The Harris family crew from Binnu were back again this year for a fishing break from the farm and fished their boat ‘U 4 Reel’ The crew had a big smile on their face when they had to come in to buy a ‘big’ filleting knife to fillet their great catch of a 1.2m Mackie. The grounds around Exmouth Reef were the hotspot apparently and the weather was perfect for quite a few days to get there and back. They also landed on their trip some golden trevally, gold spot trevally and a few shark mackerel.

The Tantabiddi Camp out was a great success for 2009 with about 30 people sleeping under the stars on Saturday night in blissful camping conditions. Angler Ryan Mumford caught a 160kg blue marlin to kick off the competition on the Saturday and took out the tag and release marlin section. Young angler Braden Cooper blitzed the shore based section catching and releasing 12 different species on fish on day one and a few more on day two. Luke Collins targeted the spangled emperor section, but was overtaken by Andrew Cooper with a 71cm spangled emperor that was photographed and released. The heaviest mackerel went to the boys on Dicken’s Cider with a 10.4kg specimen caught off Tantabiddi. The sailfish section was left vacant, but the crew at the camp out decided it had to go to the sensational trifle that Kath Ryan made for the desert that night! Huge thanks go to Kath for making all the salads and desert, while all members of EGFC are very grateful for the continued support from Exmouth Dive Centre for this annual event.

Dolphin fish have continued to show up in large numbers out off the waters between the lighthouse and the Muirons for those anglers chasing billfish. The billfish haven’t been shy either, with Graham and Ann Blythman catching quite a few on days off in their Abcat. Three guys from Perth in their small boat are here for ten days and on day one they caught and released three: not a bad start.

Shore based anglers had perfect conditions for spanglies with the high tide on dusk and lures or baits were working well at the top of the cape and around the west side. Sadly, but a fact of life, there are many predatory fish along the shoreline on dusk at this time of year as the turtles are hatching. Meanwhile the marina has been a great escape from the windy conditions we have had recently and the mangrove jacks have been hungry. Mulies seem to be the best bait, while C’Ultiva slow sinking shads have been the most successful lures.