Despite having one of the worst nights sleep in my life and
a head ache that felt like somebody was putting a 4’ nail into my right eye I
was bright as a button as I climbed out of bed and tried to cook the boys
frozen eggs for breakfast!
We packed up and headed out to see Frank and the boys ready
and keen to catch a Mack. While the wind was still strong it was coming a
little more from the west making balloon fishing a bit hard as it blows them
across the cliff rather than straight out. They managed to land a small one
just as we arrived and after the commotion and a few more heart palpitations as
they used the cliff gaff I got myself ready and had my first cast with one of
my favourite lures. I was feeling a touch uneasy as I was perched about 50cm
back from what could be called certain death (which is about 150cm back from
where the cliff gaffer perches himself).
As I reeled it in I was admiring the
way the lure was swimming when out of the deep a shiny figure chased it and
bang....really I thought....on my first cast. But unfortunately it didn’t take
the lure so I cast again I had hardly started reeling, before I could see it,
when I got hit again..bang...bugger no hook up....really...is this the way its
going to be...ummm nup...
After about another ½ hour I managed to get a Long Tom on
the lure and there was a flurry of activity and soon there were 5 guys around
me with one of them climbing over the edge of the cliff to use the cliff gaff.
Long toms are pretty skinny so it was hard to get with the gaff and eventually
we lost it, but they aren’t real good eating, so I was told, so no real
disappointment! About 2 hours later I had only hooked up another long tom that
managed to escape and the boys came over and had 4 or 5 casts each and gave up
as their arms was so tired! De then had about 10 casts and deemed it enough,
due to the proximity of the cliff!
After about 2 ½ hours I could see the troops
were getting a bit restless so I said 10 more casts to the boys. About this
time one of ‘Franks Boy’s’ bought over some soft drinks for the boys and a beer
for me. They sat down for a chat while I had a beer and continued to cast.
About 10 minutes (well past my 10 casts) later BANG I was on and this time it
was the real deal! I steadied myself as the line streamed of my reel – this was
no long tom!
I slowly tightened the drag as I saw the glisten on a nice
Spanish Mackerel come to the surface. Frank’s boys swung into action with
ropes, gaffs and rocks all being gathered as the remainder hopped across the
rocky surface as fast as they could. He made a couple of good dashes for it but
as I was only using 50lb braid I couldn’t risk using brute strength to bring
him in. After 4 or 5 runs he tired and i had to move a couple of meters to my
right and a bit closer to the egde (really??) so that the cliff gaffer (I think
it was Sam from Salmon Gum’s doing the honour) could get a good look at him.
Needless to there was lots of chatter and on the second or third go they
managed to gaff him and he (or she) was dragged up the 15m cliff. I was pretty
excited and even happier to be away from the edge of that cliff!
High fives abounded and I am sure De sighed a big sigh of
relief as I had ticked that one off the bucket list (it’s a bloody long way
back to have a second crack)! After a couple of pics we headed and more
congratulations from all of the boys we grabbed Mack and headed to filleting
table. These guys have been coming here for 15 years and have got the set up
almost perfect. They have a submersible pump in the sea water that runs water
up to a bathtub that keeps the fish fresh while they continue to fish. The
table is at an awesome height, not that it mattered, as Frank was just
finishing of their mornings catch and offered to do mine as well!
15 minuted
later we had 8 meals worth of mackerel steaks bagged up and ready to go! It was
hard work watching Frank so the boys and I had a dip in their pool...yep they
have a pool...before we packed up our gear, said a MASSIVE thank you and headed
back to camp!
I was still bouncing from the excitement as we had left
overs for lunch and then De and I sat and read our books, glancing up
occasionally as the boys spent the next three hours casting their lures. While
I occasionally had to swim out and unsnag a lure I was amazed by their persistence.
I was so much hoping that they would get something but unfortunately they
missed out.
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| A drawing by Sam of this mornings catch |
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| We thought there was a message in the clouds |
We had fresh Mackerel steaks for dinner and while the wind
had dropped significantly from the previous evenings efforts it was only at
gale level rather than full blown cyclone so the amount of sand coating us was
down to a ute load rather than the previous evenings semi trailer full!
You almost make me want to cast a line. Good work!
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