Well another yearly Gnaraloo trip has come and gone filled with fish, epic adventures, a couple of mis-haps, memories and a few quiet beers. If your keen grab a tin and have a read….

Before the trip

In the lead up to the trip Epstein’s right hand man decided to start a war with a country that’s far smarter than him. This caused an issue and anxiety around fuel for the boats and diesel for the trip. We didn’t really care too much about price, we were more worried about availability. Usually we buy drums of fuel off the station for around $2.40 per litre.. This went up to $3.60 and then friends of ours that were going 2 weeks before we were got a phone call and were advised that there was no fuel and they had to bring their own…. All good we had a plan anyway. We ended up taking a spare car with a trailer with 4 x 44s up, was really handy carrying freezers etc as well. Worked out pretty well in the end. The car was also used to snatch the boats out every day too.

Day 1

Started off just like any other year. We get up at around 2am and leave Perth to get to Geraldton for Breaky around 6am. Nothing to report, not even many animals on the road compared to last year so was pretty un-eventful. Breaky and fuel in Gero. Spoke with the other 2 boats heading up with us and they were a bit behind so just decided to meet in Carnarvon. Uneventful from Gero to Carnarvon. Met everyone in Carnarvon, fuel, lunch and beers in the esky screaming “Drink me, Drink me”

Headed out to King waves kill sign and it was blowing its ass off….. Not good. The next day was supposed to be one of the best days and with that wind it wasn’t looking promising. Let the tyre pressures down and cracked the first tin for the ssslllloooowwwww trip along the gravel road. Road condition was pretty average but we take it pretty slow, couple of beers, piss stops and just take it slow…. Well 2 of us did hahaha

Got to the station, checked in and started unloading.. We stayed in the fishermans lodge. We have stayed here in the past and decided to book here again…. Never again. Its gotten so bad, shame the cyclone didn’t destroy the lodge so they could claim it on insurance haha Next year we have booked back at the cabins.

Anyway thought we had no issues.. While unloading the boat that went a little quick down the track had a mis-hap… His centre cross member on his trailer had snapped the U Bolts and mount bolts and was hanging on the spring… Bloody lucky the other side didn’t come off… Couple of ratchet straps so we can get him down the beach to unload… A problem for another day haha!

Unloaded, few beers, weather check and it was bed time… Getting up early to try get out for Mackies

Day 2

Up early as today was supposed to be one of the better days… Plan was to head out to our Mackie spot that’s produced well in the past… Usually if we can get there early in the trip we bag out on pelagics and get our bait sorted for the trip so that was the plan… Headed to the beach and started to launch.. The beach was awesome, way better than the last few years. Pretty easy to launch really.

Launched and started heading out to the Mackie spot… The weather man was telling porkies.. Was a fair bit blowier than expected so decided to pull the pin on mackies and go for demersals… headed out to the usual ground.. The first 3 spots we tried that usually produce were very quiet which was unusual.. Sounder didn’t even look good, no fish feeding up high or anything. Caught a few rankin and red throat… Tell you what Rankin and Red throat are like a plague out off there. We don’t like keeping Rankin especially the big ones we don’t think taste that great, luckily you can tell when you have a rankin so you can bring it up slowly so its easy to release… Sharks don’t even like them haha.

Anyway took us a while but we eventually found a good spot where the fish were feeding, ended up with Reds and a big coronation trout. One of the guys on the boat pulled in a massive Cobia, would have 20kgs plus, thought it was a big shark. Couple of pics and it released really well…. By this time the wind had dropped right off and it was really really still, almost glassy. Ended up being a really good day on the water which meant we were a bit late getting back in which sucks having to fillet etc when the sun goes down but anyway was bloody awesome weather… Ended up with 10 Reds, Coronation trout and a small cobia we kept…. All 3 boats did quiet well getting Reds and Rankin

Back at the beach pulled 2 of the 3 boats in, the one with the screwed trailer was left in the water over night… Had a look at the trailer and decided the front cross member doesn’t carry much weight so a couple of hours on the tools swapped the front cross member with the middle one that snapped out… Ratched strapped the front one on… All good!! Worked well

Filleted, cryovaced, dinner and Rums and bed…. Was a long day and we were knackered (I actually had RSV which I caught from the daughter so I was bloody knackered haha)

Day 3

Next 3 days were looking pretty good…. Once again we decided head to the Mackie spot…This time it actually happened haha. The weather was pretty glamourous heading out, it’s a pretty long steam north where we head to this spot but its usually worth it… All 3 boats decided to head that way… We were the first ones there, the others mucked around a bit on the way marking fish and having a drop… Luckily we were there first…. Set the first trolling rod up, got the lure in the water, set the drag and before we could even get the second rod in the water it went off zzzzzzzzz first fight was a decent Mackie around 15kg, got it in and re-set. First lure in.. Second lure in, then zzzzzzzzz both went off didn’t even get the 3rd rod in the water… 2 mackies were being pulled in when one of the other boats arrived. Landed another Mackie around the 15kg mark and the other one got off….. The spot was going crazy…. Until the second and 3rd boats arrived hahhaa. Having the second boat in the area spooked the fish a bit, didn’t shut down but on the sounder you could see the fish sitting high up when we first got there, then they pushed down lower to the ground… All 3 boats trolled around the area, it usually is insane fishing but yeah they were a bit spooked, we ended up swapping to high speed trolling lures to get them down deeper. My rod went crazy ZZZZZZZZ called it for a wahoo… after a bit of a fight  ended up pulling in a Mackie around the 20+kg mark. .We also ended up with a decent yellow fin which was a good by-catch. The photos on the fillet station doesn’t do the fish justice, 4 of the mackies were 15kg and the bigger one 20kg. The smaller one was well over a metre. We have a 1200mm fish bag and the big ones tail couldn’t get in the bag.

The other boats did pretty well too, one of them got 4-5 mackies and the other got 3 and a wahoo, they also got a sailfish on stick bait which was pretty insane as well!!

Started heading back in and the conditions were awesome, real low winds. Marked a few spots on the way home and had a few drops, ended up with another 5 decent reds on the way in….

Once again same old process, retrieved the boats and back at the fillet station…. We filleted and cut away all the poor meat in the fish and got pretty much all the bait we needed for the trip and were still able to give away a few fillets to one of the other boats for their pelagics…

Back at the 5 star lodge we had a good fish cook up.. Whole fish, fish wings, beer battered rankin, yellow fin sushimi… Was bloody awesome!! This is what fishing trips are about!!!

Day 4

The next 2 days were epic… Pretty much glass offs…. Until it turns to crap later in the week… Once again decided to get up early as we wanted to go get Goldban..Headed out in the 100s and tried 6 or 7 spots and for the life of us could not get a decent bite. Ended up with 2 goldban and that’s all, was very very quiet… We decided to bite the bullet and head in… On our way to one of our spots we have fished in the past we marked a decent flare up that looked like the fish were feeding up really high… Went around for a drop and as it was on… The next hour fishing was insane, we found this spot and another little spot around 100m away where the reds were on fire. We bagged out on reds and called the one of the other boats over that was near by who also got a fair few reds. The spots fired. We ended up with our bag of reds, the 2 goldban and 2 Coronation….. The other boat that was with us landed a very nice Coral Trout, Ive never been with a boat that’s landed a coral trout of Gnaraloo before, usually see 1, maybe 2 a trip so was surprised to see one… 2 of the boats ended up with a decent haul of fish – Reds, trout and Rankin…. The 3rd boat that went out by themselves met us back at the beach and to our absolute surprise they didn’t lift the esky lid all day… They did not get a single keeper… That’s fishing I guess.

Funny story but we were heading into the beach and before we even got off the boat we could see Andy (Seakem) grinning from ear to ear… Not because of all the bikini clad influencer wannabe’s at the beach flaunting their G String bikinis but Andy got one of his deckies onto a 12kg red! Was a once in a life time fish well done Andy!!... Heard Col gave you that spot hahaha! Was also funny to see an influencer flog in his 2500 silverado with 50psi in the tyres get bogged to the diff retrieving his 3.5m dinghy hahaha… No one rushed over to give him a hand hahaha

Same old… Retrieve, fillet, Cryovac, dinner and rums…

Day 5

Another glass day… all the boats were pretty close on their pelagic limit but all 3 boats still needed a bit for their demersal limit. So the decision was made to all hang around together and hit the depth we found most of the fish in the day before… We didn’t go back to the same spots but headed to around the same depths and that’s where we found most of the bait flaring up and fish feeding. This ended up being the most productive day of the trip for all 3 boats. Our boat bagged out on Reds – All of which were very decent size, none were under 6kg mark. The other 2 boats got reds, coronation trout and rankin… We tried fishing in shallows in hope to try and get trout or robbos or something different but no matter where we fished we could not get away from Reds. We came right into a couple of decent lumps in around 25-30m where we got Robbos off before…. Nothing but reds.. Good problem but not when you have bagged out already.

Headed back in the bay and was good to see Fisheries in their boat from Coral bay. Boarded all 3 boats and checked the catches and had a good chat…… One boat that came in was a bit sus when they saw fisheries… Fisheries had binoculars on them when they stopped suddenly and started opening their esky… Fisheries zoomed over in their 600hp Niad boat… They went pretty quick past the fillet station that arvo and then left the following morning…. Hope they were found Not Guilty…… If you know you know.

Day 6

The day looked pretty average with a small window and because the rest of the week was going to be blown out we decided to head out and hang in shallow to finish off the bag. Plan was to head out to see if we could get any different species like trout or robbos. Was pretty blowy for the first couple of hours but then calmed right down, we ventured a little further out but once again could not get away from the Reds. One of the other boats got a decent Coronation trout, we got a decent bald chin but apart from that it was just Reds which helped the other 2 boats with their demersals… Heading back to the bay and no more than 1.5 mile out a massive flare up, we were with one of the other boats so decided to have a drop… Landed 6 reds all around 5-6kg mark, literally a spot everyone would normally drive straight past… Left them biting as both boats were close to demersal limit. The 3rd boat that stayed out a bit longer than us ended up getting a 11.6kg Red which was the fish of the trip for our mob!! Was a bloody great fish!!

We were back in pretty early around lunch which was a nice change… Retrieved and filleted. Back at the 5 star lodge we decided to have a clean up and weigh in and load the freezers on the boat… We made the call to head off 3 days early as the wind was going to be pretty hectic… The fisheries officers also advised us to make sure we were pretty onto the limits as a few people had been getting fined for being over their possession limits recently, they also said that they were expecting the Carnarvon fisheries out to inspect possession limits soon. We are always pretty strict with what we take and the way we process and fillet the fish and we do a bit of a weigh every day so we know where we are at. With the other boat we weighed in and re-stacked the freezer on the boat. Both boats got their demersal limits and the other boat was 3kgs under on their Pelagics…. Which made us discuss… If they are 3kgs under and went out and caught a 15kg mackie which you would typically 35-50% fillet off (According to AI) which worst case scenario would give you 5kgs of fillets, they would literally have to throw 2 kgs out or eat the 2kgs there and then…. Same as if you were 10kgs short, had an awesome day on the fish and ended up with 12kgs of fillets for the day all of a sudden your 2kgs over…. So yeah pays to weigh as you go, but interesting chat…

Day 7

Finish loading up the boat and cleaning everything and started the trip back to Carnarvon where we were staying the night…. To be honest the last day Carnarvon nights are normally one of the highlights ahhaha…. Footy at the pub then head to the Gassy for music, beers and locals punching on hahaha!!

Next morning head off early, nothing to report pretty easy trip home to end an epic trip!!

Other things

Love what Paul has done with the place, the maintenance on the joint is top notch. Never would have thought a category 4 cyclone could improve a place but it did. The piece of hose at the fillet station is getting shorter and shorter, wonder how short it will be next year.

Was great to catch up with the crews that are there at the same time as us! Andy and his crew are a great mob of fellas and was good to catch up for a beer and share stories.

One of the best years we have had with Sharks, no where near as many as normal from what we found anyway! Maybe they have all moved south as they heard the demersal numbers have increased haha

90% of the fish we caught were caught on new spots we found. Goes to show the most important piece of fishing equipment is your sounder and knowing how to read it.

If anyone wants to trade me some Goldban spots up there it would be handy hahahaa

The trip is bloody awesome, it is hard on your gear and you need to be prepared but it is good fun!!

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