It’s always a worry when you book a fishing charter eight months ahead and then it finally comes down to that one vital, but totally uncontrollable ingredient of the trip, the weather forecast. On the eve of a two-day charter with Mark Wynbergen’s Reef Encounters fishing charter it definitely looked as though the proverbial manure had hit the fan. I was on a rostered day off and as we walked the kids to school I started to wonder what the hell I had done to deserve such crappy weather. The howling south-easterly whistled through the schoolyard, whipping up a dust storm in the normally vibrant playground that now stood completely devoid of hypo, screaming rugrats.
My newfound fear were heightened during the day as the wind continued to build in intensity, causing a blackout at home as trees were torn down all around our suburb. This was early April, this just shouldn’t be happening, the weather would normally be perfect at this time of year. I was half expecting the dreaded phone call from Mark that would leave me searching for something else other than fishing to do on the weekend. It never came, so after the other guys finished work we hit the road for Pondalowie Bay. The wind was still howling as Gary, Shane, Skinny, Tonto, Gary and I let ourselves in the front door of Mark’s shack at Pondalowie Bay. I lay awake for hours, hoping against hope that this wind would die down, but it continued to blow all night.
We had just devoured our bacon and egg breakfast that Mark supplies on the two-day charters when he arrived from Marion Bay with another workmate of ours, Greg Butler, who is also a local to the area. Mark was reasonably concerned about the wind today but was confident that it would drop out overnight. We all agreed on our revised plans, hugging the coast today to stay out of the worst of it, and then putting in a big day tomorrow and heading out wide to Wedge Island once things had calmed down. The wind was still gusting up to thirty knots as Mark ferried us across the protected bay in his tinny and unloaded our gear on board “Freedom II”
Mark’s boat is a 27 foot Cairns Craft hydrofoil assisted cat, which makes for the perfect fishing platform. It is quite big for a 27 footer though, and has more that enough room for eight anglers to fish in comfort due to the full walk-around centre flybridge cabin. The twin 150 Yamahas launch the boat out of the water and when those hydrofoils come into play she really gets up and boogies with a top speed of 38 knots. This can be very important, especially on the long trip to Wedge which “Freedom II” can easily complete within the hour on a reasonable day, which importantly leaves a lot more fishing time for the paying customers.
Our first stop for the day once we left the protection of Pondalowie Bay was to check Mark’s cray pots, which were not
far away at all. If we needed a sign that we were in for a good day it happened as we pulled that first pot, as it contained a ripper of a crayfish to start the morning off on a high note. The second pot contained another two large crays and spirits were suddenly at an all time high.
Stuff the wind, we were ready to roll. We moved round the corner of West Cape to find an inshore ground that wasn’t too badly affected by the wind and swell. Mark anchored in reasonably close to the cliffs on a reefy bottom in 30 metres of water as we baited up and waited for the O.K. It came soon after and we eagerly sent seven paternoster rigs to the bottom.
I was first away with a snapper that was just undersized followed quickly by a 45 centimetre specimen by Tonto. It looked as though our side of the boat was the place to be as Gary, Tonto and I landed legal snapper in quick succession. When Tonto landed a huge sweep he decided it was time to get into Skinny about the lack of action on their side of the boat. This was like waving up a red flag to a bull and soon Skinny’s tally began to mount up, and then very quickly overtook Tonto’s.
Several nannygai decided to join the party, and before long everybody had got into the rhythm in the steep chop and we all began to bring some good fish aboard.
Mark told us that this ground usually held schools of transient fish that were constantly on the move, and that’s the way it panned out with a few snapper being caught followed by a few nannygai. Gary pulled in a beautiful blue devil, a gorgeous looking species that usually lives in caves and ledges. They can be eaten, but who could eat such a beautiful fish, so it was quickly photographed and released. The occasional good-sized trevally made their presence felt, as well as some huge leatherjackets, swallowtail, pike, barracouta and the ever present rock cod. By the end of the weekend we had several new and very colourful names for these pesky bait stealers. All of which could not be printed here.
Gary pulled in a triple-header of two trevally and one nanny on his two hook rig, which we all thought was a pretty neat trick. Butts hooked up to the first of several big black rays that were to give us plenty of trouble as the battled side on in the strengthening current. Then Skinny, who was by now beginning to show off, landed a monster sweep that would have given five pounds a fair nudge. Gary’s son Shane was having a ball on his first
serious fishing trip and was soon into the swing of things, keeping up with the best of them. The non-stop fishing certainly did its best to take our minds off the rough chop and moderate swell that was being thrown up by this incessant south easterly wind.
My next fish did some serious head banging on the way up, but it wasn’t the more rattly bite of a small snapper. After a spirited fight I finally saw colour and it was a magnificent kidney slapping whiting of around 54 centimetres, and I was stoked. Of course Skinny has to go one better and promptly reeled in a 56 centimetre monster which made of quite an impressive duo laying together in the fish bin. Tonto chimed in soon after with a whiting that would normally be considered a snorter at 46 centimetres, but when placed next to the other two it looked decidedly small. Action had slowed a little so Mark called for a move just as another huge black ray slammed my half pillie, which in turn delayed our departure for over twenty minutes.
We settled on our next drop west of Pondy, and simultaneously all seven of us hooked up to good fish as soon as the baits hit the bottom. This spot was nannygai central and they were definitely hungry as one red fish after another came aboard. The sounder screen was black with fish and everybody knew we had struck the
mother load. The nannies were all of consistently good size and we knew it wouldn’t be long before we bagged out. Shane by now had become very proficient on the back of the boat and his rod again was under considerable strain of a good fish. It was a strikingly beautiful harlequin fish that broke the surface and Shane was ecstatic with his prized catch. Greg, not to be outdone, landed a larger and even more colourful model soon afterwards, and he became very excited at the prospect of cooking up a batch of harlequin fish soup.
We called it a day at 4 o’clock as we had already reached our boat limit of thirty nannies, and with the 9 snapper and swallowtail, sweep, harlequins, trevally, whiting and leatherjackets on board we had a mess of cleaning to do. All this on a day when we were ultimately just trying to shelter from the strong winds. The fish looked very impressive on the cleaning table and drew a fair crowd of interested onlookers. After we had cleaned the fish, Mark cooked up a large crayfish for a delicious entrée before we headed to Rhino’s Tavern for tea. The meal at the tavern is included in the price of the weekend charter, and it was a mouth watering meal at that. This weekend just got better and better.
Another bacon and egg breakfast greeted a perfect morning. Mark’s prediction had come true, the wind had dropped our completely overnight. When Mark and Butts arrived our hopes were confirmed, we were going to fish the offshore grounds around Wedge Island. Just the thought excited me, as I had last visited Wedge some 22 years ago, on a land based trip as a 16 year-old fishing alongside some legendary fisherman like Dave Foster and Dave Piper. Again the first cray pot held a welcome prize; a nice sized snapper had become trapped in the pot overnight and our tally was off to a good start without even wetting a line. After checking the other pot, which was empty, Mark opened up the twin Yamahas and we blasted off toward Wedge Island, which was around 35 kilometres to the west.
We dropped the pick some five kilometres east of this awesome looking island on a reef system in 35 metres of water. Again the sounder showed a hug school of fish hovering just above the reefy bottom. Lines down and they were
instantly hit with the endless bites of small snapper. Unfortunately they were all just a touch too small, and rather than injure any more undersized fish, due to the deep water and inflated swim bladders, Mark decided to move on. Five minutes later we were on a much better spot, as snapper came aboard with monotonous regularity, and this time they were all well above legal size. This skipper definitely knows his onions.
Even the remnant of last night’s swell were continuing to abate as the morning wore on, making conditions in these offshore waters absolutely ideal. There were patches of baitfish rippling the calm surface everywhere around the boat as pods of dolphins leisurely herded them up then charged through the helpless schools. Mother Nature was definitely putting on a show for us today, we would have eagerly chased the schools of panic stricken baitfish and cast some lures to the piscatorial predators that lurked below, but the snapper were still going off below the boat, ensuring that we stayed at anchor. A few large trevally managed to muscle in on the baits before the snapper school returned
to the fray.
Then the nannygai clan moved in and completely took over the ever-present fight for food, constantly beating the snapper to our baits. Skinny was bouncing a pink artificial squid up and down just above the reef when a big nanny nailed it, proving that they will also take artificials. Gary pulled in a horse of a nannygai and looked to be around 3.5 kilos and was probably the largest for the trip, although Skinny had something to say about that. We had only been anchored on this reef for an hour and a half when Mark called the 30 fish bag limit on nannygai, and on top of that we already had 21 snapper in the icebox. We were ready to up the anchor when Butts had a solid hookup on a big fish. Mark called it early and was proved to be correct as a magnificent blue morwong broke the surface. What a fantastic looking fish and Greg now had a large fish to add to the menu at an upcoming wedding.
“Let’s go have some fun,” said Mark as the outboards roared and we blasted off toward the calm beach on the northern side of Wedge. His plan was to troll along the
sandy beach in search of schools of salmon. Bait schools again disturbed the calm surface and this time they were being harassed by a large school of pilot whales. Halfway along the beach a big dark school of salmon materialized in the distance. Everybody gathered on the bow with lures at the ready as we slowly cruised through the crystal clear waters. This was a big school of fish and what I couldn’t believe was that they were so close to the beach. We all ripped off a cast when we were within range and Shane hooked up immediately.
This was a good salmon and Shane was having a ball trying to subdue the powerful fish as it cartwheeled through the air on numerous occasions. Unfortunately for the lad the trebles pulled free just as the fish seemed beaten, but he got straight back to the job at hand and continued casting to the big black school. A small kingfish peeled off from inside the school of salmon and unsuccessfully tried to latch on to Tonto’s Yo Zuri Hydro Magnum Lure and then took up residence underneath the hull of the boat. No amount of jigging lures
could entice the kingie out again until Butts lobbed in a half pillie. The kingie zeroed in and hammered the bait and after a very spirited fight Butts had landed his first ever king.
Everyone switched to whole pritchards and we resumed our pursuit of the mobile salmon school. This was an incredible fishing situation as the salmon school was holed up only a metre away from the sandy beach in only three feet of water. They were still pretty finicky however, but eventually they overcame their fears and wolfed down the whole pillies, much to the delight of all on board. There were multiple hookups, screaming runs, leaping salmon and rods and lines flying in all directions. We chased the fish up and down the beach for more than an hour, and it was terrific fun. They were all good fish too, with many up around the eight pound mark.
I was busy running around with the camera trying to catch all the action for the S.A. Angler readers, but still managed to bag a good fish of my own. Everybody else had several hookups each, and many fish were released, some intentionally, some not. All the time the hungry pilot whales continued to feed on the hapless baitfish schools. It was truly magnificent in the warm afternoon sunshine on the glass calm waters, just offshore from the white sands of the beach. The magical session ended when the school of salmon sounded, and the weekend was unfortunately drawing to a close, but Mark wasn’t finished just yet.
We headed over toward North Island and anchored in 13 metres of water to try locate some more big whiting. Butts told us that he had flown over here numerous times and had seen many big sharks in the strait between the two islands. I landed a gurnard perch before Gary, Shane and Butts landed a big whiting each. Then Gary scored the best run of the trip as 50 pound Fireline scorched off his Daiwa GS9. Unfortunately the line went limp and whatever it was had gone. Gary then landed the last fish of the trip, another whiting of around 50 centimetres.
As Mark fired up the Yamahas for one last time and “Freedom II” leapt up onto the hydrofoils, we had time to reflect on what a magnificent weekend it had been. The entire package was very affordable,
we experienced some wonderful fishing in at times very trying conditions, and as a bonus we were all going home with plenty of quality fish. Mark worked very hard to put us on to the fish and came through with flying colours every time. We all agreed that this was the best charter we had ever been on, and it was with a touch of sadness that we stepped into the tinny for the final time.
After cleaning the multitude of fish we headed back to the shack for the last time and packed our gear. After such an impressive weekend of fishing it was
a given that we would return
soon to sample Reef Encounters Fishing Charter again. We bid farewell and dodged the kangaroos on the long drive back to suburbia. Mark on the other hand was preparing to do it all over again as a new group was arriving that night for a charter in the morning. As we drove headlong into the enveloping darkness, I couldn’t help but think what a marvellous life Mark leads, and of course, wonder how I could score such a plum job like that!
