Well it is that time of year again, time to go and Pop the Montebello islands.  It is a pretty special place located some 100km off the Pilbara coast in West Ozz’s north west for those that live in a cave.  Anyway the only thing different about this trip for me was the partner.  Long time travel buddy Tim had to stay behind, his replacement is another long time barra colleague of mine Webby.  To say we were excited would be a massive understatement.  We set off on Thursday night into some pretty average night time weather.  The wind had come up for the first time in a week and it was straight into our faces, which meant things were going to be very wet.  I had all ready driven 350 km and this was not the ideal way to spend another 4 hours in the middle of the night.  We kept telling ourselves that it was going to be worth it.  We finally made it to our anchorage at the bottom end of the montes group by around 2am, some GPS malfunction through the transit made things tough for a while but hey we made it.

We dragged our swags up on to the beach and grabbed a couple of hours sleep before the sun crept up.  We spent the best part of the morning setting up camp and sorting out our gear.  The tides were quite big for the next couple of days so our usual inshore casting for jacks and trout was going to be limited, oh well GT’s love big tides so either way we were happy.

Our awesome Camp

My GT Rig 

Foot prints in the sand

By the time we had fueld up and moved out to the popping grounds it was around 1030.  the tide was slow but it didn’t slow the action down very much.  To cut it short we landed 16 GT’s to around 30kg’s and dropped around 10.  It was pretty special.  There was only ever one person casting at any one time while the other drove the boat.  We wraped things up by 3pm and moved into the lagoon to spear some dinner for the nights feast.

First of the trip on a Sebile Splasher

ASWB Sinking stickbait

small cod on the pe3 gear and a Sebile Splasher

Webby’s nice G Bus

Small Double on the nomad Bobora

A horse West Oz GT on the Sebile Splasher

The Nomad Bobora worked really well when the tide slowed down in the afternoon

another on the Bob

I got this one right next to the boat while webby was pulling the hooks out of his, a school of about 5 GT’s all this size swap straight past the boat.  I cast the cubera about three meters to land it on this fishes head, it took the popper straight away.  It was a lot of fun

Well after day one we needed a pretty good feed to charge us up for the next day.  We jumped in tot spear a couple of fish for the evening meal.  We got a few trout and some jacks to see us through the next couple of days.  This is an example of a typical meal while we are away.  Fresh coral trout and home made chips, washed down with a corona.  In bed by 7pm.

preparing for the feast

yum!

fishing for dinner in around the islands

An awesome bay we had a look at

another

Anyway we spent day two exploring to the north of the group and mostly diving and trekking so no popping photos.  On our last day we speared some fish to bring home and then finished off the afternoon with another popping session.  When we arrived I cold see about ten GT’s mooching around on the edge of the bommie.  I cast my popper into the middle of them and hooked up straight away, it was an awesome session.  We landed another nine and dropped about 5 in two hours.  Again there  was only ever one person casting at any time.  Here are some more photos.

The nomad bobora strikes again

ASWB sinking stick bait

the cono cono 190

A nice Pilbara GT

Webbys favourite pink stickbait

Orion Bigfoot

Well that’s enough photos for now.  All in all it was a pretty special trip.  The trip home was terrible, we had to endure very rough seas for roughly 45 miles.  To say I am exhausted would be an understatement.  Was it worth it, you bet your ass it was!

Hope you like the report

Equipment used

 Ripplefisher GT78PF  Stella 18000

Ripplefisher GT78XH  Stella 18000

Yamaga Blue Sniper 75/4  Twinpower HG6000SW

Successful lures

Sebile Splasher SS 190

Sebile Splasher 152

Sebile Stick Shad  155 SK

Nomad Bobora 150

Nomad Cuber 125

Orion cono cono 190

Orion Bigfoot 140

ASWB Sinking stickbaits

It was a bit blowy earlier on in the week so I waited for the missus to finish work and we set off from the back beach around 4pm, took 2 rods, handful of lures and a couple beers...didn't really expect much, hopefully a couple Jacks or Fingermark on a rock bar I know.

Turned out I got to tussle with one more baz before my attention switches to Bluewater! We were home by 7pm and it made my day!!

Next day me and a mate grabbed a few light casting rods and found a massive school of Queenies...they were hard to hookup but after trying poppers and bibs, a metal slice retrieved as fast as humanly possible seemed to do the trick!!!...all in all, a fun weekend!!!

just wondering when the best time to target mulloway/black jews in port hedland?

Anyone know if this is worth a crack? Unfortunately im limited to fishing after work and from the land, was thinking the north end of hearsons cove or the next bay to the north. Just dont know if I will be wasting my time or not. Im also a bit hazy on what tides are best from what ive gathered the big tides and falling would be better?

Had a bit of fun on the fly gear last week with a mate.  Got a heap of queenies, brassies and goldens between the group.

couple of snaps and a video

cheers

Brad

PC hooked up

caught this in my throw net down the spoil bank, got 3 of them, all were released

the latest two i caught from Finicune Island Boat ramp in Port Hedland, both were released

Couple of photos from this morning

Had a pretty cool session, even though mark forgot his fly reel and we had to share the one fly rod we had a ball on some "blue bastads" which I think are my new favourite fish to target.  These things go like the clappers on an 8wt and come into water less than knee deep to tail and feed.  Mark landed his first ever on fly it went hard as and was great fun to watch.  About 5 minutes after releasing marks I sight cast to a tailing fish and hooked up as well.  I was pretty stoked, unfortunately through celebrations I forgot that I had to fight the thing and it busted the tippet on a small piece of reef.  Oh well, up there with one of my greatest fishing moments.  I am really liking the new challenge, can’t wait til the next neaps

enjoy the pics

marks first bastad

6kg bastad

Well it's been a long time coming for the report but i managed to sneak out in the new boat on the sunday before i went to Perth for the impending birth of our second little girl and the weather was pointing to a cracker of a day on the Sunday with slightly breezy conditions in the morning before calming off for the arvo, so an early start was ordered so we could be back by 12 and hopefully add some new ground to the GPS.

We followed the wind and waves and headed west and i was looking to head past the archipelago but the wind just wasn't letting off and it was pushing up towards 20knots i reckon fighting a big incoming tide so i ducked between the islands and headed for Bare Rock where some birds where working.

We dropped over 2 Halco Laser Pros and we didn't have to wait long for a hit, there was Mack Tuna everywhere, we where running a 2m 190 in the baitfish pattern and a 7m deep diver in the chrome pink. the 2m diver took all the fish and Tobi and Gareth managed 2 nice Mack Tuna's each.

open your eyes Tobi!!!

the team handling the next Mack Tuna

Gareths first Mack Tuna

I was releaved of driving duties and was on strike for the next few passes, i dropped a tuna while not applying pressure but the next hit had me tangling with a 80cm Spaniard which we released.

this is my face in real life!

We then had word from Webby who was at Legendre that it was just a mess up there, which was no different to where we were and they where heading home as the wind just wasn't letting up, i then had had enough of waves over the bow and blood all over the decks so we trolled around the back of Bare Rock and headed for the protection of Enderby Is looking for some trout on the troll, we managed another 2 small spaniards and a few hits throwing SP's to a bombie with heaps of water rushing past but we moved on and headed for home, we decided since it was early and we had time and beer up our sleeve we continued to troll all the way to our preffered trout location, this only accounted for 2 pick handle Barracuda's but we gained hope for the last bit of our trip over some familiar territory when the rod screamed off, we had thought we might have snagged the RMG scorpian on the rocks as we where in 4m of water but it had a kick and i was calling a large trout for sure, but then a flash of silver and i spat it and called it for a big Barracuda but then i was all suprised to see a bloody big Spaniard arrive deck side, with no gaff yet onboard it was a quick tail grab and slung into the boat.

It was a new PB for Tobi in the strangest of spots too, high fives and placed on ice it was time for our last beer and head home happy to see that the boat handles the shit weather really good holding 23kts into the weather and everyone dry with fillets in their freezer.

Arsey bitch with her fish, approx 1.4m long

a good way to end a average day

 Hi

 Iv recently moved over from darwin to WA, and am working and living out bidgy (lagrange bay) PORTSMITH area.

I'm a mad keen barra fisher man and have access to the creeks along the bidgy coast and hoping to tangle with a few in the coming year. 

Was wondering if any one out there had fished the creeks around the area ? and are barra a viable option all year or do they shut right down in the dry ?

One more broad question are sail fish a viable option around this area too. I have a 4.4 tinny so cant push out super wide.

Any way cheers in advance for any info, look foward to doing few posts when my boat arrives from darwin and having an input to the forum

...

cheers curt  

Hey fellas. I just moved up to Dampier for work and I'm absolutely stinging to get out offshore! tried a few of the creeks lately but not having much joy at all.

So was wondering if anyones got a spare spot on their boat? Obviously happy to chip in for fuel, beers, etc. Whatever it takes!

Got a bluewater background chasing marlin, yellow fin and kingfish off of the east coast so can handle a big fish but just happy to get out to sea at the moment and have a look around! I have my light tackle (sustain 4000) set up with me and some lures but could possibly get my tiagra sent over if that helps.

Craving bluewater!

Happy Fishing!

Dools.

0402 725 627 

Hey Guys

went down the boat ramp this morning in Port Hedland ( got a week off work )

managed my first queenfish, boy they fight hard and fast, and the aerial display was amazing

Well a mate and i went for a spin today to check out the creeks after the cyclone.  Typically the fishing can be pooh after the rain etc.  There was a lot of fresh about and very dirty water.  On top of that only around one meter of movement meant things were probably going to be pretty average.

We managed one barra, only small but good to see a fish none the less.  On top of that we managed about 15 jacks in a session.  We have since named the spot Jackpot, overall not a bad day.  We had a contest with a mullet to see how many fish we could cach on it.  We took turns and it lasted for 8 fish, 5 of which were jacks, pretty amazing and a bit of fun anyway.

Cheers have attached a couple of pics from today

Been seeing alot of blue manna shots from the southern regions of late, which has been giving me a craving for crabs. Haven't been able to get out lately because of Christmas and work commitments. Hate going out on the weekends as there are boats and people everywhere and prefer to have some piece and quiet.

Yesterdays weather conditions meant it was going to be choppy out wide so decided to load the boat with the drop nets and crab hooks. Decided to leave the flick rods behind (mistake) and to concentrate solely on crabbing. Got to the banks while the holes were exposed and the first crab was an absolute horse(2 1/2 kg). Took a while to get crabs in the net, but on the turn of the tide the nets became very active.

Saw some big fish smashing the bait schools, but unfortunately never chucked a rod in the boat which could have seen some barra or threadies in the boat as well. Also at backbeach boat ramp there were prawns jumping everywhere when we launched in the morning. If Karratha residents are keen take a throw net down there you will clean up on kilos of prawns, as the water is bubbling with them.

After a good days crabbing and some quiet brews decided to head home and steam the crabs in the big pot outside. It ended up be an enjoyable day up the creeks and was nice to be home early in the afternoon.

pretty bad over here in queensland at the moment.  I had to get a boat ride accross the road so that i could finally get back to my family in queensland at the moment on my way back from Fiji.  I have to feel for a lot of queenslanders at the moment it is devestating

Hey Guys..

Been living up here in Port since November, but havent had a great deal of luck when it comes to Barramundi... im not asking for your spots, but whats the chances of catching one with out a 4x4???

what sort of spots should i be looking?

Went for a quick fish on low tide before nightshift last week, armed with a couple plastics and a baitcaster, I enjoyed a great little session.

Since I've been focused on Sails in winter, Barra till now, I found my freezer empty so out of the landed 5 jacks, kept my quota of 2.

Also caught a small 2-3kg GT, 2 flatties, a tarpon and about 10+ cod, but these nuclear chicken gulps are just unfair to these jacks!!!

Once again the good guys at Halco/RMG Lures have brought out their special lures for barra fishing at night. I managed to pick up some Rellic Doc(2.5m) and some Scorpion 125's(0.75m) to try out my luck over the season. There were still a good range left on the shelves but I'm sure once again they will sell like hot cakes, so get in quick.

Just wondering if any Karratha residents have had any luck so far this season with this particular colour?

It has been a while since my last post. A combination of a broken camera and laziness are my excuses but I wanted to share with you my most recent trip which has left me with a smile on my face. Until now my five year old daughter’s fishing trips have pretty much been limited to catching small bream and mosy pearch from protected beaches in short sessions but as i sat and watched my little girl during her gymnastics presentation it occurred to me, my little girl was not so little anymore and it might be time to step things up a bit fishing wise.
It was a big day for a little girl, a 5am wake up along with a very warm day stuck in a local creek hole for several hours is something even a lot of older people can’t handle but she took it like a trooper. She still has a bit to learn about stealth when chasing bait but she nailed some respectable fish. She even had the pump and wind technique almost under control. She caught all these fish pretty much unassisted and I am one very proud dad.

Charlie first Jack

Small cod

Another cod

As a whole, the fishing today was a little slow. Didn’t see any barra, but did get a nice fingermark on the McCarthy.

Well i went for a last minute solo saturday night mission to see if i could get a few more barra. The evening started off promising with a nice fish in the low 60's taken casting a lure as soon as i arrived. After that i decided to go and get some livies before the sun set and settle into an old fav spot. I cast poppers around for a while and managed to drop another 2 fish, on of which would easily have gone close to 90cm

first of the session

ahh, not to worry. Next i connected to something large, i new it was large becasue there was just enough light to see it jumping near the rockbar. I was on my own so after the long battle it was dificult to net the big girl. Much to my delight it broke my PB (the 112 from two weeks ago) and went 117cm. It was a horse. Again becasue i was on my own i only took a couple of quick brag mat shots so i could get the big girl back in the water. Awesome! I celebrated with a few gold cans.
Managed another small barra and a couple of jacks for the rest of the night. Made my way back to the ramp at midnight. Gotta love the Pilbara!

new PB 117cm, released!

small baz

Just finished a very busy week of fishing with my mate Kevin who was up for a week to catch some fish. We planned to hit it all up, the reefs, the creeks, out wide and any way possible with bottom bashing, trolling SP's the lot with some mixed results. The week was bookended with great days on the fish with the middle of the week slow everywhere we went. We bombed out in the creeks picking the coldest day to fish the low for a barra with water temps as low as 24.6 degrees, even with livies out nothing wanted to play. The muddies where quiet too. The weather allowed some very imited opportunities to get out wide and the bottom species where not on the chew and only 1 mack tuna on the lures for our efforts.

All our sucess came trolling shallow reefs for Coral Trout or whatever we could find and boy we found some trout. All up for the two times we had a crack we must have caught 30 between us, plenty of small ones out there and plenty on the size limit but we took the wrong eski and had no measure so if it was longer than 4 coke cans (520mm approx) it went back. Tilsan Big Barra and RMG Scorpians all diving around the 4/5m mark did the damage with bright pinks and orange on the Tilsans and a Red head/black body RMG being unstoppable.

I scored a new PB trout at 670mm and caught a double header of a trout and a flag on the same lure plus Kevin well and truly broke his Trout duck with a PB of 570mm which tasted fantastic on a steak with garlic sauce.

Some pics below.

Kev's first ever trout at 430mm and released.

Kev's PB trout at 570mm on a perfect day off damps

Hooked up again, double hook-ups and no time to relax was common.

600mm cod on the troll, destroyed my lure too.

My double header

good sized Mack Tuna on a Laser Pro 190 dolphin fish colour

My new PB trout at 670mm.

On my days off, me and a mate went down to a not-so local creek for a barra play. There were some storms building inland but we thought the usual would happen and they'd rain out before they got to the coast....nope, they didn't. For the first time I reckon, we were whining about being cold in summer!!! It rained for a good 4 hours off and on, and the Barra didn't seem to like it. We managed one 83cm trolling before things seemed to shut down, even the bycatch like Jacks, Salmon. After the water temp starting at 25 degrees in the morning the next day we got another 83cm trolling and another 67cm on plastic before heading home into that dammed NW wind!!!

I picked Tim up from the airport Friday afternoon. With his swag and rod tube emerging on the conveyor it dawned on me that we were about to share another adventure. With the boat packed up we set off at about 3pm hoping to collect some bait before the sun set and prepare ourselves for the evening low tide. We struggled with the bait gathering but still managed a few. After drying off we rigged up and sent a couple of the better sized baits out into the hole. I think my bait was in the water for about 5 minutes before the rod screamed off. A good sized bazz jumped and before too long I had managed to boat number one for the trip. A good sign.

About 75cm and released

Well with the monkey off the back I decided to throw plastics around for the last part of the day. Again it wasn’t long before I had a hook up. Small bazz around 60cm made really good account for itself hard up against the snags. The old nuke chicken did the damage again. It was released

Plastics barra

Anyway with the light fast fading and a few bazzas on the board it was time to cook a feed and soak a livie. I grabbed the smallest mullet out of the bucket and threw out my line. I think the rod was in the holder for about 30 seconds before it screamed off. By now I was starting to feel pretty bad because Tim was yet to see a fish. Anyway it was pretty obvious it was a solid fish, it jumped clear of the water a few times and although I initially played down its size to take the pressure off Tim immediately called it for a solid fish. Well after a very nervous battle and a less than orthodox net job we laid the fish on the brag mat for a pleasant surprise. A 102cm Baz and my (at the time) third metery. I was pretty stoked!

Hooked up to a metery

102cm Pilbara Baz

Metery number 1, 102cm and released

Anyway Tim managed a few nice runs but unfortunately not a baz, things went quiet with the bottom of the tide we did manage a few jacks, threadies and mongrel catfish.

Nice Jack

Well with the start of the run in Tim and I both set a few more fresh baits. Again within 30 seconds of putting my rod in the rod holder it screamed off. And this time it really screamed off! I set the hook and thankfully it stuck, a huge bazz jumped several times on the opposite side of the creek and for a second had me in the timber. Fortunately I managed to extract it as it ran hard and fast in the opposite direction. I could tell that it was a really big fish. I managed to get a few deep breaths in and the rest is really quite a blur. Anyway as it came into view it was obvious it was going to be a new PB, it was. It was bloody huge and a genuine 40 pounder. I was pretty stoked, not just about the fact that it was a new PB at 112cm but to catch 2 metery's in a row was something pretty special. Something I will never forget!

On the brag mat

New PB 112cm and the second metery for the night

Anyway that was it for the night. I was pretty happy. The next morning the wind was up and although things looked fishy the water temp had really taken a battering. We still managed a few fish each casting lures but they were all only around the 60cm mark. I think the biggest was around 75cm but not huge. Tim accidentally released his first baz of the trip before I could get a photo. Anyway it was evident that the rest of the trip things were probably going to be hard.

They are here too

One for Adam

Nice little baz caught casting

75cm baz

Late arvo hook up

Well that night the water temp had dropped quite a lot. We did manage to hook 6 or so barra however with a lot of bad luck we didn’t manage to land any. Tim got stitched up early but some bigger fish on lures resulting in lost tackle. The area we were fishing was quite deep and unforgiving. At least we managed to see quite a few barra which was reassuring.
Anyway with the sun came another session. We opted for a troll this time. We managed quite a few by catch this time with small trevs, cod, fingermark, jacks and a few small barra. The wind was howling from the east and the water temp was down to 27 degrees from 33. Still warm enough yes, but things usually slow down a little with a temp reduction of 5 or so degrees. Anyway one more bazz each so things were still pretty good. Again we got stitched up by some bigger fish in some very snaggy country; all good we were lucky to see the fish considering the temp

Nice Jack

Nice little trolled bazz

Nice shot of the rig

Well at the end of the night we decided to call it quits early. Things were really shut down compared to days the days previous. We headed home early across a pretty flat ocean. Not a bad trip, not bad at all!

Hey all new to the site, and crap at uploading photo's it seems!!!

Been hanging out for a few barra trips away but commitments in Perth has meant a slow start to my season. Still managed a couple, and also among the bycatch was a PB 106cm Threadie. Hope to get better at this bloody photo stuff and report back a little kore regularly!!!

Cheers

Dicko

Well guys now i can finally put up the pics from my karratha fishing holiday. I had to wait till this months WAFM mag came out as my article is in there if any you guys want to grab a copy and take a look.

My Mate Salvotore works at a gas plant and lives up there an just bought a boat and the plan is to head out everyday im up there (5 days) Weather permitting.
Flying up..


Landed


Frist day i arrived and we headed out to a island where a barge had washed ashore from a cyclone over 20yrs ago.


Lures in the water and within 10min i was onto a massive barracuda!!!!




Then my Girlfreind Lisa hooks a nice little school mackeral



This was some good arfternoon fun for a hour or 2 and tomorrow looked like some real flat and glass off conditions.
The next day we woke up and there was no wind and all i can say is that its the best conditions i have fished in ages!!! and for the next 4 days was just as good.



I wont drag on the story to much but to cut a long story short it was caos each day with tripple hookups on giant trevally, spanish mackeral, coral trout barracuda, tigersharks attacking fish we were pulling in etc. What a trip!!!!
More pics to come!!

Webby and I hadn't done a fishing session in a bit so the weather was lining up and so did our rosters, plan was to head out in his new rig but with my dinghy up for sale and someone looking at in on Sunday decided we best do one last session in her before she's gone.

Early start was the plan, yet the sun was all ready up when we launched. On the way out was alot of bird action so we couldn't resist a belt with the slices, of course I forgot to bring a spinning rig, oh well make do with what you got. Cranking away on the baitcaster actually resulted in the first hook up. Stop being lazy web and crank that reel was my helpful tip. Anyways after a solid 4-5 minute fight and what was looking like a decent long tail, i got to heavy handed and bent out the trebbles in the closing stages.

Web was next to hook up with the photo shown below, not sure what Tuna it was so will have to check out that out, either way it got thrown back in to the depths to rejoin the feeding frenzy. Few other missed attempts and decided to head out to the back of the isles while the weather was good.

Tide rip was bit more then expected with the tides but we perserved, with Webby finally getting a decent fish on, too be sharked, with what we got back was looking like a 500mm spango. With one more fish sharked we decided on a move,

The next lump resulted in a 600mm trout for myself on the first drop while Webby was still putting his bait on. Few other bits and pieces and the tide had turned now so threw Webby up the front and tried to see if convince a GT to have a go at his popper. Lots of fishy nooks and crannys were explored yet to no result, are they more a winter fish i was starting to ask.

Change of tactics was the cool and hit some shallow reefs with soft plastics, Webby got a nice black spot Eustary cod, as well as a number of small trout. One lil cod we had on got smashed by a beauty Trout but the trout couldn't be enticed back.

Next shallow reef resulted in a call from Web, Go on Robbo get the fly rod out.

Out came the 10 wt, and we drifted along. Web got another two small trout on the sp, as well as a few small blue bone. When a long cast with the squid fly got engulfed on the surface, with a large boil, it was an all out slug match with this one, as it tried to bury me in every rock and coral outcrop. As it got close call was made, far out Web gives us a hand to leader it, its a Trout. Web however hooked up on his own trout at the time, with this good fish turned was looking to be me biggest trout on fly, yet at the stern of the dinghy its last ditch dive it managed to ping the tippet on a ledge, gutted. Always hard to tell how big a fish is in the water, but was a solid trout with very dark colourations. Nothing can beat shallow water battles with quality fish were you can see their every move.

With calls of we will be back fish, we continued to drift and land a heap more small fish before calling it a day, well if that is our latest trip in the dinghy, it'll be a worthy one.

Did a quick weekend trip to the Montes a couple of weeks ago. Weather was pretty bad with the wind barely dropping below 30 knots.

Fortunately this place offers plenty of options for when it is blowing so got the chance to explore areas that we might not have usually visited.

Apologies for the quality of the pics. Didnt really put too much effort in getting the shots this time.

Ok GUYS
just when you thought it could not get any worse........
The mo is for a good cause..... No comments required Brad Higgo and others

Snuck out with the WOG for an over nighter up the creeks wind was howling so decided to stay close to home.

So after a 15minute run in the slop we pulled into small local creek to hide and got a few ealy barra.

Got a cuople of small bazzas using smaller lures this time of the year Rapala shad raps and Oar-gee plows

This is a rather old story, but thought would throw it up and get a heap of discussions going around long hauls in boats and also about the different locations along the Pilbara Coast that could be tackled with groups of small trailer boats.

April 2006 - The Ningaloo Endeavour rocked up on the Coastal ship in Dampier.

We did the sea trials in Dampier and use the North West Shelf Venturer as a chase boat for photos and the likes.

Once it was sorted was to be taken by water to Exmouth while the trailer would also leave the same day, almost sounded like the sort of Top Gear Race that you could have set up if you really wanted to:

The Saturday came and we couldn't have asked for a better day, had four members from Exmouth along for the ride and despite my pleas there was going to be no fishing on the way, just think all that miles of reef ignored on the way through (179.1Nm Trip).

Ended up doing the straightest route possible after discussing the trip with a few of the local commercial crew who recommend that we avoid the Mary Anne Passage due to the tide rips that can occur as well as can get rougher then the outer edge of the islands if you get a wind/tide wave occuring.

As it happened the weather was more then you could ask for, and seemed to get calmer the further off shore we got, anyways i'll let a few photos show the story and then also some final stats:

Yes we beat the trailer down, not sure if we informed the road crew that it was a race, as they left awhile after us. Travel time was extremely close.

Used 460l of fuel with twin 250 Suzuki 4 strokes on the 9.3m Air Rider - Full tank is 900L

I was a very lucky boy come fathers day, my wonderful wife had got me a 4 day trip to the mackerel islands all inclusive including a fishing charter which i was stoked about. I had read many a post from people here and heard many a good report about the area so the chance to take the boat down with some of my mates was awesome.

I put the call out to my mates and it didn't take long for 3 intrepid explorers to join me down at Onslow. Suprisingly after being up north for 21 years i had never been to Onslow which was strange. We had planned to get in before the start of november and make the most of the charter but as luck would have it the boat had head south for the summer and we missed out. Needless to say that didn't matter too much after we got upgraded from the donga's to a 3 bed beachfront cabin!

We left a very still karratha at 8am with a fully loaded boat with 4 rods each for the trip, we had all bases covered if the weather played nicely, the billfish gear was in,the knifejigs and bottom basing gear, popper gear and the spin/SP gear as we knew we could do all of these with relative ease due to Thevanard Is location. The wind picked up on route to Onslow which concerned us as it wasn't coming from the SW as promised but this died off and we rocked into Onslow with a slight breeze.

We mdae our way to the Mackerel Motel to arrnage our car drop off and then the wind came in as promised, we seriously missed the ideal weather by 30 mins so we copped the quatering seas  for the trip out as two much larger boats pushed on for Thevanard Is, I tried to enjoy a beer but alas i needed to be steady while at the helm. We arrived 10 mins behind the larger boats (not travelling with us just a coincidence thing) and we where greeted by the staff who promptly helped us get our gear off the boat and get us to our mooring.

A warning to young players it can get very shallow inside the reef and the channel in is rather narrow, we had no more that 1.5m of water under us at the best of times so don't come flying in for the first time. We where taken to our cabin and shown around the place, given our MI Card for our stay (everything gets charged to this instead of using cash, i quite liked the idea) It didn't take long for us to get the rods out for a bash. The weather was all from the south in the morning and swinging to the west in the arvo which didn't give us much protection so we went off to the east and sat in some reefy country trying to find some fish on the drift. The wind proved too strong and made life hard so we anchored up and proceeded to roll over the waves and try our hand with some lures and SP's.

It was pretty quiet until my McArthy 7" Bullhead Minnow was smashed, i was panicking already as i only had a 60lb mono trace on the line so i was hoping for a lip hookup or a golden trevally as this would have been a great start to the trip. The little Daiwa Tierra 4000 held its own along with my 1-3PE monster mesh rod and i made good ground to see the slender silver shape of a Mackerel in the depths but he powered off again, had a head shake and then the dreaded slack line of a chew off, i must say i wasn't really expecting that first up in 6m of water no more than 300m off the western point. We trolled back to the mooring due to the shocking conditions and settled in for a shower, a excellent 3 course meal and some beers and pool at the bar, day two awaited!

The weather gods still didn't want to join the game coming in from the south it stirred up the waves out the front of the cabin, a greasy brekky followed by a trip to the shop for some bait had us wondering what to do, we watched all the other boats head west and we scratched our heads, keep in mind we where the smallest boat there by 2m and the only centre console as well, so we went for a stroll around to the north side of the island and looked at the map, it was nice and calm around there but it was shallow, not to worry i told the boys we'll throw some lures out the back, suss it out and hopefully find some nice trout for our troubles, so we very slowly snuck around the northern side and popped out some shallow divers into the 3m water, talk about a infestation of Charlie Courts! double hooksups where common and we couldn't get them off quick enough to get back into the action.

The weather calmed off slightly at about 10.30 so i said to the boys lets have a look further north, i found some likely ground on the chart that i thought might hold some fish, broken bottom just past what seemed to be a channel for the tide to flush past the reefs it had my thinking about some trout, snapper and bluebone, sure enough i came off the gas and the sounder showed some promise so we set our drift and sent our baits over the side, the fish where there but all we could find was Charlie Courts again and 1 decent flag that we nearly well kept due to the poor start, so we moved further north and halfway to my next spot the sounder showed a nice plataeu from 16m to 12m and some good action on the edge so we set anchor and away we went.

Now the action had come in and we had found the snapper as Ando pulled a nice Blue Lined into the boat nudging 47cm, the duck was broken and they where on the chew but some careless line placement by ando on the drop back down found my line and had me frantically trying to untangle the rig and get one of these snapper, one of my favourite fish to catch and eat, they never stop fighting and fight much better than their size sugests. Tangle gone and they where still around and i landed myself a nice 46cm specimen for the boat. The school moved on and so we drifted around but it had all shutdown with the change of the tide and the wind came up, no biggie we had fish in the esky and we set off to find some pelagics on the way home, We sat back with a beer for the troll home and we just could find any action for the 1 hour we trolled so with the weather now crap we went back to clean the catch, clean up ourselves and face off to see who could master the table tennis challenge.

We behaved ourselves within reason as the weather was going to be a pealer for our last day on the island, morning came and it was better than yesterday but still not ideal and we hadn't even had a chance to hit anything deeper than 20m, we where itching to get out to the west but we resisted the urge to follow the other boats incase it went bad and headed back the way we came knowing we could get back in here if needed to fish. Kicked it all off with a troll looking for a trout and geez we thought we had a pearler when the RMG scorpian went off, it was a bloody good fight and then we see just what we had got, a 70cm Estaury Cod in 2m of water!!! what a way to start the day, she was quickly followed by a 57cm cod and the score was looking good already.

So we headed back to our spot from yesterday to have a better look around and found some more interesting ground that we drifted with good results. The blue lined emporer where everywhere so i put the bottom basher away and had a play with my SP rod and reel, It didn;t make a difference if it was bait or SP we soon had a feed of snapper on board with my PB of the trip at 50cm on the McArthy Bullhead minnow. We bit the bullet and decided it was as calm as it was going to get and we headed to the NW out past rosaly shoal and into 40m of water. Well it reminded me of Exmouth all over again but not as bad, the swell was running strong at about 3m and a nice sea to go with it, we found our ground and set down our baits but the current was very strong as we struggled to hold the bottom, i tried to alleviate this but putting on a jig but at 180g it wasn't enough it seemed and it was quiet down below. The action picked up briefly when Lego hooked up nicely as his fish powered away and he was all excited he may have a big Red but it then all went quiet and he then discovered his red was a Rankin CoD and there wasn't much left, Ando too copped the same fate with a small Doggie Mackerel, it seemed as we had found what we had been warned of, the sharks are thick out in the depths to the north. We had Mackerel all around the boat but they wouldn't touch a thing it seemed in fear of being dinner, it didn't help we had two 8 footers cruising around too. We packed it in and went on the search to find more reef.

Trolled for another hour without a hit on the lures when i spotted some wicked country on the sounder that wasn't showing on the map. pulled the rods in and to say we had found the best spot i've seen for a while is very much the truth. The sounder looked nasty and boy where the fish on the chew! I was dropping down SP's and before i had time to wind in the slack and work it along it was punished and chewed off before i could strike and hook-up. The other two landed a snapper each in no time flat and they made thier way into the eski as i was getting stuck into a few fish on the SP's. I had another snapper on and had him boatside when out of the depths a 9ft shark swooped on my fish but missed, the warning was there and then everything went quiet again for 5 mins. I was still working the SP around and then WHAM! a good hit that wasn't a snapper i was panicking as the shark can't be far away as i brought what was the only coral trout from our boat and others for our trip, some neat gaff work and i had a very nice 60cm Coral Trout on a Pink Pearl Bullhead Minnow, i was stoked to have got him off the bottom and away from jaws which capped off our last day beautifully, we all cracked a JD/CC/VB and headed to the cleaning tables.

We cleaned up the catch and stowed it away in their communal freezer and then sat back and enjoyed the lovely afternoon that greeted us.

It was sad that we had to leave due to some committments i had back in town as the weather came good on the sunday as well and we would have loved to let loose on the poppers or the billfish but there is no doubt i'll be back again for another 4 day trip, probably with a few more boats in tow and the family due to the activities they offer there. I cannot reccomend the Mackerel Islands highly enough, i was dreaming just how good a Fishwrecked Invitational would be out there with all our boats on the mooring. Do yourselves a favour and check it out!

Hi,

Have been having a look around this site for a little while now and decided to make my first post (sort of - tried the other day but it didn't work). Anyway, I've been living in Karratha for about 3 years now and have had a boat for the last two. I've recently decided that at the completion of my current job I'll be moving back to Perth.

I've had a ball fishing around the place over the last couple of years and have ticked alot of boxes on fish caught. There are two and a half boxes that remain unticked, that being a sailfish, a barra and a big red (this is half as I've got some smaller ones).

Couple of questions:

1. are there still sails around?
2. if so can someone give me some sort of tip? I've studied the photos and have a general idea of area but don't know what I am looking for.
3. are the barra around now?
4. Similarly, I've never chased them so am totally green, any tips would be appreciated

I'm here until the end of January so hopefully have a bit of time. I've got a 5.9m ally cuddy cab which is pretty versatile and can get me to most spots.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Jarrid