Gday,

Haven't posted any reports before but while avoiding doing Uni work I've been looking through some trips and decided to share. I'm not great with a camera so forgive me if my fishy shots aren't that great. Shark Bay 2010!

This was my first trip north with my old man, we've camped around the southwest heaps and decided to try something different. Plus I really wanted to catch more than redfin and eastuary species! We headed up in late June and it was raining on and off pretty much the whole way up. It was about 10pm and we were somewhere past Kalbarri (i think) and looking for a spot to camp for the night. It was looking pretty grim due to the rain and no cover, when we came past some now familiar rain tanks and both went "YES thats perfect!"

Continuing on it wasn't far to the turnoff and then we got our first glimpse of shark bay. The plan was to head straight up into the national park and camp at Bottle Bay, as the old man had heard it was a good spot. First disaster- the tracks were closed due to the rain. That left us with only the 'bottom half' of the shark bay peninsula to choose from. We ended up following a trakc onto the east side that went along the beach a bit, and set up camp. Its really shallow on this east side, but it just so happened that when we arrived it was high tide.

As soon as we had set up i grabbed my rod, tied on a soft plastic and cast out. I started bouncing it along the bottom and got a shock when it was attacked, first cast! i had a short tussle with whatever it was but it got off. bugger. Second cast same deal. Third cast untouched. I figured whatever it was might have clued onto the lure, so I tied on something different, and again first and second cast got attacked but couldnt set the hooks, very frustrating!

I waded out to a series of small sandbars and continued changing lures and getting the same result, until finally i managed to set the hooks and pulled in my first ever long tom, he must've been about a metre long, i was pretty stoked!

Must be the meanest fish i've ever met. Ill have to try upload the video, as i released him he actually came at me and latched onto my foot! cheeky bastard.

I got no more bites after that so retired to the campfire for the rest of the day. bit more drizzle that night but a beautiful morning greeted us.

We tried wading around casting in the hope of a flathead, but the tide was out and nothing was happening. further up the beach we came across this shack behind the dunes, where we stopped to make bacon sandwiches before venturing on.

The next two days were pretty uneventful as the track to the national park was closed, and we spent the days driving around the bottom half and camping wherever. finally we were alowed access to te national park, and we headed straight up to the beautiful Bottle Bay.

As soon as we'd setup I started chucking a lure around, and in the fading light I hooked into something decent (on 8lb Suffix mono). I pulled in a little mackeral and cast out again, instant hit but got bitten off. Chucked a dodgy old wire trace on and kept casting but got no hits.

Macky got turned into green fish curry, yum.

the next morning i went for a walk up the beach and came to a fishy looking rocky outcrop. When i say fishy i mean there was literally fish fins poking out, circling around in a patch of water about 5 mtrs from shore! I lobbed a cast out well behins them and hooked into what turned out to be a nice tailor. I continued casting, landing another three and losing just as many. I also had a flathead dart out and take the lure almost at my feet, which actually gave me a fright he was that close haha. apologies for the picks but i was by myself and trying to get the lure back out there asap.

Flathead released btw, oh and the fish fins turned out to be fat mullet! The tailor got eaten for lunch and i kept the frames for bait. Later that day, we decided to have a go for flathead again, and started walking the shoreline casting small minnows with no luck. seeing baitfish jump was a pretty regular occurance, but seeing some getting really harassed and having no flathead luck, i switched to a metal and lobbed it out, and again started hooking into tailor.

My old man followed suit but got busted off twice in a row, blaming the line on his rod and saying it had been sitting in the shed for eons. Being the top bloke that I am I let him have a go on my rod, and we each caught and lost a few tailor. I didnt get a picture but they were all similar size to the medium ones from earlier. The old boy had a go at hot-smoking them that night, and they turned out pretty good.

Had another cast around sundown and got another little mack.

Put a tailor frame out on gangs that night and got my first Mulloway!! haha wasnt exactly huge tho, old man's foot there for scale.

Later on I hooked an unstoppable ray (cheapy beach rod combo) and that was all for the night. We left the next morning, and despite the first couple days being somewhat wasted I had an awesome trip. cheers for reading.

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