Well well well, with a forecast of 4-6 knots from the south good ol buoyweather had predicted it pretty spot on and as we rounded the cape a whisper of a breeze greeted us as we looked over the Ningaloo Reef. Arriving at Tantabiddi at 7 we were the third boat in the water and with the tide soon to change , things were looking and feeling fishy. A quick 10 minute troll from the end markers to the 40m line saw no action on the mackie front and the plan to change up to billfish gear was made. After 5 minutes of trolling I turned around to make sure the spread was looking good with some action on the lures in slight slop. By the time my head had turned 180 degrees out of left field a solid marlin smashed the surface, and caused a near on metre high foamball that had me on my feet in mere seconds ready for action!

Waiting for the drag to start peeling I realised that he had unfortunately missed the hooks and I sat back down dejected but amped as things were looking promising! Talk about a buzz thou even without hooking the fish!! As it happens and no real suprise the next 2.5 hours passed slowly without a sniff from any species with many miles covered from the 50m to 110m line through small bird schools and hundreds of junior flying fish.

With the westerly looking like it was about to intensify I moved into the shallow country where I normally get my trout and one drift told me that it was going to be too difficult for my deckie who has been fishing only numerous times in his life. After setting the pick over some flat but interesting country it was time to drift down the baits and wait for the action to begin. Strangely enough the first mulie that hit the water didn't even get to bounce off the bottom with both sides of the boat having rods bouncing off the gunnels and 'good fish' being called quite loudly. Seeing the glimmer of red I thought I had the mother of all trout until a solid chinaman fish surfaced, there was slight disappointment, but the vibe was still good that there was some active life on the bottom. Sam got taught a serious lesson by his fish and his attitude that this Ningaloo fishing was going to be easy was soon eroded as his fish took a 10m dive into the coral and stiched him up.

A quick re-tie and re-bait saw us near the bottom again only to have spangled after spangled plauge us until the esky was full. Anyone thats caught relatively shallow water spanglies know that these fish don't give up all the way to the surface and certainly pull some string - along with some of the best demersal fish you encounter up north. I'm not normally one to keep a box full of fish unless people are staying with me or need some help and with Sam's oldies requesting some fish, the order was filled and he was back in their good books. We ended up back at the ramp at 12pm and were stoked with our day on the water, if only that first billie had hooked up it would have well and truly been up there in the highly memorable stakes, will be anyway, but so close!! Forgive my lame attempts at story telling, had a few beers after getting back and then been on a bait gathering bender down at Learmonth for big blue marlin season (no where near as successful as the mornings fishing trip though :( )

Here's a few pics.

Cheers,

Adam

Ps. Cheers to Ando (Brad Anderson for the free camo's) will be in touch soon mate!