had alot of sucess on Sails and small Blacks <80kg with Richter Soft Grassys, Soft Oscars and Dorados.

Best colous being Pink (46-46) and Black Purple (502-506)

Honestly run them anywhere (10-100m) behind the boat but make sure you have a hardbody (Halco Laser Pro 190 or Rapala Xrap 20 or 30) off a short line (15-20m).

Picked up 2 Sails and a small Black over the last couple of trips on hardbodies

 Use very fine gauge hooks if you want to troll that light. Drop me a pm happy to catch up or talk you through our setup. My advice - don't troll skirts on less than 15kg at that time of year. Lots of big models that you may kill on 10kg gear if your skills aren't up to scratch(mine aren't). Lures - soft grassy are hard to go past as small lures. White/pink on rigger, lumo in shotgun, black purple oscar short corner, lumo or blue white medium Zulu in long corner if using richter lures(which work well). 

My main spread was similar to that and we hooked plenty. As I said drop us a pm with phone number and I will run u through. I would order a JB dingo and medium dingo in lumo though:)

Have a pitch bait on a big baitcaster ready to go at all times And cast it out if u get a looker that disappears. Simply freespool for a couple of hundred metres before you drop the bail arm over. This technique works very well especially for Sailys

 i understand you want light line class's and the joy of sportfishing.

We had major problems with larger bills comming into the spreads and abosultey fucking up all the gear. We were constantly going back and forth to blue water to help solve the issues and they basically said you should be running 24kg.

we did land blacks to 55kg and a couple horse sails on 15kg. Though there were time we got made absolutely piss and numerious times the outrigger popped for the line to just snap due to the sheer force of the strikes (blues). You need to remember that time of year is the end of the Blue season. They will still be around. From memory the shallowest we raised a blue was roughly 280m. Though i have herd whispers of them comming in closer.

If you want sails and blacks on light line class you need to switch bait them up. after a few days of reading the water you will be able to tell what a sail is compared to a bill in your spread!

hit me via pm with anymore questions.

I love catching bills on light gear but have to say I agree with much of the advice you have been given.
Outside of Gamex I don't run under 15kg for bills in Exmouth anymore.
Further north where you have a more reliable guess at the fish size its not an issue.
I second the Soft Grassys rigged on SL12's. Great hook for up to 15kg.
Kind of hard to talk about spreads. They really need to be done on the water as each boat will be a little bit different.

Matt and Simon  have hit the nail on the head ,i run the same spread as simon with 8kg/15kg but i dont fish over 100m so i lessen the chance of getting the big fish mess ,my son is only 10 years old and he catchs most of the bills the 24/37kg are to big for him so thats y i run the smaller line classes

 have a pitch bait is a good idea for that fish that doesnt want to hit the lure hard enought to stick

  hope this helps ,if not i can pop over when you get up here ( i live in Exxy )

                  jeff

The Richters Soft Grassys and Soft Oscars work well but are a bit light in rough weather and can get destroyed after the first strike. Had some good success on JBLures Little Dingo and Dingo.. The Dingo in the evil colour was our best producer last year closely followed by the Little Dingo in Lumo. Like the look of the Bonze lures and will be giving a couple a go this year. 

Any lure will work but the most important thing is to have sharp hooks. Even new hooks aren't sharp enough at times. Get a file and give them a good run over. Taking the barb down a bit also helps.

 Run 24kg all round if u can. I am guessing you haven't caught billfish before so please don't take this the wrong way if you have(ie ignore it). Always have three people if you can, one driving one fishing one talking. The one talking needs to communicate between driver and angler, grab leaders, fetch drinks etc. I fish mainly in dec January and it is rough a lot of days. Very hard to do bigger fish with 2 people as you really need to keep the boat going forward with the swell. Use wind on leaders - 200lb will be fine if you don't go wide(past 100m), and 300lb is minimum for lure rig on 24kg. Sharpen hooks after every strike! You will be amazed how many points get bent just on strike. Invest in very good leader gloves aftco or pakula are what we use. Have the decks clear and gloves handy, no esky floating around or other rods etc. have a harness setup for whoever is on strike next and make sure it's easy to reach. Upon strike keep driving forward until the spread is clear(deckies job if rough, both deck and skipper if you can. Don't panic haha this is the hardest one of all- fish get lost when line goes loose, whole team needs to focus on keeping line tight - that's why you start with 24kg, gives you some fuck up room for error on the bigger fish and let's you practice on smaller ones! I have caught blacks to 100kg on 10kg but it took me 45 minutes and it was a glass still day so I could drive off it to change angles and bring him up. Day later my deckie was on one in the 200kg class in 80m and rough weather and it went deep and we could not move it. (This was the last day anything under 24 kg went out back - he was on 15kg). After an hour we stuffed up and got loose line as it charged straight up and the hooks just dropped out - devastated but it taught us heaps and we haven't lost another big fish since( that has stayed hooked on strike) and this includes a black and blue over 180 kg. I like late afternoon, most like mid morning, both can be great but I have had way more luck from 3-6 than really early. Very jealous you are getting that much time in up there - have fun.

unless yuor playing in the gulf, load up on the bigger line as the boys have said, 15kg as a minimum. The Richter range is good for beginners and the outlay isn't as much, if you dont mind spending the cash then there are many good lures out there.

dark colours in close and light colours out wide/shotgun. I run a purple on the short corner, red/black on long coner, white/pink on the shotgun and lumo's on the riggers. mostly i only run 3 lures so a lumo on the long corner, dark lure in the short and the pink out the back. Soft Oscars out the back and Huka in the short corners, i like my lures between 8 inches and 11 inches but i do have smaller models for early in the season if they are picky.

Also a big fan of a drop back livies or rigged garfish too ready to pitch back to a teased marlin or sailfish

Don't even bother with 8-10kg, as everyone says you want a minimum of 15kg for trolling lures, There were some big blues around the same time as your here last year so if you have a 37-60kg outfit bring that with ya if you want a fish of a lifetime.

If its your first time I wouldn't over complicate things, do you have out riggers? do you know about tag lines? Having switchbaits ready are good, but if you haven't done it before theres abit of a knack to it.

I have been using bonze lures with lots of success, "Here for the party", "undertaker", "Hercules", "jackhammer" and "Angel" have caught heaps of fish this season for me. You can get all these from tackle world here in Exmouth. I don't use under 37kg out there these days - you just never know what's going to eat your lures next.

Good luck!!

Thanks all for your great contributions. I've done a very very small amount of game fishing out of Mackay NQ and caught 1 x 20Kg sail on 15kg years ago and the fight was done and dusted within a few minutes, hence the 8-10kg plan of attack. Thanks for reminding me regarding the lighter gauge hooks required. I was also going to purchase 2 x 24's and 2 x 15's which were down the priority list but now will go up to the top. I'll be based in the canals, does anyone troll out through the gulf then to the deeper water i.e. is it worth pulling the lighter stuff and then once we hit the shelf go from 8-10's to 15-24's (we have 1 x 37 already) or is it just a waste of time? We'd be happy with the small stuff especially seeing it's our first time and if the were more of them which I'm unsure of that time of year.

Do I go bent butt or straight butt for the 24Kg?

Interestingly Pakula lures haven't received a mention, I really like the look of these http://www.pakula.com.au/index.php/paua-jets and would be interesting if anyone has had any results on them yet? I was up until midnight last night watching his online tutorial videos and learnt a lot (a lot of which has since been covered as well by you guys). Are there better performing lures out there these days or just better valued lures?
The boat(7m) is well equipped with Live Bait Tank and outriggers and yes I've got tag lines but have Aftco release clips on the end. I've heard a lot of bad stories, I've even heard of people going the entire fight through the release clip but I prefer these as the lures can be tuned through the roller to get to the bottom of the pressure waves. I think the key is to test the roller with a set of scales to ensure it pops under the drag strike setting before using.
I'm really keen to fish for livies and toss them out, nothing worse than circling or figure eighting a tailing fish that takes no interest in your spread. What's the most prominent live bait for this and where can they be found?
Thanks again I really appreciate it

 I don't trust rollers personally. Had too many issues with them not releasing. I use elastic bands in the rollers. Just size them up or down depending on line class, lure size/action and weather conditions.

+1 for running heavier gear

Last year off Exmouth in June we where chasing juvenile blacks + sails with 15kg gear on spin reels and hooked a 500lb ish Blue in 50m of water - you just never know whats lurking out there!! Some great advice above looks like you've got it sussed, best of luck mate hope you get into a few!

 You can go to the Pakula website and ask Peter Pakula himself via live chat. 

 I think they just lost favour after he sold the company and he has since bought it back I understand. I would guess most boats in gamex would have a lumo sprocket in there lure roll. I have a few but have caught more on the JB stuff. My thoughts are that the JB stuff (and the bonze) are a bit heavier in the head and hold the often rough water better than a lot of others.

Right lure for the right spot & those JB's are well worth the price tag

 Hey Steve did chewy show you my collection of lures , I dropped around some more earlier and also the big elastic bands we use so you should have enough , pretty much all the favourite colours and brands are there, think I've got one more Moldcraft wide range floating around can't seem to find it ? . So other than an equalizer or similar you should be right to go .

 It's a long way from the canals to the shelf at trolling speed. Better off launching at tantabiddi and it's about a 15 min trip out to marlin territory. Save the canal departure for heading out to the islands. Some good trolling between the murions and peak/long out wider 

Richter soft grassy lures have accounted for  a lot of small blacks and sails hence there popularity.

Blacks Snacks make an excellent lure as well and ive caught several fish in exy on his lures.

The Bonze lures do seem to attract the fish down there but they also get run by heaps of boats so would naturally

go past the nose of plenty of billies. On my last trip down the Bonze "Here for the Party" seemed to be our hot lure accounting for both Blacks and Blues.

As above I will not run less than 15kg in Exy and even that is fraught with danger. Id reccomend running 24 if you have it.

Cheers Pete

Pete Pakula is a world of knowlegde when it comes to bill fishing.have had the plesure of having him on the boat for a day the year we won tagg release billfish @ Gamex ...Still one of my special never forget moments gittn up on that podium..fist pumping the purple circle

All of the above are spot on ..my little bit would be the old Kiss method and have fun and a plan for B when all hell breaks loose .It dosnt matter how ready you think you are when you see one of these bad boys scoff what eva your offering and then go absolutely balistic the adrenalin rush is enormous ....and addictive ...

just keep the gas on,, ya dont really need to change speed just keep going.some people gun it ,i never have unless he is heading for ya turn left turn right just keep the line tight  ,,clear the deck and dont slow the boat till the fish settles and stops jumping ...keep a tight line ....once all is settled usually you can cruise with the wind...and hopfully get him

when ya get him in close keep him behind you or at 45degrees or less .just always behind .leader him in gentle gentle without  having to turn him against the way hes going .When ya get the bill in ya hands ,,HANG THE F@#$%@CKKKK ON .never  had one not give it to me once ya grab him

It all sounds pretty straight forward yep ..nupp no way if ya can land 1 out of every 2 strikes your doing better than average ide say''

MOST OF ALL HAVE FUN. you can be out there all day and not see a fish but just one strike can change a long day into an absolute Pearla with mayhem, yelling, screaming, hooting, abusing, laughing more yelling screaming sarcastic abuse ARRGGGHHH i love Bill Fishing..Good Luck and may the Marlin Gods be good to you and your crew..

Cheers Mitch

Firstly I'd like to thank everyone for their valuable contributions, PM's and offers to PM them. My mate that's coming with me rocked up with 2 x 24's and a 37 so I went with another 2 x 24's another 37 and 2 x 15's. I'd like to thank Brian and his team at Compleat Angler Nedlands who stepped up to the plate. I had no idea the store existed until they became a sponsor and was pleasantly surprised. They we're prompt and professional with their quote, had plenty of stock, we're determined to blow internet pricing out of the water and threw in covers and windons for each setup as well. What made the experience very pleasurable is that I didn't have to haggle, they did their homework and knew where they had to be and demonstrated they wanted the business. Brian even offered to lend me his 37 setup as he was concerned how often I was going to use the one I purchased, never have I experienced this in retail trade especially seeing this was the first time we met. A professional establishment, hats off guys!

Regardinng the spread, I sent Peter Pakula a live chat message explaining what I wanted to do, he said to give him a call and he gave me similar advice. It was comforting to know he's fished Exmouth too.  He's website is an absolute plethora of information www.pakula.com.au. It's we'll worth a visit if you haven't already been on it and I've learnt heaps already. It takes a few days to get through it all and has lots of free videos which I'm a fan of. I'm just waiting for him to get back to me with some options.  I also looked into Bonze lures and JB's and will investigate further.  One thing I will say is that after reading some of the crazy talk on JB's site and talking with Pakula I've come to the assumption that to be a good lure maker you must have to be an eccentric ;)

Can anyone tell me the best livies to target and places to get them?

In regards to trolling location, where do I start? I like Simons C's afternoon session preference, this perhaps will give us a chance to get some fillets in the morn weather permitting then throw a spread out in the arv

Cheers and thanks again all