Swr - "the Holiday" Pt 1

[bolan]

Well, here goes the first part to my week away at South West Rocks, A bit of a read, but hey, I have to do something whilst I wait for the clothes to dry!

Saturday morning (10/1/09) started at 6.00am and we were on the road to South West Rocks. Me, Jess, Beck, Cam and my partner, Lisa, and her two, Ryan and Chloe. 7 in the car, the bertie on the back, and what a load on the Explorer!

Now, to break down the equipment needed for the trip, I shall outline the following basics....... 1 big tent, 3 little tents, 1 tarp to cover the lot. 6 billion poles,pegs,ropes etc...5 blow up mattresses, 2 fridges, 2 eskies, 1 Barbie, 2 stoves, pots pans, storage accessories, lights, gas bottles, food and BEER. Not to mention the 3 tables, 7 chairs, and 4 bench seats. Then came the 2 bikes! This saw the Bertie filled to water level with restrictions placed on my meagre fishing tackle being 1 tackle box and 27 fishing rods.

The forget list being my outriggers, 3 bags of pakulas, witchdoctor, landing net, teaser and bait board!

Soooooo, about Midday on Saturday, we all landed at SWR Tourist Park and I was a very relieved person. It was a hard drive with a massively loaded boat which commanded the utmost diligence on the road, and a load that I would not allow my partner to drive.

Out came the gear and it was a camp building event from hell, I barked out orders (drank beer) and the kids jumped too (Mine from enthusiasm, hers from terror) After a few moments where I thought Lisa was going to walk out on me, everything got set up and the kids went exploring. Mum and Dad had arrived with their van and walked down .

Our New Home

My Sister and her tribe arrived at the camp site next to us, so Lisa and I sat on the boundary line-drank beer, and watched their marriage almost end whilst they set up their tents! How Cool!............

And The Fight Begins!

Day 1 saw the “men” head out on Day Release for a feel of the ocean and a fish. After negotiating a bar that was up a bit, I opened the twin Mercs up and headed towards the bait grounds. Unfortunately, some big tuna boat had moored itself onto the bait trap out the front and it was no longer there. With just a handful of pilchards and a few prawns, I used my knowledge from a previous trip and headed to “Fish Rock”. After 15 minutes at a moderate speed, we anchored near the rock and set about chasing kingies. Using Penguins technique of peeling the servo prawns, we cast out and crossed our fingers. I started getting worried 20 minutes later when all of a sudden they came on, first Dad, then Jamie, and it was on for young and old. Kingies everywhere! (Thank God for Penguins posts on peeled prawns!) The good news that we were on, the bad news was that they were all rats, but hey! We found the buggers and that was a good start. Unfortunately, our trip was cut short due to Jamie (Brother in Law) getting sick, so we headed home to brag of our day out to anyone that would listen.

Day 2 saw my Partner Lisa, Myself and Cam (Stumpy Junior) head out. With the little fella so keen to catch another Kingie- after the last Fishraider Comp, we headed outside and went to a wreck located up north. This proved a disaster due to the fact that as soon as we anchored over the wreck, Cam got sick, so we headed back inside to the river. Now, after the previous nite of mingling with the other boaties who shared my love for beer, I knew that there was nothing happening in the river, so I spent the day pulling up to any structure I could find, letting Lisa and Cam hit the smallish bream and whatever would be kind enough to bite. 6 hrs later, we all headed in with both of them well and truly happy with their catch! (A dozen bream and other shitty fish all released!)

Thats A New Shade Of White Cam !

The Twins Open Up

Whats Wrong With Washing???

Day 3 saw a carefully planned trip go into action. The barbie and beers had done its work with much valuable information being gossiped by the other fishers at the park that night The only place that was firing big time was the outside FAD with 15kg Dollies being caught aswell as small black marlin. Myself, Dad, Mum, And Lisa’s Son got up early and headed for outside.

Unfortunately, disaster struck crossing the bar which saw us back on shore 1 hr later. I will detail my experience in another post to follow.

The remainder of the day was spent cleaning up Day Release and generally sulking.

Day 4 and 5 saw the grounding of Day Release and myself having to mix it with the kids. Now, being at one of the best fishing spots in NSW, with a dead boat, one would think that all was lost..... But no! Quite the opposite. Having got used to the kids disappearing at dawn and only coming in to feed, it was certainly an experience to join them. We floated several kilometres down the river with the tide and ended up at a beach, jumped off a footbridge, (not me-too chicken) attacked each other in the Caravan Park swimming pool- and actually went out to lunch with them-threatened a dozen horney teenagers chasing my 2 girls, and basically bonded with my family- something far more important than fishing-considering my divorce last year.

Someone had to Stay and Take The Pic

Hmmm...... Bad Girls

It was a great week, despite my lack of fishing, I thought that my boat was the centre of my holiday and my only chance to connect with my kids, yet day 4 and 5 were probably the best days of the holiday...............

Go Figure

Cheers,

Stumpy

[puppydawg]

mate, we all like beefing it up... pumping ourselves up to be the ultimate MAN and being big and macho, but when it comes to our kids, let's be honest.... we're but mere putty!

boating's great, fishing's better .... but NOTHING beats spending time with our most precious commodity mate

good on you

and here's to many more!

[Chris 55]

Muz you gotta luv being the father of teanage girls

gives you an excuse to engage the Spanish Inquesition

and carry a big stick

gone are the times when to only thing you needed to

do for the Stumpettes was bait the hooks when they

went fishing

good to see you found something you might have missed

Chris