A quirk of fate meant that April was pretty much a no work month for me. Six of us booked into a camp site in Kalbarri in May last year and the almost year long wait was killing me. Then a couple of months ago a mate (optimont), also coming on the Kalbarri trip, called and asked if I wanted to come up for a week in the boat off Port Gregory because someone had pulled out of their annual trip.

Three of us headed up to Port Gregory at the start of April and stayed in one of the older houses only a few hundred metres from the beach. A perfect fishing base for the week. Since moving over here from Victoria I was yet to catch a Dhu so my aim for the week was to break the hoodoo. The weather gods were smiling on us and we managed to get out every day with only two of the days proving to be anything approaching choppy. Over the course of the week we bagged out almost every day and I managed to get my first (of 5) dhu, first spangly, first WA snapper and my first dhu on sp's. We also managed a few baldys, coral trout, a heap of red throat, a couple of long battles with local bronzies, as well as several other species. An awesome week!

After a week at Port Gregory we travelled the 8 or so hours back down south and 5 days later geared up and headed right back up again for our week in Kalbarri. This was more of a social trip with the women coming up as well, but fishing was still on the cards and a mate brought up his tinnie so we could get out into the river mouth. My bucket list fish for the trip was a mangrove jack. We stayed at Murchison Caravan Park which is a perfect location with large sites, clean ammenities and the river only 100 metres away.

Our second day there we headed out onto the river and threw out some crab nets in the hope of snagging a few muddies but unfortunately they weren't playing the game and we came up empty handed. The three of us all had fairly light gear in the boat and decided to anchor up near the marina and soak some bait near the pylons. As dusk approached I had a small livie smashed and the drag screamed on my stradic 2500. The run only lasted a few seconds before the 15 pound leader broke. I baited up again with a whole squid and threw it in. 5 minutes later the reel started screaming again and after a short battle managed to nail my bucket list fish.

I was absolutely stoked.

The rest of the trip didn't really prove to be much in the way of results with a heap of little chopper tailor and assorted other non-keepers, but it didn't matter as I'd caught my Jack, and the beautiful surrounds, great company and wads of alcohol was more than enough compensate. I'll definitely be heading up that way again as soon as I can.