4th March 2011
On Wednesday 2nd we relocated the 90 or so kilometres from Goolwa to Semaphore in western Adelaide to catch up with a wonderful couple we had made friends with at Arkaroola (Northern Flinders Ranges), during the early day of arriving in South Australia.
We booked into the Semaphore caravan park where we had previously stayed a few days when son David joined us before last Xmas. It turns out that Bob and Shirley live within a stones throw of the caravan park and had we realised we could have caught up with them briefly on that occasion as well.
Wednesday evening Bob and Shirley gave us a very interesting Cooks tour of the Adelaide Port and surrounding area where there are some wonderful old homes and buildings, before enjoying a nice Asian meal at a local restaurant.
Thursday morning 0630 still dark and bloody cold I met Bob at the beach access behind the caravan park where we launched his tinnie off the beach. With shorts rolled up as far as they would go I stood fending off ice bergs while keeping an eye out for White Pointers (yes Brett the fish type), and waited while Bob parked off the beach. A gentle but frigid breeze created small wavelet’s as the morning light broke through in a clear sky and while Bob went through the motions of starting the outboard motor I rowed out through the mini breakers into clear water, at least it was enough to warm me up. Not more than a kilometre away we anchored up, I started fishing for Whiting while Bob prepared a couple of rigs for Gar fishing and had no sooner flicked a line into the water than had one on, so Gar fishing it was. Garfish in South Australia are considered a great table fish unlike the Garfish in Qld. The method for catching them is to use a very light rig similar to what we would use for Whiting fishing in Qld from a boat, they attach a float to the line as some people do with fresh water fishing. The float is moveable so the extent of line from float to hook can be adjusted to whatever depth is found to be the most productive, these rigs were adjusted to about 500mm a tiny split shot is attached to the line just above a very small long shank hook about the size you would use to catch winter whiting. Bait are maggots called Gents (I think that’s right) apparently you can breed your own maggots but it would appear most people buy them in the bait shop in a small plastic container filled with fine sawdust you just thread 3 or 4 wriggling maggots on to your tiny hook and flick the line out behind the boat 5 – 10 metres in a berley trail of slowly released fish oil. The amazing thing is the Gents or maggots are the only worthwhile bait for gar and yet they are a weed eating fish. In a small but stable tinnie we had a rod each set for whiting, fished for gar with another rod each and Bob worked two small crab dillies one each side of the boat, no dramas, well rehearsed and well organised. With the wind getting up and fish going off the bite we only fished for a couple of hours, in fact we were back at Bob’s place by about 10:30am but in that time we had caught a really good feed of gar and 5 or 6 blue swimmer crabs, they are basically the same as what we call sandies in Qld. Coming back into the beach and retrieving the boat was effortless and without any risk not having surf thundering in on the beach. I watched Bob fillet the slippery little suckers with the touch of a brain surgeon ending up with a pan full of lovely butterfly fillets – so now I’m and expert of course.
Later in the day Nancy and Shirley went to see “The Kings Speech”, which they thoroughly enjoyed and it lets me off the hook I detest going to the movies, for some reason I always end up feeling bilious. When the girls returned I joined them at Bob and Shirley’s comfortable home where we had a wonderful meal and evening, few drinks, blue swimmer crab entrée, garfish main done in Japanese breadcrumbs, expertly prepared and cooked by cordon bleu chef Bob, followed by a delicious lemon tart Shirley had made earlier. What can I say, what a fabulous re-union with a couple of life’s nicer people.
For those Queenslanders that haven’t tried SA gar, catching them is good fun and eating them, well if you like whiting you will love garfish.
Bob has his own business trading as Coastal Strip Kitchens; that is he builds and installs modern kitchens, now I can only judge by his own kitchen but this bloke is a perfectionist. Everything you admire in their beautiful home Bob has actually built himself including items such as furniture and large bi-fold doors, and the workmanship is immaculate all complemented by Shirley’s obviously very talented artistic flair for exactly the right colours and tonings and having just the right accessories in just the right places.
Back down to Victor Harbor Friday morning for my last art lesson on Saturday then we are off to Renmark in the Riverland area.