OUT IN THE BOAT AGAIN AND DROPPING SOME CRAB POTS...

We had a lovely day out on the water this afternoon.  After our surprise visitors this morning, Steve got the boat ready and we headed out to put our crab pots in the water...

The tides aren't the best this week, with the high tides being fairly low.  In fact there is not that much difference between the high and low tide, and we only had a three hour window of opportunity to be out on the water...

Steve hasn't had the big boat out since August last year, so it was a case of remembering how to launch the boat and driving it off the trailer.  There is no pontoon at the boat ramp here.

Fortunately it all came back to him, and we had no trouble getting the boat into the water...

We managed to get the boat into the water, one hour before the high tide and there were still sand bars everywhere.Our initial getting out of the creek was very slow going with some stretches of the water being only .3m deep.  which just allows our boat to get through... 

Successfully launched...

Enjoying a drink whilst Steve parks the car..

He was very thankful for his fish finder which was able to plot a track for us as well as let us know the depth of the water we were passing through.  It wasn't too bad just putting along as it felt good to be out on the water with the breeze in our face.  It was a little concerning though, that we were no in the water with only an hour and a half until full tide which meant that we only had an hour and a half after the full tide before we needed to be back at the boat ramp once again....

Keeping an eye on the depth of the water...

Beautiful day to be out on the water

Enjoying ourselves

We motored up the creek until we found a spot to put the first crab pot.  Once we had found the mouth of another little creek that Steve was happy with we pulled out into the middle of the main channel and set the motor guide to work whilst we baited up all the crab pots.  We have only bought five pots away with us this week rather than the 8 we are allowed.  Mostly I think this was because Steve knew the tides weren't going to be the best,  and checking so many pots takes time, and time the tide wouldn't allow...

Setting up the Motor Guide

I love the motor guide,  I love that we  no longer have to throw out an anchor and that this little motor just anchors you where you tell it too.  Once Steve had it working, it was then time to bait up all the pots..  He had bought a few bags of what he thought were old fish carcasses from home to bait the pots with.  All was going well until he opened the first bag when he discovered that it didn't contain any carcasses at all but was a bag of old crab shells.  Well they just went staight into the ocean...  This meant that we would need to be a little more careful with out bait now if we wanted to bait all the pots...

The had bought his favourite pots with him, pots that he had got from Grunskies in Bundaberg along with one of the new pots his friend picked up for him, from a guy that he works with at Hastings who makes crab pots.  This is the first time he is using this new pot so he was keen to see if it was as good as his Bundy pots...

Baiting up his pots

All baited up and ready to find some spots to drop them...

The old fish carcasses are put to good use

Time now to find some more creeks to drop them in.  It never ceases to amaze me how Steve remembers where he hides them.  I guess it is made a little easier now with his fish finder which tracks exactly where he has been, but over the years, he drops them up into the thick of obscure little creeks and still manages to come back and find them later.  For me they would be lost for ever as all of these creeks look alike.

Enjoying a nice cold drink of lime milk...

The pots continue to get dropped as we make our way up stream a bit further..

Full of stinky dead fish carcasses...

We had a bit of trouble through the ropes into the mangroves today and had to get the old gaff hook out to retrieve the rope that went astray.  Obviously it is too long since we have been crabbing, and we are out of practice.  Just means we need to get out in the boat more often...

I managed to drop the last pot in....

We had about a half hour before we were due to head back to the boat ramp again, so we headed a little further up stream until Steve found a couple of sand banks where we decided to pull up once again and set the motor guide to work and see if we could fish the shallow water there for some whiting..

By now it was getting quite breezy so the motor guide really had to work to keep us in the one spot.   We baited up and threw out four lines.  Unfortunately the fish were just not biting at all today.  I never even got a nibble, not even a fish playing with the bait, all in tack each time I reeled the hook back in...

Steve managed to catch one gar fish which is now to become crab pot bait but even he didn't have any success.

His lone fish he caugh

All it is good for is a bit of crab pot bait....

By 20 past 2 we knew it was time to pack the motor guide away and pack up the rods and head back towards the boat ramp.  We knew it would be a pretty slow trip back as the water was running out fast.

This is where Steve is very thankful for his fish finder and GPS as it allowed us to go back to the boat ramp along the same route that we had traveled coming up stream.  We knew that if we managed to get up stream via this route than we would make it back to the boat ramp.  

It took us almost half an hour to get back to the ramp and than the fun began as the wind had really come up which was going to make driving the boat up onto the trailer quite a bit of fun as the wind would just blow you around...

We finally managed to get the boat up and loaded on the trailer, after about three attempts at driving it on straight.

By the time we got back to the van it was close on 4pm.  Great afternoon on the water and we are keen to head back out again to morrow and check on those pots.  Hopefully we will have some luck and at least pick up three or four crabs.  Hopefully, and fingers crossed that we will at least get a mud crab...