Cape Range National Park coves the western side of a long
peninsula that juts about 100km out north westward into the Indian Ocean. For
almost the entire length of the peninsula the Ningaloo Reef hugs the coast with
the reef going 1 – 2 km out. Just beyond the reef is a massive drop off with
the depth going very quickly to 30m causing waves to break onto the reef. In
front of our camping area is a channel 6 – 8m deep and 300m wide that runs
through the reef. Beyond the entrance to the channel is the closest point the
continental shelf comes to the mainland. That means within 20 minutes you can
be sitting in 150m of water – pretty bloody scary!
It was pretty calm this morning but not quite calm enough
for me to go outside so Sam and I anchored up beside a bommie and started
flicking some lures with no luck. They had bought some bigger (18cm) lures so
we decided we would troll the channel to see what was about. We had only been
going a few minutes when Sambo was on. I quickly started to bring my line in to
get it out of the way when I also got hit. Oh well..I stuck my rod back in the
holder and got the net ready for whatever Sam had on. Just as I was about to
land it, it chewed through to leader and Sambo’s brand new $10 lure was gone. I
could tell he was devastated but he kept a brave face just long enough to realise
that mine had gotten off to, but had left me the lure at least!
I couldn’t help but reach into my case and grab him one of
my new lures and the full smile returned. We started to troll again and on our
2nd lap we managed to get another hook up. But this time we managed
to land it, a 75cm Barra....(what’s that...they don’t have Barra around
there....sure they do...) a Barracuda not a Barramundi. While not quite as
fancy it was a good catch and Sambo was pretty happy. The only problem was that
I now had a fish with rather large and very sharp teeth bouncing around at my
feet! A couple of seconds and a rather large blow with the ‘donger’ later and
all was restored! A few more laps of the channel didn’t provide anymore bounty
so we headed in.
Jack had spent the morning with De. After 120+ days of
living in each others pockets tempers have been fraying between the boys a bit
lately so we thought some time apart would go some way towards healing this!
After lunch Jack and I headed out with De and Sam going for
a swim. Jack and I tried our hardest trolling with lures and flicking any
number of different lures and plastics but we came up empty handed. Bugger! We
picked up the swimmers from a beautiful sandy beach and headed back to camp.
In the afternoon the boys grabbed their rods and tackle boxes and headed to the rocky outcrop just in front of the campground. The good thing is the two boys who were camping next door, Lochy and Connor, were also into their fishing. So for the next 2 or 3 hours they happily cast and chatted away while I prepare a yummy barracuda curry.
The sunset was another cracker but tonight I thought the view to the east, looking back over the range was even more impressive!
No comments:
Post a Comment