On our return from our recent trip to Port
Vincent, Linda and I stopped off in Adelaide with friends. On the Sunday we went out in the bay on their
50’ wooden ex navy boat. The fish
weren’t plentiful, but we did catch some sea garfish and 14 monstrous blue
swimmer crabs, which we cooked and devoured whilst at sea.
We left Adelaide next morning and rejoined
with my sister and brother in-law, Elaine & Hugh, for breakfast at the BP
servo just south of Tailem Bend, which I can recommend for anyone passing that
way. From there we travelled through
the Coonawarra winery region to Mt. Gambier and onto to Doug McFarlane country,
(Nelson) on the Glenelg River. We had a
quick look around town and booked into a cabin located a short distance from a
boat ramp. We ate well and then played a card game, called “O shit”, which my
sister introduced us to and provided many laughs.
The next morning, Linda and
I were up early and headed flat-out to the river for a spot of fishing. In fact
I was in such a hurry that it slipped my mind to put the bung in the boat. Not too much drama as only being a small boat,
it didn’t take too long to bucket out the intake of river water. We headed off up the river, not knowing where
to go or what to expect. I stopped at
what looked like a good fishy spot, (by chance) and my first 4 casts landed
quality bream. Linda caught a couple of
smallish bream but then had a huge hook up and run, only to be broken off. I
kept casting to the same spot and hooked up every time, but only to face the
same dilemma and be broken off. Linda
persevered in what I thought was the nursery and with another big hook up and
run managed to keep the fish away from the rocks. We thought this had to be a good size bream,
so with net in hand, I was barking all sorts of orders (which she took no
notice) and landed a beautiful silver 50cm mulloway. Linda repeated her luck one more time, before
we had to lift anchor and head back. We
had a most exciting 2 hours, but sadly didn’t get to taste a mulloway as their
legal size is 60cm and ours were set free, to grow for our return next time. I’m sure we will be heading back to the
little fishing paradise.
Kev Minter
