Monday Night BNE River Rock Wall / Mud Island

[Braddles]

Monday night we headed AGAIN out to mud to get that illusive Snapper... It was about 9pm and we stopped at the rock wall for a fish and collect some live bait .... The only thing either of us could catch was stingrays! One after the other... In 15 mins we would have caught 8 stingrays between us - and although they can run and fight like buggery, I was over loosing tackle to them... So we pulled the pick with some poddy mullet in the live well and headed for Mud...

We were not 1nm out of the mouth and I seen some pretty lights reflecting on the dash, turned around to see a massive Police boat in hot pursuit of us... flashing blue and red lights blazing... My instant thought was "holy shi*t/// what have we done wrong"?? I pulled up and they came along side....

The officer that spoke to us asked us what we were doing and where we were heading... He asked how many people were on board (in a 4.35m side console open boat I thougth it would be pretty easy to spot the two of us lol)... He then asked if we had safety equipment on board and took our word for it - didnt even asked to see it - same with our licence... asked if either of us had a speed boat licence, and again just took our word for it... he must have knew we were nice law abiding citz :-) He then asked who's boat it was and took the boat rego number down... and wished us good luck at Mud..

They then took off after a large house boat looking thing further out in the shipping channel...

Surprised me though that at 11pm on a Monday night there would be water police about doing random checks ..... Good on them tho and the officer who spoke to us was friendly and curteous...

The only luck at mud was with baby reef fisk (aka bait stealers) and those ferral grinners - they are bloody everywhere now!!!

STill no snaps :-(

[wetnwild11]

M8 there no snapps out there Sunday either, the police boat was though ;D ;D.
cheers
Eric

[charleville]

Surprised me though that at 11pm on a Monday night there would be water police about doing random checks ..... Good on them tho and the officer who spoke to us was friendly and curteous...


Tough luck about the fish but as we fishermen always say to each other, "It's like that."

In relation to the time of day for a police inspection, there is nothing unusual about that. I have been inspected by water police at 2.30am at the ramp at Manly.

Like you though, I say "Good on them". I hope that by being on the water at those odd hours that they clean up some of the bad habits in relation to unlit boats at night. It drives me nuts!

Likewise, I have not found a discourteous cop nor Boating and Fisheries inspector yet and I do seem to get inspected fairly regularly.

[Cruize]

Mate my last run in with wth water police was at Redland Bay, VMR Ramp.

When I pulled up at the ramp there was a cop car and 2 officers inside. Looked strange so I went over to see if they were OK - they were - so back to task at hand - putting the boat in the water.

Unloaded the boat and parked the car, leaving the boat at the edge of the ramp with the anchor out so she didn't drift off, knowing that the cops were there and she'd be safe.

Well on return there was a bloody great police barge on the ramp and my boat was washed up onto the concrete ramp. They must have landed the barge at speed with a huge wake to put my boat up there. I Had to wait for the tide to come in a bit before launching. :'( The gel coat is stuffed now. >:(

I actually think they do a good job they should follow the rules the enforce onto everyone else.

[rufus_kev]

I actually felt a bit cranky after being pulled up after a big day offshore when they just asked me about licence life jackets etc without having a look. After all what would i answer and i had better things to do.I think if they want to do the job they should do it properly because i dont much see the point of them floating around for the day asking silly questions only or am i being unreasonable?

[Murks]

sounds like my day on Saturday but no police

[nuffy]

why wouldnt they be polite and courtious they have a pretty good job

[chief]

I'm with rufus kev, too right what good does it do if they don't even check. Fisheries do a fantastic professional job. Water police i beg to differ, hey Braddles probably chased you down thinking it was my 4.35.
Have put a few words in straight to the top on their behaviour and lack of communication skills.