Not quite a lazy day: we hang out in the morning then go out on a fishing trip in the afternoon. We both catch a blue salmon each, and Chris also gets a barramundi, which is too small so it has to be thrown back. Bugger.
In the morning, we shop. Woolworth's is a five minute walk away from the campground, so we stock up on a few things like cereal. Chris has lost a bit of weight, so he buys some less baggy shorts. Woolworth's was out of milk, though. Grrr. Maybe tomorrow. At noon, we leave for our fishing trip on the Mission River, which is the northern edge of Weipa. Six of us from the group go out and try our hand fishing. Fortunately, though the temperature is in the low 30's, it's fairly overcast with a slight breeze, so it's not too stifling out there on the water. We head east up the river, passing a few crocs on the banks sunning themselves. They dive into the water if we get too close, which is fine by me.
Our guide, David, who runs Weipa Fishing Adventures (yes, the URL is http://www.weipafishingadventures.com.au) guides us over to a spot where there are hopefully 'fingerling' and 'jewfish' biting--those are good eating he says. I put my line in the water, but find it hard to find the bottom. There's a good rip from the tide going out, and it's hard to tell what a nibble is and what isn't. Every so often, I pull up my bait (a live fish)... and it starts losing more and more of its head as the bream fish in the river start on its head.
No one really is getting much, until Carol hooks a queenfish, a peculiar looking fish, then pulls in another fish right after! Grrr. Then I catch a blue salmon. Yay for me! La la la. Others on the boat are pulling in more fish, too, and Chris is getting grumpy, sitting on the front of the boat. Finally, after two hours, he gets a bite, and pulls in a blue salmon too! Some of the others also pull in some more as well.
When you're out there, you really gotta pull them in quick. Dr. Chris pulled in a huge blue salmon, which put up a big fight--but the river has sharks in it, and all he got was the head when it finally was landed. He also lost another to the sharkies. We moved soon after--it looks like the sharks were getting wise.
Down the river a bit, one of the mangrove trees had fallen into the water, making a prime barramundi spot. Our guide casted our bait to the spot, and not more than ten seconds passed before Chris got a bite--a barramundi, though too small to take. It wasn't much longer than his foot. Dr. Chris got a cuckoo fish, an ugly looking stonefish with a nasty poison barb on its top fin. That one we certainly threw back, carefully. Nothing was really biting, so we headed back. Our total haul was five blue salmon, two 'others', and one queenfish. David our fishing guide cleaned and filleted them all up for us, and they were ready to go when we got back to shore!
Back at camp, DB fired up the barbie, and we had wonderful grilled fish for dinner. The blue salmon was great, melting in your mouth, and not needing any sauces or anything--it was wonderful as it was. Yum! Our bellies full, we headed to bed.
Weird Wildlife Sighting
Plenty: a few saltwater crocodiles ('salties'), the various fish we caught (blue salmon, barramundi, a cuckoo fish, a queenfish), a pelican. Heh, heh, we actually ate some of the wildlife we saw.