Surf Casting and Angling Club of W.A. (Inc.) November 2000 Fishing Field Day:- Cervantes.

The Cervantes Field Trip, as usual, saw a good turn out with 29 members and 1 visitor putting in an appearance. A few lucky people even drove up on the Friday for an extra day fishing. Most people chose to camp out on the beach with a few opting for the creature comforts provided by the Cervantes Caravan Park and after being sand blasted for the best part of five hours on Saturday afternoon I can see why. I think I will be finding sand in the car and camping gear for months to come. Arriving early on the Saturday morning I dropped my tyre pressure, and along with Pete Brightman, his mate Danny and my two girls, we headed of to survey the scene between Black Point and Hill River Mouth. I expected to find Chas, Hendo, Matt, Morris and Keith at Black point, as they had gone up on the Friday, but even with a days head start they couldn't get either of the two points. It seems that you have to get up there at least two days early to grab the best camping spots.

The Club owns an air conditioned holiday house at Kalbarri which is available for rent to the public and club members at competitive rates

Click on the picture to see a larger view of the Black Point area.

With Black point and the next point north (I don't know what it's called) already full, we headed up the track toward Hill river, ducking down onto the beach every now and then to check out the fishing. We eventually came across Hendo and the crew, in exactly the spot that I'd intended camping. (There goes another good spot) It seemed that they'd had tailor coming out of their ears on the Friday evening and Mat had landed a large shovel nose ray, so things were definitely looking promising. After stopping for a quick chat to find how they'd been doing. We headed north again to find Tony and Filomena set up on the beach about a kilometer back from the river mouth.

We got to the river mouth and then had to decide which spot we thought looked the best. We decided that we'd camp on the beach just north of the second point (I still don't know it's name) and fish there for the evening, which would give us the option of moving down to the rocks on the point in the morning for a few tailor.

We dropped off the camping gear and leaving Danny to get things organized, headed back to the Garage for the sign on. As I mentioned earlier there was a good turn out with a mix of two and four wheel drives present. It was also nice to see that this was being treated as a family event with quite a few wives and kids signing on.

The fishing was a little slow at first and hard work with the strong sea breeze. One highlight however was when a seal stole Danny's bait and then popped up and played around in the surf for a while, The fishing improved at dusk as the tailor went on the bite for a while, only to drop off again after dark, despite the bright full moon.

Several people landed big rays during the night, which although not being an eligible species, still make for an hour's hard work on beach gear. I wasted an hour and a half on one which would have been well in excess of 50kg. My first fish over the old l00lb mark. I can see why they are not eligible species now as two of us couldn't even drag it out of the shallow water for a photo, let alone get it into the car for the weigh in. It was good to see it swimming off again though. I don't know how old a ray that size would be, but it would be a shame to kill it.

From what I can gather different groups covered pretty well the whole area between the boundaries and the results were fairly consistent all the way along the beach. The tailor despite being numerous the previous night were not about in such good numbers with only four people weighing in the eight tailor limit. Most people however managed to get one or two. The remainder of the weekend's catch comprised mainly of herring and pike.

Click on the picture to see a larger view of the weigh in.

Andy Griffith and George Holman, both weighed in small sharks, which made for a bit of variety, with Andy's just beating George's for Heaviest Shark. Heaviest Scale fish went to Ian Cook for his 0.75kg tailor. Heaviest Bag went to George Holman and Heaviest Bag of Scale Fish, was won by Tony D'Alonzo.

Again I think that the vast majority enjoyed the Field Trip, and hopefully we'll be seeing equally good turn outs for our future events.

I would like to thank all those who attended for a making it a fantastic weekend. It was great to see so many members making the effort.

Andy Woodford. Field Day Officer.

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We (Morris Kolman, Bob, Keith and myself) all met at Chas' house at 2:30 on Friday afternoon. By 3 o'clock we were on our way to Cervantes for the field day. A few hours later we were setting up camp on the beach, just south of Hill River.

After setting up camp, we then decided to have a cast off the beach, and we all ended up catching and releasing plenty of chopper sized tailor. The downside was that if you didn't end up with a fish, you were sure to bring in a lump of seaweed, but by no means was it unfishable. The size on some of these fish may have been a little small, but they were heaps of fun and a great way to start a trip. We ended up keeping a few, and that night we dined on fresh tailor, in coconut milk and mango (people who know Chas will have probably heard of this recipe, and it wasn't too bad)

About 3:30 Saturday morning, I was having trouble sleeping, so I did what any normal person does at 3:30 am in the morning, I went fishing. About half an hour later Bob decided to join me. Sitting on the beach with just the moon for light was relaxing and peaceful.

Just before sunrise, line started disappearing from my reel. The lack of head shakes gave us the opinion that it was a stingray, but twenty minutes later, a 5ft Shovelnose emerged from the surf. A few quick photos, and it was sent back. It may not have been huge (it probably weighed around 30kg) but on 6kg line it was great little tussle. Sunrise saw a few of the others wake up, and we all caught loads of herring, which were in plague proportions.

The seabreeze started coming in early and by the sign on time it was blowing 25-30 knots. It was very uncomfortable, but certainly not unfishable. Instead of going fishing, I decided to have a kip and I started fishing around 5pm that afternoon. Nothing happened for an hour or so, but just before sunset a few tailor came on the bite. It certainly wasn't like Friday night, but them were still a few to keep us entertained. Just as the sun was going down over the horizon, I hooked a little shark that looked to be around 4 ft long. Just as I had him on the beach, he bit through the line and washed out with the next wave. Ahhh well.

The next morning most of us decided to sleep in longer, and when we started fishing we caught heaps of small whiting. After packing up most of the camp, we had a quick swim, and then headed off to the weigh in. George and Andy Griffiths had small sharks, and most of the other guys had tailor and herring. It was also interesting listening to Andy Woodford's story about the huge stingray that he spent an hour and a half on.

The Cervantes field day is a top weekend, and it was good to see a large number of people fishing. Overall it was an enjoyable weekend with good food, some good fish and great company.

Mat Sneddon.

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Attendance: Seniors - 23, Juniors - 0, Mini Juniors - 6, Visitors - 1.

Total fish weight:- 46.2 kg - weighed in gilled and gutted.

It should be noted that many members are now choosing to fish for the sport and not the competition. These members are following the catch and release ethic, and although they choose not to weigh in, it doesn't mean they are not catching plenty of fish. New competition rules in 2001/2002 will allow them to catch and release and still get field day points.

Field Day Prizes.

Copyright © 2001 Surf Casting and Angling Club of W.A. (Inc.)

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This page last updated 4 August 2001.

Display of this page was updated on 21 January 2013. Contents updated as above.

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