We’d been itching to get down to Convention Beach on the lower Eyre Peninsula for a long time and this one Easter long weekend, we roped in cousin Josh, Will, Dana, Sani, Dan M, and myself for a big trip.
After the 7.5 hour convoy we reached our destination and proceeded to wind our way through the rocky tracks in search of a campsite. Finding some flat terrain near the beach proved difficult, and after 30 minutes of searching, we picked out a good spot further up the hill. It required a bit longer walk to the beach, but it was relatively easy still.
Camp was set up and lunch cooked, and before long, Will was already marching down to the beach first, whilst the rest of us tried to get some rigs tied up.. and crack open the first beers.
With only a few hours before sunset, I made my way down to the beach and found Will already had a salmon tail poking out the sand. Good signs. I baited up half a pilchard and launched it into the gutter – getting ready to take a seat, my rod went off with a small bite, and shortly after I had a salmon on the beach myself.
The others made their way down (following a quick knot tying lesson from Sani) as I casted out the other half of the pilchard, and as they picked out their spots on the beach, I get a another bite, and land another small salmon. Two casts, two fish. This is how its done. I was tempted to retire for the weekend on a 100% cast efficiency. Will had also landed a couple more fish, and although our catch wasn’t consisting of the huge 4kg+ salmon you can encounter on this coastline, it was good signs for the weekend.
Josh casted out only to discover the 20 year old Jarvis Walker reel he brought along (one of two), was pretty much disintegrating in his hands. Dan, using the other Jarvis Walker reel, some how managed to pull in a salmon before that reel also packed it in. Normally I bring a spare surf reel, but this was one occasion where I didn’t. Luckily Will had a spare, and I had a smaller reel which was capable of pulling in the smaller salmon – so Josh & Dan remained amongst the fishing action.
With a healthy supply of salmon for dinner, we packed it in, and headed back up to camp to get the fire going. A feast of Salmon, Spuds, and Burgers was cooked up, and many beers consumed.. before eventually everyone got to bed, quite late in the night.
I arose early, feeling the affects of a possible bad burger, and Will soon joined me. He was soon on his way down to the beach for the morning fish, whilst the rest continued to sleep. Eventually regaining my health, I went down after him – only to find him 100 metres down the beach, adjacent an admittedly much better gutter, but still, 100 metres down the beach. The others eventually got up and made their way down, and the fishing was once again solid – but not spectacular. We all headed back to camp around lunch time for a feed. Food was had, beers consumed, and Dan fell asleep in the sun. He is lucky Sani is there to cover him up, as the rest of us watched on in amusement at his skin getting redder by the minute.
Everyone besides Josh and I was having an afternoon nap, so we turned the radio on and listened to the first quarter of the Port vs Suns game – but with the Power heading out to an early lead it seemed like a predictable demolision of the Suns. Instead of sitting there, we decided to go sit down on the beach instead, with a rod in the water. We couldn’t be bothered walking to the futher gutter so went to the beach directly in front of camp only to find a bunch of rods standing up against the sand dune. No owners in sight. “Do we still fish there?” asked Josh. “Why not? They arent.” was my reply.
Will made his way down, slowly followed by the others, and then the owners of all the rods standing in the dunes. Rather than grabbing their gear and fishing to the side of us.. they simply sat with their gear and stared at us like we’d committed some enormous fishing sin. Leaving a few rods on the beach unattended does not translate to “this spot is reserved” in my book! I stand by my decision. If they bothered to throw a line in, they might have caught some fish like we did.
That night consisted of another great fire, more fish on the fire, steaks, spuds, and a generally great feast all round. The only downside was the Crows going down by 6 points!
Sunday (day 3 now) gave another quick morning fish for the usual mixed size salmon we’d been getting, before coming back to camping for some lunch, and then a bit of an explore over to the cliffs at the southern end of Convention Beach. Hearing that most of the group had never been to Coffin Bay, we went off for a drive to check it out.
Coffin Bay was as packed as you could possibly imagine.. people everywhere! We stopped for an ice block and Josh grabbed a Sunday Mail to discover Port had self destructed and lost to the Suns! It was laughs all round, and on to some more Coffin Bay sight seeing before heading back to camp. Unfortunately we couldn’t go into the national parks because of having the dogs on board.
Dan was keen to get some 4wding done in the nearby sand dunes, but after cooking lunch, we thought we’d best leave that until the day after, and get down to the beach to fish the final hours before sunset.
With Will consistently pulling in Salmon after Salmon and with the odd double header for good measure, he had a healthy lead on the imaginary gashes leader board. Seeing him wind his line one time with no fish on on the end, Dan commented to Josh “You don’t see that often”.. only for Will to walk into the water and pick up slack line with a Trevally attached. They begun to see what the rest of us regulars cry about all the time.
Since Sani can’t cast far enough, I was allowing her to wind in my line each time I got a bite. Shortly before sunset, I noticed a bite on my rod and alerted Sani to it, who ran over to grab the rod. As she grabbed it the rod bent forward in a big way and I was quickly on the scene to claim my rod back. The drag peeled out at a hundred miles an hour and it was clear to me that I had some form of big ray on the end, due to the lack of head shakes.
After a massive battle, very sore arms, and knots that surprisingly held up, I had a huge eagle ray in the shallows. It was about 30 minutes from hook up to getting it nearby, and after patiently waiting for a good wave to wash him up further I had him in close enough to get a photo. I pulled tight on the line and snapped off the hooks as there was no way I was going to attempt to get them out on this monster.
With a few larger waves for help the stingray slid back out into the sea and swam off. With that excitement over, we packed up our gear and head back to camp. I wouldn’t normally give a stingray catch much credit in the Gashes ratings, but this thing was seriously huge – and everyone was mighty impressed – so yes, me now leading the Gashes!
Dan celebrated in big fashion, especially when he found Will & Dana had brought along a 1.25 litre bottle of bourbon. Helping himself to a couple, he was well on his way, declaring “Don’t cook me dinner, I’m getting drunk!“.
Surprisingly, Dan was up early the next morning and feeling pretty chipper – only to crash out after a few breakfast beers, and remain sleeping for the greater part of the day (4wding plans flying out the window). Down on the beach, we were getting in to a few more salmon, when Josh pulled in a nice sized Tommy Ruff – he was especially pleased given how he had talked up the eating qualities of the humble Tommy all weekend. Not so pleased when we called it bait. Getting a dozen would have made good eating though, so we both tied on smaller rigs to have a go. A just legal mullet was landed and Will grabbed it and put it on his big 10/0’s and casted it out.
As lunch approached, we were getting ready to head back in when Will gets a massive bite on the mullet, and his drag is screaming out to sea. He hooks the fish, and feeling the headshakes calls it for a shark or mulloway. A minute later and we’re pretty sure it was definitely a shark, as his hooks are bitten clean off… disappointing! As we gathered our gear together to head back, we spotted a massive black ray cruising along the shallows. It was tempting to launch a fish out in front of it, but it was bigger than the one I had landed and probably would have just resulted in a snap off.
After listening to the Anzac Day footy game, we headed down for a final fishing session. It was the standard affair of average sized salmon coming in until at about the same time as I had hooked a stingray the night before, Will hooked in to one and off it went.. straight out. Will just had to get it in, and clinch yet another Gashes title. He fought the ray for about 5 minutes when his line snapped again – leaving him with 3 big hook ups for the weekend, all snapped off!
With darkness setting in, we made our way back to camp, where Sani already had the fire raging. The remaining beers were polished off and I was declared Gashes winner – finally! Great spot and I think we’ll definitely be back again in the future.
