North Coast
WA
Pilbara nearshore and estuarine heat up DAMPIER/KARRATHA
Troy Honey
It certainly has become hot over the last few weeks with the wet season well and truly upon us here in the Pilbara, and with it the nearshore and estuarine species
and he starts jumping out of the water, chances are high that one of more sharks are hot on his tail fins. Among the mackies and out a bit deeper there are a few longtail tuna about as well as plenty of mac tuna, just keep an eye out for the feeding birds and you shouldn’t have too much of
This northern black jewfish was caught using a live baited mullet approximately 7” in size. have started firing. This is such a great time of year, fish species that have been non-existent for many months have shown up in nearly every creek and bay along the Pilbara coast. Last month I went into detail about the predicted weather events for this season and closing off the demersal and sports fishing scenes for the year so this month will be all about the species that have been in hibernation and are now out in force. Out wide first, there are still a few straggler mackies being caught around the shoals but boating them has been challenging with the increase in shark activity. If you are battling a mackie
a challenge finding them. If it is more of a big fight that you are chasing this wet season, then the Dampier Archipelago is the place to find it. All around the islands there are several spots such as Legendre Island, Hammersley Shoal, Bare, Roly & Nelson Rocks to name a few. Best when there is water movement creating a bit of whitewash or ripping tide. This is where the GTs will be hunting their prey and using the water movement as a visual screen. Big popper and stick baits work best here, you will need at least and 8000 size reel and PE4 rod but larger combo of 14000 size reel matched with a PE8 rod is a better starting point. While you can go bigger,
they do become tiresome casting and retrieving for a period of time. High quality gear is better due to lower weight as you will find the cheaper large reels are heavy and not as balanced which makes work a lot harder. Queenies will be amongst the mackies and GTs, and also around every island rocky outcrop and creek mouth. Around the creeks, on larger tides as the last couple of hours of tide runs out of the mouth, you will always find queenies herding schools of mullet towards the back where they can have greater success of a feed. Around the islands rocks outcrops and shallow reefs, queenies can be found on the tide changes again chasing the many schools of baitfish. Casting lures, stick baits and poppers around the 100-120mm work very well plus just about any live bait matched to what they are feeding on. Catch the live bait with either cast net or small rod combo and small baited hook. What excites me most about the wet season in the Pilbara is the threadfin salmon. They are an amazing estuarine species in terms of both sport and table fare. At times they can be almost a pest when targeting barra and other times they can be extremely elusive. Fishing with baits is popular from both shore and boat with prawns being the go-to for most anglers or live poddy mullet. Various types of lures work from minnows to stick baits but the most commonly used are vibes or soft plastics. Lure size in the 75-125mm are recommended and as
Top and bottom: John Palermo caught these two giant threadfin salmon by casting a Raptor Jacks Snax Live Series suspending lure on two different colours, mullet and prawn. threadies tend to forage for food such as crustaceans in the muddy and coloured water of the incoming tide over mud flats, using shiny or bright coloured lures will work best. Threadies have already started firing up in most of the creeks along the Pilbara coastline and it is around
the mouths where you will most likely encounter them, although they can be caught upstream, it is usually only 1-2km at best. Local Pilbara
winds. John’s go-to tackle is a Samurai Runoff 5’9, 16-25lb rod paired with Abu Garcia Revo Beast baitcaster spooled with
John with another giant threadfin salmon using a Samaki vibe lure on the cast.
One of the keys to John’s success in the creeks is his sounder setup, which you can clearly see how well it allowed him to get onto the fish. Lowrance HDS live 7” and Lowrance FS Elite 7” running active target and 3 and 1 sidescan transducers. 114
DECEMBER 2022
angler, John Palermo has been getting amongst some great threadies as well as northern black jewfish, which are another nearshore hard fighting fish. John has been targeting the threadies and jewfish on the rising tides, 2-3 hours before the peak, around midday. John’s success mostly came on days above 30ºC , water temp around 24ºC and moderate 15-20 knot
30lb braid and 60lb leader. My next favourite wet season fish in the Pilbara would be the bartail flathead and I am looking forward to some early morning land-based sessions over the next couple of months, casting lures across the flats. Hopefully by next article I can bring you all some photos and what lures have worked best for the Pilbara flatties this season.
