Quick-ish report of our pre-easter trip to Exmouth with the first time taking up the "big" boat. Spent most of my time up there in a 4.5-5m boat so having the much bigger 6.4m boat we had to change the usual tactics a bit.

Day 1 started with a trip out to murions to show a couple of Exmouth first timers the islands, trolled out to northwest reef on the way out there the hope to open the account with a mack but to no avail. Fishing was pretty quiet so majority of the day was spent snorkelling the shallows out there.

Day 2 launched at tanta's and started trolling south in a bid to crack the first spanaird of the trip. Only got a shark and couta on the troll, so that was quickly given up and headed to an shallowish area where I usually get some good coronation trout and emperors on plastics. The spots were quiet although we still boated a few coronation trout and some emps. I was changing spots and came across a whaleshark cruising just behind the reef in less than 10m. Quickly jumped in and swam with it for a good 20mins or so, it was an awesome experience and with the added bonus of having the whale shark to ourselves rather than with 20 other people. It was something I have always wanted to do but could never justify paying $400ea to go out on the tour boat. So I’m glad I finally got that chance. After the whaleshark we trolled back in and had a triple hook up of macks but lost all three.

Day 3 weather forecast was strong northeasters so it was decided to troll out first thing then head back inside the reef to fish for shallow water spango’s. Only longtails around and with the wind, well and truly howling we came in to fish the 1m mark for some shallow water spanglies. One of the guys got bricked a few times but I managed to land a good 60cm spango’s in a metre of water. Awesome fun and a great alternative (even in a big boat) when the wind is up.

Day 4 started with a troll to find these now elusive macks which we’ve been struggling to find or land. Didn’t take long to get our first and was quickly followed by another. Finally with 2 in the bag pressure was off and we headed back to the shallows targeting shallow water spanglies. No Spango’s landed this time just a few small but tasty yellow tail emperors.

Day 5/6 was a trip back out to Murions and peak. With a couple of the guys on board trying to catch their first GT’s we started the morning popping/stickbaiting around the reefs. Found some good white water with gulls working above and sure enough the G’s were there. Only landed a few pups but some big black gt’s were cruising around. Did find a metre long queenie amoungst them tho. Went for a spear around peak chasing some trout or bluebone but only managed the one bluebone and no trout to be seen. Tried some bottom bashing around peak only to find sharks everywhere! It was getting on in the day so decided to head back to have some more fun on the G’s. Landed some good sized goldspot’s and a 12-15kg GT. At one point we had a feeding frenzy with trev’s, queenies, couta’s and shark's everywhere under the boat. Also trolled up some YFT for the day.

Last day was only a half day as we were planning on leaving that night. Decided the freezer needed some topping up, trolled up a decent mack and had a nice hoo get sharked, Bugger!. Hit up a lump in the 40’s and boated a bluebone, spanglies and a small red etc. PeteVb also managed a good sized robbo! Ventured out to the 110m mark and got a couple of saddle tail and a goldband. Lost a few good fish out there too.

All in all a good trip, sharks were a problem but no where near as bad as my last trip there, had a few magic days in the weather along with a couple of howlers but all part of fishing I guess. Can’t wait to get back out there again with next trip a bit more emphasis on the islands and out deep.