Bluewater staff members Ché Carson, Liza Harvey and Hal Harvey joined Neil Dearn, John Weekes and Mick Holt, on board Reel Teaser Charters out of Broome in the last week of November, for a very late-in-the-season Rowley Shoals expedition aimed at exploring the outside of the atolls with poppers and jigs. There was no trolling planned and no expectation of encountering the wahoo, sails and tuna the area is famous for, as it was too late in the year for them to be about in any numbers.

Reel Teaser unloads the anglers for the first day at Clerke Reef, about 300km out in the Indian Ocean...

It all went according to plan, with skipper Ross Newton and crew Tracey and Scott putting on a great charter. We threw poppers 'til our arms ached and encountered some fine GTs, hump-headed maori wrasse, maori seaperch, coral trout, red bass, sharks, jobfish and a heap of other oddments on bloopers and stickbaits, and dropped jigs down on dogtooth tuna, flowery cod, more coral trout and humpies, long-nosed emperor and harlequin fish, to name just a few.

Mick Holt with a red bass... 

Evenings on the back of the boat showed how the Rowleys can really be a 24-hour-a-day destination, with black trevally and bigeyes on the light tackle, and sharks and dogtooth on the heavy gear. Che' jigged up a yellowfin one evening which was kept for a feed, but all other fish were released... 

Reel Teaser towed two 5.5m plate dinghies with 60hp four-stroke outboards, and most of our fishing was done from them. We only used the big boat for a popper chuck one afternoon, preferring to fish from the small boats when we could. 

Scott the deckie leaders a GT for Neil Dearn... 

Most of the GTs were around the 20kg mark, and were caught on a variety of poppers and stickbaits with a leaning towards Haymakers, Cuberas and Wahoos. I had an experimental Wahoo 150 stolen by a huge GT inside the lagoon at Clerke Reef - tough country - we saw the fish clearly enough and were in awe of its size, and frankly never stood a chance.

This one for Liza Harvey fell to a Black Jack Tuna 80... 

Some of the highlights of the trip arose out of the time spent under the water, with even the non-swimmers in the group eventually donning mask and snorkel and wetting the head. We swam with manta rays and blue fusiliers, even jigged for coral trout while in the water with mask, snorkel and fins, and didn't even completely give it away after a four-metre tiger shark crunched a turtle right alongside the dinghy one day. 

Reel Teaser Charters gets full marks from us for a faultless operation, and we'll confidently recommend them to you. Every angler caught at least two big GTs, and anybody who wanted their first humpy, dogtooth or jobfish achieved their wishes with enthusiastic guidance. My desire was my biggest-ever coral trout, and I achieved that too. 

John Weekes with his desired dogtooth tuna... 

Ross Newton was very keen to tangle with another marlin after losing a couple of fish worthy of the 60kg tackle recently, one at the leader after nearly three hours, so he slipped out a couple of trolling lures for the last couple of hours as we approached the shoals and the first couple of hours as we left... and attracted six strikes, at least four of which were billfish, and none of which stayed connected. Ross has gone six for six in the past, so it was just one of those things. I guess you could say Ross was the only one who didn't achieve his wants... but he'll be back there mid-December to try again.

A trout for Hal...

Text and pics © Bluewater Tackle World