Weather was good and one of my mates was free for our first trip to the southern group for a few days, I thought I was organised for Monday arvo departure but as I checked hyd/electric trailer brakes with controller turned up for full pressure, 1 of the lines developed a pin hole leak, ran around local suppliers and had new line fabricated, installed, fluid bleed and system tested ok. The call was to now leave at 3am Tuesday morning, which went smoothly and we arrived 9am at Gero. Stopped at servo and loaded eskies with ice, fuelled boat and spare containers. Departed from Batavia boat ramp with flat seas and cruised over to Islands at 20kn taking approximately 1hr 45 mins. Spent rest of the afternoon taking photos around Post Office and Newman Islands while checking water depths and possible mooring options. We had a quick fish west (and outside) of the coral patch observation area and easily found a good feed of sweet lip for dinner. Motored in to anchorage location at the northern end of Pelsaert Island to find 3 other boats already there but they were more than happy for us to find space and helped guide us into position.
Wednesday morning we started pulled some skirts from north end to south and around the south west side of Pelsaert Island for a few hours with only 1 screaming run and fish dropped after short fight. Spent the rest of the day bottom bouncing between 20 and 40 meters on the west side with various demersal fish caught and released with the majority being sweet lips, no big fish but enough action to keep us entertained. Kept a few fish for dinner and returned to our mooring at the northern end with the same 3 boats plus 1 other boat for the night.
On Thursday morning we decided to move around to the north east side of the Island, we started fishing in 20 meters of water and found plenty of fish, I fished with plastics and my mate fished baits, again nothing big but a lot of coral trout that mainly fell to the plastics. Moved out to the 40’s and fished some lumps but after 1 good baldie and 65cm pinkie we kept getting sharked, so called it a day early and headed to Middle Island for overnight anchorage as there was some dark clouds forming with rain setting in and we wanted to navigate our way to Middle Island with the light available just in case visibility got worse. Anchored in mooring area near some charter boats and couple of yacht’s, sat back, had a few beers and prepared coral trout and baldies for dinner. A couple more beers before bed while prepared boat for early morning return to Gero and trip back to Perth.
Friday morning we left the Island and cruised back to boat ramp with car and trailer as I had left them, which is always a relief to see when on extended trips. Trouble free return to Perth, (Safety Bay) except for Friday arvo traffic jams on freeway south of Perth, Next trip I will time my return better and probably fish the morning before returning to avoid Perth’s peak traffic hours.
So a great place to visit and although we never caught anything for the brag board it was great fun and a learning curve for future trips. Not many photos attached due to quality and back ground discrepancies, will do better next time. Can’t believe how fast the days flew by while out there, I will be back soon.
Boat: 6.8m ally, Motor 200 Yam 4 stroke, 225lt fuel tank, 80lts in gerry cans under floor, 50lts fresh water, 1 large drinks esky with lower level filled with frozen 2lt water containers and topped with ice, 1 large fish and spare ice esky with lower level filled with frozen 2lt water containers and topped up with bags of ice, 1 50lts waeco for food. Used 60lts from Gero to Island, 120 cruising around and 65lts for return to Gero all in flat calm conditions, 60lts fuel spare at end of trip.

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