It was a hard decision this month for the fishing competition with so many great entrants, from Jayga with her huge squid off the rocks, to Ian with his tuna after being so sick and Peter with his first marlin, but the winner was Dave Jacobs with his Giant trevally. Dave has won a voucher to spend in store and the Sea Rescue and Fishing club added more funds to their kitty, while all the entrants went in to the draw for the yearly prize. Pics of all the entrants are displayed in store each month.

Reef fishing has been challenging this last week with strong ocean currents. The west side has had a few days of strong southerlies, but the Exmouth Gulf has been calm and full of life. The water in the gulf has been very clear and standing at the EGFC clubhouse, you can see through to the bombies and weed on the ocean floor of the gulf off the marina. There have been numerous whales breeching and anglers fishing off the walls have been catching small queenies and golden trevally.

Further off the marina there have been bait balls getting smashed up by schools of larger queenfish and various trevally. Even further out again towards Exmouth Reef and to the north there have been larger schools of bigger baitfish including the gulf mulies and yellow-tail.  Feeding on these baitschools are sailfish and tuna. Closer to the Exmouth Reef and near structure there has been mackerel and trolling a hard bodied lure in this area can result in mackerel steaks for dinner!  Watching the sailfish feeding on the baitschools is awesome and there are some lucky young anglers in town who have witnessed this.

Young Sam Wolf, aged 8 tagged his first sailfish in the gulf with his mates Hayden Michaels and Riley Smith. The boys are all getting in practise for the upcoming Betta Billfish Bonanza in mid October. This event is held over three days and is a great intro for billfishing, with a total tag and release tournament. If you want to come down and talk to the anglers over the weekend about it all, anyone is welcome to come down to the clubhouse and visit. The bar will be open and food available too. All proceeds of events and anything through the EGFC clubhouse goes into the EGFC.

If you’re thinking of going to the Bay of Rest for a fish or crab this week, make sure you take some repellent: the sandflies are rife! There has been a few muddies about, but if you’re up for braving the bites, then I think you deserve them. Mangrove Jacks have shown up in the creeks with the warmer temperatures and the queenfish are always on the prowl down there, so make sure you have some lures can be retrieved quickly for queenies love speed.

Dave Jacobs GT