When travelling throughout WA for 6 months, living mostly in caravan parks for long periods, you inevitably meet an array of travellers, workers, families, grey nomads, back packers, all with a different story. Living in a slide on camper with a rear entrance door, you are constantly looking into the campsite behind you, so Viv and I will engage in casual banter on their arrival, safe in the knowledge that most only stay a night or two and are then off on their next quest. Occasional you get a ‘doozy’, so after the initial introductions, we just go about our normal business, hoping for a new neighbour as soon as possible. Last year we had an absolute beauty who would yell at us across the caravan park for all to hear, had a suggestion for everything we did and kept insisting on coming inside to check out our camper. He was nicknamed ‘blowhard’ and somehow we managed to avoid the internal inspection. But to be fair, these types are a minority and the overwhelming number of people travelling our huge state, of which there are many more this year, are pleasant, polite and well worth having a yarn with.
So, when a family of four turned up last month, Mick, Sharna, Eli & Raff, well Viv was straight out of the blocks having a chat before I returned from a practical boating course in Dampier. It was obvious from the start that this was a tight knit family with the two young boys, Eli and Raff making the sort of noise that young boys make. When you live in a caravan park, this all goes with the territory and so before long we were sharing stories and checking out my outback road maps as these guys were exploring the Pilbara country, eventually on their way back to South Australia.
But of course, the conversation soon turned to fishing and it came to light that 5 year old Eli indeed had a story to tell. Those that have spent any time in Kununurra will be familiar Ivanhoe Crossing, famous for its four wheel drive access and those elusive barramundi. I have visited the crossing on at least ten occasions and like many others have casted plastics and lures in amongst the cascading white water, chasing this iconic species. Mick and the family were doing likewise one day and because of the notoriety of this location, coupled with the COVID factor, there were a large number of people chancing their arm. Young Eli was standing on the causeway having a crack like the rest of them, when a wily old bloke, you know the ones that look like they certainly have something worth listening to, gave them a suggestion to cast in amongst a side pool rather than into the main waterway. You have to picture fishos spread along a fifty metre causeway, standing in knee deep water, all range of fancy rods, shiny new reels, etc and here is a five year old casting soft plastics with a Kmart $5 rod/reel combo, into a pool probably only a foot deep. That day he lands eight barra, yes you heard correctly, eight barra and over four trips bags over twenty. You can imagine the shock and awe of those around him. The accompanying photo tells it all. Never let the real truth get in the way of a fishing story, for although the barra may not have been ‘keeper’ size, this story will be told around campfires across Australia for ever more and Eli will go down in folklore as the Barra Boy, King of Ivanhoe!
