pretty sure fisheries & punch will see it as vindication, { to date no pics ,no proof =demersal decimated to an all time low & next round no choice but to extend ban same as cockburn crabs . 

 Thought I would do a write up as I havnt seen a story for a while, grab a beer and have a read if your keen!!

 I recently had the priveledge of going up and doing the Gibb River road from Kununurra down towards Broome, Cape Leveque and then going out to the Montebello Islands on the way home. Safe to say it was an Epic trip. Thought I would do a bit of a story for anyone keen for a read.

Gibb

I headed up from Perth and drove straight to Kununurra. Took me 2 and a half days to get there, stopped outside of Newman on the first night, near Fitzroy on the second and into Kununurra the 3rd day. We timed the trip perfectly as 2 weeks before there was “un-seasonal” rain which closed the majority of the Gibb and washed away the temporary crossing at Fitzroy. The Fitzroy crossing was opened the day before I arrived so the timing was impeccable. Talked to a few nomads outside of Fitzroy and some of them had been stuck at the crossing for 4 or 5 days. Anyway got into Kununurra and stayed at a good friends house. I flew my partner and 2 year old into Kununurra so that the trip up was a lot easier than having to stop every couple of hours.

This was the first trip in our new caravan and so far it was awesome! Anyone looking for a caravan Everest Caravans are bloody brilliant. We met the other couple we were travelling with the following day and started the journey along the Gibb. First stop Emma Gorge and El Questro, amazing places. Don’t need to say too much about these as they are so commercialised with plenty of detail available. We spent 3 nights at EL Q and then headed south. We were going to stop at a free camp somewhere between El Q and Ellenbrae but we decided just to keep going to Ellenbrae as the camp “Top of the world” was a sandy dust bowl. The road between El Q and Ellenbrae was shocking, worst on the Gibb when we went. Not a grader in site. Sitting on 15km per hour for 2 hours one end. 230kms took us around 7 hours. Ellenbrae was amazing, beautiful camp ground with nice swimming hole, scones were awesome, staff were brilliant. Would highly recommend! Not many people stay here but the camp ground, toilets, showers were the best on the Gibb. Tried catching cherabin in the river as we were told there are heaps in there…. Didn’t even see 1 haha

We drove from Ellenbrae through to Drysdale, really non-eventful. Theres a really nice sandy river, the first one you get to when you get on the Drysdale road. Stopped here for a couple of hours for the kids to swim and a bit of lunch. Perfect little spot for the kids. Headed into Drysdale, great camp spot and the burgers are awesome! Just spent 1 night here and then headed to Munuru which is right near the intersection for Mitchell falls and Kulumburu road. Munuru is a nice camp ground with a good swimming spot, theres cherribin in the river but we only managed to catch small ones. Headed to Mitchell falls the next day leaving the vans at Munuru. Caught a helicopter in and walked out. Beautiful spot… Really long walk haha wouldn’t want to walk both ways that’s for sure.

From Munuru the next day headed up to Kulumburu and McGowen Island camp… The Kulumburu road was washed out in places and we had to stop and fill in wash outs etc to get the vans through. Mine is a 19’7 van but we made it with minimal issues. This is where I was excited to get to… here we get to take the roof topper off and go fishing haha! Unfortunately the wind was howling, the camp host said it is very very unusual.. Just my luck. We stayed for 5 nights and only got to go out in the boat once. But it was worth it. Catching large mouth nannygai in 6m of water was bloody great fun! Got a decent feed which was great. Whole fish on the fire and fish curry a few nights later. Bloody brilliant. McGowens camp is awesome, fresh water, good beach even though you cant swim and the sunsets were amazing…. The rocks around the camp had the biggest oysters I have ever seen. We went walking for about an hour and got 20 no worries. Others were out and got a heap too, there were that many its crazy! Oysters killpatrick almost every night, bloody brilliant. The new roof topper went awesome, stoked with that! The boat loader I made also went well. Real happy with the set up.

 After the 5 nights at Mcgowens headed back down to Drysdale for a night. On the way our friends van broke the main suspension arm bolt and elongated the mount holes. Luckily my shocky bolts on my van were the same size so we were able to steal my bolt and put his broken bolt into my shocky mounts. Driving real slow we basically got 150-200kms out of the bolt before it sheered again… Pull another one out of my van to get him going again. We were able to limp into Gibb River station where we spoke with a few cattle farmers there and borrowed their welder. Welded a few bolts back together to get us through to the “Over the hill mechanical” not far from mount barnett. We stopped at a free camp along the way, forgot the name but beautiful spot and the cherrabin there were huge!! Stoked to get a few that’s for sure! We had to skip a few places that we wanted to go to but got to the mechanic and went through his containers and found a few bolts that got us out of trouble.

 Continued on and did a few gorges along the way, did Bells gorge which was pretty cool, awesome spot to swim! We kind of rushed the last 3 days from Drysdale towards Broome because we didn’t know if the suspension in the mates van was going to hold up. Got to Broome safe after spending close to 2 weeks doing the Gibb. Stayed in Broome 3 nights, re-stocked everything and had a good time at cable beach, crocodile park and doing the usual tourist things.. Broome is a bloody busy joint and it is so hard to get into a caravan park, even the over flow park at the gun club is booked out so if you go there you need to book well in advance.

From Broome we went up to Cape Leveque. We stayed at Cygnet bay pearl farm, used it as a base and went and did all the spots up and down the cape, beautiful part of the country but a lot of areas are closed and you need permission from land owners to get in. If you do get permission which we did through a friend there are mud crabs everywhere haha. Literally walked for 50m and got 2 giant crabs, didn’t need anymore so walked back out.. Was there for 20 minutes, saw 5 crabs, kept 2 huge males and left haha really really easy! We were lucky enough to be at Cape Leveque during the “Stairway to the moon” was pretty spectacular!!

 From Cape Leveque we went back to Broome where I dropped the missus and kid at the airport and they flew back to Perth. I continued down to Karratha where I was meeting a mate who lives there but is mobbing back in October. Perfect opportunity to get out on his 8m boat and go to the Monties. Another mate flew into Karratha for the trip

Monties

Got to Karratha on a Sunday afternoon and picked my mate up who was flying in. Went to the pub for dinner and checked the wind / weather situation. Was basically going to be rough when we wanted to leave the next morning but then was pretty calm for the next 3 days we were planning on going over. Had dinner and it was bout 8pm and the wind was dead flat, none at all. W looked at the weather and it wasn’t predicted to come up until early morning so we made the call to head to my mates, pack the boat and head out that night. Mate has done the monties a few times so he was pretty confident in leaving at night so we left the Karratha boat ramp around 9:30pm…. So glad we did. It was glass the whole way over. Cruising at 24 knots, auto pilot in his 8m diesel boat was unreal!! 125kms over there we pulled up and anchored inside the islands around 1am. Rolled the swag on the deck and had a good sleep…. Woke up with the sound of a drag screaming!! Mate had gotten up and dropped a line over and hooked onto a massive fish, we were in sand so I was predicting a shark… after a battle one of the biggest chinaman came up!! Awesome way to wake up at the monties…

 Had a bit of breaky and went to a few spots my mate had been to before spearing. Jumped in the pristine clear water. Trout, spangos, crays, tevally, mackies everything was there. Bloody amazing way to spend the morning. We weren’t really there to get a bag full of fish and fillets as this was going to be a quick trip over and we still had a heap of fillets left from an earlier Gnaraloo trip. So we only wanted our trout limit and a few extras so we weren’t spearing too much. Did a bit of trolling and casting for GT’s. Didn’t get any massive GT’s but they were there.. We could see them, big black backs chasing the lures but not taking them, would have been in excess of 20kgs easy but didn’t get any to strike… Stayed in the bay at Alpha island… At night there were squid everywhere! Awesome feed of squid, crays and fish!! Next morning went out for a bottom bounce. Found some decent fish on the sounder and it was the best fishing I have ever experienced. In 17m of water for around an hour every drop we were catching massive trout, reds, blue bone, spanglie after spanglie, mackies, saddle tail, anything you could think of we were catching them every drop. It was insane fishing, then just like that it stopped, either sharks or turn of the tide and that was it they were gone!!

 We went for another dive and got a few more crays and I speared the biggest barramundi cod I have ever seen!! They are amazing eating too!!

One of the highlights of the trip was stopping in the middle of no where, around 6m of water and throwing the vibes that we got from Euge and Mackdog tackle. Massive spangos, mackies even a decent size blue bone in 6m of water on light gear was awesome fishing!!

Back to the island and moored again for the night! The wind was blowing up the next day in the arvo so we decided to have 1 last dive and start heading back towards Karratha, did a bit of sight seeing along the way and checked out a few wrecks. Back to Karratha that night for a clean up and beers.

Next morning the mate that flew in from Perth and I headed to the fortescue river to get the roof topper off again and get some muddies! Great little spot. We got 8 muddies and that night it was crabs around the fire. Next morning it was an early start and drive straight back to Perth!! Long trip back but with 2 of us driving was pretty easy!!

All in all loved the trip!! The Gibb was awesome, would love to spend a hell of a lot more time up that way! Monties was awesome and so glad that I got to do it in my mates boat. Being the yanmar diesel we only used 250L for the whole trip, in my boat we would have used about 600 I rekon!

The main highlight of the whole trip was seeing how much my daughter enjoyed it. Teaching her how to cook bread on the camp fire, catching cherribums and mud crabs, just to see her smile was pricelsee!!

Few pics for attached but yeah hope you enjoy the story, if you have any questions or anything let me know

Cheers

Not a bad surprize yesterday, east wind was blowing so chugged back in trolling in the big Halco Max after casting to a few small bluefin earlier in the morning.

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.......