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.
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