The long awaited Coral bay trip had finally arrived. Up at 3.00am to get boat out and load gear in. Car was already loaded so once the crew arrived, it was chuck in the fishing gear and hit the road. 

An uneventful trip saw us pull into Carnarvon around 4.00pm. Booked in for the night at the Carnarvon Caravan Park and had a couple of coldies to start off the trip on the right foot. A top steak at the Gassie and a couple of pints then back to the room to watch the Eagles snatch a 1 point win. Back on the road at 8.00 and rolled into Coral Bay just before midday.

Accommodation wasn;t ready so had to cool our heels at the pub waiting before we could unload the gear. Finally got the nod at 1.30, unloaded and on the water by 2.30pm for a shakedown cruise. The weather was fantastic and the boat carpark was chokkers. It was all we could do to find a spot to park. Shot out through the south passage and bounced some metals and plastics at the back of the reef for little return. We were happy with the shakedown so back to the shack to ready the gear for tomorrow. 

Decided to hit the rocks at the marina that night and nabbed 7 spanglies with a couple hitting over 3kgs on the 4kg outfits. Absolutely huge fun. How good was this, Day 1 and we already have some fish to our account. Back to the pub for dinner and an early night.

Day 2 saw us outside the south passage again and working 55- 65m for little return other than a nice Rankin and a couple of sh*t fish. The breeze was well up and we struggled to hold any bottom even with 40 ozs of lead. Didn’t take out any gear that we could troll with so in frustration we headed in. 

That pretty much set the scene for the next 3 or 4 days. Steady NE winds up to 20 odd knots with occasional rain made any venture onto the water and out to the deep very uncomfortable with one trip through the North passage and about 10 NM north an absolute shocker of a return trip. Winds were spinning around the compass and went SE 25 plus knots. The trip back took and hour and a half with wind waves of 2 – 3 m on a low swell. We headed out to come back across it but it was bad whichever way we went. Lucky we were in a 23 foot boat. Anything smaller I think could have been a bit scary.

Then the weather really turned to sh*t and we ended up on the beach for 2 days which saw us do a trip down to 5 Fingers and Waroora and then Exmouth and Bay of Rest on the next day. It also saw us spend too much time at the boozer. We finally got a half reasonable day with the breeze dropping below 15 knots around lunch time and we belted out to 90m and managed to land 6 reds up to 5kgs, 3 good Robbos and a Blunt nose Cod before the sharks moved in. The breeze again was constantly swinging and it was difficult to get a straight run at any new marks we picked up. 

Next day was more of the same although the breeze was a little stiffer and lasted a little longer but we made it out to 120m to try for goldband. Another blunt nose cod and some Red Throat, nothing else so moved back in to 90m. Picked up another Robbo and had 3 biteoffs from sharks. It was getting late so gave up in disgust.

Last day, looked great on the forecast but blew steady NE all day 8 – 10 knots. Again out to 120m to try for goldband and picked up Red Throat fairly steadily, only keeping the biggest models, Again got a couple of blunt nose cod to about 6 -7 kgs and got one goldband up losing the other to sharks which had found us again. Moved out a little further but the breeze turned NW and the bite went off. Motored in and pulled boat for the end of the trip. 

The trip home was uneventful and we had accommodation booked at Dongara (apologies to Rob H, we were going to stop in for that coffee, maybe next time !) Had a great meal at the pub and a good nights sleep before heading off in the morning. Travelling well until just out of Perth and a bearing failed. Heard a bit of a squeak and pulled over to investigate. Jacked up the wheel and took off the axle nut only to see the bearing fall to pieces. Pretty pissed at my mechanic who I asked to replace or repack bearings but looks like he just pumped some grease into them. Roadside repair and we were home early arvo.

All in all, we enjoyed the time away despite the crappy weather (which was very unseasonal by all accounts). We got a couple of fish but nothing that we would deem memorable. I did however get to spend some fun times with some mates and my eldest boy which was all good. I also got to meet Sparrow and Mr Meks. Hopefully next year if they are up we can catch up again if not down here. 

High points were landing 2 x 3kg spanglies on 4kg and catching a bloody big mud crab by hand from the shallows at the Bay of Rest. Some video on the IPhone of the squillions of soldier crabs running all over the flats at low tide also brought back some memories of North Queensland 50 years ago. 

Low points, a dud bearing (although nothing like Sparrows problems !), that crappy Easterly wind which never let up and rain. Looks like the day after we left Exmouth got hammered so plenty of weather up that way at the moment. Time to start planning next years trip, hope the weather is better.

I’ve put in some pics below.

Cheers

Daybreak for a coffee stop at Cataby

Fisrt nite down at the Marina, plenty of snapper (bloody fat ones too !)

Another good Spanlie from the Marina

Efforts from a couple of hours at the Marina the previous night

Day 2 - This is all we could manage - you can see the weather building

A day where we managed to get out to the deep. Bagged out on Reds with this being the largest model (a modest Red by any standards)

Blunt Nose Cod (aka Banded Grouper) good on the chew

This is where the Reds came from - a slow drift over the mark

This is the same spot but underway - you can see the shark at about 75m (bastard things)

Plenty of these around

One of the smaller models that we got to the boat and cut off. The circle hooks work a treat.

Muddy pulled from the shallows at Bay of Rest - released into some deeper water

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