oh and LOTS of drinking in between, and sorry ryan/deefa my phone wasnt workin so couldnt contact ya!

Thats the good thing about Exmouth, if the weathers shite there is plenty of other options around to fill in the time. Sounds like good fun mate

Sounds like a good trip Shizza, got any happy snaps to share? :)))

did U guys hire the larger ally boats or the Southwinds banana??

**Oceanside = Van Staal, Avets, Jigmaster rods, etc... **

Oceanside Tackle and Marine
364 South Street,
O'Connor, Perth WA
Ph# 9337 5682
Fishing/Boating/Dive/Marine
** OPEN 7 DAYS **

Where's the pics......Did U use your TRILENE and Applause combo???

**Oceanside = Van Staal, Avets, Jigmaster rods, etc... **

Oceanside Tackle and Marine
364 South Street,
O'Connor, Perth WA
Ph# 9337 5682
Fishing/Boating/Dive/Marine
** OPEN 7 DAYS **

Just got back to work this morning, actually got back from Exxy last tuesday, we had a great time too.... :-)

We did a bit of flats fishing too, for reasonable results, managed to nab an estimated 4kg bone shorebased on bream gear.....hehehehe, but we mainly concentrated on boat based stuff, had a huge time.

Oh, and lotsa drinking was done by us too....hehehe

Shizz, were you fishing amongst agroup of about 6 younger blokes?, the few times we did the late arvo bundegi flats thing we saw a group there each time, was woindering if it was you guys...

Good to hear you had a good trip Deefa. 4kg bonefish on bream gear, now that sounds like a interesting tale in itself!! So what was the most memorable part of your Exxy trip?

........ i managed an awesome est 7+kg DIAMOND trevally on baitcasting gear outta 40 m's, to be honest that was probably my biggest highlight. I also hooked a marlin within 5 min's of trolling(we were just finished setting the spread, when it homed in on my flatline close line), on 15kg, but it took one look at my ugly mug, and decided that it just wasn't my turn..... We got it close though, tag was at the ready, was only about 20 m's from the boat when it decided enough was enough. Still was awesome to hook and fight such a fish, but was kinda heart breaking for it to decide spit the lure.... ahh well, thats fishing......

Ryan nabbed an awesome 25kg+ mackie on 10kg, that was truly an awesome feat, to be part of that was good too..... :-)

Was a great trip, we did real well all things considered, we certainly didn't "go hard", and kept gentlemans hours most days. Managed a night fish out from the islands, that too was a unique experience. It really is hard to name a favourite or stand out, each day presented something new. Most of the fish i landed were 1st's for me..... Ryan certainly knows his way around up there, thats for sure.

Did i mention the double hook up of longtails within 2 min's of trolling, we had only just set two lures, still had mine to set when both of ryan's outfits went off..... twas also fun, or the sharkies, or my trolled up LARGE shark that made me hurt.... or the....... or the...... or the....... so much to tell, so little forum space.

Ryan still has all the pics on his camera, just waiting for him to get back from the gold coast so i can get my hands on em......

As an aside to the fishing stories, we do have a real interesting story to tell about saving a couple of blokes after they capsized/ were swamped on the back of the reef out from Tantabiddy..... but thats another story all together, suffice to say that one guy was "lost/ m.o.b" for a good two hours till we found him, quite a distance from the dinghy on the inside of the reef. That certainly was an experience, to be involved in, and i guess to some extent, co-ordinating a search mission(Exmouth sea rescue boat was out at the islands at the time).

All in all, good times had by us, with lotsa the obligatory celebratory drinks taken at the end of each day.... :-)

Not a bad way to spend a couple of weeks hey!

Sounds like you guys had an awesome time, can't wait to see some of the footage.

The diamond Trev would have been amazing when it came into view. I bet you a $mill nobody on board would have called it for one of them on the way up. Top catch mate, I have only ever caught a tiddler of the species at around the 1 kilo mark. 7 Kilo's now that is a whopper.

some of those rarer types of trevally would be awesome to catch aye... I've always wanted to catch a black trevally from out at the rowleys :)

....We certainly got a surprise when that big ol' silver fish came came into view, Ryan was doin one of those cartoon type running on the spot looking for the landing net type things(you know the one, feet movin at a million miles an hour, but body not followin)..... :-), got some great shots of it too...... It had me guessing as to its identity. My previous three fish from this spot were all Chinamen(the only three taken for the trip), so for most of the fight, i was thinking i had me a largish chinamen, and then it came into view...... yeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaa, that was a stellar day the water btw, the same day Ryan nailed his big ol' mackie, and we had a nice feed of spanglies, red's, and robbo's in the larder too.....

We showed a few local guys the pic's, and they confirmed it was a diamond, there was some talk that it may have been a pennant fish, but the general consensus was it definately was a diamond(and a bloody big one at that!!!!!!).

And you're right Andy, could think of a few worse ways to spend a couple of weeks. And i'm still wearing the smile :-))))))

p.s. Sorry for the thread hijack Shizz

great stuff am looking forward to some pics
how big do you think the billie was?what did you catch the bonefish on.a lure or bait or fly.am looking forward to seeing a pic of that one ,and where did you get him?sorry for being pushy but i wouldnt mind havin a crack at a boneie up here .sheeeeezz. im getting a loan and buying a house in exxie.LIFES TO SHORT
always in it just the depth that varies

You work for PI don't u Mitch? just get a transfer to Dampier.

........was caught on lure, on the "west coast", that's all i will say here..... secret squirrel stuff. Pop in to the local bluewater when ya up there, spend some money and "avachat" with the boys/gal in the shop for the low down. They won't give away too much(as we found out, and fair enough too i reckon), but will give you an idea on where to start lookin. In hindsight, it really ain't rocket science though......(says he, the man who nabbed a trophy bone on his first effort, on 1.8 kg bream gear....teehee)

Sounds like you guys had an awesome trip. Keeping Gentleman hours, you guys, I doooooon't believe it. We got a few of those diamond trevally in the gulf, but were much less than a kilo.

I don't know much about bone fish, except they are pretty highly sought after. Are they good on the tooth? the fight that makes them the capture? or you just don't catch many of them?

We still haven't seen Shizza's photos yet, hijack away Deefa. :)

I had a breakfast meeting this morning and at the function was a guy who I had a chat with that regularly fishes Exmouth. He is an avid flyfisherman and member of the Saltwater Fly Fishermens club. A very interesting chap and told me a few spots that he regularly catches bonefish. He also highly recommended a group of islands off Learmonth that were well worth a look for all sorts of fish species as fly targets. Can't remember which group it was. Doh!

..... would be akin to eating poo........... the name says it all really, they're not called bonefish for nothing, so i'm led to believe. Ryan has some piccies of a 8 kg Bone found dumped in the bin at the cleaning station at the boat ramp, to say we, or more to the point he, was incensed, is an understatement. We ran the fillets off for bait, so at least this beast didn't die in vain, but the reality is, don't kill 'em.

Talking to the boys in the local bluewater up there, they tell horror stories of people bringing in long dead fish for identification, only to be told they're bonefish, no good for eating, so they get dumped. We also witnessed one group of intrepid anglers bring in an estimated 8kg Giant Herring, again long dead. When they were advised by Ryan what it was, their response was" we've traveleed all the way from perth to catch a bloody herring"...., and proceeded to dump that fish in the bin as well. I guess this is one of the reasons why the locals wanna keep a lid on the bone fishery. Too many uneducated fisho's killing 'em for no reason. They are a serious fish to contend with on the end of ya line, but for god's sake, take a piccie, and let 'em live, there's plenty of other waaaaaay better eating fish in Exxy. Unfortunately for me, my bone was a little too lively when i was washing the sand off him in the shore break, and he slithered his way to freedom b4 we get get a pic, but the memory is firmly etched. I had one half hearted effort at re-grabbing him by the tail wrist, but i really didn't wanna damage it any any more, so i watched as it quietly slipped away, truly a memory to last a lifetime.

The islands out from learmonth you say Andy, hmmmm, interesting, that's actually an area we had penned in for next years exxy expedition, not so much for bones, moreso to go and have a squizz to whats around to target on fly, and light spin gear. There were some "whispers" of good fish being taken in the "gulf", but details are sketchy at best, damn this alcohol addled memory of mine..... =)

how big do you think the billie was?

We gave it 50, although it seems to get everytime i tell the story..........

No bonefish around those islands Deefa, he mentioned a few other spots though on the west coast for bonefish, but certainly strongly suggested I get myself over to some of the island groups out from the bay of rest. They were crawling with good fly fish targets(minus the tuna) and well worth investigating according to this chap. He is a member of the Boneheads expedition group, so a pretty accomplished angler it appears.

I wonder if the guy you talking to, is the same guy i chat with from time to time, who also fishes boneheads, and is a contributing member of S.F.F WA. I was only talikng to him yesterday arvo about my trip, in particular my bone, he was interested. He also only mentioned to me yesterday those area's that you've described.
Pretty keen to get get up there and have a sniff around the gulf m'self, twas an area we(Ryan and I) spent very little(read:none) time exploring this trip. Theres always next time..........

yeh deefa we fished the flats about 5 times in the arvos, had a ball as always. Those gt's and goldens where in plague proportions out there on a few occasions! Sounds like you guys had a good trip tho, pitty about the bone but cant wait to see pic of the big diamond!

i shoulda come over and said g'day....
I stood along side ya's one late arvo and hooked up a small G, ryan was there too on the fly....

mighta been me, i thought the same but thought to myself, better not piss of a local by asking if he's deefa on holiday, so left it :p