South Hedland And Enormous

Getting out of South Hedland with our supplies it was a ginless wineless trip as we were done by 9.00am and the grog shops do not open till 12 noon due to alcohol laws here in WA, couldn’t be bothered waiting for that.

With only two days dry it was no worries, we decided to make tracks a bit so we bolted to Eighty Mile camp as there is nothing much in between.

Eighty mile camp was awesome, a little more spendie than std but very very well worth it and they had $5 buck icecreams which kept Ellen quiet in the heat.

With fishing on the agenda again I was desperate to break my 007 status (0 fish, 0 talent, 7 hours) and have my status revoked.

On the beach we walked out into the crowd, the beach was busy with fisherman, I went down and talked to a despondent looking guy and another despondent guy, both said pile in and welcome to fish….good luck.

With a bit of a yarn, larfs and chats 15 minutes of trying suddenly my line went tight, the handbrake on my reel started fizzing backwards, as I only have a $30 5 foot telescopic rod it bent very sharply very quickly so I very quickly lowered it down to inline with the line and kept the tension on, ol mate on my left saw this going on and reeled in straight away...good bloke.

I walked past two more guys under and over then back towards where I came from, walking backwards up the beach to keep tension on the line, handbrake fizzing flat stick then relaxing I kept the line as tort as possible to avoid a shock on the line and snapping.

This had a good feel to it and I was only about 10 minutes into it, the guy beside me giving big advice, my arms were tiring despite my improved strength from riding the sidecar.

Still tight lined and still the reel was fizzing out then relaxing, repeat, I kept my mind on the job expecting the line to go limp any second as I lost my nearly catch.

Ellen had gone for a walk along the beach so was nowhere in sight for the big moment unfortunately.

By this time the focus from the beach was on me..or more to the point watch I was trying to reel in…no pressure eh, I continued walking backwards, reeling in, walking backwards reeling in then suddenly it appeared on the surf scooting along the top on the edge of the waves which gave me the advantage as it had lost traction however now more than ever my line could just snap.

I was flat stick reeling in all the time trying to keep the line tort, ol mate next to me said keep it going mate so I picked up my pace walking backwards and reeling in….gezz I didn’t have a lot left then and it was about 30 degrees so getting a sweat on.

He walked in nearly to his nuts (lucky he was tall) when it got in close enough and he grabbed it dragging/lifting it from the water, again I am still reeling in with the catch landed, ol mate walking towards with my blue whale with a massive grin.

First thing I asked, is it edible?, he just looked at me and said fuck yeah!!   

It was a Threadfin King Salmon, 10 kg or 22lb and a little over 1200 mm long.

Could not believe it…nor could either of the guys either side of me.

I was absolutely fizzed, about a 15 minute fight to land it and my arms quite tired.

Taking my blue whale back to fish cleaning area I was asked “what bait did you use”?, me..some shit a guy gave us yesterday…

What size line do you have?, me..blue stuff

What rod are you using?, me..this one, 5 foot telescopic

What …that one?, me…yeah…

Dude..”fuckoff”.. sounding surprised, my apparent lack of skill and inadequate/inappropriate gear apparently not up to spec for the big boys.

Another fisherman who was worthy was laughing saying you don’t need exy stuff to land a hungry fish.

Now, he said do you have a knife?, me yeah pulling out my pocket knife, laughing at me he said nah, then he said have you filleted one of these before, me…nup never caught one before.

OK, he said, I will be back in a minute with a friend and some gear, they returned and filleted the fish and cut in into the portions, as we did not have a fridge so we gave him the other half of the fish which he wouldn’t accept till we said we have no way of keeping it chilled, he accepted with a huge grin on his face and extremely thankful.

The evening drew in and we took all the trimmings, tail, fins, back of the head meat which covered the entire bar b q which was about 1200 long x 600 wide and everyone who came past had a feed and we still had all our fillets which we froze overnight.

In between hauling in the blue whale we had met other travellers, Francois and Christine, they had a leaking water tank which helped him seal, ultimately he got it sorted but we swapped numbers as we are all headed in the same direction.

The stunning beach making a perfect sunset viewing platform.

Heading north again after having my 007 status revoked in style Barn Hill station was next on the list, it was a very warm trip nudging 37 degrees, we were stopping every 60-70km to re-hydrate with me just about drinking more than Скиппи per 100 km.