We left Coral Bay this morning and arrived at Exmouth, where we went to the post office and picked up our new generator, which had only just arrived. Kelsey had developed an infected ear from a dodgy earring, so we dropped into the pharmacy for an opinion. She suggested that we should take her to the hospital in town, where they gave us some alcohol wipes and suggested Kelsey stay out of the water until it had cleared up. We picked up a few groceries, filled up our water containers and headed for our second stay at Pilgramunna. After setting up the van we headed over to the happy hour tables with the other campers.
Pilgramunna - Cape Range NP - 14 September 2012
After breakfast I drove up to Yardie Homestead and picked up the boat. I gave Miffi a box of chocolates as a thank you, and she was very grateful. On the way back to Pilgramunna, I stopped in at Mesa Camp and chatted to the camp host, Greg. I explained that we were going to transfer to Mesa at the end of our stay at Pilgramunna, and that we also had friends who were coming in to join us. They would arrive the following day.
After lunch, we launched the tinnie and I picked up some 10 inch mullet with the cast net. We drifted around the gap with one livie out. While we didn’t catch anything, we did attract the attention of a large hammerhead shark of approximately 10 feet long. His hammer was about a metre across. I used the livie to try and tease him close to the boat for a good photo, but he wouldn’t be in it. We moved the boat away from the shark and started another drift with the livie, this time attracting the attention of a good size squid. We quickly got some quick jigs on the casting rods and over the next 30 minutes, we managed to boat 7 really good size squid, which would later provide us with 3 good meals of calamari. Unfortunately I wasn’t fast enough grabbing the last smaller squid, and it let a black ink burst go right next to the boat, scoring a direct hit on the back of Kelsey’s seat. Luckily she was standing, along with Sue, but they both still copped some overspray and suffered a rather nice inking. Georgia and I couldn’t stop laughing. The laundry lady wasn’t impressed. We returned to camp late and began cleaning the squid, with everyone lending a hand. It took a while and we missed happy hour in the process.
Georgia with one of our squid back on shore
Pilgramunna - Cape Range NP - 15 September 2012
We launched the tinnie at Pilgramunna and immediately headed over for a troll at the gap, picking up 2 bludger trevally, which were both released. It was quite calm this morning, so we tried venturing outside, but after about 50m we decided it was better to be safe now than sorry later, and promptly returned to the safety of the lagoon.
A nice bludger trevally for Georgia
And another for Kelsey
Pristine Ningaloo sand flats
We left the gap and trolled some shallower water, catching 5 small cod and keeping 2. We retrieved the tinnie in time for lunch and had a lazy afternoon at home. Sue and Georgia went for a walk along the beach later in the afternoon, returning in time to catch the AFL preliminary final between Collingwood & West Coast. Collingwood did a great job to beat the favoured Eagles by 12 points, advancing to the semi-final against Sydney the following week.
Pilgramunna - Cape Range NP - 16 September 2012
We got up at 6.00am this morning, and after sorting ourselves out with laundry and buckets, we left for Tantabiddi at about 8.30am. We launched the boat, headed straight offshore and started trolling in about 60m of water, where we had seen numerous small tuna bust-ups. After a couple of circuits and no luck, we trolled further out and had a couple of good hits, before Sue finally hooked up to a screamer. It took a lot of line off her before she was able to pump it back to the boat, where we discovered it wasn’t a really good mackerel as we'd thought, but only a 3kg striped tuna on steroids. The vivid purple colours on its flanks, as it struggled at the side of the boat were amazing.
We headed further out into 80m of water and started bottom fishing amongst an unusual number of orange sea snakes on the surface. Quite incredible to believe that they would swim 80m to the bottom to feed after taking a breath. We also saw many large turtles offshore, presumably gathering for the breeding season. Our bottom fishing didn’t go too well, as we were plagued by sharks. At one stage, we had three large whalers circling the boat beneath us. Kelsey did manage to get a really nice doggie mackerel to the boat unmolested, which we kept for the table.
It was a beautiful day with only a metre of swell and only a very slight breeze, but Georgia still wasn’t feeling too good in the tum. We pulled the lines in and ran back towards shore, to get some wind in her face. About 2km before the reef, in about 55m of water, I thought I saw a whale’s pectoral fin slapping the surface in the distance. We decided that direction was as good as any to head in, but it wasn’t long before I realised it wasn’t a whale, but in fact a free jumping sailfish about 1/2 km ahead. We immediately put the big lures in on the big rods and started trolling. After only about 50m, we had a hit on the biggest rod with 24kg braid, and a good sized sailfish erupted from the water and started tail dancing all over the place. Luckily for me, I was on strike, and so grabbed the rod while Sue brought in the other troll line. The sail screamed off about 100 to 150m of line and again jumped and danced all over the ocean. Sue manned the video camera, and Georgia the stills camera, while I started playing the fish. After about 10 minutes and many more jumps, I had it within about 20m of the boat. Kelsey was scared to death that it would jump in the boat, so hid under her beach towel.
Eventually we had the sail alongside and it was lit up with beautiful iridescent colours, but stubbornly resisted being bought close enough for me to take the trace. I’d already donned a yellow glove on my left hand, and the next time the fish swum close enough, I grabbed the trace, handed Sue the rod and then took the bill in the gloved hand. The lures hooks came out quite easily and we pulled the fish on board for a few quick photos. It’s bill and tail overhung both sides of the boat and we estimated it at about 2.2m long.
After the mandatory pics, we slipped it back overboard and towed it by the bill, to flush fresh seawater through its gills. We swum it this way for about 5 to 10mins, before releasing it under its own power. Thankfully it swum away strongly. I sat back for a breather, and to soak in what we had just achieved. A sailfish from a 12 foot tinnie is no small feat and we had been very lucky. Not only had we been able to entice a strike, but we got a solid hookup on a hard bodied lure (Rapala CD18), and the hooks had stuck, without the fish throwing the lure during its many leaps. It had also taken the large rod, which had the extra heavy trace, preventing its abrasive bill from wearing through during the fight. The fishing gods were on our side this time.
Unfortunately the stills camera was set to auto focus and from where Georgia was sitting, the back of my chair often took priority as the camera focused, leaving us with many blurry shots of the sailfish jumping. We hope to pull a few good still shots off the digital video at a later date.
Great shot this . . . for the chair manufacturer . . . a perfectly focused chair with a blurry sail jumping in the background
Not a bad effort from a 12 foot tinnie . . . around 2.2m of sailfish & about 25kg
That's why they call them sailfish . . .
We left the sailfish and headed back to the gap off Tantabiddi, where we tried a bit more bottom fishing, but unfortunately without luck. The wind sprung up, so we headed back to the ramp and retrieved the tinnie.
Leaving the ramp, we headed to Yardie Homestead and put on a load of washing. We filled up our buckets with water and headed back to van at Pilgramunna. Happy hour was extra good, because I got to brag about my sailfish and show everyone the photos. It'll probably never happen again, so you have to make the most of every chance you get . . .
Pilgramunna - Cape Range NP - 17 September 2012
Today we decided to take a break from the fishing and have a snorkel instead. We headed to Oyster Stacks late in the morning. Here I piggy-backed the girls into the water across some sharp rocks and we swam over shallow reef, again seeing many coloured reef fish. The better fish were gathered under the edges of the plate coral. We saw many emperor, mangrove jacks and Maori sea perch up to about 2kg.
We left Oyster Stacks and had lunch in the car park at South Mandu, before walking down the path to the beach. The girls made some great sandcastles, while Sue and I relaxed on the beach and snorkelled over the coral just offshore. Returning to camp, we enjoyed another happy hour, before a beautiful feed of mackerel in batter.
Yet another brilliant Pilgramunna sunset during happy hour
Pilgramunna - Cape Range NP - 18 September 2012
After breakfast, Georgia and Kelsey headed off to the rocks for a cast with the spinning rods. Sue and I went for a walk to see how they were going and found Georgia labouring over a severe knot in her line. I took over while Sue and Kelsey headed back to the van. On the way, Sue stopped to have a chat with new friends Doug and Joan, from Mandurah, south of Perth. The quick chat lasted for about an hour. I spent about 45 minutes on the mother-of-all-knots before finally triumphing and returning to camp.
We got the boat ready and launched at Pilgramunna at about 11.00am. We trolled the gap and scored a double hook up on bludger trevally, returning both. The next pass saw us with another double hook up, this time barracuda, which were also released. Third pass, you guessed it, another double hook up. Barracuda again. Enough of that, so we tried our hand at a few squid instead. They didn’t want to play, so we headed north, up towards the Mandu sanctuary zone. We trolled the area just outside the zone with gold bombers and caught heaps of small cod. We kept 7 over 30cm and returned to Pilgramunna.
Georgia with a Pilgramunna gap barracuda
Doug and Joan dropped over for a chat as we retrieved the tinnie. I cleaned the fish and we did the happy hour thing again, from 5.30 until 7.00pm.
A cheeky roo scoped out our site while we were at happy hour
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