Finally heading to Exmouth, perfect conditions out to sea as I drove along the new Indian Ocean Drive - couldnt help wondering how many good fish would be out there in the warm water flowing down from the north.

Had been pretty much been planning the trip since Coral Bay 12 months ago and was pretty excited about what lay ahead.

Over the next 3 days the plan was to go hard on the troll fishing solo then fish with my son Loki flying up for the last 3 days which would include the Fishwreck Comp.

My first day out was brilliant, not having a 4wd i decided not to risk launching at Tantabiddy and took off from Bundegi skimming out through tuna schools, tossed up between the Muriens or the deeper water around the corner and decided deep was it.

Put the skirts out when I got to 35mt and immediately had a soft grassy butchered by a small spanish mack before re setting and pushing on out, got to the 50's when a sail smashed the shotgun lure and jumped all over the place, interesting times sorting that out and winding in the other 3 rods plus the teaser plus trying to get the gopro video working. I had the gopro mounted off the rocket launchers but missed capturing the main action, the sail was belly jagged and took about 15 minutes to get to the boat and release in good nick - called it about 30kg.

Heading further SW to 100mt another sail hit the 9 inch Polu Kai, looked to be a bigger fish but pulled the hook in around 15 seconds when I lost tension, things went quiet after that - plenty of striped tuna around, easy to catch as i headed further out towards the gas rigs where I picked up a little black marlin that was covered in sea lice ? released very alive (hope the parasites dont claim it) and worked the same area for a couple of good hits that could have been anything?

On the run back I picked up a nice cobia in close but felt bad separating it from its mate that swam with it the whole time - still being under strict instructions to bring some fillets home into the ice box went mr cobes.

The next few days were pretty patchy as the weather was fairly breezy, I launched out of Tantabiddy close to high tide and came back in 3 hours not sure how the tides work with retrieving the boat - turned out that Adam had picked the perfect tides as subsequently I never saw sand exposed at the ramp even when out all day.

Picked up Loki from Learmonth on Friday and later on we went to Adams place for the FW Comp briefing, great to meet Adam some of the crew including little Alex who is still buzzing about his recent state record wahoo!!

First day of the comp saw us out of Tantabiddy heading straight to 100mt and out with the spread ( 2x 15kg, 1 x 24kg and the Tuna rod with a little pink Williamson) plus the 2 teasers .Quite a few birds working the tuna schools but not much else happening for us for a while, to break up the lack of action we picked up plenty of striped tuna plus one mackeral tuna  then surprised to get a nice dolly that came in fast on the 24kg gear and went completely berko inside the boat. Later as luck would have it a black marlin chose to hit the tuna rod with the littlle Williamson on 37kg leader and took 40 minutes to almost get to the wind on when the hook pulled - pretty dissapointed really thought i had it, looked around 40 - 50kg. Had a whale scoot past the boat when we fist hooked the marlin - no idea what it was big black thing very rounded at the front - gave us a bit of a shock as it rocketed past. We headed in to Helby Bank and trolled minnows along 25mt line back to the ramp for zilch apart from a good mackeral lost and a smelly old cuda, back to the Lighthouse Caravan Park to gear up for the next day.

Day 2 of the comp was completey different to the light winds predicted as we woke up early to the sound of heavy rain and worse still strong winds, drove up to the lighthouse and the sea looked very ugly so we opted out for the day to give it everything for our final day on Monday. Paul N and crew who were my neighbours in the cabin next door went out early on "In Pursuit" and reported white out conditions and a very slow trip back to the ramp.

Day 3 of the comp and our last day in Exmouth brought perfect conditions, high hopes and in the water out of Tantabiddy at 7.30 - trolled out from 50mt but the weed was shocking having to constantly clear the lures and must have wound them all in at least 20 times during the day kept going wide to find clear water but that stuff was everywhere even out to the 500s.

We ran some live stripeys at 2 knots in some awesome looking water colour and had almost instant action, the back stipey about 50 mt behind got raked and pulled the hook while gunning the boat forward, pulled it in and fed the other livey further out and got a short run but dropped it and started winding it in when then the other now dead stipey was being dragged straight under the boat, gunning foward we hooked up a big sail with stunning blue colurs erupting out of the water but it was all over in about 15secs pulling the hook again!

Trolled around the tuna schools out deep with more liveys for another hour and saw a good marlin at least 100kg free jump 4 times about 300mt away, with hearts pumping we slowly swam a tuna out to that area but it was gone and that was the end of our trip.

The windup that night at Adams was a treat really well organised comp (loved the tides!) top people all round, plenty of good fish caught by all and we seriously hope to back up next year.

Here is a video of some of our action......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckB7HB7S8tE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckB7HB7S8tE