Well based upon the discussion last week I decided to put my skills to the test with some down south fisho's that had little idea about the Exmouth area.  We cancelled the first fishing session due to it being blown out and went the l/b option instead, within 20 minutes we had an octopus landed and a small golden trevally just after.  We called it quits after that as it was high tide and I wanted the octopus live to become our new research project at work.  For John it was his first fish of the trip after being out in the boat 3 times. (They had hooked fish but always seemed to lose them)

Saturday morning was blown out so we decided to head out around 1.30pm, just to give the guys a bit of a heads up on what to fish for where and how.  Heading to the spot I saw one of the biggest tuna/bird schools I've seen in Exmouth and decided we'd do one quick troll around to see what we could find.  I kid you not it took less than 30 seconds to have a solid hookup that wasn't stopping and ending up toweling John up and left him fishless again.  Now in the chaos of winding in lines and clearing the spread I noticed the technique John was using was one that ultimately cost him the fish.  Do you think its better to tell people these things or just let them go on how they normally do it without potentially embarrassing them?  The fish was probably a very solid spaniard.

At the spot I showed the guys what to do and what to expect, luckily for me first drop resulted in a nice 65cm trout that got smashed by a big cod on the way up and was luckily spat out.  There were a couple of other small fish hooked but they got codded and it was time to move.  Heading out deep we tried a few spots for not much luck, lots on the sounder which resulted in a couple of pan snapper and NW blowies!  The drift really was too fast out there though so after half an hour we changed plans and put out the trolling gear.

Within 20 minutes of the marlin gear being out a decent black jumped out of the water like a dolphin and hit the shotgun lure twice.  I turned to give him some clear water and a look at the others and he came and hit the short corner and then the left middle all fired up and zipping drag all over the shot.  It turned out not to be as he took one last whack and buzzed off without a hookup. :(  We gave it another hour but that was it for the arvo and we got in just before the tide would make tantas difficult to retrieve and before the other handful of boats out there braving it.

So for 4 hours fishing the guys learnt how to shallow water trout/spangly fish, what to look for out deep ground wise and what rigs to use and the basics of billfishing.   We also lost/got unlucky with 2 fish that would have made the trip, but thats fishing.  These guys aren't muppets either, I've attached a pic of what they get down in their neck of the woods, but when it comes to the north, well its almost a different country.  I'm looking to go out next weekend again to see what they've learnt, but from all accounts, they would have been very happy customers. ;)

Cheers,

Adam