yeah, so I'm back from my 2 month camping trip up north.... I cant believe how quick even that length trip went!

with the missus, 2 girls, and the dawg, it was always going to be more of a family trip, so fishing took a close 2nd place to spending some pretty relaxing days with them.

our first destination was on the Ningaloo coast, at a bit of a secret spot. we were there for 4 weeks, and we were camped next to the in-laws, who are caravanning up there for 6 months. although we didn't do too bad, I was a liiiiittle bit underwhelmed by the fishing there. not complaining, but I spent heaps of time trolling, for not much result, although water temp probably wasn't the best for the Spaniards.

I did put the father in law onto 2 marlin, both within 10 mins of each other, and one of which was a fuckin whopper (for a dinghy anyway) - around 80-90kgs. I remember he kept telling me "nothing is going to take those stupid jellyfish looking lures", and "youre going too fast for any fish to chase those lures"... after no more than 5 mins of pulling the skirts in 65m, and the big girl hit hard, and got nearly completely airborne, no more than 10m behind the boat... that shut him up pretty fuckin quickly. we were the camp heroes when we came back, and he told the rest of the grey haired senile pricks that were camped there what we'd caught!! unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of either of the marlin, but the look of shock & awe on his face when she jumped, and when he realised what he was about to battle, that's something i'll never forget!

it was only towards the end of our time there that I really started understanding how to fish the place, and started getting a few good runs on the board. then we were regularly getting the big spanglies, big coral trout, and also had the big baldies sussed out too. needless to say, we ate pretty well up there.

after a quick supplies top-up in Carnarvon for 2 days, the next half of the trip was to gnaraloo station for another 4ish weeks. again, fishing was a precursor to some quality family time, and we were lucky enough to score some pretty awesome weather there for nearly the whole trip. although I didn't get the boat out much when whilst there, whenever I did, we smashed it. big mackies, BIG coral trout, BIG rankin, BIG baldies, and cobia, were the norm. I had 2 mates drive up for a weekend, one of whom hasn't been there before. needless to say, he left there well impressed with the fishing, especially from a dinghy.

I also managed to get in some quality beach fishing throughout the whole trip, of which I don't usually do around perth. an abundant supply of trevally, queenies, some really good spanglies, and even a few mackies off the beach, always kept us entertained, and without a doubt are unreal meal fresh & in a thai green curry.

it was overall an unbelievable trip, and by far the highlight was spending that much time with my kids (and maybe the missus too). they learnt shit up there, that cant be taught in any class room. they saw sharks, rays, fish, mantas, dugongs, turtles, snakes, animals, etc. they went (most of..) the trip without watching tv/movies, or playing on iphones. I even had my oldest regularly adjusting the solar panels, for maximum sun exposure! funny shit!

anyway, its all over red-rover now, and theres nothing left but some unbelievable memories, and a few good photos. here's a few of those now... enjoy.

scotto.

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