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.
