Avoiding Exmouth Sharks, Long Island tips and general Exxy Advice
G’day Guys,
chasing some advise from guys with exmouth experience. We are headed up there for two weeks in May. I normally do an annual trip to Ningaloo Station but we have a 3 month old so took the easy option and rented a house in exxy for this year instead.
Having fished Ningaloo a lot I’m well versed in the shark problem and every year it get worse and worse,.. thanks fisheries for your great management! Exmouth is a new one for us and with the varied fishing on offer looking for advice and suggestions on what to do so we don’t spend the whole trip losing gear and fish to the taxman. Generally I have found fishing small shows on deeper water that don’t get hit as hard works at the station with anything between 40-80m being a total loss some days... we go shallower to get fish up faster or deeper for the reduced numbers... if we travel a little further from exxy it deeper do the shark numbers reduce?
The plan is a mix of trolling for Pelagics, bottom bashing, a couple of overnight Gulf trips and a multi day trip to Long Island and surrounds... are the sharks as bad down the southern end of the gulf and in the shallow water? We have never had the issue at station of losing Pelagics to sharks but I hear that’s a problem in exmouth? Is it limited to the easy accessed grounds around tantabiddi etc or does it happen all over? Also any guidance to fishing Long Island would be great! We are hoping to throw stickbaits around the coral and perhaps do a little spearfishing out there also.
Not asking for specific spots or coords, but some guidance on depths and general locations to start looking would be great! I have a Trailcraft 640 Hardtop so going a little wider is no issue.
Cheers!
Rambo 72
Posts: 16
Date Joined: 04/11/14
Shark shields
Weight one mid water column and the other hang of the side of the boat.
we fished out of Tantabiddi for two weeks this time last year and was unreal, we found the Sharks not as bad in deeper water. But they are everywhere.
Keep Laughing and fish often.
Simo_
Posts: 1843
Date Joined: 13/11/06
I found some good spots in
I found some good spots in 6-8m top of Gulf. Got some good cod, blueline and trout. Not many sharks.
Bring on April
samd
Posts: 36
Date Joined: 30/04/16
Thanks Simo, did you fish the
Thanks Simo,
did you fish the shoals or just search for ground? When you say top of gulf was that the southern or northern end?
Simo_
Posts: 1843
Date Joined: 13/11/06
fished north end, near some
fished north end, near some of the smaller islands. Found shoals not on chart.
Bring on April
squidvicious1
Posts: 824
Date Joined: 22/07/10
Island hop to long via
Island hop to long via murions and peak ,cast into the back of the waves on the troll up either side of the islands watch for sanctuary somes.sharks are not relavent done the gulf around the shoals. Throw some plastics on the upcurrent side of the shoals might get a trout and if you see arcs on the sounder that will be mackerels.
Paj man
Posts: 360
Date Joined: 16/09/12
South
Curious on this thread as I'm up that was for Easter - would heading far south out of Tantabiddi get you away from the crowds/sharks? Thinking like 20-30nm from the ramp
North of Peak was the other option too.
aka Nick
Sea goat
Posts: 979
Date Joined: 26/03/17
we did some failry long
we did some failry long trekks south of tantas last year, and still got hammered every spot.....
Paj man
Posts: 360
Date Joined: 16/09/12
Bugger!
Looks like north it is
aka Nick
uncle
Posts: 9483
Date Joined: 10/02/07
Last time I was there
The thickskins were eating deep divers, pretty hard to retrieve them.
all aggressive fish love bigjohnsjigs
Bodie
Posts: 3758
Date Joined: 05/11/07
Just returned from exy,
Just returned from exy, Sharks are ALWAYS about, just dont continue to fish a spot once a shark turns up. Pelagics are still on fire up there as the water temps are boiling (30 degrees in some places). Plenty of bills about, mackies feeding everywhere. The tuna were quiet, with only smaller ones about and only saw stripes and mack tuna.
Sails were finning about the bait schools in the 70's think we saw 4 together on 1 bait school, the one day we didnt pack any bill gear!!
I will put up a report in the next day or 2
sea-kem
Posts: 15002
Date Joined: 30/11/09
Look forward to the report
Look forward to the report mate, up north in 6 weeks time can't wait.
Love the West!
samd
Posts: 36
Date Joined: 30/04/16
Thanks guys, Bodie, it
Thanks guys,
Bodie, it sounds like last year when we were at station in April. Water temp was 27.7C. Ive never seen it that high and the bills were loving it. We saw free jumping marlin and sails in as shallow as 17m and most were raised on the 20-30m dropoff, we didt see any on the deeper water! I have found when the water temps are up the tuna tend to be quiet... We got a few big yellows last year but they were not as prevelant as previous years!
Did you find that by shifting spots you could raise a bag of fish or was it a total loss bottom bashing? Looking forward to the report!
davewillo
Posts: 2410
Date Joined: 08/09/16
Have stayed on Long Island
Have stayed on Long Island and we got some nice queenies on the eastern side. Great fishing for all kinds of things around Peak Island. As mentioned above casting lures around the waves will provide action. We anchored up on a dropoff from about 15m down to 20m and berleyed up. Got mackies and all sorts around. Drifting unweighted baits resulted in some really big mangrove jacks! Never caught them offshore before but these were 2 - 3kg fish. Had a ball on huge GT's once on the north side of Anchor Island! Had mixed success around the Murions.
Have a ball!
PGFC member and lure tragic
samd
Posts: 36
Date Joined: 30/04/16
Thanks mate! That sounds
Thanks mate! That sounds exactly like what we were planning. The thought was to take stickbaits and other artificials and throw them around the breakers and Bombies that surround a few of those islands. Interesting to hear about the Jacks! I would have expected the taxman to have got in on the burley and caused mayhem... cheers for the info!
samd
Posts: 36
Date Joined: 30/04/16
Had a look for anchor island
Cheers