Far West Coast - January 2009 (part 3)

See part 1 here and part 2 here.

We arose early with the aim to pack up before the flies came out in force, but they had similar ideas too. I found that the fridge had shut itself off due to running the battery too low. It was battling to get things cool until it ran out of power. Good thing I had the dual battery isolator installed before this trip of we'd be stuck out there.

After reinflating the tyres by the highway, we were back on our way to Fowlers, with a quick stop off at Nundroo to pick up some more supplies (read: 4 30 packs of beer). Unfortunately for us, Nundroo's cool room was out of order, so they only had warm beer. We stocked up the bait esky as much as we could with ice and beer and were on our way.

Back in Fowler's, we set up in the caravan park and enjoyed comforts such as a plumbed toilet and well needed showers. After a couple of now cold beers, we set out to Scotts again, and kept driving past to the ledge once more. The ledge once again provided a little bit of entertainment, with Matt's rod having 3 big tugs on the line before he got hold of it, and the fish wasn't hooked. He rebaited and 10 mins later, his line was off again, this time he hooked into it and set about battling the fish. Much the same as the fish I'd hooked a few days earlier, it took off to the left before turning around and going right. It was ripping line off Matt's reel and definitely must have been something big. In an attempt to stop it running into the reef (and with the rest of us yelling and screaming) Matt tried to pull the fish up and it snapped off. Ledge 2, us 0.

We were treated to a bit of a show by a massive pod of dolphins swimming not far from the shore, and then we headed back to Scotts to try our luck in one of the deep gutters again. As usual for this trip, not much was happening, and we went back to camp to cook up some dinner and prepare for some jetty fishing on sunset.

Back at the caravan park, a bus load of tourists from europe had arrived and we had a chat to them about all sorts of stuff. Its interesting to hear our different countries see things compared to us - the Swiss doctor explained the reason for getting hiccups (because I had them) but I can't even remember what it was :)

We had many many beers by time we got out on the jetty, and other than a couple of small tommies which Matt landed, nothing was caught.

The following day we did the Scotts/Ledge cruise again, and again the ledge provided the entertainment. We threw some berley in and a school of small salmon came in right next to the rocks. It was just a matter of dipping your lure over the edge and you'd hook up. Unfortunately they didn't stay hungry for very long and we only landed 5-6 fish before they went off the bite. We used 1 or 2 for big baits, and kept the rest to cook for dinner. We were down to eating tinned stews now so some fresh fish would be welcome!

Andre finally showed off his cooking skills that he'd talked up before the trip and made up a nice batter for the fillets and fried them up. Everyone agreed, job well done :) Or it could have just been that we were starving.

We decided to head home the following morning, so hit the jetty for one final fishing session. Kym and I were slower getting down there and Andre said he'd hooked a massive cuttlefish or squid but it'd dropped off as it came to the surface. Would anything go right this trip!? We had a chat to a german guy and a couple of french guys for a little bit and then decided to call it an early night - all the cold beer had ran out.

It was good to get home after the 10-11 hour drive. Another Far West Coaster done and dusted - disappointed in the fishing, but had we pulled in those big hookups we had, it could be a completely different story. Matt has declared he is never to return to the FWC. I am already thinking about the next trip there :).

I must have put the camera away for this part of the trip, so heres a picture of some seals just so this post has one