Dunk Island Day 2

Got up early and went to the jetty. The bait from last night was still there, but no squid. The water was still murky -- it was chocolate milk close in, and milky (50cm visibility max) further out. A trevally took a large soft plastic -- a lot of fight for a 30 cm long fish! Another one hit and missed. But that was the action for 2 hours of effort. Tried fishing off the spit of sand nearby in the current seam -- got a flathead. Travelled 2000 km, and still all I could get was flathead! This one was different from Tassie fish -- it had a large yellow spot on its tail. I suppose its like hawaiian shirts -- when in the tropics wear something colourfull :)

Went out on a catamaran after breakfast. We had a brief lesson and then headed out towards a small island off shore. I wasn't going fast, but Alex was scared. We were tacking back when a boat near us flipped. The guy started doing his maneuvers to right the boat, and suddenly he stood up! Despite being 200 m off shore, we were only 1 meter deep! But the water was so murky you couldnt see bottom!!!!

Tried going snorkelling in the afternoon. Got the gear and walked to Muggy Muggy beach. There was a fair drop off from a sandy beach, with rocks near by. But the wind was blowing onto the beach, and the water visibility was down to 30 cm. Gave up after trying to swim out past the murk and getting no better visibility.

Back to the jetty after dinner with Alex, still trying with soft plastics. There was a tender in to load garbage from cyclone larry. There were big floodlights on -- you could see a ton of small fish in the shallows. I hooked two spangled sweetlips about 6" long on soft plastic grubs. But the action was, well, non-existant for me. There was another fisherman on the dock. Turned out he was the pilot for the airline that flew into the island. He had two rods and 3 handlines out. Suddenly one of his handlines went off. A big fish swam off -- after 15 mins it broke to 40lb line on the handline. The fish fought constanly, running up and down -- it was exciting to watch! After the excitement Alex was bored, so we went back to the hotel.