At 11:30pm the night before leaving, Andy made one of his famous last minute decisions and decided to come along too. Luckily for him, Will's mate Tony was bringing his own car, which left a spare seat in Will's. So it was to be 7 blokes on one Coorong trip - the beers were set to flow.
At 8:30am Saturday morning, we pulled into Murray Bridge and met up with everyone for the final convoy down to Salt Creek, and soon we were airing down for the trip across the dunes. We heard good reports coming from further north, so spent a fair chunk of time driving up the beach, before settling on a decent looking gutter with a nearby area to set up camp.
After the long drive, the first move was to get the chairs off the roof rack, and a cold beer out of the fridge. Setting up camp and fishing rods was a distant third place for all but Will. As beer number two was being cracked open, there was some commotion coming from the beach and we looked up to see Will locked in a battle with a fish on the end of his line. We all raced over as a nice sized mulloway slid up onto the sand. It was clearly above the 75cm legal mark, but we raced off to get the measure just in case. It came in at around 80cm and was quite a fat specimen for it's size.
Not a bad result from the first cast of the trip! This had the rest of us scrambling through tackle boxes and fishing reels in order to get set up and fishing, and before long the beach was lined with rods all expectantly waiting. It took another hour and a half though before the next bit of action, and it was new comer Kym whose brand new Sensor Surf rod buckled over on to what was clearly something decent. He raced over and set the hooks in, and after a short battle, a good sized Gummy Shark was landed.
At this point we still hadn't set up camp or had anything to eat, so we broke back to camp and set up the swags, got the BBQ going, and unloaded the firewood.
The odd salmon was landed here and there, which were mostly used as fresh baits, but they weren't thick in numbers like we might have expected during winter. As the sun set, everyone gave up on the fishing, and moved back to camp to the warmth of the fire.
The following morning I awoke to a monster hangover and wrote off any chance of fishing in the morning. My decision to sleep in was worthwhile however, as when I finally got up I saw that the wind was blowing a gale and no one had landed a thing. My timing was spot on as Will pulled in a Gummy Shark of his own - the first of half a dozen or so he'd land in the next 24 hours. Unfortunately I couldn't replicate this.
The conditions were very windy, making casting hard, and keeping a line out harder. Kym managed to get a salmon, which kept Will in supply with fresh salmon fillets for bait. The gummies were lapping them up, whilst ignoring all other hooks as usual!
Tony had work commitments on Monday, so packed up and headed off soon after lunch time. The rest of us continued to fish, drink, or just generally stand around embracing the sand blasting.
As the rain started coming down hard, and our shelter long since destroyed by wind, I sat in the car watching Will's rod which was directly out in front of camp. It got a huge bite and bent forward as Will reached over to grab and strike. He turned around and looked back toward the car as if to say "this is big!" which was enough for us to get out into the rain and go have a look. Sure enough, another legal mulloway was on it's way in. Again, around the 80cm mark.
Two legal mulloway on the one Coorong trip was unprecedented until now - but within 15 minutes, that record got broken again as Will made it number 3.
Just before dark, Tony arrived back at camp. He'd managed to miss the turn off to the track behind the dunes, and got in some serious trouble on the beach as the tide was rising. He said he was stuck for a good three hours before the water actually hit his Hilux and lifted it out of the bog. With a heap of sticks from the dunes, he wedged them under the tyres and managed to get going again. He came back to camp rather than negotiate the rest of the track after dark!
The temperature dropped massively as the sun went down, and we were soon all huddled around the fire passing the port around. The radio crackled in and out of reception, but we did manage to hear the Crows get up!
The next morning Will continued his good run with a few more Gummy sharks, taking him up to 6 total, along with his 3 Mulloway. Obviously, he took home the Gashes once again in convincing fashion.
After the long drive, the first move was to get the chairs off the roof rack, and a cold beer out of the fridge. Setting up camp and fishing rods was a distant third place for all but Will. As beer number two was being cracked open, there was some commotion coming from the beach and we looked up to see Will locked in a battle with a fish on the end of his line. We all raced over as a nice sized mulloway slid up onto the sand. It was clearly above the 75cm legal mark, but we raced off to get the measure just in case. It came in at around 80cm and was quite a fat specimen for it's size.
Not a bad result from the first cast of the trip! This had the rest of us scrambling through tackle boxes and fishing reels in order to get set up and fishing, and before long the beach was lined with rods all expectantly waiting. It took another hour and a half though before the next bit of action, and it was new comer Kym whose brand new Sensor Surf rod buckled over on to what was clearly something decent. He raced over and set the hooks in, and after a short battle, a good sized Gummy Shark was landed.
At this point we still hadn't set up camp or had anything to eat, so we broke back to camp and set up the swags, got the BBQ going, and unloaded the firewood.
The odd salmon was landed here and there, which were mostly used as fresh baits, but they weren't thick in numbers like we might have expected during winter. As the sun set, everyone gave up on the fishing, and moved back to camp to the warmth of the fire.
The following morning I awoke to a monster hangover and wrote off any chance of fishing in the morning. My decision to sleep in was worthwhile however, as when I finally got up I saw that the wind was blowing a gale and no one had landed a thing. My timing was spot on as Will pulled in a Gummy Shark of his own - the first of half a dozen or so he'd land in the next 24 hours. Unfortunately I couldn't replicate this.
The conditions were very windy, making casting hard, and keeping a line out harder. Kym managed to get a salmon, which kept Will in supply with fresh salmon fillets for bait. The gummies were lapping them up, whilst ignoring all other hooks as usual!
Tony had work commitments on Monday, so packed up and headed off soon after lunch time. The rest of us continued to fish, drink, or just generally stand around embracing the sand blasting.
As the rain started coming down hard, and our shelter long since destroyed by wind, I sat in the car watching Will's rod which was directly out in front of camp. It got a huge bite and bent forward as Will reached over to grab and strike. He turned around and looked back toward the car as if to say "this is big!" which was enough for us to get out into the rain and go have a look. Sure enough, another legal mulloway was on it's way in. Again, around the 80cm mark.
Two legal mulloway on the one Coorong trip was unprecedented until now - but within 15 minutes, that record got broken again as Will made it number 3.
Just before dark, Tony arrived back at camp. He'd managed to miss the turn off to the track behind the dunes, and got in some serious trouble on the beach as the tide was rising. He said he was stuck for a good three hours before the water actually hit his Hilux and lifted it out of the bog. With a heap of sticks from the dunes, he wedged them under the tyres and managed to get going again. He came back to camp rather than negotiate the rest of the track after dark!
The temperature dropped massively as the sun went down, and we were soon all huddled around the fire passing the port around. The radio crackled in and out of reception, but we did manage to hear the Crows get up!
The next morning Will continued his good run with a few more Gummy sharks, taking him up to 6 total, along with his 3 Mulloway. Obviously, he took home the Gashes once again in convincing fashion.
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