Torpedo in Ninety Mile Beach
Site inspection in Far North was an exhausting activity that was paid off by an offer by one of the manager’s friend inviting us for fishing. We brought out overnight stuff to the manager’s friend’s home and he served as a host for us for the whole leisure activity. Two of the managers were with me and we were all guests for the whole affair. We were advised to bring jackets for it would be cold in the fishing site. I had no idea how I would be going about fishing since I had no experience whatsoever in catching any sea creature. I did not have any fishing gears or whatever. I was wondering why they did not have any fishing gear as well. All we brought was what seemed to be a huge utility box, empty fishing bins and iced beers and rums in a bin. I did not bother to ask where we were heading. All I did is to let them take me to wherever and to save myself from any humiliation due to signs of ignorance. It was 6 pm an
d still there was no sign of getting dark soon. We stopped in the middle of a humongous beach and it seemed that both of its ends were never ending. Once in a while there were 4wds and motorcycles whooshing past us. The beach is huge that it was a perfect ground for drag racing. Where are we? I did not dare to ask. I waited to catch the answer during the conversation. And before I knew it, the answer was spilled in middle of the tête-à-tête. We were in the famous 90 Mile Beach. Whadyaknow! From the huge utility box, the host and his assistant took out what it seemed to be a red torpedo. As I was checking out the gadget, I found out that it is indeed a red torpedo. This was the gadget that would be catching fish for us. It was a battery operated gadget from which a long string is attached. The host programmed the torpedo to swim for about 15 minutes. And when everything was installed the host let the torpedo loose in the sea to sw
im. While the torpedo was swimming, the host hooked baits in string in about three meter intervals. The host hooked about 40 baits in the string. After the baits were all hooked, we exchanged schmoosing with one another while holding bottles and glasses of our favourite beer and rum. After an hour, we pulled back the string and lo and behold…..almost every bait has a snapper. Whadyaknow! This is exciting, I told myself. All of us were wide-eyed when we got to see snappers from one hook to the next. Awesome! All of us helped in unhooking the snappers and placed them in the fish bin. We had another go of the torpedo and watched the sun set before our eyes. We caught another bin full of snappers for a second time. What a way to fish!