054 - Kalbarri (20/5/17)

We awoke to a reasonable morning but a pretty crappy outlook and forecast for the day.

Whilst the sun was metaphorically “shining”, the boys and I decided we’d hurry down to the small fuel jetty near the marina which we had briefly inspected yesterday. I was a little pessimistic given the small fuel slick I’d observed, but was happy to see it was probably just a minor spill and the waters looks pretty smicko now.

We threw a bunch of lines in, rods and handlines, and boom! We were on…

The boys and I aren't sick of jetties yet... and are unlikely to be for quite some time. If at all.

And not a single blowie in site. Based on the gentlemen at the end of the jetty also fishing we pulled in a couple of small tailor, sea mullet and the easily identifiable black bream. It was nice to finally get some variety and dare I say it, a chance of an edible fish.

In the hour or so we were there we pulled in 12 fish in total, 4 each, with Sam snaffling the only keeper, a small sea mullet that will become bait somewhere along the road.

What a monster... Just short of minimum length by... umm... around 50%!

Sam, after quite a long dry spell, blowies notwithstanding, happy to get on the board, no matter how small the catch.

James and the Not So Giant Fish.

But as the drizzle set in, so did the cold and I pulled the pin on the boys, much to their dismay.

And wasn’t that the right piece of father intuition. No sooner had we reached camp but the heavens opened with an absolute BANG.

I've made some right calls in my life, but leaving the jetty before this rain came in was one of the best. We'd have been able to swim home...

Was watching the little retaining wall at the back of our spot. Was wondering what the plan of attack would be if it overtopped... Thankfully, the rain eased and the sand acted like, well, sand... We were safe and the villagers could once again rest easy.

Rained flat out for around 20 to 30min and I stood under the awning of the caravan watching the water flow around us, under us and based on the wall next to the van, soon to be over us! Was quite the rain show…

But it subsided eventually and we all packed the rain coats and decided to walk in to town. B and Sam went a step further and kicked on to the lookout whilst Evie, James and I kept an eye on the playground facilities.

On returning, Sam, inspired by the mornings activities basically pleaded to return to the jetty. Who am I to knock a keen angler back???

So off he and I went, back down to our “usual spot”… And weren’t we glad we did. In the short 40min we were there, Sam and I pulled in another 20 fish between us, including 4 keepers, all pretty decent sized sea mullet (3 for me, 1 for Sam). After daylight called it quits on us, we returned to camp like kings, walking tall and thinking we were “all that”. We had afterall, provided B with her request of “catch me something for dinner”.

OK, so it's not exactly breaking records, but it's big by our standards most definitely edible.

See!

The rest of the evening was not as rosy however as we watched the Hawks completely capitulate to the Pies. I was not a happy camper and had to go do a few laps of the park on foot to chill out for fear of torching the van…

Still… we caught fish. You can’t complain.