Headed up to Exmouth last Sunday for a few days fishing and my first real crack at spearfishing. Went with a good mate Matt. Both of us have runabouts but neither had a car that can really tow the distance so we opted for a mainly landbased trip. We got quite a few good fish, nothing spectacular but was still a lot of fun.  see below for the highlights, detail and pics.

Day 1 – up at 5am to leave by 6am for the 13 odd hour trek. We arrived in Exmouth town around 7:30pm so made pretty good time. Out to the lighthouse, checked in and decided to wet a line off the beach. Matt got the first fish – a nice red throat, soon to be followed by a 65cm spango on my rod I was pretty stoked considering this was the first night. Followed up with a few smaller spango’s and many small fingermarks and other reef fish which were released.

Day 2 – up early and out to do a bit of spearing. Being my first real time with the gun it took a while to get used to. Several frustrating shots and painfull reloads (the 1.20 RA with 20mm band hurts the chest a bit) later I had nailed my first fish – a gold spot sweetlip of about 40cm. In this time matt had nailed several fish including a 60cm gold spot trevally and a few painted sweetlip. In the arvo we went into town to hire a tinny as the weather was looking sweet for tuesday. Picked up a sweet tinny for $50 per day which is a bargain in my book. Heaps easier than towing a boat all the way up there anyhow.

Day 3 – up bright and early. Launched at tantabiddi. Headed out through the passage and trolled behind the reef where all the bird action was. Got a hookup almost immediately followed by a bust off – bugger! Spend another hour or two trolling with no success what so ever. Swapped lures over, changed speed, used bait and nothing. Apparently the majority of the action was mack tuna anyhow so no great loss. Tried a bit of bottom bashing out deep but using the chart and without a sounder proved very difficult. As a result we caught bugger all. Headed in closer to the reef and had some better luck picking up a nice cod and catching / releasing many small red throats and other emperors. Time to start spearing! We hung the flasher in and anchored in about 10m of water around the reef. Straight away I nailed a 70cm or thereabouts blue fin trev which fought well. Followed shortly after with a sweetlip of around 1 kg. The sharks rocked up but were pretty placid so we hung around a while, saw a few spango’s but they were too spooked to allow a shot. Anchor up and off to find more ground. Anchored up in approx 12m water over what at first glance appeared to be a lifeless weed bed. After diving down to the bottom a few times we seemed to attract a few fish, but nothing shootable. I swam further away and found a sand patch on the edge. I sat on the bottom for what seemed like eternity until out of the corner of my eye spied a school of spango’s. I nailed the biggest one and quickly headed for the surface as my lungs were burning for air. Got on board to bleed the fish which went approx 5 – 6 kg and was the biggest for the trip. I was stoked. Matt then returned to surface with a slightly smaller yet still good spango. he went back in to retrieve his float line which had somehow drifted away, on his swim back to the boat I saw a 3-4m tiger trying to nail his float, I yelled out and have never seen him swim faster back to the boat. The shark seemed to have gone but we decided to call it a day and didn’t take the risk of going back in.

Day 4 – went back to the spango patch of previous day but couldn’t hold anchor. The conditions were atrocious. Howling wind, large swell. Was a very wet trip back to the boat ramp. Dumped the boat off and went to a shore based location. Upon entry I nailed a 2kg sea mullet and narrowly missed a good Jack. Water was filthy dirty which was a plus as I managed to hit an approx 7-8kg queenie that was well over 1m. Took me for a decent run before I could subdue him and get him out before the taxman could have a crack. Also nailed a few smaller fish. We had a break for a few hours, knocked off a beer or two, had the customary arvo nap then headed back in for a few more fish. I managed a reasonable gold spot trev plus a sweetlip & matt got a large squid – dinner! Dropped the boat back at the hire joint and got stuck into the feed.

Day 5 – early morning session proved good with both of us spearing small 1-2kg gold spot trevally, squid and other smaller stuff, while matt also picked up a Spango. Back to a bit of lunch, rum and coke, 2 hr siesta then into the water for an arvo spear. I struggled for a while before managing to bag a few mullet and dart. Matt shot very well in water that was well dirty and a strong current. In no time he had a reasonable jack, big mullet, a couple of queenies and sweetlip. Went fishing after dinner and picked up a couple of spango’s which were a bonus.

Day 6 – drive back to perth. Can’t wait to hit the water again. Many thanks to the lighthouse caravan park, was very cost effective and comfortable. Also big thanks to Exmouth boat hire – got us out into some better ground.

After this trip for me spearfishing is so much more exciting than fishing. I hope to do a lot more over summer and will probably alternate between spearing / cray trips over the coming months. Have just ordered a smaller gun for cavy ground, always looking for others interested in heading out metro or other trips!

cheers and best