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DAY 2

Antonio and I were up early and decided to fish the surf before the sun came up. While we were fishing a big shark was cruising up and down the beach while the queenies were chasing bait fish in the surf. Antonio hooked a queenfish and handed me the rod to reel it in. It was unnecessary, but demonstrative of his good nature. In fact, it was just one of many examples displayed by Shane and Antonio towards Patrick and I. I landed the queenie and threw a few more casts before we headed back to camp. Antonio went to find a pig while Patrick, Shane and I headed back to catch bait and give the shark thing another go. Patrick had a hit on each run and within 20 minutes we had all the bait we needed. I could tell by the look on his face that he was loving this!

Video of the fishing action

Pat Jr was behind the reel this morning and by the 2nd run he had the queenfish and Mackerel hammering his lure.

Shane Yates and Pat with a nice queenfish

My son is an avid fisherman so he opted to fish from the rocks while Shane and I set up for bowfishing. It took about 30 minutes before the first shark showed up. It was another small one. Eventually two bigger sharks showed up, all reef sharks, and they would circle the boat but they stayed pretty deep. I shot more today than yesterday and still couldn't hit crap. They were lightning fast and they were much deeper than I am used to shooting carp back home. I didn't miss by much but I never connected.

Video of the bowfishing action

The sharks showed up again and once more i missed all of them. What a loser!

While I was waiting for the right opportunity, I could see a new shark approaching. As it got closer I realized it was enormous. Shane thought it might be a Tiger Shark and I figured him around 10' long. I don't know that my gear could have handled it but if given the chance I'd try for him. He was not hanging around he got to within 20 yards and in a flash he was gone. We waited for him for a while but he never showed.

About this time I looked back to the rocks and saw that Patrick was no longer fishing. We decided to call it a day and try later. We headed back to our camp for lunch. As we pulled into the river, Shane told us about an enormous grouper that hangs out near a hole. He took our last queenfish and started splashing it next to the boat. Nothing happened. When he turned his head to start talking to Patrick it was like jaws came out of the water and ripped the queen right from his hand. It scared the hell out of all three of us!  This thing was unreal. Probably 6' long and 500 lbs.

I think I could have hit this queensland grouper. he lives here and is a popular visitor unless you aren't prepared when he shows up to steal your fish. He almost tore shane's arm off grabbing a fish.

We fed it for a few minutes and headed back to camp for lunch. We met up with Antonio who had found some hogs and made a great shot on one of them. He had made a terrific shot and the hog didn't go very far.

while we were playing on the water, antonio found a nice boar and hammered him with his mathews.

While we ate lunch (Australia's famous Antonio Burger) we discussed what to do for our final afternoon. We had so many options of things to do I was torn. We could go saltwater fishing, bowfishing for sharks, or hunting for hogs. Being that today was our last day on the water I decided to wrap up this brief trip on the water. We were going to have plenty of bowhunting when we fly out the the bush starting tomorrow and my son loves fishing.

Antonio burgers were a hit with all of us. it consisted of a sausage patty, canadian bacon, fried egg, cheese, lettuce and tomato on a hard roll.

Before the afternoon hunt Shane took us to a little creek to swim and freshen up. Then we briefly hit a billabong to try and find some hogs before heading back to camp. We did a little fishing and then tried for sharks again. The ocean was too choppy so we stayed at the mouth of the river and chummed from there. No sharks came in but that grouper came back and almost took Shane's arm off again. Unfortunately no shark for me but it was a great memory that I won't forget anytime soon. Tomorrow we fly out to begin our buffalo hunt. I can't thank Shane and Antonio enough for their graciousness and hospitality. My only regret is that we did not have as much time as we would have all liked but a future trip was discussed and we may just get together again down the road.