Thelma & Louise hit the sea

Yesterday was the camp fishing contest day, a day the Bonnici Carter’s always come home empty handed – and 2021 did not exceed any expectations!

The stage was set, Dan spent Friday getting the boat ready: fuelled, rods sorted and bait in abundance. Louise was on lunch duties and excelled in her efforts, bacon and egg pie and 24 ham rolls (of which only 5 were left). George on the boat meant food was a high priority – I think the final count was 12-George 7-Trudi, Sue & Dan!

7.30am and the day promised a hot one, sun blocking first activity for the day!

As the year has been filled with building, shifting, renovating and sore backs – it is 12 months since Thelma has been on her boat. Determined to make this happen and ignoring sore back – the crew set out bright and early with a smile on their faces!

Out into the middle of the ocean – drifting around for a while and not much action, apart from opening the lunch bag, we moved into the islands in hunt for Kingfish and some excitement.

First strike for Thelma, but not without a fight – this guy decided to dive for the weeds and rocks on the ocean floor! Patience prevailed and Thelma won the battle, saved the tackle, and hauled the kingi and a basketball of seaweed onto the boat.

A quick measure, 69cm meant he went back (75 is a keeper). Meanwhile on the other side of the boat Louise continued to provide the snapper kindergarten with play lunch.

As we ploughed through our day, our bait, our burley and our lunch, the afternoon was a hive of activity. Kingis teasing us with their games, Diving to the bottom to break off our tackle, baby snappers in and out of the boat, George having a nap, Dan chasing the big one around the boat and finally hooking up a 2 metre Bronze whaler shark! Who came as far as the side of the boat, looked at us, then showed us how sharp those teeth were by biting through the line and diving back down into the ocean.

With the 4.30pm deadline looming, and four hot and tired crew, it was time to head back in with the other 40 boats waiting to use two tractors!

Thelma and Louise relaxed in the breeze on the trip back – a great day had by all! As expected we were not first in line (story of our lives), and it was a frantic hive of activity back at camp. Dan secured a tractor, dumped the bonnici-Carter crew at the boat port (who scrubbed and cleaned the boat), while he proceeded to tow in the other(more successful) punters from the water. A thirty minute working bee and boat was clean and tucked away, and back to the cottage for a cold beer! Jaxon and Steph went out with our mate Aaron, and were somewhat more successful in the fishing stakes…bringing in some nice fish for their dinner.

But for the Thelma and Louise crew, it was sausages(as usual) on the bbq, left over bacon and egg pie, and salad back at the homestead! To be honest, by this time, Thelma nursing a now very sore back, dived in the bath, ate some dinner and slept like the baby snappers(who probably did the same).

So the boat still purrs like a kitten, the fish are still there to play with us and four happy campers felt alive!