Hi everyone,
Just got back from Exmouth last night after a great week with the wife and kids and a couple of other families. Weather was pretty ordinary with 31 knot winds and a couple of scorchers of 46 degrees plus but we had a ball. Fished every day but had to work hard in the conditions. Have a few cuts and bruises to prove it. The fish were going off with the hot water temps and we had no probs catching a variety of great fish including some huge Mackies, Tuna, Rankines, Coral Trout,Coronations, Big Trevs, heaps of Cobia and some Dollies. We released a heap of fish and ate fish every single night. The Billfish were out there in force but having a tinnie it was just too rough to get out to the deep parts.(Dan O'sullivans boat had 7 tagged Billies one day we were out there but it would not have been very comfortable) My cousin had his 18 footer up so we opted to get bruised and battered most days at Tantabiddi with only 2 or 3 boats out each day and a few raised eyebrows when we came in with the wind blowing it's guts out and we were the only boat out there some days. My kids (8 and 11 ) caught some nice fish out in the gulf on the tinnie but it was too rough to get them out at the Biddy. I must say in the last 20 years I have been fishing Exmouth I have never seen so many sharks. Whether we fished Tantabiddi, Bundegi or the Gulf we encountered some massive sharks at anchor and trolling. Fortunately we didn't lose too many fish to them but they were everywhere. We had an 8 footer come up and headbut the prop while bringing in a mack off the troll and there was even a 7 foot shark in a metre of water at the ramp while launching. The one or two days that were half descent with the wind we caved and took the kids and wives to Turquise for a snorkel and did the family thing. It was a great trip and the kids cant wait to get back. I love Exmouth, the locals and the fishing. What a place! It was the first trip ever that "the Boys" were not fishing every day from 5.00am till 5pm for the entire week and we actually swam in the pool every day and even hit the Potshot most days. I have a heap of photos that I will post as soon as I download them off my camera. Sorry for the long report but I am really pumped after arriving up there on the 2nd of Jan to terrible winds and still having such a great time and catching so many great fish.

PS A special thans to the boys at Bluewater who are always too happy to give us a weather report when we cruise into town. It was great to be checked by fisheries on more than one occasion and we had two boat safety checks which is fantastic considering it is the "quiet" time for Exmouth. Hopefully fishos do the right thing and stick to the limits giving our children and their children years of good fishing up there.

Tight Lines
Rosco