Fishing the Pentecost

High tide at the Pentecost River

Today was spent hanging around the camp site on the Pentecost River, I had some ideas of exploring some of the walk trails on the station but it was pretty hot and Jacky was well into the current book she was reading so she was quite content to stay at camp. The Pentecost had about a 2-3 metre tidal drop so I thought I’d get the fishing gear out and throw out a lure on the rising tide. After an hour of nothing I ran into some local lads and they said that they had their best results as the tide was going out. Back to camp for lunch and a couple of hours of reading. Later in the afternoon I was down at the river with Jacky’s warnings ringing in my ears “don’t go too close to the edge”. I managed to hook some small unidentified fish that I cut up for bait but even with fresh bait I still had no luck. Some of the locals were using throw nets to catch live bait, these guys apparently caught 2 barra last night and I did see them hook another one today but it spat the hooks at them and went on to survive another day.

Pentecost River at low tide

As we had been driving along the Gibb River Rd we had heard reports of a fairly large bike ride. At Ellenbrae Station there was no camping available due to the cyclists and their support crew staying there that night. They were due to arrive at Home Valley today and we were expecting to be swamped at the river camp but it was not too bad, they must have been able to accommodate most of them at the homestead.