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The old group fishing trips have turned into family adventures - a photo from a trip to Tasmania earlier this year of Cloudy Bay, Bruny Island. Nice campsite down the far end!
Saturday, October 21, 2023
South Bruny Island
The old group fishing trips have turned into family adventures - a photo from a trip to Tasmania earlier this year of Cloudy Bay, Bruny Island. Nice campsite down the far end!
Thursday, December 3, 2020
Far West Coast - October 2020
Another year, another FWC trip. This year, I joined in after a two year hiatus, so you get a story!
As hot and as uncomfortable as it was, we decided to pack it up and head back towards Fowlers Bay. At least we'd have some time in the air conditioned car. We only had two nights left, so getting closer to home was a bonus. It was getting close to sunset when we finally arrived back on the beach east of Fowlers. It is a small, but very steep beach, and unfortunately there was some huge lumps of seaweed holding in the little bay. After a hot and exhausting day, a feed and a few beers were had and then it was an early night.
This was the earliest in the season we've ever headed west Mulloway hunting, so we were somewhat nervous about being too early, but equally as excited to hopefully avoid the crazy crowds that have gathered there in recent years through the November/December period.
We rolled in to Fowler's Bay mid afternoon, on an overcast but otherwise fine day. Kym & I in were riding in the white Patrol, and Will & Darren in the Hilux. We had two 65 litre fridges and a 40 litre freezer on board. Expectations must have been good (or at least, plenty of room for cold beers).
Being a little bit earlier in the season, we hoped that few salmon schools might still be hanging around, but it wasn't to be. I think this was the 12th or 13th trip we've had out there, and we still hang our hopes based on that ONE year where Scotts beach was filled with Salmon. Anyway, there was no salmon. We trekked around the beaches and various rock ledges, but it was dead everywhere. The weather forecast was for strong south westerly winds coming in after dark, so we sought out a sheltered campsite amongst the dunes at sunset, for the first night. Zero fish on board.
The following day was more of the same. Searching the coast line for schools and coming up with nothing. With the strong winds still persisting, we camped out on the ledge, and decided to hit up the dog fence beach the following day. If we weren't catching bait, we may as well not catch bait at the dog fence instead.
After a failed attempt to short cut from Mexican Hat back to Nundroo, we finally made it back to the coast around 1pm, almost right on high tide. We didn't travel far up the beach before sighting a nice look patch of water - however since it was only 100 metres from another group, and we figured there would be plenty of space up the beach, we persisted on. Turns out the beach was still pretty popular, and we turned back and set up camp at the original spot we liked.
The wind dropped off and the weather turned golden, but no fish come to play that first day on the beach.
The next morning, we slowly got ourselves organised after breakfast, with a baits getting casted out one by one into the seemingly shrinking gutter. At low tide it became quite narrow and hard for us to all fit in the 'good spot' without encroaching on the nearby camp too much. I declared that 11:30am would be the time to get my bait out as that was the start of the incoming tide. I apparently mistimed this though, as just after 11, Will got a big bite and line started peeling out.
Amongst getting caught up in his other line, he untangled that one and then landed a very nice mulloway, which seemed to increase in size every time it was sighted in the waves. The fish measured in at about 125cm long and 42 pound. The gutter held mulloway, we were all happy.
We set up our 4th and final campfire for the night (4 fires - a FWC record), conveniently the last day before fire bans came in and also before the weather really heated up. As it got dark, around 9pm, Darren's LED light started flashing like crazy and he soon found himself with his very first legal mulloway on the beach. Always a good feeling, and a nice opener at 93cm long.
It got hot after that. Northerly winds made casting baits out far very easy, but the fish weren't coming to play. A managed a rare salmon for fresh bait, but it was slim pickings
The following day it must have been 40+ degrees by 10am and gusting hot northerly winds into camp. The only relief was a dip in the ocean, and some Dolphins came over to inspect Will - very cool!
As hot and as uncomfortable as it was, we decided to pack it up and head back towards Fowlers Bay. At least we'd have some time in the air conditioned car. We only had two nights left, so getting closer to home was a bonus. It was getting close to sunset when we finally arrived back on the beach east of Fowlers. It is a small, but very steep beach, and unfortunately there was some huge lumps of seaweed holding in the little bay. After a hot and exhausting day, a feed and a few beers were had and then it was an early night.
There was some temptation to start the journey home the next morning as the weather was again predicted to be in the high 30's. Thankfully it was quite overcast and even a few drops of rain came through, keeping the temperature down. So the final day was upon us, and Kym and I sitting on big fat donuts for the mulloway catching comp. Team Patrol needed a big day.
A few fat salmon were caught which provided us with some nice fresh bait, but the sun was soon setting with out much action. The best catch being this nice flathead caught by Will.
By time the sun was well and truly down and the moon up, my gear was all packed up ready for the early start the next morning. It was about that time that Will got a solid hit and landed a very nice gummy shark. For half a second I contemplated getting the rod back out, but common sense prevailed. A nice cherry on top of an easy Gashes win for him.
Thursday, August 13, 2020
Sheringa - August 2020
I've missed a few trips, and have just neglected to write stories on a couple of trips that I did manage to attend.
Since my last post, there have been a Hillocks trip in February 2018 (I was Gashes winner), Nora Creina in October 2018 (Kym D winner) and two more FWC trips ('18 & '19) (Kym D winning both - with big mullies on each!).
Which puts Kym D on a bit of a hot streak of 3 victories in a row. And so it came to 2020 and with SA coming out of lock down, a plan was floated to head over to the west coast to have a crack at the annual Salmon fishing competition.
This is a trip in the midst of winter, camping on the beach with no facilities nearby. I expected just a couple of die hards might make the trip, but instead, we ended up with 6 Gashes participants (the most since August 2012 at the Coorong - maybe these freezing cold trips have their appeal?). Add in the non fishing kids and wives and there were 11 people all up, a big camp set up!
Also of note is this was Andy's first trip since that August 2012 trip, and the Tucker brothers first Gashes trip together since November 2006!
In the spirit of the Australian Salmon Competition, we decided pre-trip to tweak the usual rules around who wins the Gashes. Instead of overall best fisherman, we said that simply the biggest salmon would win - as judged by Kym's cheap arse digital scales. There was one asterisk to that point - a legal mulloway would trump all (realistically this was never going to happen).
And so, by 6am the convoy of cars started heading in the direction of Sheringa. Kym, Jason (first time Gashes attendee) and I met up with Will & Ellie at Port Augusta and continued on, rolling in to Sheringa around 2pm. Andy & Kelly weren't far behind and we quickly assembled camp before keenly rigging up and getting some baits out in the water.
Conditions were absolutely perfect - it was shorts and tshirts weather on the beach. Unfortunately the fish weren't coming to play early on.
Matt & Sarah rocked up nearer to sunset, towing his caravan into position and he was all set up. How things have changed.
Will did manage to land two small salmon that first night, but neglected to have them weighed in so officially, no one was on the scoreboard at the end of day one!
Another pearler day for weather greeted us the next morning. I was feeling slightly under the weather though and took some time to get going. My timing was perfect though as I landed a salmon with my first cast around lunch time and put the first official fish on the leaderboard at about 800gm. I was laughed at for weighing in, but difficult conditions would have this fish being right up there for a day or two at least!
Jason, amongst a tangle with Kym's line, managed to get on the leaderboard soon after with a miniature 400 gram fish, but it was on the board none the less.
The gutter was small with reefy parts on either end and a strong sideways current, so tangles were common.
Andy put in a very solid day fishing on Monday and picked up some small salmon and tommy ruff on a lure near the right hand side reef. All agreed that such an effort was worthy of a big result, but it wasn't to be.
Without much action from the nearby gutter, some plans were put in place to go on a bit of an explore on Tuesday. Will, Jase, Kym and I set out in the 4wd's and covered the southern end of Sheringa beach. Amongst a few boggings, we threw baits and lures around but didn't put a whole lot of effort in to it and came back with donuts.
Matt decided on an excursion out to Locks Well, and Andy put in some solid family time, perhaps to make up for the fact he was knee deep in the the surf for about 12 hours the day before.
As everyone returned to camp and got settled back in, Matt rolled back in from Locks Well. He was positive when we asked if he caught any fish, but couldn't hide a huge grin when we asked if he had anything to weigh in.
Matt rocketed to top of the leaderboard with a 3.29kg Salmon. At this stage second best was probably around the 1kg mark, so Matt was well on top.
The two 4wd car groups planned on moving up to Elliston to have a pub meal and clean up in the caravan park prior to a drive home Thursday - where as Andy & Matt were both heading home on Wednesday. We decided dropping in on Locks Well was now our best bet of knocking Matt off the top of the table.
By this time, there was an arctic wind blowing at the top of the cliffs at Locks Well. Heading straight to the pub was a highly tempting proposition.
Still, a Gashes win was on the line, so we trudged down the stairs, and thankfully the cliff was providing a fair bit of protection, making it rather comfortable down on the sand. Things started slowly, but before too long we were getting a nibble here and there - fish ranging from half to 1kg mostly. Kym may have finally got his first fish of the trip at this time.
A school must have come swimming through though, as we all had hook ups in quick succession - Will with a 1.9kg, me with a 2.2kg and Kym with a 1.8kg fish. All solid fish, but well short of Matt's stomper.
The fishing was good, and I had multiple double headers, but all small fish. I gave a couple of them to some people walking past, and kept a small one as well as the big one for weighing in. Having not eaten all morning and getting closer to 1pm, we pulled the pin and headed up to Elliston.
After weighing in and checking in at the Caravan Park (around $70 for the two cars unpowered! No wonder we avoid caravan parks like the plague normally) we headed up to the Pub to grab a schnitty and watch the footy. To most of our dismays, they get Vic CH7 and not SA... so the footy wasn't on! Perhaps a blessing in disguise given how crap the Crows went anyway.
The predicted thunderstorm held off so we were able to pack up in the dry and hit the road. A few days later, I found out that one of my weighed in salmon... a 700 gram beast, won the weekly mystery prize, pocketing me a cool $200. But Matt took out the Gashes convincingly to get his name on the trophy for the first time in 12 years. Long time between drinks.
Cheers to Kym for the photos on this one - I was more than slack with the camera.
Sunday, December 10, 2017
Far West Coast - December 2017
Hmmm.... two years since my last update. Apologies to Travis, our one loyal reader who we ran in to on Scott Beach this year! I hope you got on to a few fish.
With a big Kimberley Trip last year, and everyone doing their own thing in terms of short fishing get-aways, there hasn't been any "official" Gashes trips for a long time. And this year was very close to a no goer as well. The wheels were put in motion for this trip when a few months back Will & Kym made some loose plans around getting over to the FWC for Mully season. I wasn't planning to tag along, and then some opportunities came up at work that further put my ability to attend in doubt. So, less than a month ago, I didn't think I was coming - but a bit of last minute fear of missing out saw me put in an application for leave at work, and one week prior to the departure date, it was approved. Unfortunately, just a day later, Will was struck down by illness and by doctors orders had to stay in bed for a few weeks. This put both him, and his mate who was hitching a ride, out of action.
Kym was heavily advanced in his preparation by then, so for me it was just a case of get my gear out the shed and throw it in his 4WD. We decided to go ahead with the trip with just the two of us anyway, and boy am I glad we did.
We pulled onto Scott's Beach around 2pm Wednesday afternoon, and cracked a beer and watched a school of salmon out the back of the breakers - way too far out to reach with lures. Beer consumed, and school no closer, we headed around to the point for a bit of lazy fishing. Pilchard under a float and sit back and wait.
We didn't have to wait long, as our first baits delivered a salmon each. Things were looking good, but soon joyfulness turned to concern as the sunset loomed and we had just 3 small salmon in our fresh bait supply. A big thunderstorm passed to the north of us, missing us, but providing a fantastic lightning show from our camp location.
The next day, we tried for more salmon, but it was very slow going. As the morning went on, the next storm rolled through, and this time didn't miss us. With the fish not biting, we took shelter under a small overhang in the cliff as the rain poured down for a few hours. One lightning bolt cracked right over our heads in an extremely loud fashion.
We caught a few more fish, and I was thinking this would have to do if we were to make it out to the Dog Fence by mid afternoon as I assumed the plan was. Kym gave me a look like this:
He had no plans to go to the Dog Fence Beach that day. We must gather bait. Still, with the opened pilchard bag running low, things were looking pretty bleak. We decided to finish the bag off, and if nothing happened, we'd try out a different location. With the very last half a pilchard in that bag, Kym's float ducked under the water, and a salmon came flying out the water soon after. That would buy us at least another hour of fishing here. It was a huge turning point, because for the rest of the afternoon we'd have the odd salmon swim by with a few mates, and we'd be able to grab a couple at a time. By the end of the day, we had about 18 salmon landed. Since there were just the two of us, this was going to be an ample amount of bait for a few days at least.
Some fish were filleted, and others kept whole; the whole fish kept fresher much longer, but do take up way more space in the ice box. It was getting dark, so we rolled the swags out again, with a plan to head off in the morning.
As the sun rose on day three, we rolled up the swags and was about to pack up the fishing rods for travelling when we noted a few left over pilchards from the day before and decided to use them up before heading off. I cast out and headed back to the car to grab some things, when Kym yelled out that that I was on. All good, I thought, another salmon for the bait stocks. "It looks like a kingfish!" - that got me moving. I grabbed the camera and crab net for landing and raced back down. Kym had it in at the edge of the rocks, and handed it over to me. It took off again taking a bit more line, but soon after was back at the rocks again and we had it guided into the crab net and up on the deck for a few quick photos. It wasn't huge, being what we estimated to be around 75cm, but it was my first ever kingfish, so I was pretty stoked. An unexpected catch to be sure!
A quick stop off in Fowlers Bay to stock up on ice (they had block ice too, awesome!), we headed further west and following a bumpy ride, pulled up onto the beach an hour or two later. Now, Kym & I aren't the most decisive gutter selection pair, but we didn't get too far up the beach before seeing a gutter and saying that looks pretty damn good! Even so, the prospect of something even better (which really is unlikely when you see the pictures) lured us into searching further up the beach. We drove many kms, got bogged, got unbogged, turned around and went back to our initial find an hour later. Luckily no one else came along in the mean time.
We set up in haste, as more rain was about to bucket down - so getting a shelter up with relief from the wind as well was a priority. Then, we soon eased in to a late afternoon fish and one or two beers.
Kym landed a huge Salmon which we cut up for bait straight away - fresher the better as they say!
As the sun set, Kym noticed a slight knock on my line - I looked and saw another. A definite bite but didn't seem like anything huge. I ran and grabbed the rod, and then the fish took off like a freight train... it was definitely something huge and I was calling mully!
This was unexpected, as we figured that Friday might be a bit early around the moon phase to get on to anything decent, but after a 10 minute fight I used a good wave to slide a huge Mulloway up onto the sand. I wanted to release it, so we quickly snapped off a few photos and took measurement against the Gaff (which wasn't used). It was conveniently the exact same length, 140cm! My previous PB mulloway was 132cm and weighed 52lb - so this was an estimated 60lb'er! I got seriously wet in trying to give him or her a good release, which no doubt looked clumsy as trying to hold on to such a huge fish. Although it swam off slowly, it looked to be fine. High fives were had, and back up to camp for a celebratory beer, and to re-bait.
Not 10 minutes after I had a new bait in the water, my line has again got a huge bite. I struck the fish and it ran hard. It didn't feel as big of the previous run, but it still had plenty of go. I couldn't believe my luck.... until the line went slack and I pulled in nothing at all, not even a swivel. I suspect that my main line got damaged during the tussle with the previous fish and in my excitement, I hadn't checked anything before recasting. Disappointing, but at the same time confidence was high that we were on a good patch here. Though no more mullies were landed that evening, Kym did follow up his initial huge Salmon capture with two more that got increasingly larger. The final one was about 5.85kgs on the scales - easily the biggest I've ever seen.
Although we were blessed with no crabs destroying our baits, and barely any seaweed, we fished only half-heartedly through the morning period, preserving the bait supply until the peak times around the afternoon high tide. I didn't have to wait too long though, as around 11:30am I had another run and pulled in a 98cm Mulloway. This would be a good keeping size, but being Saturday, and us not expected to return until Wednesday, felt it wouldn't last that long in the fridge. It was released as well.
Only half an hour later, another bite! This time a much bigger fight as it took a heap of line out to sea, worrying me considerably about my lack of preparation. This hookup was on my secondary rod, which had a Penn SSM950 on it, but in my haste before departing, I simply topped up the spool with some new line as I didn't have enough new line to fill a spool. I suspected I had about 200 metres of line before the joining knot. Although it got low, I didn't see any knot, and the fish started to come in. Soon after, another awesome looking fish was on the beach. This time 130cm, and estimated around the 50lb mark.
With three Mulloway on the board to Kym's zero, I suspect he was getting slightly concerned. However, as the tide ran out, he too got a good bite, and thought it to be his turn finally..... but the lack of head shakes suggested a ray, and after a long time winding, a massive black ray was beached and then pushed back out to sea.
Hopes were high for another sunset session, but it was a quiet evening.
Come Sunday, the salmon that were previously filleted were probably on the edge of being useable or not. We used a couple up through the quiet morning session, then once again got serious on the approaching high tide. This was a system working well for us, as the bait esky remained relatively unopened and full of good ice. It also produced another mulloway!
Right on lunch time, Kym got a good bite, and finally got on the board - a 102cm fish which we decided we'd be able to keep in the base of the fridge (which tends to freeze things a bit). It was Kym's first Mulloway over 1 metre.
The high tides continued to provide, as an hour later, I hooked onto another solid fish - this one going 133cm.
He was let go for some extra good Mully karma.
Back at camp, Kym worked on extracting the 'jewels' from his caught mulloway, and sunset came and went without any more action.
It was intended that Monday would be our last full day out on the beach, with an intention to head back towards Fowlers on Tuesday to get a bit closer to home before Wednesdays long drive. We would have loved some fresh baits at this point, but it didn't seem to matter, as the afternoon high tide delivered again!
This time, Kym pipping me for the biggest Mully at 144cm, after a massive fight that took him a couple of hundred metres down the beach, passing the nearby lone fisherman.
After releasing, that fisherman said he'd caught a 142cm the night before that weighed in at 65lb, so we expect that this one would have been 65+ and perhaps closing in on 70- a mammoth fish!
On the Tuesday, we figured we'd wait around until the high tide again, to see if we could get another fridge size mully to take home. Unfortunately, the high tide was getting much later in the afternoon by Tuesday, so all the waiting around provided too much boredom, and we decided to have beers and and depart direct from the beach the next morning instead.
Our bait supply was now poor though, with most of it unusable. I managed to hook a salmon and then drop it off in the wash and nearly cried as it swam away. Kym made up for that however, by catching two in quick succession at the peak of the tide. It didn't help though, as for the first time since we hit the beach, high tide failed to deliver. As sunset approached, we made some mediocre efforts to pack up camp. Kym got a bite right on sunset which had us both pretty excited, but it turned out to be another ray. I pulled the pin on fishing as it got dark, and Kym fished on for a few hours, rounding out the trip with a nice little Gummy Shark. That was the last of the fishing efforts in what turned out to be the best FWC trip to date. Pretty happy I changed my mind on that silly idea of not attending!
With a big Kimberley Trip last year, and everyone doing their own thing in terms of short fishing get-aways, there hasn't been any "official" Gashes trips for a long time. And this year was very close to a no goer as well. The wheels were put in motion for this trip when a few months back Will & Kym made some loose plans around getting over to the FWC for Mully season. I wasn't planning to tag along, and then some opportunities came up at work that further put my ability to attend in doubt. So, less than a month ago, I didn't think I was coming - but a bit of last minute fear of missing out saw me put in an application for leave at work, and one week prior to the departure date, it was approved. Unfortunately, just a day later, Will was struck down by illness and by doctors orders had to stay in bed for a few weeks. This put both him, and his mate who was hitching a ride, out of action.
Kym was heavily advanced in his preparation by then, so for me it was just a case of get my gear out the shed and throw it in his 4WD. We decided to go ahead with the trip with just the two of us anyway, and boy am I glad we did.
We pulled onto Scott's Beach around 2pm Wednesday afternoon, and cracked a beer and watched a school of salmon out the back of the breakers - way too far out to reach with lures. Beer consumed, and school no closer, we headed around to the point for a bit of lazy fishing. Pilchard under a float and sit back and wait.
We didn't have to wait long, as our first baits delivered a salmon each. Things were looking good, but soon joyfulness turned to concern as the sunset loomed and we had just 3 small salmon in our fresh bait supply. A big thunderstorm passed to the north of us, missing us, but providing a fantastic lightning show from our camp location.
The next day, we tried for more salmon, but it was very slow going. As the morning went on, the next storm rolled through, and this time didn't miss us. With the fish not biting, we took shelter under a small overhang in the cliff as the rain poured down for a few hours. One lightning bolt cracked right over our heads in an extremely loud fashion.
We caught a few more fish, and I was thinking this would have to do if we were to make it out to the Dog Fence by mid afternoon as I assumed the plan was. Kym gave me a look like this:
He had no plans to go to the Dog Fence Beach that day. We must gather bait. Still, with the opened pilchard bag running low, things were looking pretty bleak. We decided to finish the bag off, and if nothing happened, we'd try out a different location. With the very last half a pilchard in that bag, Kym's float ducked under the water, and a salmon came flying out the water soon after. That would buy us at least another hour of fishing here. It was a huge turning point, because for the rest of the afternoon we'd have the odd salmon swim by with a few mates, and we'd be able to grab a couple at a time. By the end of the day, we had about 18 salmon landed. Since there were just the two of us, this was going to be an ample amount of bait for a few days at least.
Some fish were filleted, and others kept whole; the whole fish kept fresher much longer, but do take up way more space in the ice box. It was getting dark, so we rolled the swags out again, with a plan to head off in the morning.
As the sun rose on day three, we rolled up the swags and was about to pack up the fishing rods for travelling when we noted a few left over pilchards from the day before and decided to use them up before heading off. I cast out and headed back to the car to grab some things, when Kym yelled out that that I was on. All good, I thought, another salmon for the bait stocks. "It looks like a kingfish!" - that got me moving. I grabbed the camera and crab net for landing and raced back down. Kym had it in at the edge of the rocks, and handed it over to me. It took off again taking a bit more line, but soon after was back at the rocks again and we had it guided into the crab net and up on the deck for a few quick photos. It wasn't huge, being what we estimated to be around 75cm, but it was my first ever kingfish, so I was pretty stoked. An unexpected catch to be sure!
A quick stop off in Fowlers Bay to stock up on ice (they had block ice too, awesome!), we headed further west and following a bumpy ride, pulled up onto the beach an hour or two later. Now, Kym & I aren't the most decisive gutter selection pair, but we didn't get too far up the beach before seeing a gutter and saying that looks pretty damn good! Even so, the prospect of something even better (which really is unlikely when you see the pictures) lured us into searching further up the beach. We drove many kms, got bogged, got unbogged, turned around and went back to our initial find an hour later. Luckily no one else came along in the mean time.
We set up in haste, as more rain was about to bucket down - so getting a shelter up with relief from the wind as well was a priority. Then, we soon eased in to a late afternoon fish and one or two beers.
Kym landed a huge Salmon which we cut up for bait straight away - fresher the better as they say!
As the sun set, Kym noticed a slight knock on my line - I looked and saw another. A definite bite but didn't seem like anything huge. I ran and grabbed the rod, and then the fish took off like a freight train... it was definitely something huge and I was calling mully!
This was unexpected, as we figured that Friday might be a bit early around the moon phase to get on to anything decent, but after a 10 minute fight I used a good wave to slide a huge Mulloway up onto the sand. I wanted to release it, so we quickly snapped off a few photos and took measurement against the Gaff (which wasn't used). It was conveniently the exact same length, 140cm! My previous PB mulloway was 132cm and weighed 52lb - so this was an estimated 60lb'er! I got seriously wet in trying to give him or her a good release, which no doubt looked clumsy as trying to hold on to such a huge fish. Although it swam off slowly, it looked to be fine. High fives were had, and back up to camp for a celebratory beer, and to re-bait.
Not 10 minutes after I had a new bait in the water, my line has again got a huge bite. I struck the fish and it ran hard. It didn't feel as big of the previous run, but it still had plenty of go. I couldn't believe my luck.... until the line went slack and I pulled in nothing at all, not even a swivel. I suspect that my main line got damaged during the tussle with the previous fish and in my excitement, I hadn't checked anything before recasting. Disappointing, but at the same time confidence was high that we were on a good patch here. Though no more mullies were landed that evening, Kym did follow up his initial huge Salmon capture with two more that got increasingly larger. The final one was about 5.85kgs on the scales - easily the biggest I've ever seen.
Although we were blessed with no crabs destroying our baits, and barely any seaweed, we fished only half-heartedly through the morning period, preserving the bait supply until the peak times around the afternoon high tide. I didn't have to wait too long though, as around 11:30am I had another run and pulled in a 98cm Mulloway. This would be a good keeping size, but being Saturday, and us not expected to return until Wednesday, felt it wouldn't last that long in the fridge. It was released as well.
Only half an hour later, another bite! This time a much bigger fight as it took a heap of line out to sea, worrying me considerably about my lack of preparation. This hookup was on my secondary rod, which had a Penn SSM950 on it, but in my haste before departing, I simply topped up the spool with some new line as I didn't have enough new line to fill a spool. I suspected I had about 200 metres of line before the joining knot. Although it got low, I didn't see any knot, and the fish started to come in. Soon after, another awesome looking fish was on the beach. This time 130cm, and estimated around the 50lb mark.
With three Mulloway on the board to Kym's zero, I suspect he was getting slightly concerned. However, as the tide ran out, he too got a good bite, and thought it to be his turn finally..... but the lack of head shakes suggested a ray, and after a long time winding, a massive black ray was beached and then pushed back out to sea.
Hopes were high for another sunset session, but it was a quiet evening.
Come Sunday, the salmon that were previously filleted were probably on the edge of being useable or not. We used a couple up through the quiet morning session, then once again got serious on the approaching high tide. This was a system working well for us, as the bait esky remained relatively unopened and full of good ice. It also produced another mulloway!
Right on lunch time, Kym got a good bite, and finally got on the board - a 102cm fish which we decided we'd be able to keep in the base of the fridge (which tends to freeze things a bit). It was Kym's first Mulloway over 1 metre.
The high tides continued to provide, as an hour later, I hooked onto another solid fish - this one going 133cm.
He was let go for some extra good Mully karma.
Back at camp, Kym worked on extracting the 'jewels' from his caught mulloway, and sunset came and went without any more action.
It was intended that Monday would be our last full day out on the beach, with an intention to head back towards Fowlers on Tuesday to get a bit closer to home before Wednesdays long drive. We would have loved some fresh baits at this point, but it didn't seem to matter, as the afternoon high tide delivered again!
This time, Kym pipping me for the biggest Mully at 144cm, after a massive fight that took him a couple of hundred metres down the beach, passing the nearby lone fisherman.
After releasing, that fisherman said he'd caught a 142cm the night before that weighed in at 65lb, so we expect that this one would have been 65+ and perhaps closing in on 70- a mammoth fish!
On the Tuesday, we figured we'd wait around until the high tide again, to see if we could get another fridge size mully to take home. Unfortunately, the high tide was getting much later in the afternoon by Tuesday, so all the waiting around provided too much boredom, and we decided to have beers and and depart direct from the beach the next morning instead.
Our bait supply was now poor though, with most of it unusable. I managed to hook a salmon and then drop it off in the wash and nearly cried as it swam away. Kym made up for that however, by catching two in quick succession at the peak of the tide. It didn't help though, as for the first time since we hit the beach, high tide failed to deliver. As sunset approached, we made some mediocre efforts to pack up camp. Kym got a bite right on sunset which had us both pretty excited, but it turned out to be another ray. I pulled the pin on fishing as it got dark, and Kym fished on for a few hours, rounding out the trip with a nice little Gummy Shark. That was the last of the fishing efforts in what turned out to be the best FWC trip to date. Pretty happy I changed my mind on that silly idea of not attending!
Saturday, December 5, 2015
Far West Coast - November 2015
My first far west trip as a 'guest'. Quite a luxury I must say. This was a very last minute organised trip, and although we told ourselves we've done it so many times before, we could just pack and leave on a whim, I knew we'd forget some important items. This time, it was anything remotely capable of cleaning dishes! Ah well, we're used to eating filth.
So, it was a usual 3am departure, and a semi-usual stop at the Penong Pub for lunch prior to hitting the beach. Unfortunately, as it the case more often than not, the pub wasn't serving lunch. The hot dog from the servo was pretty good though!
We arrived on Scotts beach mid afternoon, and spotted a school of salmon out the back of the breakers. Way to far out to cast lures to, we soaked a few pilchards in the big gutter mid way around the bay, hoping the school would at some stage come closer. They didn't, so we decided to go set up camp around on the point.
It was a fairly early night after the early start that morning, which meant I was up on sunrise and hoping to sight a school of salmon in front of us. That wasn't the case, so we had to do bait collection the hard way... catching the odd tommy ruff here and there and patiently awaiting any salmon to swim on by. By mid morning, a few other fisherman had gathered and were fishing all around the point. Normally this might be quite annoying, but everyone kept a good distance from each other, and it worked well.
It turned out to actually be useful, as the guys out on the farthest point would hook up and then we'd know salmon were on their way around, and one by one everyone (or almost everyone) would get a hook up. Dropping big fish at the waters edge was annoyingly common, but Kym was having greater success with a pilchard hanging below a float.
Talking to the other guys, it seemed that everyone was headed towards the dog fence. This got us concerned on the best gutter being taken before us, so we decided to get 12 salmon in the esky and take off before the others. We ended up with 15 and after a quick stop at Fowlers to grab more ice, scooted off towards Nundroo.
The track into the dog fence has not got any better over the years. An hour of dust, bumps and rattles, and we finally hit the coast. There wasn't much point worrying about missing out on the best gutter, as with the amount of fisherman on the beach, that was surely taken days ago. I've fished the dog fence and not seen another person the entire time I was out there - but this time, people everywhere!
Choosing from the remaining gutters was a difficult decision, nothing really standing out as brilliant (I suppose it would have been taken if it did), but we found a decent gutter adjacent an area where we could park the cars safely above the high tide mark.
We parked, and got out the car to almost be blown away down the beach - it was blowing an absolute gale. We setup a bit of a wind break, but sand was still ripping through camp and covering everything in a fine layer of sandy dust. Thankfully, the wind dropped off as it got later in the arvo, and fishing became possible. At this point, I ticked off a long time fishing and camping goal: we had an icey pole out on the beach, an hour away from any sign of civilisation. Since we ended up bringing two vehicles, we had one fridge on freeze, and the other keeping the beers cold.
However, it was the next day that would prove to be a good day for fishing. Right around midday, I got a blistering run on a full tommy ruff I had sent out. Unfortunately, I did not know about this, as I was walking back through the dunes after having a crap. As I got sight of the beach, I saw Kym holding my rod and waving at me. Luckily I was now a few kgs lighter and made good time floating across the sand down to the beach. As Kym handed over the rod, I saw that there must have been about 200 metres of line out to sea! I pulled on the line and just got heavy weight, then after getting a bit of line back in, it went on another run, straight out. It then sat still, dead heavy. I picked it as a big stingray, for sure.
After 10 minutes of slowly retrieving this beast in to the shallows, I saw a tail flash through the water, and Kym said what I was thinking "That's a mulloway!". Only catching a quick glimpse, I thought it wasn't that big, although the weight on the line should have told me otherwise. We called out to Will to grab the gaff from camp and come down. Another few minutes of carefully working the fish through the shallows, Will had the gaff in and slid it up the sand. It was a solid fish! A few high fives, and then a measure on the brag mat showed it at 133cm. Easily my largest fish, and our biggest Mulloway caught yet on these trips, in both length and weight.
It weight just under 24kg (~52lbs) and was slippery as anything making picking it up for a photo incredibly hard. Still, photos must be had!
After 15 minutes of what can only be described as a poor filleting attempt by me, Kym had enough and took matters into his own hands. He did a fine job, apart from stabbing me in the hand.
A few (many) celebratory beers were had, and before long, the sun was setting. It had calmed right off by Tuesday night, and we all had baits out as it went into darkness. It doesn't get dark until quite late that far west, so it was probably close to midnight when Will got a bite and then brought in a mully which just tipped over the 1 metre mark.
Less than an hour later, he caught an impressive gummy shark to add to the freezer (which was now struggling with a shit load of fish fillets in it).
By this point, I had celebrated my own fish far too hard and was struggling to keep awake (or walk, talk etc) so I decided to call it night.
Kym trod off into the dunes trying to get phone reception off one of the higher points, and meanwhile, Will was hooking onto another big fish. Somehow, he managed to get it up onto the beach with the help of a good wave. He came back to camp to get assistance (photos) but no manner of yelling at my swag was waking me from my slumber. Kym returned from his unsuccessful phone reception hike in time to grab the camera and shoot off a few good pictures.
Everyone was a bit slow to get going on the Wednesday after a big Tuesday fishing. Some sea weed was starting to wash around in the gutter which made things difficult, but a few salmon were caught amongst it, which was well needed fresh baits.
On the Thursday, the weed situation was still bothersome, and our salmon fillet baits were looking worse for wear. We were pretty certain that no mulloway was going to want these rank old baits, so catching some freshies became a priority. Right around high tide, I landed a solid salmon, and immediately cut it into baits and chucked one Kyms way. Almost before I'd finished cleaning up the baits and putting them on ice, I hear Kym celebrating and turn around to see another mully on the beach. This one went 93 cm and 7kg. It meant that we'd now all landed a legal mulloway for the trip - a first in all our adventures.
Will caught an absolute stonker salmon, weighing in at 4.7kgs which added to our fresh bait supply. The only problem was keeping a bait out in the water without seaweed getting caught up in the line.
The weed was problematic, but the sunset that night was pretty spectacular. Very bright purple, red and orange sky. Looked great.
Friday was weed, weed and more weed. By mid afternoon we were over it and contemplating a move back to Fowlers. We'd had too many drinks by that point though, so decided to see how it looked in the morning. Randomly, some kind of stunt plane made a low pass over our camp site. Not sure where it came from or where it was going!
Saturday was our last full day, and the weed was still annoying us in the gutter, so we packed up camp and headed back towards Fowlers Bay. A few hours packing, a few hours driving / inflating tyres, and it was lunch time by time we arrived.
We cooked up a feed in the camp kitchen and went back out to Fowlers point just to see if we could have some fun on a Salmon school. There weren't any schools about, but Kym and Will managed to get a couple each still. I also sniped a squid that Kym brought in close on his pilchard - bait for next trip now.
Before we know it, it was getting towards dinner time - so back to the caravan park for a well overdue shower and to get ready for the big drive home. A good trip - everyone happy with legal mullies.
So, it was a usual 3am departure, and a semi-usual stop at the Penong Pub for lunch prior to hitting the beach. Unfortunately, as it the case more often than not, the pub wasn't serving lunch. The hot dog from the servo was pretty good though!
We arrived on Scotts beach mid afternoon, and spotted a school of salmon out the back of the breakers. Way to far out to cast lures to, we soaked a few pilchards in the big gutter mid way around the bay, hoping the school would at some stage come closer. They didn't, so we decided to go set up camp around on the point.
 |
| Two new Gashes beasts! |
It was a fairly early night after the early start that morning, which meant I was up on sunrise and hoping to sight a school of salmon in front of us. That wasn't the case, so we had to do bait collection the hard way... catching the odd tommy ruff here and there and patiently awaiting any salmon to swim on by. By mid morning, a few other fisherman had gathered and were fishing all around the point. Normally this might be quite annoying, but everyone kept a good distance from each other, and it worked well.
It turned out to actually be useful, as the guys out on the farthest point would hook up and then we'd know salmon were on their way around, and one by one everyone (or almost everyone) would get a hook up. Dropping big fish at the waters edge was annoyingly common, but Kym was having greater success with a pilchard hanging below a float.
 |
| The guy in the blue shirt was a champ, helping people land Salmon with his crab net |
The track into the dog fence has not got any better over the years. An hour of dust, bumps and rattles, and we finally hit the coast. There wasn't much point worrying about missing out on the best gutter, as with the amount of fisherman on the beach, that was surely taken days ago. I've fished the dog fence and not seen another person the entire time I was out there - but this time, people everywhere!
Choosing from the remaining gutters was a difficult decision, nothing really standing out as brilliant (I suppose it would have been taken if it did), but we found a decent gutter adjacent an area where we could park the cars safely above the high tide mark.
We parked, and got out the car to almost be blown away down the beach - it was blowing an absolute gale. We setup a bit of a wind break, but sand was still ripping through camp and covering everything in a fine layer of sandy dust. Thankfully, the wind dropped off as it got later in the arvo, and fishing became possible. At this point, I ticked off a long time fishing and camping goal: we had an icey pole out on the beach, an hour away from any sign of civilisation. Since we ended up bringing two vehicles, we had one fridge on freeze, and the other keeping the beers cold.
However, it was the next day that would prove to be a good day for fishing. Right around midday, I got a blistering run on a full tommy ruff I had sent out. Unfortunately, I did not know about this, as I was walking back through the dunes after having a crap. As I got sight of the beach, I saw Kym holding my rod and waving at me. Luckily I was now a few kgs lighter and made good time floating across the sand down to the beach. As Kym handed over the rod, I saw that there must have been about 200 metres of line out to sea! I pulled on the line and just got heavy weight, then after getting a bit of line back in, it went on another run, straight out. It then sat still, dead heavy. I picked it as a big stingray, for sure.
After 10 minutes of slowly retrieving this beast in to the shallows, I saw a tail flash through the water, and Kym said what I was thinking "That's a mulloway!". Only catching a quick glimpse, I thought it wasn't that big, although the weight on the line should have told me otherwise. We called out to Will to grab the gaff from camp and come down. Another few minutes of carefully working the fish through the shallows, Will had the gaff in and slid it up the sand. It was a solid fish! A few high fives, and then a measure on the brag mat showed it at 133cm. Easily my largest fish, and our biggest Mulloway caught yet on these trips, in both length and weight.
It weight just under 24kg (~52lbs) and was slippery as anything making picking it up for a photo incredibly hard. Still, photos must be had!
After 15 minutes of what can only be described as a poor filleting attempt by me, Kym had enough and took matters into his own hands. He did a fine job, apart from stabbing me in the hand.
A few (many) celebratory beers were had, and before long, the sun was setting. It had calmed right off by Tuesday night, and we all had baits out as it went into darkness. It doesn't get dark until quite late that far west, so it was probably close to midnight when Will got a bite and then brought in a mully which just tipped over the 1 metre mark.
Less than an hour later, he caught an impressive gummy shark to add to the freezer (which was now struggling with a shit load of fish fillets in it).
By this point, I had celebrated my own fish far too hard and was struggling to keep awake (or walk, talk etc) so I decided to call it night.
Kym trod off into the dunes trying to get phone reception off one of the higher points, and meanwhile, Will was hooking onto another big fish. Somehow, he managed to get it up onto the beach with the help of a good wave. He came back to camp to get assistance (photos) but no manner of yelling at my swag was waking me from my slumber. Kym returned from his unsuccessful phone reception hike in time to grab the camera and shoot off a few good pictures.
 |
| Late night mully for Will |
On the Thursday, the weed situation was still bothersome, and our salmon fillet baits were looking worse for wear. We were pretty certain that no mulloway was going to want these rank old baits, so catching some freshies became a priority. Right around high tide, I landed a solid salmon, and immediately cut it into baits and chucked one Kyms way. Almost before I'd finished cleaning up the baits and putting them on ice, I hear Kym celebrating and turn around to see another mully on the beach. This one went 93 cm and 7kg. It meant that we'd now all landed a legal mulloway for the trip - a first in all our adventures.
Will caught an absolute stonker salmon, weighing in at 4.7kgs which added to our fresh bait supply. The only problem was keeping a bait out in the water without seaweed getting caught up in the line.
The weed was problematic, but the sunset that night was pretty spectacular. Very bright purple, red and orange sky. Looked great.
Friday was weed, weed and more weed. By mid afternoon we were over it and contemplating a move back to Fowlers. We'd had too many drinks by that point though, so decided to see how it looked in the morning. Randomly, some kind of stunt plane made a low pass over our camp site. Not sure where it came from or where it was going!
Saturday was our last full day, and the weed was still annoying us in the gutter, so we packed up camp and headed back towards Fowlers Bay. A few hours packing, a few hours driving / inflating tyres, and it was lunch time by time we arrived.
We cooked up a feed in the camp kitchen and went back out to Fowlers point just to see if we could have some fun on a Salmon school. There weren't any schools about, but Kym and Will managed to get a couple each still. I also sniped a squid that Kym brought in close on his pilchard - bait for next trip now.
Before we know it, it was getting towards dinner time - so back to the caravan park for a well overdue shower and to get ready for the big drive home. A good trip - everyone happy with legal mullies.
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Coorong - August 2015
We're back! After a long fishing hiatus, partially caused by some illness in my family (all good now), and mostly caused by a recent addiction to playing golf, we hit Salt Creek for the first time in nearly a year.
Will's old fishing mobile was sidelined for some TLC, so Will, Kym and I crammed into the Patrol early on Friday morning and headed south-east.
We hit the beach a few hours before high tide and motored on through some soft and very low parts of the beach. High tide would easily wash over the tracks so it was important to get through quickly and without trouble.
We set up camp up towards tea tree crossing, in a little cut out in the dune, opposite some nice looking water.
Will was on the board with his first cast catching a nice salmon. He followed up with another and also an undersized mully. I had another soapy myself, and Kym was amongst the action too. The wind was icy at first, but either it warmed up a bit, or we just got used to it, as it seemed more comfortable as the sun went low.
With the wind and seaweed being kind to us, the situation begged for a bit of night fishing. Having not fished the beach for so long, we dug around looking for glow sticks and led lights. Old glow sticks had lost their glow, and Will was stuck with one of the flashy led's which are more annoying than helpful. Here's a link to Ultimate fishing's solid green led lights. They're an Aussie seller and shipped out to me quickly.
Whilst we eventually got well setup with lights, chairs, and beers.... the fish didn't come to play, and for me, the night was cut short when I had about 100 metres of line get tangled up into a ball. Too cold to bother tieing new rigs, I decided to retire to the fire, and the others thought that was a pretty good idea too.
Breakfast was cooked on the fire, due to me forgetting to bring any cooking instruments. The seaweed mostly held off so a full day fishing was enjoyed, with a few more salmon landed here and there throughout the day.
We managed to get in a bit of golfing practice in the worlds biggest bunker too. Above is Kym styling some nice golfing attire whilst practicing chipping (no one managed to get a ball into the bucket).
A massive whale rib bone had washed up on the beach. What a seriously impressive animal this would have been. You could have stood up in it's belly with room to spare.
The weather report was showing big winds picking up overnight, so we decided to pack up the shelter and be ready for an early departure to get off the beach at low tide.
Instead, we woke up to some great weather, and I snapped this picture - before 5 minutes later the clouds darkened overhead and got rained on pretty hard. It's been many months since a gashes outing, but things continued as normal - Will easily catching more fish than Kym and I and getting another engraving on the trophy.
Will's old fishing mobile was sidelined for some TLC, so Will, Kym and I crammed into the Patrol early on Friday morning and headed south-east.
We hit the beach a few hours before high tide and motored on through some soft and very low parts of the beach. High tide would easily wash over the tracks so it was important to get through quickly and without trouble.
We set up camp up towards tea tree crossing, in a little cut out in the dune, opposite some nice looking water.
Will was on the board with his first cast catching a nice salmon. He followed up with another and also an undersized mully. I had another soapy myself, and Kym was amongst the action too. The wind was icy at first, but either it warmed up a bit, or we just got used to it, as it seemed more comfortable as the sun went low.
With the wind and seaweed being kind to us, the situation begged for a bit of night fishing. Having not fished the beach for so long, we dug around looking for glow sticks and led lights. Old glow sticks had lost their glow, and Will was stuck with one of the flashy led's which are more annoying than helpful. Here's a link to Ultimate fishing's solid green led lights. They're an Aussie seller and shipped out to me quickly.
Whilst we eventually got well setup with lights, chairs, and beers.... the fish didn't come to play, and for me, the night was cut short when I had about 100 metres of line get tangled up into a ball. Too cold to bother tieing new rigs, I decided to retire to the fire, and the others thought that was a pretty good idea too.
Breakfast was cooked on the fire, due to me forgetting to bring any cooking instruments. The seaweed mostly held off so a full day fishing was enjoyed, with a few more salmon landed here and there throughout the day.
We managed to get in a bit of golfing practice in the worlds biggest bunker too. Above is Kym styling some nice golfing attire whilst practicing chipping (no one managed to get a ball into the bucket).
A massive whale rib bone had washed up on the beach. What a seriously impressive animal this would have been. You could have stood up in it's belly with room to spare.
The weather report was showing big winds picking up overnight, so we decided to pack up the shelter and be ready for an early departure to get off the beach at low tide.
Instead, we woke up to some great weather, and I snapped this picture - before 5 minutes later the clouds darkened overhead and got rained on pretty hard. It's been many months since a gashes outing, but things continued as normal - Will easily catching more fish than Kym and I and getting another engraving on the trophy.
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