Last Minute Steep Point Trip Report
With weather looking questionable at the Abrolhos over the Anzac weekend i made the last minute call to push further north than originally planned to Steep Point.
Deckies were a little hard to come by but at thursday lunch I managed to lock down one mate and one random from "Perth Beer Economy" to acconompany me for a Thursday evening departure from Perth / (all going well) Monday noon return. A bit of a lightning trip with 18 hours of driving for just two days on board the chivers, but that's what you get when you're at the mercy of the weather gods I guess.
After packing most of my shed into the boot of the Jeep we hitched on the boat and were off, fortunately the drive up went better than expected, swagging just outside of Northampton and getting going early to arrive at Denham by 10:30. After navigating Denhams version of "Pek Hour" we loaded up 400L of fuel in the boat and we were set to depart for Shelter Bay. The crossing over was an absolute delight, compare to the previous two trips on an open topped 19ft star the 23ft Chivers was a breeze and the red cans were cracked before noon. Once arrived we set the boat up for some fishing and headed out to Monkey rock where previously we had been quite successful picking up pinkies, red throats and baldies.
It was at this point that 48 hours of extrememly unsuccesfull fishing begun.. We bottom bounced and trolled and attemped to dive for the next two days for but had a veyr hard time catching any decent fish. Mostly undersize pinkies and a couple of red throats was a depressing site opening the esky to fish out the beers (which were easy to find at least).
On the morning of the last day i insisted at the point of mutiny that we persist with fishing in 100m and low and behold we hit (what felt like) the motherload off of a single lump. The furuno 620 wasn't showing any fish but the 5m drop from 95 to 100 over about 10m in otherwise barren ground was enough for us to drop the handlines in for a crack. From here we managed to pull in a couple of small reds (a first for the boat), two gold band (also a first) and 5 yellow spotted rock cod which i am yet to try but am told are pretty decent on the chew. The lures went out for the drive back into south passage with no success unfortunately but all in all a fantastic trip with amazing weather and one of our best hauls yet.
Most surpsingly was that the Jeep managed to tow the big girl 1600km's without a single issue (other than soft shitty american suspension that has the headlights pointing at the moon but the new suspension kit is ready to go to sort that one out).
Vinesh87
Posts: 2751
Date Joined: 02/04/11
Good fish! Solid long weekend
Good fish! Solid long weekend trip!
Suprised the Jeep towed all that way without breaking down !
noords
Posts: 25
Date Joined: 06/09/13
Not as surprised as me..
We were definitely running on a hope and a prayer.. the last 10 minutes prior to deptarture were spent digging around the shed for my air compressor, eventually i called it and decided to wing it only to discover a slow leak in the spare.. murphy was obviously on break over the weekend though as we got up and back unscathed.
Vinesh87
Posts: 2751
Date Joined: 02/04/11
I was just joking haha Just
I was just joking haha
Just towed my boat 4000km with mine and not a drama!
sea-kem
Posts: 14857
Date Joined: 30/11/09
Nice bag of fish there. Is
Nice bag of fish there. Is that the ring in Decky with the Red? He has nice legs
Love the West!
Adam Gallash
Posts: 15610
Date Joined: 29/11/05
Bag
Nice bag, epic sunrise conditions.
Site Admin - Just ask if you need assistance
JohnF
Posts: 2836
Date Joined: 07/07/10
The worlds worst fisherman no
The worlds worst fisherman no more!!!!
Well done Simon.
Boston Whaler 235 Conquest......getting the flogging it was built for.
noords
Posts: 25
Date Joined: 06/09/13
Eric the eel is going to
Eric the eel is going to have to step up on the yak!!
Krusty
Posts: 714
Date Joined: 27/11/15
Sounds like a great trip and
Sounds like a great trip and your persistence paid off in the end with a nice bag ....well done
My fishing spots are so secret........... even the fish don't know where they are !!
oz74
Posts: 274
Date Joined: 14/05/12
excellent
any days away fishing are worth it. A nice haul like you had is just a bonus.
wait til you try what we call honeycomb cod- garantee you won't throw one back in future!
cheers
Brett
noords
Posts: 25
Date Joined: 06/09/13
No argument here, we were
No argument here, we were having a great time even with the fish slow to the bite. Stacks of marine life, little sharks everywhere (only lost two rigs to them though), hundreds of dolphins and a bunch of turtles and sea snakes.