This morning we were disappointed to see that the tide was out even further than last night. We were surprised to see a number of vehicles arrive and we watched half a dozen people walk out across the mud flats for 2km with long rods to obviously catch mud crabs. The first crabbers didn't return for many hours but when they did I went to look at their catch. They had a bucket load full of the largest crabs I've ever seen. I asked if I could buy some from them but they were reluctant but they gave me the runt of their catch for free. Although it was the runt, it was still a decent feed for two but we still had the four Adcocks to feed. The kids and David started looking for crabs along the rocks that were exposed by the low tide by using the baitfish tied to a stick. After a lot of persistence, they managed to catch one mud crab that wasn't the size of the first one but at least big enough to
cook. When the tide finally came in around 1pm Dorothy, David, Rob and little Jackson started fishing. Soon, David caught something huge - his new beach rod was almost bent in half as he struggled for about 10 minutes to bring it in. Anyone who was on the beach at the time came to look as he reeled it in - but it turned out to be a large stingray. We had to cut it free for fear of being whipped with its barb. Jackson caught a catfish but nothing else seemed to be biting. Finally, I asked David to rig up my rod and on my first cast I caught a good flathead. We kept him for our dinner thinking that now we had enough for entrée for the Adcocks and ourselves - if only we could catch one large spangled emperor for our main course!
It was not to be, but we had a terrific meal with salad, bread, homemade seafood sauce and then when the kids had gone to bed we watched a beautiful starlit night and drank wine and had good conversation with Rob and Dorothy.