When you arrive you and Jim-Bob find that your secret spot isn’t so secret after all and the fishing club has made it there before you, they must have taken the afternoon off!

Jim-Bob is a bit snake eyed about this so instead of sticking around you head downstream because there’s this other spot, perhaps you’ll get lucky there, although it’s not as good as the not-so-secret-after-all spot.

Finally you find your own little piece of paradise and cast off into a likely looking stretch of river. Jim-Bob’s a bit toey by this time. He’s letting off a bit of steam and reaching a bit too often into the esky. You let it go, a few hours out on the water cures just about everything.

Almost immediately you get snagged but a flick of the rod and a tug on the line pulls it free and all is well. Jim-Bob is over the other side of the boat, he’s struck gold and his rod is bending with the best of them as he reels in the big one.

You grab the landing net as dinner approaches the boat but in his excitement Jim-Bob bumps you and the net goes overboard.

It’s a couple of metres down, no way of getting it back. Jim-Bob isn’t letting the barra of the month escape him though so he reaches over the side to grab it by the gills.

Unfortunately what Jim-Bob doesn’t realise is that there is much more than the abandoned net lying hidden in the water under the boat.

On previous trips up the Vic you’d seen plenty of salties, they liked a good arvo’s fishing as much as you did. It’s just that you hadn’t seen any this trip, thought they’d headed to Wyndham or something!

You didn’t see the croc that got Jim-Bob, just jaws rearing out of the water as he reached over the side of the boat to grab that fish.

Watch out for your mates, don’t let them do silly things, Be Crocwise when fishing.

The Be Crocwise home page has lots of hints and tips.

You can find it at www.becrocwise.nt.gov.au