Wind  10 kt  Variable  Sunny Cool wind

A lazy morning while we wait for the tide to start rising, otherwise we will be going against the tide sailing north up the great Sandy Straits.

John sorted, cleaned and repaired his many rods and reels and although we had no bait to fish with made do with small pieces of raw chicken (Morgan’s dinner). Toad fish seemed the only ones interested in the chicken and a very strange looking creature that may be a type of Bristle Worm. How it swallowed the bait and hook is a mystery. John reckoned it was the ugliest thing he had seen  but I thought it quite pretty with its fluro yellow bristles.

We took the dinghy over to the sand bar to pump for yabbies but there were none , only an army of soldier crabs which Morgan was fascinated by when they suddenly disappeared into the sand.

We gathered some strange looking long worms in the hope that we could use as bait but they did not yield any fish either. John had a few throws of the cast net but only caught small toad fish.

 

We decided to stay here for the rest of the day and night as it’s a very peaceful anchorage even though there are six other boats anchored here.

Back to fishing with chicken and John managed a small grinner.

 

No good for eating , he used it for bait and got something big on his little trout rod with 8lb line. After fighting it for 10 minutes a White spotted shovel nosed ray finally rose to the surface and we let it go.

Five minutes later he had a larger one on that wasn’t giving up easily so a 15 minute struggle ensued. When it finally surfaced John grabbed it by the tail so we could remove its hook.

 

It had very short raspy dorsal spines that scarred the side of the transom and fishing line hanging out of its anus. Jenny pulled the fishing line and out came a stainless fish hook from its rear end. Obviously its been caught before. Morgan was disappointed to see it go.

No more fish after that as the tide was roaring out.

Ribs and scalloped potato for dinner.