Went up to Cervantes and Hill River and Thursday night / Friday morning to celebrate the arrival of my first child - Daniel James. ("wetting the mulies head")

Arrived at the Cervantes service jetty to fairly murky water and a stiff southerly. Pretty typical conditions, however with the murky water the fish seemed to be off the bite. Burleying hard bought the herring and yellowtail on although it was patchy at best so after an hour or so we decided to head up to Hill River to setup camp for the night.

The gutter I normally fish had been drastically altered in the six weeks or so since my last visit. A massive amount of sand had been pulled from the beach creating a gutter close in, sandbar and another gutter at the edge of casting range. It looked fantastic for a fish with minimal weed around.

We fished the low tide until around 11:30pm with no joy. Not even a nibble from the pickers, despite plenty of burley and oil in the water.

4:30am greeted us with icy cold conditions, mist over the ocean and promise of a big mulla. The early hours of the morning had always produced the tailor at this spot - so I knew it was just a matter of time. 7am high tide and sunrise arrived, and still we had not had a single bite. After talking up this spot so much to Simmo Ryan, I feared the worst.

With first light I flicked out a few small mulie cubes on the little rod to see if the bread and butter fish were coming on. I was soon onto a juvenile flathead, one of the most beatiful fish I have ever seen - although it could not have been more than 15cm long. Soon after a decent mullet and hezza.

Simmo Ryan was getting increasingly dirty - more out of frustration having driven a few hours, fished many more and not had a single bite. Then all of a sudden the big rod went off and he was on. Line peeled off and he knew he was into something decent and after 10 minutes of patiently playing the fish, the knot gave out in the wash. If Simmo was dirty before...well, I reckon he was ready to kill now.

We were both ready to throw it in when the sun hit the water and there was a tap on my rod. Tailor! I knew it wasn't a big one, and this was confirmed with a bit of taildancing close in before shaking the hooks. Seconds later Simmo was in to a chopper and it was smiles all round.

Just moments later and another call of 'fish on!' from Simmo, then seconds later 'me too!'. A couple of 40cm choppers. We ending up landing 5 and dropping 3 ranging 36-42cm.

After a year or so of beach fishing, this was the first time I had got into multiple tailor so a big milestone for me and a great way to celebrate the birth of my boy! None of the big tailor we were hoping for but good to get away and catch a feed.

A quick reccy up to the river mouth where we flicked lures for black bream. Simmo had a run on the ecogear lure, which after being left on the roo bar now lies somewhere between Ellenbrook and Hill River. The rivermouth is currently closed and there is a lot of weed around. No blackies landed though.

Cheers,

Buschy