Just got back from a week up at exmouth with the tinnie. Pretty good trip all up with a couple of highlights. Here's a quickish rundown

Arrived fri night set up camp and sat down preparing rigs for the next days session. Woke up to a slight south easter so we decided to head out of tanta's. Tried bottom bashing in some good looking ground in around the 20-30's but couldnt manage anything decent with only the usual suspects (charlie courts) playing the game. After a few hours we called it a day and headed back to camp to "feast" on 2 minute noodles .

Having a shocker of a first day we were up to make amends and actually catch something decent for dinner the next day. Again we set off from tanta's out in roughly the same grounds and managed to pluck a few yellow tailed emperors and blue spotted emps. With a few fish in the bag we set off to find some better grounds out in the 40's but couldnt manage anything decent. Tried some trolling but no takers so we headed back to camp to cook up the emperors. The little yellow tail emperors cook up pretty decent too. Alot better than 2 min noodles haha

Day 3 we decided to give up on bottom bashing for the trip and try more on lure fishing (even tho we arent big lure fisherman). Launched at bundegi and trolled out past the cape and found a small school of bait fish busting up in 4m of water. My mate chucked on a metal and launched a cast in the middle of the bait school and hooked up instantly. After a good little fight up came a 3kg spanglie. Found a few more fish busting up out deeper so we got back on the troll. After a few zig zags we managed a nice 6kg sharkie and an undersize tuskie on a 160DD. Having managed to catch the spanglie in close we anchored up and flicked a few softies around which produced a small gold spot and a few little emperors. Whilst casting a softie i noticed a huge black shadow moving 50m away from the boat. Took me a few seconds to realise " shit! thats a manta". I quickly cut off the softie (knowing that i couldnt cast 50m with it on) and whacked on a 55g twisty. I then casted out towards the manta and BANG i was on. After a good 10min tussle up came this 6kg cobia

Day 4 we lauched nice and early out from tanta's in search of a few mackies. Once we got out into the opening my mate rod went off, Looked like a decent fish but didnt get a chance to see it as the mystery fish had straighten a clip swivel. We were guessing possibly a cobia as it didnt have the typical first run of a mackie and was burying down but we will never know. We got the laser pros back out and i manage a couple of little 6kg spainards. The strong southerly kicked in and ruined and more chance of trolling for the day but 2 mackies in less than an hour was worth the early start. 

Day 5 was blown out with strong southerlies. Tried a flick down landbased at the marina and wapet creek but wind was a pain and resulted in no fish.

Day 6 wasnt much better wind wise but with the direction being south easterly, the decision was made to fish inside the reef at tanta's targeting spanglies. Armed with advice and skin deep lures from exmouth tackle we were confident we could land a few. After 20mins of flicking i finally got a decent hit and landed my first lure caught spanglie. He was 3kgs and almost 60cm. Had a ripper of a session with about 8 spanglies landed with the best being 65cm and over 4kgs. They put up a good clean fight and their visual attack on the lure was unbelievable to see in 2m of water. Also caught a nice chinaman which put an awesome fight on the light gear.

The final day we targeted spanglies again on the skin deeps. With 3 big 60cm+ fish being landed we tried for one on a popper but couldnt get one to hit even though a few came up and checked them out. With time running out we called it a trip. 

This was my lure after 2 days of fishing. These little lures even attracted the attention of sharks, Big gt's and queenies but with no hook ups. 

Caught most of the fish on my Lemax black rose matched to a 3000 freeams kix on 15lb

All in all it was an awesome trip with all decent fish getting caught on lures. Catching spanglies on lures is something i'll never forget and cant wait to nab one on a popper next time round.