Well finally exams are over, sorry I haven’t been posting a lot but I’ve been pretty busy with school, so now I’ve got some time I thought id put up some photos of my last school holidays.

A select group of guys were asked to go on a camp up in the Pilbra out at Dampia, where we spent 4 days self sufficient living on the islands, 5 sailing boats were supplied and they were equipped with 5hp engines which were extremely useful considering we didn’t even see a breath of wind for 3 of the 4 days. Most guys took rods, tackle and snorkelling gear. Heaps of fish where caught which was a first for many of the guys who went. And every one was glad to leave the rain and to get our tan game on.

We launched from foul pt and drove approx 15nm to whalers bay where we stayed the first night, the fishing was somewhat disappointing however the warmth and the beautiful water made up for it.

we awoke to a howling easterly which made getting to our desired destination of chook pt a little interesting in low gunnel sailing boats

however once there we saw our first shark and an array of fish,

we spent an hour or so throwing lures at local trevally, log toms and barracuda

we then went and set up camp further down the beach and went for a fish off the reef, we used school mackerel which we caught trolling on the way there for bait, first fish caught was a nice size mangrove, we spent a few hours catching spango’s, sharks, seaperch, small trout and lost countless rigs to monsters which we believe to be bluebone. Unfortunately we forgot the camera and stuff walking to get it. The next day we awoke to the best weather of the trip and decided to stay at chook bay another nigh so with the full tide we made our way over the shallow reefs and out behind the islands, with only one thing on our minds “fresh cray” however the majority of the group had never even a cray in the water so It was left up to me to catch a feed.

after a few minutes and one shocked look on my teachers face they decided we had enough, (Stuff that). So I grabbed the camera and took some shots

we headed back to camp and cooked up lunch and chilled for the rest of the arvo and just mucked around the camp

we then cooked up dinner and got ready to settle down to sleep. (NOT) me and a mate had a sic idea to stay up and go for a fish, so once every one was off with the ferries we got up and started collecting crabs for bait. Once we had a full bucket we started fishing. Straight in front of the camp we caught enough black spot sea perch for a feed, but us being lazy and 16yo boys we couldn’t be stuffed cleaning and filleting them so hey lets have some fun an see what lurking. We grabbed our heavy gear and went a few meters down the beach just past a reef, thew out a whole fish on 200lb mono trace running 55lb braid, within seconds we had our first run however it was off just as quick as it was on. I wound up to find that it was wire time, with 200lb wire traces and whole fish on surely we had a chance.

a few seconds later

a straightened swivel arrrrr these were not little sharks. Somehow my mate who was fish 30lb braid managed to hook a baby shark and landed it


So now I was devvo and I wanted to land one, with a new leader and new bait I was on, zzzzzzzzzzzzzz BANG again and again and again we lost 23 leaders and only one landed. It was pushing 2am when we heard a scraping noise which scared the crap out of us, we went and had a look to see a turtle laying

After a few shots it was back to the sharks
Now I used pliers to tighten my drag to the max to stop or slow them from getting to the reef

and it worked I had a huge run and It pulled into the drink and eventually turned it’s head and got it up to the shore one look at it and there was no way my mates were jumping in after that. We estimated it at 2-2.5m and up to 60kg with teeth I tried to lift it up but I bit straight threw, oh well it was enough for me.

We all went to bed with some stories to tell the next day. We awoke to an even better day than the previous


We quickly had breaky and packed for out return voyage and a quick troll.

Once out behind the island we rigged up and dropped our lures. I supplied my boat with my best and most lucky lures and It payed off a few minutes into the troll and we had a first few fish


I skull dragged this little yellow tailed scad and waited for a bigger fish and few more meters it happened

We were heading in for lunch so I was told to take my lure out as it had caught the first 3 fish dam so I gave my mate a guaranteed lure and within mins he had a new pb for his biggest, first and best fish of his life and his face showed it



After lunch we jumped back in and dropped the lures, a Rankin and an Estuary cod were caught over a reef and then the pelagic action started, well for our boat anyway

After our crew had all caught a few fish we were commanded to stop fishing because we had only moved a few hundred meters since lunch. Once our lures were out we started to get closer and eventually we were back in civilization, the remainder of the day was spend cleaning and we were taken into Karratha were we treated ourselves to HJ’s. then back to the rain and cold weather, I was told that two days before we got home it dropped down to 1 degree, stuff that.

The first week of the school holiday I spent down with some mates skerfing and mucking round then back up and over to rottenest for the second week. The fishing action was slow but we still managed a feed each day heaps some pics

So that was the end of the fun and the work began.

Cheers miles