21st July 2021Forty Mile Beach

Another beautiful day a bit more wind than yesterday and coming from the SW so it will be cooler, Merv said he doesn't think it will drop like yesterday.

We went out fishing taking our cray and fish wings with bread and butter for a picnic lunch.

We went half way out to where we were yesterday but I could not relax, the whales where jumping and carrying on everywhere and even though they were a good distance away you never know when one is going to come up beside you.

The wind had come up making it quite lumpy, Merv caught one really big black snapper, I  caught a good sized striped snapper and had it approximately 10 feet from the boat and a big mackerel came through and took the lot leaving only the head, it didn't even pull any line and if we both hadn't  seen it we would have blamed a shark, people are always saying they get sharked off that makes me wonder how many times is it mackerel, sailfish or any other large fish.

When the wind increased and we weren't catching anything significant Merv suggested we go in the Lee of the island to have lunch.

It was still pretty windy there which was a shame as when it is still you can see the coral and fish so easily.

We had lunch, the cray was a bit tough but it was probably too big to keep, but the fish wings  were from a large cod, they were delicious and so much meat on them, we know in future any large fish we will not waste the wings.

After lunch Merv put on his wet suit and the mask Liza bought me that has a built n camera, it takes videos or stills, he was really enjoying himself until a sea snake became too curious about him, so him made quick exit from the water.

We couldn't go back to camp as the tide was too low so we just drifted trying to catch a fish, not one bite, after a couple of hours of being jumper about Merv said he was going to put a lure on and troll back, it was approximately 10km and doing that was better than sitting being jumped about.

By the time we got in there was just enough water we had to watch very carefully for rocks as we came in and I did have to back the truck out into the water a bit, was a bit harder to winch it on but with the two of us we got there.

We went down to thank Ash for the cray and wings he showed us some mud crabs he had been and caught he asked if we were going to be at Forty Mile Beach next year, he said next time he sees us he will teach Merv how to spear fish and catch mud crabs, they are leaving tomorrow same as us.