The weather was pretty ordinary on the way, with big patches of rain constantly falling on the drive over. Even as we pulled in to the farm driveway, rain still continued to fall. But as luck would have it, it soon cleared up just in time for us to get out the car and begin setting up the tents!
Spotted Matt standing on top of his troopy working on something, which made finding our camp site quite easy.. pulled in and set to work on putting up the new tent... an extended touring tent I purchased from Rays Online. I love this thing, so easy to put up and pull down and a bag big enough to actually put it back in when you're done. The only time consuming part is pegging in the guy ropes if you're that way inclined (I put most of them in - a good effort for me).
With more rain clouds on the horizon, we put the BIG TARP to make a very nice shelter. We've never had enough poles to do something like this, and everyone was very happy with the result.
After a quick bite to eat, we decided we best make a move for the beach. I was first to get a bait in the water, and as I walked back to grab my beer, the fish was already on! I pulled in a smallish salmon which I kept for dinner (just incase it was a loner). A loner it was not, as Matt had soon hooked a nice double header, which Sarah wound in, and I was onto a good salmon myself.
I lost count of the amount of salmon caught here, but they were thick and fast. Matt managed a couple more double headers and Sani pulled in a double header on my surf rod whilst I was getting a lure ready on the light tackle.
My first cast with a 40 gram gold plated Halco twisty resulted in a hook up, and a great little battle on the light line. I actually brought the wrong reel down to the beach, so had to fish even lighter than I intended, but I'm glad I did, as it was great fun. $20 7 foot rod from Anaconda and $15 reel from Amart - what a setup :)
After some fun catching Salmon on the light tackle, I went back to my bait rod to land a few bigger fish. Only the smaller specimens were going for my small lure. Meanwhile, Kymbo switched over to a lure him self and got on the board with a couple of medium fish. His first catch off a lure too, so he was happy.
Some one noticed a spectator up on the cliff, and it was Will and Dana.. sure enough they'd seen some fish caught and Will was motoring his way down that cliff side. He went straight for the lure and instantly started hooking into the fish. Will and Matt must have been in a good patch of water as they were right next to each other and nailing a lot of fish there. We kept enough fish for dinner and threw all the rest back to grow bigger.
The action slowed down on the other side of high tide, with just the odd fish here and there coming through - certainly wouldnt be complained about any other day. As the sun started setting, we decided to make our way back to camp and set up the fire. Harry and his mate Dan were due to arrive some time after dark.
A feast of fish, spuds, and enormous steaks was cooked over the fire. Will had brought his fish smoker along, and a few fresh fillets went in there as well. Harry and Dan rocked up and set up their assortment of camping accesories about the place. Dan possibly has every luxury camping item available - and the car to carry it all in too! The fluro light was rather impressive though.. and whats with this torch!?
Saturday saw everyone have a morning and afternoon session at the beach, but other than another 3 salmon to Matt only (they were loving his line for some reason - must've mistaken it for Will's) no one else got anything. Actually, I lie. Harry and Dan went over to the rocks at the eastern end of Salmon Beach and caught some rock cod!
Matt thought the gashes were pretty close as this point, having a small lead over me - but I reckon he was well in front after his extra 3 on Saturday.
Sunday morning, I was woken up by the sound of Will's car going fishing before sunrise. I felt quite awake.. but couldn't bring myself to actually get up. He came home after we'd finished breakfast and had managed to catch half a dozen salmon - which I think would have had him getting pretty close to Matt on the Gashes leader board.
Matt and Sarah decided to give the beach a go, whilst the rest of us went searching for a nice rocky ledge to fish off in hope of a few different species. We settled upon Gartrells rocks on the eastern end of the Hillocks property. The steep cliff descent here makes you feel good about the chances of catching fish. Hard to get to = more fish caught. Thats my theory anyway.
A few rock cod and sweep were landed, but nothing sizeable was on offer. Still, a great spot to relax as the rocks are reasonably high off the water so you don't have to worry about waves hitting you. We figured it was getting close to 1 oclock and wanted to get back to camp to have a feed before trying the afternoon tide on the beach once more. Will & Dana were packed up and heading home now - ruling Will out of any chance of taking out the Gashes.
We caught up with Matt down on the beach in time for high tide, but it was another quiet affair, with just the odd fish here and there caught. I think Matt, Harry and Kym all managed to land a fish. I didn't have much luck at all after Friday's massive session, so Matt took out another Gashes win, probably in a pretty close result over Will. I think the double headers got him over the line :)
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