Well this time My friend Will and I drove up to Denham looking out at the swell to the West wondering if it was going to drop as it was forecast to, it was huge and things weren't looking too good. As we got further up the coast we noticed it was smaller and breathed a sigh of relief, little did we realise we were ahead of the swell and the big stuff was still on its way up the coast. We arrived in Denham late in the afternoon and traveled out to the point at night under the light of a full moon. We anchored the boat and rolled out our swags as soon as we arrived and set to getting some dinner ready. Dinner was simple lamb chop and cheese toasted sandwiches cooked on a BBQ in a box. These things are great just $5 from the hardware shop and they are Stand, container heat beads and grill all in one, just light the bag and wait 15mins then start cooking.
So with dinner out of the way we rolled into our swags and went to sleep. We woke to a horrible roar and foaming seas with the swell closing out across the passage, spray was shooting over the tops of the cliffs and the noise was like an underground train station. We stared out at the ocean in disbelief whilst drinking coffee, the swell had not dropped it had got bigger!!! so we just sat for a while wondering what we would do. We moved camp first up, we had originally decided to camp elswhere but were unable to access the site in the dark. So after coffee and moving camp we suited up and went in search of somewhere to dive. We managed to get out of South Passage between the waves but could not find anywhere suitable to dive, we should have known better and saved the fuel and time.
We again crossed the bar at the entrance to the passage and decided we would just drift the current lines inside the passage and try and find some ground that held fish. Luckily this strategy worked and we ended up with a few good fish for the day. Nothing special but a couple of nice Blackspot Tusk fish, a Pink Snapper some Golden Trevalley and a small yellowtail Kingfish. We did notice that later in the day the swell was dropping and this is when we realised we had overtaken the swell on our drive up. Hopefully the morning would bring better conditions. We went back to camp late in the afternoon and had a good feed care of BBQ in a box. We sat up for a while just looking at the fire and the moon and stars, then we noticed the bay we had camped in was full of baby Lemon Sharks. They were chasing Mullet on the rising tide and the place was literally swarming with them. The full moon made things just as bright as day and we watched the show for a few hours, before rolling into our swags and drifting off to sleep.
We woke to silence, there was not a sound except for the occasional splash as another Mullet jumped in attempt to avoid being eaten. There was no wind either, could it be!! we eagerly ate breakfast and headed to the Point in glassy conditions, sure enough the swell had dropped. It was still big at 3 meters but it was not the mountainous 8 meters of the day before. The occasional wave just closed out South Passage but outside the water was blue and clean and we could actually see bottom in 20meters!!!. We anchored the boat out over the sand and after ensuring the anchor was holding fast, we entered the water.
We were greeted by clear but slightly hazy visibility with large fish visible but not identifiable on the bottom. We sat out on the reef/sand edge breathing up waiting for Mackerel and we did not have to wait long. Within 5 minutes Will had his first fish in the boat, my turn was next and I had a fat fish swim under me so I quietly dived on it and lined up the shot. The fish took off dragging me and my gun, I had a muzzle wrap!!! luckily I had clipped my gun to my belt reel allowing me to release the gun without fear of loosing it. (I have a theory on Muzzle wraps but we can discuss that in a later entry.) After a short fight the fish was landed and placed in the boat alongside Wills fish. So things went for the next couple of hours, taking turns on diving on the schools of Mackerel as they passed along the edge of the reef. 3 hours later and we are both sitting in the boat with 3 fish each feeling rather happy with ourselves.
I even managed to get all 3 of my fish on video, even the muzzle wrap sequence which should prove interesting to watch when slowed down to see exactly what happened. We upped anchor and had a couple of drifts in the channel on the outgoing tide before heading back to pack up our camp around midday.
The small sharks were still chasing mullet as we packed all the gear into the boat and headed up the channel back to Denham in glassy still conditions. Both of us deciding we needed to come back and spend some time exploring the bay and filming the antics of the baby sharks. The trip across Belfin flats and Denham Sound was even better than the previous trip. I was able to run the boat at full throttle and despite all the gear and weight in the boat we made an impressive 32 knots, arriving back at the boat ramp less than an hour later, after a quick shower at a friends house and some lunch we were ready to start the long 9 hour drive back South to Perth.
We drove for a number of hours and when tiredness overtook us both we camped for the night completing the journey the following morning.
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| Our combined catch laid out on my front lawn. |
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