So, on this trip we had Sani, Matt T, Will, Dana, and a few gashes new comers in Cheese, Dan W, and Monica. And me!
It was an easter long weekend trip to Hillocks, which is always busy, but Will, Dana, and Cheese told us they were heading up on Thursday night in order to get a good camping spot, which are usually at a premium on long weekends. We got there to find them in not exactly the best campsite - they'd only arrived earlier in the morning themselves due to running late the night before.
We went over to the top of the cliff at Salmon Beach and spotted the early arrivers down in our usual fishing spot. We headed down and Will told us of a few big hook ups that had left him with no hooks. Something decent was lurking out there, but not too many salmon were about.
Actually... I should go back a bit here. Matt, Sani, and I were in the Surf and had left early - but we were driving slowly whilst Dan and Mon caught up to us as they didn't know where to go. We pulled over at Minlaton, and got out and Dan announced that he forgot his fishing rods. HAHHAHA! Nothing like going fishing and forgetting your fishing rods. Luckily, we were at a servo which stocked a nice selection of fishing gear, and $70 later, Dan was equiped with a surf rod and reel spooled with 20lb line. Nice.
So, back on the beach, and we cast out some pillies and sit down to play the waiting game. Not much is happening, until.. this series of events....
Firstly, Dan takes a shit right on the beach...
Then, he hooks onto a fish
I'm quickly on the scene.. wheres the gaff when you need it!? (burnt to ashes, stored in a trophy of course)
Ok, all the action wasn't quite captured on camera here, but credit to Sani for getting most of it (just missed the most important bit! this..) The fish was pulled into the shallows, where we could see if was a shark. I ran down to the shallows to grab the trace and pull it up the beach, but as soon as I pulled on the swivel, the knot gave way and the shark was free. This was a decent shark - there was no way I was letting it go that easily. I scooped my arms under the shark and just kinda lifted it and launched it towards the beach. Dan soon realised what was going on and ran down to assist, and before long we were both getting wet and wrestling with a shark.. sounds stupid, but it was all fine!
Shortly after, that magnificent bronzie was dragged up the beach.
Then Dan announced himself as the gashes winner... (still Day 1 mind you, but fair enough). $70 well spent.
After struggling to carry the shark back down towards our gear - it had taken Dan on a 100 metre walk down the beach to land it) we had him out of his suffering shortly, and then onto the scales.
Seems we missed the scales in the photo, but from memory it came in at around 12kgs. And it tasted fantastic.
So, dinner caught for all that would last the weekend. Gashes all but wrapped up with new winner Dan due for an engraving. What to do next... Why, a random wrestle on the beach for no apparant reason of course.
And then, here we have a Photo of Sani and Mon, for no other reason than Sani likes this photo...
The next day we headed to the beach again and talk begun of what it would take to win the Gashes from here. Discussions were had of how big a snapper would need to be for it to beat the shark, and I think we settled upon 5-6kgs. Dan genuinely became worried that this might happen. Hahaha. The likelihood was not very likely at all. But its good to have these talks just incase! Just for reference, a legal mully would instantly win. Unless another bigger mully was caught. Wouldn't you feel robbed then. Getting side tracked...
We caught a few small salmon on day 2, and used some salmon flesh to put on to the small hooks and went for mullet. The mullet were ON. Every cast just about pulled in a good sized mullet, if not a double header. Every time I got a bit bored, I'd just chuck out the small rod and catch and release mullet for awhile. At the end of the day I decided to keep a lot for bait next time we headed down to the coorong. I think we ended up with 24 fish to take home. I gave the 6 biggest ones to dad (who said they were great cooked up fresh) and froze up another 18 (which turned out to be a shitty bait - mullet doesnt freeze well at all)
Back at camp, cooking lunch, someone came up with the idea to play cricket with the rod holder tubes. Best idea ever. Three tubes for stumps, one tube for a bat, and a cricket pitch made of rocks, dirt and holes so the ball bounced every which way... good fun - soon to become a hillocks tradition.
Then we turned the tubes into giant smokes.. laughter ensued
We went down to the rocks which don't see a lot of love from us these days - but I still like it because its a good place to sit down and have a few beers whilst waiting for a fish to bite. Stopped just short of the rocks to have a quick fish and ended up doing some acrobatics off the sand dunes instead.
Sani and Mon getting some air time
Here is most of us sitting back on the rocks
Left to Right: Dan, Mon, Matt, Medo (look closer), Will, Me, Cheese.
I think Sani asked us all to wave for that photo.. some of us listened anyway :)
We decided to leave early on Sunday morning, to avoid all the easter traffic. Dan took out the Gashes honours, in a first trip win. Nice effort.
As always, click pictures for bigger versions, and links to more.
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