Smoky Bay, Haslam, Perlubie Beach and Streaky Bay

We left Ceduna to commence our travels down the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula. Within 15 minutes we had reached the Laura Bay Conservation Park. In our camps book it showed that camping was available but we couldn't find anywhere that the van would fit, not to mention that the camping was a cut lunch and a waterbag from the seashore. So, we had some breakfast and decided to move on to Smoky Bay. (Yes, that is the correct spelling - Smoky, without the "e". Some of our camp books show "Smokey Bay".)

We were at Smoky Bay within 20 minutes of leaving Laura Bay and were lucky enough to get a spot in the local caravan park (it's peak tourist season over here.) The caravan park at Smoky Bay is small and tidy, a one minute walk from the beach and, like the park we were at at Ceduna, uses crushed gravel (and seashells) as a substitute for grass. We were lucky enough to have views of the sea from our van and once we had set-up we took the bikes and went for a ride around the small settlement.

Our bay at Smoky Bay - Ocean views over the low fence.

From what we could see, Smoky Bay would have a population of between 100 and 200 people. It has a mix of what appear to be old fishing cottages or shacks, old fibro houses and modern houses. The town is impeccably clean and the people are very community spirited. The town also has a pier, or jetty, that goes about 300 metres into the protected waters of the bay. There is a good boat ramp behind a rock wall that protects the waters even more. The local people have built an excellent fish-cleaning station, complete with bins for offal and this gets used heavilly.

The beaches at Smoky Bay are a huge improvement on those at Ceduna. They are very shallow and the low tide goes right out to the weed-line. When the tide is in, it can come about 80 metres up the beach from the weed-line. The fishing at Smoky Bay is excellent. The predominate species is the King George Whiting, but Herring and Snook are also in abundance. Those with boats can get out to the Snapper areas.

The beaches at Smoky Bay are much nicer than those at Ceduna

Day two saw me take the kayak out fishing while Sue went for a long walk along the beach. I paddled about a kilometre to where I saw a few boats gathering. When I got there I found that the boats were actually at a site where a species of shellfish called "Razor Fish" congregate. The people in the boats were harvesting these Razor Fish to use as bait for Whiting. I paddled over to one boat and had a bit of a chat and a look at what these Razor Fish were like. The bloke in the boat was quite happy to tell me all about them, how to catch the Whiting, what "country" the Whiting were likely to be in and a whole bunch of other good information.

So, armed with this new knowledge I paddled about 20 metres from where he was (thinking that if the Whiting like Razor Fish, they wouldn't be too far from where they grow) and found a good bit of bottom that matched what the bloke said I should be looking for. His advice was to look for patches of sand almost completely surrounded by seaweed. The object was to cast into the sand and the whiting would come out from the weed to forage.

I baited up with some cockles that I had purchased from the shop at the caravan park shop ( I didn't have any Razor Fish, or the special pole that you need to pull them out of the sea floor.) First cast resulted in a double-header of King George Whiting, both of which were 32 cm long - longer than the 31 cm legal limit. I was stoked. I had only ever caught one KGW before and that was an undersized one that I hooked at Ceduna a couple of days earlier.

Over the next 15 minutes I had caught another four fish from the same spot (I had been told that I would probably get one or two whiting at any spot and then have to move to a new spot.) Just after this the bloke I spoke to came over to me and gave me five razor fish to use as bait. To be honest, I don't think there was much difference between the cockles or Razor Fish when it came to catching whiting - they both worked.

I ended up catching 13 legal whiting, though four managed to flip out of the kayak and make their way back to safety. I also landed ten or so undersized fish that were immediately returned to the water. This left me with nine whiting to take home. I also caught a handful of Herring and four legal crabs. All-in-all, a pretty good day made all the better by about four hours of idyllic weather that turned for the worse as I was paddling back anyway. Fishing with four pound line made catching whiting is a lot more fun than I thought it would be!

Sue used the telephoto lens to take this shot of me paddling back.

Sue was waiting at the beach when I got back and took a couple of snaps, included below.

A mixed "bag" of crabs, whiting and herring.

The catch, with my knife to give an idea of  the size of the whiting.

Once I had the kayak back at the van I took the fish to the cleaning station and cleaned them up for dinner that night. Even though the King George Whiting are big compared to the Sand Whiting that we get in WA, nine of them still only made enough fillets for two meals for Sue and I. The Herring filleted down to just one meal. From our experience with the crabs we caught at Ceduna, I knew that four would be more than enough for a meal for the two of us.

Back at camp, Sue was getting some snacks ready. Another couple, who also own a Kedron caravan, were staying at the park as well and had stopped in at our site earlier in the day to have a chat. They also stopped next me in their boat while I was out fishing. The snacks were for us to take to their camp for "four o'clocksies" - caravaner code for drinks and nibblies.

Mark and Simone were much like us. They are also travelling the Eyre Peninsula between jobs. They, like us (before we got the jobs at Cossack), work and travel and their caravan is their home. We swapped stories about our caravans, about life on the road, fishing and many other subjects for a couple of hours. Then it was time to head back to our camp and cook up some whiting.

We fried the whiting fillets in butter and cracked pepper, taking no more than a couple of minutes on the heat to do the job. They were magnificent eaten with some fresh salad and rinsed down with a nice icy scotch. It had been 39 degrees that day, so a cold drink was in order.

After dinner we packed away most of the things that we need to before we set off, so that we had less to do in the morning. With daylight saving in place here in SA, it doesn't get dark until 9: PM, giving us plenty of light to work with.

Next morning we had a cup of coffee and packed the few remaining things away and headed off once more. In less than half an hour we were at a very small seaside village called Haslam. There is a cheap campsite at Haslam ($5.00 per night) which is pretty basic and a little way back from the beach, but would be ideal for those travelling on a budget. We had breakfast there before making our way down to the shoreline.

Haslam, like pretty much everywhere else we had been so far, also had its own pier. I was told by a chap at Smoky Bay, that a lot of squid are caught from this jetty but that would have to be another time for us. We had decided that with so many places to visit on this trip we would need to just look at some, but not stay. Haslam was going to be one of those places. After taking the mandatory photos we headed off for Perlubie Beach.

The Post Office at Haslam.

Check out the hours of business of the Post Office.

The coastline at Haslam was mostly rocky.

20 Minutes later and we we were at Perlubie Beach. Like Haslam, this place offered cheap camping for just $5.00 per night. About the only facilities you get for the money is a water tap at the carpark. The beach was a mix of sandy, tidal beach and rocky cliffs. Many people were camping on the beach in all manner of things. There were old caravans, a fifth wheeler, tents, people in the shadecloth covered beach shelters - real mix. The one thing they had in common was that they were up above the high water mark where the sand was pretty soft. There were a couple of tractors nearby and I suspect that the tractors are used to get the various caravans and things onto the beach. Again, we decided that it was too early to call it a day and took the mandatory photos before driving for another 20 minutes to Streaky Bay.

It pays to know what the tide will be doing when camping on Perlubie Beach.

There were even people camping in the parking lot - Perlubie Beach.

The caravan park at Streaky Bay is larger than any that we had stayed at recently and crowded to boot. It is going to take some getting used to having quite a few people around us. It has been raining this afternoon and so our touring of Streaky is on hold. Also, the bloody caravan has a leak in the roof - not happy Jan - which I'll have to fix tomorrow, before we do anything else. We did notice a walkway/cycleway that goes from Streaky to the boat ramp, so we'll definitely be walking or riding that. It goes right along the edge of the water and from the little that we could see through the rain, should be good.

We will report on Streaky in the next blog.