I have read the forum for quite a while now so thought it time to share some of the results of my most recent trip – first week of May in Coral Bay!

Thursday night departure from Perth at about 6pm. About an hour into the trip, the first (and thankfully the last) casualty of the trip when a trailer blows a tyre just out of lancelin – ½ an hour behind schedule.

Next stop – Shell Gero

Cars are fuelled. It’s just after midnight when we pull out only to have the red and blue lights show up in the rear vision mirror – despite the pre-trip checks, it seems that the driving lights on the trailer have failed! The indicators and brake lights are fine and after a few precautionary words from the boys in blue, along with the standard breatho test, we are off on our way again- next long haul to Carnarvon commences.

Carnarvon at 6am, cars and boats are fuelled for the final leg into Coral Bay.

Depart Carnarvon and we are hit with 3 hours of pea-soup – the fog was incredible and a bit daunting at the same time – just waiting for cattle to appear in the 30-40 metres of visibility that we had – again, thankfully, this didn’t happen.

15 kms out the fog lifts and at 9am we pull into coral bay to be met with light offshore winds – the cars and boats couldn’t be unpacked/ packed quick enough and by about 1030, we launch at the ramp.

The first call of the day was “false passage?” and the nods are all around – anything to get us out to the hunting grounds that 5 minutes earlier.

The winds were light and the swell almost non-existent so we head in the direction of false passage (for those not familiar with Coral Bay, there are two main avenues to the deep water – North and South passage – north is in the realm of 3 – 4 km wide and is an all-condition safe navigation – South Passage not so much. It’s about 200 metres wide and breaks on a swell of 2.5 metres or so and a low or outgoing tide. False Passage is a relatively unknown exit of the sheltered waters and called false for a reason – it’s not a real one!)

Anyway, as we line up to head out, swell lines build on the horizon and proceed to close out the false passage! A look between the boats confirms what we both know – that it could have been an early exit to the fishing week on the first outing so we proceed to the South Passage – no dramas.

Throttles are dropped and the salt slaps the ally chariots as we power out wide. This is the first day of the week long trip and expectations are high.

First drift is set..

 and high fives go round as the first notch on the Red scoreboard is made! This is what we have waited the 12 months for!

The following 7 days produced some notable highs and only a couple of “disappointments”. From Red’s in plague proportions, 150Kg+ Marlin swimming up to the boat, witnessing a 14ft tiger shark catch and eat a huge sea turtle, to getting ‘sharked’ a few times and a couple of comical failed net/ gaff attempts (for which those involved were appropriately penalised)!

Each day presented us with some amazing conditions (some days too good in that we could not drift), and some amazing fish.

We didn’t hit any patches of trophy reds but we did manage some nice ones in the 8-9 kg range and a heap not far behind. Heaps of Cobia and Rankins around also which provided for some tasty sashimi and thick fillets respectively. The eskies were then topped up on a daily basis with the usual suspects – Robbo’s, Spanglies, Sweetlips, Goldbands and a few Pearl Perch thrown in for good measure.

An few more shots below display some of the week’s work, an amazing place and another fantastic fishing trip. Bring on 2013….

average conditions??

Part of day 1

Day 2

Day 3

bit of variety. Coronation and Cobia

smiles all round

little goldband

Day 5 I think... Red Alert!!

luckily we managed to keep most of our fish away from these guys - were plenty around though.

goodbye for another year :(

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