Hey guys,

Finally the trip to cheynes beach was here and we were all ready to chase the salmon. Alarm set and woke up at 4am Friday morning, was out the door just after to pick up a few others and was on the road by 5am ready for the journey down south. After a few stops and a non planned senic drive ( getting lost ) we eventually made it to cheynes beach. We unpacked our gear at the caravan park and was keen to go down to the town beach to see what its like and to sus out the area. after hearing that the salmon are going off we decided to take a rod each down with us rigged up with a lure just to have a flick or two while seeing the area but the time now being around 1 o'colck we didnt really expect much, but were we to be mistaken. as soon as we drove down onto the beach we instantlly saw numerous people hooked onto salmon. we all just thought ok they are here but when we looked at the water it was just salmon as far as the eye could see. it didnt take seconds before we were out of the car and heading towards the water. first cast and all of us (5 people) were on, it was unbelievable how many there were, they were bumping into our legs and were swimming over the top of each other literally in a foot of water. there was so many that people were scouping them up in buckets, 'now thats fishing'. for 3 hours strait it was non stop salmon action with most of them being hooked 5-10m from the shore line. these salmon were big and im talking 10kg mark and on a 5kg diawa outfit they were certainly giving me a run for my money, i was on each fish for atleast a good 10min dragin me up and down the beach. there was a few new salmon fishers in the group and they all managed to land a salmon or two. by 4-30 when the salmon had gone quiet a total of 18 salmon were landed between 5 people with a lot more being lost becasue of bust offs or straitened hooks.

next mornin got up at 8am ready to do it all again but this time the swell had picked up and the weed had started to roll in. a few salmon were seen but none caught and by 12pm we decided time to go do a bit of 4x4 driving up to the point facing bald island. that evening headed down to the beach again this time with the little bbq ready if we caught somin to cook. this time we just had the baits out (big and small) and soon had a nice 40cm flatty on the beach which was released but soon after another was landed so we decided to keep this one knowing more are out there. another 2 flattys were caught (1 undersize) plus 3 big sand whiting so we had a nice feed. headed back at 10 ready for an early rise in the morning. 

sunday mornin we were up at 6 and down the beach at 6-30 to find the swell had dropped of but the weed made things very difficult. wasnt to bothered though becasue friday made up for all of the three days. was a great weekend with some brilliant fish landed, the biggest salmon landed was an estimated 9kg.

cheers, Aidan

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