Mackie Islands 2022 

So our annual big fishing trip took us back to the Mackeral Islands this year. Havnt been for a couple of years but it is such a good time over there although the shark population is almost ruining the fishing with the amount of gear let alone fish that you loose. Even from 2 years ago it has gotten alot worse.... Crazy to see about 15 sharks destroy a Spanish Mack on the surface haha and this happened numerous amount of times at numerous different spots. Heres a bit of a write up on how the trip went, it’s a bit long winded but anyway, grab a beer and have a read. If anyone is thinking about this trip feel free to hit me up if you need any info!!

Day 1 and 2:

Left home at gentlemans hours of around 8:00am as we decided this year we will stop half way for night then continue on the next day. We drove up to Wooramel station where we met one of the other boats to swag it the night. Bloody good spot that one, kicking back with a cold beer in the warm artesian spas was brilliant after 8 hours of driving. 

Up the next morning when the sun woke us up and into Carnarvon for breaky where we met the 3rd of our 4 boats heading up... They left at midnight so met us right at the right time in carnarvon. the venture from Carnarvon through to Onlslow is pretty booring... But got there late arvo and swagged it at the caravan park and off to the pub for a feed, met the 4th boat and has a good old chin wag.

Day 3:

Up when the sun woke us up, breaky and check in at the resort to venture over to the island. Had to get over to the island before 9:00am as they were unloading a barge. This day was very very windy but we were all excited so we wanted to get out for a fish. Straight over to the island and unloaded then headed to a red emperor spot close to the island that produced well last year...... Very very sharky. Were hooking up to very decent fish but could only land 1 Red. Moved a little deeper to more good red ground and all we could catch was Rankin. As it was the first day most Rankin went back. Kept 1 Rankin and 1 Red and decided to head in shallower for a dive to get some Trout. In the water for about 30 mins and I was able to nail a big trout that went 750mm and the other guys got 2 more to top off the first days catch. Back to the island, filleted and unpacked all our gear into the cabin. A few Rums and dinner and it was time to hit the sack.............. Although getting sleep is hard work haha the mice problem there now is insane, the mice in the walls, in the roof, on your bed haha makes for a hard night sleep without ear plugs. The island is doing everything they can to control them but with all the work with Shevron going on there the mice have moved into the cabins haha

Day 4:

The wind wasnt looking too bad today so we decided to head to Rosily to try get some mackies and do a bit of bottom fishing. As soon as you hooked a mackie it got destroyed by sharks.... Actually a really awesome sight to see, but not if you dont get your $30 lure back... Gave up on that idea and went out a little wider where we got Reds and trout last time. One of the first drops I thought I got a really good red but turned out to be a Saddle at 760mm was my first saddle so was stoked. Ended up fishing everywhere from 10 – 80m but most spots were sharked out so we just kept on moving, drinking beers and having a good old time. Ended up with a few decent fish, saddletail, trout, rankin but nothing special. Headed back to the island for a cook up and a few games of cards!

Day 5:

This day was the pick of the days with wind prediction going to be glass. One of the boats decided to send it out wide to get Rubies and fish the wells. We did that last time we went so gave them the spots and we stayed in close again. The conditions were amazing. Glassy for pretty much all day, no sea anchor, no drift, was bloody awesome. Same deal fished 20 – 80m mainly targeting reds, ended up with the usual trout, rankin but no reds. Once again very sharky. Put in a bit more of an effort diving as the conditions were good and got a couple of crays and trout to top off the bag. Back at the fillet table the boat that went out wide came back in with massive smiles on their face. Ended up with 4 decent sized rubies and a 10.5kg Red Emperor amongst trout, rankin etc. They had a ripper day and that Red they caught was huge. The guys from the island went and got the scales as it was the biggest red they have seen for a while. The guys were stoked to say the least!!

Days 6 and 7:

Looking really windy these 2 days. First day snuck out to the back of the island hoping to troll up some trout and maybe a Mackie as we hadn’t got any Pelagics to this point. Ended up with a heap or school macks which make awesome bait and a decent size Spaniard. On the protected side of the island managed to jump in for a dive but was pretty dead, saw a few trout but were hoping for crays but couldn’t locate any. Second windy day was horrible, no boating this day. The Island crew took us to the back beach on the island hoping to cast for small GTs etc, last time we came this was a highlight of the trip…… This time was a total disappointment…. 1 small Trev landed between the 12 of us haha so just drank a lot of beers until we were picked up 2 hours later haha. That arvo we hit the rec room for a pool and darts comp then had a bit of fun trying to locate squid at the jetty and talking to some of the Shevron boys that were on RDO.

Day 8:

Wasn’t looking too bad wind wise so we decided to head south to a few good spots we found last year…… This time I don’t think we were getting sharked, but instead were getting Codded hahaha Would hook up to a decent fish, fight for a bit then bang something hit it which was almost impossible to stop and bricked us in the reef. One of the guys managed to get one up and it was well over a metre cod. From experience these things are bloody hard to release after being pulled up but have a bit of a method from last time puncturing their swim bladder from behind the fin and squeezing the belly to release the air, once that was done we were able to swim it for a while and then it took off with a massive swish of its tail, swam away really well. We sounded around and sounded around marking fish, ground everywhere. Managed a lot of rankin but most were released, rankin must be everywhere, almost every spot got rankin. Managed to get a couple of Cobia which was good for the pelagic bag.

Day 9

This was probably the best days fishing of the trip and what I remember the mackeral islands to be. Wind wise was looking pretty good and we hadn’t got many pelagics on board so decided to focus on trolling. Went to a few spots we had good luck on last time. Trolling for about 5 minutes and bang, massive run. Was a big Mackie. We were reversing on it getting line back then whack…. About 20 sharks attacked the poor Mackie. Sharks, Mackie jumping in the air everywhere was a bloody good sight, managed to pull the lure back in which was a bonus. Decided to move a bit further up and trolling and no joke we couldn’t even get the rods in the rod holder before we were on again, we had 3 rods out and a teaser but ended up dropping down to just 2 rods and no teaser there were that many fish. In total we caught 15 mackies, lost 4 to sharks, 3 lures and released a few smaller specimen. Literally in about 2 hours of complete chaos we ended up with out 30kgs (10kgs each) of pelagic fillets. Never had a Mackie bite like it, was complete chaos and something I will be talking about for years to come. We left the mackies biting as we had what we needed and thought if the top water action was this good then the bottom bouncing should be good too…… Not disappointed. Literally every drop we were getting fish and not many sharks. Ended up taking home a couple of rankin, a red and a couple of trout. Back at the fillet station that arvo we were the only boat out of the 4 of us that went south, all the others went North towards Rosily and Penguin and they didn’t have much luck so they were stoked to see us get so many fish, they all had the same idea to head out there the next day……. We had other plans as we were almost bagged out….. Mud Crabs!!!

Day 10:

I love mud crabs so was hoping to get back to main land and down one of the creeks, I packed a few drop nets to hopefully get a few. Headed to mainland on an incoming tide and navigated our way into one of the creeks…. It isn’t easy with a 7.2M boat haha. At one point it was that shallow we had to lift the engine and let the tide drift us over the sand bar hahaha but ended up getting in with no real issues. Went down the creek which was about 1.2m the whole way up. Dropped the nets and decided to go for a walk hooking while we wait…… Couldn’t believe it… No holes at all near the creek but once you got out of the mangrove and onto the flats there were holes everywhere. Ended up hooking 7 big bucks out of their holes. We were absolutely stoked!!! One of the boys got nailed by sand flies but it was sooo worth it…. To our surprise we got absolutely nothing in the nets, but we had enough with the 7 we hooked so decided to journey back to the island and do a bit of fishing on the way… Found a few little lumps where we decided to drop Vibes down… These vibes were given to us by Mackdog Tackle as we purchased a lot of their underdog jigs for the trip. Gave the vibes a go and these were dynamite on the trout!! Trout seemed to love them, didn’t even hit the bottom and you were on every drop. Was bloody good fun. Back to the island where we didn’t have to fillet for once with was bloody good haha. A few of the island people were stoked to see Mud Crabs so after a few pics they were cleaned and cooked up. Between the 12 of us we were eating the muddies for ages getting every last bit of meat, they were absolutely delish!!! Highlight of the trip for me!!

Day 11:

Pretty much the last fishing day of the trip. All the boats talked about what they needed to finish off their bag limits and went out accordingly. Some trolling, some bottom bashing. We wanted a few reds, trout, pretty much anything red to finish out bag off. Conditions were pretty terrible where we went. We had plans on going out and casting near the far islands for GT’s but didn’t even make it the wind turned that bad, decided to head back towards the island and fish a few spots we found on the way…… Wind was terrible but the next hour was the best bottom bashing we had had all trip. First drift got 3 Rankin, all went back. Second drift I hooked another massive saddletail going 740mm and the other guys getting a rankin each. Next drift one of the boys was on hard, great head shakes big runs and we all called it for a big red….. Saw it come up…. Right colour… Not the right height… Called it for a Chinaman… Up it came….. Absolute horse of a trout… This thing was massive and fat!! We bought him over board with high 5’s…. Trout ended up going 830mm. Was a big trout. Absolutely stoked we went around again but couldn’t get anything else besides the rankin, decided to call it early as the weather wasn’t getting any better and we needed a weigh in with the fillets.

To our surprise we ended up with 20kgs of red fish – (Reds, Trout, Saddle) And 10kgs of Rankin. Didn’t think we got that much red fish so was good to see. Got our 30 of Spanish and Cobia to top off the limit.

Day 12 and 13:

Pack up day and headed in from the island….. One of the deckies said the day before “Do we need to fuel up” I literally said “Naa if I have planned it correctly we should be going in on fumes so we have less weight for the trip home” hahahhaha couldn’t have planned it better……. As I came off the throttle at the boat ramp the pick up for the fuel is at the back of the fuel tank so as I came off the throttle the front of the boat went down and guess what… haha we ran out of fuel right at the boat ramp… Luckily one of the other boats were right up behind us so we were able to throw them a rope as they swung us around slightly to nudge up to the jetty…. Could have actually been bad as we were heading for the rocks….. but ended well in the end thank god. Basically what had happened is when we did fill up at the island a few days ago the boat wasn’t level as you fill up on the beach so I worked it out that we didn’t get an extra 20 – 30 litres in that we normally would if the boat was on a trailer…. Could have been worse but ended up all good in the end. Quick pack up, fillets in Engels and off to Carnarvon….. About an hour out of Carnarvon it bucketed down and we were swagging it hahaha. Luckily the caravan park had a games room shed that we all rolled our swags out. Good feed at the Carnarvon hotel and a few pints we were set for the trip home the next day. Pretty un eventful trip from Carnarvon home… Pretty much every floodway from Carnarvon to Wooramel had water in it so must have had a fair chunk of rain. Got home around 4pm that arvo.

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