Coorong - April 2013

After many months without throwing a line in, the planets finally aligned and we were able to organise a quick get away. The Coorong had been getting solid reports of Mulloway catches all summer, and although those reports had dried up, we had to get down and try it out before it got too cold.

We aired down and hit the beach around 11am, and soon found a massive wash out which meant driving down near the water's edge. I held my breath and put the foot down and we got through unscathed. After that it was pretty easy driving, but no gutter formations got out interest enough to set up camp, so we plowed on past Tea Tree Crossing.

At around the 5km mark, we finally hit upon a nice patch of water, with a cut out in the dunes to get camp set up and we pulled in and quickly cracked open the first beer of the trip, at 5 minutes before noon. We gave a call to Will, who was heading up later that day and let him know where we were, and warned him of the beach conditions at 42 Mile.

After just a couple of casts, we found a bit of seaweed causing problems, and sat back to have a few more beers and cook up some lunch. The fishing didn't get any easier through the afternoon with a large swell breaking right on the shore, and masses of sea weed getting tangled up in our lines.

Will turned up soon after and since we hadn't unpacked much gear, we decided to move further up the beach in hope that the weed wouldn't be else where. We travelled a further 15 kms or so before settling on a new gutter.

Things looked good when on our first cast, both Kym D and myself were soon winding in a nice little Elephant Shark.

Not very long after, Will too had an Elephant Shark on the sand. It was getting late, and the sun was low in the sky, so hopes were up for a good session, but the weed was rolling back in again, making life difficult.

Despite being one of the warmest evenings I've experienced at Salt Creek, we got a fire cranking and settled in for a few night beers, and the keenest of us even cracked open the glow sticks. This keenness didn't last too long though as the weed continued to be a nuisance. Not before Kym A had landed his first ever Elephant Shark though!

The next day was weed, weed and more weed. I managed to get another Elephant, and a small, undersized mulloway, but they were the only fish landed for the whole day. The weather was still great though, so much sitting about sinking cans of beer was done (so, really, not a lot different to normal).

It was another fine night, but the seaweed made any attempt of a night fish not doable. We woke up early to some light rain, and still no improvement in the sea weed department - so I was handed rare Gashes victory.

Ryan & Kym Hit Salt Creek

Kymbo and I decided to brave the rain and head down to Salt Creek over the long weekend. On the way we were trying to spot patches of blue sky amongst all the rain clouds. Any tiny speck of blue was considered a sign of incoming great weather.

Arriving on the beach we travelled down about 3kms to find that the beach was completely washed out and some beach closed signs were set up. We turned around and settled on a free spot about 2kms from the crossing entrance.

Although the weather was surpringly nice.. we decided on setting up some shelter first thing.



This was cool.. we could see our rods from the comfort of camp. The only problem was the first cast saw some seaweed brought in and it was there to stay. We were able to sit under the tarp and keep an eye on our rods which was good.. apart from the fact the only action happening was sea weed tuggin on the line. At least we stayed dry when these storms rolled past



I kept persisting with the fishing into the night, but a massive tangle bought that to a halt. The next morning I woke up and spent a good hour untangling the mess - determined not to lose much (or any if possible) of my new Shimano Technium line

I finally managed to untangle the whole thing, and loaded up a pillie and casted in. I hooked onto a mammoth pile of seaweed and the line snapped.. fantastic!

Kym arose and wandered off deep into the dunes for a nature visit, and then proceeded to get rained on. I sat under the tarp - laughing as he made the big run back to camp with shovel and toilet roll in hand.

Sunday was pretty much a non event for fishing as the seaweed was a worse problem than the day before. We barely casted a line all day, until it cleared up a little around sun set. We put on some glow sticks, baited up and cast out, then sat around the bonfire sinking a few beers.

I never saw my glow stick move, but on a routine bait check, I wound in my line to find I had landed a nice little elephant fish!



Kym, in a great show of foresight, had printed out some "how to prepare elephant fish" instructions, so we set about gutting, bleeding and finning it before popping it in the fridge. A late birthday present for Mum.

Kym then keened up to get his line back in the water, and was rewarded with some spikey looking puffer fish.. a fine effort!

After the last remaining beer was drunk, we headed off to sleep. I was awoken in the night by the sound of our shelter flapping around madly, and when a recently dropped fart seeped up through my sleeping bag I had no choice but to open up my swag for some air. My fears were confirmed when I saw the tarp flailing around in the wind, but I figured it'd be fine and closed up the swag again. Then I felt water dripping on my head and some large puddles forming.. doh! Given that I setup the swag under the safety of our shelter, I didn't bother to peg it in or put the poles up that may (I'm not convinced after my second in-swag soaking) have prevented the water pooling up and dripping through the canvas.

I decided to go sleep in the car, which first required closing up the rear window and securing the tarp by closing it in the car door as I got in. All this running around in the freezing rain in my jocks! And then the tarp whipped around in the wind and slapped me right in the face.. it hurt! Once inside, all was well again, and I went back to sleep ready for the morning fishing session.

We woke up to extremely strong winds and decided to call it a trip and head back to Adelaide. The guy at the Salt Creek servo told us fishing crews further north (passed the closed section of beach) had no problem with weed and a few sharks and mulloway were landed. Doh!

Coorong - June 2007

Another June long weekend trip down to the Coorong. Its tradition now.

On this trip, Dan Murphy, Matt, Ondie and myself were along for the ride, with Will off attending some girlfriend duties.

The first day was great weather - couldn't ask for any better in the middle of winter. We set up the tents and hit the beach. Matt's first cast resulted in his 500 year old rod snapping right in half.. devastation for Matt, humour for the rest of us :)



I got on the board early with possibly a gashes winning fish. An Elephant Shark. Never seen one before and as no one was sure how to prepare them to eat, he went back in the water. Found out later that they are really good eating, doh!



Not the best photo unfortunately, but a photo none the less!

Matt was now set up with the huge alvey on Andre's ugly stick.. it didnt look like the best match up, but it did the trick.



Within a minute, Dan was on to his first fish and brought in a fat salmon. His first, ever.



This was turning in to a very fine day of fishing indeed. I landed this Salmon, almost too big to fit in the frame of the camera! ;)



Everyone was onto Salmon, and they were all fairly nicely sized. Heres one of Andre's catch so he doesn't feel left out:



Its pretty big, I guess. Its no elephant shark though.

The esky was well loaded by sunset, with many fish returned to the sea as well. We had dinner and a few to take home here



We retired to the campsite to start up the fire and cook a few fish. Many beers and AC/DC songs later, we hit the sack only to wake up feeling a bit sore the next morning. I'm not sure why...



I suspect the water in the back ground was tainted.

I walked out to the beach to see sea weed galore washing around in the surf. One cast in confirmed my thoughts as I reeled in a huge ball of weed instantly - so I returned to camp.

We spent pretty much the entire day sitting around camp waiting for the weed to go away, but it persisted all day long. So, a few more cans were drunk in the process. A storm rolled in which forced us to stick up the big tarp for some shelter too.

Matt decided that night was the night for huge night fishing efforts, weed and all. I joined him for one more cast and promptly snapped off my rig and returned to camp. As we sat around camp, every so often we'd hear Matt carrying on about something.. just to be sure he wasn't drowning or anything, we'd go out for a look. He had caught a small mulloway and was feeling rather justified about his decision to brave the freezing cold and rain to stand out there. I'd rather sit around the fire personally!



Loving it!

Dan had other ideas on how to enjoy the campfire



The next morning we had a fish until mid morning, but didn't catch anything. I was declared the gashes winner due to my amazing elephant shark and arguably the biggest salmon of the trip - from memory anyway. Well my name is there so we'll just assume thats true.