Booked on a charter to Broome, touched down, settled in and called the skipper for updates on what's biting in anticipation for the next day's charter. To my disappointment, was told the trip was cancelled due to strong easterly wind that had been blowing the since a few days ago. Had I not called the skipper at 6.15pm the day before, I wonder if he was ever going to call me at all to tell me about the cancellation. Totally screwed up my plan cos I had made myself free the whole day next day for the charter. If only he had told me earlier I could have made a Plan B.

Anyhow, went to cable beach to do some casting. With strong easterly wind at 18 knots and 27 knots gusts, I was the only soul on the beach. Obviously apart from sea water, i caught absolutely nothing. Tried a few other spots including gantheume point and jetty to no avail. The easterly also stirred up so much sediments the water was mirky white in colour.

The next morning we spent the morning going from tackle shop to tackle shop to find out what's biting where. Spoken to Steely from Kimberley Outdoors and Camping and apparently he knew Sean Costello too and they were both popping nuts. Also found that no one ever tried jigging in Broome so was keen to give that a shot.

First lauch from the beach and tried surface luring at a bommie barely a few meters deep. The reef stood out like a sore thumb when viewed from polarised lenses. Gave my Maria Bluescode a go since it had been sitting in my tacklebox for years and never seen daylight. First retrieve saw a mack tailing it. Fired a second cast, couple of twitches and felt a hit and the line instantly went slack! There went my Maria sinking stickbait which had been with me for 7 years...sob :(. Put on a Clone stickbait with wire but the fish shy away this time.

The next couple of hours were spent trolling. Mate was trolling with his large crytal minnow which is the go-to lure in this region. I believed him cos he had at least 2 dozen brand new ones sitting at the corner of his house- testimont that the lure's effectiveness in this region. I put on my Ofmer Rambler that dives to about 4m. After couple of rounds trolling my spinning outfit started spewing line. Not long after that a good speciment of queenie surfaced. I was pretty stoked cos another cherry was popped. Guess the Rambler won hands down because the fish were holding deeper and the crytal minnow my mate used, although a deep diver, didn't quite make it to that depth.

After that we trolled to no avail although I kept sensing hits on my lure. I suggested to Brett to let me jig. The sounders showed the fish was holding in mid-water of approx 15m depth. I dropped my light jig of 40g and got an instant hook-up. A small big eye trevally surfaced shortly and was sent back to the drink. Subsequent to that I caught a few small queenies and GTs all on light jigs. They were feisty little buggers hitting the jig continously until the get hooked.

After that we went back to refuel the boat and came back out again at about 4pm. Sounded up a spot that made me really excited.

The next 2 hours were non-stop action with a fish every drop. Brett was using his trusty Wobbler in 40g rigged up with wire on a Penn reel mounted on a Ugly Stik/ Silstar solid glass tip rod. He would let the spoon fluttered down below and cranked up as fast as possible. This single lure was catching fish after fish until a big cod took his Wobbler and burried him. He did try to steer the boat away from structure but the cod won.  Think that was the same cod that tried to go after the baby GT I was trying to land. It was easily half the size of the tinny we were using and I thought it was a queesland grouper because I spotted the yellown fin. 

Anyway, I changed jig to vibes and plastic and a few other type of lures and they all scored. The fish were all fired up and anything you tossed over the side will be nailed. Lost of few jigs to mackie but since the water was fairly shallow, I didn't try wire leader because it will be really visible.

The fish ain't big but was heaps of fun on PE1 outfit and jigs of 35g-60g.

I stopped taking pictures after a few shots because they were all the same usual suspects, only difference was the fish became larger as the sun set and totolly shut down when it became dark. Strange huh ?

Tried popping as well but didn't managed to raise a scale.

So if you are going to Broome, don't hesitate to give jigging a shot because it works!

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