14/5/14
Pete and I went for an early morning drive to the boat ramp to try and get some info on the tides around here. We were advised that Cape Keraudren was about 20 to 30 minutes different to Pt Headland so we headed into Pardoo Roadhouse some 15km away to collect a Pt Headland tide book and some ice. With the trusty tide book indicating high tide at Headland was about 1:00pm and plenty of water at the ramp at about 10:30am Pete, Eleni, Carol and I headed out the entrance confident we could have about 4 or 5 hours fishing and still get back in plenty of time before the bay dried out.
First we tried trolling some hard bodied diving lures near the entrance to the bay. Carol and I had recollections of catching a couple of Spanish Mackerel there last time we were here. No luck so we started trolling along the low cliffs heading south towards Pardoo Bay. Still no luck but expectations were still high as when we were here 9 years ago, we had possibly the most successful fishing sessions ever on a reef jutting out from the north point of Pardoo Bay.
The reef is still there but the amazing array of big trevally are not. Trolling up and down this reef memories of water seething with golden trevally etc came flooding back, but on this occasion we did not get on single hit.
Plan C was to head across the entrance of Pardoo Bay to some likely looking islands. Same high expectations because the place looked so "fishy" but same result. Not one strike.
Plan D was to head into the bay and try a little casting into the mangroves.
Pete did manage to attract a school of Queenfish out of the metre deep water around the mangroves, but despite having numerous fish attracted to his lure, still no hookups.
At this stage we noticed some nearby rocks that were no where to be seen about 15 minutes earlier and were quite exposed now.
All indications were that the tide had turned and was going out quite quickly, even though by our calculations the tide should have been coming in for at least another hour. A few alarm bells began ringing as we realised we had based our whole trip around some advise from a couple of people at the ramp that we had never met before. Anyway the decision was made to have one more try at our special reef and then head for home. Luckily we had no success as by the time we arrived back at the entrance (before 1:00) the "aircraft carrier" that guards the bay was protruding a metre or more out of the water indicating the tide had dropped significantly from when we launched a couple of hours earlier. On arrival at the ramp we were relieved to find about a metre of water over the end of the ramp meaning we could relatively easily retrieve the boat. After Pete had an early swim, courtesy of an awkward dismount from the side of the boat, the boat was safely back on the trailer.
On Pete's recommendation the group decided a swim was in order so Carol and I returned to camp to don the bathers and left Pete and Eleni enjoying their swim in the metre deep water. 20 minutes later when Carol and I returned for our swim there was no water left. Ankle deep water greeted us as we discussed how impossible it would have been to get our boat in if we had adhered to our original plan and returned even 15 minutes later, let alone the couple of hours we agreed upon. You have to be lucky sometimes.
With no fish to clean the afternoon was spent around to camp contemplating what it would have been like to sit it out in the boat for 6 or 7 hours while the water reached a height that would have allowed us to access the ramp.
With Hanno and Stelleen rejoining us about tea time, a decision was made to celebrate their return with a weber roast. Carol's roast went down extremely well. At least the meal was on time, unlike the outgoing tide.