Its been a while for me to get out and spend some time on the water, but with some luck I managed to escape work for a week and decided to pull the boat up to Exmouth. Taking the gamble with the weather forecast looking fairly average for the start of the trip. 

Used the first day to drink beer and eat a few pizzas, knowing that I might have made a mistake, 3+m swells and ~20 knt southerlies, what a place exmouth can be this time of the year. Second day was a trip down to the Bay of Rest and a few hours bashing throught the mangroves and working every hole we could find we managed to get 6 decent size muddies and enough for some crab tacos. Day 3 of 6 was about similar to day one, beers and lots to eat with a promising forecast for the next few days, all smilesand prepping the boat and a few last minute rigs. 

Day 4

Started of with low wind but still a 3 m swell, decided to troll in shallow behind the reef to find some macks. Launched at Tantabiddi and exit through the north passage. On our way down to the south passage we came across a 3.5m tiny caught up right in the breakers next to the reef, next minute still trying to figure out what they are doing so close to the reef, we saw the boat got picked up and abslutely destroyed in a massive wave, with the boat capsizing and tumbling over the reef. A quick call to marine rescue to send someone ouwe knew it was going o take a long time for them to come across. With that in mind we decided to brave entering the south passage and see if we can be of any assistance. After waiting for the right set and riding a big wave in it was good and we managed to get through with no issues at all. From the inside it took only a few minutes to locate the area we saw the tiny go over and we approached as close as possible, anchoring and sending two guys overboard by foot to walk to the capsized tiny with some water and a medic kit, quite scared with life jackets, fuel tanks and an esky floating past us. 

Nobody found at the tiny, and luckily once marine rescue arrived and identifeid the boat it was a vessel that broke anchor a few days early and nobody was on board. Feeling very relieve and thankful for marine rescue with there quick response to the situation and clear guidance we were off again for another fish. 

Day ended with a mack tuna and one decenet spanish mack. Went back still feeling relieved that it was not a serious situation that day. 

Day 5

With prefect weather and low swells forecasted we went over the long island for the day, a bit of diving and fishing ended up very prductive with 2 macks and 4 tuskies. Tuskes all on spear in approximately 5m of water. A good swim with lots of whales to keep us busy all day. I also found my first ever red cray in exmouth, a nice addition for tonight. 

Day 6

Now I came to exmouth to hopefully catch something nice like everyone else. We launched at 7:00 at tantabiddi heading through the south passage. As soon as we went through the passage the water colour was the perfect blue at 23.7 degrees and we could see bottom at 20m. Feeling thankfull for a good day coming. Started with lures running south and picked up a 14kg mack almost immediately. With dinner sorted we decided to go in deeper to stand our chances with the deeper blue. The next few hours turned out to be gold with dollies everywhere, double hookups and fish following every catch. Back in the water and a stonker Wahoo took the Richter Oscar black/purple and went 22kg. 

A bit more trolling and my first billfish on my boat, a nice sailfish that put up a brilliant display of aerial acrobatics from the get go, caught on a Richter soft grassy pink/white between 40 -80 m. A few quick photos and a nice video of it swimming away strongly, what more can a fisher want than to see a beauiful fish swim of for another day. 

The day delivered a few more dollies and we had plenty to go about. After what I though to be a great day we returned to camp to start the long road back, full of good memories I spend the whole trip back to Perth planning my next trip up north. A few photos to show for what was definitely worth the gamble. 

Its always worth taking the boat.

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