We were up early as we had a big day in front of us. After
we dropped Gator of, again...hope she doesn’t get a complex, we headed towards
Steep Point. Not only is Steep Point and awesome fishing destination, for
reasons that will become apparent, but it is also the most westerly point of
mainland Australia. The ranger had told us that the road was ‘pretty chopped
up, horrible really’ so we were prepared for the worst of it.
We started wonder
what these West Australians were on after 100km of dirt road, that while it was
corruagated couldn’t have been much worse than the Bruce Highway in places!
Admittedly after ‘the bridge’ it got quite a bit rougher it still wasn’t as
bone shatteringly bad as I was expecting.
We reached the ranger station and had
set up camp in time for a late lunch. After a bit of exploring we headed out to
‘Steep Point’ itself as we were camped in a sandy bay about 10km short of the
point itself.
There were a few tracks running of the main one and very few
of them had signs saying where they were going so I ventured down the one that
took us to what I thought would lead to us the Western Most Point...we got out
took some pictures
and then looked to the north....and there was a big sign
about 500m away...Ok everybody back in and we drove round to the sign and did
it all over again!
We then headed around to the northern edge of the point for
a look around. The edge is a massive rock ledge that the fisherman occupy and
what I have really been looking forward to seeing. As we came closer we could
see a few big helium balloons bobbing around in the wind and I knew I was in
luck! I won’t explain it in too much depth but, there are four things that make
this an awesome fishing spot.
- There is a fault line that runs between Steep Point and Dirk Harthog Island creating a massive shelf that fish love to hang around. Especially big Mackerel!
- The winds are pretty decent (as they are in WA) and come from behind the ledge where you fish. This allows you to use helium balloons to carry your bait out. Once out there the balloon holds the bait on top of the water and it splashes along the top. The Mackerel love this and it is not uncommon to see them jump up out of the water chasing the bait.
- You fish off a 15m tall cliff. This helps the balloon fishing but I really liked it as you could see the lures coming through the water and the fish chasing them! Awesome
- The great group of blokes, lead by Frank, that were happy to have us invade their fishing camp and teach me about balloon fishing!
Frank gave us the grand tour of the cliffs with one of the
boys hooking a Mack up from one of their balloon rigs while we were there. It
was cool to watch them bring it in and then I have to admit to being at least
partly petrified as one of them climbed out over the edge of the ledge so he
could lower down a ‘cliff gaff’ to drag it up on. Meanwhile the other 6 blokes
were standing around with rocks in hand ready to throw to ‘discourage’ any
sharks that might think it is their dinner!
Just as we were about to leave one of the boys accidently
hooked up a gigantic groper and while there was absolutely no chance of lifting
this 100kg+ behemoth out of the water I was truly worried that he was going to
go for a swim! Eventually the line broke but not before a couple of minor heart
palpitations!
Frank invited us to come back in the morning when they would
hopefully be on the chew!
We headed back to camp and the boys walked out to a small
peninsula beside where we were camping and had a great time casting plastics.
While they didn’t have any success they enjoyed the freedom of being able to
cast to their hearts desire...which they can’t do in the boat.
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| It was a cracking sunset and the way the rays shone made it look like a sun the way a kid would draw it. |
The wind had reaaalllllyy reaallllyy blown up over the
afternoon and evening and for the remainder of the night I was worried that the
tent might take off, with us and all of our gear in it...it really was that
windy!! When we eventually went to bed we laid there with sand all around. Our
tent has a permanent fly screen under the annexe on one end and on top of the
tent. While this is exceptional on a rainy humid night in Queensland it is far
from effective, unless I am sand mining, as it only allows the really really
find sand in, which is the stuff that finds its way into every orifice and I am
positive I will still be trying to extract in a couple of months! While it
wasn’t the best night sleep, as the wind didn’t let up one little bit, it
didn’t matter (for me at least) as we were heading to Steep Point to go fishing
1st thing in the morning!
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