The first Wall that we visited was South Wall, the swell was so big it was washing up over the cliffs which must be about 15 to 20m high. So next time we decided to try somewhere different. We wanted to go to North Wall but some die-hard fishermen kept bagging it at about 4am...everyday! even though it wasn't light enough to fish until 6.30am. We decided that since we were on holiday we would get up at the more civilised hour of 5.30am everyday and head off to the Wall just north of North Wall. The first time that we went there was when Andy had decided to join us for a few days. He came along with a brand new rod and brand new Alvey reel. We fished off the cliffs with helium balloons and Garfish. The easterly wind takes the balloon out so you can only fish with an offshore breeze, this also allows you to get the bait out hundreds of metres. Just remember that the more you let out, the longer it takes to real in. The balloon set up can be seen here in a diagram courtesy of Lance. The balloon bounces the bait up and down on the water. Mackerel like this. The cliff gaff is on a length of rope and the gaff part goes over your line when you get the fish in so that it can be lowered over the head. Sounds simple but it's really a bit like those arcade games with the claw that you have to try and get the toy with. Very frustrating if you can't get it on!! We had alot of problems because the waves were washing the fish around so we couldn't get the gaff to slide down the line. Managed in the end though.
Anyway, as I was saying the first time that we went to this location was with Andy and his new gear. Andy hooked on to a big Spanish Mackerel. The fish didn't put up much of a fight. Sometimes they don't....it's a bit weird. Anyway, he's reeling the fish in and the Alvey started to crack!! The whole thing caved in and he obviously lost the fish. So we went into Carnarvon to Sports Power and showed the guy there. He said that he had never seen anything like it. He reakoned that the people at the shop in Perth where Andy bought the reel from must have wound on the line too tight. Well, Andy ordered a new reel up from Perth and the results are shown at the top of the "South of..." page. |
