In the last week I’ve refound my joy of fishing in Byron. With a distinct lack of surf me and the boys have needed something to keep ourselves entertained and with the weather being pretty dam nice we found that with fishing.
Our first trip was an all lads affair. Myself, Jonesy, Silas, Dickie and Ben hit the road to Little Watego. A short walk around the clifftop and we descended on the beach and set everything up. There was a distinct lack of activity for a long while. This, however, was not a problem due to the fact a pod of whales cruised by and kept us stoked by jumping, diving and playing around – a mere couple hundred metres off the rocks. And the dolphins joined in too – happy days!
Dickie was the first to hook in, a flathead. Unfortunately it wasn’t the largest or tastiest thing we’d seen so it water dutifully unhooked and released.
Next in was Ben, a sea bream, but again not edible size – despite the fact a guy opposite us was raking in some good sized fish!
As the sun began to set and the orange glow over Mount Warning engulfed the sky Jonesy managed to catch something edible. After I ended up dispatching it we made him gut it – he wasn’t impressed!
After the relaxation of that trip we decided yesterday that another was in order. – especially considering it was Dickies last day in Byron and indeed Australia. This time we had some females in tow – Kez and Louise joined me, Jonesy and Dickie. We went for a different approach this time – spinners.
Within 3 casts I’d hooked in – a medium sized dart fish but nothing really meal worthy.
Dickie soon followed suit – this time with a good chunk of sea bream. Things were looking up and we had at least something for tea!
Unfortunately that was it for a while. But again the whales came to the rescue and gave us an awesome show – the closest I’ve seen them. We gave up on the first spot and headed to a small cliff spot around the corner. The swell was hitting against the rocks and it was all rather sketchy, but we went anyway!
We caught a few small random fish and lost a lot of tackle but surfing, jumping dolphins perked us up!
One more attempt at the initial spot as the tide came in I hooked into an alright sea bream and we had two to pot up – it stayed at that count despite Jonesy desperately trying to spear some more!
Back at AQ I left Dickie and Kez to foil cook up some treats, minimal thought they were!
As evening descended a few farewell drinks were in order. I had to head to work for a while, arriving back after a couple of hours I’d found a few drinks had spiralled – just slightly!
The bulk of the AQ staff were getting loose and there was a good, all be slightly sad vibe. A teary speech by bar man Mick and a scrap book of goodies for Dickie to remember us by and his time in Byron was drawing to a close after 10 months of good times.
I have no idea what time the party wrapped up, but it was a late one, with Dickie finally heading to the airport at 7am – New Zealand bound.
It’s been sweet chilling with you buddy – safe travels and hopefully catch you soon.
