Karratha

Barra, threadfin and mud crabs on the menu

DAMPIER/KARRATHA Troy Honey

Another year of great Pilbara fishing behind us and looking forward to an even better year ahead. Wet season is setting up nicely for 2023 with barra and threadies being caught in many of the creeks along the coast.

Fewer and smaller tropical storms are forecasted for the remainder of the season, which will flush the creek systems and set the region up nicely for plenty of enjoyable camping and fishing throughout the year.

Looking back first, the annual Estuary Challenge by King Bay Fishing Club

Top and above: Ricky Mclean continues to prove his knowledge of barra fishing in Karratha by landing more healthy specimens. Local angler Josh Mullen headed out to a local creek working the tides, which resulted in Josh landing two solid barra.

was held late November with 231 fish caught during the comp from 21 teams and 58 anglers. A total of 12 barra, 111 jacks, 38 salmon, 32 queenies, 3 tripletail and 35 fingermark. The longest barra went 890mm and longest threadie went 980mm. The water temp was still quite cool for the comp, hence the low numbers of barra but still highlights the quality of the fishery in the Karratha region with such a diverse range of species.

Most notable information to come out of the comp was the presence of a 2-3m saltwater crocodile in Airport Creek in Nickol Bay that was spotted by various competitors, with one even managing to get a side scan image of it. Crocs very occasionally visit the waters around Karratha, they have been seen further south with a few confirmed reports over the years, in the Ashburton River for example, further south below Onslow. It is a timely reminder to always be vigilant when around the creek systems and coastline, especially in murky waters or dawn, dusk, or night-time. Airport Creek is only a stone’s throw from the popular swimming beach of Hearsons Cove, where many families head for a swim. A croc of this size could easily be a problem for smaller children.

The water temp in the creeks and further offshore has risen considerably since the comp and we are above the prime temp of 29ºC for barra to fire up, and the many catches that are coming in during December are confirmation of that. Both lures and live baits are working well with the former being the preferred option by most anglers and either trolled or cast have been successful.

Threadies have been the predominate species caught when trolling lures throughout the creek systems in Karratha with anglers fishing the larger spring tides having no problem achieving their bag limit of healthy size salmon.

Mud crabs have been caught in good numbers and size over the last month with the full moon period being the most productive. Muddies use the moonlight to hunt at night and also the bigger tides soak the mangroves, indicating to muddies it’s time to hunt and use the stronger tidal movement to travel in easier in search for food.

Offshore there is plenty of action to look forward to during January. Spanish mackerel are still being caught and there are some very large GTs pushing anglers beyond their limits. All of the shoals and shallow ledges are holding mackies, queenies and GTs.

Bluebone continue to be the dominate demersal species being caught around coastal and island waters off Dampier, Cleaverville and Point Samson, with coral trout not far behind them. Both species have very healthy populations but need to be preserved as there have been both visitors and locals taking undersize fish, which can severely impact the required breeding stocks. Other species such

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Striking gold over the flats

EXMOUTH Barry Taylor This month’s report has been supplied by Josh Cheong The fishing in late November/early December was a bit slow. I’m not sure whether it was to do with the tides or weather, but regardless, everything from inshore to offshore was a bit more quiet than usual for that time of year.

However, we are now starting to hear more reports of blue marlin after a slow start to the season. We had seen the odd blue and sail being caught earlier in the season, but there were a lot of hours between fish – until now.

Inshore there are still a few mackerel around, ranging from approx. 10-20kg, being taken on stickbaits and trolling. Choice lures include bigger floating stickbaits like the Riptide 200 or, if you’re trolling, shallow or deep diving lures in the 190mm size, such as the Laser Pro or Samaki Pacemaker.

Anglers are still picking up the odd sailfish in the Gulf. We haven’t seen red-hot fishing or

Giant herring have a distinctive scale

pattern. @indepthangler_josh.