Inside exmouth west side reef

Hi guys,

heading to exy friday night for the first time, with a boat.

Winds look shitty atm was wondering if you can

a) get a 5.5m ali inside the reef off westside?

b) what could i expect to catch?

 

Cheers.


Brad Y's picture

Posts: 260

Date Joined: 03/02/12

AaronYes we fish inside most

Wed, 2012-05-30 10:12

Aaron

Yes we fish inside most of the time we are up there.  Fishing is in many ways as good and sometimes better than outside.  Plenty of depth to run a 5.5m boat around.  Just watch out for the coral bombies as they sometimes are right under the surface -even poking out on a real low tide.  Launching at tantabiddi was easy enough and it might be better with the new ramp there now.

 

Any area near coral with sand dropoffs and a green tinge on the sandy bottom will have spanglies running around it.  5-7 inch plastics in pearl or a gold colour will catch you them.  Also any gold colour minnow lure around 100-140mm is good too.  Casting towards the coral and pulling like mad to keep the fish from busting you off is rather fun and can be rewarding.

Also the weedbeds south and north of tantabiddi ramp just out from shore carry squid- Find the darkest patches you can and around the 1.5m deep mark and you will get them.  Quite often you will have half a dozen follow up a hooked one.  Easy pickings.

Plenty of trevally inside the reef too- just got to find the schools.  Quite often they will show up out of nowhere and hammer you for a minute or so then keep going.  Otherwise theres sharks, small cod, sometimes large cod, baldies, the odd cobia and school mackeral, plenty of redthroat emperor too.

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Fish for thrills....

Dan's picture

Posts: 168

Date Joined: 23/02/06

and be sure to pack a few

Wed, 2012-05-30 14:01

and be sure to pack a few gold Halco roosta 105's - nothing more exciting than seeing a pack of spangoes charging in- backs out of the water fighting to smash a popper !

Brad Y's picture

Posts: 260

Date Joined: 03/02/12

Amen!

Wed, 2012-05-30 16:34

Amen!

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Fish for thrills....

crasny1's picture

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Date Joined: 16/10/08

damn

Wed, 2012-05-30 16:46

You 2 stole my thunder. Halco roosta in black/gold, any size but the middle sized one the best. They cant resist this if the are around. Bloop, pause, blood, smash!!!

Also you might be surprised that in the deeper sections you could easily get coral trout. I bit overfished in close but they are still there and with plackies, poppers and minnows you are in with a chance.

I personally love the shallow stuff. Very visual and no bloody noahs to destroy your fun, so you can go light. I dont like going light deep, because youll just kill the fish by feeding the taxmen lining up, so its skull drag, and there is no fun in using a 20-37kg combo catching demersals IMO.

Have fun, and yes it looks like easterlies for a while. Where is the next SW front predicted? This calms the easterlies down.

Neels

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"I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact!!" _ Elon Musk

Brad Y's picture

Posts: 260

Date Joined: 03/02/12

Copping one as we speak down

Wed, 2012-05-30 17:34

Copping one as we speak down here. 

Yep plenty of trout there too.  If you can get a day where there is no wind or swell, get as close to the reef as you dare on the outside and throw some stickbaits around over the coral.  GT's, red bass, emperors and some stonking trout!

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Fish for thrills....

AaronC's picture

Posts: 118

Date Joined: 26/10/11

thanks boys

Wed, 2012-05-30 19:08

WOW sounds like there is still some fishing to be done!!!

Trout sounds like a plan. I am a big fan of light gear, stickbaits, poppers and minnows.

Any danger in the gulf at night when the winds drop down?????

Brad Y's picture

Posts: 260

Date Joined: 03/02/12

Night fishing is a

Wed, 2012-05-30 19:18

Night fishing is a possibility.  We used to do it on the west side.  But my family has been doing it since I was in nappies so we know where the reefs are.  Plus we carry GPS and paper charts (DPI ones) of the area and know where and how to get back.  A spotlight is essential and take it very steady.  And be prepared to play with some big noahs.  Once they move in they often sit under the boat and wait for you to bring fish up and then have thier way with them.  Not real productive.  Its how we used to catch spanglies and we just stuffed around inside the reef during the day.  Now using lures we catch more spanglies than we did with bait and we do it during the day.  That leaves the night time for drinking, stuffing your face at pinnochios restaraunt and other shenanigans.

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Fish for thrills....

Brad Y's picture

Posts: 260

Date Joined: 03/02/12

Some pics from the last few

Wed, 2012-05-30 19:38

Some pics from the last few years of fishing exxy inside the reef and on top of the reef






And these ones are from a mates album- couldnt get them linked to show like mine

http://i812.photobucket.com/albums/zz44/Castawaylogistics/Exy/P1000755.jpg

http://i812.photobucket.com/albums/zz44/Castawaylogistics/Exy/86401813.jpg

http://i812.photobucket.com/albums/zz44/Castawaylogistics/Exy/e171008c.jpg

http://i812.photobucket.com/albums/zz44/Castawaylogistics/P1000729.jpg

 

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Fish for thrills....

Dan's picture

Posts: 168

Date Joined: 23/02/06

.....and here's some of mine

Thu, 2012-05-31 10:58

.....and here's some of mine ;)

 

 

 

topperQ's picture

Posts: 45

Date Joined: 07/05/12

 Wow... Good fishing there

Thu, 2012-05-31 16:26

 Wow... Good fishing there you're having.

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 Live to fish

Posts: 209

Date Joined: 13/02/12

ahhhh i gotta get up there!

Sat, 2012-06-02 10:18

ahhhh i gotta get up there!

meersy's picture

Posts: 278

Date Joined: 20/04/10

exmouth

Sat, 2012-06-02 18:29

Just got back this morning, after a week in exxy and had a great time, Even though it blew its arse out.We fished the weed beds at tandabiddy for squid till the wind dropped off, which was usually at about 3.30, then trolled the back of the reef till dark.Landed some nice macki then moved inside and caught a heap of cod and the odd spanglie.We also tried the marina after dark and caught heaps of bream and some small jacks.The highlight of our trip was heading down the creeks catching numerous different spiecies which included jacks, flathead,nice size cod,bream,sand perch and muddies.-probably not what you go to exxy for but when the wind is blowing like it has been its a whole lot a fun on the light gear .This was the 6th time ive been to exxy but the first time ive ventured to the creeks and i will be heading back down there next time im there without fail.

Dan's picture

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Date Joined: 23/02/06

which creeks ?

Tue, 2012-06-05 10:35

you mean the ones in bottom of gulf ?

meersy's picture

Posts: 278

Date Joined: 20/04/10

Creeks

Tue, 2012-06-05 17:49

Yeh dan, in the bay of rest.You will have a ball.Make sure you check the tides,unlike me ha ha.

terboz123's picture

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Date Joined: 13/04/11

 dont need a boat to get

Tue, 2012-06-05 18:36

 dont need a boat to get muddies either...if you hve a 4WD theres are places where we killed it last year at low tide....just very disorientating if you loose each other. We played loud music from the car so we could some how find our way back....

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 a hard days fishing still beats work

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meersy's picture

Posts: 278

Date Joined: 20/04/10

Yeh good idea.awsome way to

Tue, 2012-06-05 19:05

Yeh good idea.awsome way to fill in time between windy days and sink a few tubes.