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Published: December 30th 2008
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Our Boat
Steve, Myself and J.P After a few drinks one night playing poker I for some reason unknown to me now accepted an invitation to go on a four day fishing trip the following weekend. I guess I was thinking of the fun i'd had casting my line of the dock at the cottage and when tired running up the hill for a hot meal and some t.v. This however was going to be 'real' fishing! We had to leave for a near by town on thursday night and get groceries and get a few hours shut eye. The wake up call was at 3am! We had loaded the boats the night before and rushed off to a tiny little river to catch the high tide to get to our island where we would spend three long nights.
Upon arriving to the river I saw a Croc Warning sign which I promptly questioned the boys about. They of course told me that they had never seen a croc in these waters before in all the years they had been there. Not convinced I studied the do's and don'ts of Croc country. Meanwhile J.P was told to guide the boats into the water.........'throw a couple rocks
Pretty
the sky before we launched our boats for the fishing trip in there first though' said the boys who had just told me there was no crocs. Soon we were in the water and starting our slow (we were packed down the tons of gear) ride to the island down this beautiful deserted stream. We arrived around 6am and set up camp. We were the only ones camping on the island that weekend so we had the run of it. By the time we had finished the tide had gone out and the river we had rode in on a short while ago was sand. There wasn't much to do so we turned on our little radio and cracked some beers till it was time to catch some bait for the evenings fishing trip. We didn't want to move too much either since it was 32C out and for sun & bug protection reasons we were dressed in long sleves and long pants.
After a lazy morning we set off for some afternoon bait catching. I wondered aloud why we didn't just buy some worms at the store which apparently is funny since they don't use worms they use live fish as bait. We went over to the other bank
Crab
laughing my ass off while reeling in the crab which was under a bit of water again and hopped out to find hundreds of invasion crabs running away from us. Tiny and a dull transparent blue they were a sight to see. Moving along we cast the bait nets in a few shallow areas but came up with nothing. So we kept wandering further in and I kept asking where crocs would hide if they were here. We hit a block in the road in the form of water, about waist high. I looked at them and asked if there would be any crocs in that water. They shook there heads and started walking there the water. I was about knee deep when they turned around and said 'you don't have to come if you don't want to but if you do stomp your feet as you walk. make heaps of vibrations'. But I thought there was no crocs in there. "there's no crocs but there would be sting rays." I was out of there so quickly. I waited for them to catch the bait and come back which was about 45 minutes of paranoid searching for possible crocs in the extreme north Queensland heat............................what seemed like a lifetime
later the boys came back with bait and we went back to camp for a few beers to wait for the high tide to come in.
The first night of fishing was slow. One of our boats caught about 4 fish but the boat I was in caught none. I couldn't have cared less but the boys I was with were getting frustrated. We stayed out until dark hoping to catch at least one but we were forced in after Steve heard a croc call. I couldn't even describe what it sounded like but I was on the look out for red eyes all the way back to camp and sat as close to the middle of the boat as I could. I didnt get much sleep that night thinking that a croc was going to climb into my tent and drag me away. We only had one uninvited guest that night though and it was a rat which I could handle with the other options being much worse.
Day two of fishing we were all up and out of our tents at about 5am. It was just too hot to sleep past then so we decided to
Fishin'
Steve and Myself fishin' get out and fish for an hour see if our luck had changed. We cast out near some mangroves (a tree that looks like a twisted mess of roots high about the ground) and after about 10 minutes my rod bent. I had one on the hook and the little devil was strong. I struggled to get what I thought was going to be a big fish into the boat but it turned out to be a fish called a Grunter but it was too small to keep. I was happy anyways to have caught my first fish and it to be a Grunter which gets it's name for doing exactly that...grunting. Pretty funny actually. Too hot to fish anymore we went back for our afternoon beers and naps in any shade we could find. The boys from the other boat laid some crab pods then joined us.
We set out early that evening so that we had maximum time for the boys to catch a fish. I was, as the boys would say, 'happy as larry' already since my Grunter adventure. That night was an excellent one. We caught tons of fish, about five of them keepers and I
My fish
this guy was the guy who bent my reel but I showed him by eating him somehow caught a crab on my line which I still look back on and laugh. The poor little guy was eating my bait and I had the nerve to reel him in. I tried to shake him off and he was trying to cut the line with his clippers. If a video of this existed I would have gladly put it up but sadly I was too busy laughing to do anything. Another catch came later in the night when I was fishing near the mangroves for a mangrove jack (apparently the best river fish to eat). Now these little guys have a trick where they eat your bait then quickily head for the mangrove roots where they'll tangle you up and you have to cut your line and they get away. So as soon as I got a bite I was quickly reeling. My arm was going as fast as it could for the weight of this fish. I ended up having to give my rod to Steve to reel in cause it was too heavy and the reel was coming off the fish was so strong. We ended up keeping my mangrove jack and ate it for dinner
once we got back to Townsville. Once it got dark we didn't want to chance the crocs so we checked the crab pods and called it a night. We ended up with 8 keepers and 3 crabs. Well four crabs but we cooked one up for dinner that last night.
We left early the next morning to catch the high tide . Smelly and exhausted we made our way back to Townsville.
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uncle mike
non-member comment
impressive
Good to hear from you Laura. Impressive story, the pictures really make it come alive for us poor snow dwellers. 8 fish in 4 days, tell those boys not to give up their day jobs. It seems a rat doesn`t seem so bad when a croc is the option. How did you keep your beer cold? Love, uncle Mike