Spanish mackerel, dolphin fish on the bite in Exmouth

The Muiron Islands and surrounding areas have had great reports of Spanish mackerel in the past week with plenty being hooked in the 20-25kg range.

The sharks have been hot on the tails of many, so we suggest not wasting time and only having two lines in the water at once.

The sharks can be rather painful at the best of times, so be prepared.

The lures of choice seem to be the faithful red-head but also the pilchard colour in the Strada, Halco and Rapala brands.

Some crews have been reef fishing and drifting back whole garfish in the berley trail and also having success.

Other anglers have been reef fishing on anchor and casting stick baits, which can be very exhilarating when the bite happens.

Three guys from Singapore flew in this week to do an eight-day charter out of Exmouth.

On the first day, they tagged a 250kg blue marlin and have also had some wicked sessions on little black marlin, sailfish and jigging.

International anglers fly in year round and are often amazed by the sensational fishery we have in Exmouth with its great options.

Lures that have been working well for billfish in the past few weeks include the Bluewater and Moldcraft range.

The Moldcraft are a soft-head lure that tend to work well for fussy fish that are hard to hook.

The soft head can get them coming back to hit the lure again and again.

Garfish rigged with the ultra- small Moldcraft heads also are a winner when run in the outriggers.

Dredges have been very popular for raising fish, along with various surface teasers.

Spear fishermen in the gulf have been hitting the bombies for trout with the clear waters at present.

We expect there to be a bit of northerly swell come down from cyclone Wallace that may stir things up a little.

The fishing either side of a cyclone can be insanely good as we witnessed during GAMEX with the fishing exceptionally good in the lead-up and at the back end of the low that eventually passed after cyclone Veronica was downgraded.

Dolphin fish have been thick in the 50-80m depths off the west side this week.

The Christmas tree lures work really well for these, along with many of the tiny pushers.

It is important to have fine-gauge sharp hooks and Tackle World offers free rigging on all lures and can show you how to be prepared for catching some of these pelagic species.

The school holidays, Easter and Anzac Day are coming up and we always remind people to ensure they have all their safety gear up to date to avoid fines from various government departments that will be checking vessels daily.

Of course, it is good to have the correct safety gear in the event of actual need and we recommend doing a safety check and talk on departure with those on board.

If you are fishing from the shore, we have some suggestions in store of where to go and what to target.