As Monday was a bank holiday I really wanted to do something so I started to look into going fishing (something I’ve always wanted to do). I found a couple of small charter companies and managed to book us onto a fishing trip for Monday in a place called Port Hughes. As it was an early start the skipper helped me to find cheap accommodation in Moonta Bay which was only a 5 minute drive away from Port Hughes. We packed our bags and left Clare on Sunday to go and have a look around Moonta Bay. It was another little, quaint town. We were booked into stay at the local hotel which turned out to be a pub called the Cornwall but having seen our room we were quite impressed. $50 for a large room with air con and there was a shared lounge area with a small kitchen style space which included a fridge, microwave and toaster. After a quick tour of the pub from the barmaid we went for a drive up to Port Hughes. It was a gorgeous little place. There was a large pier and lots of people were either fishing, crabbing or just cooling off and having fun by jumping into the water. In the evening we decided to treat ourselves to dinner out at a local pub. We were very pleased with the price and portion of the meals at the Moonta Hotel. After dinner we made our way back to the hotel/pub watched a little bit of TV and got ready for the early start the next day.
We had arranged to meet the skipper (Flash) of Copper Triangle Charters at 6.30am. There was going to be myself, Adam and another person fishing that day. However when we arrived at Port Hughes, Flash met us and said that as it was quite windy and asked whether we just wanted to go crabbing instead, as well as that we would be starting a bit later as the other bloke was running late. Adam and I weren’t happy about paying $180 each to just go crabbing, so together we told him we were here to fish and not go crabbing. At first it felt as though he was trying to take us for a ride but as soon as we put our foot down and were almost ready to leave it all together as we had not yet paid for the trip he quickly changed his attitude and started getting things ready. We returned to the hotel to wait for a phone call from Flash to say he was ready. He phoned at 8.30am to say the other bloke had pulled out so we made our way pack to Port Hughes and got ready for the trip. In the end there was Flash, his deckhand who turned out to be his cousin and just myself and Adam which was nice. It was a glorious day and Flash drove his boat about 45 minutes out into the sea.
We anchored next to a lighthouse. Apparently only a couple of years ago people used to take it in turns to live there for up to 2 weeks at a time and provide weather forecasts. However it was now being used as a large nesting ground for the birds. Flash put a maggot onto the end of my hook and showed me how to cast my line and within seconds of it dropping into the water he had caught a fish. He then baited my hook again (I know it’s not proper fishing if I don’t bait my own hook but I was quite happy to let him do it) and this time I casted it and again within seconds I had caught my first fish which turned out to be a Garfish. It looked very similar to a Swordfish but was only about 24cm long; however I was happy to have just caught one. Throughout the morning Adam and I caught numerous amounts and were very happy just floating on the sea, fishing away. There was so many around our boat that it got to the point where the deckhand just got a net and started catching 4 or 5 in one go whilst Adam and I carried on fishing with our rods. I couldn’t bring myself to take the hooks from the Garfishes mouth (yes I know I’m a wimp) so Flash and the deckhand did this for us. I did however touch one and even tried to pick one up that had fell onto the deck but they were slippery little things, leaving their scales on anything they touched. In the end between us all we caught 180 Garfish, there were restrictions as to how many people could catch and the size of them so once we reached the limit we stopped and started to look for squid.
Flash also tried to catch some crabs using a crabbing net but they were just not interested. We moved to another spot a bit closer to the lighthouse and used a different type of hook which looked like a small fish but with very sharp hooks to catch the squid. Flash cast his first and in minutes caught his first squid. I have never seen a squid being caught and those things certainly put up a fight. It would spray its black ink whilst it was being reeled in. Once Flash had unhooked it he threw it into a plastic tub where the squid would again squirt its black ink everywhere, and as it died it turned opaque. It was a bit sad to see the fish and squid dying but very interesting knowing that this is what happens, I suppose you don’t think about it when you’re buying them pre-packed from the supermarket! In total we caught 12 squid, I only caught 1 which I was happy with but must have lost about 5, Adam did well catching 4. Flash told us that as part of the trip we could keep all the fish we caught. What were we going to do with 180 Garfish?, I don’t even like seafood all that much. So we decided to just keep 75 of them and 4 squid and Flash took the rest. Flash had told of us of a lady who would fillet the fish for a very cheap price in Moonta Bay. So along with the deckhand we made our way there to see what she could do. She was a lovely, little lady.
Very petite and looked as though she had had a bit of a hard life. She handed the boys 2 knives and got them to start descaling and cutting the fish heads and a few other parts off. I was busy taking photos (phew got out of that one). She was so quick, filleting the fish in only seconds. She started telling us of how she once entered a competition to see how many she could fillet in a certain amount of time and also of how people have even filmed her and uploaded her work onto youtube. After the Garfish she moved into the squid, just pulling their heads off and removing their guts (yuck!). After an hour the job was complete we paid the $10 for our share and left with a freezer bag full of fish and squid. When we got back to Penwortham we told Yvonne and Brian all about our experience and gave them 40 of the fish to enjoy too.
The following day we were back at work and I saw the biggest Redback spider I have seen so far. It certainly looked scary but I was starting to get used to coming across spiders in the vineyards now so it didn’t faze me as much.
Thursday was poker night. So off Adam and I went to Bob and Sam’s. There we bumped into Amanda and her 2 german twin cousins who had flown over to go travelling around Australia for a year. Their English was not great so the old making hand gestures and raising our voice (because that obviously works-not) came into play. Fortunately the boys knew how to play Texas hold em poker so we started a game which Adam eventually won –go Team Gallard!
Friday was Brian’s birthday. After we returned home we had a quick chat with him and his friends Leo and Kay who had brought over a bottle of wine they had purchased from Adelaide Catering College. Now Friday was going to be Bingo night however Adam persuaded me to miss it (I did get withdrawal symptoms) to go the Clare High School fete which takes place once every other year and has been on 3 times. We were very surprised of the organisation and scale of it. From stalls selling candy floss, jewellery, food to auctions, car bashing (where you literally got to hammer the hell out of an old car),
fairground rides, 15 minute trips around Clare on Harley’s etc. There we bumped into loads of people we knew (being such a small place you get to know the locals very quickly) including, Brett, and Ray from fruit picking, Amanda and her sister Stephanie selling candyfloss, her mum on the wine stall (the school sell their own wine-is that legal?) and the 2 german cousins, Bob and Sam and other party/poker lot, Tim who also does grape picking but was there as part of the St John’s Ambulance that night, Chito the barman from the Bentley pub, who was at the slushy stall and also the family we were staying with. Adam managed to rally a few people and so the 2 germans and Bryce all had a go on the Laser Skirmish which is like laser quest but outside.
Adam showed off his commando moves to our friends watching but it was a bit embarrassing seeing him trying to take out mostly 10 year olds, however he had a good time and so did the other boys.
We had arranged to meet the skipper (Flash) of Copper Triangle Charters at 6.30am. There was going to be myself, Adam and another person fishing that day. However when we arrived at Port Hughes, Flash met us and said that as it was quite windy and asked whether we just wanted to go crabbing instead, as well as that we would be starting a bit later as the other bloke was running late. Adam and I weren’t happy about paying $180 each to just go crabbing, so together we told him we were here to fish and not go crabbing. At first it felt as though he was trying to take us for a ride but as soon as we put our foot down and were almost ready to leave it all together as we had not yet paid for the trip he quickly changed his attitude and started getting things ready. We returned to the hotel to wait for a phone call from Flash to say he was ready. He phoned at 8.30am to say the other bloke had pulled out so we made our way pack to Port Hughes and got ready for the trip. In the end there was Flash, his deckhand who turned out to be his cousin and just myself and Adam which was nice. It was a glorious day and Flash drove his boat about 45 minutes out into the sea.
We anchored next to a lighthouse. Apparently only a couple of years ago people used to take it in turns to live there for up to 2 weeks at a time and provide weather forecasts. However it was now being used as a large nesting ground for the birds. Flash put a maggot onto the end of my hook and showed me how to cast my line and within seconds of it dropping into the water he had caught a fish. He then baited my hook again (I know it’s not proper fishing if I don’t bait my own hook but I was quite happy to let him do it) and this time I casted it and again within seconds I had caught my first fish which turned out to be a Garfish. It looked very similar to a Swordfish but was only about 24cm long; however I was happy to have just caught one. Throughout the morning Adam and I caught numerous amounts and were very happy just floating on the sea, fishing away. There was so many around our boat that it got to the point where the deckhand just got a net and started catching 4 or 5 in one go whilst Adam and I carried on fishing with our rods. I couldn’t bring myself to take the hooks from the Garfishes mouth (yes I know I’m a wimp) so Flash and the deckhand did this for us. I did however touch one and even tried to pick one up that had fell onto the deck but they were slippery little things, leaving their scales on anything they touched. In the end between us all we caught 180 Garfish, there were restrictions as to how many people could catch and the size of them so once we reached the limit we stopped and started to look for squid.
Flash also tried to catch some crabs using a crabbing net but they were just not interested. We moved to another spot a bit closer to the lighthouse and used a different type of hook which looked like a small fish but with very sharp hooks to catch the squid. Flash cast his first and in minutes caught his first squid. I have never seen a squid being caught and those things certainly put up a fight. It would spray its black ink whilst it was being reeled in. Once Flash had unhooked it he threw it into a plastic tub where the squid would again squirt its black ink everywhere, and as it died it turned opaque. It was a bit sad to see the fish and squid dying but very interesting knowing that this is what happens, I suppose you don’t think about it when you’re buying them pre-packed from the supermarket! In total we caught 12 squid, I only caught 1 which I was happy with but must have lost about 5, Adam did well catching 4. Flash told us that as part of the trip we could keep all the fish we caught. What were we going to do with 180 Garfish?, I don’t even like seafood all that much. So we decided to just keep 75 of them and 4 squid and Flash took the rest. Flash had told of us of a lady who would fillet the fish for a very cheap price in Moonta Bay. So along with the deckhand we made our way there to see what she could do. She was a lovely, little lady.
Very petite and looked as though she had had a bit of a hard life. She handed the boys 2 knives and got them to start descaling and cutting the fish heads and a few other parts off. I was busy taking photos (phew got out of that one). She was so quick, filleting the fish in only seconds. She started telling us of how she once entered a competition to see how many she could fillet in a certain amount of time and also of how people have even filmed her and uploaded her work onto youtube. After the Garfish she moved into the squid, just pulling their heads off and removing their guts (yuck!). After an hour the job was complete we paid the $10 for our share and left with a freezer bag full of fish and squid. When we got back to Penwortham we told Yvonne and Brian all about our experience and gave them 40 of the fish to enjoy too.
The following day we were back at work and I saw the biggest Redback spider I have seen so far. It certainly looked scary but I was starting to get used to coming across spiders in the vineyards now so it didn’t faze me as much.
Thursday was poker night. So off Adam and I went to Bob and Sam’s. There we bumped into Amanda and her 2 german twin cousins who had flown over to go travelling around Australia for a year. Their English was not great so the old making hand gestures and raising our voice (because that obviously works-not) came into play. Fortunately the boys knew how to play Texas hold em poker so we started a game which Adam eventually won –go Team Gallard!
Friday was Brian’s birthday. After we returned home we had a quick chat with him and his friends Leo and Kay who had brought over a bottle of wine they had purchased from Adelaide Catering College. Now Friday was going to be Bingo night however Adam persuaded me to miss it (I did get withdrawal symptoms) to go the Clare High School fete which takes place once every other year and has been on 3 times. We were very surprised of the organisation and scale of it. From stalls selling candy floss, jewellery, food to auctions, car bashing (where you literally got to hammer the hell out of an old car),
fairground rides, 15 minute trips around Clare on Harley’s etc. There we bumped into loads of people we knew (being such a small place you get to know the locals very quickly) including, Brett, and Ray from fruit picking, Amanda and her sister Stephanie selling candyfloss, her mum on the wine stall (the school sell their own wine-is that legal?) and the 2 german cousins, Bob and Sam and other party/poker lot, Tim who also does grape picking but was there as part of the St John’s Ambulance that night, Chito the barman from the Bentley pub, who was at the slushy stall and also the family we were staying with. Adam managed to rally a few people and so the 2 germans and Bryce all had a go on the Laser Skirmish which is like laser quest but outside.
Adam showed off his commando moves to our friends watching but it was a bit embarrassing seeing him trying to take out mostly 10 year olds, however he had a good time and so did the other boys.
On Saturday we had arranged to visit Maria and Alan Scholz who we had stayed with before in Adelaide. So after working half day and making a quick stop at the Bookstop and Beans shop where Adam bought a new book, we made our way to Adelaide. We arrived at about 5pm and were greeted by them and the new addition to the family, Shaun a mix toy poodle and cavalier. We spent the rest of the evening catching up and showing them our wedding dvd. Adam also enjoyed chatting to Maria (a fellow web designer) about various web technologies. The following day we had been invited to a BBQ at Maria and Alan’s son’s house. So in the afternoon we made our way to Coventry Street which is where they lived and met David, Peta (his wife) and their 2 children.
Their house was beautiful and had been renovated a couple of years ago. I was very jealous of the en-suite which comprised of 2 shower heads!!!!! We had a fantastic afternoon just chatting, enjoying the good food and playing a bit of pool and poker before it was time for us to head back.
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