Surf Casting and Angling Club of W.A. (Inc.) June 2001 Fishing Field Day Report - Bremer Bay

Eight members made the trip down to Bremer Bay for the long weekend with only six of those fishing. There were Tony and Filomena D'Alonzo, John Jardine, Damien D'Mello, and the four of us Woody's. We all drove down on the Friday, with Tony and Filomena camping where they fished and the rest of us breaking with tradition and staying at the Fisheries Beach Caravan Park. This had great facilities including a swimming pool and tennis courts. Best of all the guy running it is a keen fisherman himself and is quite happy to help out with fishing spots etc. Friday evening was overcast with a little drizzle, but by the time we woke up on Saturday morning the sky had cleared and the weather was pretty good. We decided to have a look around before the 12:00 sign on and headed out for a drive around the various fishing spots. Most looked good, but there were no obvious schools of salmon about so we decided to have a quick fish for herring on a great little gutter at Native Dog Beach.

The Club owns an air conditioned holiday house at Kalbarri which is available for rent to the public and club members at competitive rates

I put in a whitebait under a float and within about a minute a saw a great swirl as a three kilo salmon took the bait. I had to play it very carefully as I was only using a small herring hook on four kilo line, but after a bit of careful maneuvering I managed to get the salmon on to the beach. I quickly ran to the car and re-rigged with a 5/0 gang and mulie and passed the rod to Emily. Not a great cast but the water was deep close in and would you believe it another salmon hit. With some on the spot coaching and encouragement Emily managed to beach her first salmon, which again was around the three kilo mark.

Click on the image for a larger photo of Emily and her salmon.

Despite re-baiting and letting Molly have the next few casts we didn't manage to get another salmon before we had to leave for the sign on.

After the sign on we headed back to Native Dog Beach, but the tide had changed and the salmon were no longer there. We spent the remainder of the afternoon trying out various spots, but without too much success.

Damien and John tried out a couple of good looking rock fishing spots, but also had only limited success.

Tony and Filomena had headed off to Reef Beach, where nothing much happened until after dark, when he got stuck into two beautiful tailor of around the two and a half kilo mark, along with his bag limit of salmon.

On the Sunday Damien and John were heading off to a secret and supposedly hot rock fishing spot in search of a big samson fish. I didn't think that it would be a good idea to have the kids spend the day perched on a cliff ledge so we decided to head off up to Point Charles for some skippy. It's also such a brilliant drive along some of the best beaches in the world, with the mountains on one side and the clear turquoise ocean on the other. We headed up through the National Park to Point Anne and then along the beach to Point Charles. I spent about an hour or so there, catching skippy, blackfish, and one of the biggest herring that I've ever seen. It was 300mm long and weighed in a 300grammes, gilled and gutted. After being called back to the beach where Lara and the girls had waited patiently for me.

The ranger stopped for a chat and we managed to get some good mud maps of the area from him. From these we found out that instead of going back through the park, we could drive along the beach to Point Anne, up onto the road, around the headland and back down onto Trigalow Beach. From there you can drive all the way along the beach until you reach the Doubtful Island headland, where you turn off onto a good four wheel drive track, and then unsealed road, which eventually brings you back to the river mouth at Bremer Bay. Then it's a simple matter of cutting across the sand bar and you home. It's not only a much nicer drive than coming back through the park, but a quicker route as well.

All up we must have covered sixty kilometers of beach and in that time didn't see one salmon school.

Damien and John returned back to the campsite at around the same time as us on Sunday evening and although they hadn't managed to get any samson fish they did have some good skippy and blackfish. Later that evening they went down the Fisheries Beach Jetty and caught some very good squid for tea.

Lara, the kids and I didn't fish on the Monday morning as it had started to rain and we wanted to get packed before the weigh in. John and Damien went looking for salmon, but without success.

At the weigh in Tony showed us all how it was supposed to be done yet again, with what can only be described as a magnificent bag of fish that included two huge tailor and four very nice salmon.

There was nothing shabby about the remainder of the bags weighed in either though, with some very nice skippy putting in an appearance.

I know that five and a half hours from Perth might seem like a long way to go, but when the fishing has as much potential as is offered at Bremer Bay, it always surprises me that more people don't make the effort and attend.

I don't know if you've heard, but this will be my last field day as FDO, as I will be working overseas for a while. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everybody for their help over the past year. Special thanks to Mat Sneddon, for looking after the local side of things and a really big thank you to Cookie, who's advice and help have made the position a pleasure rather than a chore.

Mat Sneddon will be standing in for the remainder of the club year, but if anybody out there would like to stand for FDO next year then please give me or Cookie a call. I can honestly say that it's the best committee post going and gives the perfect excuse to get away fishing at least once a month.

Cheers.

Andy Woodford, Field Day Officer.
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Attendance: Seniors - 5, Juniors - 0, Mini Juniors - 2, Visitors - 0.

Total fish weight:- 40.9 kg - weighed in gilled and gutted.

It should be noted that many members are now choosing to fish for the sport and not the competition. These members are following the catch and release ethic, and although they choose not to weigh in, it doesn't mean they are not catching plenty of fish. Competition rules in 2001/2002 allow them to catch and release and still get field day points.

Masters Fish.

Copyright © 2001 Surf Casting and Angling Club of W.A. (Inc.)

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