Well, we weren't headed to Pardoo Station either, we were heading straight to Eighty Mile Beach, but a local we talked to in Tom Price said it had a great variety of fishing, so we stopped to check it out.

Undecided how long we'd stay we talked to a few fishermen on arrival, those with boats (tinnies) and those without. We were assured the tides were about to 'come good' and that there was indeed a huge variety of fishing options, so we booked in for the week.

Pardoo Station is a privately owned station stay/caravan park with a great community feel. At night you can have your own wood fire or join the communal one, which is what we did, and met some great couples and of course shared a few drinks.

Fishing options include 3 creeks, 2 beaches, 4 islands and a couple of 'secret lagoons'. The first few days the low tides were at a more reasonable hour for fishing, so we headed to Mt Blaze for some oyster collecting, plus checking out some great rock pools and coral - great for the kids. We fished in a lagoon made by the incredible tides (first time we'd experienced not being able to see the water off the beach it was that far out at low tide), between Mt Blaze and Lighthouse Island. The Mangrove Jacks were on the bite and we saw a few people bag out (at four), we caught one - but a good start for the week.

The next day we set out to the Islands off a creek called Bake Bean and watched as a group caught whiting after whiting in another lagoon caused by the tide. We caught a small shark and a couple of bream which were small so we threw them back.

Day three and high tide was at 9am, so we drove the 20km's of dirt track and mudflats (not accessible if the tides are over 6.5m) to Bannangarra Creek. Launching was fine, but the motor had suffered from our 'rollover'  incident at Coral Bay, and was a little surging. We put some crab pots in and then decided to go up-river as the wind was blowing fiercly. The only thing we caught was an estuary cod in a crab pot - still, good eating.

Pardoo Creek was our next foray, with crab pots set we set out to catch fish, but with a water temp. of only 14 degrees no one had much luck that day. After watching our crab pots float down the river (and rescuing them) as we hadent given them enough line, we decided to motor upriver just to see what was there. Getting into around 80cm of water we'd hit the end of the road and turned back.

Other days included attempted crabbing at Bake Bean on low tide where we experienced the ferocity of the local midgies - ouch, still scratching from those. Once the tides got too high to drive on the mudflats everyone resorted to beach fishing at high tide for Giant Salmon - we didn't catch any, but others certainly did.

Whilst the shop there is pretty bare of anything but alcohol, the food at the restaurant was great, with a 2 course station meal only $20. Meeting other couples and chatting by the fire each night about the days events was certainly one of the great things about Pardoo, and many people return year after year.

Not only a great place for fishermen, but also a great place for families to explore.