Surf Casting and Angling Club of W.A. (Inc.) March 2000 Fishing Field Day:- Bluff Creek.

Well Bluff Creek could not come fast enough for me as I had been looking forward to this trip for some time with the prospect of catching one of my favourite fish, salmon, Karen and I headed down on the Thursday night after work and arrived in good time. After we set up a rough camp it was time for bed. In the morning we finished setting up and headed to the beach for a look and the first thing I was looking for was my salmon which I found in no time at all, as there was a large school just down the beach. Within about two casts I was on to my first salmon for the trip - a nice fish of around 5 kg. After watching carefully, Karen wanted to have a go, so I connected her to a salmon and with some gentle coaching she landed it in no time, this was also a nice fish of around 5 kg. Sadly this school moved out of casting range within a short time so we had to find another school. This didn't take long as the schools where all along the beach and as we moved along we managed a couple of fish from each school.

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

About mid afternoon we where joined by Ian, Derry and Hunter and then as the night progressed members slowly started to arrive with the last few arriving on Saturday. Most members where keen to get going after the sign on and Karen and I had two nice salmon on the beach within about 10 minutes after sign on as there was a school just down the beach, before the school once again moved on. That set the scene for the rest of the afternoon, catching and releasing salmon, before we had enough then I went looking for skippy which is one of my other favourite fish to catch. Within about half an hour I had located some nice size skippy in a hole next to the reef and managed 16 nice ones before it went quiet and we headed back to camp.

In the morning after a fairly heavy night of telling jokes and great social activity in the camp area the boys started fairly slowly and Karen and I decided to have a restful morning and socialise some more and enjoy the nice weather. We went for a drive along the beach but as things where slow we didn't bother throwing in a line. Lunchtime back at camp was good with members gathering for a b.b.q. and rest period with some members having an afternoon nap and other going fishing again.

We caught a few nice fish but generally it was slow. Karen had an accident Sunday afternoon and hurt her back badly so we packed up and I took her into Albany for a bit of attention. We headed home Monday morning and had a very good run with traffic for a holiday Monday. I would like to thank Ian Cook for running the weigh in for me.

Darren Batchelor Field Day Officer

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Tall Tales from Bluff Creek

After departing Sorrento shortly after 8:00pm Friday, with the Nissan Patrol towing George's work trailer, we purchased a spare battery locally ... just in case.

George, Dave and Ken were the crew aboard that night, eagerly looking forward to a weekend of rest and bountiful fishing. We found that during the night, the Southern folk weren't too keen to sell coffee or petrol, so it was mostly BYO.

It was wise to share the driving, so that we could all have a bit of a snooze along the way. Upon arriving at the sandhills in the early morning, George started to handicap two of his competitors (namely Dave and Ken) or were we being trained for rugby league? Tyres were let down, paths were chosen, again tyres were let down, tracks were rechosen. Dave was asked to get out at one stage and he replied "I can't, there's a sheer wall next to the door".

So backing up in the dark in the soft sand was exercised. I soon learnt that they speak a different language in that part of the world! On the beach we were shown council work, and asked kindly not to dig for oil, the digging was followed by lessons of running board surfing, intermixed with southern language lessons. Dave and I were catching on fast. It was a real shame when those lessons were finished as we drove up the creek on the running boards where our feet were kindly washed. Airlines should take note.

The camp stretcher took forever to put together but once assembled, and the sleeping bag upon it, I didn't care if it was up hill, down hill or side ways. It was 4:00am and well past Bluff Creek Council working hours. Curious onlookers greeted us with a cup of tea a short time later, thanks to Andy Thorgerson. Somebody put our tent up .. or was it us?

A quick drive up the beach without the trailer on and then the sign on and ceremonies and it was back to bed until late arvo. Our interrogation methods revealed nothing as we spoke to fellow club members along the beach, that evening, everybody had a secret spot! So we tried the secret spot, which produced mainly herring, required for our big rigs, but I'd rather not talk about that, as by the time I prepared it the water disappeared and seaweed similar to fishing line tangled the rig every time.

So our program became rising after Morris' departure in the morning, having breakfast, harassing fellow members along the beach fishing, returning for Sunday's BBQ lunch which was a real bonus for us council workers, I thought, and I enjoyed the company. A bath after that, a snooze and then I found Harry, happy to be alone in the tent, also on his first trip to Bluff Creek. I enjoyed talking to Harry, who had questions to ask, which I answered the best that I could. Harry was there, keen and trying.

We were off again, fishing - you guessed it! Dave was setting a steady pace, happiest of all when he had a big skippy on his line. I think it was Sunday night when our rugby coach said what I thought was "I'm going along the beach". What he did say was "There's fish along the beach." A large wave had barrelled my bucket of fish and the bait bucket. Dave lost at least one large skippy, bait was lost, I'm not sure about mine. Another lesson, I thought. George had about 8 large skippy spit the hooks on him, I had about 6 spit the hooks, but Dave steadily reeled them in.

I caught my first salmon on Monday morning, intermixed with herring, so that was cutting it fine. So from there it was a quick clean up and off to the weigh-in, from which we farewelled most of our members. After storing the fish and having a bite to eat, we were back on the beach for fun fishing with Wayne and his dad, Gerhard and his son Christopher. Herring were on for a while, but Dave was itching to get back to those skippies .. until he caught more salmon. In fact everyone caught salmon except me!

Now, I had been using my home-built rod, which I made in December 1999 and I was very happy with it catching small and large fish. I was alone fishing on a windy beach as George and Dave were above me talking next to the car, when I noticed a school of fish moving very quickly in a rising wave. So I started to work the rod and bang, the fish took off like an express train. This had my friends behind me very excited and after a few good runs from the fish I thought, "You watch this!" As the fish was running out, I turned around and grinned at George and Dave. Sure enough. No! No! No! "Don't look back!" "Keep looking ahead!" Keep your eyes on the fish!" I've never seen George so excited when he saw the pink snapper 5.4 kg landed on the beach. He gave me the biggest handshake and congrats.

So after a quick weigh-in of Gerhard's salmon, Christopher's salmon, my snapper, photos, a quick fish clean up, we were off with Wayne back to Dave's skippy. I had no skin left on my line-retaining finger at this stage, so the Alvey was swapped onto the big rod. It was now very windy, but I didn't notice it much once the big skippy were biting. I found the Alvey wasn't going to let any skippy take the line amongst the rocks and my glasses were soon crusted with salt. After tangling with Dave's line, I decided to call a night and let him enjoy his skippy fishing. Wayne was further along in the darkness somewhere!

That night we had a very pleasant celebration with a bottle of red to accompany Dave's cooking. The next morning we left in a convoy, and you guessed it, were Dave and Ken being punished for fishing as we did? More council work and rugby training and southern language skills. The trailer was back on so we were relegated to the rear of the convoy. I think it had something to do with the wind direction?

Wayne showed us another road home, which took in the majestic Porongerups and the Stirling Ranges. We again shared the driving on the return trip, which was somewhat warmer. Sadly we were back at Sorrento, faced with unpacking. After a quick cup of coffee with Kaye and a phone call to Marcelle (who didn't believe a word of it!) I was on my way home and thinking of Bluff Creek next year.

Hope to see you there.

Ken Black

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Bluff Creek 2000

It was a dark and still morning when we pulled off Tonkin Highway for our 5am rendezvous with Wayne Morris. Wayne's plan was simple: "I go at 100kph, and I stop in Kojonup." We could not keep up, so we met him in Kojonup where we had sumptuous cooked breakfast. The promise of this breakfast was the only thing that made Kelly (7) want to come on the trip. We lost Wayne again on the way to Mt Barker, but stuck closely behind him for his scenic short cut past the Porongerups. We followed his dust cloud less closely along a few dirt roads, sometimes slowing at intersections to look for his dust.

We eventually arrived at the end of the Bluff Creek road, and after a short trip through a huge patch of flowering banksias, stopped to lower our tyre pressures. This was part of the trip I was looking forward to, as my Landcruiser has spent pitifully little time off-road, as I only like to go off-road in company (and there's a story behind this). Here was my big chance to do some sand driving in company. I enjoyed the drive down to the beach, and along the beach to the campsite.

We arrived just in time to sign on, then proceeded to put up our massive tent, after which I needed a sleep while Mary-Anne amused the kids playing Boules. Despite some pestering from Chris (10) when I woke, we did no fishing that day, and I cooked dinner instead.

The next morning I had no excuses and Chris and I were off to the beach to fish. We stopped at the point closest to the camp so that the girls could meet us if they came down to the beach. We soon discovered that the whitebait we were using as bait in the hope of catching skippy was falling off the hooks very readily, but I found some squid in the bottom of the Engel. The squid seemed to work just as well as whitebait for herring, and stayed on through several fish. One skippy even fell to it.

The girls did join us, but the onshore wind and surge made using the little rod I'd brought for Kelly completely out of the question, and she had no hope of even holding onto the huge beach rods. Mary-Anne did catch a herring after I cast the bait, but I don't think hauling in a herring which she could not even feel fighting over the weight of the sinker was a really big thrill.

At 11am we repaired to the camp for the BBQ lunch. I had presumed that this would be a social gathering, and that one of the trailers might disgorge a massive BBQ and a pile of wood, but it seemed the trailers were full of such necessities as chests of ice, so each group barbecued separately on gas cookers.

That afternoon I cleaned the fish I hadn't had time to clean in the rush to lunch, and played with the kids on the beach. We had herring for dinner, and with the kids in bed Mary-Anne and I spent the evening and night putting the side up the tent back up as the wind blew it over. We once had to put the tent out when the wind blew the side against the gas lamp.

The next morning Chris and I were off at dawn, planning for a big breakfast after the weigh-in. We fished the same spot near the camp, this time with ganged hooks in the hope of a salmon, and a single suicide for the squid. Chris did really well, with plenty of double headers as the herring attacked his mulie, or perhaps just the empty ganged hooks. I stopped fishing at 8.30, and still did not have all the fish cleaned by 9am.

Monday's weigh-in was very interesting, as we saw the entire group assembled for the first time, and we saw all their fish. The lesson seemed to be to spend as much time as possible with your line in the water (as Tony did) rather than race around looking for salmon. After the weigh-in and our large cooked breakfast, I just felt like relaxing again, but Chris dragged me back to the beach to fish. I went on the condition that we fished for salmon, and any herring were returned to the water, as by now I was sick of cleaning them. Most of the group had left for Perth by now, but George Holman and Wayne Morris's parties were staying, and thankfully fished the spot closest to camp where the girls could walk down to the beach.

When I went to ask George his opinion on the weight of sinker I should be using with my rod, he gave me a rig including one of the club favourite "bucket style" sinkers. On my first cast this was taken by a salmon which put up a huge fight, taking me right down the beach and under George's line. The thrill was worth a weekend of resurrecting the tent.

Impressed by the holding ability of the clubs sinkers, I went and borrowed another for Chris, then attended to gutting my fish. I was worried about the flack I would get from Chris if I caught a salmon and he did not, but my prayers were answered when Chris saw some salmon swim by, cast to them, and hooked one. He had an even more spectacular fight (possibly because his drag was set too light) with the fish leaping in the surf, and again taking him right along the beach. He eventually landed it, so father and son had landed their first salmon within about 15 minutes.After cleaning the fish we decided not to be greedy, and went back to camp, only to find out the shortly after we left, Ken Black landed a 5.4kg snapper. Our fish came out at 3.8 and 4kg, with Chris being very cheeky about catching the larger fish.

Departure the next morning was planned for 9am. We started breakfast and packing at 6am, and were ready by 8.30, when George announced that his group were heading to the creek for a wash, and I wished I'd left our toiletries a little closer to the top of the pile. Washing had not been high on our agenda, as when I had told the kids where we were going for the weekend, Chris said, "Beaut, there might be snakes," to which Kelly said: "I'm not going."

So with the stories about snakes down at the creek, I had not forced a wash on anyone, but was beginning to see the error of this approach.

The trip back along the beach was marred only by George getting stuck briefly at soft spots entering and leaving the beach, due to his trailer. However, the drive was great and the scenery beautiful. Many thanks to the organisers, and all the people who offered advice on fishing or logistics, it was a memorable trip.

Gerhard Saueracker

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Bluff Creek

Friday: a beautiful sunny day and four glorious days to fish... OH WHAT A FEELING...

After a pleasant but uneventful trip, we finally arrived at our destination and, after signing on, I spoke to Darren and I said to him "How do you know the difference between the weed and the salmon??" He replied "It's quite easy, follow me." So with Roy in tow, we proceeded to follow him and sure enough, he stopped, and out with his rod, he cast in and low and behold, he had a salmon on his line and onto the shore.

Roy and I still had mulie rigs on so by the time we changed to slices and charged into the water (ok, maybe not charged, after all, two old veterans, one with a limp...) Darren said, "it's all over, they've moved on." Meanwhile Darren was not happy with the salmon size and threw the fish back into the sea (neither of us saw him kissing it). Roy and I were confident that we would know what to do at the next sighting, but by the time we reached the end of the beach, we did not see them anymore and the number one lesson was over.

Roy and I decided to put on whitebait rigs and we stood on the rocks to try our luck for skippy and herring and we were doing quite well (even if I say so myself) but the waves were getting bigger and bigger and when one bowled me over, we decided to look for a safer area to fish. We found a nice spot on the beach but no luck and we moved two or three times with the same result each time.

Eventually, we passed five or six other people, who had just landed a salmon, and I suggested to Roy to turn around and go back. We parked the ute about 100 yards from them and the salmon moved in front of us. Roy was in first with his cast and had a salmon on and I followed shortly afterwards with one on. In my haste to reel it in quickly, I snapped the line and Roy lost his first salmon also. I ran back to the ute (amazing how fast I can run when I see fish!) to rerig and by the time I came back, Roy had one on the beach and another coming in. I cast into the school of fish and I hooked one up almost immediately and that one was safely in. OH WHAT A FEELING...

The other guys, with their short rods had little chance getting into the main school and one of them pointed out to me that there was a shark that was keeping the salmon close to us. I briefly caught glimpses of it. In my confidence I was bragging a bit (or maybe a lot) that this was how it was done. As I loaded to rod for a full cast, I heard: W A C K and Roy said he could see my sinker going about 400 metres and I told the others that maybe this is not quite how it was done after all...

I had to return to the ute to re-rig, and I chose to put a slice on this time. Result, the next three casts produced three salmon (do I sound like I'm bragging? - you bet I am!). Roy still had one to go and asked if he could use my rod and slice as the wind was picking up and he wasn't reaching the school with the mulie rig. On his second cast with the slice, he had his number four in the bag. With fate accomplished, we told a few members where the school was and a few more were caught out of that school. A better Saturday I couldn't have wished for.

Morris Kolman.

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Attendance: Seniors - 25, Juniors - 1, Mini Juniors - 4, Visitors - 0.

Total weight:- 137.1 kg - weighed in gilled and gutted.

Field Day Prizes.

Section Winners.

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

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This page last updated 4 August 2001.

Display of this page was updated on 21 January 2013. Contents updated as above.

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