Away South

The Isuzu had been packed to the ceiling the previous evening and I was chomping at the bit to be off.  However I sensibly waited until after 9am to avoid the morning rush hour on the freeway (that’s motorway in the UK and NZ).  A one hour drive in light traffic to reach Ken in Rockingham.  He had already packed the caravan and it was just a matter of transferring my kit from one Izuzu to another before heading south.

Our destination was the caravan park at Gracetown some 3-4 hours south of Ken’s. 

Ken had booked in for three nights but when the receptionist said a 4th night would be free we decided to accept the offer.  That turned out to be a wise decision.

First task was to setup the caravan on the allocated site.

It was close to the facilities block making it very handy for a couple of old fellas.

This region is well known for three things.  The numerous wineries; the world class surfing and fishing.  We were interested in the latter. 

That evening we poured over the map and discussed where we might fish.  Surfers don’t appreciate fishers.  Probably something to do with fish thrashing in the water and cleaning of caught fish in the ocean.  Both attract sharks and there are some big ones on this coast.  At least one surfer gets bitten annually and there have been fatalities. 

We decided to head further south and fish at Boranup Beach.  Access to the beach is via a 4WD track through the national park.  It really is a 4WD track!

 

The photo doesn’t do justice to the size and depth of the ruts.

The Australian Salmon are supposed to be doing their annual migration north and that is what we were after.  Being a difficult drive into the beach we only found four other vehicles when we arrived.

We failed to catch salmon but did get our full daily limit of 24 herring.

That evening there was another discussion about fishing spots.  The next morning we drove to several locations only to discover there was either no beach or surfers.  Neither Ken or I were willing to fish off the rocks.  It’s just too dangerous.  Particularly when there is a heavy swell and you’re wobbly on your legs.

Eventually we decided to fish at Gracetown where we had fun catching more herring.  However we couldn’t clean and fillet them there because there was a sign forbidding the practice.  Obviously the instructions were part of the effort to separate the surfers and sharks.  Driving south we found another remote beach.

Friday was going to be our last fishing day and we decided to go back to Boranup Beach.  This time we’d leave at 5.30am with the intention of being on the beach at dawn.

The plan worked and we were the third vehicle to arrive.  Actually I suspect at least one of the vehicles had been on the beach overnight.

Well the day looked like it was going to be a wash out from a fishing perspective.  We struggled to catch herring, which we needed as bait for the salmon.  The was also a strong current running left to right across the beach dragging our lines.

Then the resident stingray started patrolling up and down “His” beach.

 

He was so darned close to the edge of the water you would have only wet to the knees touching him.  We certainly didn’t want to hook him because that would be the last we’d see of the line.

I was using the small bait rod trying to catch herring when I noticed the line on my surf casting rod was running to the left against the current.  It seemed strange and I decided to reel in the line.  It appeared I had a large lump of seaweed caught on the hook.

But maybe not!

The salmon had committed suicide on my line and then exhausted itself.  So there were salmon around!

By now we had almost used all the bait herring we had caught that morning.  Then Ken got lucky.

 

We threw out our salmon lines and continued fishing for herring when Ken suddenly started screaming at me to look at my salmon rod.  It was bent right over and almost about to be pulled from its sand anchor.  One hell of a fight but I managed to land a second salmon. 

Ken then caught his second salmon only for it to throw the hook and escape just as he was about to get it out of the water.

The final fish tally was three Australian Salmon and approximately 40 herring.

It would have been a bonus if we had caught more salmon, however I’m not complaining.  When I got home Jan cooked us some of the salmon using a recipe she had made.

 The fillet has been garnished with sun dried tomato and capsicum (peppers) before being cooked in it’s own juices in the air fryer.  It was delicious.