Leaving Mulberry Hill at 3.50am, we negotiated the questionable directions from his GPS and wound our way through Gippsland and eventually down to the Carpark at the Darby River. Arriving at about 550am, it was freaking freezing. After a quick cuppa and rugging up, we loaded up the packs and rods and baits and began the 6km trek down to the spot. The first 300ish metres of path is reasonably flat, then it goes straight up. As we climbed the temperature went up about 10 degrees in no time at all, still all in the dark. Eventually we traversed out along the ridge as the sun rose, giving us this view back north.
Another kilometre or so and a bit more sunrise on, I managed to snap this ....
Seriously beautiful place.
We continued on, eventually getting to the end of the track here....
-38.993752, 146.253617
Not realising quite how vertical everything was from the photo's and the sheer hugeness of the cliff, we elected to fish the south ledge rather than trying to climb all the way out to the end.
A group of three Japanese float fisherman showed up, and jumped onto the ledge next to us just as we were setting up.
The amount of fish they pulled in over the next several hours was impressive, fishing light gear in close to the rocks. Very talented lads and incredibly stylish, Carl not so much,.....
AFter landing an 80ish cm pike for baits on my third cast or a halco twister, the next 3 hours resulted in utter frustration and tiny fish and snags. Some beautiful colors, but the big baits weren't getting touched.
Carl came through with a couple of garbage sharks. A Port Jackson.....
and what I think is a Swell Shark but someone might correct me?
During this time we were watching an eagle circle. We'd had our eyes on it for a while, watching it ride the wind changes up and down as it circled and hunted and scared the seagulls off for us. Carl released a wrasse a little too enthusiastically, stunned it for a moment, and we were lucky enough to get to watch this amazing creature dive and grab it from about 20m in front of us and fly back off to enjoy it's lunch.
Just after hightide at 11, the big baits started to go off.
Reefed.
Reefed again, both times we think it was probably one of those big smooth rays.
I broke off a soft plastic casting my salmon rod and halfway through tying an FG the drag on my heavy rod screamed....
Whatever grabbed it, it went topwater and straight for the horizon. I tightened the drag all the way to 11kg and held on to my 13 footer for dear life as the line peeled off in a series of violent headshaking runs, it showed no sign at all of slowing down when PIIIIINNNNGGGGGGGGG and i cop a fully loaded 15kg nitro to the face. Absolutely freaking smoked.
The rest of day was pretty dull, a few big bites that were most likely rays or more garbage sharks, which reefed us pretty effectively. Only the one fish on the lure which was the pike we landed at the start of the day.
A few pics from higher up to try and show everyone just how big the place is.
All in all, a freaking amazing place to fish. Definitely worth the two hour drive and hour+ haul in. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who isn't in pretty good shape, it's a freaking dangerous place to fish. We were there in less than a metre of swell and a stiff offshore, wouldn't go anywhere near it in anything other than perfect conditions. I will be going back with proper LBG gear to try and get a giant toothy sometime in the nearish future.
Here is a whole album of the pics I took.
http://imgur.com/a/Cb6Tp
It wont stop me trying tho, I'll def take up the offer to team up and pick up some tips tho :D
