Karratha

DAMPIER/KARRATHA Troy Honey

June in Karratha has been a mixed bag of weather conditions with plenty of wind, the odd bit of rain, where good numbers of trophy demersal fish are being caught 5nm from the boat ramp to the west.

One of the demersal species whose populations appear to be on the rise in Karratha is the spangled

Bradley Kavanagh made a night-time trek in search of the elusive northwest mulloway and was rewarded with this great example. larger fish are plenty of sharks, so fishing for the spangled emperor is a challenge. It’s recommended to only take one or two spanglies, and then move on if the sharks are taking the majority of hooked fish. This will ensure that the spangled emperor population will continue to thrive.

Coral trout, Spanish flag are perfect for this style of trout fishing.

July will mark the slowdown of the blue swimmer crab run but the season has been very late to fire up so we could see the run lasting well into August. The crabs have been hard to find, and it is a matter of working the different depths until you find a good

plenty of cloud and a glimmer of calm season in between.

The conditions have made it tough for anglers and even more so for competitors of the 2021 Argonaut Billfish Shootout in early June. Low numbers of fish were captured, and conditions eventually caused the comp to be cancelled early on the last day.

With the weather being hit and miss, those who have been lucky enough to get out on the few good days have certainly done well on demersals, although the sharks have been a problem, as usual.

Out past the 40m mark there have been red emperor, saddle-tail snapper and big rankin cod being caught on both jigs and baits. One of the other challenges has not only been getting past the sharks on the way up but also getting past the cobia on the way down. Still, battling cobia is a good problem to have because black kingfish (as they are called in most parts of the world) are a prized table and sports fish.

Smaller red emperor and plenty of blueline are coming emperor. Monster schools of fish around the 20-30cm size are prevalent behind the islands and as far south as 40 Mile, where an abundance of reef is providing the perfect habitat for the smaller fish to grow. If you head out from this area to water around 30m deep, it’s only a matter of finding July is prime demersal fishing time in the Pilbara, with a wide offering of some of the best demersals in the country. For fight and table quality it’s hard to beat the large-mouth nannygai (saddletail snapper). This great nanny was caught during a recent trip off Dampier.

Blue swimmer crabs are now running in the bays around Karratha. The author has been getting onto quite a few, but sharks have been problematic, destroying drop nets in as little as 10 minutes.

Coryn Mclean certainly knows how to bring the great fish up, as she shows here with a very good-sized Pilbara spangled emperor. and crimson perch are all being caught nearshore, with some great size trout taking bibbed minnows and vibes in waters as shallow as 4m. On a recent day out, we were trolling the tide change for Spanish mackerel using the Classic Lures F200s in gold, while we did hook a couple of smaller macks it was the coral trout that provided us with the most action. Coral trout are aggressive hunters and will rise from their holes to take trolled lures. I could not count the number of days I have fished for trout, dropping jigs and baits with no success, to then switch to trolling over the same ground and hooking up almost immediately. The fishing grounds off Dampier around the archipelago

One of the most aggressive fish in the water would have to be the mangrove jack, and they are very smart when it comes to eluding anglers. Not so for Harper McLean, who showed this beautiful mangrove jack a lesson or two.

patch holding crabs. Sharks again have been a challenge, taking baits and destroying nets in the process.

For mud crabs, the spring tides on the full moon have been the most productive. Crabbing the last hour before high tide to a couple of hours after high tide with nets in the creeks has produced goodsized green mud crabs. Catfish and mullet baits are working very well, as are lamb nets and tins of oily cat food. Some of the crabs being caught at the moment are monsters over one and a half times the legal size.

The creeks are still producing the odd barramundi as well as plenty of threadfin salmon. Queenies are hard if not impossible to find.

If you are looking for something different, why not try your luck at some flathead fishing over the sandy shallows? Flathead can be caught in less than a foot of water on lures that work the bottom. These fish will strike when the lure stops, so ensure you are including pauses that last a good couple of seconds in your retrieve action.

If you are one of the thousands of tourists heading up for your annual northern fishing trip, it is highly recommended you check the changes in possession limits

Ricky McLean spotted a huge tiger shark on the way home from Airport Creek, and noticed it had a few big cobia with it. This cobia nailed Ricky’s Vibelicious Thumpertail on the first cast. After a 15-minute fight it was all over, and the fish weighed in at 13.5kg.

that come in in July. The changes include demersal and pelagic limits, with strong penalties if exceeded. These changes have been introduced to protect fish stocks from the increased number of people travelling Western Australia due to the border restrictions from the COVID pandemic. It can be argued that changes in shark fishing rules would have greater protection of our beloved demersals, but it seems that will go largely ignored for some time yet. Until then, we hope the updated regulations will be reverted as soon as the international borders are opened, and people start travelling abroad again.