Steve Vitali was fishing the shoreline around Mildura Wreck access road recently to target bluebone using crab and squid.  The bluebone frequent this area regularly and are a hard fighting fish that can be challenging to land.  Steve got some weird soft bites and hooked something that seemed rather unusual as it didn’t bite hard like the bluebone usually do.  He brought it to the surface and to his surprise he caught a massive rock lobster that measured three times the length of his stubbie of beer!  Despite it not being a tasty bluey, it was a rather delicious as an unexpected surprise that is always good for dinner!

Nat Everett has entered the monthly fishing comp with a 68cm spangled emperor that was caught on a Maria stick bait off Tantabiddi recently while she was fishing with her partner Tosh.  Nat is pictured this week with her great catch and beaming smile.  The fish was released again and this style of fishing with surface lures can be very rewarding for anglers.  The action is tense and very visual as the fish hunt down the lure. All entrants for the monthly fishing comp for January were fantastic, with the winner being Scott Bolt and his marlin. Congratulations Scott!

A 3m tiger shark was caught by some recreational anglers fishing from the beach this last week.  The fish was brought to the shore and carefully handled before release.  There has been quite a bit of interest with shark fishing lately, with night time fishing for these species being very productive, not to mention cooler than the days!  The balmy nights are still around 30degrees on the gulf side, but substantially cooler on the west side.

The rains have continued to fall on the eastern side of the gulf and if you are up in an aeroplane you can see there has been a lot more than in the town of Exmouth.  This is great news for the fishing year ahead, with high rainfall in this area feeding the mangroves and creeks that run in to the gulf.  The Exmouth Gulf is a very healthy ecosystem and you can catch just about any species in here where the mean depth is around 12m.  The creeks can be very tricky to navigate and we don’t recommend going there without plenty of planning and time.  However, the gulf waters hold much more variety and is far safer for navigation.  We hope the rain will continue over there and add to the excitement for the year.

Fishing report brought to you by Bluewater Tackleworld Exmouth.