Tinny sails, jacks, and new records

Over the last couple of school term breaks this year I have made trips back to the sportfish rich areas of the Pilbara. cursed with bad weather for the majority of my time in the heat, but making the most of the small windows of good weather, we caught good fish.

The first holidays

Flat water, clear skies and large tides made the perfect recipe to get out wide on my mate's (Toby) 4.9m top ender tinny. After a smooth trip out and the rods where set, it wasn't long until the word Sailfish! Was first called out.

A pod swam through the spread smashing each gar set out. With Toby on the rod we managed to land and tag a 15-18kg sail in under 5 minutes. He had come up with an idea before hand, to swim off with the fish before release while photographing it with a gopro. Turned out to be the perfect oppurtunity, he didn't hesitate to jump in and swim the fish back to the the only part of the pilbara thats blue.

The fish was stung with an unfortunate tag shot that needed to be re-done before release.

After the excitement had past, the fishing slowed, post gaining our stats to 4-2-1. It wasn't until 15 min before time to pull the pin (first intentions were to pull then and there but we couldnt help ourselves from going for just one more lap) ,our attention turned to a sail in the midst of making a meal out of the short gar. This time a slightly larger model who wasn't shy around the boat and gave tobes a good opurtunity to jump in with a gopro on the noggin. Final stats for the day were 5-3-2.

The second holidays

My April school holidays were once again cursed with bad weather. However, Dampier's diverse range of species meant that fishing in closer, sheltered areas would still produce a great range of inshore species.

We set out on the tinny to a local creek close from home. After pulling through 25 minutes of uncomfortable riding, we made it to the mouth.

Our setup included light tackle over a small drop off and 20-30lb braid combos (the funsticks) along the rocks hoping for some 40+cm jacks. With the burley working, five minutes after we anchored, my 4kg buzzed off over the sandbar. First thoughts were a small shark, but the fish-didn't take off like a member from the

Large-toothed family, as the unknown creature stayed around the boat. The fish then started to appear in the shape of demersal specie, and with a closer look the unexpected face appeared itself as a large spangled emperor.

The large size of the spango was an uncommon site in such an estuarine area. Measuring its weight on the scales it occurred to us that the snapper could potentially be a junior Sport fishing record. It wasn't until later that we found out the fish was indeed a pending 4kg (8lb) junior sport fishing record (now approved). Although, the weight was just under 4kg, the fight factor of spangled emperor made the capture worth while.

Now, back to the rest of the fishing trip we made to the local creek.

Not before long the jacks started to fire and were taking lures and baits both. Trying our luck with the light line Toby managed to land a 40cm+ fish on the 2kg (4lb).

The jacks were plentiful along the rock wall and made it a challenge on the light line. After the hot bite had past, we soon found ourselves flicking lures slowly along the rocks stirring up anything we could.

Toby's 40cm+ Jack. Fish was tagged before release for the local Nickol Bay Sport fishing Club.

There was no better way to end the day, than flicking lures into the sunset catching small, but very hungry inshore species, topped of with a smooth ride home.