Tackleworld Exmouth fishing report

The onset of Mother’s Day usually means the influx of regular winter retirees to Exmouth.

The groups of guys fishing outside school holidays has also been noticeable.

With all these extra visitors to town, it is lucky that the fishing has been good with plenty of numbers reported in all areas.

Golden trevally have been prevalent on the inside of the reef off Tantabiddi lately with many schools seen cruising the flats. These hardy fish have big rubber lips and are often in a school with plenty of other similar sized mates. They like to compete for your lure, and it can be quite awesome to see in the clear waters.

These fish can be found in all areas and in a recent outing with family, Dean Gates had a competition running to try and get your lure back to the boat without hooking up. Dean also managed to have some luck netting for blue swimmer crabs, although the sharks were a menace and kept taking baits intended for crabs.

Queenfish have been biting in the gulf and stick baits seem to be the preferred luree.

The C’ultiva savoy shads have also been a favourite of many anglers this week with several fish falling to their wiggle including giant herring, golden trevally, spangled emperor, queenfish and giant trevally.

The lure is a sinking type that is about the same size as a hardy head, which is the local bait found in the gulf and surrounding islands.

The sharp Owner hooks that come rigged are brilliant, but we do recommend crushing the barbs if you are going remote or chasing fish for release.

As long as you keep tension on the line, a barbless hook should stay connected.

The Masters Billfish Tournament was held over a fabulous weekend of weather.

The prizes were spread among the teams with a crew from South Australia taking out Champion Team aboard On Strike II with four black marlin.

Dale Moir, of Perth, was fishing on Nail It and hot on the heels of On Strike II to defend the title from last year.

Dale had three black marlin and a sailfish.