Sunday 14th June 2015:
What an amazing day!!
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| Sunday evening meal |
I was awake already when I heard Puppy shuffling around the tent. About to get up, thinking he might want to go to the loo, I knew better though, so didn’t rush. He has returned to his morning routine of sleeping on the bed, but that’s ok, I do like morning Puppy cuddles.
So we were awake at very first light, up and about with the tide on the incoming, it was only natural that Johnno would be watching the ocean while the kettle was heating up. Pre-sunrise is Mackerel time, he was telling me. Nek minit: Fish jumping, Johnno running!
Grabbing his big popper rod, he was off and running, casting before he even got to the shore.
I couldn’t stand back and watch him catch all the fish. Grabbing my GoPro, I was quick to follow. After a few casts it was becoming obvious our poppers might be a little bit too big for the fish and bait that were so close to in. I ran back to camp, a full 20 meters from where we were camping, to get my smaller rod with new favourite lure, the Sliver Vibe! It’s been working a treat on Queenies and Trevalley down the beach, and proved to be an excellent choice this morning as well!!
First four casts I hooked, played and landed fish! Queening, Mackeral, Queenie, Trevalley! OH YAH!!!!!
It only took two fish producing casts from me, and Johnno was running back to camp for a sliver slice as well. We quickly lost count of the fish we were catching, they were continual. Keeping a few for the dogs dinner, and the mackerel for ours, the rest were going straight back into the water as fast as they were coming out. Pup’s fish catching skills have been well refined over the last few months, he is very fast now, but I thought the fish were safe today, with the rocks in front of us slowing him down. One unlucky Trevalley didn’t get returned deep enough, Pup ever alert these days, was onto it straight away. No hesitation, just grabbed it and run up the beach, making sure it could not get back into the water when he dropped it. Ok, so he has an extra one for breakfast I thought.
I’d woke this morning (before Puppy jumped on us) dreaming that we had hooked a Sea Eagle, it flew under our line as we cast out. This has happened a few times over the years with little Turns or Gulls, but I’ve never heard of a Sea Eagle flying that close it would catch on your line. Today things got so crazy I told Johnno about my dream, so he was would be aware of the eagle.
It started with the Baby Sea Eagle circling, it had spotted Puppy’s Trevalley on the beach, but with the dogs still parading I didn’t think it would come anywhere near us until we went back to camp. How wrong I was! He swooped down right beside Pup and took the Trevalley!!! I have some great GoPro footage, Pup was in shock I reckon. Then the slightly older, but still juvenile (still doesn’t have full grey wings) Sea Eagle swooped the youngest one to get the fish off it. They fought in mid air for minutes, right in front of us. I had just said ’Neither of them are going to get to eat that fish’ when they dropped it into the sea.
Our fish, the mackerel and dogs breakfast Queenies, were between two rocks right behind me. The eagles could obviously see them, but couldn’t get to them. Charlie, having seen the stealing of Pup’s fish, was on high alert now, she hates all birds. We joke that Kite’s swooped and tried to pick her up when she was a pup, but as the years go by we both really think this is a strong possibility. She would chase kite’s at home in Derby, now she chases Gulls, kites and Eagles.
The two Braminie and another new bird, which I now think is a baby Osprey, also came to join in the Rapter Display once we started filleting the fish….when the schools of bait fish had gone out of casting range and we weren’t getting the constant takes.
The thought of coffee and breakfast crossed out minds, but only for a moment. With so much fish action happening, we headed to The Rock instead. The sun had only just reached over the sand dunes, and the tide was still coming in.
Although not as fast and furious as in front of camp, (almost every cast), The Rock proved itself a worthy choice. More Queenfish and Trevalley were hooked and landed, while we laughed ourselves silly.
With the falling tide the action again soon moved out of our casting range. By this time we were both rather hungry and thirst, and tired. Aching casting muscles, oh what a great feeling.
It must have been a big weekend at Manari reef/hidden creek. We lost count of the cars coming back down the beach all day, almost as many fish as we had caught that morning! The dogs were in overdrive, between the people and cars parked around us, and the eagles constantly flying over to see if we had any more fish, they didn’t get much rest all day.
Neither did we! Still hyped from the mornings fishing, we couldn’t settle, so went for a walk around the rocks at low tide to collect some fresh bait. We haven’t been using bait, Johnno’s been mostly on fly, and I’ve been using lure all week. Stashing the crabs in the fridge for morning fishing, we decided to try some occy around the filling rock pools with the tide coming in. Another great choice! As well as catching a few other reef fish, I bagged us a Bluebone for dinner! Oh yah! Haven’t had one since Quondong.
The sun was starting to go down when we got back to camp, so we called early sundowners, to sit and marvel at the most amazing day that was drawing to an end. A fire had started somewhere towards Hidden Creek earlier in the day, and was now producing a wonderful smoky sunset. We watched the last car for the evening drive down the beach, attempt the steep sandy hill (there is a rocky path off the beach, but most people attempt the sand dune for a laugh). They failed, stalling at the top, as most people do. Most people however reverse back down the hill. We have watched many vehicles not make it up the dune, but none of them get totally bogged. We saw the female passenger started walking down the track we knew she was coming to see us. Johnno is well practiced at pulling other people out, he has done it plenty of times now, so off up the hill he went, even though she only asked for a shovel, not a tow? He had them out in no time, and for his trouble they gave him a Mud Crab!!! OH YAH!!!
As all sunlight drained from the sky, while the stars where starting to come out, I cooked BlueBone, Mackeral and Mud Crab for our dinner!! No veggies needed.
I’m typing listening to the crackle of the bush fire.
Sunday bloody fun day! What a wonderful day!
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| Johnno filleting fish early in the morning |
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| Queenfish for breakfast |
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| Bush fire behind us |
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