Exmouth Fishing Report - Courtesy of Exmouth Game Fishing Club and Bluewater Tackleworld Exmouth

Stewart Newnham from Isle of Wight England is here with his wife on holiday for a few weeks. Stewart is an extremely keen fisherman who has travelled the globe fishing in all different locations but rates his day out he had with local charter boat Aqua C as one of his best days fishing he has experienced. With a perfect day, weather wise, Stewart got to experience the huge variety of species on offer in Exmouth waters. From cobia, longtail tuna, three different forms of trevally right thru to host of bottom fish Stewart caught them all, however it was the 30kg spanish mackerel which is pictured this week which put up the best fight of the day, doing a series of scorching runs across the surface and certainly made the drag on his spinning reel work overtime.

Robert Bosnjak and his partner Sofia Castillo from Perth have been a having a great time fishing down in the local Marina. Using nothing more than there usual bream outfits from back home, all sorts of northern species from bonito , mangrove jacks and a heap of trevally have all fallen victim to the small soft plastics they have been throwing around. Among all the different varieties of trevally they have been encountering, it was a good size diamond trevally that provided the biggest thrill, putting up a 10minute struggle on the light gear before finally being subdued. All fish that Robert and Sofia have been catching in the Marina have been released which is great to see as the Marina really is a sanctuary for all manners of juvenile species.

Tim Woodland and his Father towed their boat up all the way from Perth to chase Sailfish in the Gulf. Whilst it is definitely getting late in the season for the Gulf sailfish run they still encountered a few sailfish as well longtail tuna and spanish mackerel all within close proximity of the Exmouth reef region. Tim was ecstatic to finally catch his first sailfish which fell to a live bait fished on 6kg line.

Earlier in the week huge schools of hardyhead baitfish were schooled up along the shoreline of Town beach in the run out tide in the morning. All manner of pelagic species were seen feeding on the schools of the hapless baitfish with the diving birds also getting amongst the action cleaning up all the scraps.

[img_assist|fid=109303|thumb=0|alt=Stewart Newnham and a 30kg Mack]

The cray season opened on the 15th of November but I did not put my pots in until the Monday 4th December (After the full moon) with the first pull on the Wednesday. The run of the whites started early this year and we were into the crays straight away. 2 crays the first day and then, 8, 9, 15, 10,16,16,8,12,10,10,16,12,10,13,7,6. We have done better this year than last mainly as the season started earlier we had longer before the boats get booked solid for Christmas and I don’t have a boat to go out in. Our last pull was the Friday 22nd and the tally was 180 crays over the 17 days. That should be enough to see me well into the New Year.


Bruno and my son Jared pull the pots.

A pot comes up full of crays

At least 8 crays in this pot, they won’t be all legal size but with 4 pots we usually get a fair haul!

Some of the 12 crays we got that day, we were off to Red Bluff for a troll for a mackerel before returning to the boat ramp by 9am ready for work!

Amateur cray licences are available at any post office or on line at www.fish.wa.gov.au. You may have 2 pots and catch 8 crays per day. We have two licences on my boat which is the max so we are permitted to pull 4 pots thus allowing us to catch 16 crays max. We share the crays, bait and fuel.



Some times the days are just too good to go back in so we have a short troll. As far as I know this is the first game fish of the season, 11kgs of tough fighting yellow-fin tuna! I Caught on the Saturday 16th December. Quite unusual for a yellow fin tuna this early but we did get hits on our lures (without hook-ups) on the Monday and Wednesday before which I attribute to mackerel.
The water has been over 22.5 degrees all month so it is not surprising that the mackerel and tuna are here already.

The next day was a good day as well and Stefan DeLucia was out with us helping his dad, Bruno, pull the pots and we went for another troll. Stefan’s best fish until now was a small tailor from Witacarra Beach, but soon that all changed with this big hook-up.



Stefan’s first mackerel, an 8kg early season speedster that really gave him a work out! You made “Bite of the Month” on my website Stefan! Luckily I hooked up and got one as well!
Top lure colour for this year? So far when the macs have a choice the king brown coloured lures have been taken. Stefan’s incidentally was taken on a redhead. Halco laser pro 190DD’s are the way to go. You can buy them at the right price, from my Shed Shop when you hire my boats. I got loads of them!

Neil Van Nie Kirk is a regular and has hired the 6.1m boat quite a few times coming up to Kalbarri each year around Christmas. Last year he caught the first mackerel of the season, but this year the group caught pinkies, mackerel and tuna with son Viaan getting a nice yellow-fin and Greg the mackerel. The mackerel are bigger this year which means we may be into some monsters by the end of the season!

We have accepted an offer on the house, the “Secret Waypoint” and it should settle next year. We are just about fully booked until settlement. But our other accommodation will come on line as from the 9th Feb and is better that “The Secret Waypoint”. The same deal will continue with discounts on boat hire when staying in any of our accommodation units. The new accommodation will be repainted and fixed up, making it very comfortable and it will have all the facilities a fisherman needs.

Sold already! The new owners say they will be listing it with our accommodation agents so will still be available, but for how long and how much I cannot say.

I have been going out in my 5.3m boat a fair bit to pull the pots when the 6.1m has been booked and am very impressed with the performance of the new 100 4-stroke Yamaha that powers it. It fair jumps out of the water and on the plane quickly. It hits max speed at around 4500 revs so pushing it to 6000 revs makes little difference, thus cruising at 4500 is a real fuel saver. When I collected my pots on the 22nd we had 3 adults and 2 kids aboard plus 4 cray pots and it still jumped up on the plane on the way home. I know that the 6.1m boat would have struggled a bit with that load, as it only has a 115hp 4-stroke Yamaha but the comfort of a big boat is what counts!

Here are a couple of pics of a very lucky Rob Jacobs and mate Ian Brunette. I say lucky because Rob phoned up earlier in the year to book a boat and had a lot of trouble getting accommodation during this very busy time. We hunted around for him eventually coming up with some at the Palm Resort. He then phoned up and cancelled the boat saying that he had bought his own boat! Thanks Rob! Unfortunately when he went to get the trailer registered there was a mix up with the VIN number and ended up having to leave the boat back in Perth. He then came round to me on the 23rd Dec. grovelling for a boat! I say lucky, as the only boat available was the 5.3m on Christmas day. Lucky they also had brownie points stored up and the wives let them go fishing! Lucky they hit the mackerel out from the ever-faithful Sand Patch.

Ian with his Sand Patch caught mac.

Rob with his. Note the Sand Patch in the background. Rob also released a shark mackerel.

Ian got 2 fish as well

The Kalbarri Sports Fishing Classic preparations are well advanced and ready for another successful event on the 2nd 3rd and 4th March next year. I have had a cancellation for the 5.3m boat as well as the house so both are available that weekend. It is the Labour Day long weekend and in the middle of the best fishing months here in Kalbarri. The Classic will be on so it will be very busy and if you are thinking of fishing a tournament this would be a great start. You can download an entry form from the Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club website. Just go to the Kalbarri Classic Sports Fishing page.

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club, Local comp.

No comp this month, just too busy for everyone!

A how to catch mackerel and tuna by pictures.

Pick a nice day and get up early, be on the water by first light

Select the right lure and colour. This year the colour is king brown. Halco Laser Pro 190DD is my choice of lure type.

Troll where the fish are, around the cray pots 22m deep from 1km north of the Murchison River Mouth to a couple of kms past the Sand Patch. There is another patch from Red Bluff to Pot Alley.

Drag the lures around at about 4-6knots, (fast walking pace). Wait patiently for a strike. It helps to drag teasers behind in the prop wash as well.

Find the bait schools and working birds and troll around them, not too close as you will scare them away. A tuna or mac will find your lure sooner or later.

When the strike comes, stop the boat, bring in all other lines and teasers and take control of the fish, no need to have a tight drag! Jared is fishing 6kg line.

Be patient, this took 1 hour on the morning of the 28th Dec, before we saw the fish. It was a yellow-fin tuna about 15-20kgs.

Have the best tackle you can afford. We fish Shamano TLD15’s and Charter Special 2000’s for 6kg line class. 1000’s for 3kg line. We change the drag washers to carbon fibre washers and get the reel serviced from new and remove the level wind.
Unfortunately the fish bust off after an hour, close to the boat, almost within a gaff shot! I nearly cried, Jared did not feel too good either!

Last month I reported on the sinking of the iconic Kalbarri River Queen. Well it is all fixed up and floating again and back in operation. The skipper is being very quiet about it but it seems that when it was out of the water for survey, he replaced the Hamilton Jet Screws and inadvertently replaced the seals the wrong way round so it was letting water in and not letting it out!

The caravan park at Port Gregory is under new management and a booking agent for my boats. You can now book a boat and pick it up in Port Gregory.

Remember if you rent our accommodation you get big discounts on our boats.

Murchison Boat Hire
PH/FAX (08) 9937 2043
Tell them you saw it on fishwrecked.com

Working around North Rankin on a Dive support vessel the Geo Sea and i have met a guy onboard who is good friends with Adam and Associates.
Whata unit fester is. He is the king of Porn, runs a book on anything he can think off in winning a few bucks for himself. He is on Hollywood wages anyway.
So whatever he tells you just put it by me for the true story.

Stoinka

Went out on saturday for a hunt and marron. Drove along the blackwood and looked at the BILLIONS of people down there. Was like a super highway...
Were never intending of marroning there just wanted a look.
Kept cruising around looking for a spot. Caught a nice little piggy on the way. Ended up at the barlee brook near the Donnelly. Stayed there for about 2 hours. Only managed 1 marron that went 95mm.
In my opinion this is a small one and should be the minimum size for them. Managed to get a trout that was pretty sick. Was blind, had half his tail eaten and had bugger all flesh to him.
Moved down to the Donnelly river. Managed none there. Was pretty disappointing. Looked good ground for them too.
Oh well, we had snaggers for dinner that we brought "just in case" we caught nothing...
Got up on Sunday more of a hunt got another pig at about 6pm then Home for a cold beer...
Better than sitting around at home doing nothing...

Hi all went and did a bit of crabbing on Sunday just gone, we got our self 18 size and over size crabs, lots of small ones about, the place was packed every man and his dog was out there before 9am, we worked from 9am till around midday for 18 crabs, both my Mrs and daugther did most of the crabbing while I drove the boat around.

We did pretty well after a slow start. Trolled behind staggies for zip, then went on the hunt for some KG country. Tried haps of new ground and finally hit a nice spot and nailed the first KG of the day. Unfortunately the bite shut down and the wind eased so we headed out wide. Hit a few new spots and a few old ones and ended up with quite a few quality fish. Left them biting to get home in time for my dad to go to the glory match.

My dad caught his first decent dhuie and replicated it a moment later so it was a great day on the water. I will post up some pics soon, just need to go for a swim to cool off and then fillet all the fish.

Species list included blackarse, skippy, kg's, dhuies and flatties.

Headed out with bouttime today as he was kind enough to take a few forum members out. Accompanied by RobC and Madfisher we headed out to do some jigging, and jiggin we did!

Heaps out there, nothing overly huge around the 15-25kg mark at a guess and rob landed one around 30kg. Was alot of fat fish out there and some mysterious leader busting species too which claimed a few jigs. Trolled for those supposed mackies aswel for an hour or 2 to no avail. Oh and mark(madfisher) managed a decent skippy on baits.

Just got home, time to start drinkin so ill post pics tomorow arvo if none of the others post any tonight.

cheers to bouttime for a great day!

Crabs are starting to be caught in the shallow waters, with the sandy drop-offs producing some nice big blue manas, the crabs have started moving up the rivers into the lakes.

The Taylor are running stronger than ever they are everywhere, for the beach fishers the silver sands beach is producing some nice choppers for light gear silver or bronze slices seem to work well, if you are after some bigger Taylor try Tims thicket or white hills. The cut Is Firing at the entrance with some nice Taylor being landed around the 40cm mark, and the salmon trout are still chasing the baitfish (lure that mimic baitfish are the way to go) but salmon trout take nearly anything.

The rivers are producing some nice black bream, you might want to try further up the rivers to get away from the blowies and the crabs. the Gorden road bridge is alway a good shot. Bream around 30 - 40 cm are being caught and released. Remember watch out for the algee bloom, dont fish were there is algee bloom, you can get really sick.

Out in the boats the Dhughfish have been in the shallower water, around the five has been producing some nice dhugfish around the 15kg mark (fresh ockey or squid is the way to go , also some nice Queenies have been caught too, Little Tip Fish around the craypots if you don’t have any spots marked, around the pots seem to produce some nice fish. a few reef and hammer head sharks have been caught.

For the speroes at night the cobler don’t seem to be running to good this year, a few smaller cobler (20cm to small) hanging around the marina, but the best bet is the Mandurah forshaw in-between the 2 bridges. Plenty Of ockeys along the rockwalls.

Squid are in good numbers in the bay in shallow water of the weedy ground, also some nice kg and whiting. burlying up will almost guaranty a nice feed of herring and maybe even some nice Taylor.

Managed to squeeze a quick fish in this arvo, was quite warm but wading the flats made it quite comfortable.

Alot of weed above in lower reaches but still managed 2 bream, a flatty and a herring in about an hour or so of chuckin lures, quite slow compared to other days but nice to be out there.

Anyone else get out for a fish?

The Mindarie Fishwrecked 2006 Invitational was held last Sunday and was a great day out. Thanks goes out to skippers Andy Mac, Stiff Ripples,  and Shag and also to the anglers that participated. We all managed to get into a few fish each and the cold beers at the end of the day was sweetened by good company.
The trophies went to Sherbert for the mystery prize of his monster Flathead, Luke for the biggest fish being a 10kg dhufish and the points system going to Andy Mac for most variety/size.
I'm sure that now that the first has been held and the teething issues are out of the way we can have more in the new year and hopefully not have to worry about Chrissie parties interrupting others wishing to join.
Thanks again guys and heres to the next one being bigger and better! 
Cheers,
Adam

Poida is up at Steep point, the report at the end of Day 2 is 5 spaniards, 2 shark macks, fair few tuna, lots of noah bust offs, a monster wobbie off the wild side and another 7 days to go!

Should be a few good pics coming soon by the sounds of things. :)

NOVEMBER 18th COMPETITION RESULTS - KALBARRI OFFSHORE & ANGLING CLUB

A very quiet comp this month with most of the regular anglers out of town for the weekend. The 6 river adults got crowded out by 9 juniors, while the beach section was healthy with 8 anglers and Santa Barbara was the only boat out.

Our sponsor this month was Kalbarri Auto Electrics, thanks to Owen and Linda.

They will sort out your auto electrical problems in your car or boat and stock a range of marine radios, aerials etc.

Cheryl Eley showed us a very respectable .982gram live bream in the river section but was not good enough to beat Di Stewart who had 2 bream and a nice river estuary cod of 1.77kgs to win the section. Martin Stewart was the only junior to weighed a fish, a .360gram specimen winning him the voucher.

Tony Smith showed us a skippy from the beach; Don Owen three tailor and new member Karen Harteg had 2 nice mulloway. Daniel Tarasek did it again however bringing in a soapy mulloway of 4.9kgs amongst his 8 fish of 5 species to win. Daniel also recorded the first and biggest whiting of the year, a 140gram fish!

Santa Barbara with Paul Maindok, Peter Dooley and Lui Palmara was the only boat out and recorded some success except for Peter Dooley’s blank day. Paul had 2 fish but soundly beaten by Lui’s 4 fish which included his shark and baldchin groper shown above to win the over 7.5m boat section.

Di Stewart picked up the ANZAC Meritorious award of a $50.00 voucher for her estuary cod and Lui Palamara won the Mystery Fish voucher. Paul Maindok won the restaurant voucher and out of towner, Ray Gillette, won the scratchie draw. Mug of the month went to Lui Palamara. Lui was aboard Santa Barbara and running a bit late coming into the river mouth was desperate to get a weigh-in tag in time or face disqualification decided to dive off the boat, swim ashore and run up to the pub to claim his weigh in tag, getting there just in time.

Next comp is the Kalbarri Electrical Services Ultra Light over the Australia Day long weekend.

The Wagoe away day weekend last weekend was a great success with many club members booking accommodation for the Friday and Saturday nights. Fishing started on the Friday night along the beach in a very social manner. A few fish were caught, mainly tailor and mulloway but the fish of the weekend went to Karen Harteg who single headedly landed a 22.8kg mulloway from between the reef edges. Well-done Karen!

[img_assist|fid=78092|thumb=0|alt=KOAC - Karen's Mulloway]
[img_assist|fid=78089|thumb=0|alt=KOAC - Karen’s 22.8kg mulloway]

The Saturday night was enjoyed by all with a lamb on the spit and a few coldies round the fire on a windless night for a change!

Laurie Malton

G'day
I've been lurking for a while and finally got out for a fish with some postable results.
Last Friday week took the ferry over to rotto for some reef bashing. Ended up at a hole in Stricklands which was full of 1kg tailor. Had 20 strikes, landed 7 and released 5 in 45 minutes. There were some much bigger fish there but I couldn't land them. I never use wire and was bitten off once so maybe next time I will go the wire.

After cleaning dinner I thought I would bring out the whiting gear and try for a KG. second cast a thick 45cm KG swallowed my hook. Thought I would call it a day and head to the pub to wait for the 7.15pm boat back to C-shed.

Great day and and an excellent dinner aftwerwards.

[img_assist|fid=77416|thumb=1|alt=Stricklands Hole]

[img_assist|fid=77419|thumb=1|alt=Stricklands Tailor]

[img_assist|fid=77422|thumb=1|alt=Stricklands KG]

cheers
Andrew

Port Jackson Shark - Heterodontus portusjacksoni

I've only ever caught the small ones, last night I landed a 3 foot PJ ( released )can any one tell me if they are protected or not.

[img_assist|fid=77390|thumb=1|alt=Port Jackson Shark]

TT

Fished oceanreef marina again last night. burlyd up big time just out of the entrance to see whatd turn up, the swell was too big to fish the outside wall. At about 12 am hooked up to somthing decent that didnt feel like a stingray or a 'proper' fish which kept diving into the rocks. Turned out to be a wobbegong easily 1.5-6m long. Couldnt get it out of the water. I was fishing by myself and didnt have a gaff, and ive heard if you grab them by the tail in the water they can spin right round and bite your hand. with that in mind i tried to drag it onto a rock at which point 'tink' line gets bitten through. Hooked him on a live yellow tail. Also got a bucket of yellow tail, A few snook and some mini tailor - which went back. Lots of idiots down there.

Went for a fish with Tapout today after favourable weather forecasts. Got to West End and decided to troll out wide with zippo result. Got wide and bottom bounced for a while as there were no schools on the sounder. First drop resulted in Tapout loosing 100m of braid snapping near the top. Back and around we went with the same thing happening to me. Not a good start. I had just enough braid left on to reach the bottom but had to feed out more line to stay there, another hookup and wham, remaining braid line gone. By this stage we'd taken a few showers and managed to land one 3kg skippy and drop a few, was a pretty average start to the day.
Should have stayed in close and then gone wide, sigh!

In closer we managed to get into a few blackass, fox fish, bakers, wrasse etc. Tapout also got a nice 48cm pinky and released a just undersize dhuie. I pulled up a fair few solid sea sweep and a dhuie which went 55cm to save what was a very frustrating day.

I didnt take any photos as I didn't think the fish that we got were very worthy. I had been thinking all day that I must have broken a fish god curse by almost blanking out 3 trips in a row. It was only for a very unlucky dhufish that swallowed my plastic grub on my top hook whilst I wasnt paying any attention that saved my day. Oh well, got a feed atleast, just not very productive again, guess thats fishing thou!

Cheers,
Adam

Also, the FADS are deployed and the tuna schools have arrived, well, atleast one good size school from what I've heard but unsure if they were blues or yellow.

Things are warming up...has anyone come across any flathead in the Swan River flats lately? Must be about time...man i love chucking a fly or light spin gear around for those little guys. Dunno why, they are not exactly sportfish!! Must be the stealth aspect. Anyone ever caught one of those dusky flathead monsters they get over east? thats on my top ten list of things to do...

Did a shipload of miles today looking for the fish, travelled to spots where there are usually fish, headed west, south, north, around and back and nearly bloody everywhere out from Mindarie. Andy Mac must have told them all to go on holidays until he gets back or something. Bouttimes boat managed a 15kg sambo, ours 2 undersize dhuies, 1 harlequin and a heap of sgt bakers. Lots of bites all day but only 2 serious enquiries, very disappointing to say the least. Certainly caught some sun rays thou, the sunnies won't be coming off for some time! :(

Cheers,
Adam

Headed out of Hillaries 5-00am this morning in a mates boat, beautiful Comodore 6.7m fibreglass boat but badly in need of a new sounder (Sorry Pete, but its the truth). It was a bit choppy early on but we persevered (spelling) and by 10 am were on our way back in again. Result for the day, I had two bites and got two fish guess what they were?

Pete got three bites and landed three fish, his were Baldy, Baldy, Dhuie in rapid succession. One of the baldies was on a really old shimano rod and reel combo that may have a shot at the crapy combo competition. I got some decent footage of all the captures bar one and will cut together a bit of a movie later on. New camera worked a treat, but the way the sun was and how we were drifting made for a lot of shadows, plus the boat was fairly rocking and rolling for all the captures, so not happy overly with the footage but the camera itself worked a treat.

Pics to follow after I have had a swim and a spa and several Carlton Premium Drys.

Went for a fish with Gully this morning and decided that it was definately not worth heading to two rocks, so we chose to go from Hillaries instead. With the wind blowing all of a 30 knots from the east, video proves this, we went squiding around little island. I picked up a couple of thumpers and ended up with 3 as a tally but the wind died off around 9 so we headed wide. We found some awesome ground which was pretty fishy, first drop was a 55cm queen snapper that gave a fair old fight to the surface. 2nd time around was a 41cm pinkie that smashed my green lumo grub, I released him as he looked pretty small.

[img_assist|fid=67782|thumb=1|alt=Pink and Green grub eater]
Things went pretty quiet for a while until Gully boated a nice 58cm dhuie. The wind then swung to the south west pretty strong and we anchored up for a while. No suprise that I caught a stingray straight up and then a dusky morwong which decided it wanted to release into my hand with his spikes, not fun. Gully managed to get a small black ass and as the wind freshened we called it quits. Not a bad day on the water except for the gale force winds, managed a nice feed all the same.
[img_assist|fid=67785|thumb=1|alt=Gully's Dhuie]
At this rate I would expect the Mindarie Night Fishing Invitational to be cancelled tomorrow night. If that south wester is anywhere near as strong tomorrow as it was today then I think that it would be unsafe and very uncomfortable out there.

Cheers,
Adam

Went for a fish with Tapout yesterday to one of the inclose spots as the wind was blowing pretty strong. We didn't have a hell of a lot of success, first fish of the day was a pink snapper that was a couple of centimeters undersize, but one of the fattest little buggers I've ever seen. We went through a heap of reefies and seargent bakers until I hooked into a little rat sambo which we tagged number 62496 and measured to be 44cm fork length. The next fish was a bigger rat sambo which we tagged number 62495, measured 58cm fork length and was released in good health. After Tapouts 7th Port Jackson in a row we decided to move to the otherside of the lump where fortunes changed.

I got two eels in a row followed by a scorpion cod and 2 reef bustoffs which saw an end to my arvo fishing. Tapout held in there for another 15 minutes and saw a school of 4-5 yellow tail kings about a meter long buzz the back of the boat. 5 minutes later he was into one of them on 6kg and it took about 30 seconds of it heading towards the horizon before it busted him off. Argh well, not a bad arvo to be on the water, would have been nice if the fish played ball thou. Guess thats fishing thou. :)

Deefa, Honsu etc, how was it out there today? Looked good from shore. Did you get into any Ambo's?

[img_assist|fid=18095|thumb=0|alt=Kalbarri Offshore]
October 5th & 12th Kids Whiting Comp

Every October School Holidays, the Kalbarri Offshore and Angling Club, hosts a whiting competition for kids on each Thursday of the holidays. It has grown to become a highlight for regular visitors and continues to grow in size each year. With thanks to our major sponsor this year, Australian National Sportsfishing Association, we were able to give out some great prizes. We had 174 excited kids signing up the first Thursday, 58 more kids than last year, all ready to fish the beach from the Chinamans to the first jetty.

[img_assist|fid=63355|thumb=0|alt=Crowd at the Weigh In - Whiting Comp]
The crowd at the weigh-in

[img_assist|fid=63359|thumb=0|alt=Some of the 174 kids and parents on the beach]
Some of the 174 kids and parents on the beach

Rules of the comp allow any fish to be caught, kept in a bucket and brought to the weigh-in live, weighed and then released. The Volunteer Sea Search and Rescue, Police, and Ashley Van Viersen loaned their 4WD bikes and gave kids a lift to the weigh station saving them the long walk over the sand.

There were 16 prizes each day including 12 rods and reels each day for species, smallest, biggest, most, most unusual etc. Two sections were competed for, under 8s and 9 to 14 years. The quality and diversity of the species caught showed that the river is in good condition. A lot of whiting came to the weigh station on the first Thursday with Maison Deveson in the under 8’s catching the most and biggest. Darcy Sexton had the biggest bream, a 284gram specimen. In the 9-14 age group Kate Davies had the most and biggest whiting, while Ashleigh Keeler landed the only mulloway of 138 grams. Nicholas Edgar won with his biggest tarwhine and Robert Higgins had a 67-gram tailor.

[img_assist|fid=63362|thumb=0|alt=Darcy Sexton biggest bream, 284gram specimen.]
[img_assist|fid=63369|thumb=0|alt=Maison Deveson and whiting]

Each day we finished off with a lunchtime sausage sizzle and prize giving. A big thank you to Freda, Angie and Shane Krakouer for doing the sausage sizzle. Murchison Boat Hire offered a one-day free hire of their 4.3m dinghy as a raffle prize. Kalbarri Surf Shop, Kalbarri Sports and Dive, Kalbarri Entertainment Centre, Rainbow Jungle, The Seahorse Sanctuary, Marina Home & Leisure, Kalbarri Natural Spring Water and The Kalbarri Pharmacy all donated prizes.

The second Thursday saw another record number of kids, 158 kids line up along the beach waiting for the 9am start. Within minutes the blowies began to arrive. It was a blowie day with multitudes being brought in, but sprinkled amongst them were good fish such as a 92 gram Tarwhine for Steven Pekaar, 136-gram blowie for Jamie Ogilvy, an 84 gram whiting for Fraser Allen all in the 9-14 age group

Surprise for the day was Ben Stelfox who brought in a 428-gram tailor, which was legal size! And just a little later on Laura Gifford also brought one in weighing 252 grams. The under 8’s continued the run of good fish with Jesse Cooper catching 7 tarwhine and Makaira Heaney a most unusual small estuary cod.
[img_assist|fid=63365|thumb=0|alt=Junior Tailor]
[img_assist|fid=63372|thumb=0|alt=Laura Gifford and tailor]
We would like to thank ANSA as our major sponsor, Kalbarri Surf Shop, Kalbarri Sports and Dive, Kalbarri Entertainment Centre, Rainbow Jungle, The Seahorse Sanctuary, Marina Home & Leisure, The Kalbarri Pharmacy Kalbarri Natural Spring Water and Murchison Boat Hire as without them we could not run such a fun comp for the kids.

About 600 fish were caught over the two days in four hours! Species recorded were as follows: blowies, whiting, tailor, black bream, silver bream, gobbleguts, crabs, yellow-eye mullet, estuary cod and bony herring, a total of 10 species.

[img_assist|fid=63375|thumb=0|alt=Junior competition lineup - Kalbarri]

A big thanks to all the helpers on the day, without your help this great event for the kids could not happen.

Laurie Malton
[img_assist|fid=63378|thumb=0|alt=Murchison Boat Hire - Logo]

Fishing Report 28th Sept 2006 - Courtesy of Scott Forbes - EGFC

Although it has been a little bit windy in the mornings lately, we are still being blessed with calm afternoons and the fishing action hasn’t let us down either.

Billfish numbers are starting to pick up with more reports of sailfish and marlin from Tantabiddi waters. Bluewater Tackleworld’s Matt Gates had Dave Butfield out during the week doing some filming for Dave’s T.V program “Hooked” which is shown on the Aurora station for those with Satelite/Foxtel TV. Matt managed successfully to guide Dave on to a 70kg Striped Marlin which put up a spectacular display for the television cameras. The stripey was teased up with the use of lures and then fed back a garfish rigged up on an Owner 9/0circle hook. The circle hook located in the corner of the jaw of the marlin as they are designed to do, enabling a successful release. Dave also managed to land his biggest ever giant trevally and thoroughly enjoyed his fishing and stay in Exmouth at the Potshot Hotel. These shows are planned to air as early as October, which is a fast turn around for film crews.

Dale Gibson from Margaret River who is up enjoying a holiday/honeymoon with his wife Jenny has been having a good run fishing the protected waters of the gulf. Dale has picked up cobia, spanish mackerel and big queenfish all on lures. Dale went out with local young gun Rhys Clatworthy and the pair had a ball sightfishing throwing soft plastic and minnow lures to all manner of species spotted feeding on the numerous baitfish schools present in the gulf at the moment.

Low tide in the mornings has been productive for those fishing the shoreline in lighthouse bay. Big spangled emperor and bluebone have fallen victim to those willing to get up early and use fresh bait. A lightly weighted rig of a running sinker is our suggestion for this. If you ever need any hints, advice, or the latest fishing and weather reports please call in and see us, at 3 Maley Street.

Some huge squid are still being caught in the gulf also. The shallow waters both north and south of the marina are holding big numbers of the tasty cephalopods. It can be a matter of locating the patches of squid which is best done by slow trolling the prawn style jigs over the weedy areas but once you find the patches of squid it is easy to obtain more than enough for a sensational feed.

Look out for information next week from the Exmouth Game Fishing Club about the upcoming Circle Hook competition.

[img_assist|fid=59699|thumb=0|alt=Exmouth Trev]

Sunday Times fishing news...

METROPOLITAN
Beach action is spasmodic for bread and butter species such as herring, one of few highlights some decent tailor caught by shore anglers north of Yanchep. Woodman Point produced herring and the odd tailor. Evening high tides have been best for herring along Mangles Bay and Palm Beach, the Powerhouse also worth a try for these species. Squid towards Garden and Carnac Islands and in Mangles Bay have been plentiful.
Some excellent size king george were pulled from the area between Garden Island and the Five Fathom Bank, big pink snapper coming from behind the Five Fathom with the occasional jewie in that region. The Barges, well out the back of Rottnest in 100-110m of water continue to turn up numbers of pink snapper and skippy.
The Swan has surprised some with quality sand whiting taking soft plastics. Bream are still well upstream, some decent fish among schools, and black bream were also spotted in the Matilda Bay area but were reluctant biters. Schools of whiting are around Matilda Bay around full tide, with the boat ramp seeming to be the hot spot.

BUSSELTON
Lovers of blue swimmer crabs could do worse than head to Geographe Bay for a feed of these tasty creatures, and squid are also plentiful. Greg of Ocean to Outback reckons success on samson fish encountered towards the end of the jetty is due to the presence of the squid. Skippy to 1kg were a frequent catch from the Jetty and the Four Mile and king george whiting fishing was rewarding.
In better conditions jewfish were taken off the Eight Mile.
Tailor to 3kg made for fine fishing action along the Dunsborough coast and from the west coast, Moses Rock one hot spot.

ALBANY
Cheynes Beach and Bluff Creek make the better spots to try your luck for salmon, Normans, Little Beach and Two Peoples Bay other places to have a go. Salmon trout are prolific in the river systems and the Kalgan and King Rivers are working well for bream with the odd big mulloway about as well. Bream have picked up right along that coast, nearly all rivers from Walpole to Bremer performing well for both lure users and bait fishers.
Deep sea angling has been difficult although smaller craft working closer to protected waters at the likes of Gull Rock and local islands are finding some good king george, deeper spots best and best fish 42-45cm. Bag limit catches are not uncommon but you need to move around.

Courtesy of Scott Forbes - EGFC

Andrew Burton and his wife Natasha made a quick trip to Exmouth from their home town of Newman and experienced an unforgettable day aboard Terry Maxwell’s charter boat Osso Blue. Andrew was lucky enough to be on the end of the rod when they hooked up to a giant Spanish mackerel. The big mackerel which took a Halco Laser Pro 190DD in the pink multi colour was taken on 24kg line and could have been a potential world record had it been brought in and weighed straight away. As it turned out the mackerel later weighed in at 42kg, just shy of the world mark but easily beating the current Australian record, however as Andrew isn’t a current member of a game fishing club, he is not eligible to claim the Australian record. The existing record was 38.75kg from back in 1978. Andrew and Natasha will be joining up to the Exmouth Game Fishing Club before their next trip out fishing. The mackerel wasn’t the only good catch for the day as the boat managed to find some nice red emperor, spangled emperor and rankin cod to ensure that everybody took home some nice fish at the end of the day.

Tantabiddi reef has been productive for those trolling deep diving lures. Both the coral and coronation trout as well as Spanish mackerel are being caught by anglers working the 15-20m contour line with the 8m deep diving lures. Most of the mackerel being taken have averaged 13kg however there has been the odd 20kg+ plus specimen mixed in as well.

Dorothy Kostera who has been enjoying the past 6 months whilst staying at the Lighthouse Caravan park was the envy of everybody at the park last week when she brought back a beautiful 15 and ½ pd Bluebone which she caught across the road from the caravan park in lighthouse bay on 30lb line on her secret bait which she isn’t willing to divulge to anybody.

Queenfish have been making early morning raids on the hardyhead schools at Trisel Access. For an hour or so at the top of the tide each morning the queenfish which have been averaging 4-5kg in size are being taken by anglers throwing around small poppers and soft plastics in a size which imitates the hardyheads which is naturally what the queenfish are chasing.

SEPTEMBER 23rd COMPETITION RESULTS

A cancellation of the boat section due to big swells and southerly winds was a disappointment and with the Grand Final next Saturday no one would fish so we had the river and beach sections only. A good turn out again for the river section and the land-based guys did well despite the big swell.

This month we had 8 senior and 7 juniors compete in the river. The juniors did well with Steven Eley, James & Luke Dooley and Amy Stewart each landing live bream to be returned but Dylan Ivey easily won with his two live bream. Amy Stewart’s bream was a good size at 654 grams.
[img_assist|fid=55974|thumb=0|alt=Amy Stewart’s 654g fish]

[img_assist|fid=55981|thumb=0|alt=Dylan Ivey with one of his winning bream]

[img_assist|fid=55978|thumb=0|alt=Garry Ivey with his .912g live bream.]

In the senior section, Sue Malton and Di Stewart each had one fish while Brett Bain had two. Cheryl brought three live bream to the weigh-in catching them all in the last hour, Laurie Malton had three as well but not good enough to beat Garry Ivey’s three with one of them a very respectable 912 grams to win. Most river anglers were plagued by undersize mulloway.

[img_assist|fid=55991|thumb=0|alt=James, Luke and Dylan show off their fish]

Daniel and Simon Tarasek, Tristan Neuman and Bill Tolson fished the beach section, but only Daniel and Simon managed to land a fish. They were good snapper as well; a 3.3kg fish for Daniel and Simon’s went 2.95kgs.

[img_assist|fid=55994|thumb=0|alt=Daniel and Simon Tarasek - Snapper]

The Mystery Fish voucher from The Kalbarri Pizza & Pasta went to Daniel for his snapper. The restaurant voucher was won by Tristan Neumann and Garry Ivey won the scratchie draw. Laurie who spent time rigging his rod, casting out and then realising that he had forgotten to feed the line under his bail arm, won mug of the day. Not to forget the Hot Bite guys who forgot to engage the front hubs while 4WD up river and getting bogged and wondering why they were not moving!

Next comp is on 21st October.

Exmouth Fishing Report #33 - 5th Sept ‘06 - Courtesy of Scott Forbes - EGFC

The town is finally beginning to quieten down after a very busy tourist season. Despite the large amount of anglers, there are still plenty of fish in the sea! Dean Dorman from Roley Stone caught a mixed bag of fish, including his first billfish from Aaron Rampling’s boat called “Sugar Daddy.” The boys enjoyed fresh seafood for dinner with tuna, calamari, red emperor and prawns from Kailis during their week off from work.

Three guys from Bunbury, Rob, Danno and Jai pictured this issue had weeks of enjoyment during August fishing out off Tantabiddi. The trio were fishing for mackerel in 25meters of water near south passage. They hooked up to a small mackerel about 12kg. As they were bringing it in slowly the mackerel jumped high in the air about 20m from the stern. To the boys amazement a marlin with the “head the size of a 44gallon drum” (according to Rob) jumped out after the mackerel and nailed it in mid air. The boys freespooled the reel and hooked up to the big fish that instantly began trekking west. After half an hour, the hooks pulled and all that was returned was the head of the small mackerel and the original lure. However, the boys managed to hook and land many other billfish for their stay including this black marlin with its rigid pectoral fins.

Fishing from the shore has been productive, especially along town beach. During the middle of the day schools of whiting can be seen with a good pair of polarised sunglasses on. The Fathers Day fishing clinic on the Town beach was well organised with targets for kids to cast at and rods and reels for them to use. The Exmouth Game Fishing Club cooked up a free sausage sizzle for those involved and hopefully next year there will be many more participants. Look out next week for the photo of the biggest fish caught on the day.

Dave Buttfield from the television series “Hooked” on Foxtel is filming this week in Exmouth. Look out for the series which airs on the Aurora channel on Saturdays.

Another sailfish tagged off Dampier last week by angler Craig Rieck had been previously tagged by angler Trevor Turner onboard the boat Reel Teaser at the Rowley Shoals on August 18th 2005. We are still waiting for information on the fish that was tagged in Exmouth.

[img_assist|fid=52066|thumb=1|alt=Bigger Marlin]

Bloody blowy and cold today. Budi and I decided some breaming are in order as the foul weather can turn them on. First stop was a rockwall which Ive been getting bream for the last few weeks.
Wind blowing the wrong direction and low water level makes fishing very quiet. The next move to MacCallum Park was a better option giving us shelter from the blasting chilly wind. Needless to say we got into some good fish and lost similar numbers to the heavy structure.

My first one after been blown away twice......
[img_assist|fid=48606|thumb=0|alt=Hon-Su's bream1]

The effectiveness of light gauge circle hooks.......2/0 Mustad demon circle.
[img_assist|fid=48613|thumb=0|alt=circle hooks for bream]

Budi first legal one after a couple of false starts with 10cm fish.....
Then proceeded to either pull the hooks or blown away.....
[img_assist|fid=48629|thumb=0|alt=Budi's bream2]

Biggest of the day.......
[img_assist|fid=48610|thumb=0|alt=Hon-Su's bream2]

Fished the outgoing tide after lunch and decided to get on the jetty to fish hard under the jetty.......blown away a few more times again then finally managed to land this baby........ I think you'll know which jetty this is....

[img_assist|fid=48626|thumb=0|alt=Hon-Su's bream3]

Fishing Report #32 - August 31st 2006 - Courtesy of Scott Forbes - EGFC

Gail Meredith and her boyfriend Marijan are up on holidays from Perth and have been having a great time fishing from shore around Exmouth. Gail got the surprise of her life when she hooked onto a huge barracuda from the beach at Bundegi. The big barracuda which Gail and Marijan estimated to be close to 20kg was released after a couple of quick photos. Whilst Gail certainly caught the biggest fish of their holiday Marijan definitely caught the best eating fish in the form of a couple of whopper spangled emperor which he caught off the shore in Lighthouse bay.

Baitfish have been copping a hammering around the Muiron Islands with just about every form of pelagic getting into the action. Big Longtail tuna, Spanish mackerel, shark mackerel and cobia have all been caught by anglers throwing poppers into the fleeing baitfish on the surface.

Queenfish are starting to make an appearance for anglers fishing off the beaches on the west coast. Mildura wreck Rd and Trisel access have been the better spots to fish. There have been plenty of gold spot trevally around the 4kg mark along the west coast. Kevin’s son Lyall Cotterell outfished his father last week catching plenty of spanglies, trevally and queenfish. All fish were caught from the shore and the majority released, with only a few making the pan each night for a fresh feed.

The marina is certainly turning in to a marine haven with all sorts of species cruising in to the expanded waters. At times you can clearly see tusk fish, bream, squid and baitfish from the rockwalls and pathways. Inquisitive dolphins often come through around dusk and the odd groper and shark have also been spotted.

A couple of Exmouth crew headed up to Dampier last week to chase the loads of billfish that have been tagged. Despite not many being located, there was an interesting capture of a black marlin estimated at 2kg. The feisty little critter was gently tagged and released, while others nearby were caught that were estimated at around 4kg.

One marlin tagged recently in Dampier had a tag in it already and the fish had been previously caught off Exmouth. We are awaiting further information from the Billfish Foundation regarding this fish and will keep you informed.

[img_assist|fid=48508|thumb=0|alt=Gatesy with a Junior]