This is well overdue, but i guess better late than never! haha

I flew up to broome at the end of may with three full weeks ahead of me solely dedicated to fishing from sunrise to sunset!  Well at least i thought so, then.......      My parents who are up there half the year needed help fixing their boat, wanted to spend time doing a few other things and so on, fair enough  and then my partner wanted to come up for 5 days and then my brother and then me scaily mates haha so was cut a bit shorter but was stoked to have them all up with us.... My parents are grey nomads that are fortunate enough to live up there for 5 months of every year, and a massive thankyou should be extended to them for letting me crash on their site use their boat and their 4wd.

Well the plan was to grab the new 19ft centre console and bang out to disaster reef to chase some Gts.... but as plans so often dont work out after 12months of "planning" the motor was playing up so i spent a few days fixing eletrics and just generally tidying up the boat for my parents while we were trying to fix the engine.
I was stuck to landbased for the first week, which was fine!

Hit the jetty a few times during different tides (low, high, the change etc) with smaller reefies half way up juvenille blue lined, coral trout, potato cod and heaps more was great to see so many fish! at the end of the jetty we targeted golden trevs and queenies which were great fun on light gear!! but then there were the unstoppables which bricked me in an instant, i can only assume big trevally or resident cod!  Being stubborn i went back the next day armed with heavier gear to catch the infamous unknown that bricked me twice.  Gathered some livies and sent my line out... first hook up was a couta pulled him to the surface and cut him off... then it happened, big hookup again... bricked in the pylons and again and again! i excepted defeat.

Me and my dad went out to a local creek on low tide to try our luck at mud crabbing with the sheperds hooks within an hour we had two muddies, stoked! my first mud crabs... that will do us for dinner!

While my girlfriend was up we headed to willie creek on the start of the incoming tide with our light gear and initially it was quiet just the usual juvenilles and then bang! girlfriend had a big bite with a blistering run that pulled the hook... unfortanately i think it mite have been the threadie i had so badly been hoping for. Then a school of big diamond trevally came through with both of hooking up and landing multiple fish which are so much fun in shallow water and i personally like on the tooth when fresh!

with the boat still not working and desperate to get her onto some reefies we hired a small boat from boab boat hire and headed no more than 2kms out bashing some reef in about 30mt of water, was very quiet with only a couple of undersize snapper and a couple of trevally and a heap of bloody monkey fish and cod! but was beautiful out none the less. Couple of hours before we had to head in we moved right in close and got a heap of spanish flag and golden trevally.

Had a few days relaxing by the beach, dinners and a bit of diving and my partner left.  I hit the jetty a few more times chasing the golden trevally which was a ball!

A few days later i caught up with a friend of a mate that lives up in Broome, Gary Shrugg who was an absolute legend who invited me over, taught me how to throw a throw net which i later found out i wasnt the first and probably
wont be the last, he and his partner aslo offered me use of their dingy and really sent me in right direction even with a few points! i really cant thank him enough!

Finally got our boat running but unfortunately just not reliable enough to go out wide so we were limited to only bout 5kms... the next few days were spent catching Bluebone, snapper, trevally and cod.

Then my brother and mate flew up and were warned the activities will include fishing, fishing, fishing and drinking! they happily obliged.  We spent a few days about 5kms out bottom bashing on spring tides which didnt make it easy but we ended up doing really well all catching big bluebone, catfish, tuna, painted sweetlips, fingermark, bluelined emporer and school mackeral. keeping what we could eat fresh and a bit for a few of the oldy's in the park without boats.

Next mission was to try and troll for some spanish mackeral. We really wanted to go up to barred creek as the mackeral and sailies were absolutely firing but allas the dodgy motor we barely went passed cable beach. We trolled for about two hours without any luck. Running a spread of shallow, mid and deep diving minnows and a home made teaser on a small drop off i had nearly given up hope of ever getting a spanish mack and tehn my rod went off! given it was nearly in free spool
and we were drifting towards it it didnt even realize it was hooked until it got to the boat stiil green it went ballistic as i ran around the boat chasing it while bucky and my bro pulled rods out the way, and lures out of my feet! finally it was boat side, shit! no net or gaff i wasnt going to lose it so i jumped in the water and passed it up as the boys grabbed it.... cheers lads!! i was so stoked with our group effort mackie and still smile thinking bout it!

At this stage, the boys had left and i had ticked a few fish off my wish list. The wind had turned for the worse and managed to catch up with a fellow fishwrecked member Patty and his mate. The lads picked me up in their hire car and we headed up to willie creek again land based. these guys were top blokes and we spent the bext few hours spinning fishy yarns and having a laugh, catching juvies, Patt dropped a diamond trev right at the rocks on placcy and then started to catch bream, flathead and all the fish i could catch in bloody perth! so we hit the road... can i just say was brilliant to catch up with a couple of really easy going guys, complete randoms, but fellow fishos and have a cracking time! thats what this site is all about and would encourage everyone to do the same is always rewarding!

well it was coming to and end for me but i had a window of good weather on my last day so went out with mum and dad to try the creek... doesnt always produce but is always so peaceful there! spent a few hours there trolling, throwing into snags and drifting but we were there on the wrong tides. So we squirted over to the cyclone moorings to try for some triple tail... no joy! then we thought we would try a jew hole i had nearby. First couple of drifts over it nothing then i hooked up a blue nosed salmon and a grunter! neither of which i had caught before so another couple of fish ticked off and then mum hooked up on a small jewie and that was it another great day in broome and the end of my trip!

Unfortunately i couldnt go to half the spots i had hoped with the boat being unreliable but caught a heap of fish, met some great people and had an awsome time :) Ive included some of my favourite pics and different fish species caught.

Apologies for the massive report will try to keep it to the point next time :) finally a massive thanks to my parents who made it possible, Gary Shrugg for all your help, Patty for catching up for a fish and Marky from broome who gave me a heap of advice on fishing broome even offering to take me out, its people like you that really make others holidays unforgetable... Cheers all see you out there!

EXMOUTH NEXT.....

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