Q: Hi Michael, let’s start by introducing yourself.
A: My name is Michael Tropiano, also known as “Tropi”. I’m a marine biologist and underwater photographer who lives in Exmouth.
I grew up in Mandurah chasing tailor from the beach and pink snapper from the boat. For the past five or six years I’ve been in Exmouth, which has been incredible,.
One thing that excites me about Exmouth is just how close the shelf is. Whenever the weather allows, I always try and go out wide to the blue water. From there the days just dictate whatever is thrown at you. If it’s tuna we’ll throw stick baits, if it’s quiet we’ll bring the deep dropping gear and try for some rubies. There are a couple of FADs we like to check out. We’ll throw lures first and we love our spearing as well and will jump in and try and shoot a wahoo or mahi mahi.
There’s lots of inshore fishing, exploring up creeks as well.
Q: What do you do for work in Exmouth?
A: I was always looking for a way of getting up to Exmouth. As a kid reading fishing magazines and seeing how it was and it was always a dream to get up there.
I’ve lined up bits and pieces of work up here over the years in the whale shark industry and a marine research laboratory for a few years as well.
And for the past 12 months or so I’ve been doing freelance work. That’s freelance photography, writing, skippering boats and just different projects where I can. It’s been great for flexibility and has given me heaps of time to get on the water.
Q: Tell us more about Exmouth
A: The Exmouth Gulf gives Exmouth its diversity.
Everybody knows about the blue water and Ningaloo Reef, which is incredible. When you go out into the bluewater it’s not uncommon to see manta rays or even a blue whale, the biggest animal on the planet, and one just pops up next to you.
But when the wind blows from the south west, it’s offshore in the Gulf and there are usually glassy conditions. It’s a contrast. It’s a huge bay with lots of turbid reefs and lots of coral trout, crays and blue bone in there.
It’s popular but it does take time and effort to explore the far corners and given Ningaloo Reef is so accessible, a lot people don’t head to the Gulf.
We look at Google maps and find places people usually can’t get to and work out how to get there. We work out that you might need a spring tide to get up a creek or daylight navigate a rocky bar or entrance to the creek. The last
12 months we’ve done a lot exploring up those creeks. It’s been great for the Bar Crusher. Most aluminium boats would be good for this. A lot of the time it’s zero visibility and you know at some point you will hit the bottom. We often get out and walk the boat through (the shallow water). It’s crazy as the boat is almost seven metres. You get stuck on the bottom and two people jump out and we walk it through like it’s a tinny.
Q: Tell us more about the Bar Crusher
A: It’s a 670C with a 200hp Suzuki four-stroke.
This is our first stroke motor and I remember going out the first few times and I’d always turn it to start and forget it’s already on!
The crazy thing about having this much power on the Suzuki is we can cruise at 30 knots. Our most efficient speed is 30 knots. I think that’s a combination of the size of the boat and obviously its a solid build. But they haven’t tried to make it bulky by putting extra alloy everywhere. There are some really cool looking solid plate boats and they’re heavy boats with more weight in them. And that changes performance. They can often perform better having extra weight, but in terms of of walking it up creeks and cruising at 30 knots, with a slightly lighter build without losing any of the thickness of the aluminium, the 670 is something I really rate.
Q: What additions or options are on the boat?
A: Honestly, I’ve never added any additions to the boat. I’m pretty slack with keeping up with technology and the boat comes with more as standard than I know how to use.
It’s one of the reasons we bought it was well. We were looking at the Bar Crusher and a couple of awesome WA built plate boats, but some of the features that come ready to go, like the fold down roof, is amazing.
The roof pops down and you can fold the glass down in under a minute. It also has gas struts on the side, so you can pull the top down and close it into a close cab. It’s essential in WA. Every day you head out you’re going to et smashed by south westerlies. It’s okay being wet when you’re in your teens getting into boating but you get sick of it quickly when it’s your life. It’s a cool feature. As soon as there’s spray you put your hand up, pull it down, and it’s a closed cab. Normally you’d have a lot of weight up there with a closed cab, a hard top, and you wouldn’t be getting it in your garage. It’s a nifty feature.
The other feature is the flooding keel. It makes a difference to stability when you’re stationery but it also has the closable flap on the keel. It’s epic! We always use that when you’e punching into rough weather. To flood it, stop driving, flood the keel, close the flap and keep driving. It adds around a few hundred kilos
to the bottom of your boat. I tell people you’ll never compare a fibreglass boat to an alloy boat. They’re completely different builds. But this is as close as you can get with an aluminium boat. It makes a really good hull, one of the best hulls. The weight gives you the punching power. It feels like a heavy boat cruising through it. The only cost is your fuel economy goes down a bit.
You just have a heavy boat when you want it. We use it for skurfing as well. It’s a good novelty when the weather is right. We always flood the keel and it becomes a nice little wake boat.
One addition we do have is the one kilowatt transducer. Transducer mounting is challenging and I’ve been fortunate with this boat. We’re cruising at 30 knots and even in 80 metres you’re getting full readings. Obviously being 1 kilowatt it goes really deep too. The sounder is a Lowrance HDS 9.
Q: Any interesting stories you can share from boating around Exmouth?
A: We go away camping and there usually isn’t enough phone reception, but every now and then you get enough for texts and mates will send us weather updates.
There was one weekend and the weather was supposed to be great. We woke up and it was glass conditions and the phones were going “bing” bing” bing”. Our mates were saying: “Get back to Exmouth now, it’s crazy here! A front has come through and it’s heading your way”!
This was January and it was coming from the south and a lot of those tropical fronts normally come from the north and you have some warning. This front had built up overnight and hit the town out of nowhere. The town had flooding and we had blue sky.
We packed up and started heading back and it hit us halfway. It was was very, very gnarly! To go from glassy conditions to full on semi-cyclonic sea state in half an hour was full on. That’s when you flood the keel. The bilge pump was working full time just from the rain. We nosed into it for an hour. But having the flooded keel there as a safety back up is pretty cool.
It was rough for us in the 670. We just idled into it and were pumping the bilge. You can see how people come unstuck. Even when you’re experienced and have all the planning, the ocean has it’s own thing going on.
Q: Where else have you taken the Bar Crusher?
A: I’ve been meaning to take it to the Dampier archipelago. It’s sonly a few hours north and I keep trying to plan a trip, but I always get distracted hanging around Ningaloo with so many spots to explore.
We’ve taken it to Perth and down to Dunsborough and have done a few missions down there. Perth and Mandurah is where I grew up so I’ve done a lot of night fishing out there.
Q: Tell us about your upcoming trip to Mexico
A: I’ve been moving my career to underwater photography and one of thing that got me
into that was seeing a “under and over shot” of someone releasing a marlin. I thought it was incredible. I got into underwater photography and started taking a few photos. Then a couple of years ago I jumped in the water and I got a shot of a marlin. It was an exciting moment to have that fulfilment. It got me obsessed with billfish and spending time in the water with them.
I’d heard about Mag Bay in Baja, Mexico. It was this marlin fishing capital and that and a few other places always come up in marlin conversations.
I’d seen a few photos of bait balls and in particular striped marlin balling up bait. I started messaging the photographers who were taking them and they were all in Magdalena Bay in Baja, Mexico.
So we worked out the peak season and it’s actually when the sardine run comes down the coast. So we lined up a month long trip, me and my buddy Dingus, to spend as much time in the water with these marlin while they’re feeding on these bait balls.
For the guys who are fishing it, they’re catching 40 fish a day. It’s insane!
Were going to get out with a few fishermen and a few spearos, but we’re mainly just free diving and spending time with these marlin.
