SURROUNDED by red desert sand, low scrub and the blue water of the Indian Ocean, the WA fishing town of Exmouth is a location I’ve been dreaming about for some years.
Exmouth is probably best known for its gamefishing – it’s got some amazing marlin grounds with big blues and blacks, plus sailfish and more than a few swordfish, being regular captures. The annual Gamex tournament run by the Exmouth Game Fishing Club is fast becoming known as one of the premier bluewater events in the southern hemisphere. The 2012 Gamex tourney will be held over March 10-17. Check out egfc.com.au for more details.
Josh Bruynzeel from Onstrike Charters in Exmouth, WA, with a decent mahi mahi trolled up on a skipping gar.
More recently, Exmouth has begun to garner an international reputation for inshore sportfishing for species as diverse as bonefish, queenies, trevally and permit. Former Tasmanian trout guide Brett Wolf opened up Australia’s first mainland bonefish fishery at Exmouth several years back with his operation True Blue Bones (truebluebonefish.com.au) and I understand at least one other inshore sportfishing operation will be opening up in the not-too-distant future. Add to all this all the usual suspects including a variety of reef fish plus mahi mahi, tuna, mackerel, wahoo and even southern species like snapper and you have a really productive and interesting fishery.
Tim with a coral trout caught on a Halco Whiptail jig “blinged” up with bait.
I spent a week fishing the eastern side of the massive Exmouth Gulf with Halco’s Neil and Ben Patrick, together with Tim “Biggles” Carter and Singaporean tackle distributor and angler Poh Beng Seng. A full wrap up of that trip will appear in an upcoming edition of Fisho. We enjoyed good action on trevally, coral trout, jacks, the odd queenie and plenty of high-flying giant herring. The flats systems on the eastern side of the Gulf have to be seen to be believed – endless miles of shallows interspersed with creeks and rocky islands. Very cool stuff and almost limitless opportunities for adventurous sportfishermen.
We mothershipped in style aboard Ben’s 48-foot West Coaster, Mandalay, fishing a variety of locations via a borrowed tinny known affectionately as “The Pig” and a 5m Haines Hunter tiller steer. If you don’t have your own mothership, Wilderness Island Safari Holidays (wildernessisland.com.au) is a unique operation perched high on a ridge overlooking the wide expanse of the Gulf. Local identify Harry Butler (not that Harry Butler but by geez he looks like him!) runs the Wilderness Island lodge with his mate Jim and from all accounts this area offers up some excellent fishing.
The lodge at Wilderness Island.
Well known SWF exponent Peter Morse rates it as offering “the best flats for fly fishing in Australia”. I’d love to return when the flats are firing – Harry told me that big golden trevally, acres of queenies and even longtail tuna can be caught on fly or spin gear off the sandy beaches. A big longtail off the beach? How good would that be!
At it stands now, however, Exmouth is best known for its bluewater action, and with the famous Ningaloo Reef lying in some places just a few hundred metres offshore it’s not hard to see why the western side has got all the attention. I managed a morning gamefishing with local sportfishing guide Josh Bruynzeel of Onstrike Charters (onstrike.com.au). First up we threw poppers for mackerel and after we got sick of that we moved a bit further out and started trolling skipping gars for a marlin. We had one black of about 80 kilos shadow our baits as we worked them around seething masses of striped tuna that turned the ocean’s surface to white foam. But the billy was too focused on all the other bait around to eat ours. We made do with a double hook up on a pair of nice dollies before Josh had to point the nose of his immaculate 8m Fury centre console towards port so I could catch a flight back east.
Josh Bruynzeel connects with an Exmouth Spanish mack on a popper.
Dollie action.
In many ways, Exmouth is the new frontier of Aussie sport and gamefishing. There’s plenty of info about the area online and if you check out a nautical chart you’ll be blown away by all the fishy water on offer only a few miles offshore. I didn’t even get to see Ningaloo Reef or any of the lagoon – from all reports that is a veritable wonderland of fishing opportunities. Maybe next time … Meanwhile, stay tuned to the mag for my report on the trip I did with the Halco lads.
Halco’s Ben Patrick with a giant herring spun up off a sand island in the middle of the Gulf on a Twisty.
Tim with a sand flats queenie.
