After taking care of some emails and filling up some water, we left Yardie Homestead at 11.00am for the National Park. We again paid our entry fee and drove to Pilgramunna camp, where we set up the van and met our camp hosts, Ian and Peta, and their friend Jeannie.
Pilgramunna has only 9 camp sites, with the first being only about 30m from the water's edge at high tide. Two rocky points create a small protected sandy bay when the tide is high and a flat rock shelf between the two when the tide goes out. This means that small tinnies can be launched at pretty much any stage of the tide. Ideal for us. All sites are on a sand base, with no rocks under foot, making it a very pleasant place to stay. With a well maintained and very clean drop toilet, all the women folk were happy.
Georgia overlooking our van at Pilgramunna
Sunset at Pilgramunna
I spent the afternoon setting up the tinnie and the fishing gear, while Sue did some school work with the girls. We went to the communal happy hour at 5.00pm and met our fellow campers, during which a pair of emus wandered across the beach only 20m from us, framing another beautiful western sunset.
Pilgramunna - Cape Range NP - 26 August 2012
Our first night at Pilgramunna was to be our only night on site 7. This morning we moved to site 1, which would be our home for the next 7 days. The advantage for us was plenty of space for the tinnie right next door, as we were the last site.
I set up the ensuite, re-wired the shower pump, which was playing up, and then we had some lunch (pan fried sandwiches on the gas, which came up a treat). After lunch we launched the tinnie and headed off to check out the area. First stop was the gap in the reef. It wasn't as large as we'd hoped and with about 3m of swell outside, was not somewhere I would ever take the tinnie. We hoped conditions would improve for us in days to come. Trolling bigger lures around the gap produced nothing, so we tried trolling some smaller minnows around the shallower bommies closer to shore. Instant success on small cod saw us catch one each and lose one lure to a bommie. We retrieved the boat at about 4.30pm.
Time for showers, and wouldn't you know it, the bloody shower pump had carked it again. So it was hand washes with the bucket that night.
Pilgramunna - Cape Range NP - 27 August 2012
The girls were keen for a fish this morning, so after breakfast we grabbed the rods and took them over to the rocks adjacent to our little bay. I supervised them while Sue went for a walk along the beach. No luck for the girls, so they returned to the van with Sue after her walk. I had a cast myself for a while, but all I could manage was a good strike on a squid jig, from what was probably a small cod ie. no hook up. The girls did some reading and journalling with Sue until I returned for lunch.
After lunch we grabbed the snorkelling gear and walked about 1km south to a sandy point, which had a small bommie about 30m off the beach. We snorkelled in pairs over the bommie and were amazed at how many fish it held. We saw trevally, silver drummer, spangled emperor, parrot fish, flutemouth and many other reef species. I snorkelled with Kelsey on the second run over the bommie, during which I spotted 2 sharks. Kelsey didn't see the first one, but definitely saw the second one. I was amazed at how calm she remained. Pretty impressive for an 8 year old who had been nervous about snorkelling to begin with. Sue and Georgia didn't see the sharks.
The walk back to camp was filled with excitement and comments from the girls about the amazing things they'd seen while snorkelling. So much fun and all for free.
Again we went to happy hour at 5.00pm and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. The beauty of these happy hours is that, as people come and go from the camp everyday, there is always someone new to meet and talk to.
Happy hour at the Pilgramunna tables
Another magic sunset at Pilgramunna
The happy hour table with our camp behind (far left)
Pilgramunna - Cape Range NP - 29 August 2012
Waking to a windy morning with a bit of easterly in it, we decided to try fishing close to shore from the tinnie. We trolled the gap briefly without success and then headed to the bommie we'd snorkelled yesterday. While the girls bait fished, I cast a soft plastic squidgy and picked up a nice bludger trevally of about 2kg, which was released.
Georgia’s rod went off big time and she started losing line to a decent fish. She wasn’t going to give the rod up and after a good fight, managed to land a nice blue parrot fish of 1.5kg. A very good capture considering the snaggy terrain. Kelsey caught a pretty little trigger fish which we released. We lost baits to pickers for a while and so gave up, deciding to snorkel the bommie instead.
Bludger trevally on a cast squidgy
Georgia's nice blue parrot fish
We pulled the tinnie into the beach and did a couple of snorkel drifts marvelling at the variety of fish. We were going to have a third drift but the wind swung suddenly to the west and increased to about 20 knots. A chop came up very quick and made it impossible to launch the tinnie, so we dragged it around the corner to the shelter of a small bay. We trolled the gap again on the way home and Sue managed to pick up another bludger trevally, a bit smaller than the one I caught earlier.
Sue's bludger trevally from the gap
After retrieving the boat, we showered in our ensuite, and were joined by a couple of locals, who I was commanded to evict promptly (see the pic below). Later we enjoyed a couple of quiet ones before dinner.
The 2 locals who tried showering with us - a spider & a scorpion - each about 15mm long
Pilgramunna - Cape Range NP - 30 August 2012
After breakfast today we headed into Exmouth. On the way we stopped at Yardie Homestead, put on a load of washing and checked our emails at the office. The manager, Miffi, was kind enough to let us plug into the 240V power in the office. After hanging out the washing we continued on to Exmouth and went straight to the Potshot Hotel for a feed. Here we hooked up the power again, during lunch and for about 2 hours afterwards. We had a few emails that needed to be sent off and also made phone calls to our dads to wish them an early happy father’s day, as we wouldn’t be in town on Sunday.
The girls picked up some groceries while I got fuel and we topped up on water before heading back to Yardie Homestead. We picked up our washing and headed back to camp around dinner time. The road home was littered with little furry grey witches hats.
Pilgramunna - Cape Range NP - 31 August 2012
We hitched up the tinnie after breakfast and headed off towards the Tantabiddi boat ramp, stopping at the Visitors Centre to make a quick phone call to Brisbane. Once at the boat ramp we realised it was too choppy for a nice day on the water, so we returned to the Visitors Centre and had a good look around. We spent a bit of time with the girls in the library at the rear, identifying some of the fish that we’d caught. On the way home we checked out Turquoise Bay to see if the conditions were good for a snorkel. We liked what we saw and decided to return after some lunch back at camp.
After lunch and a cuppa, we grabbed the snorkelling gear and returned to Turquoise Bay. We snorkelled the main beach drift and saw many beautiful reef fish and colourful coral. When we returned to camp, Sue prepared our pizza for dinner, placing it in the oven prior to heading over to the happy hour table. We chatted to many interesting people, including Rod and Jenny, new friends from Karratha. After a late finish to happy hour, we returned for a beautiful pizza meal.
Moonrise over the range behind camp during happy hour
And again from our camp site
Pilgramunna - Cape Range NP - 1 September 2012
We had a lazy one this morning, not hitting the water until about 9.30am. Heading out to the gap, we found it was actually calm enough to go through, but as we were worried about getting back, we decided to stay inside the reef and troll. Sue picked up another bludger trevally, but it was pretty quiet, so we headed south in search of something different.
We stopped at a very shallow sandy flats area just north of the Osprey sanctuary zone. We had seen quite a few fish darting away as we approached and so decided to drift a couple of baits a long way from the boat across the flats. After no bites for 30 minutes, Sue suggested we return to the snorkelling bommie. No sooner had she suggested it, her rod went off in a big way, howling as line was taken against a pretty fair drag setting. It kept going for at least 100m and I straight away called it for a bonefish. People pay thousands of dollars to travel the world in search of bonefish using fly fishing gear and they are relatively common at Ningaloo. After about 5 minutes of chasing and fighting the fish, it was nearly boat side, but we still couldn’t identify it, even in 1 metre of crystal clear water. It wasn't until it was only 2m from the boat, that we could see that it was in fact a bonefish. It was a beauty too, about 760mm and around 3kg, something any fly fisho would love to call his own, and a helluva lot cheaper too!
Sue's ripper bonefish - and on a miserable piece of squid if you don't mind
Something worth mentioning, the big three in fly fishing shallow sand flats are bonefish, permit (snub-nosed dart) and tarpon. My Mrs has now caught all three, albeit on bait and lures, something that would make the purist's stomachs turn.
We returned to the ramp and showed Rod and Jenny the photos of Sue’s bonefish. Rod is a very keen fly fishermen and has caught bonefish at the same spot twice before. He was very happy for Sue with her unexpected catch. After showers and happy hour again, we joined Rod and Jenny in their van, where we chatted for a while longer and Rod showed us some of his fishing pics.
An overall view of Pilgramunna from atop a sand dune behind our site
thats intelligent having a gaff hanging out of a bonefishes mouth.. rare to australia and people treat them like that.. they dont even have teeth!
ReplyDeleteOh, the jewels that spew forth from the mouths of the chosen ones. Thanks for the narrow-minded comment Stephen, you've obviously caught a lot of bonefish.
DeleteWe hadn't, so we chose not to comfort-lift it and risk losing it at the side of the boat.
For your information, the gaff was carefully placed through the thin membrane in the fish's bottm jaw, doing as little damage as possible to any vital tissue.
A net wasn't used, as it would have damaged the fish's protective slime coating and possibly the scales. Sure, it didn't have teeth, no great revelation there, but there was a hook in there somewhere. Not a good idea to blindly shove your thumb in under those circumstances I would have thought. After a few quick pics, it swam away strongly, apparently none the worse for wear.
Every effort was made to minimise the amount of damage done to the fish, something we practice with every fish we bring to the boat, unless of course they're destined for the table. Not exactly the actions of the reckless butchers you paint us as. Don't be so quick to jump up on your soapbox next time Tosser . . . . .