Convention Beach - April 2012

Six years ago, three fishermen set off on the inaugural "Gashes" trip and it's actually been nearly four years now that Will, Matt, and myself have battled it out alone for Gashes glory. And by battling it out, I mean drinking a lot of beer and hoping that a fish might take that bait we haven't checked for over an hour. Sani and Dana were also along for the trip in what I assume is the female version of the gashes, some kind of cooking competition.

Since the trip to Convention Beach last Easter proved popular, we set off again this year, a day early to beat the crowds and secure a good spot. That turned out to be a wise choice as camping spots close to the beach are very limited and and we were lucky to get close to the best gutter that formed on the entire stretch of sand too.

Matt must have been raring to have a fish, as it's not very often you see someone with a line in the water before Will.

That little spec on the beach is Matt - very keen to get a line out early!

The rest of us set up tents, put up the tarp for shade, and got lunch under way before setting up the rigs. I was way less prepared than normal - not even any premade rigs.

Spotlight fell off on the bumpy track 

When we finally got our gear in order, Will and I set off in a direction more to the left of Matt, where a good looking gutter had formed amongst the rocks on the beach. It didn't take long for the gutter to produce, and we had a few mid sized salmon landed, and I managed to hook a decent flathead, a fish I always welcome on my hooks! (Apart from that time at Fowlers Bay when we were desperate for a salmon to use as bait)

The next morning, we awoke to strong winds, and our tarp shelter was struggling so much we opted to just take it down. Fine sand was whipping through camp and covering everything in its path making it a fairly uncomfortable day. The best place to be was actually down on the beach where the wet sand wouldn't get picked up so easy. Fishing was hard work, with massive sideways currents causing trouble.. lucky Will and his waders were nearby to rescue my line which became hooked on the rocks.

Amongst the troubles though, we did manage to land a few more salmon, some of which were kept for bait, and some which were destined for the fire that night.

The next morning, the wind had all but gone and we woke up to some stellar weather. Not having much luck on the salmon rod, I decided to chuck out the smaller rod with tiny hooks on, baited with little pieces of salmon flesh. I was quickly rewarded with a few mullet, which had Will racing back to camp to get his small rod too. We both cleaned up fish after fish of a variety of species - Mullet, Tommies, Salmon Trout and I scored another flat head too. One of the mullets was huge, measuring 35cm long and fat like a salmon.

After cooking up lunch, the Salmon decided to show up, and Will got on to them in big numbers. Our fresh mullet and tommy ruff baits were proving to be popular with many Salmon tails poking out the sand. Will even offered one to a nearby fisherman having no luck and he graciously accepted.

I hooked a big trevally on my surf rod - easily the biggest I've ever caught which I was wrapped about - but now I look at the photo, it doesn't seem as big as it did at the time.

Unusual catch on the surf rod

Matt managed to catch a large Flathead, but he took off its head before I could get a picture. The fresh baits were also popular with the local stingray population too, and at one point Will and I were both on to absolute monsters, and it is fair to say they monstered us!

Double Hookup! Me in the background with a bent rod also.

Will was first to break off with a massive CRACK sound, leaving him thinking his rod had snapped in half for a second. It was just his line though, which was now much lower on the spool.

I continued the battle with mine, but after a few minutes more, my line snapped as well, and then we had two spools in need of line replacement between us.

Will later in the trip hooked on to another sting ray, and again lost a lot of line.. this time the stingray swimming off with $50 of braid hanging out its gob. Determined not to lose this war, I switched over to my other reel loaded up with 50lb braid, and didn't have to wait long before the reel was screaming and line peeling off into the distance. I was quietly confident that this time I'd have it beached, but after ten minutes or so, the line snapped again - at least this time I got it all back, bar my leader (quite possibly my knot wasn't as good as I talked it up to be).

Defeated, I retired the 5120, and got back on to the salmon fishing - but the sting ray weren't done yet. My Penn 750ssm with 25lb mono this time cruising out to sea without slowing down. I knew this was a lost cause but picked up and started the fight regardless.. luckily the hooks pulled out quickly after and I got the whole rig back.

Cooking up a storm on the campfire

Its funny that some how I managed to not get a photo of a single salmon caught all weekend. We all got into quite a few, but Will well and truly got the most - he packed the esky before we set off home. They seemed to get bigger as the weekend rolled on too. They'd be up to 5kg by now