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.

Some Far West Coast Video Highlights

Just a quick compilation of fish catches from the recent FWC trip. The full video is much more polished...

Far West Coast - November 2010 (Part 2)

See Part 1 first.

We stopped off at Nundroo for some ice and put half of the bag in the fridge to try and help it get down to a cooler temperature where it could start operating more efficiently. This worked quite well, and we set up in the caravan park before heading out to the ledge for a look.

As always, the ledge looked supremely 'fishy' - but we couldn't resist the allure of Scotts Beach and all its salmon schools.We headed back to Scotts and checked out the schools - they were all out of casting range. After a small amount of time, we went back to the caravan park to have a shower, clean up a bit, and cook some dinner. We had a plan to hit the jetty that night, which we did. It was very windy out on the jetty and not even a single squid was caught. A brief mention also goes out to a character at the Caravan Park we called the "Camel Back Hero" - look out for him if you're ever there. He's the guy who looks like he is ready to run a 44km marathon, at all times.

The following morning, after a quick trip to Scotts to restock the bait supply (yes it was that easy), we debated about whether to stay another day in the Caravan Park, and spent the day out at Cabbots Beach, or pack up immediately and head out to a Beach called Tuckamore. I spoke to one of the locals who told me that Cabbots rarely has mulloway come through, and Tuckamore, whilst quiet this year, has seen plenty in the past. Given that we were here to catch mulloway - we opted for Tuckamore, even though I didn't really know where to go. 

We dropped into Penong for Will to top up on fuel, and grab some 'emergency' beers, and then headed off into Chadinga Conservation Park. I followed the only track on my GPS that lead somewhat close to the coast line and after 45 minutes of winding through what looked to be a fairly unused track, we met the ocean once more. This picture is of us letting the tyres down as the track became quite soft nearer the ocean.

The beach appeared soft and we didn't wish to drive down it to check for more gutters, but luckily there was one right out front of the beach access point. A real deep and long gutter - it looked prime. We parked the cars close together and again assembled a big shelter with my 6x6 metre tarp (which now has a severe lack of eyelets). This time we made one entire side go down to the ground to stop the northerly wind howling through our shelter - worked well until the wind changed direction.

After cooking up lunch, I ducked around the back of camp for a nature visit when I heard the others screaming out that I had a bite. I quickly ran back around to see my rod sitting in its holder, lifeless. I wound in and rebaited, and then not long after I had another bite - this time I was on to it and after a brief fight, wound in my first ever Snapper - and a good size too. Finally, I join Matt & Will in the Snapper Club! Unfortunately, the video camera and the brag mat were still packed away in the car, so we didn't have time to get a measure on it or any footage before returning it to the water (November being Snapper ban month)

This catch also brought me one fish away from 'The Trifecta'. The Trifecta is when you catch 3 prize species (in this case, Shark, Mulloway and Snapper) all in one trip. I just needed to land a legal Mulloway now. Just a few hours later, Will completed his very own Trifecta. He landed a legal Snapper of his own, continuing his dream run this trip.

Will had literally just released his Snapper when his other rod started shaking about and he was immediately on to something else. Not content with already having the Trifecta, he was now upgrading on sizes previously caught, landing this terrific Bronzy.

Despite it being a very hot day (the thermometer sitting around 38 in the shade most of the day), it was clear the there was a storm brewing as the day wore on. We could see showers in the distance and the clouds were ominous. We spent a lot of time looking out at this view:

As night fell, we were treated to some awesome lightning storm action off on the horizon, but as we slept at night, that storm got worse and worse. I awoke in the middle of the night to the wind howling through our shelter, which instead of blocking the northerly wind, was now catching the southerly entirely. I'm surprised it held up. Credit goes to Harry for putting more support beams and guy ropes onto that thing than you could poke a stick at (Although Matt wasn't as impressed when he went arse over tit, tripping over a seemingly pointless rope tied 10 cm above the ground. It made things worse (read: funnier) when he brought down a heavy cast iron pot onto the back of his foot, resulting in a blackened heel). The frequency of lightning strikes during the night was unreal.

On the Friday, we woke up to see masses of seaweed floating around in our once pristine gutter. It would make fishing near impossible, and we just sat and looked out at it mostly. We did notice that the majority of the weed was lumping together in what Matt dubbed Weed Island. It would slowly shift up and down the gutter all day long, but never actually move out of the gutter. We all had small attempts at fishing in 'clear' spots, but they were short lived as the weed soon came and made a mess of things. Will persisted for hours, trudging up the beach from one end of the gutter to the other in attempts to avoid Weed Island. His persistence paid off after lunch as he landed two gummies in quick succession. Both were dispatched for a post FWC BBQ.

Despite Wills success, we decided that if the following day (our last full day) was going to be full of seaweed, we may as well pull the pin a day early and head home. There wasn't much point staring out at sea weed all day long. Luckily, as we awoke for our final day, we noticed the weed was visibly less. Still there, but not bad enough to send us home (possibly to Kym's disappointment, who looked to be sick of watching Will catch all the fish - excuse me.. I caught two!).

The day fined up nicely and we sat down, enjoyed the last of the emergency beers, and watched Will make another upgrade on his Trifecta. This time an absolute horse of a snapper pulled from the gutter. People in boats would be envious of this one! It measured 92cm, which wasn't much longer than the others we caught, but just looked so much bigger overall.

With a lot of bacon and eggs left over, our last days diet consisted completely of those ingredients, and I must say - it was awesome. We consumed 1.5kg of bacon that day, and probably over a dozen eggs. But, with the day getting later, we thought it would be best to pull down our magnificent shelter, and get everything besides the swags packed away in the car - to make for a quick and easy get away the next morning. Chadinga/Tuckamore had been quite successful, and I reckon we'll make another visit there some day. We were hoping to get a legal mully in the final days to take home and freeze up, but we can't complain with three awesome snapper off the beach - usually such a rare catch.

Despite Will's dominance, for me, this was our best trip ever by a long shot. Any day of the week I'd rather see my mates pull in fish than for no one to catch a thing. The sharks were everywhere this trip too! We could have fished wire trace all day long and probably had 6 more pictures of sharks in this story, but they do say the Mullys avoid wire. See you all next time, unless EVIL HARRY gets us!

Far West Coast - November 2010 (Part 1)

This trip will be remembered as one of a few things. Maybe "Will's Fishing 101". Or "Will's Fishing Masterclass". Or maybe just "The Trip Will Caught Basically Everything". Either way, one thing should be clear; Will dominated this trip.

With Andre's late pull out due to an injured back/hip/whatever else is wrong - it was down to 5 people on the biggest trip of 2010. Will, Matt (returning to the FWC after previously announcing himself never to return), Kym, Harry, and myself.

After the long 10 hour drive, we arrived in Fowlers Bay, and proceeded to let the tyres down before taking the 4wd's across the huge sand dunes over to the fabled Scotts Beach. Upon arrival on the beach, we immediately sighted a huge school of Salmon out the back of the breakers. We pulled up and quickly tied on lures, but with a strong wind in our face, were unable to to cast far enough to reach them. It wasn't long however, before the school moved in close and we were on in a big way. 4kg Salmon were being hauled up the beach. We needed to get quite a few for bait, and things were looking very very nice, instantly.

Matt with one of many Salmon landed

We made a fine adjustment to our location, moving 100 metres down the beach to where the gutter looked some what deeper, and decided to set up there for the night. The schools were hanging out of casting distance for the most part, but every now and then they'd come in close and we'd get a couple. We changed over to baits which proved effective in catching the Salmon that left the school. As we got out the chairs to settle in for a sunset fish, Will's rod bucked over in a massive way - and an amazing day one session just got even better.

Unfortunately, it didn't take too long to realise he didn't have a fish of any sort on his line, but instead a huge eagle ray taking a lot of line away from him. After a long battle, and Will with a now very sore back - I managed to get the gaff into the Eagle Ray's wing and slide it up the beach. 30 minutes later, and with a half broken back, Will's Rod buckles over again, and he is set for another huge battle against a monster Eagle Ray. We thought it may have been the same one just screwing with us - but it turned out to be a slightly larger one. This one was again landed and released - and with night fall not far away, we set up some wire traces and got the glow sticks ready!

There was plenty of action once it became dark. A lot of bust offs on those who didn't put a wire on, and even those that did - my line was bitten off above the wire trace. Note for next time: make wire longer. Of course there was one person who didn't get bitten off though - Will. He hooked on and brought in a massive Gummy Shark. Biggest Gummy I've ever seen caught by a long shot.

We all arose the next morning, and found a school of salmon right in close, directly in front of our campsite. It was one of probably 5 or 6 large schools all along Scotts Beach. We again got the lures out proceeded to catch fish after fish of monster Salmon. They went off like freight trains when hooked. We chased the school as it moved down the beach lobbing salmon high up the beach as we caught them and recasting immediately. The worst bit was walking back to camp holding 10kgs of salmon each. It was one of the finest Salmon fishing session's we've ever had, and after 4 Far West Coast trips, Scotts Beach finally lived up to its reputation as the best Salmon beach in South Australia.

With a large esky full of salmon fillets, we headed off towards the Dog Fence. The initial plan was to check out the beaches on the eastern side, as I'd heard some recent good reports there. There were a surprising amount of campers tucked away in the dunes as we traversed our way through the sand dunes. The main problem with the eastern side is you can't drive on the beach so you only get an opportunity now and then to check out the beach.

We pulled up to the beach at one of the access points and sighted a large gutter about 1.5 kilometres down the beach - and set off in search of a way to get to it. The track came to a stop about 500 metres later though - but close enough to the beach that we were able to duck across some sand dunes (tsk tsk, Will!). Will went down on to the beach and immediately got into trouble.. the sand was undriven on and very soft. He managed to do about a 300 point turn and get the car pointing back up onto the track but couldn't make it up the small hill. Surf to the rescue! We hooked up the snatch strap and after a number of attempts, we got the hilux up on to safe ground. We made it back to the main track and stopped to allow Will to get his tyres back up to a safe pressure. We also took the opportunity to have a cold beer and pose for the camera.

Since we couldn't find a decent gutter with a nearby area to camp at - we opted to go over to the western side of the fence instead. We found a decent gutter adjacent to some reefy structure, and set up camp there. Will immediately got his rod holder out and planted it right near the reef - a move that would later pay off in a big way.

Dog Fence Beach Campsite

On Day 3, most were up around 7am and a few extra Salmon were caught early. Given the amount we had for bait, all were released except one kept for lunch. Soon after, Will's rod looked to have a bit of interest - and soon he was battling a big fish. Fingers were crossed for a big Mulloway, but Will was still excited to get a nice bronze whaler shark up onto the beach. It had a weird cut in its gills - perhaps been gaffed in the past. A few photos were taken and it was released.

An hour and a half later, and again Will is onto a decent fish. As it came into the wash, I could see it was a Mulloway and called it - "its legal!". But Will couldn't see it as well as me and thought it was undersized. It didn't truly sink in for him until Harry ran down with the brag mat, and showed it to be 83cm. Will let out a massive cheer for his first ever legal mulloway. After years of catching undersizers - it's a great feeling! There was a round of high fives and plenty of photos taken - then the first was dispatched and fillets put into the fridge. Catching fish to eat was necessary this trip to avoid having to live solely on canned food. We had enough meat to only last us about half the trip. As a side note - I was still president of the "Mulloway Club" having a bigger PB at 91cm.

Around 6pm, I had my first taste of some Dog Fence action - my rod bending over onto a nice fish. As always when you get a big bite out west, you hope like hell that there is a big fat mulloway on the end of your line. No such luck on this occasion, but I was still absolutely stoked when this great looking Bronze Whaler was landed. My first ever Shark.

An hour later, and Will is onto another big fish. This one is going really hard though. When he pulled in a 112cm Mulloway, the cheers and high fives were even more jubilant than the first. I handed over the presidency. This fish looked really massive laying on the sand, we estimated it to be around 30-35lbs. I can only imagine what a 50 or 60 pounder would look like. With one Mulloway already in the fridge, and us still 6 days away from a freezer - Will decided to let it go. After a photo or 5 of course. What an amazing days fishing.

On Day 4, a northerly breeze started blowing, as the hot weather started to roll in. Matt seized the opportunity to set up a balloon in hope that the wind would drag it far out to sea. It worked to some extent, but couldn't get past the breakers on the first sand bar. It must have had the bait in a good spot though, as he was bitten off by a Shark soon after. Matt then set up a new balloon, but with a wire trace - unfortunately it didn't get any more bites and he soon changed back to his usual sinker rig.

Kym also "got sharked" shortly before Matt again had a big run on his line. He had a battle for about 2 minutes before the fish spat the hooks - a suspected Mulloway lost there! With no actual fish landed, it was a quiet mornings fishing, but after lunch Will landed a small Gummy Shark, and this one was kept to eat up later.

Sitting around camp eating lunch all our ears pricked up as we heard the sound of a drag going off. But before we could get too excited, we realised it was just a big blow fly stuck in the garbage bag! But that disappointment didn't last long as Matt was again hooked onto something large. We were convinced this must be a big Mully, as it took off sideways down the beach, following the gutter. It was going hard and after a long battle, Matt had it in close to reveal it was actually a big sting ray - disappointing, but a bit of fun anyway. His line snapped as the ray came into the wash, saving him the task of getting it back into the water. He re-rigged and caught a nice Salmon shortly after - so not all was lost!

With sunset approaching, Will hooked onto, and landed his third legal mulloway of the trip - which at this stage left the rest of us shaking our heads wondering what the hell we had to do to make them take our baits! With his first Mulloway mostly consumed, he kept this one. It went about 103-105cm in length and weighed 10.5kgs (23 pounds).

Will caught his fourth legal Mully shortly after that one, but at 'only' 76cm, it was thrown back. If anyone else landed it, there would have been a lot more excitement I suspect. As nightfall set in, Matt had his third big run of the day and again, he pulled a big sting ray into the surf. I made an attempt to gaff it, but in the dark proved too hard to see where it actually was. It snapped off and again saved the task of releasing it. I think Matt was actually pleased with that one snapping off. A swinging sting ray barb in the night probably isn't a good thing. Certainly not after 12 beers!

As I got up on Day 5, and peered over to the thermometer and noticed the fridge was at 13 degrees. I checked it out and sure enough, the fridge battery was flat. It seemed that we neglected to have a rotation system going when it came to getting beers out the fridge - which meant before going to bed we loaded it up around 60 warm cans - the fridge in an attempt to cool them all down chewed through the battery power quickly. I started the car so that the fridge could get going again, and then someone opened the bait esky. The worst smell you could possibly imagine came wafting out and the realisation that our bait supply had gone very bad also came to light. We dug a big hole down in the surf and poured all the remaining fillets in to it. Even covered up the smell was amazingly bad - I came extremely close to throwing up on the beach.

With no fresh salmon fillets for bait, and the food eskies ice getting low, and the fridge without cold beer, we decided we'd have to pack up and head back to Fowlers Bay for a night to get the fridge going again, and restock our ice supplies for both food and bait eskies. We didn't want to risk a fresh 11kg Mulloway going bad either.

Now, go onwards to Part 2

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!