Dirk Hartog Aug '10

Well just over a two weeks ago myself and a couple other lads got back from a trip to Dirk Hartog Island. We planned to drive up on Friday the 6th, so we left at 7am in the morning with the boat in tow. Took about 9 hours to arrive in Denham.

Went to the pub that night, had a few brews, a meal and watched the footy. We then headed to the caravan park where we hit the sack and amped for a big day the next day.
Woke up at seven, grabbed some ice from the servo, a bacon egg burger, and we were off to the northern tip of the island.
2hours later and we arrived at the shack at Withnel point, backed the boat up to the beach and unloaded the gear. The water was a little rough going over but it was a SE’ ster so she was behind us. Once all was offloaded we grabbed our 6kg flick rods and proceeded to flick lures around the bay, as it was too rough to head out in the boat, as the SE’ ster was increasing all day.

The result early was 3 good sized flatties until we came across a school of tailor off the point, which was one-a-cast mayhem, and a bit of fun for the first day.

Woke up Sunday and again a howling SE so no going out in the boat and flicking around the bay again, no tailor today though, water quality was a little lower so we had to settle for some flatties again

Monday arrives, and the weather gods are against us. A howling easterly!? After flicking for mediocre fish for two days and having cape Levillian in sight, we decided to make the trek to turtle bay, unknowing it was infact 12.5km away. Finding various lures washed up on the beach, a full 20L fuel drum of petrol, bottle of fresh water, dead dugong and a rod and reel however, broke up the walk.

Albeit 3 hours later we arrived at the world famous Turtle Bay, and to no surprise, 2nd cast hooked up to a big tailor, only to pull the hook at the shore. Couple more casts then decided to do a little more walking, up the beach about a 500m we were greeted by hundreds of sharks sitting on the reef. First cast and I Pulled a tailor out?! Couple of casts over the reef and we noticed the sharks were chasing the poppers. Sharks on light gear and poppers, how good.

After losing a few lures, we walked back to the bags and rested up for the walk back. Although that didn’t stop dad having a cheeky cast and hooking into another school of tailor, we all had to have a crack seeing as we had come this far, and managed to pull a couple decent ones out before the sharks got there.

Time for the walk home, tide was out so it was a fair bit easier on the hard sand. As we were trekking back we noticed the wind was dropping a fair bit and by the time we got back at 4pm it was time for a quick fish in the boat, as our fish supplies were low. Headed out and hooked into a few nice little pinkies and red-throat, and a little broad-barred on a soft plastic. We now had dinner sorted.

Tuesday dawned and the wind had swung even more to the north and the decision was made to baton down the hatches, nailing some tin to the front of the shack, we would have to wait it out....

That night the wind did ease again, so we fished the point and managed to pull 3 soapies off the reef, but it wasn’t all that pleasant, and we were now itching to get out in the boat.

Wednesday morning arose and the wind looked like it was light enough so we headed out in the boat, we trolled to cape Levillian and around the shoals and picked up a decent broad-bar and a nice Mack Tuna, in between plagues of nor-west blowies....

The weather was getting a little rough now so we decided to start trolling back, and wouldn’t you know it, 6m of water a nice bommie and the rods start zinging, with the strong winds fishing was becoming difficult and I pulled the hooks on my fish, Trav however bought his in and it was a nice 10kg GT.

So we decided it might be worth a few more trolls. In between numerous kakka broad-bars we caught another two GTs of the same sort of size 8-12kg and a couple of nice pinkies as well.

By now the weather was getting hairy and we had to head in. Welcomed by 2-3ft breakers in Withnel bay it was going to be tough to get to our mooring, which was on the inside fairly close to the beach…

Now it was action stations, we managed to get through the breakers, but the boat was now side on to the waves in a small gutter and we had to approach the mooring side-on, if we missed it the boat was going to be on the beach, no room for error. Trav, our most experienced in the field, due to a few seasons on the Cray boats as a pup, Took to the bow and got ready. He grabbed the buoy and jammed it over the bow rail trying to wedge it there before the next wave hit the boat. He managed to get it over, however the waves hit the boat a little earlier than expected and he just couldn’t get his hand out from between the buoy and the rail in time. As the boat pulled back on the mooring which had the buoy attached to the end, the wedged buoy jammed his thumb between it and the rail, crushing it. OUCH.

Dad rushed to the front and grabbed the buoy while Trav came to the back, grabbed the wheel and slammed the boat into gear giving the old man just enough time to get the mooring loop onto the hitching point at the front of the boat. Now we had a problem, Travis' finger needed attention. So we took him back to the shack and treated him to the best of our ability, due to the limited first aid gear we had, it would be suffice for now.

We decided to pack up and head back as soon as there was a break in the weather. We waited and waited, but the wind did not ease at all that day, so it was going to have to be one more night and hope that it would be calm the next morning, at least it hadn’t rained though.....

We woke the next morning to the calm before the storm, and would you believe it, rain! But the water was flat and perfect for the trip back, so, with head-torches on, we began to relay the gear to the boat and fuel her up. 745am we were off on the way home. 2hours later and we arrived in Denham. We got the boat out of the water and went to the caravan park for a shower.
Once we were clean I went with Travis to the silver chain in Denham, and they did all they could to fix him up for the drive back to Perth.

We arrived back in Perth late Thursday night, and Friday morning Travis had an operation to pin the bones together and reconfigure the nail bed, all good.

All in all a great trip with real unlucky weather, the last three times we have been up to Withnel, 2 times it has blown NE which is the only wind that you don’t want. Very unlucky I say. However if one of these days we do get some days of good weather up there it will be unbelievable, with the amount of spots we have in the GPS now… But that is what makes the fishing so good I guess, the weather has the ultimate control of the fishing.....


Posts: 328

Date Joined: 20/04/09

great report mate, looks

Sun, 2010-08-29 16:07

great report mate, looks like you's had a great time.

sorry to hear about your mates thumb, sure does look painful.

Adam Gallash's picture

Posts: 15607

Date Joined: 29/11/05

yep

Sun, 2010-08-29 16:44

Top report alright in what looks like very trying conditions, that thumb looks dodgy as!

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MattMiller's picture

Posts: 4171

Date Joined: 15/06/09

Gee not much luck there

Sun, 2010-08-29 17:09

Gee not much luck there mate. I was at ningaloo station that same week and we copped that same wind. Even got rain and 25knt NW-SW on the thursday.

Good thing we landed 2 sails, hooked 3 others along with a Black marlin on the Sunday. And got a heap of bottom fish on monday. Didn't get out untill the Friday and got both Sails and bottom fish again.

Could've been an amazing trip if we got out everyday.

STEVE231's picture

Posts: 1443

Date Joined: 05/01/10

Good report

Sun, 2010-08-29 17:13

Thanks for the read, shame about the weather though, I think we've all had trips like that!! Feel sorry for the poor bugger with his finger in that state for as long as he had to go without proper medical attention, it must have been excruciating!!

damo6230's picture

Posts: 2029

Date Joined: 07/06/08

great report

Sun, 2010-08-29 18:17

certainly some interesting times had by all, hope the thumb is all OK.

yep the wind does decide fishing on the west coast.

still spectacular country/ocean and always next year

Lucky Tim's picture

Posts: 2536

Date Joined: 28/11/07

spewing about the weather

Sun, 2010-08-29 20:03

spewing about the weather and the thumb incident but nice to see some landbased fish coming in.
I guess the mooring incident could have turned out a lot worse though.

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Date Joined: 21/02/08

Good luck with the new model

Sun, 2010-08-29 20:07

Good luck with the new model thumb!

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DazSamFishing's picture

Posts: 1518

Date Joined: 19/08/09

Great report. Some great

Sun, 2010-08-29 20:08

Great report. Some great fish there in tough conditions. Hope the thumb isn't throbbing.

Posts: 77

Date Joined: 26/10/07

thanks guys

Sun, 2010-08-29 20:51

yer the thumb is looking alot better these days, but defintely could have been alot worse.
matt sounds like you had some good fishing also, i think the whole season up north has been a little different to usual from all reports.
next year surely.....

Posts: 459

Date Joined: 28/10/08

Withnell Bay

Sun, 2010-08-29 21:54

Great report, and I feel the pain of that thumb!!

I have camped in Whitnell Bay with a screaming easterly blowing too.  Not much fun at all.  We had two boats and the skippers elected to sleep aboard to keep an eye on the baots, while the rest of us slept amongst the scrub on the beach.  The guys in the boats hardly got any sleep because the chop was so bad in the bay, while those of us on shore got buried in wind blown sand.  We had one bloke with us who could sleep through anything, and he literally had to dig himself out of his swag in the morning!  The rest of us had shrugged off the sand during the numerous wake-ups during the night. After two days of sitting it out, we had to head home and bashed our way through the chop for the first half of the trip back to Denham, but as with many fishing trips, it glassed off for the last half of the ride home and the sea was absolutely tranquil as we headed back to Perth the next day with the boats on trailers!

Faulkner Family's picture

Posts: 17835

Date Joined: 11/03/08

nice write up. pity the

Sun, 2010-08-29 21:59

nice write up. pity the weather gods were against you all the time. at least you had a chance to explore the island on the way to turtle bay. hope the thumb gets back to usable condition soon so he can go fishing again

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RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together

Posts: 331

Date Joined: 10/12/07

Well written Walkdady!!

Mon, 2010-08-30 14:04

Pity you write better reports than you fish!!

Disclosure: I was the one who squished their finger!! It is a lot better now thanks.

Despite the weather and the sore thumb I cannot wait to get back there. One day we will crack it. Anyone thinking of going up that way I would recommend it.

Posts: 77

Date Joined: 26/10/07

west coast

Tue, 2010-08-31 10:42

mate leave the trash talk for when you can prove it. haha

Brooky's picture

Posts: 74

Date Joined: 25/04/10

Great Report

Sat, 2010-09-04 09:54

great report thouroughly enjoyed reading it, also cant wait to get back up there next year with the boys, the thumb looked very painful can happily say the worst thing to happen to us up there wa a poo on the deck (mate misjudged the side of the boat).

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Posts: 501

Date Joined: 09/07/10

Great report lads, and that

Sat, 2010-09-25 12:03

Great report lads, and that thumb looks sore...