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simoncardonefishes · 22 days ago

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Port Lincoln Island hopping

By Simon Cardone

I love the places that fishing can take you. Getting as far away from the suburban grind as possible and connecting with nature is the best feeling. I have been fortunate enough to fish all over Australia, both inland and offshore, but it’s only in the past few years that I realised there was a lot of the great state of South Australia I had overlooked when it comes to fishing. So I set myself a goal of fishing as many new locations as possible every year going forward – I call it ticking the boxes and making memories!

With all fishing, especially the offshore kind, weather always dictates whether you go or stay at home. For example, my first trip chasing barrel bluefin tuna out of Port MacDonnell in 2021 was blown out, I had to wait until 2022 to tick that box. And so it was with a multiple day mission off Port Lincoln aboard good mate Tod’s seven metre trailer boat. The week we set aside in 2022 was a write off weatherwise, but a year later a window opened in February for us to get offshore.

The Plan

My last visit to Port Lincoln was in the 1990s and during my stay I had a day trip out to Dangerous Reef to hopefully see a great white shark. Unfortunately, we missed the shark by 24 hours, however we caught a great mixed bag of fish which kind of made up for the lack of shark activity.

With me being a complete greenhorn to this part of South Australia, Tod was the perfect skipper to show me as many of the sights as possible in the few days we had available, as he has skippered boats out of Tumby Bay and Port Lincoln for well over a decade.

In the days leading up to departure we watched with nervousness the forecast going from one extreme to another, with the Bureau of Meteorology, Windy.com and Willy Weather all predicting little windows of good conditions surrounded by longer periods of average conditions.

It was decided 48 hours before departure that we would make our way to Thistle Island, pushing into a 15 knot South Easterly then spend the night in Whalers Way, which should protect us from the ocean swell. We could then spend a couple of days fishing the inshore bays for whiting, squid and snook, as well as free diving for abalone. If the winds relented, we would push wider to chase some tuna further to the south before returning to camp and fish the waters around Memory Cove which lies within the Lincoln National Park.

Departure was set for Monday afternoon, with a return date of Friday morning.

Monday

I departed Adelaide for Port Lincoln at 530 am, having loaded up the Hilux the night before with the fishing gear and tackle supplied by Jarvis Walker and Tackle World Adelaide Metro. Tod was already in Lincoln as that is where he stores his boat at this time of year. He had already been out to Thistle Island with a mate for an overnight trip a couple of days prior to my arrival, so the boat was already setup for live aboard fishing, complete with bedding, eskies, fridge/freezer, gas stove, camp kitchen, 250 litres of fuel, 80 litres of water, hot shower, dining room table, toilet and of course all of the safety gear required and in date.

On arrival early afternoon I loaded in the fishing and camera gear, bait and a backpack then we had a quick drive into town for ice, beer and fresh food before hitting the Billy Lights Point boat ramp at 330pm ready for the two hour run down the coast to Thistle Island.

As predicted, we were pushing into a two-metre sea, but travelling at around 20k/h per hour the Trailcraft 680 cut through the slop comfortably. We hugged the coast passing Taylor and Grindal Island on our port side before cutting across to Thistle Island where we found some relief from the washing machine seas once we rounded Observatory Point. The giant cliffs on eastern side of Thistle cast an impressive shadow as we made our way further South to Whalers Way for the night.

Arriving with enough daylight left we were able to pick out a good-looking piece of bottom suitable for whiting and squid so we dropped the pick then got setup for fishing and dinner.

A few squid hit the deck which would be our whiting bait for the trip along with some good sized snook casting Daiwa Double Clutch lures before it was decided to turn in for an early start.

Tuesday

During the night we had a change of wind direction and an increase in velocity too, which basically meant offshore fishing was off the cards for the time being. This necessitated a slight change in our position within the anchorage for the following night.

The fishing inshore however kept us very busy. The day started off with a giant school of huge salmon interrupting our cooked breakfast. We had multiple hook-ups on these acrobatic greenbacks as they peeled line off our whiting outfits that we were using to cast our Double Clutch lures.

We then spent the rest of the morning moving around fishing the sand patches and weed for a nice bag of squid, king george whiting and a few good-sized flathead. Fresh squid was getting the nibbles on the bottom rigs while a purple Yozuri jig in 3.0 was slaying the Kraken.

Fresh snook seasoned with lemon pepper with salad in wraps was devoured for lunch before we made our last shift for the day to an area which gave more shelter from the wind and swell and an opportunity for Tod to do his first dive for abalone. This turned out to be a resounding success, so it was planned to crack a bottle of shiraz to wash down our beef and reef dinner on Wednesday night at Memory Cove. I managed a couple more giant snook and some silver trevally on the lures, the latter which ended up being a sashimi entrée that night.

We decided to send out some big cut baits of fresh barracouta under balloons on the heavy gear that night for kingies and sharks, but unfortunately the only hook-up we had was brief.

Wednesday

Finally, the wind had abated enough for us to push back up the eastern side of Thistle Island then back down and across to Memory Cove passing between Lewis and Hopkins Islands. In all his years of traversing Thorny Passage Tod said he had never seen it so calm, so we took the opportunity to mark a couple of ledges and reefs for further investigation at a later date.

Tod had been talking up Memory Cove as one of the most picturesque places in South Australia so I was very eager to spend some time there and to say this place is magnificent would be a gross understatement. A pristine white beach bordered by rocky outcrops at either end with a magnificent canopy of green tree covered hills as far as the eye can see. Heaven on Earth for sure.

Early afternoon was spent nearby diving for more abalone and catching more squid. We then shifted to a likely whiting spot within Memory Cove and enjoyed our hard-earned steak and abalone dinner before we set about catching some more whiting and squid. I predicted a hot bite on dark being a full moon, and that’s exactly what we got, with literally a whiting every cast on my side of the boat while Tod was cleaning up on the squid on his side.

Thursday

By the time I had woken up Tod already had another six squid in the bucket so I entered the fray and completed our bag before turning our attention to processing our catch. The weather was looking mint, so given we had our fridge/freezer now full of fish and the ice had run out in the eskies, the call was made to pull in the lines in and make our way back to Port Lincoln with a following sea enabling us to cruise at a pleasant 50 km/h.

We arrived back at the ramp just after midday, gave the boat a thorough washdown, then headed back to base to unload. I arrived back in Adelaide in the early hours of Friday morning much to the delight of my family who were expecting me back much later. This gave me the opportunity to vacuum seal my proceeds of the catch and fill the freezer with a nice basket of South Australian seafood to share. If you haven’t got a vacuum sealing machine I can highly recommend this piece of equipment just as much as owning a decent filleting knife!

The Wrap

This trip was a real eye opener for me in many ways, it is amazing what you can do in a small boat in capable hands if it is well setup. Our next mission is to head out to the Sir Joseph Banks group and Spilsby Island out from Tumby Bay in autumn.

I can highly recommend multi day trailer boat adventures in South Australia. We have so many great anchorages which can give you the opportunity to fish remote waters even if it is only for a day or a few hours. To have the ocean seemingly to yourself is a far cry from metro fishing or the line-up at the Bluff ramp during tuna season!

#fishing #fishing trip #whiting #squid #snook #trevally #abalone #flathead #camping #port lincoln #south australia

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simoncardonefishes · 24 days ago

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