Exmouth Overnighters - the islands Murions/Peak/Flat Island/Serrurier Islands

Everyone

 

Planning the trip up to exxy hard now as its less then a month away when we depart perth. Looking at doing a couple over nighters at the islands,. Fished the murions pretty hard last years which resulted in our best fishing. Keen on heading further, i personally think Peak is viable for a day trip, but the islands furter north west, i think we may look at doing over nighters.

 

Currently Boat hold 300L of fuel (plenty), currently do round trips to the FADS and trench with roughly 140km driven, and only use just half a tank.

 

The catch is my boat is fiberglass, so over nighters are going to be tricky i think with the tides. Can anyone give me any advice whether they have done over nighters here and watch bays were easyiest to anchor up and easyier to work with the tides?

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Bodie's picture

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when you up there mate? We

Tue, 2013-02-26 08:41

when you up there mate?

 

We are up there from 28th March for 12 days. Planning on doing peak and beyond but mostly day trips.

terboz123's picture

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arrive the 1st of april leave

Tue, 2013-02-26 09:23

arrive the 1st of april leave the leave the 21st i think......we should meet up a for a fish bodie....we had some of our best spango and trout fishing at peak last year...trout/spangos/cod/macks/trevs all on poppers and stick baits!

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Bodie's picture

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Definitely sounds like a

Tue, 2013-02-26 10:24

Definitely sounds like a plan!.

 

Im arriving 28th, and the 2nd boat arrives the 1st aswell. We have a house in the Marina.

 

Definitely chasing trout this year, was a very lean trip last year on Trout, only managing 1 for the trip. Also with Mackies, only managing a couple for the trip whilst fishing plastics over shallower lumps.

 

Sounds like you were fishing fairly shallow to get the trout on poppers?

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yerh we got a house behind

Tue, 2013-02-26 13:27

yerh we got a house behind the thirsty camel...........

 

mmm yerh we were popping fairly shallow (2-5m on certain exposed bombies, it had to be a specific kind of coral), we got real ladsy with our neighbours last year (locals) and all they saw us come back with was macks, hoo and dollies last year, and in the end they took us out to the murions and peak to a locally known area (cant say unfortunately) where yerh, we were popping for spangos, cod, trout...ended up drifting out deeper, had schools of goldens under the boat smashing any kind of jig, had sharkies and spaniards free jumping and back flipping out at the poppers and cast to the reef side you would get hassled by spangos and just size trout.....pitty i never boated a trout and my mates did, cause the day the trout were out in forced that morning i got absolutely smoked by a gt on 30 pound which busted my drag and put me to boat driver :(

 

if your trolling for macks you are running teasers right?

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yep running 1 witch doctor

Tue, 2013-02-26 13:44

yep running 1 witch doctor and a set of shiny rattling floats.

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run two witch

Tue, 2013-02-26 14:02

run two witch docs.....specifically for macks and work the 20-30m contours behind the main reef on the west side

We also found the at the reef just off bundegi, the gap at the murions, the gulf side of the murions 15-25m and the west side of the murions and peak.

Once you find nice water current lines/bait etc etc stay in it and work it hard...we would troll for a hour or two and once we found that water its mack attack time.

If you see them boiling up on bait dont troll, sticks baits and poppers allt he way for visual hits and free jumpers.

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Bodie's picture

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Probably wont spend much time

Tue, 2013-02-26 14:22

Probably wont spend much time on the west side tis year as we have a house in the marina with a Jetty. So will head up the the Murians, peak etc. Keen to try the 5-25m water around peak with Lures, plastics, and sticks. Always have a ball up around the murians with plastics in shallow water getting busted up almost every cast!

 

Just recently had a Furuno 587 fitted with a 1KW Transducer so also going to look a little deeper for goldies and maybe ruby's!

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have camped on serrier island or long island

Tue, 2013-02-26 09:54

which is the next one from peak and has the best bay for camping sandy beach with a big dropoff ,just remember but your not actually allowed to camp on the islands and they do get checked ,found the best fishing was out the back of anchor island

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I know your not allowed on

Tue, 2013-02-26 10:03

I know your not allowed on the beach scott, hence why i was asking for a bay where tidal moovement was a minimum or at least deap enough when i can anchor and not worry about the tides.......

 

hmmm sandy bay will have to investigate into that more thanks man

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Bottom of long island

Tue, 2013-02-26 11:50

 Is probably your best bet also knowen as cant tell you bay lol

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Mooring

Tue, 2013-02-26 12:26

Moor up 100 yards off shore with a good plough anchor set up and you'll be laughing. There is a sandy bay on both the the north and south side, just pick one so your in the lee of the forecast winds.

Can be a prick of a place at times as it can blow hard. I usually set up the swag on the beach, then moor the boat and swim in. Watch out for amorous turtles later in the year.

 

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Did a 9 day stay on Long

Tue, 2013-02-26 12:27

Did a 9 day stay on Long island back when you could actually stay there. Some of the best fishing ever but bloody hell it blew hard every night with mostly calmer mornings. Safe anchorage in the bay on the SE end of the island with a good deep dropoff.

Best fishing we had was at north end of Peak for big mackeral and the drop off that runs along the front of Anchor Island for Reds, trout and plenty of Rankin. GT's in the mornings and evenings off the further most SE point of the island. We picked up occasional trout trolling minnows through the shallower waters but need to cover some ground.

Good Luck

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Bessieres is a looong way

Tue, 2013-02-26 14:18

Bessieres is a looong way from exmouth! 42 mile from the marina

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it is my friend....but how

Tue, 2013-02-26 15:18

it is my friend....but how long are your FAD trips in perth? especially if your doing a over nighter!!! extra 50L of back up fuel on board and off we go! yerh i think thats our plan, mainly launch from budengi though, as the marine adds on another while of driving.......

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50 lr??? I've a 26ft Console

Tue, 2013-02-26 16:03

50 lr???

 

I've a 26ft Console with twin donks that i estimate 2ltr per mile in Exmouth. the 2nd boat runs at about 3ltr per mile :)

We have worked on 50-60 mile per day in the boats. 5ltrs per mile at $1.80 per ltr... thats $450 to $540 a day in boat fuel :P

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Anchor Island

Wed, 2013-02-27 09:49

Where is Anchor Island?  I can't recall seeing this on any maps / charts.

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Camp

Wed, 2013-02-27 09:52

Wouldn't camp on Bessieres (Anchor) myself, not shelter at all if the wind comes up.

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 Bessieres is closer to

Tue, 2013-02-26 15:03

 Bessieres is closer to onslow......is it true you can't camp on these islands anymore??..... I've done a lot of research and found nothing to say you can't!!.... 

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When we stayed out there you

Tue, 2013-02-26 17:25

When we stayed out there you weren't supposed to stay on the island either but in those days you couldn't get a straight answer from anyone about what you could and couldn't do (bit like today really) so we said stuff it and went, we didn't have any problems. We did get pulled over by Fisheries for a check whilst we were camped on the island though. Major campsite, 3 big tents plus personal tents, gennies etc and they didn't say boo. They were more interested in what we had caught and passing out a fine to a tinny we were using for not having an EPIRB on board.

Just like staying on the islands at Carnarvon, you are not supposed to but many do (or used to) especially during Carnarfin. I reckon you could do an overnighter and sleep on the island without too much trouble. If you set up late in the arvo, more than likely no one will bother you. If you do that then you halve your fuel cost per day. Just camp light, keep your fish on ice and dont leave any rubbish on the island.

From memory I think that Long is about 70 kms odd from Bundegi so over and back with a fair bit of running around you will probably burn 200 -250 litres leaving you a safety margin of 100 litres (with your spare). Provided weather doesn't come up and I assume if it did you wouldn't go in the first place, you should be OK although I would probably take 100 litres spare.

Sounds like a plan to me.

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 We do 100 nautical miles to

Tue, 2013-02-26 17:53

 We do 100 nautical miles to long and back . 40 from marina 20 running around and 40 back. Use 150/160 litres every time. Only go when the weather is good though :-)

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yerh regardless i think a

Wed, 2013-02-27 07:26

yerh regardless i think a extra 50-100L will be on board...I will give you a call marble probaly tomorrow mate....held up at work today.

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Spent a night at long last weel

Tue, 2013-02-26 19:29

Moored up on the south end. Strong nw blowing. Shouldve known better, but gotta take it when you can.

Great mooring until the wind swung around to s/s/w. had to change anchorage twice in the night.

Next day was glass. mint.

Hang on, no. disregard that. weathers crap and theres no fish. STAY AWAY !! 

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Something else

Tue, 2013-02-26 19:31

A few guys in town have been complaining that the water is dirty in places it doesnt usually milk up. (north of peak and nw of murions.

Does anyone know if the dredging has started at Onslow ?? 

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Long Island

Tue, 2013-02-26 21:00

 Technically...no you cannot camp there. If caught you can be lucky and warned or get a first time infrigement of $100 or if you have been warned before..well..dont get caught twice.

You can anchor in the bay and sleep on the boat. 

Most activity seemed to be arround the turtle nesting and hatching season as its that which they are trying to protect from the beach camping. 

As for fuel..a fully loaded boat with camping gear uses more fuel than a run out to the FADS. Plus the wind will be guaranteed to be against the tide and the seas short and choppy for at least one of the legs in or out. Count on using twice as much fuel as you would on a calm day run to the FADS

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 I've had a trip planned for

Tue, 2013-02-26 23:12

 I've had a trip planned for a while now......out of onslow anyway to island hop for a couple days.....should I say fuck it, travel light and plead ignorant saying there's no info or do the righty and just waste bulk fuel??...... Wouldn't be that for the dec to put some shit on their website surely??!!!!

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ahh....i think the only way

Wed, 2013-02-27 11:14

ahh....i think the only way to double check everything, is

 

A) always have spare fuel

B) Make sure your engines is in good nick

c) Required and extra safety gear

D) Might do a day trip out to flat/Long Island check over how much fuel is consumed etc etc...but from memory last year we got 3 murion trips and fishing all day out of a tank...with out having to consider fuel and even then we could of most likely got another trip in, mind you we stayed close to the islands those three days for inshore work.

F) Happy day!

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If you are going for a day run its just as easy to stay

Wed, 2013-02-27 13:29

 a couple and save on the fuel. If you want to borrow it i have an anchor set up to do the exact trip you are talking about. We normaly do about 10 days out there. Never had an issue with our camp(we keep it very small) even though we have had rangers come through while out in the boat. If you keep a clean camp and treat the place with respect they generally leave you alone. Seen some bigger than ben hur camps there at times and thats just asking for trouble. One group set off fireworks and ended up with a few fines from what I have been told. Pm me if you want the anchor system or any extra info.

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