Fishing is life

I was completely delusional thinking that Dylan's insatiable appetite for fishing may have waned overnight. From the moment I woke up, he was asking about when and where we could be going. I did my best impersonation of being deaf and not hearing him, however I finally gave him the ultimatum of not asking again or not going all day. Finally, I had 30 minutes of peace and we got ourselves some breakfast. 

John Bridgman had promised us a trip out in the boat this morning, and by 10am, we were all in the boat heading out to whet Dylan's eagerness and see his amazing smile again

We stopped to try and get a few squid for both bait and a feed, however John got got the lure snagged whilst showing Dylan how to use the rod whilst drifting. And lost the lot. This isn't normally a big issue, however it was at this moment we discovered that the tackle box with the extra lures and all other tackle was still sitting back at camp!  Luckily there was a few ready made whiting rigs tucked away, so these became our rigs for the day with a hope that we didn't lose any more. 

The whiting were nowhere to be found, so we carefully crossed the reef opening (about 1m of water) and then found the big ledge that was known for some good snapper and whiting. 

Within a minute of dropping the line, Tyler had pulled in a rock cod, closely followed by Dylan bringing in a stinker of a leather jacket. The leatheries were thick and stealing bait almost as instantly as it hit the sea floor, but we managed to get a good mix of Sweep, Cod, Trevally, Leather Jackets and a nice 42cm Snapper (caught by Yours Truly). Dylan was now getting quite angry and upset due to the fact he hadn't caught another fish despite the hundreds of bites and constant re-baiting, whilst watching Tyler pull in fish after fish. 

Tyler was not feeling well in this deeper water with the slow and steady swell, so I did the good parent deed and called time, much to Dylan's mixed emotions of horror and disgust. Tyler had been great, by dealing with it for nearly an hour, not wanting to ruin everyone's fun, but sea sickness is horrible and there was no way I was going to let him suffer with that feeling. 

I spent the next hour fending off Dylan's request to go fishing somewhere else for the afternoon and cleaned and filleted the fish, as well as cleaned up the boat. I was knackered by the time I had finished and made the decision easier by having a 3rd beer which he knows is too many to drive. With the boat cleaned, the fish cleaned and some eaten for tea, another drink or 2, the boys making friends in the playground, all thought of fishing again had slipped away into the darkness. Phew 

Peter arrived about 7, after finally getting home from work. Due to the tides, we have planned to take the kayak out in the morning and go out for a quick fish in the afternoon in the boat on the rising tide. Hopefully the wind plays friendly.