Well I've just return from 10 days in Esperance with the family over the Christmas/New Year break and had a great time away from the city and it's summer heat. ( I did miss the chance of catching a dhuie though!)

After sourcing some local advice from Woody (Cheers mate!) I was excited to get out and find some ground and try to nail a few southern treats from the depths. Deckie duties were assigned to my father in law Nev and with the first forecast of lighter winds we were "out early and back in early" (another piece of helpful advice from Woody). First trip out we found some nice looking ground (a Cave?)

but we only managed a Queenie, Harlie and a big Sweep amongst the wrasse.

Next trip out a few days later to the same area produced another Queenie and a nice Nannygai (The target fish for our Esperance trip) 

but nothing else to write home about.

The old Esperance wind blew for the next few days but we got 2 little trips out for some whiting, flathead, herring, slimey mackeral, and squid to get out fishing fix in. Other than the fishing we headed out 4wding a few times around Cape Le Grande checking out the awesome beaches down that way.

and also got a little surf in one day. The water down there was surprisingly quite warm!

The last day before leaving the forecast looked good for one last trip out deeper and I decided to head a little further out to go hunting for some Nannygai! After putting the boat in the water before 4am and being greeted by glassy conditions our spirits were high... until we got out past the first islands and the wind was blowing out there. First lump showed some good fish but we only landed a few small ones and after losing my fav shout stay to a large reefy lump we headed out a bit further in search of the Nannys! Next lump I sounded a good edge that showed a nice school of fish sitting on the top edge and the call was Nannygai... it was first drop and we were into fish. No Nannys yet but I landed a nice double of BA's and a nice Queenie to Nev.

We spent the next hour or 2 drifting the same spot and finally got into the Nannygai landing 8, along with 6 Black ass, 4 Queenies, a Harlie, Foxfish, Skippy. It was great fishing even if nothing was of a big size, just good to get into some quality fish. Enough to actually take a few fillets home with us even!

Overall we had a great time down in Esperance, just wish the wind had of been slightly lighter so we could have gotten out further a few times but it was still good. Thanks again to Woody for the advice!