Broome fishing - Day 5

Today was another non-charter day. We wanted to capture on camera the tide changes for Broome so we decided we would go to the Broome jetty at low tide and high tide. Low tide was at 0845 and high tide at 1500. So we drove out at 0830 and took pictures of low tide. After having a wander around the jetty, we went to TackleWorld, with me hoping to replenish my very successful Shimano Flat Fall jigs. But alas, they didn't carry any of it. There weren't much similar jigs so I bought whatever that was there.

Had our lunch and headed back to the room. I wanted to check out the Dampier Creek that was just behind the hotel but Bruce decided to stay in the room to rest. So armed with my trusty Shimano rod and some lures, I headed off into the creek. At that time, it was 2hrs after the low tide so I expect the tide to come in. I walked on a path with mangrove to my left and right. The path led to a clearing which then spread out to smaller paths towards the edge of the water. I made my way between the mangroves to an opening and started casting my Rapala Sub Walk lure. I could see that the water was rather shallow, that's why I chose that lure. I could see the channel that was draining in/out of the creek but was too far to cast to. After 1hr of casting, the waters came into the mangroves and limited my casting ability. So I decided to head back. After a short rest, it was time to go take pictures of high tide. I stood at the same spot to capture the high tide.

Broome Jetty at low tide 3.6m

Broome Jetty at high tide 6.8m

When we arrived, we could see the vast difference. At certain times of the month, the peak difference from low can be 0.5m and high at 10.1m!

With the two differences in mind, we decided to try fishing at dusk under the jetty. We went to buy 1 packet of squid and 1 packet of pilchards from the tackle shop again. At 1730, we reached the jetty and proceeded to fish under it. I opted for a floater rig while Bruce went with a small ball sinker. Bruce was getting snagged pretty often so I was glad I was using the floater. But my floater also got snagged so I had to change to ball sinker as well. I was finally getting some bites on the bait and hooked up. Could tell it was a small fish and when I saw it, it looks like a baby snapper. Caught another small fish on the next cast, couldn't tell what fish it was.

As the water was receding, we decided to head up to the jetty to fish. By this time, Bruce was getting lots of bites and began hooking up some fish. We were tied at 3 baby fish a piece when we were down to our last pilchard. So I cut up the 2 pilchards into 5 pieces and told him we will have a fish-off. With 5 pieces of bait, the one that catches the most fish wins. He caught a total of 3 fish from 5 pieces of bait while I only managed only 1. So he was named the 'Tiddler' champion! It was good fun!