This week’s fishing has been hampered for the most part by the strong southerly winds and solid swell which arrived just before the weekend. The winds are a sure sign of the change of seasons but the swell should hopefully become less consistent over the coming months.

For those in the bigger boats able to cope with the untidy conditions this week the marlin fishing has been first class. Black, blue and striped marlin have all been caught around the ledge west of the Muiron islands as well as sailfish right behind the reef in as little as 20 metres of water. Many of the Exmouth locals are keeping a close eye on the waters within the gulf keenly awaiting the arrival of the annual sailfish run.

In other areas of the gulf, close to shore, bluebone have been getting caught along with some solid coral trout. Whiting have also been caught by land based anglers down towards Learmonth.

Some of the beaches and low rocky ledges along the west side of the peninsula have yielded some great trevally for those keen enough to put in the effort. One such angler, David Schmidt from South Australia, visited Exmouth last week and was rewarded with five giant trevally landed over the space of four evenings. David was very pleased with the fish that he landed, one of which being his personal best for the species.

Dave Schmidt GT

The bottom fishing appears to be steady with still good numbers of rankin cod being reported from many of the shallower grounds. I’m sure many more reports will filter in once we get a couple of days reprieve from the persistent southerlies.