Middle Lagoon
We booked into Middle Lagoon from Broome and using Trip
Advisor we selected the site “Lookout” as being the best site. We could only get
this from Sunday and we would have liked to go in Saturday. So acting on Trip
Advisors advice we opted to stay another night longer in Broome, and head into
Middle Lagoon a day later.
This turned out to be really good advice and the site
“Lookout” is just spectacular. It certainly is the pick of the sites here, we
have a clear view over the bay from our site, a beach shelter just for our use,
and of course electricity and water at the site so we can run our air-con and
cappuccino machine without problems.
When we arrived on Sunday the wind was blowing really
strong, nothing new or different there for Western Australia. But our site was
fairly protected from these winds which were strong enough to blow a dog of its
chain.
We took the boat off the roof and launched it Monday, using
the “beach trailer” that the other tinnie owners here introduced us to. We have
wheels for the tinnie but they wouldn’t work on this soft sand. So every morning
we drag the boat down to the water to launch it and in the arvo we drag it back.
We have to do this to get it above the high tide level which is extreme in these
parts of the world as at present they have a 9m tide here, and on this relative
flat beach means the water at low tide is a long way from the high level.
It’s quite amusing every morning to see all the guys drag
their tinnies down to the water’s edge. The first morning this guy and his kids
were that desperate to get out fishing that he drove down to the water’s edge
with boat in tow overtaking me. He obviously doesn’t like his boat as much as we
like ours. I thought he was going to flip it on the beach he was driving that
fast.
Our first days fishing I caught an undersized “School
Mackerel” but he gave me a good fight to land him. The minimum size for a School
Mackerel is 30cm and the one I landed was about 25cm, so we threw him back.
We drove to “Whale Song” café for lunch but it was closed
for the season. Apparently they have to dismantle half of their house to make
the café, and they like to get it reassembled back into their house.
Jayne consulted the fishing website and we learnt that the
next day between 9am and 11am has a “two fish” chance of catching something. But
between 4pm and 7pm there is a “four fish” chance of catching something. As it
was an absolutely sparkling morning we decided to head out before 9am and see if
we could catch on of these 2 fishes!
You wouldn’t believe it, at 8.53am I felt a really big bite
on my rod, with scrambling to shut the motor down and wind in my rod, it put up
a really good fight. Mackerel are good fighting fish and he certainly lived up
to this reputation. When I got my first glimpse of the fish in the water as he
swam past us with my rod screaming as it was running out more I thought to
myself how the hell am I going to land this in our tiny boat? He looked huge in
the water. After several of these passes and me continuously trying to tighten
the clutch on the reel he started to wane and I thought I had a chance to get
him in.
The guy at the fishing tackle shop in Broome warned me that
the fish are hard to land at Middle Lagoon as the sharks take them right off
your line, so you have to reel them in quick. The Manager at Middle lagoon
reinforced this to us on our arrival as well. So I didn’t want to be hanging
around with shark bait over the side of our tiny boat!
I managed to land him into the fishing net that Jayne was
holding out over the water and we got him into the boat. That’s when all hell
broke loss with this monster flapping around all tangled up in our net and lure.
Jayne managed to whip out the hessian bag which up until today was our firewood
carrying bag, and I got the hooks out of the net by cutting the net and then got
the hooks out of him, and with Jayne holding him down I stabbed him above the
eye with our Iki Jimi (Killing Spike) and that was it for him, he was ours! He
bled a lot in our bucket and we also cut off his head, which we disposed of the
side and quickly moved on a bit. Ever wary of the sharks.
He measured 1.059meters! Without question, the largest fish
I have ever caught. He's a Spanish Mackerel.
Jayne with her filleting skills managed to get enough flesh
off him for 4 really good sized meals. And he's a beauty to eat.
So all my primal urges have been satisfied today, I’ve gone
out, hunted and brought the family some food!
Jayne made fish and chips for lunch and I made him into
Malaysian Spicy Fish Curry for tonight’s dinner, and he was amazing! We didn’t
get out to try the 4 fishes this arvo as the wind is back and it wouldn’t have
been pleasurable. Nobody else was out, so I'm sure that tells you just how bad
the wind is.
