White Hill Beach Fishing
Participants:
Dave F (Trip Leader) – Mitsubishi Prado; Matt and Alyssa – Mitsubishi Pajero; Shane – Mitsubishi Triton; Sean, Deb and Luke – Mitsubishi Triton
As with any White Hill Beach trip, the meeting point was the Miami Bakehouse at Falcon for good coffee, and anything else from a bakery that might be needed for a morning recharge or lunch later in the day. Recharge more likely today, as a meet up time of 7am meant a much earlier start for Deb and I (well all of us actually), needing to leave northern suburbs by six for an hour plus drive to the bakery.
As this was such a gorgeous day and the “son” had slept in past the departure time from home, Deb and I instead, loaded our dog Luke into the back seat. Luke loves going for a ride in the car as it inevitably ends up somewhere fun to play and explore (except for the odd trip to the vet), and today would be no exception. While we had coffees, Luke walked and watered a tree.
With “L” plates up for a different type of driving lesson from Dad, Alyssa was the Pajero pilot today as we headed south from the bakery towards White Hill Road. Off the bitumen, the state of the road warrants airing down ASAP, the corrugations are quite severe for such a short section of track. It’s only about 4km to the beach, however the aired down ride is appreciated, and it’s required on the beach anyway. On the way, a 200 series Landcruiser belted past all of us in clouds of dust, only to be found 50m onto the beach airing down.
With our tyres all around the 12 to 15 psi mark, we idled easily down the beach a few kilometres to the waypoint that Dave had picked as the spot for our fishing and swimming.
A late night change of plan had resulted in the rod I wanted to use being left in a brother’s shed, so Dave kindly lent me a rod with a triple hook rig on it. Alyssa, Matt, Shane, Dave and I all headed for the water to see what would bite and all of us had Whiting on the first cast. With an off-shore breeze, getting the baited rig past the low shore break was easy. Even Deb had a couple of casts and scored a fish or two each time. With rod back from Deb, the keen fishos kept landing a steady stream of fish. The total count included a good number of Whiting and a couple of Herring, yet for every edible fish, I am sure between us, we also caught an equal number of blowies. The two triple catches I managed were blowies.
While we fished, Deb took Luke for a long walk down the beach and back, along with a ball for him to chase. Now and then Deb would toss the ball into the water where Luke would enthusiastically pursue it. Today was going to be a first for Luke. He’s so focussed on getting the ball that he tends to forget where he is, and retrieving one ball got picked up by a wave and dumped. We’ve all been there (for those of us that love beach swimming), and Deb recalled that there was a moment while watching Luke tumbling, where she thought she might be going in fully clothed to rescue him. However, he found the right way up, and then body surfed the next wave back to the beach. Understandable that after this, Luke was reluctant a bit later to join Deb, Dave, Shane and me for a swim, preferring to just chase his ball on the sand with Matt.
Periodically through the morning, Dave would get his drone up shooting some great aerial pictures and videos of us swimming and fishing. In a follow-me mode, Dave had the drone set to follow him and it would maintain a set height and bearing from him. So as he fished and walked backwards and forwards across the beach, it would move with him. After lunch, Dave gave a few of us a demonstration of what the drone could do with different types of flight patterns around us.
With fishing, swimming, dog walks and ball chasing wrapped up, Dave had the BabyQ Webber fired up for some snags and lunch. Lunch was enjoyed and through this time the wind backed around to a sea breeze, small white caps quickly starting to form offshore. Not ideal for anymore fishing, so around midday or a little after, we packed up and headed back towards White Hill Road. For the convoy back up the beach, I jumped into Dave’s Mitsi Prado to drive while he piloted the drone. The footage recorded spectacular, with some superb views of the convoy on the beach including flypasts, and side on shots from well off the beach looking back.
Eventually back near sealed road, we aired up and headed towards home. We stayed together as a group until Matt and Shane peeled off at the Baldivis BP for (more) coffee, then down to one when Dave peeled off at the Roe.
All-in-all, a great trip, enjoyed by everyone. Sean F.
All Tracks 4WD Club BM Prado Adventures Fishing White Hills Beach Whitehills Beach