A long day

What is it about 2.30 AM starts that leave one rather plumb tuckered at the end of the day? (said day included about 3km walk through the water, gilling and gutting 7 flounder, a dive in VERY murky water (score 2 crays - both just too small and returned) catching a couple of fish, a difficult surf boat launch and retrieval (too shallow water. Lots of HEAVING, and then offloading dive gear and fuel tanks holding the boat in the surf, fetching same again, and returning from picking up a dog-roo from two dear friends - who looked at us, and fed us (Boy genius left the rolls in the freezer) and finding our 'new' freezer had been offloaded (and it is LARGE) and to move out of the possible rain (ergo move half the contents of one room - including 200kg of dog food and about the same of rice, oil etc out - move freezer (too heavy to carry) and move it all back in again... cook supper. Feel a little tired.)

Yeah. I know. Soft. We'd have had to lick the road clean too when you were young.

This morning's floundering saw me miss two flounder. Both took off before I speared. One burrowed under my feet. For fear of getting the five-toed flounder I couldn't spear him. It did lack the grace and charm of my trevally effort of yesterday though, which probably is in a class of its own. Seeing what the fish was, I fought it very carefully. It was tired and I got it into the shallows and ... it came off. Fish was tired... so did not flap off. I dropped rod. leaped into the shallows and flicked fish up the rock-slope. It now realises panic is a good thing and is flapping and bouncing its way back to the water. I run out of water after it and move it higher. Am about to dispatch it when a wave licks my toes. Hastily move tackle bag and camera... look back at rod... tip poking out of the water. So I run and grab tip... it comes off. I have line and haul up and retreive rod... walk up rocks...

Trevally is missing.
It had flapped into a deep crack, from whence I extracted it before the next wave and read it the last rites.