So the during the week I tried to remove the steering wheel. I found about 1kg of dried salt under the duct cap so it wasn’t too much surprise that I couldn’t get the wheel off. So I got myself a puller and then discovered that there were no heads left in the allen key screws thanks to the salt. Using the puller around the hub of the wheel only resulted in bending it up and I wasn’t brave enough to put another turn on the puller as things were starting to bend under the strain.
So I went off to off to In & Outboard and got myself a new helm and wheel and on Saturday morning I set about the replacement. Overall it wasn’t too hard, I took my time and 4 hours later and after a trip to Bunnings for a couple of sausage sandwiches and a few washers I had the new the new helm installed.
So back to Monday, I headed down to Dinah as I figured that was a good place to test things on the water as help would be at hand and if all was good it would offer a few options for the day. I launched easily just before 7am before the crowds and as I was going back down to the pontoon from parking the car I saw old mate reverse down in his flash Land Rover, boat still strapped down to the trailer. He doesn’t stop until the Land Rover’s diff is submerged and then wades out to his waist to the back of the trailer to undo the straps. He must have seen the Elisabeth river incident and wasn’t taking any chances.
I took my time and everything felt good, the wind forecast was for calm conditions all morning and I and no intentions of being out after midday so I went around to Cullen bay to look for some queenies. The new steering felt good, firm and responsive giving me confidence in the work I had done. The water looked great, not quite glass but nice and flat though the water visibility was a bit poor. There was nothing about so I decided to run out to channel rock to look for some choona where I found a couple of other boats but no pelagics. I had a good look at everything and there were no leaks and everything was still tight so happy days. The 8am high tide hadn’t come yet so I figured that east point isn’t too far off for a look too.
Once there I had a look around but didn’t find anything of interest either so I headed in towards the mouth of Ludmilla creek for a flick at the mangroves on the turn which came quickly but without reward so I decided to start venturing back as my plan was to finish the morning fishing the Reichardt flats. As I started heading back I noticed this smell as I approached East Point. I glanced down at the chart and saw the discharge point was just a few hundred meters away. Curios I ventured over and was greeted with stench and a brown area almost the size of an oval and in the middle of it you could clearly see the discharge water flowing up on to the surface. I wish I had grabbed a video with Smell-O-Vision for you all to enjoy.
The run back to channel rock was without incident. The water had really smoothed out with the turn of the tide and when I got there I was rewarded with a bright yellow Sheridan football for my efforts but no pelagics. I went back to Cullen bay to see if that had picked up and discovered plenty of birds about. Things were looking up and so did the sounder screen, there was bait every where and a couple of other boats trying to find the queenies. I followed the birds in towards Miley Point and found a small school but failed to hook up, then I went out towards bullocky point where hundreds of birds were working the surface. Working the shoals of bait were school of Fringe Fin Trevally so I headed off. (Here's a pic of one.)
As I worked Emery point for the last bit I was ready to call it quits, I saw a couple casting at the point working poppers and then right where I had just passed the queenies erupted on the surface. I didn’t want to intrude but it was the only real action I had seen all morning so I sat back on the Cullen bay side of the point and current line and did my best not to get within 50m of them. They were working small poppers but didn’t appear to be getting much, I fired off my first cast with a slug and hooked up straight away to a 40cm queenie. Oops, my bad.
Both boats managed to land a few but the school moved around to the Larrakeyah side of the point just out of reach of both of our efforts. They pulled the anchor and moved around a bit more so I drifted up to their old spot and since I was casting slugs I was still able to keep my distance and let them choose their prime spot. All the fish were small so after about half a dozen fish both of us moved on. If the other fisho is here thank you for being a good sport and I apologise if I got too close at all.
I ran back up the harbour to Reichardt fearing if I left it too much longer I might miss the tide. On the way ran a bit faster and noticed the steering has an odd feel when turning to the right. It has been for long before the I did the repair so it makes me think that there is something still not right with the ram or the pivot bearing on the outboard. So at some point that will be the next job.
I got to Reichardt and there was about a metre of water still over the flats which was perfect. A few fishos were anchored up and casting at the big tree in the mouth so I ventured around onto the flats for a look. There were a few salmon working schools of bait that I couldn’t tempt. About an hour passed and the water was starting to get shallow I was working my way back to the creek. That’s when I spotted a massive barra just swimming along the opposite way in 350mm of water. It had the thickest set of shoulders and of course my rod was laying down on the deck right now and oh god did I wish I had a minn kota so I could have just spot locked the boat but I didn’t dare throw the big yammy into reverse incase it spooked the fish which I had now drifted past as I finally managed to fire out a cast just a bit in front of the fish. There was a bit of a twitch but no take as it headed in towards the dirty prop wash behind my boat, my lure now too far away. I raced the lure in and fired another cast out blindly where I hoped the fish would be but it was too late, my chance was gone.
I poked around for another 10 minutes hoping to find her again but the sounder was no longer reading depth which meant it was time to scoot or stay on the mud for the day. I managed to flick the boat up on to the plane in what was now less than 300mm of water and safely it back to the creek where the guys were still working the drain behind the big old tree. It was now midday so I decided to stick to the plan and fired back over to Dinah to pull the boat out.
