Hey fellas,

I was in two minds about doing a write up for our family trip to shark bay, as it wasn’t as spectacular as some of the exxy, abrolhos reports I’ve read. But as I haven’t seen one, on FW, for boat fishing the bays i thought i might as well do it. and FISHNTIME and Faulkner Family gave me some very good advice, that hopefully can be put to use next time if we bring a few more jerry cans ;)

We left home on Sunday the 3rd of April at 4am, with the car choccas with gear and the 4.85m trailcraft in tow, we arrived in Denham around 2pm, and were welcomed by bugger all breeze and .5m swell (tops). But there was unpacking to do, so the fish had to wait.

Monday the 4th
As we (me mum and dad) were accompanied by our fishing-virgin Uncle, who had never held a rod in his life we wanted the first day to be smooth, we went out to Monkey mia, as we had a couple of spots this side and its generally alot calmer than denham. Departing at 10am, we had the lures out by 10.20 for a troll through the channels and over some of our previously marked spots (from 08 and 09) to see if we could find any sort of action. Having a good strike already, dads light 10kg Abu outfit screamed into life and we soon had a nice 12kg Mack on board.

Shit this is gonna be easy I thought. We then trolled for another half an hour, with no hookups. Most of that time was spent chasing longtails. So we went to our bottom bashing spot, from 2009 where we pulled up monster pinkies every drop. Turned out to be empty so I threw a handline in, to get some liveys, but managed to hook my first decent fish on a handline, a just size baldy :) which i thought was a snag, so i let some line out then pulled it up slowly and out of his hole he came.

Michael was bringing a small fish up and then it took off like a rocket and "ting" it was gone, probably just sharked we were telling him, then a tiger shark surfaced and did a big belly flop 20 meters off the back of the boat. which was a pretty awsome sight.
The bite then dropped off so we headed back to the ramp and put the boat back on the trailer, which was a breeze with the new jetty. Cleaned the fish at the cleaning troths in Denham and headed home

Tuesday the 5th
It looked good, so we headed out of Mia again to an old spot to the North West of Faure Island and with a couple of western butter fish collected as bait. 

My uncle got his first esky fish in a nice blue lined emperor (nicknamed black snapper in shark bay) which are a very fiesty fish for their size.

I got my pb baldy at 53cm and mum a nice black snapper, the undersized blackys pestered us all day and we threw back a tonne of borderline ones back. Headed home with 3 fish in the esky. We met a couple of nice blokes at the cleaning troths who just got back from an overnighter at turtle bay and had a good yarn...

Wednesday the 6th
seabreeze said it would be better than the previous days so we manned up and headed out the Denham side, the night before we found some good looking lumps on the map and planned to head out there, before seeing the same couple of blokes from the cleaning table, who told us about a spot called the bent peg (one of the channel markers for the salt ships) which sounded promising and was basically the same spot from the map.
took about 40mins to get there at 18ish knots, fished for a couple of hours getting nothing but small black and pink snapper, which a pesky dolphin would grab some once we threw em back. The bigger fish then turned on with me landing a pb 43cm Spanish flag after marking a big cave on the sounder. too big for a livey it was eskied.

and mum hooking a XOS pinky, but handed it to dad once it took off, turns out it was sharked... massive bumber

threw the lures out and trolled to the next marker and then both rods took off, beauty me and my uncle were on, mine had a massive run under 6kgs of drag then dropped the lure. the uncle was still on and landed his first longtail tuna, which took off after a successful release.

we then trolled a bit further and were overtaken by a giant ship

had another drop for no result then headed back to Denham.

Thursday the 7th
did the tourist thing and went to the marine park as the wind was a steady 20 knots, where they had a big outdoor fish pond with a heap of big fish including: jacks, barras, black mullas, pinkies, an XOS baldy, nor-west snapper and black snapper, just to name a few. give me a pack of squid and 30mins and id easliy have half a dozen new pb's

they also had a another tank full of sharks, but no big tigers.

Friday the 8th
the wind was up again so we 4wd up to point Peron, the track was real good, mainly soft sand ontop of hard ground, making it 60kph in some spots and down to 10kph in the really soft spots, which were mainly up near the top.

we were hoping of getting some greenbacks, but couldn’t find any at the point so threw out light rigs and got some whiting for bottom bashing bait.

we were all getting a bit pissed off by all the flies, which were incredibly friendly, so we went over to skipjack point and then to big lagoon before going to mia as mum wanted a sunset pic, while waiting Michael and dad got more whiting as bait and I hooked a 30lb ish ray, which was my maiden run for my 5k stradic, 20lb braid and fwa 9ft rod. took a good 30mins to get in and I pushed the rod to its limits and it felt good (I measured the drag I put on it as 5kg!! it felt sweet).

Saturday the 9th
weather looked alrightish so we went in search of some big whiting off Mia, the spot was from a guy at dads work called the red cliff, and didn’t produce much more than western butter fish. so we went for a drop out deeper, but only got small blackys and pinkies so we trolled back to the ramp without any luck.

Sunday the 10th
we were meant to be blessed with 5knot breeze and .5m swell all day according to seabreeze but it was up around 20knots, so we waited til 12 when it looked like it was starting to drop off. then launched from Denham and started heading towards the bent pin, but it picked up again to 20knot northerly, coming straight into the bay, so we headed back to the ramp after being drenched for half an hour. and we lazed around for the rest of the day.

Monday the 11th
we went to the industrial area to get our tire fixed from a slow leak and got to hear all about the owners’ life for no extra charge. and also got the radio checked out as it wasn’t getting any signal, turns out the antenna and base were stuffed from unscrewing it from the base, so a warning never unscrew the antenna from the base, always lean it down or the antenna and base will get corroded.
then took the boat out north of Mia for a change, it looked nice from the shore, but once we were out there it just picked up

Tuesday the 12th
Went out of Mia again as the weather was really average, so we stayed close to the west side of Faure for some protection, had one long drift looking for structure. the bite started picking up and the wind dropping off, so we went for a troll waiting for the wind to drop more and dad found some really good ground on the lowrance, so we headed back and had a couple of drops. dad picked up a great baldy that bet mine by a couple of inches and we got a funny pic where it looked like it was eating uncle Michael, who was also hooked up.

Michael ended up with a good little stripey seaperch (Spanish flag) and then not long after landed a baldy, both firsts for him.

mum was complaining about not hooking up when she got big bites all day and when we got home we realised the hook was bent out.

Wednesday the 13th
weather looked bad again, so we went for another treck up to the point with some balloons, which we forgot last time. the track was allot softer and took an extra 20mins to get there.

we got a hit from a small shark on the balloon, but the mulies from shark bay fish supply were so fat the gangs we bought weren’t big enough and didn’t have enough barb showing to get a proper hookup. I was throwing a twisty around but didn’t get any attention, except one good flash close in to the rocks that shot off after I lifted the lure out. we then went back and soaked our toes in the natural hot tub containing 40 degree water from 520m underground.

Thursday the 14th
the weather looked like it was gonna drop off in the Avro so we headed to the tackle store and stocked up on some old school style tuna circles for mum, so she wouldn’t bend it out. and some more sinkers as we lost tonnes. we launched at Mia and went to our new favorite spot from Tuesday. I went for lures today, losing a black magic demersal knife to a dodgy hawian snap, and then a lucanus jig to a rushed polamar knot and finally landing a frog fish on a Gilles rubber. :(
mum put her new hooks to use landing a 3kg estuary cod that was the only esky fish for the day, nothing else was caught but the sounder was going off!!

Friday the 15th
Today was talked up as being a great day and we were on the water at 8am heading towards the bent peg. we got there and had bites straight away. I lost my Gilles rubber to a nick in the mainline, no more jigs left, I put a placcy on and got nothing so switched back to the dark side of bait. we then got massive schools coming up on the sounder and Michaels drag started screaming, and he pulled in a 76cm thumping pinky, but the max size for shark bay is 70cm, so back it went. it was a bit big for the dolphin to grab, but shot off like a rocket once it hit the water anyway.

then dad had a massive spangled emperor sharked. which i just had to get a photo of

after that the bite dropped off so we went north to the next marker and found a patch holding some huge blackies, mum got 2 of the biggest and I was the only one not to chuck one in the esky.

the fish went off the bite again so we went back to the first marker, where Michael finished it off with a 45cm Rankin and we headed back to Denham.

Saturday the 16th
we had no wind all night and it was meant to stay like this all day so we headed out of mia, and went to the north of Faure, then the east and got nothing, then threw some lures out and still nothing. Michael got his first ray, a shovel nose, which tested him out. but it was a shame we couldn’t match any esky fish to the great conditions. and got back in denham around 1 to strat packing up.

all up the trip was an awesome brake from life, but most of the time the fish weren’t playing the game, but when they were it was great fun. well that’s why it’s fishing not catching.

cheers rob

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