we soon had a big group of 6 people interested in coming. Not bad for a cold winter weekend.

At 11:30pm the night before leaving, Andy made one of his famous last minute decisions and decided to come along too. Luckily for him, Will's mate Tony was bringing his own car, which left a spare seat in Will's. So it was to be 7 blokes on one Coorong trip - the beers were set to flow.

At 8:30am Saturday morning, we pulled into Murray Bridge and met up with everyone for the final convoy down to Salt Creek, and soon we were airing down for the trip across the dunes. We heard good reports coming from further north, so spent a fair chunk of time driving up the beach, before settling on a decent looking gutter with a nearby area to set up camp.

After the long drive, the first move was to get the chairs off the roof rack, and a cold beer out of the fridge. Setting up camp and fishing rods was a distant third place for all but Will. As beer number two was being cracked open, there was some commotion coming from the beach and we looked up to see Will locked in a battle with a fish on the end of his line. We all raced over as a nice sized mulloway slid up onto the sand. It was clearly above the 75cm legal mark, but we raced off to get the measure just in case. It came in at around 80cm and was quite a fat specimen for it's size.

Not a bad result from the first cast of the trip! This had the rest of us scrambling through tackle boxes and fishing reels in order to get set up and fishing, and before long the beach was lined with rods all expectantly waiting. It took another hour and a half though before the next bit of action, and it was new comer Kym whose brand new Sensor Surf rod buckled over on to what was clearly something decent. He raced over and set the hooks in, and after a short battle, a good sized Gummy Shark was landed.

At this point we still hadn't set up camp or had anything to eat, so we broke back to camp and set up the swags, got the BBQ going, and unloaded the firewood.

The odd salmon was landed here and there, which were mostly used as fresh baits, but they weren't thick in numbers like we might have expected during winter. As the sun set, everyone gave up on the fishing, and moved back to camp to the warmth of the fire.

The following morning I awoke to a monster hangover and wrote off any chance of fishing in the morning. My decision to sleep in was worthwhile however, as when I finally got up I saw that the wind was blowing a gale and no one had landed a thing. My timing was spot on as Will pulled in a Gummy Shark of his own - the first of half a dozen or so he'd land in the next 24 hours. Unfortunately I couldn't replicate this.

The conditions were very windy, making casting hard, and keeping a line out harder. Kym managed to get a salmon, which kept Will in supply with fresh salmon fillets for bait. The gummies were lapping them up, whilst ignoring all other hooks as usual!

Tony had work commitments on Monday, so packed up and headed off soon after lunch time. The rest of us continued to fish, drink, or just generally stand around embracing the sand blasting.

As the rain started coming down hard, and our shelter long since destroyed by wind, I sat in the car watching Will's rod which was directly out in front of camp. It got a huge bite and bent forward as Will reached over to grab and strike. He turned around and looked back toward the car as if to say "this is big!" which was enough for us to get out into the rain and go have a look. Sure enough, another legal mulloway was on it's way in. Again, around the 80cm mark.

Two legal mulloway on the one Coorong trip was unprecedented until now - but within 15 minutes, that record got broken again as Will made it number 3.

Just before dark, Tony arrived back at camp. He'd managed to miss the turn off to the track behind the dunes, and got in some serious trouble on the beach as the tide was rising. He said he was stuck for a good three hours before the water actually hit his Hilux and lifted it out of the bog. With a heap of sticks from the dunes, he wedged them under the tyres and managed to get going again. He came back to camp rather than negotiate the rest of the track after dark!

The temperature dropped massively as the sun went down, and we were soon all huddled around the fire passing the port around. The radio crackled in and out of reception, but we did manage to hear the Crows get up!

The next morning Will continued his good run with a few more Gummy sharks, taking him up to 6 total, along with his 3 Mulloway. Obviously, he took home the Gashes once again in convincing fashion.

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.

Ryan & Andy - Coorong Quicky

Andy and I thought with a few days off work, we'd do a quick overnighter to Salt Creek in similar fashion to last October. Hoping to avoid the long weekend crowds, we turned left after hitting the beach, after coming across 42 mile crossing.

A long section of beach was very soft, and the Surf was struggling as I passed by a Patrol bogged down to the axles. He had another car there helping so I plowed on. I had to stop shortly afterwards though as my car was overheating from revving so hard whilst going no where fast. Whilst waiting for the car to cool down, I let the tyres down further to 15psi, and we were soon on our way again.

We stopped in front of a nice gutter and lucky enough there was a spot to park the car in the dunes. Another group must have camped there not long before us, as we found 3 discarded salmon laying on the sand. Not to be wasteful, we chopped them up for bait. It almost paid off when Andy's new rod and reel combo (a warm welcome to the Penn 950ssm club) bent over and line started peeling off - but the excitement was short lived as the line went limp again before Andy could get his hands on the rod.

He didn't have to wait much longer though, as he wound in this thumping sambo, after it did about 4 big leaps out of the water as it struggled to break free.

Soon after, and I had a bite on my line. It didn't put up much of a fight, but I was stoked when I pulled in this flat head.

We sat back, had some drinks, and soaked in the good weather, at the same time as me landing another 3 salmon - though still not as big as Andy's catch. It was a top little fishing session for what was supposed to be a dodge tide.

As the sun set, the mosquito's came out in plague proportions, so we set up the fire to attempt to move them along and set into a night fish. We went hard until 2 or 3 am, but without a bite.

The following morning we had a few more bites but only one more salmon was beached before we decided to call the trip and head home. There was no repeat of last years Mully, but the flat head tasted pretty good!

Coorong - November 2009

Less than a month after landing my first legal mully, I was all set to repeat the feat and this time get my name on the gashes as well (frankly, I should be on there in massive bold letters and retain the trophy until some one beats it in my opinion!)

Andre, Kym, and I headed off at the leisurely time of 9am on Friday, all having the day off work. Winding our way through chain of ponds, we realised we'd left the eggs and sauce at home, but there was no turning back now. A quick stop off at Meningie fixed that problem, and then on to Salt Creek. We went across Tea Tree Crossing at a snail pace as there was an inch or two of water in it, turned left at the beach (no choice due to closure) and headed south looking for a nice gutter. There was a nice gutter running close to Tea Tree, but no campsites within walking distance.. we plowed on until we found a likely looking spot about half way between 42 mile and Tea Tree. The gutter was not as evident, but still there.

There was a bit of rain threatening, so we set up the big tarp first thing, and it looked magnificent!

Lines were cast out and cookers fired up for the first camping burger of the trip. Before the bacon was crispy, my rod started ducking over with a sure fish on. I bolted down the beach and wound it in. A bit of Kym's line was tangled up with mine but a nice flathead was still pulled up the sand. Upon closer inspection, Andre points out "Aren't they Kym's hooks?"

"....." "...DAMNIT!"

Kym had hooked the flathead on his line and it had swam around mine. Fish 1 to Kym, even if I did wind it in.

After finishing Lunch, Kym landed another Flathead, slightly smaller than the first, and was feeling a bit better about actually getting to wind this one in.

Matt and Will were due to rock up around 9pm Friday night, but after 10pm weren't sighted. We had fished all day without success, and a bit of weed was floating around at night, so we gave it in. We were starting to think they may have given up finding us in the dark and settled for a camp further up the beach, but then we saw a huge light beam coming over the horizon. Will's spotlight collection lighting up the sky.

Those guys set up their swags, and soon after we all hit the sack for some sleep. Unknown to me at the time, Kym actually slipped away to have a vomit before bed. His first camping vomit.. nice work Kym!

The next morning Matt told us that he had woken up at about 3am to take a piss, and saw Will out on the beach fishing. This is why Will always wins The Gashes! He was seen to pull in a big pile of sea weed and Matt returned to sleep. Will didn't get a fish for his efforts.

That day saw plenty of fishing, and even more beer drinking. The first were cracked soon after breakfast. Andre firstly devastated that he wasn't first to crack one (those were my honours), then Matt and Kym both get one, so Andre grabs one too.. but still not opening it. Will returned from down the beach and immediately reached into his Esky, sending Andre in to a paniced rush to open his beer and not be last. His priorities when fishing may be considered different to others. Probably why he never wins The Gashes :)

There was a fair bit of seaweed around on the Saturday, so not a whole lot of fishing was done. Will stuck it out and along the way managed a small undersized mulloway, a dog shark, and a little elephant shark. Kym was still considered leading with his two flatties, but Will making more inroads than the rest of us. The elephant shark had sea lice all over it.. Will pulled them off (they hold on pretty hard though) and released him. The fish was probably happy it had been caught, it was better off for it.

Will donned his bogan wig to cook up a huge steak amongst a sea of draught cans.

When time came to hit the tent for sleep, I considered rain an unlikely scenario.. and didn't bother to peg out the front canopy to stop water running down through the zips (a bit of a problem on my tent). Waking up the next morning, there was a pool of probably 10 litres of water at the bottom of the tent.. luckily I was at the high ground side :)

Outside was worse though - our once magnificent tarp shelter had caught about 50 litres of water in the middle and pulled everything down around it. Tables were pushed over and cooking equipment now laid buried in the sand.

A struggling eyelet on the tarp gave way in front of me at the pole pushed up straight through it and water gushed out everywhere. The tarp was pulled out the way and all that remained was a few poles standing, and a lot of sandy equipment.

It was blowing a gale and looking decidedly unfishy, so Matt & Will packed up and headed back home early. The remaining fishers cleaned up a bit and by mid morning the wind had died a little bit and conditions were good for fishing again, except for the lack of fish.

We spent a great deal of the day sitting in the car, out of the wind and odd shower that went past. At some point we got hungry enough to cook up the Flathead. Andre had all but given up hope on catching a fish, and tied on some big minnow lure and left it floating around in the water. It got hopelessly tangled.

We were listening to tunes for hours when we decided to perhaps drive the car forward a bit to be closer to the rods. But the car battery was flat. I hooked the two batteries together to give it more juice, but still no go. Then Kym tries and the car turns over, just. His lucky weekend I guess. We left the car idling for a good 1.5 hours or so, and had a reasonably early night.

We had a fishing session in the morning, but with still no bites since Friday between us, confidence was low. We packed it up and headed home mid morning - Kym taking his second Gashes win in just 4 trips.

Got him.

Since 2005, I have made 12 trips to the coorong in chase of the elusive Silver Ghost. On my 13th trip, a quick overnighter on 31st October 2009, I landed it.

The Facts: Caught around 8pm, Brined Pilchard for bait, 2 x 8/0 Gamakatsu's on a running sinker rig. It was between tides - low was a few hours before and high wasnt until 1am. The moon was almost full (there goes that theory).

It measured 91cm long and around 6kg gutted. About 13-14 pounds. I didn't have any good scales so I just stood on the bathroom scales holding it.. not the most accurate but it gives a bit of an indication.

Woohoo!

Ryan & Kym Hit Salt Creek

Kymbo and I decided to brave the rain and head down to Salt Creek over the long weekend. On the way we were trying to spot patches of blue sky amongst all the rain clouds. Any tiny speck of blue was considered a sign of incoming great weather.

Arriving on the beach we travelled down about 3kms to find that the beach was completely washed out and some beach closed signs were set up. We turned around and settled on a free spot about 2kms from the crossing entrance.

Although the weather was surpringly nice.. we decided on setting up some shelter first thing.



This was cool.. we could see our rods from the comfort of camp. The only problem was the first cast saw some seaweed brought in and it was there to stay. We were able to sit under the tarp and keep an eye on our rods which was good.. apart from the fact the only action happening was sea weed tuggin on the line. At least we stayed dry when these storms rolled past



I kept persisting with the fishing into the night, but a massive tangle bought that to a halt. The next morning I woke up and spent a good hour untangling the mess - determined not to lose much (or any if possible) of my new Shimano Technium line

I finally managed to untangle the whole thing, and loaded up a pillie and casted in. I hooked onto a mammoth pile of seaweed and the line snapped.. fantastic!

Kym arose and wandered off deep into the dunes for a nature visit, and then proceeded to get rained on. I sat under the tarp - laughing as he made the big run back to camp with shovel and toilet roll in hand.

Sunday was pretty much a non event for fishing as the seaweed was a worse problem than the day before. We barely casted a line all day, until it cleared up a little around sun set. We put on some glow sticks, baited up and cast out, then sat around the bonfire sinking a few beers.

I never saw my glow stick move, but on a routine bait check, I wound in my line to find I had landed a nice little elephant fish!



Kym, in a great show of foresight, had printed out some "how to prepare elephant fish" instructions, so we set about gutting, bleeding and finning it before popping it in the fridge. A late birthday present for Mum.

Kym then keened up to get his line back in the water, and was rewarded with some spikey looking puffer fish.. a fine effort!

After the last remaining beer was drunk, we headed off to sleep. I was awoken in the night by the sound of our shelter flapping around madly, and when a recently dropped fart seeped up through my sleeping bag I had no choice but to open up my swag for some air. My fears were confirmed when I saw the tarp flailing around in the wind, but I figured it'd be fine and closed up the swag again. Then I felt water dripping on my head and some large puddles forming.. doh! Given that I setup the swag under the safety of our shelter, I didn't bother to peg it in or put the poles up that may (I'm not convinced after my second in-swag soaking) have prevented the water pooling up and dripping through the canvas.

I decided to go sleep in the car, which first required closing up the rear window and securing the tarp by closing it in the car door as I got in. All this running around in the freezing rain in my jocks! And then the tarp whipped around in the wind and slapped me right in the face.. it hurt! Once inside, all was well again, and I went back to sleep ready for the morning fishing session.

We woke up to extremely strong winds and decided to call it a trip and head back to Adelaide. The guy at the Salt Creek servo told us fishing crews further north (passed the closed section of beach) had no problem with weed and a few sharks and mulloway were landed. Doh!

Will & Matt hit Salt Creek

Will & Matt picked the worst possible weekend ever to do an overnighter at Salt Creek / Coorong. The weather forecast was so bad I bailed on the trip - not a normal occurrence for me!

Heres the report from Will:

I think we all knew the weather was crappy :) When we got there it wasnt too bad. Found a wicked gutter that produced a 4.6kg snapper (78cm) on my first cast. Fished for about half an hour longer and the wind changed direction gaining about 100 knots. The grapple sinkers were getting washed up on the beach about 2 mins after casting. We slept the whole afternoon till about 6:30pm hoping the storm will calm down for a night fish, but it got even worse. We bailed at about 7 and headed to my house. The track on the way back was completely washed out and the waves were pushing up to the dunes. Hilux cruised over it all though and we made it out sweetly. Was heaps good fun still. Loving the snapper. Half of it fed 4 adults and a kid tonight for tea. Definitely very tasty, i take back what i said about salmon tasting better.

So, Will confirms himself as the luckiest, and most visible, fisherman alive...

Big Salmon Photo

I was just flicking through some old photos and saw this one. How fat is that Salmon! Will landed this, the only fish of the entire weekend back in February 2005

A Coorong Moment

3 Regulars at the Coorong. They were all down there on New Years Eve - no remarkable captures, but a few undersized mulloway (keep that tally going) and a stingray.

Coorong - November 2008

Five guys, 150+ beers, separate sleeping quarters for all, and one hilux surf. This was always going to be a tight squeeze.

We (that’s Matt, Kym, Dan M, and I) arrived at Harrys house around 9am, with the car already crammed full, and we still need to fit Harry in as well as his gear, BBQ and gas bottle included. Fit it in we did, with Harry making a last second dash inside to grab 12 cold beers. At 9:30am. "Who wants one?". Arrrgh.

The car struggled up the hill but slowly made it and we were on our way. A few hours later, and we're at the beginning of 42 mile crossing and airing down the tyres. We went on the beach for a few kms, up to about camp site 13 or there abouts, maybe a bit further. It didn't have a number on the post. The beach track was fairly easy going up until that point and no drama's were had. The track veered up behind the dunes at this point, but with a good gutter in front of us, we decided here was the spot to set up camp.

I finally got access to the fridge and cracked a beer open, sat in my chair, and laughed at Kym and Dan struggle with setting up their tents.

After cooking up some BBQ for lunch, the fishing begun!

I managed to pull a Mulloway, probably around 50 cm's before everyone had even managed to get their rods out to the beach. Not legal size, but good signs for the rest of the weekend. He dropped off the hook by himself, so I let it swim away on the next wave that came in and missed the photo here. Kym soon after hooked one for himself, damn small, but his first mulloway of any size. Now he joins the hunt for a keeper.

We didn’t have any room to bring firewood with us, but some nice campers had left two great big gum tree logs at our campsite. With darkness approaching, we quickly rounded up some small bits of driftwood to get a fire going and harry found more wood left over at a nearby unused campsite. As darkness set, we had a nice little fire raging right on the beach. A big wall of sand in front of it to keep the wind off it, and more importantly, not scare off the mulloway.

Then, Harry made a move he probably now regrets - bringing out the Stones. Before long he was performing some kind of fire dance ritual and making a huge stamp on the "drunkest of trip" award (which I just made up right then, and Harry did win).

Although our lines were out in the water well into the night, I don't think there was much attention being paid to them. They were probably just rolling around getting tangled up. We didn't catch anything at night anyway.

I woke up early followed shortly after by Matt. Harry was up but looking very green, and after a quick dash to the bushes for a technicolour yawn, he was back in the tent and off to sleep. Dan joined me and Matt on the beach shortly after, his hooks still holding an old squid bait from the previous night. He casted it straight in. We laughed and joked about how the only thing he's going to catch with that bait was a stingray. At this point, an important conversation took place. Matt asked me if a stingray would be leading the gashes (ahead of my own 3 undersize mulloways). I thought that if it was big enough then it would be. Matt said for sure it would. Five minutes later, and Dan's rod bends over and line starts peeling off. No shakes of the rod though.. A stingray for sure. I ran back to the car to grab the gaff, and by time I got back, a large ray was in the shallows. Matt landed the gaff into its wing and dragged him up the beach. New gashes leader.

We were working out how to drag it back in to the water when Dan suggests we cook it up. I'm guessing these things usually get thrown back because they aren't much good for eating, but I have heard of them being eaten before. I go to Kyms tent to ask if he knows anything about cooking sting ray… some kind of mumbled no was returned. He sounded worse than Harry (who was also still sleeping).

Dan set about carving up this sting ray into portions suitable for frying up on the BBQ. Hours later, one knife lost to sea, and another broken, he had some big chunks of meat ready for BBQ'ing. I wouldn't say they looked the most appetising.

Lunch time rolls around and the BBQ is fired up for some delicous sting ray cooking. Everyone (besides Harry - sleeping) has a sample and the decision to cook burgers is made. Stingray discarded to the dunes for some feral cats to no doubt enjoy.

Later in the afternoon, we noticed a guy 100 metres up the beach seemingly hooked on to something massive. He was fighting it for a good 10-15 minutes, man with a gaff by his side. He must've got tired arms, because they swapped roles at one point. Then 50 metres further, another guy was onto something massive.

We had the binoculars out having a squizz at what was going down, then the first guy just stopped, and walked back to his car - his line must have snapped. The other guy was still going hard though, and had his gaff man nearby, as well as a camera filming proceedings. I could see through the binoculars a large fish get into the shallows and splash around - the gaff man made his move but appeared to miss the fish.. Then seconds later, the rod has returned to its straight position and another fish has been lost! The fisherman must have been spewing at the gaff guy! Well that was entertaining for 30 minutes.

Harry did finally rise from the land of the dead and stumbled out to the beach around 4pm, looking suprisingly fresh, but I guess 16 hours sleep will do that. Credit to him, he cracked a new beer instantly. I doubt he would have been so fast on the stones though.

Another beach fire was on the cards, but with only minimal amounts of dead wood on the beach, it was never going to last long. That drift wood burns suprisingly long for how small it is though. Another night fishing session failure, and we headed back to camp to cook some late night snags.. And then at 10:41pm, Saturday November 15th, tragedy struck.. The fridge had one beer left in it. We decided Harry deserved it, and after that.. We had nothing to do, so hit our respective beds.

I rose around 6:45am and after relieving myself in the dunes, started fishing for the final morning, hoping to land something worthy of getting the gashes lead back. At 7:20am, I got some bites and hooked onto a fish.. Pulled in a mulloway approx 47cm, bringing my weekend tally to 4 mulloway.. Not deemed enough to beat the 12.5kg sting ray. I photo'd it just in case no one believed me :)

Everyone else eventually got up, but no more fish were caught. We packed everything in to the car, seemingly taking up even more room than on the way. Check out rear of the car hanging so low, and this is before 3 guys got into the back.

So, the final tally was:

Dan: 12.5kg Sting Ray

Ryan: 4 undersize mullies

Kym: 3 undersize mullies

People who go by the name Matt: Didily Squat.

The Gashes has a new name on it. The hunt for the silver ghost continues.

Coorong - June 2007

Another June long weekend trip down to the Coorong. Its tradition now.

On this trip, Dan Murphy, Matt, Ondie and myself were along for the ride, with Will off attending some girlfriend duties.

The first day was great weather - couldn't ask for any better in the middle of winter. We set up the tents and hit the beach. Matt's first cast resulted in his 500 year old rod snapping right in half.. devastation for Matt, humour for the rest of us :)



I got on the board early with possibly a gashes winning fish. An Elephant Shark. Never seen one before and as no one was sure how to prepare them to eat, he went back in the water. Found out later that they are really good eating, doh!



Not the best photo unfortunately, but a photo none the less!

Matt was now set up with the huge alvey on Andre's ugly stick.. it didnt look like the best match up, but it did the trick.



Within a minute, Dan was on to his first fish and brought in a fat salmon. His first, ever.



This was turning in to a very fine day of fishing indeed. I landed this Salmon, almost too big to fit in the frame of the camera! ;)



Everyone was onto Salmon, and they were all fairly nicely sized. Heres one of Andre's catch so he doesn't feel left out:



Its pretty big, I guess. Its no elephant shark though.

The esky was well loaded by sunset, with many fish returned to the sea as well. We had dinner and a few to take home here



We retired to the campsite to start up the fire and cook a few fish. Many beers and AC/DC songs later, we hit the sack only to wake up feeling a bit sore the next morning. I'm not sure why...



I suspect the water in the back ground was tainted.

I walked out to the beach to see sea weed galore washing around in the surf. One cast in confirmed my thoughts as I reeled in a huge ball of weed instantly - so I returned to camp.

We spent pretty much the entire day sitting around camp waiting for the weed to go away, but it persisted all day long. So, a few more cans were drunk in the process. A storm rolled in which forced us to stick up the big tarp for some shelter too.

Matt decided that night was the night for huge night fishing efforts, weed and all. I joined him for one more cast and promptly snapped off my rig and returned to camp. As we sat around camp, every so often we'd hear Matt carrying on about something.. just to be sure he wasn't drowning or anything, we'd go out for a look. He had caught a small mulloway and was feeling rather justified about his decision to brave the freezing cold and rain to stand out there. I'd rather sit around the fire personally!



Loving it!

Dan had other ideas on how to enjoy the campfire



The next morning we had a fish until mid morning, but didn't catch anything. I was declared the gashes winner due to my amazing elephant shark and arguably the biggest salmon of the trip - from memory anyway. Well my name is there so we'll just assume thats true.