Darwin to Perth road trip...Exmouth land based fishing

Hi Guys, been a while to get to write this up. After i reached Darwin i went to South Africa for 5 weeks and then returned via Singapore to Darwin where a friend and I got a camper van and drove down the west coast fishing. it was a bit easier than riding the bicycle and gave a bit more fishing scope!! 

just starting to arrange Norway to south africa on the bicycle so if any of you guys have any contacts between those two countries that might help catch me a fish i would be most grateful for the help...

all the best, Scott www.worldbiker.blogspot.com 

 

In singapore my mate and I went for a fish on the reservoirs targeting the Peacock bass that have been released by some aquarium hobbyists. We managed a few small ones on the fly and spinner and saw a few beasts in the shallows. this was the best of the bunch. A good looking fish!

 

In South Africa I managed to get after some Sharp toothed catfish and blue Tilapia on the local crocodile river. These two tilapia were the best of the bunch and pretty tasty after being bbqed.

 

Sharp toothed catfish. We found dead doves were good bait..nice amount of blood that pulled the cats in quick. was quite fun collecting bait too!

 

Back in Darwin i went out with a mate on his boat. we did a little fishing but most of the time Jamie worked as he is a coral collector. when we did stop the action was fast and furious with small gts all over the poppers.

 

 

Parked up on a reef to the east of darwin at low tide. Two big Gts nearly nailed my roosta popper here. they were trapped in a big deep blue hole in the middle of the dry reef...the last second they turned and vanished! damn

 

we stopped in Kakadu where i hoped my mate would bag a few fish to start the trip off. he got some barra and lost a few tarpon. Croc phobia seemed to have hit him pretty bad so it wasnt long til we were back on the road.

 

Camping in kakadu

 

Nick with a small barra taken on a surface lure in Kakadu

 

On the move south somewhere in the kimberley region. 

 

fruit bats roosting next to the road.

 

This was the first sea fish we caught. at point samson..not quite what we had in mind but welcome all the same!

 

along the road we saw some decent wildlife including this frill necked lizard who was keen to eat a fly!

 

Exmouth was the destination and we headed there fairly quickly,,,...seemed the best all round destination where we could get some good fish land based

 

Got this little beauty in the marina. also dropped a couple of small trevally that day and saw a few sharks sniffing around

 

First day and we had a look around bundegi and managed to lure a few fish including three coral trout, a nice rock cod and a little barracuda...

 

coral trout on metal slice

 

Cod on soft plastic

 

we did a bit of night fishing for sharks and rays.. got this nice leopard/ zebra shark first up

 

and then this beauty

 

and this one..

 

 

and nick got this one that nearly spooled his twin power 12000 which was quite amusing! see here

http://www.youtube.com/user/worldfisher1#p/a/u/0/LbR6ZabxJA4

 

The Flies were pretty annoying in exmouth

 

Resident Osprey at bundegi..

 

Down at the mildura wreck there were a few small gt's around just before sunset everyday..a silver stick bait produced the hits and the biggest probably went 6kg which was fun on light gear. wading out to waist deep water gave the best chance to reach fish...turtles and sharks were swimming around my legs and even a dugong past within a few metres from me..

 

trevally on the stick bait..

 

 

 


worldfisher's picture

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part 2

Sat, 2011-12-10 15:30

 

Up near the naval pier we got some decent(ish) fish..small trevally and a good few hits which turned into escpae artists! mainly queenies!

 

 

good queenie that fought well with loads of jumps..in a window of 20 minutes when the tide was right a load of fish arrived

 

 

got this little snapper in the marina..

 

 

we got this huge ray and surprisingly the fight wasn't much..40 minutes later it was practically on the beach..no long runs..

 

 

fishing near the naval pier at night in the hope of big gts..no such luck. i chose to stick it out with the lighter tackle for most of the trip...nick threw bigger poppers and only got one shark...and missed out on light tackle fun!

 

 

 

one more lively shark

 

After a great stay in Exxy we headed south and stopped in at Kalbarri to see if we could get some tailor..

 

First day started a little slow and my mate couldn't even be bothered to fish! then they came on and i managed to hook and lose seven..must have been my worst stroke of bad luck for a while..even had a huge fish..90cm + in my hand but the bloody thing managed a houdini! Nick eventually cast his lure , had a bite and landed the only fish of the day.;

 

 

came back and got a couple of beauties including this 82cm specimen

scottland's picture

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bloody hell

Sat, 2011-12-10 15:45

 you live a great life hahhahahah some good sharks there

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Date Joined: 27/12/06

awesome

Sat, 2011-12-10 15:48

Nice report there, you got into some good fish around the place.

That tailor is in fantastic condition.

A few of the shark and ray enthusiasts will be drooling over some of those pics

Leemo's picture

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 that shark! oh man, great

Sat, 2011-12-10 16:10

 that shark! oh man, great catch! Top work as usual mate, always enjoy reading your reports!
and that Video is wickeddd!

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bludgin' since 94'

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Date Joined: 27/07/09

Bloody awsome report mate ,

Sat, 2011-12-10 16:07

Bloody awsome report mate , big shark as well suprised it didnt spool you haha

cuthbad's picture

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gotta get back there

Sat, 2011-12-10 16:36

gotta get back there soon.....

great report man, that video is a good laugh as well!!

cheers

Adam Gallash's picture

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Gold

Sat, 2011-12-10 18:00

Gold Scott, now thats some quality lb fishing!

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now thats a fishing trip

Sat, 2011-12-10 21:55

now thats a fishing trip ,looks like u had lots of fun

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PilbaraBrad's picture

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one of the best reports of

Sun, 2011-12-11 06:53

one of the best reports of the year mate, well done!

Gjoe's picture

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Jealous much...

Sun, 2011-12-11 09:10

Insane report and pics mate....so need to get back up there!

Wicked pics of the sharks...

thanks for the viewing pleasure

ealzee's picture

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Date Joined: 14/11/11

yup thats the real fishing up

Sun, 2011-12-11 09:13

yup thats the real fishing up there, GT's on poppers, queenfish(love the queenie boys!!!) large shark and even coral trout!!!!!! great stuff fellas. love the colours on that peacock bass wow!!

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kill it??? eat it!!!!

ealzee's picture

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Date Joined: 14/11/11

oh by the way is that a lemon

Sun, 2011-12-11 09:16

oh by the way is that a lemon shark the largest one??

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kill it??? eat it!!!!

MattMiller's picture

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Great report Scott

Sun, 2011-12-11 09:18

looks like you blokes have had a great trip

Stuart's picture

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Great trip lads!!

Sun, 2011-12-11 12:12

Great trip lads!!

Posts: 102

Date Joined: 09/03/09

nice trout from shore

Sun, 2011-12-11 16:32

nice trout from shore

wazzbat's picture

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Another awesome report!  Love

Sun, 2011-12-11 19:05

Another awesome report!  Love reading them and checking out all the pics.  Cheers!

Great shot of the lizard going for the fly too!

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I fish for the future - Cause I can't bloody catch anything!

hunterdive's picture

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 crikey that Tailor is an

Sun, 2011-12-11 19:31

 crikey that Tailor is an absolute ripper.  Epic landbased fishing, you're putting us locals to shame

Lucky Tim's picture

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Date Joined: 28/11/07

wow this one nearly slipped

Sun, 2011-12-11 20:08

wow this one nearly slipped through to the keeper. Wicked report Scott, pity we didn't cross paths again in Exxy but looks like you did well enough from the shore. Looking forward to the next set of pics.

dkonig82's picture

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Awesome report!A great read,

Mon, 2011-12-12 11:19

Awesome report!

A great read, thanks

 

Dan

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When asked by a non-fisherman 'how many fishing rods do you really need?' the correct answer is either:

n+1 (where n is the number of fishing rods you currently own); or

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Date Joined: 03/04/08

Norway

Fri, 2011-12-16 10:31

Nice Fish, Gotta love Exxy

 

When in Norway give Phil (a POM) a call at this place:

 

http://skarnsundet.com/

 

Great fishing there here's some vids of my trip there:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDNtsu_pT1w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62RHcuGXnH8

 

Cheers

Matt

worldfisher's picture

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Date Joined: 06/03/11

 Cheers Matt, appreciated for

Fri, 2011-12-23 13:51

 Cheers Matt, appreciated for that...would love to get a big halibut when up that way! there is some cracking fishing up there!

 

All the best, Scott,

 

www.worldbiker.blogspot.com

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Date Joined: 13/11/11

Awesome!

Fri, 2011-12-23 15:13

Mate that is a cracker tailor! Some great pics a great read as well, nice work :)
I'm actually looking at doing Perth to Exmouth in June/July so I might pm you and ask some pointers. Once again, well done..

worldfisher's picture

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Date Joined: 06/03/11

 Yeah no worries mate..would

Sat, 2011-12-24 08:05

 Yeah no worries mate..would be happy to help. All the best mate..happy christmas guys! :)

 

soupster51's picture

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Top Write Up

Sat, 2011-12-24 12:57

Agree. Awesome write up. You are living the life of a fishing rock star. Keep enjoying it for as long as you can. Eventually you'll get married like the rest of us..... LOL.

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