Down By The River - Chapter 7 - Mildura & the Houseboat Day 3

DOWN BY THE RIVER

Chapter 7 – Mildura & the Houseboat Day 3

On the fishing front things start well this morning. The shrimp net provides adequate and good sized bait in reasonable numbers, thanks to a replenishment of soap to the bait ball last night prior to bed. The early morning light sees 2 catfish landed before the arising of the others.

Pictures taken for prosperity, they are quickly returned to the depths of the river. In earlier times we may have kept them, they were certainly large enough, but now, here at this part of the Murray they are protected in an attempt to stave off the carp attack.

The set lines from the night before have not yielded any reward – in my opinion might have been one of those old wives tales sent to lure the not so knowing fisherman into believing, believing that “big” fish is near.

I do not understand how the others could be sleeping, the traffic on the river is immense. House boats, speed boats and jet skis all racing at seemingly top speed (if the noise and wake they create are any indication) up and down the river.

Maurice stirs and is dressed for a run as is his want of the early morning. Just as he joins me on the back deck one of the rods begins to bend and line begins screaming off the reel, not that the drag is up tight but still the noise is one like most anglers enjoy.

Setting the hook and tightening the drag does little to slow the loss of line from the reel. This will be a large fish. All of a sudden everything stops. The line still taught has stopped its screaming off the reel but there is no movement. Apparently the fish has immediately gone for a snag and is now licking its wounds waiting for the line to break.

But break it doesn’t. The fish makes a fatal mistake by heading back out for the snag and the fight is back on. Time and time again, line is retrieved only to be lost again in another screaming run. In time though the retrievals out weight the losses. Finally the fish comes into sight and disappointingly a close to a metre in length carp is netted by Maurice for me and laid on the back transom.

Disappointed? Only that it was not a Murray Cod of the same size. Absolutely chuffed with the fight. In days gone by simply locking the drag would have seen the loss of such a fish.

In the next couple of hours rig after rig is lost as apparently that snag used by the big carp to initially hide likes to attract my gear. Certainly more re-rigs than fish this morning.

Our extraneous passenger needs to catch a train from Mildura tomorrow so we break camp early and head towards the township for our last night together before he leaves.. The wind has changed a little and we are now sitting across it making the set off just that little bit more tricky. A true bush setting, although a road allowed a track for Maurice’s run this morning, there is much engaging with trees and logs to disengage our tethers.

At one point the boat lurches with a gust of wind, I react attempting to hold the boat and trip over a log squarely onto a log. The pain is immediate but not so debilitating that we need to abort the launch. Having said that, the next few moments, releasing the last rope and boarding the house boat were not my idea of fun.

Maurice the skipper has seen all of this and once the boat is in the middle of the river, calls the others forward. I need to simply catch my breath, not that breathing is easy just now, but just take stock and let the adrenalin slow.

There is not a lot you can do with broken or bruised ribs. The remedy is the same. Try not to laugh too much and lots of rest. As if that is going to happen, although for now bed seems like a good option. Costochondritis, an inflammation of the rib cartridges is something I have struggled with for some time so any minor rib “injury” can often be exacerbated. The sleep helps.

The trip down the river will take about an hour and when I arise we are driving under the main bridge into what might be termed Mildura Harbour. This is a 4 knot area – walking pace at most – but every craft here seems to be zipping around oblivious to the speed limit, especially the paddle steamers.

Like many commercial operators I have encountered, they seem to believe limits are for the general public and do not apply to them. The jet ski operators seem to have the same mentality in this area. Its a general shipping lane, there are lots of commercial and leisure boats around, why would there be such a reduced speed limit? All fine until something goes pear shaped, with the amount of traffic using this area the reduced speed limit gives the one thing needed when faced with adversity and that is time. Time to take evasive action, but thats for another day.

Sheepishly we track into what seems the perfect spot for us to deliver our passenger in the morning, but it looks too perfect. We shunt in, tie off and go looking for signs that we are in the wrong spot and should be moved on. There aren’t any, we are just in early and soon enough others tie up adjacent.

As we finish tying up another houseboat moves in alongside. Seeing I am struggling with the ropes a little, they lend a hand and provide us with a lesson on the advanced method of tying up. Some of the nuances were quite amazingly simple and meant the boat was more easily secured and with less stress on muscles (a nice thing just now).

We are in, a short jaunt to the supermarket and the fishing tackle shop (for more worms) and we are ready to set down for dinner. Robyn takes the lead with a vegetarian Massaman Curry. Maurice and I take to the barbecue with the remaining chicken thigh filets cut into strips and browned on the hot plate.

The final meal with Stephen on the boat morphs into a large Rummikub match. All the instructions we have provided on the cruise so far now mean the students are starting to “win” against the teachers. Well they think they are starting to.

We have a little bread left over from the meal which I decide might assist the shrimp net in its endeavours so I replenish the bait core with it, there was not enough left over to store and too much for us weight watching types to finish.

The mosquitoes are no less prevalent here, although we do not engage the zapper tonight. There are enough lights around to attract them away from the back of the houseboat but still too many to enjoy a nightcap out there.

Stephen is of the opinion he does not want to pack bottled in his luggage so his purchases from Trenton Estates for much of the repast and post repast. All in all the pain in my ribs dissipates a little. Perhaps the earlier part of sleep will be relatively painless, needless to say only tomorrow will tell. The results of the over consumption of red wine might be another matter.