And left from fortescue river mouth ramp isnt to bad pretty steep though . My boat is a 6.8m bayshore with a 225yammie 4banga and for the 350km we did we used 340litres of fuel but i had 4 on board 2 180litre eskies swags food drinks heap of spare water fishing gear and snorkeling gear and a bit of other crap. I rang the department of parks and wildlife for islands to stay on and the only 3 you cant stay on were alpha , trimoulie and ah chong islands hermite seems to be the one to stay on according to them. The observation shack is worth a look as are the bomb sites themselves on trimoulie and alpha islands . We copped a bit of weather going over it was about a 15to 18kn souwester so it was steady steady for us but we knew it was dropping off over the next couple days so wasnt to bad but the fishing on the neaps was a bit quiet except for trout they were in plagues but everything else was very quiet . 

Hope it helps

Still cannot work out how old steel drums (be they massively bent about) remain present and showing little signs of corrosion after almost seven decades since the testing ...........must have changed the structure with the intense heat ??

We went and slept on a yacht and the fishing out of the yachts tiny tender was truly amazing, reds and huge trout less than a km from shore. Once there you certainly do not need to travel far and the variety of fish available defies commentary. The diving was out of this world but currents were an issue

 The absolute best times to be up there are when it is hot. The fish are firing and the weather is glassy. That said when the wind blows it really blows as there is a cyclone powering it. That will surely wreck your fishing holiday.

From mid April on the chances of cyclones is greatly reduced, but not gone, and the fishing is still great. The cooler it gets the more the fish shut down but hey, it's the Monties. Shut down up there is going off elsewhere.

Other advice would be to take a spare, that is a spare everything. I had my main trolling/bottom rod break on the second day up there but i had a spare (bit of a broomestick) but hey beats handlining. Also take double the amount of lures you expect to use, the fish fight dirty and love the reef as well as the Noahs that are everywhere and love nothing more than taking your fish with lure attached.. Bastards.

Looking forward to seeing a stack of photo's from your trip.

He is an Ex wrecker that used to go to the monties frequently(use to live in Kcity), and some of his post has heaps of info on them about what he took, where he stayed etc. And some great photos too.

 if u can carry the fuel just leave from dampier it a hell of alot easier. No dirt roads, no steep ramp, no red dust all over your wet boat. Can come in and out and time or tide.   When  we first started goin there we use to load up everything plus the sink but we were just taking heaps of crap we didn't need, now we pack light and evan just do 20 hour day trips. The hard part is picking your window of weather from far out, it's easier for us cause we live here

As for camping we just find the nearest deep beach to where we are fishing and that's us. Most people like champaign bay I reckon it's a prick of a camp spot

 Im with Pricsy,

Been over there on a private boat, definitely easy to leave from Dampier, eventho a little further. Carry some extra juice with you just in case, although 690ltr of fuel gets you what 300 mile?

Montes from Dampier 60-70 mile depending on where you end up east or west. I did stay at champagne bay but not inside it, i agree bit of a prick, If i have the right bay Pricey, its got a couple of moorings in an enclosed bay with only a small enterance. hard part is if thereis any tide its a bit of a prick to get to and from the boat at the shallows go out a little way? We stayed on the northern side of that bay, kind of looking at tramoulie.

Weather can be a bastard out there, can get sweet weather but turns just like that. We were lucky went over on the long wekeend in march and hard great weather the whole time, but it was hot, bloody hot! made it very hard to sleep at night, had to drink yourself to sleep!

We had the issue with mooring the boat, each morning the boat was on the sand as the tides were so big.

plenty of fish,  any structure holds fish! trout everyhere esp on the west side inside the reef!

 Thanks for the imfo it is very helpful.

690l of fuel would give me around 260nm at my worst economy figures.

Im going to look at changing props over the next month or so as i dont feel im getting as good economy as i could it has excellent excelleration but cruises a bit high in the rev range. The previous owner did comercial mackeral fishing in it so it was propped to carry a ton of fish onboard.

I was thinking dampier for launching and then i could tow it up with minimum fuel on board and fuel it up there might save a fare bit of juice in the car. As we are leaving from mandurah so its a fair old drive.