Today I was up before Dad was even out of bed. Then I made breakfast for myself, and because Dad and mum weren't out of bed I had the whole kitchen to myself. After about an hour everyone was up and taking things to the car.
Then we drove to Cape Le Grande. It is one the the most beautiful beaches in the world according to some people. We arrived and were soon walking along the white sanded beach. I saw loads of small dead Mackerel and Garfish. Dad reckons some big fish were feeding on these small fish and a big wave came along and dumped all the small fish on the beach.
We crossed a little creek of outflowing water and proceeded along the beach. Then we turned back and were walking along the beach when I noticed a person in the water trying to catch something. Another person was saying "You won't catch the salmon that way." to the other person.
Then I happened to look up and in the next wave that was about to break I saw dozens and dozens of fish that were up to 1 meter long swimming around inside the wave. Well you can imagine my excitement after seeing this sight repeated over and over what with me being a fisherman and all. The sight of fish is enough to make me excited, but big fish just about drive me crazy. Dad said that the fish were feeding and sure enough, out behind the next breaking wave there were splashes of white water as the big fish were churning the water to foam chasing little baitfish. When fish start feeding it usually means action.
Today I was right. I asked Dad if we could do a spot of fishing and he said yes. Dad and I went up to the car and drove it down on the beach. Then we put our fishing rods together and I put a poppa on. Then we took off our boots and just about ran to the water. As we were entering the water I saw two big fish of about 80cm in length swimming away towards the breakers. This was in water that was barley ankle deep. Quick as a flash I cast my lure and started retrieving my poppa.
One of the fish heading out to sea must have grabbed my lure because, next thing I knew I was hanging onto a rod that was doubled over and a reel that was buzzing as the fish raced toward the wherever it wanted to go, taking my line with it. I couldn't stop it and within a 40 seconds the fish was 50 meters away and had shaken my lure. Disappointed but not disheartened I hurriedly did another cast. I was just as well that I didn't catch a fish as, after I reeled my poppa in I noticed that the front hook had been bent. The hook had been bent from vertical to 45 deg. If a fish had grabbed it again it probably would have straightened the hook out.
After that I had a hit from a smaller fish but no more hookups where had. Dad didn't even have a hookup all the time we were at the beach. Then we packed up and drove to Hellfire Bay.
At hellfire Bay the first thing I did was get my fishing gear ready in hope of hooking another fish. There were rocks in this bay. Dad and I went fishing off the rocks. After half an hour we had still caught nothing. I gave fishing away after 45 minutes and joined Andrea down at the sand and rocks.
We found cuttle fish bones. The bones were shaped like boats. Andrea and I tested the boats to their absolute limit. With each wave the rocks that were bunched up in the water were turned into a sort of white water rapids and currents and pools. The boats capsized regularly and were soon water logged.
After that we drove to Lucky Bay. It was absolutely magnificent with shallow turquoise water and it's abundance of fish. We had lunch and then walked down to the beach. Mum reckoned that she saw a snake. When we arrived at the beach we started fishing. Suddenly all these Garfish come leaping out of the water one wave after the other. This went on for several minutes. I think that there was a big fish chasing all the garfish, forcing them to jump out of the water.
I managed to catch a Garfish that was about 30 cm long. Dad has heard that Garfish make good eating so we kept it for our entree. Then while I was on top of a rock I saw a a school of big fish cruise in to the bay. I blooped a poppa right through their midst but they weren't interested. Neither Dad nor I could get the fish to hook themselves. We tried all manner of lures but the fish would not bite. One had a fair go at my lure but I didn't hook it. It jumped clean out of the water after my lure.
We didn't catch anything after the Garfish and soon headed back to the car. Then we drove to Thistle Cove and Mum said that it was the same beach as Hellfire Bay. She found out that she was wrong after seeing no beach access point. Then we had a look at Whistling Rock. It didn't whistle and we headed back to the caravan after that.
On the way back into Esperance we stopped at a tackle shop and Dad bought some swivels and some new lures. Then Mum had to go to Brumby's bakery to get something. While she did that Dad and I went fishing. We fished off the tanker jetty. We used the squid jigs that we bought yesterday. We caught nothing and when Mum arrived gladly hopped in and tucked into the pizza rolls that Mum had brought us.
Then we drove back to the caravan and filleted the Garfish. After that we had dinner. Dinner was Sausages, fried onions for Mum and Dad and Mashed Potato. For dessert We had a quarter of a vanilla slice and a quarter of a brownie slice each. After that I wrote the blog and went to bed. I slept really well.
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