Letters of my life; some of them positive, some of them about fishing, all of them about US = Johnno a mad keen (obsessed) fisherman, Myself (Positive Karen), and our two dogs Puppy and Charlie, as we enjoy a life of fishing, food and fitness, while trying to keep some kind of balance.
The day we found this beautiful part of our favourite river.
YouTube has this annual event. On the 25th of July they ask channel creator's to send in clips from their lives, which they will use to make a global montage called Life In A Day on planet earth.
I think its an awesome idea, especially in this crazy year of 2020. I liked it so much I took it a step further and filmed my WHOLE day, making a new episode A Day In Our Life.
Normal Positive Fishing on YouTube episodes start with our drive into fishing spot to show the country side, or just straight into the fishing action. In this clip I shared our whole day! Right from coffee in bed before work to drunk phone call late at night.
It was just a typical Saturday for us, doing what we always do. We didn't go out of our way to do any thing crazy for this YouTube event. This is our life, this is what we do!
25th July 2020 we went exploring
There is so much more to Positive Fishing than just fishing. Like most things in life it is all about the journey, getting there is half the fun. The planning and preparation of an up coming fishing trip helps build the anticipation and excitement. Exploring new places is part of that. Instead of going to the same hole or beach every weekend we like to mix it up, and we love exploring new grounds we have never been to before.
The anticipation of a new fishing hole...
On my walk to work, starting to get excited about the day ahead already!
So here it is, take a look at a typical Saturday for Positive Fishing.
Tom & Valentina, who made me jealous with that beautiful Mangrove Jack, BUT also Inspired me with their lifestyle: 3 years travelling!!!
Jealousy, Inspired action, excited anticipation, than Jealousy again.
Meaning of Jealousy: a feeling of unhappiness and anger because someone else has something you want.
Um, that might be a bit harsh a reaction to what I was feeling, but I have known for a long time, that feeling of 'jealousy' is showing you something that you want, so yes it was jealousy, just without the anger....life's to short to get angry, just get out there and get/do what you want to do instead.
When I see other people on social media catching big fish and camping at beautiful locations, and I start feeling 'jealous', I know it is time to get out there and go fishing!
Saturday morning when we pulled up at our remote boat ramp, we meet Tom, an excitable fella who was over the moon to meet us. He had been watching Positive Fishing on YouTube for a long time. It was so nice to talk to one of our followers, for the longest time I thought I was talking to myself on here, so I REALLY love hearing from people who watch our clips or read my blogs. We learnt a lot from our short talk with Tom, about what he likes and has learnt from our channel, as well as things he would like to see us do in the future.
....Then he showed us all the fish he had been catching from the boat ramp over night, that's when I got jealous.....
The Mangrove Jack, Tom caught that made me so Jealous!
Tom caught this beauty of a Mangrove Jack, as well as a big bluenose salmon, a Mulloway, fingermark and bream! We couldn't talk much after that sorry Tom, it was action stations, lets get out there and catch our own fish!!
....YouTube clip to follow. We did catch fish, we caught a lot of fish, just not that fish 'that we came for'. But that's fishing. The anticipation is part of the fishing, would it be as much fun if you knew you were going to catch that big fish every single time you went fishing? I'm not sure, but i'd like to find out hahahahaha.
What does fishing mean to you?
To me, Karen, as much as i love catching what we came for, it's still all about the full story. The planning and preparation. The getting there, the talking to other people, meeting such interesting people like Tom and Valentina.
The hanging out in beautiful places, the wildlife, the exploring new places. Being alone, being remote, but not always. Sometimes fishing with lots of other people is just as much fun, at least you know you are in the right spot 😉 and not the only person not catching anything. 😊
What is this bird? Part of what i LOVE about fishing, being with nature. We followed this bird for several minutes down the river. Today's mission to learn it's name....I will call him Blue.
Yes seeing Tom's beautiful Mangrove Jack, inspired and excited us, so we took action. Get out there and do what you want to do everyone. Use the emotions you get when you see other people on social media to guide you towards what you want, to motivate you to get out there and live your dreams.
Check out Positive Fishing on YouTube to see what happened after we left Tom, video will load 4pm Wednesday 22nd July 2020, and all our other Fishing for the Fun of it and Outdoor Adventures.
Clip of the day after we meet Tom at the Boat ramp:
A back load of freight and Au Post is finally arriving!
With the borders closed buses are running less days each week, so Australia Post has been very slow getting to us in The Kimberley.
Check out other recent link when we finally received tags for tagging barra!
Ok the great unboxing: Box Number 1, boring, a boat cover for SOMEONE ELSE!
Parcel 2: Hair dye!!! Just in bloody time I tell ya, I was going to go dark.
Parcel 3: Running shoes! Wahoo, I'm up to 10km's of our half marathon training, new shoes will be great!
Over a month ago a follower of Positive Fishing on YouTube asked for our postal address to send us some lure's. I felt very special at the time, expecting a couple of lures he had used in the past that worked for him. I was shocked and over the moon when I opened parcel number 4 to find 11 different new lures! Wahoo! Feeling the love! Feeling very grateful and thankful! And feeling a challenge coming on!!! Johnno V's Karen using only lure's sent to us from Barra Thomas! Watch out for that coming up on YouTube. Who will pick which lures? Which lure will catch the most fish?
Maybe not this weekend however. The Kimberley borders open TODAY, visitors are returning to our region, and my run of weekends off has come to an end...lucky for me Johnno is working as well! So he can not sneak out fishing without me!
So pretty!
My guess for the first two to be used?
I'm so thankful for this gift, not just the lures but the thought. The fact that someone wanted to send us a gift is a pretty special thing! These will be some of favourite lures forever. And I must admit that is a big call, because they have A LOT of competition! A part from the normal large fishing tackle bag which comes on the boat with us, with 8 boxes in it.....
Lets just say we do not have a shortage of lures.
A stash of lures that will not fix in the boat bag.
New lures Johnno brought last week.
A big box of lures I thought needed their hooks changed, but look like they just need to be put back in little boxes.
Dry season has arrived, the nights are cooler, the mornings fresher.
It's CAMPING time!!!
May river, Derby 2020
The dry season has arrived in The Kimberley! After months of hot & humid continual sweating, which we love as well, but finally it has cooled down. Beautiful fresh cool nights make it much nicer for sleep outside, and we had a new swag we were just busting to try out.
We had been to this spot on the river about a month ago in our little tinny, while there we noticed some people on the bank who had driven around, so it was just a matter of finding the track they had used. It took a bit of exploring but once you know, you know :)
Johnno fly fishing while I sit on bank watching.
We had a very relaxing afternoon, too relaxing for me, I chucked a bait out and fall asleep under those lovely trees, the day went so fast ;)
We cooked potatoes in the camp fire. No fancy cook-ups for us, we are easy camping kind of people.
The new swag worked a treat, I had the best sleep ever...Johnn isn't sure yet there is enough room for all 4 of us. Will try it again this weekend to see how he goes.
The next day we spent exploring the other end of the river, looking for another spot we didn't know how to drive to. We never found the spot we were looking for, BUT we did find awesome Saltwater CROCODILES, my favourite animal to film!
99cm TAGGED Barramundi, caught on live bait Derby WA 1st of April, no joke!
This arrived in the post today...
Tags in information arrived in post today.
After catching a tagged barra at Langi's Crossing the start of this year, I phoned through the details, and started looking into the process of tagging. It was such a great feeling recording the details and knowing that I was helping others learn more about our great fisheries in the North West.
Certificate with information collected from the fish I caught.
The fish I caught on the 1st of April 2020 was 99cm. This fish was first tagged on the 25th of Jan 2020 then a length of 97cm. So this barra grow 20cm's in just over 2 months! Now isn't that fascinating!! That's what I want to be a part of! Learning while fishing for the future.
I'm excited that in the future I could get information sent to me about fish I originally tagged and will learn what happened to that fish, where did it move to, how big did it grow. This feels so good.
Now we just need to get out a tag some fish! Today is the day after celebrating WA Day. Lucky I am off work, because I really do like living in WA and celebrated this wonderful lifestyle plenty ;)
Recovery day on the computer. Check out those clean windows! I did the whole house!
Also arrived in the post today, stickers for our new tiny tinny. The stickers are bigger than the boat, not sure how they are going to go on. Stay tuned, I'm sure Johnno will have them on as soon as he gets home. Check out Positive Fishing On FaceBook or Instagram for photos this afternoon.
The rest of the world can fall to bits (say BITS with a strong Kiwi accent or its not even a word!) BUT luck for us we live in WA!
WA rocks, We rock, Mark ROCKS!
Through all this life changing 2020 we continue on as normal! WHY....I hate politics you all answer as you wish in comments below. But I believe it is because we are so remote "We Live In The Wild West" the true last standing OUTBACK. People and advertises say all the time 'so remote' no one here' 'untouched'' it gets peoples attention, but they have NO idea, until they come to the Kimberley! Far North Western Australia, have a look people!
Isolated Camping last weekend
It's WA Day here in Western Australia...that is what WA stands for...Western Australia aka the best place in the WORLD!!! So we all get a day off work to celebrate our wonderful lifestyle we have here, thanks Mark for keeping us safe and letting us continue this amazing lifestyle! I'd love to hear how you all spent this great day in comments below.
As for us, we relaxed at home and cleaned. Cleaned the car from yesterdays fun adventures....check out Positive Fishing on YouTube to see more of our fun adventures. Positive Fishing on YouTube
We went croc spotting, but this is as close as we got.
After my last YouTube clip I needed to redeemed myself ....
After my last YouTube clip .... yah but na but. You can't go back to a spot expecting to see the same croc in the same spot again, that is like fishing, you can't catch a big barra and go back next day expecting to catch another....can you??
If I can't go fishing I tend to Cook instead First attempt at Crumpets, a bit too thick, but so tasty!
At the start of today, after my awesome 5km run (ON A DAY OFF) with my super motivating running budding, I had planned to do a few recording cooking fish moments, for later Positive Fishing on YouTube episodes. Instead, (after cleaning all the windows in the house) I chillaxted.
Derby Jetty on Friday, LOTS of Rain meant lots of car cleaning on Monday!!
I love our little blue house, I love Derby, I love the Kimberley! A day at home, downloading, taking in all that is wonderful about this awesome place we call home is just what we needed.
:)
I'm sure all my WA friends had a great day as well what ever you are doing, share a photo in comments below. To all those who are not lucky enough to be in WA at this stage and time in the world history.....see you soon i'm sure.
#WestIsBest #WesternAustalia #JustAnotherDayInWA
Did I mention I got up at 5AM this morning to go running! On a long weekend, when I don't have to work!!! I F'n ROCK!!!
5:30am Derby Jetty, before running. I love this shit!!
I had such strong hope, such positive goals, such good intentions!
2020 the year of getting it all back together....instead it was the year it all fall apart!
Anyone reading this in the future go back and read your history books to what happened in 2020, because it's not just me or Australia, it's the world over. I'm not going to dwell on the global situation too much, because well rather frankly, as with all global situations, it's hasn't hit us as bad here in the Kimberley. We truly do live in the best place in the world!!
Sure sure stuff changed, money is hard and will most likely change and get harder. I DID have a little break-down, dreaming about dead bodies outside my house and never seeing my family again.
BUT (not saying it's over yet, just focusing on the positive), thanks to our quick acting government, we have not had to experience a full lock down or spread of the dreaded.
So now I am starting to bounce back from my mini depression breakdown, and get back to living a full and positive life! At the start of 2020 I set 20 goals for this year. Writing 20 of these blogs was one of those goals...this is number 3.
I will be forever grateful that my running buddy Bron and I started our running program BEFORE all this shit happened. We were able to continue our morning runs together, although altered. She couldn't pick me up in her car any more, which was kind of a motivator for both of us. We had to make ourselves meet at favourite running spot (derby jetty) even if we were hung over and didn't want to, cause other was waiting for us. We run on opposite sides of the road, stretched at home instead of hanging out at the benches. But we made it work, so we had each other to off load all the shit that was happening, and we kept REGULAR! 3x per week (most weeks). There were some hard weeks there, but we are on the bounce back and the build up!!! Bron had never run 5km straight before the start of our program, yesterday she run 8km's!! I'm back in my happy place being able to help people reach their personal goals! And I wasn't sure I had another 8km run in me, due to lack of motivation, so it is so wonderful to feel that satisfaction, feeling of accomplishment, doing what you said you were going to do! Anyway lots more of that to come as this is just the start of our running journey. We had planned to do the Broome half marathon 22km. Event has been cancelled, but we are holding to schedule and plan to run the distance that date anyway...there its said on social now, we have to ;)
Had I stuck to plan of writing two blogs a month than you would already know about all the fabulous fish we caught earlier in the year. But I'm thinking you all watch Positive Fishing on YouTube anyway, so already know about that, if not get into it!
Start with this one 2020 New Years Day
Here's a look at the last keeper sized barra I've caught this year (caught a few babies after that). This is one of my favourite. I never catch anything at this spot, so i was shocked, than excited, then nervous of loosing him, than ore struck at his beauty. It was a truly fabulous morning. Such a beautiful spot, such an awesome fish, so thankful for this amazing country where we feel so safe due to our isolation form the rest of the world.
So what happened to snap me out of my funk....
The TV Broke!! May 2020 LIFE CHANGING!
Yip that's all it took! No more stupid news reports or time wasted watching movies.
NOW the house is clean again! I even cleaned out cupboards and the file cabinet!!! Then I started on my computer files!! WOW! I'm ahead on YouTube episodes, I have sorted MONTHS worth of photos and GoPro footage, and now look, i'm even writing a blog! A meaningless nothing blog, but it's my blog. My life, my diary, my journey. :)
While setting up my new Samsung 20, after years of iPhone and not knowing what I was doing, I wanted to keep it as simple as.
Due to my two sign in accounts I've confused myself a lot over the years.
I managed to keep everything under the very old 'flipper' account (from back in the days when I thought I was going to save the world). So now I can blog AND share to YouTube from my phone!
Exciting times ahead.
Oh wait, it should also share photos on her straight from Google photos, no more logging in and uploading first....
I made myself
OK so I realise people have been doing this for years, I'm a bit behind! But with mixed up account I had trouble linking everything on my iPhone. Plus the bigger screen on new Sam making it much easier as well.
Oh talking of bigger screens, I've finally have the little Spark drone linked to my own phone, this phone as well! I had to use johnny's phone the last few month, now I can fly it anywhere without him!
Very quick clip from setting up Drone last night, may birdie friends got a bit jealous of the new comer!
Finally, make sure you watch today's new YouTube clip, i only came on here to share this original but so much to learn with new phone.
Everyone say happy birthday to Allesio he is 12 today.
And finally, some old photos I found saved on google photos from when I first started blogging many years ago, u can check out the old blogs on this page or just enjoy these photos from years gone by...
So many memories! I want to go on but ill save that for another blog soon, its Saturday I got to go get some new photos and footage !!
