The denham gulf near the boat ramp is great for squid over the weed banks, and the shallows have heaps of good sized whiting to start with. Pink and black snapper are everywhere, the trick is to find the sized ones.

IF you get good weather (which will make or break your trip), definately fuel up and make the trek to the top end of dirk hartog. You won't regret it, but you gotta have good weather. 

 Bent pin near herrison prong is always a good starting point for pinkies. But if you get the weather, definitely hit the top of dhi

scotto hit the nail on the head. Heaps of smaller fish in the gulf thrown in with a few big ones. We found the best way to get more big ones was use bigger plastics and jigs. Nothing smaller than 5inch plastics and 30g jigs, even in 7m of water. We got heaps of nice pinks and big blacks with this method. Using big baits you still get the smaller fish picking at it.
One of the days we loaded our 4.8m runabout with extra fuel and headed to the west side of Dirk via the south end of the channel and had a ball on big mackies, tuna and endless cobia along the cliffs. This was in June im not sure what the pelagic action is like at other times of the year as it was our first time up there

 Thanks fella's its not until July next year but trying to get a good idea of what I need to plan for.

looking at the charts its a shorter trip to go through the south passage Beau but I would do it over 2 days.

According to a couple of guys the weather is normally favourable this time of year so I will reakon an over nighter would be the go!!

thanks

We just went for the day I think it was about an hour and a half each way in our lil tub. Some of the best fishing ive ever done out there. As soon as we rounded the south end of Dirk we could see tuna and mackies busting up bait as far as the eye could see, it was unreal.

 Thanks Beau day trips it will be then, did you do any bottom bashing out there? 

be prepared for heaps of undersized pinkies in the bay, fish on the edge of the schools.  You can head straight across the bay to the homestead and pick up good sized fish consistently. 

Yeah mate we did another trip out there on one of the boats we were up there with, a big 8m beast. Cleaned up in 80-90m, pinkies, red throats, cobia, baldies, various cods and a lone red emperor

 Thanks beau

Im headed there in july school holidays and was reading that they have a ban on up there at that time of year for pinkies? Is that right?

I only asked the Mrs this morning how you're going. Sounds like a great trip to be preparing for mate!

Hope you do better than we did at Kalbarri a few weeks ago :(

Downrigger is my next purchase!

should be good weather that time of year.
do your homework on all the regulations as to what to catch and how many . the fisheries are right onto it up there. the regs have changed a few times since we went up so cant help on that one.
one place to try is out near turtle bay but it is 36 nm from Denham ramp so you will need lots of fuel and extra depending what usage you have in your boat.
if you want to get out for a day without taking your boat out, try Unreal Charters.

 You no what they say preperation is the key craig, want to spend the next while spreading the cost of gear to take without the wife noticing :)

All the pointers and directions is much appreciated though guys!!!

 If the weather gods are kind you will have ball, brucedog. As has been mentioned a trip to Turtle Bay (northern end of DHI) is well worth the effort, so to is a run out past Steep Point. A half reasonable sounder and finding good ground is not difficult. On the run out to Steep Point I think about 9 - 10 miles from Denham there is a channel marker leaning over (the bent pin) this can be quite productive at times, although you really need to fish it at the top or bottom of the tide as you will struggle to hold bottom when the tide is racing.

Don't forget about Monkey Mia, just a short run down the road from Denham. It has good double launching ramp with jetty, can get bit sandy at times but we've never had a problem there. The water is shallow directly out from the ramp, but if you head west and follow the markers you can go around the shallows. It is clearly marked.

There are some restrictions on pink snapper at the time you will be there, but only in the Eastern Gulf (Monkey Mia side)

See the following from the Fisheries web site:

 Awesome thanks the saint

 As a semi-local to shark bay I would fishing Dirk Hartog and the offshore Peron National Park as much as possible, especially since you have the boat to do it. The guys were landing trout. tusky's and cobia offshore of the national park this year in June/July this year but you need to fish the warmer water north of Denham. As for inside the bay, there sint much other than truck loads of squid and swarms of pinkies worse than the blowfish in the swan. Pinkies are overrated IMO but each to their own. If you want to get a sized one i suggest using the biggest soft plastic you own.