Fishing Report 01-01-2006 - Courtesy of Scott Forbes

The easterly winds have finally started to come in which signals the start of calmer conditions for anglers and boating enthusiasts. The waters are still nice and warm for a dip in the ocean and take off that summer heat while out and about. That’s exactly what we did last week in our dinghy just south of the marina in the crystal clear shallow waters. To our surprise two large dugong surfaced nearby and came very close to us. They weren’t spooked at all by the boat or engine and happily cruised around us for some time.

Bait schools have been thick around the entrance to the marina particularly after the high tide begins to drop. Predators such as small mackerel, queenfish, brass trevally and large golden trevally can be seen chopping up the school as birds hover above picking up any stunned fish. These schools can be accessed from the rock long wall on the northern side or a small dinghy, but watch out for the sandflies! Small soft plastic lures in a gold, green or clear speckled colour seem to work well, although the mackerel soon make short work of the soft bodies.

Stuart Watson and friend Brendan Fitzgerald from Bunbury and Bruce Rock travelled to Exmouth for some flyfishing. They have had great success with golden trevally and queenfish along the coast from Winderabandi. At Tantabiddi the two travelled out in the tinny and using lures they caught some spangled emperor not far from shore.

Aarron Rampling from Perth was up here for a week fishing with friends Ben and Shaun, from Exmouth. Aarron blitzed the local boys catching small trevally on poppers while Shaun landed a 16lb painted sweet lip on 6lb braid using a soft plastic. Later in the week Aarron had more success with spangled emperor inside the reef and now he can’t wait to get back up for Gamex.

[img_assist|fid=15306|thumb=1|alt=Trev Hookup]

[img_assist|fid=15309|thumb=1|alt=EGFC trev]