Hillocks Drive - January 2012

With Australia Day falling on the Thursday this year, a few of us got the Friday off to make an extra long weekend, and decided to head down to Yorkes. With most of the girls making the effort, it was one of our biggest attended trips in a long time. The plan was to head to Gleesons Landing, but upon arrival, we found all the good camp sites full up, leaving only some exposed sites available. With the wind blowing hard, it wasn't ideal. We'd also need to drive to any fishing destination rather than walking, so we thought instead to head up to Swincers Rock's and see what was going on there.

Swincers was empty except for one caravan, which had taken the only protected spot there. It was really windy here and no one was keen, so after some deliberation, we decided to head to the other side of the coast to the old favourite, Hillocks Drive. At least we knew there would be spots out of the wind there, even if we'd get blown off the beach fishing.

After obtaining permits and making our way along the coast searching for the best available site, Luke managed to get his car hung up on a little ridge between tracks. His rear right tyre wasn't getting any traction, so we got out to give him a push. In hindsight, just putting weight on that side of the car might have been a better option. With Andre at the back pushing, the rear wheel spun freely, until it was pretty much a burnout on dirt.. but the car edged forward before finally getting grip and lurched forward. At that same moment, Andre let out a scream and clutched his leg. We thought a small rock stung him at first, until we saw pulses of blood spurt out from his shin, and a large house brick sized rock near by. The tyre spinning had grabbed hold of this big rock and launched it out the back like one of those tennis ball serving machines.

Andre felt so nauseous from the pain, he even declined an offer of beer - and with that, all chances of him climbing down goat tracks to go fishing went out the window.

We pulled into our chosen camp site, and set up the tents, including Andre's newly purchased taj mahal sized abode, as he watched on, still in pain. I half expected him to jump up and run around once it was done.

Our Campsite - Nice and Shady!

With the wind still howling, it was a much better option to sit around camp and crack a few beers all day long. It wasn't until near sunset that I decided I'd head down to the beach to give the salmon a crack, and Luke, who had consumed a fair portion of a bottle of vodka, joined me. We made our way down the goat track to our favourite salmon location at Hillocks, and set up the rods. We both cast out, and then sat back with a few beers as the sun slowly set. Luke then decided the water looked good for a swim - despite it being rough as anything with the strong wind still strongly blowing sideways up the beach. In his drunkeness he looked like a corpse washing in and out with the tide. After an hour, I managed to get a salmon in, and as it was getting dark, shortly after we decided to head back to camp. I questioned Luke on his ability to climb back up the cliff, to which he replied "I'll be fine" and then stumbled backwards and fell into the sand. After he again rinsed him self off, we made a very shaky climb up the track, but eventually were safely back at camp.

The following morning, I was up before everyone and walking around camp with no one to talk to for awhile, so I decided I may as well hit the beach again. As I was about to leave, both Ali and Sani rose and came down with me, but the wind was blowing so fiercely, it was painful standing there as the sand punished our legs. The girls headed back to camp, and with no fish biting, and my hunger building, I followed a few baits later.

Back at camp, everyone was now up, and after some food was cooked up, a few beers were had to wash it down. As the first beer was emptied and thrown a distance away from the chairs.. it landed nearby a rock - and so a new game was born. "Beer Can Rock" we imaginatively called it - closest beer can to the rock about 6 metres away wins prestige. As a twist, if the wind blows your can away, your can no longer counts. This entertained for hours until Harry rocked up mid afternoon, followed by Matt and Sarah around dinner time. The game was still going strong, and the lead changed often as wind disrupted the cans and sometimes wiped the entire playing field clear. In the middle of the day, a small brown snaked slithered through the middle of camp, and right past my feet, which made me jump about 3 feet off my chair, it's tail disappearing into the bushes as I landed. Everyone adjusted their chairs slightly further away from the bushes after that, along with checking that all tent zips were done up.

An intense game of Beer Can Rock

Alisha displaying the "we're camped here" signal for the late comers

Again, as it approached sunset, we decided to head down for a fish, and this time it was Matt, Harry and myself. We didn't have a great deal of time before dark, and it was a solid little fishing session, as I pulled in 3 more salmon, and Matt and Harry 1 each. Harry's was quite a bit larger than the rest, probably nudging close to 3kg.

Crazy antics around camp with the nights catch

Matt and I had another morning session, and the wind had now died down, but we only got the one fish between us before becoming too hungry and deciding to head back up to camp. With the wind basically gone, back at camp was really warming up - so we decided to go off in search of a big rock pool I had heard about for a swim. As we walked over a dune on our way, without a rod between the lot of us, Matt and I spotted a suspicious looking black circle out in the water. "Couldn't be a salmon school here could it?" "does look like one" and we walked on anyway. As we got onto the beach, we saw a salmon jump out the water and then thought we have to run back to the car to get some rods. By time we got back to the school, we were boiling from the run, and probably preferring to now have a swim, but we launched out lures at this school and they just would not bite! We had about 30 casts at it each, but not even one touch, and as they moved further out we decided it just wasn't to be, and set off after the others who had walked on in search of the rock pool.

When we got there, we were greeted to a deep green water hole, with big rocks to jump off. It must have been about 12 feet deep in places. An awesome way to relax and cool down on a hot day. A few photo's were taken, and a few beers consumed, and then we made the trek back to camp.

Luke enjoying the rock pool

For the final sunset, all the guys, bar Andre, headed down to the beach in hope of another good session, but apart from Luke getting one solid bite that got off, it was all quiet, and before long we were back at camp for the final nights festivities.

Despite a reasonably late night, I was woken early by the sound of Matt heading off to go fishing - trying to nab a few salmon and steal away the Gashes no doubt. With the sun up, I wasn't likely to sleep much longer, so I set off in pursuit... and then we sat on the beach and didn't catch a thing.

Final Morning on my way to fish

And with that, we all set about packing up camp, including the humongous contraption that passes as Andre and Ali's tent, and the car was somehow loaded to the brim again, despite a few less cartons of beer in the back.

After a mostly uneventful 1.5 hours driving, I heard a flapping off some sort coming from my car. Flat tyre? Nope car is feels fine. Then BANG rear tyre explodes and all the rubber gets caught up in the wheel arch, causing the wheel to lock up and slide along until 100 metres later I finally come to a halt on the side of the road. A number of people stopped to see that we were okay, which was nice - but other than having to change a tyre in 35 degree heat in full sun, we were all fine. Finally back on the road and dripping with sweat, we stopped in at Ardrossan for an ice block, and then headed to home, wrapping up another awesome weekend.
 

The Blowout!

Hillocks Drive - June 2010

Throwing away 4 years of June long weekend tradition, the guys opted for a trip down to Hillocks Drive, instead of the usual winter Coorong trip. Amongst the last minute planning, we some how decided on heading off after work on the Friday night.

Harry, Matt and Will arrived about 30 minutes before Kym and I, and it wasn't long before the tents/swags were up and the camp fire cranking. Given that it was past 11pm before we settled into a few beers, Will hit the swag first with a grand plan of getting up early and into the Salmon. The rest of us drunk beer until we convinced each other it was wise to stop.

Everyone was up around 8am and we soon set off to the beach. Matt and Will raced down that cliff and set up in our favourite spot, though, a little left of the gutter due to another group of fisho's already there.

By time I made it down to the beach, I realised I had left my camera bag on the bull bar of my car. $3k worth of camera gear sitting there for the taking. Enough incentive to run my unfit arse back up that cliff! I was buggered when I got back down and the only response I got from the others was "why didn't you bring beer?" (it was about 10am.. but regardless...)

It wasn't a long wait before a Salmon was landed, and not long again before Will's new Daiwa Sensor Surf buckled over to what appeared to be something very large. It turned out to be a double header of estimated 2kg Salmon.

Matt landed one or two smaller salmon, but for the rest of us, it was very quiet. Kym landed a few small fish on his bait rod, but me and Harry came up with zilch. Harry opted for his preferred method of fishing  - asleep.

Just as high tide was approaching, we decided we needed food and set off for camp, leaving behind what was soon to be some prime fishing time. Our priorities are always a little twisted when it comes to fishing, and some food and beers around camp sounded pretty good!

After lunch we debated on where to fish with an hour or two before sunset to go. Salmon beach had a fair bit of weed earlier, so we figured we'd go to Butlers Beach if our usual spot was taken. I drove up to check it out and radio'd back to the others that it was indeed taken, but the rocks looked calm enough for a fish. A quick vote and we set off on the long walk to the rocks.

I set up my surf rod with a big bait and cast out, and set about some drunken photography whilst the others toyed with some small fish that were schooling around the berley bag. Lots of beers, rock fishing, and expensive camera gear. A quality combination. I had been wanting to try some long exposure shots though, and managed to get one or two I liked.

Looks like Harry has caught a small fish here - leaving me the only person without a single fish.



With darkness setting in, we headed back to camp and Harry set up a huge campfire - well needed given how cold it was going to get that night! The guys fishing the beach said it'd been a bit of a bumper session over high tide..

After a big night around the fire, everyone was up pretty late on Sunday, and we headed down to Salmon beach to spend the whole day fishing. Again the fishing was slow...

As high tide approached, a few other people appeared and set up close by. There was an enormous amount of rods in a close vicinity for awhile there, thankfully no more than a minimal tangle

I did manage to get a fish on the board at some stage - a bit of a fluke as I reckon it jumped my popper as I wound in. Just a small salmon but at least I had something for the weekend. Will and Matt got a couple more Salmon, and Kym continued to catch the smallies, but with the fishing just not firing big time, we headed back up to camp at sunset to set up the fire again. It got down to 0.5 degrees that night, but not cold enough to stop Matt and Will heading off at 6am for a big morning fish session. They didn't get back to camp until around 10am, but had managed to get six more fish between them. Three each if my memory serves me correctly.

The rest of us didn't bother doing any more fishing, and Will was awarded The Gashes, for his big double header and another big salmon to go with it. We packed it all up and headed home around 11:30am.

Far West Coast is locked in for November - looking like 5-6 people, our largest yet. Hopefully we'll get away a few times before then as well.

Hillocks Drive - April 2009

This wasn't actually a "gashes trip" but still worthy of a post. With all the regulars busy with other events or just plain soft *cough*Andre*cough, It was left up to me and Harry to rid the sea of fish this weekend. Not enough participants to award the illustrious prize.

Harry, and two of his mates, Kadge, and Adam (Whom were later renamed Vadge and Adam Internet) went down to Hillocks on Thursday night in order to secure a decent camping spot before the Easter rush. Apparantly everyone else had the same idea though and they were forced to squeeze in between two main camps. Still a decent enough spot though.



I, along with Sani and her cousin Alisha on her first trip made our way over Friday morning. Sitting in the same car as Sani and Alisha for three hours was a worrying prospect, but armed with my new Garmin Nuvi 760, loaded up with Mastodon's new album amongst my other awesome tunes, I was content for the journey.

We arove around 10am to a somewhat quiet group of 3 guys, hungover from the previous nights drinking. I set up the tent and cracked a beer, which was enough for Harry to consider it time to start up again. Reliable Harry!

After a cookup, we headed down to Salmon Beach, and the "good spot" was taken, so we headed further down the beach and set up. Our other spot on the rocks was also taken.

It didn't take long to land a fat mullet. I just wanted one for bait, but this one was too huge, so I kept it to eat later. I managed to get a just legal Salmon Trout, and immediately set up my wire trace and sent him back out. This would be my Shark trip (or not, as it turned out).

The others lost interest in the later afternoon and headed back to camp. Me and Harry stuck it out until we ran out of beer. I managed a few more mullet and a bigger salmon on the surf rod. I'm sure we could have caught a bag of mullet if we tried, but sitting back sipping beers, and waiting for the big rods to go is more appealing.

Back at camp with many more beers drunk, I decided to try out my artistic skills with the camera. It didnt really work too well, but the effort was there :). Side note: do not drink a Dr Tims immediately after a Sparkling Ale - it is a BIG step down.



The following day, we considered going for a fish off the rocks, as the water was dead calm on Friday and would have been ideal for rock fishing. Arriving at the beach, the good spot in front of the reef was free, and since it was 1km less walking, we set up there. We had spoke to a guy the night before who said he'd been hooked on to monster for over an hour before snapping off at the rocks. He thought it was a large kingfish, he was rather devastated. This did have me keen to go down and have a go, but the swell was a lot bigger on this day - not the best for a relaxing fish off the rocks.



Once again, I showed off my amazing photography skills.



I pulled in a Salmon which had a big chunk taken out of it and teeth marks all down its side. I felt he'd had a rough go, so let him back in. Now, rather excited about the prospect of sharks in the area, me and Harry both had live baits out and sat back, waiting. The girls had a quick go with the small rod and Sani managed a nice Mullet, which was kept for later. Harry also pulled in a small Salmon and added that to the pile.



Back around camp at night, the Nuvi really made me thankful of its purchase. The FM transmitter works from around the "fire" (a gas lantern in this case). Sitting back, drinking Coopers, and flipping through my MP3 library from the comfort of my chair, gold!

Came back home on Sunday to avoid the Monday traffic, and cooked up a few mullet that we brought home with us. Harry took a few Salmon home for his mum to cook, awww :)



More photos can be found over at flickr

Hillocks Drive - March 2008

I like it when something unbeatable is caught on day 1 of a trip. The pressure to catch the big fish is taken off, and its more about relaxing. Not many better spots for relaxing than camping at Hillocks!

So, on this trip we had Sani, Matt T, Will, Dana, and a few gashes new comers in Cheese, Dan W, and Monica. And me!

It was an easter long weekend trip to Hillocks, which is always busy, but Will, Dana, and Cheese told us they were heading up on Thursday night in order to get a good camping spot, which are usually at a premium on long weekends. We got there to find them in not exactly the best campsite - they'd only arrived earlier in the morning themselves due to running late the night before.

We went over to the top of the cliff at Salmon Beach and spotted the early arrivers down in our usual fishing spot. We headed down and Will told us of a few big hook ups that had left him with no hooks. Something decent was lurking out there, but not too many salmon were about.

Actually... I should go back a bit here. Matt, Sani, and I were in the Surf and had left early - but we were driving slowly whilst Dan and Mon caught up to us as they didn't know where to go. We pulled over at Minlaton, and got out and Dan announced that he forgot his fishing rods. HAHHAHA! Nothing like going fishing and forgetting your fishing rods. Luckily, we were at a servo which stocked a nice selection of fishing gear, and $70 later, Dan was equiped with a surf rod and reel spooled with 20lb line. Nice.

So, back on the beach, and we cast out some pillies and sit down to play the waiting game. Not much is happening, until.. this series of events....

Firstly, Dan takes a shit right on the beach...



Then, he hooks onto a fish



I'm quickly on the scene.. wheres the gaff when you need it!? (burnt to ashes, stored in a trophy of course)



Ok, all the action wasn't quite captured on camera here, but credit to Sani for getting most of it (just missed the most important bit! this..) The fish was pulled into the shallows, where we could see if was a shark. I ran down to the shallows to grab the trace and pull it up the beach, but as soon as I pulled on the swivel, the knot gave way and the shark was free. This was a decent shark - there was no way I was letting it go that easily. I scooped my arms under the shark and just kinda lifted it and launched it towards the beach. Dan soon realised what was going on and ran down to assist, and before long we were both getting wet and wrestling with a shark.. sounds stupid, but it was all fine!

Shortly after, that magnificent bronzie was dragged up the beach.



Then Dan announced himself as the gashes winner... (still Day 1 mind you, but fair enough). $70 well spent.



After struggling to carry the shark back down towards our gear - it had taken Dan on a 100 metre walk down the beach to land it) we had him out of his suffering shortly, and then onto the scales.



Seems we missed the scales in the photo, but from memory it came in at around 12kgs. And it tasted fantastic.

So, dinner caught for all that would last the weekend. Gashes all but wrapped up with new winner Dan due for an engraving. What to do next... Why, a random wrestle on the beach for no apparant reason of course.



And then, here we have a Photo of Sani and Mon, for no other reason than Sani likes this photo...



The next day we headed to the beach again and talk begun of what it would take to win the Gashes from here. Discussions were had of how big a snapper would need to be for it to beat the shark, and I think we settled upon 5-6kgs. Dan genuinely became worried that this might happen. Hahaha. The likelihood was not very likely at all. But its good to have these talks just incase! Just for reference, a legal mully would instantly win. Unless another bigger mully was caught. Wouldn't you feel robbed then. Getting side tracked...

We caught a few small salmon on day 2, and used some salmon flesh to put on to the small hooks and went for mullet. The mullet were ON. Every cast just about pulled in a good sized mullet, if not a double header. Every time I got a bit bored, I'd just chuck out the small rod and catch and release mullet for awhile. At the end of the day I decided to keep a lot for bait next time we headed down to the coorong. I think we ended up with 24 fish to take home. I gave the 6 biggest ones to dad (who said they were great cooked up fresh) and froze up another 18 (which turned out to be a shitty bait - mullet doesnt freeze well at all)

Back at camp, cooking lunch, someone came up with the idea to play cricket with the rod holder tubes. Best idea ever. Three tubes for stumps, one tube for a bat, and a cricket pitch made of rocks, dirt and holes so the ball bounced every which way... good fun - soon to become a hillocks tradition.

Then we turned the tubes into giant smokes.. laughter ensued



We went down to the rocks which don't see a lot of love from us these days - but I still like it because its a good place to sit down and have a few beers whilst waiting for a fish to bite. Stopped just short of the rocks to have a quick fish and ended up doing some acrobatics off the sand dunes instead.


Sani and Mon getting some air time

Here is most of us sitting back on the rocks



Left to Right: Dan, Mon, Matt, Medo (look closer), Will, Me, Cheese.

I think Sani asked us all to wave for that photo.. some of us listened anyway :)

We decided to leave early on Sunday morning, to avoid all the easter traffic. Dan took out the Gashes honours, in a first trip win. Nice effort.

As always, click pictures for bigger versions, and links to more.

Hillocks Drive - October 2008

Our first 4 dayer down to Hillocks Drive - I can't believe we haven't done this before! With a public holiday on Monday, A few of us scored the Friday off work and headed over to old favourite, Hillocks.

The weather was pretty ordinary on the way, with big patches of rain constantly falling on the drive over. Even as we pulled in to the farm driveway, rain still continued to fall. But as luck would have it, it soon cleared up just in time for us to get out the car and begin setting up the tents!

Spotted Matt standing on top of his troopy working on something, which made finding our camp site quite easy.. pulled in and set to work on putting up the new tent... an extended touring tent I purchased from Rays Online. I love this thing, so easy to put up and pull down and a bag big enough to actually put it back in when you're done. The only time consuming part is pegging in the guy ropes if you're that way inclined (I put most of them in - a good effort for me).

With more rain clouds on the horizon, we put the BIG TARP to make a very nice shelter. We've never had enough poles to do something like this, and everyone was very happy with the result.



After a quick bite to eat, we decided we best make a move for the beach. I was first to get a bait in the water, and as I walked back to grab my beer, the fish was already on! I pulled in a smallish salmon which I kept for dinner (just incase it was a loner). A loner it was not, as Matt had soon hooked a nice double header, which Sarah wound in, and I was onto a good salmon myself.



I lost count of the amount of salmon caught here, but they were thick and fast. Matt managed a couple more double headers and Sani pulled in a double header on my surf rod whilst I was getting a lure ready on the light tackle.



My first cast with a 40 gram gold plated Halco twisty resulted in a hook up, and a great little battle on the light line. I actually brought the wrong reel down to the beach, so had to fish even lighter than I intended, but I'm glad I did, as it was great fun. $20 7 foot rod from Anaconda and $15 reel from Amart - what a setup :)



After some fun catching Salmon on the light tackle, I went back to my bait rod to land a few bigger fish. Only the smaller specimens were going for my small lure. Meanwhile, Kymbo switched over to a lure him self and got on the board with a couple of medium fish. His first catch off a lure too, so he was happy.




Some one noticed a spectator up on the cliff, and it was Will and Dana.. sure enough they'd seen some fish caught and Will was motoring his way down that cliff side. He went straight for the lure and instantly started hooking into the fish. Will and Matt must have been in a good patch of water as they were right next to each other and nailing a lot of fish there. We kept enough fish for dinner and threw all the rest back to grow bigger.



The action slowed down on the other side of high tide, with just the odd fish here and there coming through - certainly wouldnt be complained about any other day. As the sun started setting, we decided to make our way back to camp and set up the fire. Harry and his mate Dan were due to arrive some time after dark.

A feast of fish, spuds, and enormous steaks was cooked over the fire. Will had brought his fish smoker along, and a few fresh fillets went in there as well. Harry and Dan rocked up and set up their assortment of camping accesories about the place. Dan possibly has every luxury camping item available - and the car to carry it all in too! The fluro light was rather impressive though.. and whats with this torch!?



Saturday saw everyone have a morning and afternoon session at the beach, but other than another 3 salmon to Matt only (they were loving his line for some reason - must've mistaken it for Will's) no one else got anything. Actually, I lie. Harry and Dan went over to the rocks at the eastern end of Salmon Beach and caught some rock cod!

Matt thought the gashes were pretty close as this point, having a small lead over me - but I reckon he was well in front after his extra 3 on Saturday.

Sunday morning, I was woken up by the sound of Will's car going fishing before sunrise. I felt quite awake.. but couldn't bring myself to actually get up. He came home after we'd finished breakfast and had managed to catch half a dozen salmon - which I think would have had him getting pretty close to Matt on the Gashes leader board.

Matt and Sarah decided to give the beach a go, whilst the rest of us went searching for a nice rocky ledge to fish off in hope of a few different species. We settled upon Gartrells rocks on the eastern end of the Hillocks property. The steep cliff descent here makes you feel good about the chances of catching fish. Hard to get to = more fish caught. Thats my theory anyway.



A few rock cod and sweep were landed, but nothing sizeable was on offer. Still, a great spot to relax as the rocks are reasonably high off the water so you don't have to worry about waves hitting you. We figured it was getting close to 1 oclock and wanted to get back to camp to have a feed before trying the afternoon tide on the beach once more. Will & Dana were packed up and heading home now - ruling Will out of any chance of taking out the Gashes.

We caught up with Matt down on the beach in time for high tide, but it was another quiet affair, with just the odd fish here and there caught. I think Matt, Harry and Kym all managed to land a fish. I didn't have much luck at all after Friday's massive session, so Matt took out another Gashes win, probably in a pretty close result over Will. I think the double headers got him over the line :)

Hillocks Drive - May 2007

I took a week off work in May 2007, and as it was my birthday, thought what better way to spend a birthday than fishing and camping. A trip was soon organised an a fairly big group of us headed down to Hillocks Drive.

Greeted by relatively calm water, we headed down to one of our usual spots off the rocks at the end of Salmon beach. The fishing off the rocks was one of the better sessions we’ve ever had down there, with double headers of tommies, mullet and sweep all being landed. Most of the sweep were a bit small and thrown back, but the tommies were kept for a later cook up.

I think Sani might have had a small claim to Gashes leader at one point here, but her hopes were dashed as the decision was made to head down to the beach to try and get into the some larger Salmon.

Before too long, a few salmon were being landed on the beach, with yours truly shooting to the top of the leaderboard. Nothing huge, but still decent sized fish that would go well on the BBQ.



Andre cannot wait to cook.



A nice mixed bag of fish caught from the rocks and beach on day 1.
We made the trek back to camp and got the fire going, and the usual camp fire drunken banter of how to solve the worlds problems etc begun.

I was feeling good about having the most fish going in to day 2, but Will wasn’t to be out done.

He landed around 8 salmon on day 2, to put him self out into the lead. Everyone else struggling to get a bite.

A big feast was cooked on the fire that night…



Will had to leave early on the last morning, which gave the rest of us a chance to catch some fish and take out the prize. Unfortunately, the fish weren’t coming to the party and appeared to have gone home them selves.

A good trip in terms of fish caught. I think we caught more fish than going to far west coast a few months earlier – and travelled about 1800kms less too!

Looking Back - Hillocks Drive Oct 2006

I'm gonna try and get all the old trip reports up here so we can look back on them in the future. I'll start with ones that already have some stuff written down about so its easier :) This one is from down at what I like to call the spiritual home of The Gashes - where The Gashes were born. Quite a few people came along on this trip, but the Ranger took home the prize in style. Here's what I wrote back at the time...

So, we finally managed to convince Pete to come along on one of our super famous fishing trips. The destination was the old favourite - Hillocks Drive at the southern end of the Yorke Peninsula. About a 3 hour drive from Adelaide. Its not that the fishing is really any good there often, but it does make a top spot to setup a shaded camp site and drink the weekend away.

After setting up, having some lunch, and cracking a few beers, we decided it was time to hit the rocks (how true this would be for Pete, later) for some fishing. We all piled into and onto the 4wd's and heading off.


The destination was the rocks at the far end of this beach. Is that a wave crashing over them? Can't tell from here.. surely its safe.



Here's BigPete himself showing off a bit of rock hopping prowess.



After about 45 minutes a big wave come rushing in. Harry yelled "RUNNN" but apparantly Pete didnt hear. Next thing I know there is chaos and I turn around to see Pete getting swept around in the waves. We laugh about it now, but it was pretty damn scary to see at the time. After Pete was rescued it was decided by all that perhaps we'd leave the rocks alone for a bit, we all packed up and headed back down the beach.

We stopped at a spot where there is a reefy section just out from the beach. It sometimes has some good fishing. Paused to photo pete's wounds too:



30 minutes later and Ranger Will's rod bends over like mad and he runs over and strikes the fish. It was clearly something huge, but I don't think anyone expected him to pull in this:



A very nice 5kg snapper landed off the beach, not something you expect to happen very often. So Will pretty much claimed another Gashes win on the first day of the trip. And nothing else worth mentioning was caught anyways.


Back to camp that night and old snapper found himself on the fire :D



That just the first day, but thats where all the action was. It was really too rough and windy to fish, with seaweed being a major problem off the beach, and the rocks obviously unsafe. So much of the time was spent sitting around camp where we had good shelter from the winds via some massive sand dunes and well placed trees.