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I’ve
been fortunate in my fishing career, to get to fish a few exotic
locations and to fish with some high profile fishing media personalities.
I know that I get a great deal of enjoyment myself out of reading
about such fishing destinations and adventures in the fishing
media.
I suspect it fills a need for a Walter Mitty like vicarious
piscatorial Zane Grey existence for many of us, if the rest
of you are anything like me. A little piscatorial "escapism"
seems good for the frustrated angler’s soul.
The downside can be that when the reality penny drops, it seems
totally beyond the reach of the average fisherman and his family
to depart to such exotic destinations…stuff of fishing
pipe dreams.
I’ve discovered that with a little lateral thinking and
planning, it needn’t be such an unattainable ideal. So
come along with the Low clan, and visit Esperance, the bay of
isles, wilderness national parks and the islands of the Recherche
archipelago.
The Britz Factor.
Often the largest single expense of an exotic fishing trip,
is just getting there.
Plane fares are wickedly dear in this country, worse if you
live out west. Make that plane fares for a family, and it’s
a lotto dream proposition.
I’ve done the sums on buying all the latest camping gear
and a new 4x4 family wagon plus boat to "do it yourself",
and believe me that also is now in the realms of a lotto dream
for all but a few people with high disposable incomes.
No, the days of owning your own home, 4x4 and boat, putting
the kids through school and then Uni, are fast disappearing
in this "the lucky country", even with two household
incomes. The solution however is now in the "hire market"
for many of these, low use / high capital cost recreational
/ holiday type items.
Some extremely successful boat, 4wd and caravan hire companies
have sprung up around Australia in recent years to fill the
need of the average family guy, and Britz Australia, are one
who stand out. Inbound tourists seeking the "nature based
wilderness tour experience" are also increasingly now a
large part of the client bases of such company’s.
Our "Exotic Destination"
I’ve traveled most of Australia once or twice, and yet
the one place I’d never actually made it to, was Esperance.
It’s not really "on the way to anywhere", it’s
somewhere you have to take a significant detour from the major
east west route to go and see, and so for many folk I suspect,
it’s raw beauty and magnificent scenery remain a mystery.
For anyone unfamiliar with the place it lays some 720 kilometers
south east of Perth on the south coast, and is the last large
settlement before hitting the Nullarbor Plain & Great Australian
Bight.
National Parks
There are 4 national parks within the Esperance region, Namely
Peak Charles, Stokes Inlet, Cape LeGrand, and Cape Arid. Peak
Charles is an inland park so not really a fishing destination,
I admit to visiting it once on a shortcut to the eastern states
through the Frank Hann National park between Lake King and Norseman.
Most of the other 3 National parks have CALM camping facilities
for overnight stays, a few "local shire" camping facilities
and even a few privately owned caravan parks..
All levy a fee for entry / overnight stay which varies in cost…Cape
Arid and Cape Le Grand were $9.00 per vehicle per day.
In addition there are a great number of vehicle accessible beaches
both within the national parks and also outside of the parks.
 Geography
/ Fishing
Esperance is windy city. It blows there like no where else I’ve
come across – why my hairline receded two inches and that
was just from standing facing into the wind for 5 minutes! It’s
so windy they have a wind farm to harness the energy! Now anyone
whose fished a few beaches knows that strong winds and enjoyable
fishing are mutually exclusive commodities.
Esperance would be a total fishing write off if it weren’t
for one thing…the amazing coastal geography of the place.
It was "unusual weather" I’m told bye the locals
whilst we were there, the aftermath of cyclonic weather fed
down inland from the Kimberley’s that caused a heat wave
in Perth during our absence – and saw very strong south
easterlies for the first 3 days of our visit.
In Esperance unlike the West coast where I usually fish, this
is an "onshore breeze"…and not the best for fishing
beaches which face southerly direction.
The saving grace for us was the huge Capes (Le Grande Wharton
and Arid) that sweep out into the southern ocean and provide
respite and shelter from the relentless wind on the delightful
northwesterly facing pure white hard packed trafficable beaches.
The offshore wind here creates calm waters, safe for family
fishing swimming activities. The clarity of the water is just
simply unbelievable…it actually looks "drinkable"…it’s
so clear…polaroid glasses for spotting fish? Why –
how could they hide in such gin clear water!
We experienced south westerly winds later in our visit, and
were able to find secluded sheltered beaches west of Esperance
that afforded very pleasant fishing conditions for the remainder
of the week. In short, there wasn’t a day we couldn’t
fish & swim.
Fish Species encountered.
We fished hard for the week we were there every day. We were
after a few big salmon to get some happy snaps for this article.
The truth is – they eluded us although we came pretty close
with a big fellow following the lure right to our feet on the
second last day.
Salmon were caught in Esperance every day we were there…by
fishers other than us unfortunately! One day it was on a beach
just a couple of kilometers around the corner from where we
fished. Next day – it was on a beach just the same distance
the other side of where we chose to fish.
We kept up with all the best advice available from the local
experts, tackle shops and fellow anglers who’d enjoyed
success – often within spitting distance of us, but bye
the end of the week – they were proving our nemesis!
During these daily forays after fish we encountered mostly herring
(tommy rough) juvenile salmon, and of course flathead.
There’s no shortage of fish in Esperance waters, in reality
it’s so abundant most sessions were a fish a cast. A cast
that didn’t elicit a fish was analysed for likely causes,
tangled lure or fly etc was usually the cause.
You’ll catch fish in Esperance, and in great numbers, of
that you can be assured.
 Fishing
for a specific result however is another thing. We tried for
other species for some variety – on one particularly windy
day we fished the commercial fishing boat harbour at Bandy Creek.
Whilst the fishing was slow that day for everyone, the kids
spotted a lot of resident fish skippy, bream and numerous flathead
while snorkeling. I fly fished that harbour hard and dropped
a lovely Black Bream at my feet. I caught and released a surprising
number of juvenile flathead.
I was taken with the quality of Fishing on offer for shore based
anglers in Esperance and would return there for the fishing
alone.
We did pick up some local bait from a few of the tackle shops
and tried soaking everything from pilchards and whitebait to
octopus & prawns – with very limited success.
Lures and flies was the exact opposite. Halcos silver and gold
twisties were devastating, as was a smaller chartreuse clouser.
We stuck to beach fishing as I was concerned about my kids safety.
I did venture out onto the rocks myself and in a few protected
calm situations I did take the kids onto the rocks just for
the experience, which they relished.
However it really is a hard core rock hoppers option in this
neck of the woods. There is enough great beach fishing to obviate
the need for rock fishing for families.
Other activities
My wife and daughter don’t mind waving a fishing rod when
the fishing’s hot and a bite assured, other times they
could take it or leave it. Often Mother and Daughter headed
off together for long beach walks while the two boys and I fished.
They collected shells and rope, investigated washed up marine
life like sea slugs, went for swims and body surfed, snorkeled,
and basically spent some pretty good quality time together.
We toured a few areas of interest like the pink lake and wind
farm, had a stroll around the shops in Esperance, caught up
with a few long lost friends who reside in that area and so
on.
Esperance abounds with charter services for fishing & sightseeing
through the offshore islands of the Recherche Archipelago, if
the budget stretches that far. An overnight visit to "woody
island" is a favorite among visitors.
There is no shortage of activities to keep a young family occupied
in Esperance.
Tackle /Fishing Clubs.
Esperance is well serviced with Tackle shops, and fishing clubs
as well as info for the visiting angler. We managed to drop
in on a couple of outlets and were impressed with both.
Esperance Marine and Tackle situated on Norseman Rd had a modest
tackle supply and a nice boat / chandlery business. Advice was
freely offered and service courteous and prompt. They can be
contacted on 08 90717373
The guys at Southern Sports and Tackle in the Boulevard Shopping
Centre, had a great tackle range, friendly advice, and courteous
prompt service. They can be contacted on 08 9071 3022
The Esperance Surfcasters club, nave prepared a neat little
16 page "basic Esperance Fishing guide which I very well
put together, very informative and chock full of advice on locations
track conditions access and so on. For $2.20 I highly recommend
it! The tourist bureau can put visiting anglers in touch with
the Surfcasters club.
Aspects of camping with the family.
We spent time in our powered site at the caravan park most nights,
for ablutions laundry etc, however we did overnight also, at
Thomas river in the remote Cape Arid National Park to maximise
fishing time there after the lengthy drive.
I swear we must have taken someone else’s kids on holiday
besides our own bye mistake, as we didn’t hear one argument
or dispute from any of them for the whole week. No tears, no
fights, no grumbles – it was simply amazing. I guess you
could say we became a functional family in the absence of TV,
computer games, and peer group pressure.
The kids slipped excitedly into a daily routine of showering,
packing the van, fishing, preparing meals, washing the dishes,
and hitting the hay early for a bright start the next day. They
all "discovered" the joy of reading books in quiet
periods (Harry Potter copped a hammering).
The excitement of sleeping on the top bunk, doing all the tasks
with the van such as popping the roof, making the beds into
tables, filling water tanks and so on was "fun stuff"
for the kids. The sobering thing was, upon arrival home after
the trip it took them all of 5 minutes to return to normal sibling
behaviour!
Summation
The good folk at Britz, were very helpful, friendly professional
& knowledgeable.
The vehicle was well presented. Clean, well provisioned with
linen and utensils.
It was air conditioned, and drove very nicely. The vehicle was
in great condition
I found it easy to drive, quite economical. It is probably the
ultimate beach salmon spotting 4wd vehicle!
I used a great deal of common sense to avoid taking the vehicle
onto any beaches that were beyond its 4wd capability. It’s
important to remember that it is a heavy truck and I purposely
avoided steep soft eroding beaches that lighter 4wd’s may
have traversed, preferring to stay with the flat hard white
sand variety that posed no threat of becoming stranded.
If your not an avid every weekend 4wd /fishing enthusiast it
may well make much more fiscal sense to avail yourself of the
huge range of 4wd vehicles and campers available from the people
at Britz.
I doubt there’s a more relaxing family holiday fishing
destination than Esperance, in Western Australia. It’s
remote, clean, and fish abundant. The people were friendly and
facilities for tourists very well developed. The remote wilderness
national parks are spectacular, scenery breathtaking, beaches
in a class all of there own.
Just east of Esperance – Cape LeGrand National Park afforded
access to Wylie beach, which was trafficable in 2wd, even for
the Britz Isuzu truck.
Little Wharton beach at Duke of Orleans bay also east of Esperance,
was also a joy – however it was not accessible by the truck,
being a very difficult 4wd ramp angle approach. Smaller 4wd’s
managed it and the beach was eminently trafficable once access
was gained, however for us, prudence suggested a walk, which
we all really enjoyed – needed no rocking to sleep that
night.
Thomas river in the Cape Arid National Park, was beautiful and
we had it to ourselves most of the time. The beach was accessible
with the vehicle and we camped during the day bye the waters
edge, and overnight in the shire campground adjacent to the
estuary. The march flies were savage and unrelenting, but they
did make great berley!
Bandy creek Harbour, was well sheltered, we fished here twice,
close to town, and a lovely spot out of the wind. Has first
rate boat ramp facility.
The beaches west of Esperance, including Salmon Beach, Blue
haven, Observation Point, Ten Mile Lagoon and so on, all located
on "tourist drive were all just wonderful.
* Shann Low and family traveled to Esperance courtesy of Britz.
I’ll be back! Shann Low
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