Back from Davenport
Creek after a break with my son, How things change in twelve months. The road in has got real rough and the sand is powdery soft, some one has been through and put those dreaded pine logs up with the black tube between them in
places. I suppose it had to happen.
For this time of year it was fairly crowded as most of the farmers had finished there crops and were having their annual get together, plus there is a mouse
plaque over there at the moment. Spent a lot of time at night trying to keep them out of the caravan. but the little buggers still got in and I ended up bring some home with me.
as I said earlier the son come with me as it was our last trip together before his deployment to Afghanistan. It was one of the best trips we have done together and a reality check as to what is important in life .
We spent most of the day fishing out in the boat and after cleaning our catch would spend the rest of the day fishing from the bank.
What we noticed when fishing from the bank was that the eagle rays would come in looking for the fish remains from our boat catch. The boy got all excited and stated to try and catch one, he had four break offs before finally hooking one. He played it for about an hour trying to go man against beast. The whole time he was fighting this ray I was thinking, we have no gaff and no gear to deal with this and was secretly wishing it would break off. No such luck, he beached this pour thing and to my amazement it had no tail so was very relieved.
It was to big to turn over to get the hook out and it just struggled to get back in the
water, I was running around looking for pliers to take the hook out of its mouth leaving the sone with the ray.We finally released it, it was ok after its ordeal.
After the boy recovered I said to him are you going to try again, and one of the proudest moments as a father came from his lips.
He said that that was the first one he had ever caught and while I was looking for the pliers he was looking at this pour thing he had just caught, its big eyes looking at me and trying to get back in the
water and I felt so sorry for it. My days of catching them for sport is over. I then thought to my self, We have done a good job, we have brought him up right.
The rest of the trip was spent catching fish and bonding, doing things we would not normally do, we did not take anything we were not going to eat and nothing under size.
what was apparent was the amount of boats that would bag out and return to
camp and clean there catch, only to go out again on the same day to refish and do it all over again.
well thats my report for now, a happy and proud father and a mate as a son.
Shane.