Swan Hill 2010

November 10th, Travelled to Swan Hill, only 152 Klms, and booked into the Swan Hill Riverside Caravan Park (Top Tourist), for a week on a riverfront site. Fabulous, only a metre from the river and a tree to tie the Tinny to. We set up and walked around the Park and would recommend this park to everyone. It is right next to the Pioneer Village which will be a must to visit. Dropped my shrimp trap into the edge of the river, overnight, to catch some bait for to-morrow.

November 11th, Put the boat into the river and went out for a fish, late in the afternoon. Only caught 3 shrimp in the trap, which was disappointing, but proved to be plenty. I only went a short way down river, just past the road bridge, and had 2 lines in. Used shrimp on one and soft cheese on the other. Wasn’t there more than 10 minutes when I pulled in a good sized fish, caught on soft cheese, measured at 40 cms. I identified it as a Cod Trout and unfortunately this is an endangered species so, after a photo I released it back into the river. That was my only catch of the day.

November 13th, Had a rest day yesterday, rain started late afternoon and is still raining today. We went to the local Grain Shed in the afternoon for their Expo and Market Day. All outdoor stands were washed out but we enjoyed the undercover Shed displays and stalls. Went to check out the RSL, had a Chardy and made a donation through their pokies. Always willing to keep the local economy buoyant.

November 14th, The rain stopped so, pumped the rainwater out of the boat and went out for a fish. No fish today.

November 15th, tried my luck again today and was thrilled to come in with a 40cm Yellowbelly. It gave us 2 good sized fillets. Val had one for her dinner tonight and loved it. She coated it with flour and fried it in butter.

November 16th, I caught a 37cm Murray Cod this morning, so took its photo and returned it to the river. Two reasons for that, it’s the closed season for Murray Cod and the minimum legal length is 50cms. Val went to the local Medical Centre to get new scripts written up for her medication.

 November 17th, I went to look through the Swan Hill Pioneer Settlement today. Val wasn’t interested so I went on my own while she did some reading. We took out a temporary membership the Swan Hill Library and borrowed some books. The Settlement is similar to Sovereign Hill in Ballarat. It had 47 items on display and 10 of them were manned by Volunteers. I had a ride around the Settlement in a 1920 Dodge and that brought back memories, as my first car was a 1929 Plymouth and my Dad had a 1926 Chevrolet when I was a young boy. It took me 4 hours to look through all the exhibits and I took many photographs, only stopping when the camera battery went flat. I thoroughly enjoyed walking back through time and the most fascinating item was the Steroscopic Theatre in the Mechanics Institute. It had 50 old photos from around the world shown in 3D and was built in the 1800’s. I couldn’t believe that they had the 3D technology way back then. I also enjoyed a nice coffee and cake break at the Bakery and later an icecream at the General Store. After a late lunch we went into Town and had a Chardy and a flutter, on the Pokies, at the Swan Hill Club. Didn’t win but enjoyed a good run of luck in very pleasant surroundings.

November 18th, Went out fishing this morning and caught a 40cm Cod. All these Cods look very similar but I’m learning that if it looks like a cod, it will either be endangered or a Murray Cod and has to be released. So I keep praying to catch a “yellow belly” which I know I can keep, if it is above the legal length. We have seen on the News that there is an impending locust plague, in the direction that we are heading, so went and bought some “flyscreen” and taped it over the front of the car, just in case we run into a plague, on the move.

November 19th, This is my last day to go fishing here, so with the 7 shrimp, caught overnight, and a block of cheese off I go. I anchored just past the road bridge and the first fish I land is a 59cm Carp. A huge fish, biggest I’ve caught in the Murray River and it was fun to get it into the boat. I followed that up with a 40cm Cod and a 37cm Perch, both endangered species, so back into the River they went. That was my best days fishing and I brought the Carp in for Val to do a photo shoot. It was pack up time again and the boat had to come out of the River. On the way to the boat ramp I was to toss the Carp onto the small island, in the middle of the river opposite our site, for the birds and foxes to clean up. Val was watching as I took off to complete this task and as the river is narrow at the end of the Island the current runs very fast. I had difficulty and did a couple of 360’s trying to position the boat alongside the Island, then grabbing the Carp by the tail I took a mighty swing and launched it on its way, only to land just on the edge and roll back into the River. I just shrugged and said under my breath, DAMN, while Val could not stop laughing. The rest of the packing up went smoothly and to-morrow we are off to Robinvale to continue our Murray River Trip.