Beautiful JPP & Very big Cod

Morning sky at JPP on Low tide

Our camp at JPP

Colours of the Kimberley

JPP from Drone

My words can't describe the beauty of James Price Point, above Broome WA, so instead check out the movie clips I made.  Above is flying my Drone over Price's Points Pindan Cliffs and crystal clear waters.  Below is our camp site at Price's Point.

Large Cod at JPP

Our first day at Price's Point we met the friendly local LARGE cod, he hang around for 3 days, then we didn't see him again until just before we left.  Charlie was barking, I was looking up in the sky thinking it must be the Sea Eagles since there were no people around, then I was looking out for Dolphins as it looked like she was barking at the sea.  She was barking at the large cod right in the shallows!!! Check out how close Pup was too him!!!  It's bigger than Pup!!!

Salmon on the beach....finally!

Bait fishing for Salmon

Written: Wednesday 19th August

Foggy start to the morning: then the wind changed an blow the fog back again!

Every day when you live on the beach is amazing, beautiful and different.  Even if you do the same thing in the same spot, it’s a new day so it’s going to be different than the last.

Weather has a lot to do with how the day turns out and what we do.  Today started off with a beautiful thick fog.  Everything was moist and visibility was low when we opened up the tent this morning.  It took ages to clear due to the lack of breeze.  Calm seas and air = we had to go fishing!  In coming tide, over shallow oyster rocks had us grabbing for our little poppers (Johnno has a Popper Fly!!) and heading off to hunt for Mangrove Jacks.

The wind picked up as soon as Johnno reached for his fly rod.  I SWEAR!  It was a perfectly still day, nek minit windy and dirty rough seas!  We waded around the rocks for a little while, but not being able to see in the water made this dangerous and not much fun.  We called for Plan B: Smoko then bait fishing off the beach.

If you have read my previous blogs, you will know that on Monday I lost 3 Salmon and yesterday I caught a You-Beaut Bluebone off the beach right in front of camp.   So today with the wind picking up even more and the waves bigger than ever, Johnno hung up his new 8wt fly rod for the first day since he got it, and came bait fishing with me…
Friggin show off!  I knew I shouldn’t have let him fish in ‘my spot’!!  He was onto a great salmon stragith away.  It jumped out of the water show us how big it was before…He LOST IT!!  It broke through his 60lb leader!  I was like ‘well at least it’s not just me’. Johnno was like ‘I’ve never lost a salmon on 60lb before’
I’d only brought 40lb leader down to the beach, so Johnno re-rigged with a double leader.  Shortly after, I’d just taken my bait out of the water to move our gear from the crashing waves, turned my back for a second, you guessed it, Johnno was on to a beaut Salmon.  It almost had him around the rocks, and then I panicked he was going to lose it in the breaking waves, like I had 2 days ago.  But thankfully he landed it on the beach safely.

Johnno's salmon in front of camp

We were amazed at it’s very rough mouth, rough enough to rough up Johnno’s thumb!  We are convinced they have evolved; A new survival tactic against fisherman, rougher mouths….explains why I have lost so many recently!!

With the waves crashing around us, making it uncomfortable standing on the little rock, we decided one big fish was enough for this morning.  The eagles were circling before I even started filleting.  I cut the carcass into 3 bits; the first eagle was swooping as soon as I lay them on the beach, not at all worried about me and Pup still standing there.  Number 2 eagle took the head as soon as we were up the cliff out of the way.  Gulls and Brahmine fought over the tail.

We had KISS salmon curry for lunch.

Salmon Curry for dinner

Fishing with Karen 2: Catching bluebone.

After yesterdays loss of fish; see last blog or check out YouTube clip   I woke determined to CATCH every fish I hooked today!

Landed my big bluebone!

We went for a walk at low tide yesterday afternoon to collect Octopus for bait.  It’s not your ‘normal’ choice of bait for Salmon, but they took it yesterday, so I was prepared to try it again today, thinking that Bluebone and MJ’s love it too!

I hooked and landed a small Trevalley in the morning, good start to the day, not much fish about, but nothing lost so far, sticking to the plan!!!

Johnno went for a walk down the beach again, after yesterdays Success of the large Queenfish on his new 8wt fly rod, he went looking for some more similar fun.  I chucked out an octy leg and waited.  Without as much wildlife action happening, I wasn’t feeling so confident today. No dolphins, they seemed to be with the salmon the last two days. Not even much bait fish.  Maybe the windier day had affected the fishing?  Not so, it wasn’t long before I started getting bites.

Little tap tap bites, too fast to hook, then a strong powerful one, and into a snag.  But I wasn’t convinced it was my strike that caused the hook to snag onto the rocky bottom, it didn’t feel right, my strike was way too slow, the hook was stuck already.  I waited.  Seconds later I felt the next pull, and without giving the fish a moment to think about what was happening, because I realised it was trying to go for safety in the bigger rocks, I pulled it backwards.  Too scared to even wind my reel, I just walked backwards, thankfully I was on a large flat rock and could without falling.  I thumbed the reel when the powerful fish tried to pull out my already hard drag.  Realising I had a prime fish at the end of my line, either a large MJ or Bluebone, I was determined not to loose it!!  Not daring to waste time turning on my GoPro, we have lost a lot of fish this week trying to reach for the on button, I couldn’t give this fish a chance to pull back into the rocks.  Once the fish was out of the rocks and over the sand I saw the beautiful colours of Bluebone, my heart skipped a beat.  Clear of sharp rocks to cut line or bulldoze his head into, I braved it and turned on the GoPro.  Here is the excitement that followed, I’ve never caught a Bluebone this big, usually Johnno uses a 100lb handline to pull them from the rocks, so I was super proud of myself.  Oh and they taste sensational!!

Bluebone for lunch!

You can call me: Can’t Catch Fish Karen

Don’t get me wrong I’ve had some great fun days fishing here at James Price Point, and I’ve caught some good fish; did you see the Mangrove Jack blog or the Herring clip on You Tube Herring clip on YouTube

Herring I caught...not this day!

But often it’s not all tight lines and tasty dinners.  So to keep it fair for all those who know what fishing is really like; not huge fish every day.  Here’s a look at my attempt of fishing this morning (Monday 17th August).

Johnno walked the beach with his fly rod catching a few Trevalley, he will have to make his own movie, I can’t keep up with all the fish he catches! Johnno's new fly rod Blog

Start of the in coming tide this morning I headed for the oyster rocks with my popper.  I’m hooked on catching Mangrove Jacks on lure now, it’s so much fun!!  But I scared off the only MJ as soon as I got there.  It came from under the rock to look at my lure, nope wasn’t what he wanted, then seen me and never came out again.  I had one hit from a little Trevalley, that was if for the mornings, and I couldn’t even keep that connected!

Second fishing attempt was with bait right in front of camp.  Check out the YouTube clip below to see what happened, because I don’t want to relive that disaster over again with the retelling of it.  All I need to say is I lost 1, possible 3, very big salmon.

Almost on the beach, that counts doesn’t it??  I got it on GoPro that counts!!!  Um, but no, I’d rather have had it on my plate!!
Perhaps this is what stole my line, it was swimming around with the out going tide…

VERY BIG Cod!!

Check it out on YouTube!

Oh and just so you know, while I was loosing all my fish today, Johnno was breaking in his new birthday present 8wt fly rod proper good!  Check out the big Queen fish he caught on it!

Johnno's Queenfish on YouTube

Fishing with Sea Eagles.

Adult & Juvenile White Bellied Sea Eagles

There are 3 main White Bellied Sea Eagles that hang around James Price Point.  I’m now very confident they are the same birds we were photographing at the other end of the beach, when we camped at Flat Rock, and I’m sure they recognise us, and the dogs!

After fishing we throw the filleted fish carcasses onto the beach in front of our camp.  I have got some amazing photos of all the eagles flying in and swooping onto the beach to pick them up.

Adult Sea Eagle getting ready to take fish carcass off beach in front of out camp at JPP

Young Sea Eagle coming in to pick up fish carcass off the beach

I don’t think they actually ‘follow’ us down the beach when fishing.  I’m sure they circle us when flying past to see if we have ‘dropped’ anything.  They have branches onto top of the cliffs, all along the beach, where they obviously sit and watch the ocean regularly.  It’s just that we have taken to walking this stretch of the beach and stopping under these perches.  Clearly they know the good fishing spots, because these are the area’s we have been catching the most fish.

This day of the YouTube clip below, we came across and ended up unintentionally feeding all 3 of the regular White Bellies.

First up we came across the smaller much more timid adult eagle.  He is way more wary of us and the dogs, hanging back when the other eagles are swooping the beach for our fish carcasses.  We knew it was him, because he was hesitant to take the Long Tom (long skinny fish) that we left on the beach for it.  Even when we called the dogs down the beach,(by pretending we had a fish on, that turned into a fish on!!) it still sat back and watched until we were further down the beach.

A little while later the other adult eagle started circling us while I was playing the Herring I caught.  The slippery slimy skinny fish are strong fighters and rather hard to handle.  The poor thing was not in very good health when I tried to release it.  Later it was washed up with the waves, while I didn’t have the GoPro on, and the adult eagle grabbed it straight away.

Then ‘BSE’ Baby Sea Eagle turned up and started circling us.  I’m sure word had gotten out, and even thought that one Herring would have feed the whole family, clearly BSE was sent to get his own breakfast.  It was totally unintentional that he did too!  We were joking that she (it’s HUGE, hence why I call it ‘she’, the females are bigger then the male eagles), would have to wait until we got home to fillet our fish before she got her breakfast.  We always keep a couple of small Trevalley for the dogs breakfast.  But she had other idea’s about this plan.  Puppy had a Trevalley on the beach, he doesn’t eat them whole, more like ‘guards’ them, only he didn’t do a very good job of it this day!!  Actually I’m a little worried that the BSE was going to try and take the fish OFF Pup!!!  Luckily at this very moment Johnno hooked another fish, so Pup run down the beach towards the live fish, leaving his dead fish unattended for the easy taking.  Charlie had seen the whole thing unfolding, and was onto BSE straight away, but thankfully far enough away not to get in the way.

BSE is getting very close.  It first started when we were camped at Flat Rock, as you can see at the end of this clip:Sunday Fun-day  when he takes the fish off the beach from the dogs.
Just last week I’d thrown the carcass too close to a rock, BSE tried a couple of times to get it, but couldn’t swoop past the rock.  I walked down the beach, watching her sitting on the rock close by, envisioning the great photos I was going to get.  I picked up the carcass, threw it back onto the beach, I was walking away from it, to get the sun behind me, when BSE swooped right beside me it get the carcass.  I could have almost reached out and touched her, that’s how close she came to me!!  Very moving stuff…but NO photos that time!

There are also two resident Brahminy Kite’s, but they are too small to pick up the carcasses, so simply feed on the beach in front of us, totally beautiful!

Young Sea Eagle did regular fly overs.

Why I write my blog: A letter to Pop.

How it all begun.

My Pop in his new fishing vest

One of my favourite childhood memories: Snuggled on his big recliner chair next to my Pop (Grandfather), as he whispers in my ear ‘You’re my favourite’.  Every time I seen him he made me feel special.

When I left home at an early age I would write letters. To start with I would write to everyone in my address book (guess I’ve kind of gone a full circle back to that?), but as the replies got slower so did the amount sent.  In the end I decided it was easier to write one letter home and anyone who wanted to know what I was up to could read it, we are talking 20 years ago using snail mail!  Granny & Pop were the receivers of all my travel news, not just because Granny always wrote back to me but because Pop loved fishing!

I remember so well as a child, our family fishing trips, which Pop was more often than not a part of, or staying at Granny and Pop’s fishing shack.  Pop would already be on the river fly fishing somewhere when us kids got up.  I hardly ever heard him leave, but I’d always be awaiting to see the trout he brought back.  I meet Johnno as soon as I arrived in Perth and we started fishing together straight away.  I was excited to be able to write home (the bottom on NZ at that time) and tell Pop I’d met a fisherman over in my new home of Oz and I was catching fish, big fish!

Our first extended fishing/camping holiday was 19 years ago.  Johnno and I drove from Perth to Broome (staying at Quondong Point for the first time ever for a month), to Darwin (where we worked for a month), then straight down the centre and back to Perth.  I wrote to Granny & Pop regularly about all the fish we were catching, and different techniques I was learning; saltwater fishing for big fish being so different to worm fishing for trout!

My letters home would be less while working, who wants to hear about that kind of boring stuff.  Thankfully Johnno and I embraced the camping lifestyle, so we often hit the road on fishing adventures, that I always wrote to Granny and Pop about.

When we were care-taking for KCC, 6 months alone fishing remote Kimberley wilderness, I was able to EMAIL my letters to Pop.  I can not remember how I did that; Pop never had email?  Perhaps I sent them to Aunty Ruth, because she made a little bond book of all my letters and photos from KCC, that was very cool!!

Granny & Pop are on a fishing holiday in the sky now, but I still want to write to them.  Sometimes when I’m sitting at my computer writing my blog it is easy to imagine they are sitting in their sun room reading my letters.  So I write, because writing still invokes that loving special feeling that I always get when thinking about my wonderful fishing Pop.

Dear Pop;
You wouldn't believe how many fish I’ve lost over the last couple of days!  Did you ever lose fish?  Haha, I’m sure you lost plenty, but the good fisherman your were, you never told us kids about them!


----Movie making actually started very similarly.  My natural father Stanley Rule used to have his movie camera every where he went.  So I started making movies to send to him when I moved to Oz.

Pop and Dad were completely different personalities, so perhaps that is why sometimes my movie making and writing styles can seem so different.  I like to think they work well together; excited go-go-go movie clips with more relaxed slower paced writing?

Stan the Man on YouTube!

Mangrove Jack on Popper; I'm hooked!

Another MJ on Popper!  I’m hooked!

HDR sunset

My 2nd MJ on Popper

We have been here at Price’s Point (James Price Point) for one week today.  Wow that was so fast!

We arrived on big tides and there was fish everywhere.  Salmon and Trevalley all along the beach.  We and the dogs have been eating fish every day.  But then neap tides came along and everything changed; NO fish on the beach!!  So we headed to the rocks.
Armed with smaller poppers on our flick rods, having decided the bigger Halco poppers were scaring more fish than enticing.  We both had blue bone following our lures straight away.  John landed one, but decided it was too small to keep…remembering he is used to catching you-beaut’s at Quondong.  I was kind of glad mine didn’t take my lure, because I’m not sure I would have been able to stop it!  Very next cast, after my Bluebone had been spooked and headed off towards the next set of rocks, I hooked a Mangrove Jack.
My second MJ ever on popper, first one being at Manari Reef earlier in this trip.   I LOVE IT!!!  They are crazy.  It all happens so fast, there is no way of recording it, even if my GoPro had been on (was not either time), it still all happens so fast I’m not sure what would come out on camera.  MJ slammed my lure half way into my retrieval down the rocky ledge.  My first thought was Mangrove Jack, they are such hard and fast hitters, it was a safe beat.  Having lost so many fish, and lures over the last week, I wasn’t game to try and turn my GoPro on, until I had the fish in hand.  But even then, I was standing on oyster rocks (cut my ankle open yesterday, bit nervous of them now), so I had no where to land it.  I had to walk it back over very up and down sharp oyster rocks to get it to one big enough to stand on.  Crazy fun!!!  Loved it!!

I had another win that evening.  A fire burning the last couple of days somewhere up the coast further has resulted in amazing sunsets.  Using this great lighting, I took my Canon 7D for a walk to take photos of the beautiful rocks we are surrounded by here.

I was getting very frustrated at my lack of photo taking ability when Pup stood next to a beautiful Mulla Mulla plant, looking off the cliff as if gazing at the setting sun.  I couldn’t get the shoot I wanted, after all these years playing with my camera, I still don’t know what I’m doing.  I missed the shot.  Pup moved on and I was left contemplating what I should have done.  This is what I came up with: neither photo has been altered at all on my computer, this is how they came off the camera!!  I’m happy!!

Too dark at front of photo, too bright at the top.

HDR Mulla Mulla plant at Sunset

HDR: 3 photos in one! Great lighting on the Mulla Mulla plant, while keeping the true sunset colours.  Very happy with this shot!!

Johnno gets a new fly rod

Johnno's new 8wt fly rod
*Reel turned up today, so i'll have to get a new photo!

For his 50th birthday at the end of this month (August 2015) Johnno brought himself a new Sage 8wt fly rod…because I haven’t brought him anything.

It was waiting for him at the Broome Post Office on our last trip in for supplies, so he got to try it out at Price’s Point.

Very first cast he hooked a Queen fish!!!  As seen on Day One YouTube Clip: Day one fishing at JPP

Here’s a clip of the fish Johnno has been catching on his new little 8wt.  Starting off with little Dart around the rocks.  Trevalley off the beach, but had his GoPro set too high so you don’t really get to see them. Some more smaller Trevalley.  Then the cream of the crop, a you-beaut Salmon off the beach, which made great curry and was lovely with tomatoe salad (Yes I got my Salmon and Tomatoe salad meal I‘d been dreaming of, as mentioned in earlier blog).

Salmon lunch!

Johnno breaks in his new 8wt rod with this beauti salmon!

I’ve had to drastically edit the footage, or you would be watching a bent rod for an hour.  The 8wt rod makes for fun fishing, even with the little fish, but it takes some time to get them in.  So here is a ‘quick’ look at what Johnno was catching week one at Price’s Point on the new birthday rod:

The good thing about posting blogs weeks after they have happened (due to no internet service where we were camped), is I can add more to them!  Johnno kept fishing with his new 8wt fly rod, catching HEAPS of fish, check out this Queen fish he landed: Queen fish on 8wt

6 lures lost in 3 days

Day 1: Johnno x2;
       1 fish & 1 casting/line rapped around rod
Day 2: Karen x3; All to fish, Johnno found 1!
Day 3: Karen x2; 1 Salmon & 1 casting/knot

A few empty space’s in our lure boxes after the last 2 days, but I’ve still got plenty left to fish with yet!

OMG What strange frustrating fishing the last two days have been.  Yesterday was just funny, I kept losing fish, I couldn’t catch a fish.  Not just from losing lures, but playing with GoPro, and just fish getting off.  We had a wonderful walk in an amazingly beautiful area, so it didn’t seem to matter that I couldn’t catch a fish, despite all the fish around us.

Today was a different story!  Early morning walk resulted in no fish for either of us.  No worries, had some breakfast and tried again with the incoming.  Within the first half of an hour I’d hooked onto what would have been a great Salmon. I could taste it already, I’d mentally cooked it with a light coating of flour in garlic butter, to go with the tomatoe salad I would have made.  We had cup of soup and crackers for lunch instead!  I’d set my drag loose due to the amount of lost fish yesterday, the salmon run straight for the rocks, I was just about to chase it, realising that my line was going around the rocks, but it all happened so fast.  As soon as I’d thought about running after it, the line broke, fish and lure number 3 for me, 5 in total gone!

It would be 7 lures lost in 3 days, but luckily yesterday Johnno found my 3rd lost lure. The fish must have spat it, and it washed up onto the beach, while I was retying my line and trying to decide what to use now that I’d lost so many favourite lures.  They are all favourites, that’s why we use them after all right, you wouldn’t use a lure you don’t like or don’t think is going to catch fish.  So every lose has been hard.  I’d only just realised how much I like Halco lure’s, not having used them much in the past.  Having discovered how easy they are to pop, with their bigger cup than the other poppers I usually  use, and I’d had a few fish interested in it.  So I had become my favourite…that was the first to go!

Also lost were a skitter-pop, 2nd one of them lost this holiday, so you know they are good.  Then my long vibe, which I’ve had for years and caught many fish on.  At least we have back up of all these lures.  We joked that we needed to start loosing lure because we have so many that we haven’t used for so long anyway.  BUT my little Wax Wing which was the last to go this afternoon, now that was a hard lose.  I’ve only just started using them this holiday. I’ve already lost the bigger one I was using and catching fish with at Willie Creek.  This little green one was it’s replacement.  I’ve caught Queen fish and Trevalley with it.  Now it’s gone, and I don’t have a replacement until we go back to Broome in over a weeks time.

Price's Point Day 2

I had so many O My God moments today!
  OMG look how beautiful it is here
  OMG I lost another fish
  OMG it is so beautiful here
  OMG I lost another lure
  OMG look at this beautiful place
  OMG a sea eagle at our tent
  OMG look at this amazing sunset!!

We have spent A LOT of time on Manari Road, but for some reason have never camped at Price’s Point before.  So it was kind of exciting coming here, some where new, even though it is so familiar.
After yesterdays great day fishing close to camp, we decided to go for a little exploration walk.  We headed South a couple of hundred metres to the main ‘Price’s Point’ camp site (we are in the second entrance, known as the Quarry).  As soon as we got up close to the cliffs I started ‘Oh my god, it’s so beautiful here’, I lost count of how many times I said that!  Every little corner/bay we walked around was just as amazing as the first.   The dramatic pindan cliffs that the Peninsular is famous for, fading into the pindan stained golden sand, then the white waves from the bright blue crystal clear waters.  Totally stunning.  My basic understanding of English can not do this country justice, and I’m not sure even the most famous of poets could!!  I’ll go back with my drone, to make a YouTube clip for you, and my 7D on tripod to try and capture the realness of colours.  But nothing can beat being there, being surrounded by all this natural magnificent, all senses soaking in what we almost lost all at once.  YOU HAVE TO SEE IT!!!!

1st photo of our morning walk at James Price Point

Last photo of our walk: Pindan cliffs of James Price Point

Let’s not talk about the fishing, except to say, there were plenty of fish around…I just couldn’t catch them!

Topping off the wonderful walk, when we got back to our camp, there was a young sea eagle sitting close by.  I can’t be sure if it’s the same one that we used to see just down the beach at Flat Rock, but I’d like to think so.  Maybe he recognised us and sat there waiting to see how many fish we caught…then noticing we didn’t have anything for him thought maybe we weren’t the same people?

Sea Eagle in front of our camp at Price's Point

West coast sunsets are amazing aren’t they.  So quickly the sun dips into the ocean and is out, just like that.  But the colours while that is happening can be stunning.  Yellow is my favourite colour, it’s a happy ‘positive’ colour.  Sunset yellow is the best!

Sunset Yellow, my favourite colour!

Price’s Point: Day one

I will never again say that I have caught enough little Trevalley, ever again!  I was so happy to catch my first little falla this morning!

After a month of catching the feisty fun fighters at Willie Creek, I had said ‘I’m ready to leave here and catch something else, I’m over catching little Trevors’.  Then after a month of catching next to nothing at Barred Creek, I was like ‘give me a little Trevalley, anything!!!!’

Camp at Price's Point

We slept like babies last night once we had set up camp at Price’s Point, and had a couple of sundowners.  Waking to our tent being shaken by a howling wind that was blowing fine dust like willy willies around the tent.  To escape the noise and the dust we hit the beach, rods in hand of course!  Within minutes I was on to the first fish, a little Trevalley, I was over the moon, you would have thought I’d caught a whooping Coral Trout.  Within half an hour we had landed 2 each.  Then Johnno went and lost his first lure for the day.  We hadn’t brought anything else down from camp to the beach, so headed back for Johnno to re-tie while I filleted the dogs breakfast, they to were over the moon!  They haven’t had fish much lately.

We spotted some passing mullet, so Johnno grabbed his throw net and had them in the bucket before the kettle boiled for coffee!

Use the wind!  I sent a balloon out with a live bait.  Chance’s are high that ballooning a live bait off the rocks is going to result in a shark, actually it’s a given if you leave it out long enough!  But there is always hope that something else like a big Trevor, or Mackerel will sniff it out before Noah gets to it.  This morning it was head for head, intense stuff!!

I saw the brown shape, which I figured was a shark (but hoped could be a cobia), and the large silver, swimming together, heading towards my bait.  They both went down together, so when my line started running I wasn’t sure which had taken the bait.

I got very excited when I finally got my line heading towards the beach and seen silver at the end, WAHOO, a big fish!!!  Johnno told me after he also seen the large silver side when he ran down the beach to see what I had, so it must have still been swimming next to the shark right up till I got it towards the beach.  But a-lass, once I got my line next to the beach the large silver was gone, and I was left with a good sized Black Tip Reef Shark, nice enough, and still good fun to land.

Later that afternoon, as seen on the YouTube clip, we had a close encounter with an estimated 100lb Cod!  It was amazing to watch gliding along in the water without a care in the world.  I’ve never seen anything like it before.

Big Ass Cod that hang around in front of our camp a lot.

Sundowner beers went down well after a wonderful first day!

1st sunset at Price's Point

Beautiful Barred Creek

Last nights Blue Moon.

It’s our last day of relaxing on this beautiful beach; tomorrow we will be busy packing up camp, ready to move on, exploring a new beach.

Mid-day high tide makes it hard for fishing, and the big tides have proven very unsuccessful anyway.  So it really is a day for relaxing, making the most of our last day of internet.

This is how I spent my relaxing day.  Sitting by (and recording) the tide as it came in, then downloading and playing with clips as the tide went out.

When we get to Price’s Point on Monday there will be no more service (no more blogs) for 3-4 weeks.  Knowing that we would go there next I had planned to write a blog at least every second night while we were in service.  Fun stuff like fishing and friends got in the way, so the blogging slipped back.

So here’s a little reflection of our month on Barred beach:

When we first got here there were still lots of Queen fish, little Trevalley and little Mackerel around, we caught plenty the first week right in front of our camp, we had Mackerel curry for a week: Fish Curry blog.
Then the weather changed, the water temperature dropped quickly and all of a sudden the fish were gone!  We weren't overly worried, assuming they would be back soon enough.  Not so, 3 weeks later we still have to hunt for a Queenie, not at all easy pickings that they were a month ago.  What to do when the fish aren't playing the game...change the game!

We knew there would be Barramundi in the mangrove creek, and they would come out and go back into the creek with the tides, we just had to find them.  And so we did!  Johnno's first Barra for our holiday was caught on fly in the dry season, on the beach!!  Very impressive stuff!!  He went back the next day and landed 2 more!  With a total of 13 barra hooked!!  Then as an added bonus he found the bi-catch just as much fun.  His first Tarpon caught he wasn't sure what he had on, fighting hard but different than the other fish caught.  Once landed he went looking for more, and yes he found and landed them!  Now we are talking of getting the big ones in Cuba!! (Just talking until we win lotto!).

Johnno wading for Tarpon on the flats!

Check out his Grand-slam YouTube clip: Windy fly fishing when he gets Queenfish, Golden Trevalley, Tarpon and Diamond Trevalley in one day, very happy fisho!!

The wind has been a bit of a hindrance, making camping in the sand-dunes interesting.  I'm just glad it hasn't been too hot, so we were able to keep the tent totally closed up when needed.  The mornings and evenings have been cooler than we expected, yes we knew it was going to get cold it just happened faster than we would have liked.  On that note: How did it get to August already???  Time is going so fast!!  We have been beach bums for 4 months now!!  It only feels like 4 weeks!

I've loved the high tides here.  I pretended to fish many mornings with a lump of bait out past the waves on high tide,  just so I could sit and watch the waves.  This resulted in a couple of big shark encounters; The first shark was on balloon so pretty much expected.  The second was a Big Ass Shark that took my tiny bit of bait while I was contemplating how much life would change if we won 50 million dollars!   We still swim, but are very wary of the dogs.  Pup saw a dolphin cruising the shallows this morning and went running down the beach to play with it!!!!

We have seen and heard Whales every night.  Although the Eagles haven't been as regular as further up the road we have seen them around, and I even seen a Wedge Tailed Eagle fly over!!!

The weekends are busy here, so a lot of the time the dogs have to be on there leads, they just get too excited thinking everyone is coming to visit them.  But mostly they seem to love it here as well.  Lots of running and chasing bait fish on the low tides, lots of swimming on the high tides, they are pretty tried all the time.  One more YouTube clip: The dogs playing with a crab they found

Beautiful Barred Creek Beach

We Will Be Back!!