After waking at Stanley Rest Area it was about 70km to the Port Smith turn off and about 23km of dirt into the caravan park. Our intension was to spend a night here and try our luck at mud crabbing at low tide, early tomorrow morning. After setting up camp in a nice shady site and checking out the ensuite style amenities we went down to the lagoon for a swim. Crystal clear water surrounded by mangroves and the swim was great. While in the water our discussions revolved around the potential of this place; mud crabbing, scenic drives, plenty of reefs outside the lagoon and the question was then asked. "Why are we only staying one night and then heading on to Broome and our final fishing destination of Middle Lagoon?"
The main reason we hadn't considered staying here was the lack of launching facilities but all the talk around the park had been about some "big boats" not unlike ours, that were launching here daily.
The decision was made to stay and so the afternoon was spent unloading the slide on and boat, preparing the tackle and gleaning as much info as possible from other campers and the park manager about where to go fishing.
The chart plotter showed a few possible spots and when these were confirmed as likely spots by a couple of the "long termers" Graham in particular, we headed off to our fish meal with a degree of confidence about the fishing at Port Smith for the next week or so. Only down side is that telephone coverage ranges from very poor to non existent. Oh yeh and the sand flies are as thick as anywhere we've been.