Great old fella from mangles . We got some real good ones. His face tells story

 After a horrendous crawl out and getting bashed around for most of the day, we managed a small mixed bag and a few tuna dragging lures back to the ramp. One of the bigger metro SBT I've caught.

 Took the young bloke out on Sunday, as soon as the pick went down in 12m the swell scared him and back in we went, but I was lucky enough that the Mrs run up to the ramp to grab him so I could shoot back out. Nursing a hangover it wasn't much fun for me either but I finally found some fish in 35m. After a massive spew I had a bag of pinks 80cm and 65cm. Ran home at a comfortable 32knts and off to bed before the kids haha

 Booked a mid-week RDO for Wednesday with the forecast looking good for a surf. On Tuesday evening, had a call from an ex-work mate from Mandurah who is up in Exxy for the first time with his family asking if I wanted to head out for a fish with them. With the wind looking to back off from midday, we made a plan to launch from Bundegi late morning and shoot north to the islands for some trolling and then a bottom bash when the wind backed off. My little boat spends most of its time inside the reef on the west side so this was a blind trip for both of us. 

Got out with the fam in the morning for some fun waves and to keep the mrs happy who I had promised we would have a surf in the morning and then i'd get some gear ready for a few nights down at Warroora over the weekend. Got nothing ready but at least I kept the first half of the promise and she got some good waves!

Wasn't the nicest launching from Bundegi with the wind still blowing across the gulf but his boat handled it well and we punched across to the islands fairly quickly. Trolled along the west side of the south island for nothing and then a medium size shark mac just between the north and south island. By this time, the wind had dropped a bit so we shot out to the 40s for a look and found a little lump but getting any baits past the smaller emperor models was difficult. We decided to shoot out a bit further for a look and found a likely looking showing on the sounder in about 60m and didn't dissapoint. Pulled my first reds, both of which were good size but the second was a thumper! Happy days all round and lots of whale action to make their first boat trip off Exmouth a memorable one. 

Eldest boy and I headed out recently. Found some flat ground in 41m and were getting smoked with big head shakes then losing fish with chewed through leader and even bitten through kevlar cord on the Mackdog rig so possibly sharks? After losing four Mackdog rigs we changed spots to a lump nearby and bagged out quite quickly with a good feed. One of the baldies (our 4th fish) was smaller than the old size limit but had swallowed all three Bottom Meat hooks so we bagged him and headed in leaving the fish biting.

Took my boy out today and after a slow start and getting smoked by 2 unstoppables ended up cleaning up. My slob went 101cm and 15.9kg

Popped down to Hamelin Bay for the weekend and went for a midday fish while the kids had a swim in perfect conditions with crystal clear water. Been a while since I’ve had a decent shore bash so I brought a frozen burley block from home and staked it where the waves were washing up to in my scaling bag and was firing out a diving minnow with no joy for about 15 mins. I slowly started seeing a few bubbles and hooked and dropped a couple so changed over to a micro jig with a single hook and nailed a few bull herring. By this stage the water was boiling and they were hitting the micro jig all the way to my feet so changed over to the Sugarpen and had an awesome session sight casting into the school and watching them smash the surface lure with big acrobatics and lot of laughs with my mate as we sucked back stubbies and managed to land 15 before the berley ran dry and the hezza disappeared. 

 Just got back from a pretty epic trip up to Gnaraloo for our annual fishing trip. We were blessed by the weather gods to say the least with most days being pretty much glass conditions. A couple of small lows, but all in all alot of really big highs. Here is a write up, hopefully might help out a few people or just a good read for some so grab yourself a beer and read a bit of dribble!!

Day 1

Left Perth at around 5am headed to Carnarvon to stay the night. Pretty non eventful trip up. Got to Carnarvon booked into the accomodation and went to the pub for a feed. Stayed at Carnarvon central apartments, the people running it are great. Luckily we had one of the deckies sleep in the boat that night as we had a couple of locals jump the fence and started looking around the boat. Luckily the bloke who runs the joint saw them on camera and came running out with a dolphin torch and scared them away.... The deckie was none the wiser until I told him in the morning haha

Day 2

Headed from Carnarvon to Gnarlaoo. Stopped in at BP on the way out of Carnarvon for breaky and fuel. Saw a bloke that I recognised his face but didnt know where from, hit him up and started chatting and found out he was the owner of Snapbait (Paul his name is) have seen him on a youtube chanel I always watch and thats where I knew his face from haha. Anyway he was on his way back from Exmouth and he gave us a heap of his products to try on the condition that if we got anything we send him through some pics. Bloody stoked with the amount of stuff he gave us and as you can see further down they produced well. Carnarvon to Gnaraloo track was non eventful, stopped at the king waves kill sign for the pic and to let tyres down...... Then it was the slow trip in. Wasnt extremely bad, we were sitting on about 40-50kms per hour and slowing right down at the corrugated rough parts.... I lost my RH tail light on my boat and my number plate bracket almost come off but managed to rescue it.. One of the other boats went passed me as we were doing something and noticed their number plate hanging off, luckily had reception at this point so gave him a buzz and he was able to rescue it...... The 3rd boat has bigger issues... His brake caliper bolts came loose and came out causing 2 of his brake calipers to only being held on by 1 bolt... Luckily for him there 6 of us going were diesel mechanics hahaha. Removed one of the brake calipers and made a packing for the piston and cable tied that up and out the way, used the bolt out of that for the other caliper that was missing one and tightned the bolts in the other 2 calipers... All sweet!! 

Got into Gnaraloo and unloaded.... We were all pretty excited so headed down the beach to look at it for the first time. As we pulled up this big dark storm cloud decided to come over us bringing rain, wind so none of us were keen to launch. At this point looking at the beach I was a little bit worried. My boat is the biggest out of the lot and weights about 3 tonne and I was scared I was going to struggle!! Back to the fishermans lodge for beers and prepare for fishing the next day.

Day 3

Up early as we were all excited and had to wait for the sun to come up... Sun came up and we were all ready to launch. We all helped each other out. We would back 1 boat down at a time and put all tyres, trailer tyres and car tyres up onto Max trax. We would then launch the boat as normal and then drive off the Max trax.... Actually was super simple and within half an hour were all launched and ready to fish... I was surprised at how easy it was when we all helped each other out in a steady manner.

2 boats headed south, 1 headed north and I pretty much headed straight out then slighly south. We spent a total of $59 on crappy bait so we decided to get some fresh bait first. Trolling for no longer than 10 minutes had 2 blue tuna on board, beautiful bait. Kept going and got a school mack and another tuna. Beautiful bait was sorted..... Headed out to around the 70s and trolled looking for ground.. Picked up 3 big yellowfin tuna... No joke we stopped trolling because we would put the lures back in the water and without even getting to trolling speed we were on again, it was bloody good fun. Kept the 3 yellows and marked some good ground that we went back and dropped on.

First demersal on the boat for the trip was a 800mm Large mouth Nannygai! We were stoked to say the least! The nanny was caught off fishwrecked sponsor Mackdog Tackle underdog jig. Faught like a freight train. Bloody stoked with that as the first fish. Sounded around, dropped and got a pretty decent bag of Rankin, Peal Perch and we Kept a big tomato cod to see how it tasted. The bite went dead around 11am... Could see the fish all over the sounder but couldnt get anything decent apart from Rankin to bite. Headed in to the 30's to see if we could get a few shallow species... Found this awesome little flare up which turned into our honey hole for a week.... First drop landed 2 decent Red Emperor, landed a heap of other species like massive spanglies, rankin... Fish came back on the bite around 1:30pm which is what will happen most days... Ended up trolling for a couple of hours on the way back in to get bait for the next day. Got a heap of tuna and school mack for strip baits.

We had all agreed to meet back in the bay every day at 4 so we could help retrieve.... This is where I thought it would be shit.... Once again set up the trailer, cars on Max Trax but this time had a tow vehicle with a snatch strap... Helped that the the tow vehicle was like a tractor.... Nissan Patrol ute that has been done up like a comp truck.... More power and torque than a mapped 200 series cruiser... A few by-standers on the beach watching us and taking videos but all in all with the way we had it set up pulling out my 3 tonne boat was actually reasonable easy. The only time one of the cars got bogged was when he wasnt hooked up to the snatch vehicle. Apart from that once again it was actually reasonably simple... First day took a while to get us all sorted but by days 2-3-4 we had it down pack and was retrieving all 3 boats in about 25 minutes (1 boat was mooring for the week)

Anyway back at the fillet station one of the boats had hit the mother load. They got their limit of red emperor and had to release a whole heap and stop fishing because they had their limit. Their stories were epic, they were showing us videos, photos, they did bloody well......To the point all of us wanted to follow them out the next day hahahha

Filleted the fish and back to the fishing lodge for rums, dinner and presidents and assholes haha

Day 4

Like I said the whole week was good weather but today was epic..... Absolute glass off... All launched easy as and out on the water all heading in convoy to the red spot the boys found the day before..... Got to the spot and it was loaded... But as thought pretty shut down..... Had a couple of drops and most boats decided to go their own way from here.... A couple headed out deep, a couple shallow. We were headed to a couple of spots we had in about 60 that we were given but on the way we were marking fish everywhere... Driving a couple of hundred metres then there would just be another flare up... Fish werent really congregating on ground just schooling up together.. Ended up gettin 8 reds, a heap of Rankin (Cant get away from these things) and a couple of Cobia..... We found this pretty big school with some awesome looking arches and the drop before netted us 3 Reds so thought his spot was going to be loaded... All of us got ready and dropped down... Before the baits had even hit the bottom all 4 of us were on... The fish smashed the baits and we thought we were onto some bloody good reds...... Turns out we dropped onto a bloody huge school or Rankin haha. Epic with all 4 of us going off at more or less the same time and bringing in these fish.

Called it a day and met the rest of the boats back in at 4..... Once again followed the same method of retrieving and all got out without an issue. Retrieving becomming quicker and quicker.

Back to the fillet station, filleted, bagged the fillets and back to the fishermans lodge...... Today we found that non of the fillets were freezing. One due to the power being turned off every night between 11:00pm and 7am but also the freezer was terribly old... Went for a word with the caretakers and they replaced the freezer, they knew it was on its way out... They actually told us that people normally bought their own freezers and a generator (Even though their website says no generators) so that was lesson learned for next time..... Freezer didnt get much better for the week, but they let us use the freezers in the sheering shed which helped too.

Day 5

We decided to head back to our spot on the first day where we found reds..... We werent dissapointed. Everywhere around this area had schools of bait and schools of reds and we were only in the 30's. Ended up bagging 11 reds with the biggest one being 8.2kgs. Everywhere we went we found good fish. Got a pretty decent bag so we trolled on the way in hoping for some pelagic action. Didnt get much exciting on the troll just a heap of tuna and macks that we kept for bait..... To this point we had only used 1 herring out of the $59 worth of bait that we bought hahaha

Same story... Retrieve at 4pm, fillet, rums, dinner, presidents and assholes hahaha Some of the best times on the trip is the games afterwards haha

Day 6

Decided to put a bit of effort into trolling... We were targetting Spanish Mack.... Nothing special to report from our boat, got 5 mackies, cobia and did a quick drop and got a couple of more reds....... One of the other boats on the other hand.... They decided to go troll out wide to see if they could get Marlin.... They werent dissapointed. The skipper of that boat is pretty full on with his fishing and loves sports fishing and after a battle of over an hour they landed a Marlin that they estimated at 180kgs (Some calculator where you measure the length of the fish and girth was used) but looking at the videos it was a bloody awesome fish and credit to the skipper he did most of the work hahaha! They will remeber that for years to come!

Day 7

With us not being far off a full bag of everything we decided to head out to our little red ground 1 last time to see if we could finish our remaining bag limit with Red fillets...... Now remember we were given the Snapbait jigs at the servo at the start of the trip.... One of my deckies sent one of those down and he was on big... We actually called it for a small shark, he was fishing with pretty light gear..... To be honest I was driving and I didnt even worry about getting the net ready I was that adament it was a small shark hahaha.... Getting ready at the side of the boat to help him out with it I got a glimpse..... Wholly shit its a big bloody Red!!! Scrambled to get the net and hoiked in this fish!!! Bloody ripper. Measured 880mm and went 11.61kgs after it had been cled on the scales back at the fillet station.... biggest red on my boat by far, was a bloody donkey!!! Stoked to say the very least on jigs that were given to us too hahaha!! The whole boat was buzzing... Spent the next couple of hours landing a few more reds but still in awe of the one in the esky... Headed in and picked up 2 more macks on the way in....... Few stories and photos at the fillet station with a few of the other blokes staying there coming to look at the red we were riding a high and we were done with the fillets we wanted for the trip!

Day 8

Our last day of going out on the water we decided to go for a dive and see if we could find a couple of crays...... Pretty dissapointing really, tried alot of places before the wind blew up but only managed 1 cray which was pretty big though... Back in around midday and pulled all the boats in, including the guys that had moored for the week.... All came in non eventful pretty easy..... All in all was actually easy launching and retrieving as long as you had a method, had your wits about you and you werent being a hero (Like some we witnessed haha)

Headed back to camp to clean up, pack all the boat and have our last supper with each other! Told stories, had a few laughs and a few rums around the camp fire. Awesome company, awesome weather, awesome fishing!!!!

Day 9

Woke at 3:30am and started the journey back with the number plate cable tied on and no RH tail light we didnt get stopped by the Monarch which was good haha..... Avoiding Kangaroos on that Gnaraloo road at that time is also hard work!!! 

Got back home around 5:30pm... Unloaded... Sorted fillets... Bloody great trip

Few things we learnt that might help others

-Take your time launching and retrieving.. Have max tracks and a method of how you want to get in and get out. Dont rush... I know you want to try get in and get out so you dont sink down but found that is you took your time, everyone helped it was really easy

-Take your own freezer and generator.... Engels wont cut it.. We tried.

-Dont have high expectations of the station.... Its pretty run down and doesnt look like its well maintained. From stories we were told by someone at the station the current lease owner is looking to sell. No money going in at the moment by the looks and stuff isnt getting maintained... This is my first time there so I have nothing to campare it off but just shit like freezers broken, fridges broken, doors broken, gas leaks so we had to turn off the gas all the time, tables falling apart, roof beams falling apart.... Just not maintained... But once you get passed that and your expectations are lowered it is reasonably comfortable.

- Take  your time on the main road in and out... Saw a few rollers, springs, tyres on the way in.... Just have a coke and enjoy the ride in

- Sharks actually werent that bad. Had expectations of loosing alot of gear but all in all the whole boat was probably only sharked 10 times for the week which was far less than other places we have been

- Bring heaps of rum... Dont run out... We didnt get a lay day thank god but if you do there is absolutely nothing to do except go for a bit of a tour and drink haha

Hope you all had a good read and hope the info helps

Cheers

I found many previous trip reports on the Mackies very helpful in planning our trip, and I’m thankful for support of various fishwrecked members who I hit up prior to the trip. Thought the best way to say thank you is with a trip report of my own. Enjoy!

The plan was 6 nights on Thevenard, 12 crew (including at least 3 fishwrecked members), 2 shacks and 4 boats. Having not done many trips up north in the past, I had a goal of catching my first Red Emperor, Coral Trout, GT and Mackie. Was hoping to take some fish home, but the focus was on having fun, not on filling the freezer. Here is how it played out…

Pre trip, between fishwrecked member Radovan and I, we hit up almost all northern suburbs independent tackle stores and niche local tackle manufacturers/distributors, including the likes of Big John’s Jigs and Mackdog Tackle. Loaded up with everything imaginable. Radovan used some Big Johns jig heads to make his own version of a bottom meat, whilst I spent too many evenings tying paternosters and drift bait rigs. 

The journey began with Radovan picking me up 5:30am, a quick run back to his house to load and hitch up the boat, make a quick coffee for the road and we were on our way. With our 3rd crew member flying up to meet us in Onslow on Monday, there was plenty of time for two 40 somethings to have deep and meaningful conversations and crank out the tunes until we arrived at Wooramel Station retreat. Our romantic dip in the hotspring was soon to be interrupted by an overly confident primary schooler who basically told us to get out so he can do some bommies or his “Rhino of a dad” will be over to take us down. Met the old man a little later when he believed I’d taken ‘his’ gas bottle (better known as the gas bottle from the communal BBQ near his donga ). Situation smoothed over by convincing him that in doing so I have preheated the 4 burner BBQ for his family, rather than him having to heat up an older 2-burner.

Next day up early and headed into Carnarvon to meet the rest of the crew and pick up some last-minute supplies before heading up to Onslow. Another looong day on the road before finally reaching Onslow at a reasonable time, allowing us to crack open a beer and explore the foreshore before catching up with the crew for a few more beers and ultimately dinner at hotel.

Day 1 (well day 3 if you include travel time) – Arrival at Thevenard & Brewis Reef

Despite an almost perfect forecast, the wind was up when we awoke. Nothing too bad, but a lot stronger than forecast. Was rather good service from the hotel who followed us to the ramp, ushered the cars to the secure parking and drove the crew back to the ramp. Excitement was building as we launched the boats and seeing fish jumping out of the water at the ramp. Had a good yarn to another crew launching at the same time to also head to the island.

A rather bumpy trip, but the wind seemed to die down as we unpacked the boat and started to get ourselves setup in the shack. With excitement 3 of the boats headed out for the afternoon to start to get a feel for the surrounds (1 boat stayed onshore as the skipper and his crew seemed to be recovering from rather large hangovers from the night before). Without any marks we headed to Brewis reef and surrounds for some shallower water fun. Heaps of smaller stuff on the bite like Spanish Flags and Charlie Courts (which all went straight back), ended up with 2 decent Spango’s and Radovan pulled out a just size Red Emperor from 15m which got us pumped for the rest of the trip.

Day 2 – Bessieres Island & the Supermarket

First full day of fishing and the weather gods were on our side with only some very light wind. Headed roughly the same direction as our cabin mates towards Bessiers Island. Tried out a Mackdog Tackle vibe in the hope of a coral trout. Had plenty of hookups on smaller things, but nothing big to write home about. After a few hours the other crew we were with directed us to The Supermarket. We ended up being one of 5 boats out there, including the crew that we met launching at the same time from Onslow… It was on. I was on Jigs and my drift bait rigs and Radovan his home-made bottom meats. I pulled in a really good Red that went 71cm and 8kg, along with a GT (ticking 2 of the boxes for the trip) and a good-sized Robbo. Between us we also boated 5 good Spangos, a red snapper thing that we were calling a crimson (happy to be corrected) and Radovan hooked a good Cobia. Back to shore for a few beers and chat at the filleting table (and me talking up my red), before Radovan sent me away to start preparing the vac sealer in fear my average filleting skills would butcher the good fish we had caught .

Day 3 – Onslow Pickup & the Supermarket

Whilst the other 3 boats headed to the Supermarket, we made the journey back to Onslow in almost glass off conditions to pick up BC who was flying in from Perth. Without any phone communication that morning, we somehow timed it perfectly with BC calling us to let us know he was arriving at the Jetty just as we were entering Beadon Creek. We had worded him up that we were likely to pick him up and then head straight out fishing and it paid off big time. We ventured out to meet the rest of the crew and The Supermarket was on fire once again… Caught my first Coral Trout (on jig) that went 5kg with the lads pulling in a decent cod, another Crimson and a Mangrove Jack. With conditions being almost too good, and some warmth in the air, we decided to go for troll along the 30m line in the hope of a Mackie… We soon hooked up with line screaming off the reel at a rate of knots. BC had been nominated for the 1st strike and was straight onto it. Soon after the line went slack and the fun of winding in a stupid amount of line began. Initially we though we may have turned the fish and it was swimming towards us but after a good few minutes of winding and braid floating on top of the water we called it a lost fish and Radovan gave a hand to wind in the rest of the line… however the line quickly became tight and the fight was on once again. Was not long until the fish was in site and we realised we had a good size, and still rather green, Wahoo not far from the boat. I jumped onto the wheel whilst BC ran for the gaff. With some clear directions from Radovan we manoeuvred the boat as the Wahoo got in front of the bow. After getting back on even terms and the wahoo closer to the boat some premier gaffing from BC soon had the 160cm+ Wahoo on the deck. An amazing fish that many others on the island described as a fish of a lifetime. Not a bad effort for BC who had only been picked up a few hours before hand.

After 2 cracking days of fishing without being sharked once we were started to think all the talk of lost fish and gear was a myth…

Day 4 – Rosily Shoals and surrounds (~50m line)

Another near perfect day, maybe even too perfect as we were praying for some more wind at one stage. All 4 boats decided to head north for the day. Our plan was to do some trolling past Rosily Shoals before heading out into the 50’s, with 2 of the boats planning to possibly head out deep dropping.

Had no luck on the troll so soon headed out deeper. Radovan and BC promptly pulled in a stonking Spango each with BC’s measuring >61cm. We also bagged another crimson, a cod and a red throat emperor. Was a good fun day but lost a few decent fish to sharks. The 2 deep drop crews didn’t end up heading out, with the final crew cleaning up with a couple of cracker Rankins… we responded to their call over the radio searching for a spare catch bag as they had no room left in theirs!!! 

We then headed back towards Rosily Island to throw some stick baits. First cast I had a good hit on one of Mackdog’s GT lures, however the FG knot I had tied on the boat after losing the prior rig to a shark came loose. Happened 3 times to me that day and copped a bit from the lads when back on shore… and received plenty of advice on how to tie knots and some passionate conversation on the value of FG knots vs others. 

Day 5 – North West 50’s & 70’s North West

A bit more wind today, with many hands needed to help some of the boats load up and collect their crew. Had to run down to the beach with one of the boats getting sideways on shore and needed about 5 of us to push it back out. Once all were safely on their way, all headed back out to the 50’s. The deep drop crew soon departed on their loooong journey. The 2 of us that stayed in the 50’s had a short hot run before things died down. My first drop for the day delivered a decent cobia, BC pulled in a cracking 80 odd cm Cod and Radovan a good Robbo. However, I may as well have just tipped my jig box into the ocean as after the Cobia all I seemed to do was feed my jigs to a fish, and then to a shark. After losing too many of my favourite (and not cheap) jigs, it was time for a bargain basement $5 cheapie… First drop, this rather interesting jig that came rigged with trebles on the bottom delivered a 91cm Golden Trev, next drop a Spanish Mackerel which I believe measured just size but captain Radovan called just under so it went back, and shortly after a Crimson. Then I hooked onto something large. Still not sure if it was a big cod, a shark or even the massive turtle we had just seen swimming around. Played with it for about 15 minutes but could not get it close. Eventually went full lock on drag and held the spool but could not pull the hooks or break the line. Then got the skipper to help drive to recover some line. After recovering a fair bit, still on full lock and spool held we towed the damn thing around for a few minutes at 4 knots WTF. After it started to take some more line, I gave up and eventually got the line to break. At least my FG knot held up .

After the bite slowed we headed out to deeper ground in search of reds. With only a very rough guide, we picked out a few likely spots from the map. The first spot we explored was in the 80’s. Was dead, flat bottom and no shows on the sounder so promptly headed into the 60’s to sound some other likely looking ground. This spot too initially appeared to be dead but we eventually came across a little show. Set the drift and glad we did. The sounder lit up from nowhere and the fish were on. Caught a couple of silver catfish looking things, before hooking onto some decent fish. The sharks however were around, with BC being sharked and then the shark itself being sharked on the way up. Despite this, as it was getting late and the wind picking up even further, thought we would give it one last drift as we were not going to move to another location so late in the day. Glad we did as we pulled up 2 decent Reds. A great way to end the day before a bumpy ride back to Thev.

Day 6 – Island Day – Back Beach and clean up.

Like a previous poster mentioned, this was one of my favourite days. Had the island bus drop us at back beach for a flick. Myself and a few others went one way, whilst Radovan and one of our shack mates headed to the point. Most of us had good hookups with a few of us pulling in some smaller cod. But the fish of the day was a monster queeny caught by one of the crew at the point. We all soon headed up that way, getting onto many small GT’s and the long tom were also around. With plenty of fish around, thought it a good time to try a lure my son 3d printed me just after Christmas. I was stoked to not only hook a fish with his creation, but also getting it to shore. A decent sized long tom. By no means a trophy fish, but one I will never forget… with the lure snapping in half as I lifted the line to dehook the fish after a few photos to prove the catch to my son.

When we returned, and with a stronger wind forecast for our departure the next day we decided to clean up the shack and load most of our gear onto the boat to minimise any messing around in the morning.  We also took the opportunity to sort our fish with those in our chalet each returning with ~14kg of fillets (rather evenly split between demersals and pelagics)

Some final thoughts and learnings

-       So thankful for the weather we encountered, and I feel for anyone who had booked the week after us. Obviously, a bit of a lottery when booking.

-       We only discovered this at the end of the trip, however the Islands store has a map with some fishing ground marked. This includes areas such as the supermarket.

-       A general idea of where to head was definitely helpful, but there is so much ground out there that with a decent map and sounding around you will find fish.

-       Although we encountered sharks, it was as expected and in reality lost less gear than we anticipated. 

-       Top quality rods and reels stood out and helped with enjoyability, but all our mid-tier equipment performed admirably and caught just as many fish. Running tight drags and winding like hell seemed to help get some extra fish past the sharks.

-       The jigs I used seemed to make little difference up there, although reflecting on our catches, the rigs (or assist hooks) with some extra decoration seemed to outperform non decorated rigs.

Took the boat a couple hours north for the weekend in hope of some demersals. Unfortunately struck out on the demersal front as either big sharks or rays make quick work of the larger Underdog jigs we had and the wind never backed off enough for the smaller jigs we were left with. But we did tick off the pelagic target species with a nice Mack in 17m of water. The fish went very hard when hooked and the sizzling runs had us thinkink a Mack, but the fight was unusually long and the fish hung deep which had us second guessing that call. Eventually a big silver flash gave away the fish's identity and once on the surface it becme apparent it was foul hooked, hence the unusal fight. Backed the drag off and took it easy trying not to lose it, eventually manged to get it alongside and in the boat, happy days! Given how it was hooked you'd have to say a fair bit of luck was involved in getting it to the boat. Chucked the lures back out but that was the end of excitement for the weekend. Other catches included six Spotted Macks and a small SBT. No demersals but definitely worth the quick trip up.

 Grandson (Koby) happy with a big flathead amazing what you can catch a week before a fishing comp. MBFC

Nice Dhu, Black Ass and a Flathead.

Checked by fisheries on the way in 4 mile offshore. 

 I posted this in another spot but it should probably go here.

I spent a day on the Daintree River in FNQ last week with Damon from Sublime Sportfishing. He's a great bloke a good operator too. He has an awesome 5.5m Galeforce centre console for the river and inshore, and a 40' Blackwatch for the reef and marlin fishing.

The Daintree is a hard river to fish, and it's generally quite shallow with a lot of underwater obstacles so trolling isn't worth it. The barra tend to sit in shallow beds of ribbon weed, except near the mouth where they live around the mangroves. We fished soft plastics rigged weedless. The angler's job is to land the placcie in a dinner-plate sized area right where the river meets the bank and retrieve really slowly and let the lure do the work. Too far from the bank and you get nothing so we cast into the scrub plenty of times! Retrieve too slow and you hit the weed and the fish and get nothing. Too fast and it goes over their heads and you get nothing. The aim is to be about 100mm above the weed bed which we ended up getting a feel for. At the start of the day my daughter couldn't cast within 5m of the bank and by the end, could nail it within inches. You certainly improve your casting quickly! The clear winner on the day was a paddle-tail placcie in chartreuse and blue.

The fish weren't biting well but we managed to land 4 small barra and 2 jacks. We lost a few that threw the hook jumping, and had quite a few hits that didn't hook up but that's fishing. We saw a bloody big croc of about 4.5m and one about 3m. All in all it was a great day out.

Went looking for the removed moorings, found one but didn't have any luck, couple sharks and a bust off that could have been a jewie, but may not have been too..

Caught heaps of fish but no real trophies and learnt heaps from just getting out there and trying different things and exploring. Tackle stores will definitely be happy to see us again though!

Pretty happy, not convinced yet . They look like duos . Half the price . Squid never left a mark on them . Great prongs ( never lost one) rattle inside ( unsure ) but worked . A member off here bought them for me asked me to try them ( cool gift)

Chile Garlic musells, battered cobbler /and tailor

Plus blue ring . 3 pots had one . 1 nothing. Had very friendly Noah come in . Shark sheild over ,tried to eat it .2 times over 2 pots .it was wet prior . Went for white tag on end ,I thought they worked on brozeys .it didnt give a shit . No joke basically 1 foot away .funny

 Got on to some giant herring in the swan with a mate. Landed 4 on lures. These were the biggest at 75cm and 77cm.

 hi 13 & quarter x 17 aluminium propellar near new done 20 hrs with it now have upgraded to a s/steel propellar , will trade /swap or sell at half price . message me if more info is req. thanks 

 Have been managing to get in to some good fish land based around the cape here in Exmouth over the last couple of weekends. This one earns a spot on the brag board but I think..... could see this big boy sitting in a shallow hole about 10m from shore. I was fishing 30lb for spangoes mainly and was tossing up whether I should bother putting a bait in its face because I thought I had no chance of stopping it!

I chose to take a chance and after it sniffing around the bait for about a minute, it took it for pretty well one decent run straight for the horizon across the shallow reef. This run lasted for about 30 odd seconds before the fish largely gave in and I slowly pulled it back to the beach. 

Certainly got the heart racing and was pretty chuffed. Got a couple of spangoes also in about a 45 minute session so a decent morning!

Over the moon with job. Anyway let’s all get back . Into anti vaccine people . Who help no one . Smiley face . Smiley face . 45 thousands litres gone to waste. B.k any thoughts .? Apart from my grandkids enjoying themselves?

Nothing quite says camping like two days of strong wind warnings and the risk of a thunderstorms....but off we headed, down Waroona way on Friday after school. 

Friday night until around 4 in the morning was very windy with out Rhino awaning liberating from its aluminium frame and the 6m Kings gazebo over our swag pumping throughout the night like an obese athletes lungs. I was waiting for it to blow out.

We were up at 0245 to secure some of our gear and saw the lignitng start and boy did it deliver. Closest flash bang we got was 3 seconds which puts it at ~1km away.

Once that finally buggered off mid morning, we managed to get across to the lake for a bit of a fish with Blake very keen to knock off either redfin or rainbow on his fish ID book. A few casts later, his nephew asks for a go and instantly gets a hookup landing a decent fish. Yay but bugger. The fish is put back after a quick look and Blake gets his rod back. Over the next hour walking around the lake, we get and see nothing....

Back to camp for a couple of hours and we head off to a different dam for another go. Saw plenty of marron and one redfin pop out for a look though didnt get any hook up's. Still, it was nice and fresh so for that part, good to have a look.

Back to the first dam and 20 minutes into casting without seeing anything and time to tell Blake to put his jumper on. He passes me the rod, I jig it twice and I am on! He ditches the jumper and I hand him the rod for him to reel in a healthy rainbow trout after a couple of runs.

To say he was stoked was an understatement. Everyone across the damn new he had a fish and after a few reminders about not being a youtuber (he watches too much YBS) we sorted the fish out, got a few snaps and took it back to camp. Not another fish was cought.

It was processed, wrapped in foil and cooked on coals for 10 minutes on each side. A few had a taste and it was certainly unoffensive. 

Glad to get another species knocked off

 Stepped away from the jab chat for a bit today and got a few fish. Anyone else go well? Launched from Hillarys and to our surprise when we retrieved the boat there were no fisheries officers collecting rec catch data! Who woulda thought? 

While she was sleeping . Missed whale spotting. Missed the lot . Apparently enjoyed herself . Got some thumping squid . 1.4 the biggest . Got a huge sea pike on duo jig . Grandkids loved teeth in it .. 15 squid for 15.8 kg . Very happy . Wife took good picture .

Steamed out of hillarys for an hour in some OK conditions and caught a few fish. Would love to get someone from DPIRD to come for a ride one day! Would be able to explain to them that there's fish around you just need to look for them and not ask blokes at the ramp. 

 hi just wondering if anyone - sparky ,can help with wiring 12,000 lb winch to boat trailer with anderson plug so as to connect to back of 4x4 to retrive boat 

30 squid for 29 2 kilo . Biggest being 1.33 kgs that I weighed in . 20 off them over kilo mark . 2 nd biggest 1.284 kg .Got a good herring also .No small squid today . Some crackers around atm , great fun you can not beat squid fishing.

 Bloody great fun on light Tailor gear.

The Smiling Jack took a bashing.......

Mackie Islands 2022 

So our annual big fishing trip took us back to the Mackeral Islands this year. Havnt been for a couple of years but it is such a good time over there although the shark population is almost ruining the fishing with the amount of gear let alone fish that you loose. Even from 2 years ago it has gotten alot worse.... Crazy to see about 15 sharks destroy a Spanish Mack on the surface haha and this happened numerous amount of times at numerous different spots. Heres a bit of a write up on how the trip went, it’s a bit long winded but anyway, grab a beer and have a read. If anyone is thinking about this trip feel free to hit me up if you need any info!!

Day 1 and 2:

Left home at gentlemans hours of around 8:00am as we decided this year we will stop half way for night then continue on the next day. We drove up to Wooramel station where we met one of the other boats to swag it the night. Bloody good spot that one, kicking back with a cold beer in the warm artesian spas was brilliant after 8 hours of driving. 

Up the next morning when the sun woke us up and into Carnarvon for breaky where we met the 3rd of our 4 boats heading up... They left at midnight so met us right at the right time in carnarvon. the venture from Carnarvon through to Onlslow is pretty booring... But got there late arvo and swagged it at the caravan park and off to the pub for a feed, met the 4th boat and has a good old chin wag.

Day 3:

Up when the sun woke us up, breaky and check in at the resort to venture over to the island. Had to get over to the island before 9:00am as they were unloading a barge. This day was very very windy but we were all excited so we wanted to get out for a fish. Straight over to the island and unloaded then headed to a red emperor spot close to the island that produced well last year...... Very very sharky. Were hooking up to very decent fish but could only land 1 Red. Moved a little deeper to more good red ground and all we could catch was Rankin. As it was the first day most Rankin went back. Kept 1 Rankin and 1 Red and decided to head in shallower for a dive to get some Trout. In the water for about 30 mins and I was able to nail a big trout that went 750mm and the other guys got 2 more to top off the first days catch. Back to the island, filleted and unpacked all our gear into the cabin. A few Rums and dinner and it was time to hit the sack.............. Although getting sleep is hard work haha the mice problem there now is insane, the mice in the walls, in the roof, on your bed haha makes for a hard night sleep without ear plugs. The island is doing everything they can to control them but with all the work with Shevron going on there the mice have moved into the cabins haha

Day 4:

The wind wasnt looking too bad today so we decided to head to Rosily to try get some mackies and do a bit of bottom fishing. As soon as you hooked a mackie it got destroyed by sharks.... Actually a really awesome sight to see, but not if you dont get your $30 lure back... Gave up on that idea and went out a little wider where we got Reds and trout last time. One of the first drops I thought I got a really good red but turned out to be a Saddle at 760mm was my first saddle so was stoked. Ended up fishing everywhere from 10 – 80m but most spots were sharked out so we just kept on moving, drinking beers and having a good old time. Ended up with a few decent fish, saddletail, trout, rankin but nothing special. Headed back to the island for a cook up and a few games of cards!

Day 5:

This day was the pick of the days with wind prediction going to be glass. One of the boats decided to send it out wide to get Rubies and fish the wells. We did that last time we went so gave them the spots and we stayed in close again. The conditions were amazing. Glassy for pretty much all day, no sea anchor, no drift, was bloody awesome. Same deal fished 20 – 80m mainly targeting reds, ended up with the usual trout, rankin but no reds. Once again very sharky. Put in a bit more of an effort diving as the conditions were good and got a couple of crays and trout to top off the bag. Back at the fillet table the boat that went out wide came back in with massive smiles on their face. Ended up with 4 decent sized rubies and a 10.5kg Red Emperor amongst trout, rankin etc. They had a ripper day and that Red they caught was huge. The guys from the island went and got the scales as it was the biggest red they have seen for a while. The guys were stoked to say the least!!

Days 6 and 7:

Looking really windy these 2 days. First day snuck out to the back of the island hoping to troll up some trout and maybe a Mackie as we hadn’t got any Pelagics to this point. Ended up with a heap or school macks which make awesome bait and a decent size Spaniard. On the protected side of the island managed to jump in for a dive but was pretty dead, saw a few trout but were hoping for crays but couldn’t locate any. Second windy day was horrible, no boating this day. The Island crew took us to the back beach on the island hoping to cast for small GTs etc, last time we came this was a highlight of the trip…… This time was a total disappointment…. 1 small Trev landed between the 12 of us haha so just drank a lot of beers until we were picked up 2 hours later haha. That arvo we hit the rec room for a pool and darts comp then had a bit of fun trying to locate squid at the jetty and talking to some of the Shevron boys that were on RDO.

Day 8:

Wasn’t looking too bad wind wise so we decided to head south to a few good spots we found last year…… This time I don’t think we were getting sharked, but instead were getting Codded hahaha Would hook up to a decent fish, fight for a bit then bang something hit it which was almost impossible to stop and bricked us in the reef. One of the guys managed to get one up and it was well over a metre cod. From experience these things are bloody hard to release after being pulled up but have a bit of a method from last time puncturing their swim bladder from behind the fin and squeezing the belly to release the air, once that was done we were able to swim it for a while and then it took off with a massive swish of its tail, swam away really well. We sounded around and sounded around marking fish, ground everywhere. Managed a lot of rankin but most were released, rankin must be everywhere, almost every spot got rankin. Managed to get a couple of Cobia which was good for the pelagic bag.

Day 9

This was probably the best days fishing of the trip and what I remember the mackeral islands to be. Wind wise was looking pretty good and we hadn’t got many pelagics on board so decided to focus on trolling. Went to a few spots we had good luck on last time. Trolling for about 5 minutes and bang, massive run. Was a big Mackie. We were reversing on it getting line back then whack…. About 20 sharks attacked the poor Mackie. Sharks, Mackie jumping in the air everywhere was a bloody good sight, managed to pull the lure back in which was a bonus. Decided to move a bit further up and trolling and no joke we couldn’t even get the rods in the rod holder before we were on again, we had 3 rods out and a teaser but ended up dropping down to just 2 rods and no teaser there were that many fish. In total we caught 15 mackies, lost 4 to sharks, 3 lures and released a few smaller specimen. Literally in about 2 hours of complete chaos we ended up with out 30kgs (10kgs each) of pelagic fillets. Never had a Mackie bite like it, was complete chaos and something I will be talking about for years to come. We left the mackies biting as we had what we needed and thought if the top water action was this good then the bottom bouncing should be good too…… Not disappointed. Literally every drop we were getting fish and not many sharks. Ended up taking home a couple of rankin, a red and a couple of trout. Back at the fillet station that arvo we were the only boat out of the 4 of us that went south, all the others went North towards Rosily and Penguin and they didn’t have much luck so they were stoked to see us get so many fish, they all had the same idea to head out there the next day……. We had other plans as we were almost bagged out….. Mud Crabs!!!

Day 10:

I love mud crabs so was hoping to get back to main land and down one of the creeks, I packed a few drop nets to hopefully get a few. Headed to mainland on an incoming tide and navigated our way into one of the creeks…. It isn’t easy with a 7.2M boat haha. At one point it was that shallow we had to lift the engine and let the tide drift us over the sand bar hahaha but ended up getting in with no real issues. Went down the creek which was about 1.2m the whole way up. Dropped the nets and decided to go for a walk hooking while we wait…… Couldn’t believe it… No holes at all near the creek but once you got out of the mangrove and onto the flats there were holes everywhere. Ended up hooking 7 big bucks out of their holes. We were absolutely stoked!!! One of the boys got nailed by sand flies but it was sooo worth it…. To our surprise we got absolutely nothing in the nets, but we had enough with the 7 we hooked so decided to journey back to the island and do a bit of fishing on the way… Found a few little lumps where we decided to drop Vibes down… These vibes were given to us by Mackdog Tackle as we purchased a lot of their underdog jigs for the trip. Gave the vibes a go and these were dynamite on the trout!! Trout seemed to love them, didn’t even hit the bottom and you were on every drop. Was bloody good fun. Back to the island where we didn’t have to fillet for once with was bloody good haha. A few of the island people were stoked to see Mud Crabs so after a few pics they were cleaned and cooked up. Between the 12 of us we were eating the muddies for ages getting every last bit of meat, they were absolutely delish!!! Highlight of the trip for me!!

Day 11:

Pretty much the last fishing day of the trip. All the boats talked about what they needed to finish off their bag limits and went out accordingly. Some trolling, some bottom bashing. We wanted a few reds, trout, pretty much anything red to finish out bag off. Conditions were pretty terrible where we went. We had plans on going out and casting near the far islands for GT’s but didn’t even make it the wind turned that bad, decided to head back towards the island and fish a few spots we found on the way…… Wind was terrible but the next hour was the best bottom bashing we had had all trip. First drift got 3 Rankin, all went back. Second drift I hooked another massive saddletail going 740mm and the other guys getting a rankin each. Next drift one of the boys was on hard, great head shakes big runs and we all called it for a big red….. Saw it come up…. Right colour… Not the right height… Called it for a Chinaman… Up it came….. Absolute horse of a trout… This thing was massive and fat!! We bought him over board with high 5’s…. Trout ended up going 830mm. Was a big trout. Absolutely stoked we went around again but couldn’t get anything else besides the rankin, decided to call it early as the weather wasn’t getting any better and we needed a weigh in with the fillets.

To our surprise we ended up with 20kgs of red fish – (Reds, Trout, Saddle) And 10kgs of Rankin. Didn’t think we got that much red fish so was good to see. Got our 30 of Spanish and Cobia to top off the limit.

Day 12 and 13:

Pack up day and headed in from the island….. One of the deckies said the day before “Do we need to fuel up” I literally said “Naa if I have planned it correctly we should be going in on fumes so we have less weight for the trip home” hahahhaha couldn’t have planned it better……. As I came off the throttle at the boat ramp the pick up for the fuel is at the back of the fuel tank so as I came off the throttle the front of the boat went down and guess what… haha we ran out of fuel right at the boat ramp… Luckily one of the other boats were right up behind us so we were able to throw them a rope as they swung us around slightly to nudge up to the jetty…. Could have actually been bad as we were heading for the rocks….. but ended well in the end thank god. Basically what had happened is when we did fill up at the island a few days ago the boat wasn’t level as you fill up on the beach so I worked it out that we didn’t get an extra 20 – 30 litres in that we normally would if the boat was on a trailer…. Could have been worse but ended up all good in the end. Quick pack up, fillets in Engels and off to Carnarvon….. About an hour out of Carnarvon it bucketed down and we were swagging it hahaha. Luckily the caravan park had a games room shed that we all rolled our swags out. Good feed at the Carnarvon hotel and a few pints we were set for the trip home the next day. Pretty un eventful trip from Carnarvon home… Pretty much every floodway from Carnarvon to Wooramel had water in it so must have had a fair chunk of rain. Got home around 4pm that arvo.

 no pinkys... must all be enjoying the safety of cockburn sound? more likely you bastard recfishers have slaughtered them all!!!

12 month ban I say!!! 

anyway .. went out and got cpl nice dhueys, was able to get a 1st time boaty a 1st time dhuey... so good result. 

 Some decent whiting in 30M out of Bunno.