Hazell's 2 weeks in Ningaloo

[Hazell]

2 friends and their 6 week old baby, my wife and I were bound for Ningaloo station for 2 weeks of isolated camping right on the waters edge. This report is only loosely following the order of events because I chose the better photos not always the best fish to tell the story. I had never been to Ningaloo before and a lot of my fishing (all land based and yakking) was solo so I had to play it all by ear.

The trip up was long and did not get interesting until we pulled into the station. The bitumen turned into corrugated gravel tracks for about 30ks which was fairly comfortable in the forester if we kept our speed up. When we got closer to the campsite, the tracks got worse and a few big bumps saw my trailer launching into the air with the kayaks nose finding its way into my rear windscreen. A roll of tape later and we were back on track.
http://i64.servimg.com/u/f64/15/14/64/93/car_v_10.jpg

The weather was pretty average at first so land based was the only comfortable option. After throwing some poppers around but only having follows from trevally or queenies, I noticed that there were a lot of small long toms around. When they got scared they would tail walk along the surface, leaving no more than a skittering effect on the water. To mimic this, I put on a small richter plug and straight away I was onto a decent queenie which put up a good fight and made some great aerial displays. I took a quick underwater snap as I released him back to it's terrorizing of the schooling bait fish.
http://i64.servimg.com/u/f64/15/14/64/93/queeni10.jpg
http://i64.servimg.com/u/f64/15/14/64/93/queeni12.jpg

There were fairly high tides in the first few days and westerly winds were pushing swell up into where some of the on-the-beach camp sites were. Shovels in hand, we helped this family barricade their campsite but we soon realized we were losing and they had to pack up. As the last tarp was lifted, the water came crashing through and flooded what was their camp site.
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This slow shutter photo shows what the wind was like a lot of the time
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A few breaks in the weather allowed us to get out for some boat sessions. We found a few squid on a couple of trips but I was hoping for and expecting more. I found it harder going than in DohDohDohDohburn sound but the rough weather may not have been on our side.
http://i64.servimg.com/u/f64/15/14/64/93/squid10.jpg

I pulled this ~40cm Red-throat out of about 1m deep coral reef. I was using yellow/green gladiator plastics and the fish seemed to be loving them. I found the fish we slamming them as they bounced along the reef but they would just take me straight down and either snag up or bust me off. I tied this stick bait on to try tempt them out of the reef. First cast with it, I had a hook up and I put a lot of force on the fish to keep it above the reef. By the time I had it back to the boat, the 30lb flouro leader was completely destroyed and snapped as I applied some pressure to the knot. We were busted off most casts and a Picasso trigger fish was bothering my plastics so we moved on.
http://i64.servimg.com/u/f64/15/14/64/93/red_th11.jpg

My only bait capture for the trip, a 1.5m shovel nosed shark. I put out shark baits (usually squid heads) several nights and had some great runs (including 1 that went airborne) but lost a lot from terminal tackle failure and poor hookups from the 'tuna circle' hooks I was using.
http://i64.servimg.com/u/f64/15/14/64/93/shovel10.jpg

The stormy weather passed finally and left us with steady but manageable winds. This boat was not exactly where the owners had left it, the wind and chop had ripped their mooring anchor out of the sand. Luckily there were 9 of them and they dragged/pushed/lifted/heeve-hoed it out of the sand and onto the trailer.
http://i64.servimg.com/u/f64/15/14/64/93/passin10.jpg

[Hazell]

It was finally time for some Yakking.
http://i64.servimg.com/u/f64/15/14/64/93/yak_re10.jpg

First fish was landed trolling a small minnow before I even reached the reef. I was not expecting this one, a fairly big sucker fish which made me think there was a shark trailing me. I shrugged it off and kept fishing. The sessions that followed were the most constant fishing I have ever experienced, I trolled up-wind with scorpion 52's and similar hard bodies and often the lures would be hit before I even managed to tighten the line up after a backwards cast. I'd then set the drift anchor and work soft plastics deeper into the reef as I slowly drifted down wind. Heaps of Red throats and chinaman cod were landed with the occasional spangled emperor thrown into the mix. I did not land any really good fish from the yak but I was never left bored, pointlessly casting and retrieving. out on the reef, it was rare to go more than a few of minutes without landing something and about 75% of casts were attacked but a lot of it was angry little reef fish too small to get their mouths around the hooks
http://i64.servimg.com/u/f64/15/14/64/93/sucker10.jpg
http://i64.servimg.com/u/f64/15/14/64/93/red_th10.jpg
http://i64.servimg.com/u/f64/15/14/64/93/chinam10.jpg
http://i64.servimg.com/u/f64/15/14/64/93/yak_sp10.jpg

Most mornings, I would get up before the others and go flicking lures for a couple of hours. Queenies were very common at one spot I discovered with a few landed in some sessions. Long Toms were always around but I had trouble hooking up with some of the lures I was using. Most of the time I was fishing with 15lb braid, 30lb leader. Its a bit heavy but the reef gave me no choice. On a couple of occasions, I would take my squid rod out (10lb braid, 12lb leader) and either not have the power to set hooks properly or get busted off on the first good fish. Here are a few more land based captures. The dart was an amazing fish to watch as it fought, It would glide through the waves as they formed, watching me as it swam side on, taking drag as it moved back out when the small wave broke.
http://i64.servimg.com/u/f64/15/14/64/93/dart10.jpg
http://i64.servimg.com/u/f64/15/14/64/93/queeni11.jpg
http://i64.servimg.com/u/f64/15/14/64/93/long_t10.jpg
And my biggest spangled emperor, on nothing else but a 15g halco twisty cast between some reef right on the shore line and another patch ~50m out. Of the hundreds of dollars I spent on stick baits, minnows, poppers, various plastics and jig heads... 3 things did most of the damage... 15g halco twisties, a 1/2oz richter plug and 4" bass minnows were hands down the most effective plastic I used (I tried atomic paddle tails, various squidgee fish and shads, squidgee slick rigs, eyeball tails and a couple of gladiator minnows as well)
http://i64.servimg.com/u/f64/15/14/64/93/shore_10.jpg

Even when the weather was pleasant within the shelter of the outer reef, the conditions outside were not favorable. This kept us away from the bigger fish which were no doubt hanging around that area. However, we did get our 1 near-perfect day (or part thereof) and so we headed out for a quick trawl. As soon as we got out of the channel to the open ocean, what we assume were tuna were busting up the surface in several scattered schools. I had my trusty light gear with me, ready to go with a small metal slice. A few casts as we passed by produced nothing but we were after bigger fish. We had a 2m laser pro and a 4-5m rapala magnum trawling behind us for a while and then one of the heavy outfits started screaming. I jumped straight onto it as Rob went to pull the second up. Before he reached it, that too started screaming as we had our double hookup. Robs fish went airborne as we quickly discovered it to be a large Spanish mackerel. Mine however, made a solid run down deeper. The lines crossed and we had to do the old over/under trick. Robs fish was going mental, spending almost as much time out of the water as in, just like my first queenie but it's different when it's at least 15kg. Meanwhile, my fish seemed to have come un-hooked. As I started to retrieve the slack line, it came up solid and then nothing again. The fish then woke up and made its second and final run 180 degrees around the boat, made a massive jump out of the water and dove down into the reef below, finally showing itself as a Spanish mackerel. All I could do was lock up the drag and that slowed it down before it reached the reef below. It then seemed to stop dead and while I was slowly dragging my fish up, Robs had destroyed a high tensile lure clip and set itself free with His already battle scared laser pro as jewelery. As I pulled my fish closer to the surface, I noticed it was foul hooked which explains the strange fight and that it was barely attached to the fish. It was not until I had a hand firmly gripped around its tail that I felt the relief you get when you land a monster. The results was a 120cm ~15kg narrow barred Spanish mackerel.
http://i64.servimg.com/u/f64/15/14/64/93/macker10.jpg

Throughout the trip, I had no trouble finding fish but I was yet to land any trevally. I was starting to think I was going to leave without catching one of my main target fish (queenies were primary). On one of my final days, I took a walk, rod in hand to the area which had landed the big spangled and started throwing around various lures. It was high tide and bait fish were holding up between some barely submerged rock/reef and the shore. This put them in a narrow channel and it wasn't long before the predators started barreling down the corridor, chasing the bait fish into dead ends or up into ultra shallow water. The speed they were passing through made it very hard to sight cast but I focused on casting at the predators entry and exit points and very quickly came up with a couple of smallish GT's (unhappy fish in the pic below) and a reasonable gold spot trevally.
http://i64.servimg.com/u/f64/15/14/64/93/sad_tr10.jpg
After a quick photo shoot through which it constantly grunted like a pig, this particular fish was on its was way seemingly not bothered by the quick but hard fight we had.
http://i64.servimg.com/u/f64/15/14/64/93/releas10.jpg

Light tackle sport fishing is what really excites me so I spent my final day chasing queenies and trevally as was rewarded. An ultra-low tide saw my queenie flats almost above sea level so I walked straight out and started casting poppers and metals along the drop offs. I was getting constant hits but no solid hookups for a while until BANG. This trevally put up a harder fight than the mackerel and was the last fish I caught. It will leave a lasting memory of the area and I'll be back up there soon, hopefully exploring a different section.
http://i64.servimg.com/u/f64/15/14/64/93/flats_10.jpg

[Zim man]

mate, what an awesome report with top notch pics to boot. a very entertaining read mate:D

[Sav02]

awsome post man thumbs up from me

[ruski]

Looks like an awesome trip! Thanks for sharing

[MAINEVENT]

What a report! Well done mate. Some magic part of the world up there.

[Piscateur]

Thanks for sharing. Looks stunning

[duffman]

good read good pics :eek::)

[Hazell]

Thanks guys, It was an awesome trip.

[jigger]

great report and pics - how did the forrester handle offroad and on the beach ?

[bargeass]

brilliant mate. top read and some amazing pics to boot :D

[Hazell]

great report and pics - how did the forrester handle offroad and on the beach ?

It went pretty well. Corrugations were quite comfortable but the trailer was banging around a lot. It handled the soft sand pretty well even loaded up and towing a heavy trailer. I was hoping to give it a better test run up there but after smashing the window I wanted to preserve it for the trip home. There were some dunes I really wanted to tackle with it.

[Hazell]

And a trip to Ningaloo would not be complete without some diving. Here are jsut a couple of shots that I liked.
http://i64.servimg.com/u/f64/15/14/64/93/lionfi10.jpg
http://i64.servimg.com/u/f64/15/14/64/93/damsel10.jpg

[IceManDude]

Awesome Report and even better photos!!!!

:D:D

[Jaxson]

that was a wicked report mate:eek: well done.

nice photos and great fish!!:D

[forsterfisho]

great report and great pics! sounds like awesome trip away!

[BreamingSuzie]

Good fishing in difficult wind conditions it seems.
Great photo's.:cool:

[T-Ledg]

awesome report mate! some amazing fish you caught up there. would have loved to have joined :P

[isaac.chopper]

you take amazing photos! :)

fantastic report.

[Crayfish]

Jealous to say the least! Thanks for taking the time to write it all up and upload so many pics!

[Hazell]

Thanks again for all the praises guys (and Suzie!)... Hopefully I've encouraged some of you to go on your own fishing adventures away from familiar territory.

[Joey]

Awsome photography, thanks for sharing mate!

[breno1967]

Great stuff, looks like an awesome trip and some great pics.
Well done.
Breno

[baldy groper]

Great read Hazell
Awesome photo's
and the queenie is a great capture

[yellow door 1]

Hazell - you've gotta do this more often;).

Its the bubbles of nothing that make it something. Those incidental shots are what brings it home for me. Looking forward to the nextun. Dont leave me hangin Bro:)

[Hazell]

It might be a while before I can get up there again (hopefully same time next year but done better) but I'll try do some more stories form local adventures....... Fishing back in Perth just wont be he same. I caught a small mulloway and a few decent bream today but after the last few weeks of fishing, its barely worthwhile. I'm sure it will pass.

[Bear]

Never is once you have the Exxy bug :D

[duffman]

off to karratha for the weekend , your report got the juices going :D

[Hazell]

That's a great shot Bear.

[Bear]

Thanks mate, hope to back there soon.

[yellow door 1]

It might be a while before I can get up there again (hopefully same time next year but done better) but I'll try do some more stories form local adventures....... Fishing back in Perth just wont be he same. I caught a small mulloway and a few decent bream today but after the last few weeks of fishing, its barely worthwhile. I'm sure it will pass.

Mate - with your Pics - you could make knitting with your Nan look interesting:D.

I'm certain blokes have been to the same spots and caught bigger fish - your ability to capture the moment and the moments others forget is what made me comment on your report:)

[Hazell]

Thanks mate... I do agree, reports with some background and a story are always better than showing off a few big fish.

[toomj]

Awsome report Hazzel

[gtxrally]

Fantastic report and pictures as everyone has said Hazell.

I hope the Foz did everything you needed. Did you take it on very deep sand at all?
Cheers Dale.

[Hazell]

Cheers. Unfortunately the state of the rear window stopped me from going too crazy with the Forrester. If I knew how well it would take the corrugations on the way back out I would have but I thought that would make it shatter completely. It was a smoother drive than my mates new Hilux and had no trouble on the deep ruts and semi-deep sand of the track.

[Blooper]

Great pictures mate.............dont mind me asking but what kilo rods did you use for those emperor and little trevally???

im going up to the monte bellos in november and want to bring a rod similar kg to that:)

SOUNDED LIKE AN ABSOLUTE 10/10 TRIP:P

[Hazell]

Blooper,

The rod I used for 90% of my fishing was a Okuma Precision-X, 7', 7-12kg, 2pc. Its a bit overrated, suits more like 5-8kg. I ran 15lb braid mostly on a 3000 TD Tierra which suits the rod very well.

20lb leader got most of the fish. Maybe a bit heavy for the shore and flats stuff but I lost some good fish on 10lb braid / 12lb flouro when they took me out to the bombies.

If you are going from shore, I'd take a longer rod. I took my 9' Lemax blue mountain but I snapped the tip on the second day so had trouble when I needed to reach action that was a little further out form shore. The Okuma was meant to be my yak/boat rod but I had no choice.

Cheers,

[Blooper]

Great, thanks for the insight man....it really helped:P

[iboogalot]

mate by far the best report ive read on this site.
really enjoyed your report great fish, great place and all up
fishermans paradise. :D:)

[smokindrags]

man what a mad report
and awesome pics

thanks for sharing a awesome trip for you