Day 0

The group started off with seven. One pulled out. Another and his mate pulled out. That leaves four in two cars, which works out well. Three fridge freezers with 24 packets of scalies total.

I drove to Kev’s, we combined gear and spread the load out for both cars. Away we went. We stopped off at the newly owned Telomac tackle and camping in Carnarvon. The new owners have done a great job. 

The usual buzz when we arrive, everyone’s imaginations running wild and a whole bunch of new secret weapons in in everyone’s tackle box. My new and improved rev.2 spooling machine. 

The snorers got to share a room. 

Cars loaded and ready to go for the next morning. Then the mackerel fairies carried us off to sleep. 03:30 alarm. Gross.

Day 1

First one’s there and the whole place to ourself. Lots of bait around everywhere. There is an abundance of glassys and with it, the water is bubbling. 

Big Spangled Emperor on the rocks. Account open. 

Spun up a couple of Shark Mackerel - we had the debate whether to keep them or not. I actually don’t mind them. Bled and straight into the cold fish bag. 

Glenn spins up a couple of Queenfish hearding the baitfish. 

Big bait bust ups all morning. 

Kev gets a decent Cobia and I don’t whiff the gaff shot.  

Sharks galore - As soon as you hook something you’re having to freespool to give them a chance to outrun the sharks. 

Sized Rankin Cod 

Rough walk out. It doesn’t matter how many times I do the goat track; I never seem to remember how shit it actually is. 

Day 2 

I land a small Cobia on Scalie Mack with a small bean sinker. 

A few casts later I land a decent spangled emperor. These things pull HARD.  

Adam nails a spangled emperor - pigeon pair 

Pretty quiet for the rest of the morning - something changed with the weather/bait/whatever 

I decide to fillet the fish and leave early with a solo climb while the others can catch up. . When at the top they ring and say they’re gonna stay a while. I went back and filleted & bagged. They came a couple hours later with a decent Cobia sight casted off the back of a shark 

Day 3 

One of the worst days. The pits. I won’t go into all the details but it needs a mention. We fished an exposed ledge on a rough day, maybe the swell was a little too high. A monster wave came through and smashed my mate and I. I got tossed around a little and when I recovered my mate was sideways, getting dragged across the reef. He smashed into the reef, the receding wave sucked him off the reef, the next wave pushed him up and over the top of the reef and into the drink on the other side. We were very fortunate and we were able to have him rescued by boat (Thanks Leichhardt). A trip to Carnarvon hospital later and the rest of the day was spent counting blessings and taking inventory. On a different day or slightly different circumstances he could have been a bronze plaque with a view. He was a champion and decided to stay on the trip and see how things go, even though we all expected and understood if he wanted to call it and go home. 

Day 4 

Due to my mates hand getting shredded from the reef, we had to fish something that wasn’t as physically intensive on the hands as Garth’s. We went to fish the caves instead this time. 

Glenn loses a mulloway at the rocks

Spangled emperor 

Lose a big Spangled Emperor 

Get another Spangled Emperor 

Get a baldchin on pieces of crab (best bait) 

Shark Mackerel are around. They hit most lures when they’re fired up but the best lure for them are lead-head jigs. One of the guys makes his own but I buy Big John’s.. Great lures. They have a decent gauge hook which you need to dead lift the fish onto the reef ledge or to be able to then grab the leader. 

I Lose a Spaniard at the rocks. 

I Lose a Shark Mackerel on the 5000 Stella- FG fails. Shame on me. 

We Lose another shark mackerel to a shark. Adam lands a fucking big Shark Mack head 

We land another shark mackerel, two kept. Terrible walk out with a fish bag. Anyone’s that’s climbed the caves knows it’s basically Gallipoli without machine guns. 

Day 5

We had every intention of fishing at Garth’s. My mate reckons he could do it. Once we got there, there were 2 cars already parked up and another just behind us. We opted to fish Camp Rock instead. Because the track down has collapsed completely, we parked at the top and walked down. It’s a long walk. 

We had a wicked session on the reef fish and where the sun touched the water it was baitfish galore. We quickly got 3 shark Mack’s of average size , 2 Estuary cod, 3 Spangled emperor, two decent one small.  

We also landed 2 Baldchin. Kev earned the nickname “The Extractor” 

I hooked a monster fish on a crab (cod?). It had me under a ledge for several minutes, tried free-spooling, tried holding tension, tried different angles. Eventually managed to get it out but the leader popped as I was trying the get it to the ledge to land it. Didn’t get a look but it was BIG. Out of breath, my backs caning, the flies are trying to eat my eye jelly. Just a standard Quobba day. 

I tied 8 leader knots + cournless rigs from being snagged and busting off, sharked etc. 

I started off impartial to it, progressed up to near on having a psychotic break, then went to delirious. 

Long endurance test on the walk out 

• No photos. 
  

Day 6

We got there at stupid o’clock. First ones there 

Once we are at the bottom we could see headlights over the top, then another set, then another set. Only one other group decided to join us. “If you ain’t first, you’re last” -  Ricky Bobby

It was pretty quiet until first light. We got a decent spangled emperor straight up, then Adam got a big Cobia. No sharks around yet thank god because it was a traumatic gaff experience with the swell rolling the fish around everywhere and you’re trying to precision strike it with a piece of spaghetti. I got a decent spangled emperor 66cm on a crab. I’ve nailed some good fish on crabs this trip. 

We got another couple of decent spangled emperor (4 total) until the shark Mack’s came in. Really green water now from the swell. We’ve kept our fair share so we just let them go. They were working the light line on the water and then cruising up and down the white wash foam. Fair few Mack tuna around but we only landed one. You really need to downsize your lure for Mack tuna as they’re fixated on 2 inch glassy minnows. 

I started the walk up early with the fish bag over my shoulder as there was a bit of weight, the others caught up when I was about half way up. 

Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. The fish bag is getting heavier. Not the worst problem to have 

Nice drive to camp in the aircon  

 Day 7 

When everyone’s going earlier and earlier to be the first ones down on the rocks, it’s all about intelligence and counter intelligence.  We played Quobba leap frog and were down on the rocks by 3:30. Glenn got a little tailor which was cut up for bait. On first light we bagged 3 decent spangos in quick succession (2 on crab!) which framed the day to be one of the best.. only once the sun came out we didn’t get a sniff. No Cobia, a few hits from shark Mack’s but got sharked or spat the hooks. Mack tuna were working bait all day. 

 Take in the view, chill out for a while. A slow drive back to camp. We bag the fish and divide the catch. One of the guys is from over east and doesn’t fly any fish with him so we get his allocation (He’s welcome any time hahaha). Thanks for taking the time to read and I’ll see you next year! 

Image Upload: