My ozzie "angling adventures" - Report 5

[snatcher]

I had fancied a trip up the river trying for mangrove jack so decided to hire a pontoon boat for two hours. The guy in the tackle shop at Port Douglas recommended fresh steak as the best bait for them so this was our bait for the session

Now Dorothy,still glowing from her previous session,said that she fancied a bash at this as well so I suggested alternate casts as we just had one set of gear. The guy who hires out the pontoon boats supplies a rough fishing map as well and suggested we should try at the mouth of second inlet. Off we went then with Dorothy at the helm - Lillian her sister took this photo.

Dorothy could just not get the hang of the steering and I had to take the wheel over to avoid any mishaps!!! There was no mention of crocs and we seen this big guy on the bank around the first bend !!! Made a mental note to keep my hands out of the water.

We anchored up at the mouth of second inlet and I baited up for Dorothy using a running leger with a size 2 baitholder hook and a cube of steak on. She had a bite within a few minutes but missed it. Meanwhile I was dropping in a steady stream of steak in hopefully to act as groundbait.

My turn next,within seconds of casting in got a good thump on the rod but missed it -damm.I decided to tie on a smaller size 4 hook,baited up and handed the rod back to Dorothy. She got a decent bite and in came her fish after a spirited scrap,a black bream. I was unhooker for the day so back it went

Oh well my turn again and managed to miss yet another bite and it swiped all the steak off the hook. Dorothys turn once more and this time she hooked a mangrove jack.Its the first one I had seen and was well impressed with its markings.

Back it went to chants of "two nowt" from Dorothy. I am quite used to it as quite often get hammered into second place by her.

I was just about to cast out when I noticed the Lady Douglas paddle steamer coming upstream and heading straight for us. It was on a crocodile spotting trip and having no wish to become crocodile bait pulled up the anchor and pulled in as close as I dared to let her pass

It was at this point that I decided to head back downstream to the entrance of first inlet and try there for the last half hour. It was a bad move as we got no more bites.

Dorothy spotted a large croc coming down first inlet towards us. It passed fairly close and I reckoned it was a 12 feet plus beast

I am happy to report that we were not on the menu and it headed on down the river

It had been a most interesting day and seeing the crocs in the wild was really fantastic. The next report sees my trying my hand at those mullet again ! :sun:

John