Portland Fishing

We where supposed to get up early in the morning to go fishing in Port Fairy with a few of James mates. Unfortunately due to staying up the night before and a lot of unfortunate events (I had to drive to the other side of the farmland to get to a tractor to get some chain links, in the morning fog across paddocks) we left one hour late. By that time his friends where already in the harbour, so we set of towards Portland instead, as James knows the area better. Catherine was following along and we passed a lot of small fires, the result of burning some leftover forests. All in a controlled state, as bush fires are still a serious threat here. We where smoked out, none the less.

After reaching the harbour we let the boat in to the water and got everything ready to leave. Left the harbour on calm waters with a load of other hobby fishermen already out. We went about 15 kilometres away from Portland and started to drift towards the harbour town. Roods where out and a few fish where caught strait away. I got some venomous type of stinger fish, a few small “snapers” and a squid (which got away). None of it was fit or legal to eat, so I would have normally gone

 hungry. James caught a variety and lots of fish, most likely due to years of experience. His catch for the day was a legal snaper, which have to be larger than 30 centimetres to keep. His was 32. Catherine caught a squid which will be turned into Calamari rings. It shot out a spurt of ink before surfacing and made a bid for freedom by shouting halfway out of the bucket it was put in.

After some time we where joined by an Albatross, a medium sized bird when it is in the water. Once airborne the wingspan is just massive. It ate two of the fish we caught and threw back in again. The fish didn't swim down fast enough. We ended up having four around our boat and they would sometimes even go after the bait. After a relaxing day it was back to the farm and to get the pump fixed up again so we could have running water. After that some leftovers for dinner and then an early night to get ready for work the next day.