Went and did our first trip out to the Abrolhos Islands.

We drove up Wednesday and camped in the boat at the marina in Geraldton. Launched first thing in the morning and headed across.

Got in close to Pelsart Island and saw some birds working the water so went for a troll while keeping an eye out on the sounder. We found a couple of lumps on the sounder and dropped on them. The second drop got a little dhu on a soft plastic.

Kept on trolling and got a couple of really big hits on the lures, however lost the first few fish. Eventually my mate got one to stay on the hooks. Nice big mack.

After that we got a double header of stripey tuna.

Found another nice looking bottom spot so dropped down and got a snapper on a soft plastic.

Then found some birds working the water and trolled through them to get a double hookup of spanish mackeral.

After that we were both pretty tired, so we went and camped up at bitey holes. (Thanks Rob for giving us directions there).

The front entrance was closed out from swell, so we had to sneak in over the shallow reef. We did it at pretty much walking pace with the prop almost out the water. Still bumped the skeg a couple of times though.

Where we moored for the night.

The next morning had some south easterly winds, so we headed out to the north west of the island group. Did a bit of bottom bashing and got a little snapper.

We then trolled right out deep into the leewin current. Got a double hookup of dolphin fish for our troubles. They put on a big aerial display, jumping out of the water and fighting hard.

I landed my one, but lost my mates at the side of the boat.

We then headed back in to the reef and did some more bottom bashing.

There was hundreds of those charlie courts out there, but my mate managed to get a few snapper between them.

We were out there in the middle of nowhere, when a big boat came steaming straight up to us. Turned out to be the fisheries boat. Good to see them out and checking people.

As they pulled off, my mates rod went beserk and after a long fight he pulled up a shark.

After that we went and stayed overnight at gun island. We tried floating out some baits on balloons while we had dinner, but couldn't temp anything.

Got up early in the morning and went for another bottom bash while waiting for the easterly winds to die down a bit. Caught a little coral trout.

After that we had a back breaking ride back head first into a 15 knot easterly. It got better the closer we got to geraldton though. About 60 seconds after we got to the marina storm clouds rolled in and it started bucketing down.

Had a fantastic time out there. It's a fishermans paradise. I will definetly be heading back there sometime soon.

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