Gorgeous day out with the wife . . .

A curious old eel out hunting in a local creek in the middle of the day not far from Casa da Ayre  

My wife and I had PLANS for today, and like everything, it pays to be flexible.

We went beach fishing last night, chasing the elusive Mulloway from one of our secret beach gutters.  It was a lovely evening, with almost no breeze, and it clouded over about two hours before dark.  It was still and humid, and the surf was small.  I felt we had a pretty good chance of a School jewfish, as it was a very dark night thanks to the clouds.  When we both started to see things before our eyes, I thought our odds had climbed significantly.  The "things" were the "Will O' the Wisp" flashes you see when there is lightning in the distance.  There was an electrical storm way off to the west of us and we could see the odd flash of light playing on the waves.  It's an odd experience.  Your eyes are night-adapted and uber-sensitive to the slightest light source.  The ripples on the surface of the small surf were reflecting the micro-flashes of distant lightning back to us.  Amanda was almost afraid to ask if I could see it too - she thought she was going slightly mad and seeing things . . .

We ended up having a successful night, though not with the target species I had in mind.  Amanda caught all of the fish.  Again.  She caught an absolute stonking-big Yellow-finned bream, and followed it up with a whopper of a Wirrah.  The Wirrah was released unharmed, but the bream received a dinner invitation to Casa da Ayre, and will be Monday night's dinner.  Yum !

Because of the ideal conditions, we decided that we'd get up at 5:00 am the next morning (today, Sunday 16th November) and head to our local LBG fishing ledge.  The warm water is just starting to hit our coast - it's 22 degrees Celcius according to the BoM website.  Anything above 16 degrees is fishable (if you are desperate) but above 20 degrees and you are in with a solid chance.  Well, 22 degrees is almost ideal conditions to go ballooning for hard-pulling Yellowtail kingfish and Australian bonito at this time of year.

I was awake before the alarm at 5am - looked outside and promptly went back to bed.  It was blowing quite strongly from the South West, and raining hard.  A warm bed snuggling with my lovely wife was far more appealing than getting pounded on an exposed rock ledge in driving rain.

The funny thing was that the rain cleared by about 8am.  The clouds looked sensational and so we decided to go on a scouting trip for photographic locations.  We have a couple of shoots coming up for friends in the next few weeks, and we wanted some novel locations.

So we found ourselves wandering through the bush not far from home.  The day had cleared after all that rain and we had a lot of fun playing "model" in the bush.  I looked down and noticed a gorgeous old eel in the water right at my feet.  It was out hunting for earthworms and other prey brought out by the little fresh run-off into its creek.  I have a very soft spot in my heart for eels.  I kept six tiny little eels in a fish tank for years.  They were about two inches long when I caught them, and about ten inches long when I released them.  I found them under a rock, right on the edge of a fresh water stream that flowed into Lake Macquarie when I was looking for frogs.  I got the shock of my life when I turned this large rock over - "worms" went writhing everywhere !  I grabbed a couple to feed to "Billy", my pet Australian bass, when I realised they were not worms.  I managed to catch six of the little eels.  I'm not sure at what size they are considered elvers or whether a two inch eel should be called an eel.  Anyway, I popped them in my tackle box with a little water and they all survived the trip home.

They thrived for years in one of my tanks and were truly remarkable creatures.  I have never seen anything so active.  And smart.  They used to swim constantly throughout their tank, and were ALWAYS hungry.  They knew exactly where food came from too.  I fed them earth worms - initially small pieces of tiny worms were cut up and enthusiastically swallowed.  As they grew they ate larger worms.  Pieces of prawn, Gambusia, even tiny pieces of steak.  If it fit in their mouths, they'd eat it until they were too fat to swim.

One day I decided it was time to let them go, and I returned them all to the same spot I'd caught them, three or so years before.  I was sad to see them go, but it was time.  So I find eels quite endearing creatures.  This one swam right up to where my wife was standing, and even stuck it's head out of the water - I think to get a better look at her.