Heatwave Approaching

So, what better time to head over to Fowler's Bay and surrounds?

The trip that almost never happened. Kym and I were all sorted with leave from work, but Andre assumed no chance of getting time off after a xmas break. Matt, true to his word, declined immediately. Will had a trip to Darwin booked already. At the last moment, Kym and I decided we'd throw the swags in the car and go for a road trip whilst on leave, and most likely end up driving all the way to Fowlers - we had a few weeks off, so why not? :D

Informing Andre of our plan (what little plan there was)... the realisation of missing out on a FWC trip set in and he put the wheels in motion at work. Week 1 was turned down, but his boss agreed to Week 2 off! So, with that, the three of us are heading off this coming Saturday to endure the heat!

The pictured thermometer didn't last long after the last FWC trip. It was 54 in the sun that day, but it got far hotter the following two days! I've now replaced it with a wireless version which is great as the cord isn't going to get demolished running from the back of the car to the front (exactly what killed this one). The hot weather is good, but hopefully it stays a little cooler on this occasion.

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!

Sheringa - October 2009

8 months between Gashes trips. This is unheard of. We've all been going off on fishing trips here and there, but never lined up our leave. Finally we're back on.

Harry, Sani and myself headed over to Sheringa on Friday morning, cutting our way through the dirt roads along the way. The scenic route. Arriving at the roadhouse, I asked the owner how the fishing was, and he replied "crap". Not a good sign, but he also told Harry his bottle of port was $100 before charging $9, so we weren't sure if he was serious or not.

We set up our camp at the "GUN SPOT" Matt had directed us to claim if possible. That was no problem, because no one else was camping down the Salmon beach end. After cooking up lunch, we set up our rigs and headed over the dune to the Salmon Beach. The only problem was when we got there, there was no beach left. From my last visit about 3 years ago, there seemed to be about 2 metres less sand on the beach.. where small rocky bits barely made it to the surface before, they were now sticking up above my head. This wasn't a good sign, but we trekked further west to a small patch of beach which still had some sand on it.

Before long I had hooked on and got a small salmon in the esky. The fishing was slow however, with a lot of weed in the water, and Harry endured a bust off or two.

With the sun getting low, and lacking any lights, we made our way back to camp to get the fire going.

The following morning, I was up before the others, so decided to go for a quick drive to see if I could see the cap of my fishing tube anywhere on the track. It had rattled off somewhere along the way on our trip. No luck in that department, but I did spot a better looking beach. After breakfast we headed back to this beach and on my first cast I had a nice 1kg Salmon on.

We continued fishing here until lunch time when Matt & Saza, and Will & Dana both rocked up within 10mins of each other, and headed back to camp. I had caught about half a dozen salmon, although all of them quite small. My day head start hadn't given me the biggest lead in fish caught.

The fishing that afternoon again was at the beach I had spotted with a decent gutter. It was the only real fishable spot along the coast, not counting the first beach when you head in. We noticed a Rav4 further down the beach getting itself very bogged, and after awhile they called us over to help. Me and Harry drove around planning to snatch em straight out but my bolts wouldn't fit onto their cars tie down point. So plan B, which should have been plan A, was to push them out. With 4 guys pushing, it easily reversed out of the bog and was on its way again. Good deed done! Now for the good karma...

Back at the beach where the other guys were, Matt had somehow stolen my good karma and landed a massive salmon in my absence. All I got to see was a huge tail fin sticking out the sand.

No matter, as Will landed one pretty much the same size not long after, but with already one huge fish ready for dinner, he popped it back in the water. After the photo of course.

I thought this was a good sign for some big fishing session about to commence, but unfortunately not. The next morning, divided on where to fish, Harry, Sani and I travelled up to Lock's Well. Matt and Will persisted with the spot we'd been fishing previously.

There were no good gutters at Locks, but we decided to walk down and have a go anyway. Harry managed to catch one small salmon but it wasn't looking very fishy, so we soon headed back up the stairs and made our way back to Sheringa. Once there, I decided to give the first beach a go, having heard it produces some big King George Whiting. The only problem was, it was very very long and I had no idea where to fish from. After a quick go at the very beginning, and losing a rig amongst all the weed floating around, we drove down the beach and I casted the big rod out into some nice clear water.

Once I finally got my whiting rig back out, I managed a small Mullet and Salmon trout, but no KGW :( Think I'll need to get some more information on where they reside next time.

Back at camp, the others were sitting around drinking beers and cooking lunch - obviously a quiet morning session for them too.

The afternoon / night time fish was back at now 'ol faithful. The only place producing decent fish. Another quiet night despite a few fresh salmon fillets going out as bait. Will pulled another decent salmon and put himself out in to a clear lead for the gashes. Surprise!

Back around the campfire, will declared the Gashes will be over on his departure, thus declaring him the winner - how ever we argued its not our fault he's leaving a day early, and it was still on. He went to bed early to get up and have a fish before he left.

Will's morning fish proved productive and he had another half dozen landed. He was well out in front now.. but soon to depart and Matt not all that far behind. I was lagging further back, and Harry was probably asleep some where.

I wish the gashes was about who saw the most sleepy lizards, because I saw millions of them. Including one that walked right through the middle of our camp.

Here is a picture of our final day fishing efforts. As you can see it was action packed

So, with that, Will takes home another Gashes win. It was unfortunate the beaches were so eroded as it would have given us a few more options to fish from. The fishing was slow, but Matt and Will were both happy to pull in some 3kg+ salmon. I sure would've been!

More pictures here

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...

Hillocks Drive - April 2009

This wasn't actually a "gashes trip" but still worthy of a post. With all the regulars busy with other events or just plain soft *cough*Andre*cough, It was left up to me and Harry to rid the sea of fish this weekend. Not enough participants to award the illustrious prize.

Harry, and two of his mates, Kadge, and Adam (Whom were later renamed Vadge and Adam Internet) went down to Hillocks on Thursday night in order to secure a decent camping spot before the Easter rush. Apparantly everyone else had the same idea though and they were forced to squeeze in between two main camps. Still a decent enough spot though.



I, along with Sani and her cousin Alisha on her first trip made our way over Friday morning. Sitting in the same car as Sani and Alisha for three hours was a worrying prospect, but armed with my new Garmin Nuvi 760, loaded up with Mastodon's new album amongst my other awesome tunes, I was content for the journey.

We arove around 10am to a somewhat quiet group of 3 guys, hungover from the previous nights drinking. I set up the tent and cracked a beer, which was enough for Harry to consider it time to start up again. Reliable Harry!

After a cookup, we headed down to Salmon Beach, and the "good spot" was taken, so we headed further down the beach and set up. Our other spot on the rocks was also taken.

It didn't take long to land a fat mullet. I just wanted one for bait, but this one was too huge, so I kept it to eat later. I managed to get a just legal Salmon Trout, and immediately set up my wire trace and sent him back out. This would be my Shark trip (or not, as it turned out).

The others lost interest in the later afternoon and headed back to camp. Me and Harry stuck it out until we ran out of beer. I managed a few more mullet and a bigger salmon on the surf rod. I'm sure we could have caught a bag of mullet if we tried, but sitting back sipping beers, and waiting for the big rods to go is more appealing.

Back at camp with many more beers drunk, I decided to try out my artistic skills with the camera. It didnt really work too well, but the effort was there :). Side note: do not drink a Dr Tims immediately after a Sparkling Ale - it is a BIG step down.



The following day, we considered going for a fish off the rocks, as the water was dead calm on Friday and would have been ideal for rock fishing. Arriving at the beach, the good spot in front of the reef was free, and since it was 1km less walking, we set up there. We had spoke to a guy the night before who said he'd been hooked on to monster for over an hour before snapping off at the rocks. He thought it was a large kingfish, he was rather devastated. This did have me keen to go down and have a go, but the swell was a lot bigger on this day - not the best for a relaxing fish off the rocks.



Once again, I showed off my amazing photography skills.



I pulled in a Salmon which had a big chunk taken out of it and teeth marks all down its side. I felt he'd had a rough go, so let him back in. Now, rather excited about the prospect of sharks in the area, me and Harry both had live baits out and sat back, waiting. The girls had a quick go with the small rod and Sani managed a nice Mullet, which was kept for later. Harry also pulled in a small Salmon and added that to the pile.



Back around camp at night, the Nuvi really made me thankful of its purchase. The FM transmitter works from around the "fire" (a gas lantern in this case). Sitting back, drinking Coopers, and flipping through my MP3 library from the comfort of my chair, gold!

Came back home on Sunday to avoid the Monday traffic, and cooked up a few mullet that we brought home with us. Harry took a few Salmon home for his mum to cook, awww :)



More photos can be found over at flickr