Karratha

BROOME Troy Honey

September has been a phenomenal month for fishing in Karratha, and everything from demersal, pelagic and nearshore species plus crustaceans and cephalopods have all been found in great numbers. This is a demonstration of just how good the marine stocks are in the region and how well the current bag limits imposed by Fisheries WA are working.

BOTTOM FISHING

Looking at demersal species first, red emperor has been the primary focus for anglers fishing the region by boat, and they have not been of being on the water when the window presents itself.

Rankin cod, saddletails and coral trout have all been coming in with the red emperor, along with a few spangled emperor and bluelines. The 40m mark and beyond has been the most productive depth for the larger demersals, but there are quite a few coming in as shallow as 20m around good structure such as a coral bottom, and the old faithful channel markers off Dampier and Point Samson.

Bluebone have been showing up all around the islands, and some of these fish have been exceeding the 70cm mark! I prefer to release the larger bluebone over 65cm to assist with maintaining Samson, 40-Mile, the islands out from Onslow to the south of Karratha. This latter area is known as the ‘Mackerel Islands’, and for good reason. Lures trolled between 5-8 knots are all that’s needed out the back of the boat and it won’t be long until the strikes come in. Larger spring tides have been producing more fish than the smaller neap tides, so try and focus your efforts around the springs tides. Fish sunrise, sunset, and each tide change for best results.

Father’s Day saw ideal conditions in waters off Dampier, and there were some fantastic reports of families enjoying fishing the bays for nearshore species and cooking up a barbeque of

Golden trevally are in abundance from the outer rim of the archipelago and further out up to 50m. They fight hard and taste great, especially as sashimi, which is how one of these two were served up by the author.

disappointed. Not only are there picture-perfect weather conditions to get out to the hotspots, anglers are also finding great numbers of fish. Both baits and jigs have been doing the damage on the reds. Swapping between the two when bites go cold is recommended to try and turn them back on if they switch off. If you are seeing fish on the sounder and they are not biting, it can often be because of the tide. In this case, try running a few different offerings, and fish various parts of the tide changes. More often than not, there will be a window when the reds switch on, and this window can last for a couple of hours or as little as half an hour. It’s just a matter the regular breeding cycles. Additionally, I find the eating quality starts to drop right off when they get up to this size. The 45-60cm bluebone are by far the best eating size, with the flesh being very sweet. Also, the size and thickness of fillets are ideal for serving and cooking purposes.

Bluebone release very well, so I always recommend taking a few photos with the larger models and then release them. Keep the smaller females if you want a few fillets, as these smaller fish are in huge numbers around the archipelago. MACKEREL

Spanish mackerel continue to be the dominant pelagic species caught throughout the archipelago, off Point fresh fillets to enjoy for lunch. You don’t have to travel far anywhere in the region to find ground holding big numbers of nearshore species such as Spanish flag, Moses perch, darktail snapper or the old faithful whiting. LAND-BASED FISHING

Many species of nearshore fish around the region can easily be caught land-based. There are many spots along the Dampier and Point Samson foreshores that present quality fishing. Alternatively, you can head out and try 40-Mile and Cleaverville campgrounds, where you will find some great fishing for these and other species such as bluebone, mangrove jack, flathead plus the odd mackerel and queenfish, the latter of which are known to work the coastline hunting baitfish.

Flicking small to medium-sized lures, preferably suspending lures, is an easy way to get amongst some great nearshore species fishing. Most species will strike at just about any lure if it is worked past them. Try different retrieves and then repeat the action of what is enticing the strikes. I always enjoy a session of casting suspending lures off the rocks around Karratha, as you never know what will take it. It is like a lucky dip at the Royal Show. CRABS AND CRAYFISH

The blue swimmer crab season is finally coming to a close, and October will see the last of them being scooped up by the commercial trawlers.

With that being said, there will always be a few stragglers around. I don’t normally share this, but if you look for the deeper holes inside and outside of the creek mouths along the coastline, you can find some very big blue swimmer crabs sitting on the bottom all through the wet season months. The water is much cooler down there, and they tend to hide out in clans to see the season out and wait for the cooler water above to return.

The crustacean focus with the weather warming the waters will now turn to mud crabs and ornate crayfish. We are still a couple of months away from the risks of irukandji, so now is the perfect time to either have a dive or walk the rocky outcrops during low spring tides to try and find some crayfish. Nearly all of the coral covered areas around the archipelago hold crayfish, so you don’t have to dive deep to find them. Even walking the pools at low tide and looking under the ledges can produce them. SQUID

Squid are everywhere right now, and that will remain the same for another month or so until the water temperature rises. After that they will start to move out of the archipelago into deeper waters of 20m or more and hunt the reefs for food, or become food themselves, which is more often the case. November and December are the best months in Karratha to use squid as bait, as this is the natural food being eaten by demersal species during these months.

There were some huge coral trout being caught off Karratha this dry season. The author caught this 73cm specimen in 40m of water behind the islands last month.