If the weather conditions over the past week are anything to go by, it certainly appears we are in for a long hot summer in Exmouth. With the daily temperatures hovering around 42-43 degrees all week, there has been no better spot to be but out on the water enjoying the calm conditions.
Marlin activity on the west side of the Cape is starting to fire up. With the water temperature warming up over the past few weeks, there have more reports of both big and small marlin being encountered. One boat fishing west of the islands over the weekend tagged a nice blue marlin around 220kg, and saw plenty of other marlin but failed to stay connected. Huge dolphin fish up to 15kg have been prolific too, but have been making a nuisance of themselves for those chasing the marlin with often every lure in the spread being taken by a dolphin fish when you come across a school of them. Tough hey.
Spanish mackerel are still prolific, especially out at the Muiron Islands. The spaniards will take most forms of trolled minnow lures, however definitely the most exciting way to target them is by cast-and-retrieve surface lures over areas mackerel are likely to feed. The most likely areas are of course bait schools and prominent bottom structure/drop offs.
A few of the more successful lures worth trying are the Daiwa Dorado Sliders, Shimano Ocea Pencils, Black Jack Ulua 60 or 90 and the Black Jack Wahoo in the 80 or 100 size. These lures are all forms of stickbaits, and when worked slowly across the surface the mackerel can’t seem to resist. A few keen divers haven’t missed out on the mackerel action either, with a couple of nice mackerel reportedly being speared during the week too.
Exmouth Gulf still has plenty of longtail tuna busting up on all the baitfish schools. It’s just a matter of keeping an eye out for the all the birds diving, which are a failsafe indication of feeding tuna.
Kate and Eddie Bell from Hampton in the UK are here on holiday again, after visiting in April earlier this year. The couple have been fishing from the shore down in the National Park and has been catching a huge variety of species including spangled emperor, dart, barracuda and various other reef species. Whilst fishing at night Kate also managed to catch a big bonefish using pilchards for bait. Not being the best of eating fish, the bonefish was carefully released back into the water.
