Shark bay in a tinnie
G'day all hoping for sum tips or general info as I'll be taking the family (1xwife 1x5yo boy 1x3yo girl) up to Francois Peron camping around Gregories At the End of March for about 3 weeks.
The tinnie is our first and while I've fished from boats reguarly they've usually been larger so I'm not deluded enough to think I know everything especially about Shark bay where I've only been one other time.
We have a 12 foot tinnie with a 9.9hp outboard to get out in, so range will be limited, I can trailer the boat to other locations if required for different opportunities or to get away from the wind. I have a lowrance 4x chirp sounder and a handheld GPS.
If anyone has some general way points for the area close by to give us half a chance that would be awesome, I don't expect your top secret spots but even a rough idea would be great. (Pm would be fine)
Is trolling a realistic option for the area and our small boat limitations?
My my son is a mad fisherman so it'd suck if I can't hook him up on some good fish :-)
Out fished by a 5YO.... Reguarly
randall df223
Posts: 6454
Date Joined: 08/08/11
Never fished the Gregories
Never fished the Gregories is area, I am more a monkey mia person. But trolling is definitely an option. Also do a search on here. A couple of years back someone posted a report about fishing a tinnie at Gregories.
good luck. we'll be at monkey mia in April :)
Fish! HARD!
Boppo
Posts: 214
Date Joined: 08/03/09
Without putting too much pressure on you....
but you should clean up if the weather is good.
I have taken a tinny up there before and done really well on Pinkies, school macks, tuna. I wont tell you exactly where the coral patches are but if you do find them you will also do well on emperors, cods and the like. They are not far off shore.
Concentrate on th run in to high tide and you should find the water come alive (even in the middle of the day) with quality fish.
Brother and I are heading up there in about a month.
Good luck.
kirky79
Posts: 1356
Date Joined: 13/01/12
Hey mate, As boppo says you
Hey mate,
As boppo says you don't have to go out very far up there to get good fish. If the water is clear enough search around until you find the coral bombies then just anchor off the back of them and cast back towards it. The kids will have a ball catching fish after fish. But to get past the hordes of undersize pinkies we would go out about an hour or so before dark, anchor up and the bigger models start to come out as it gets dark.
Its a great place I'm hoping to get back up there later in the year. Good luck.
Chris.
Ovaworked
Posts: 6
Date Joined: 13/03/15
Cheers for the info guys
Cheers for the info guys since posting I've been searching this site and now I'm in full blown countdown mode.
Packing all the extras for the boat will be interesting I think, hopefully won't for get anything too important like the outboard lol
Making room for three weeks worth of food beer water beer bait beer fuel beer tackle beer toiletries beer clothes beer etc etc is going to test me lol
Lucky Denham is so close incase i run out of beer :-D
is there somewhere in denham to fill up water drums with clean fresh water I doubt the 160 Litres onboard will be enuff
Out fished by a 5YO.... Reguarly
randall df223
Posts: 6454
Date Joined: 08/08/11
Could be worth a phone call
Could be worth a phone call to the peron homestead. not sure if they have water for sale / free, but if they do you don't have to go all the way into denham.
Fish! HARD!
Starbug
Posts: 563
Date Joined: 27/08/09
There is a water "bowser"
There is a water "bowser" just out of town on the road to Monkey Mia for filling up campers and vans. It's coin operated. $2 gets you 20L.
avatinni
Posts: 141
Date Joined: 06/06/10
PM SENT
PM SENT
Ol Tom
Posts: 331
Date Joined: 17/12/13
Suggest you take beer in
Suggest you take beer in cans mate the road out is VERY rough at times and you need to hit it hard with tyre pressure down so you can lose a few stubs at times!!
There is a nice little reef to the east end of the beach too worth a try if its blowing and you cant get the dingy out.
Ovaworked
Posts: 6
Date Joined: 13/03/15
More thanks guys cheersOk
More thanks guys cheers
Ok now that you have my hopes up about catching a few a new first world problem has emerged and it's about about keeping the fish fresh on the boat which usually means ice but that means using precious water. I was just going to freeze ice cream containers but that would chew through our water and I don't really wanna do water runs that often.
I'll be running a 40 liter engel as a freezer while we're there so my real question is this would using long life milk cartons rinsed and filled with clean water work? Fill once and deep freeze at home transfer the engel freezer then In theory there'd be no water wastage just rotating a few between the engel freezer and the esky with a bucket full of seawater to keep the fish fresh until they can be filleted on shore ???
Out fished by a 5YO.... Reguarly
len85
Posts: 23
Date Joined: 05/04/13
Wet hessian bag or towell
Have used a wet hessian bag or towels in the past to keep fish cool. Not as good as straight on an ice slurry, but if you keep it in the shade and wet it regularly it does the trick. Just remember to give them a real good rinse at the end of each day.
Madmerv
Posts: 672
Date Joined: 24/01/15
Freezing Water
If your Engel is set to freeze below -4 or-5C it will freeze sea water. I think.
Your normal salt ice slurry goes to -3C i think.
Check it all on the net to get the correct freezing temp but putting sealed frozen containers of salt water in a salt slurry and refreezing on return to camp is the most economical way.
The salt water in the containers is denser than fresh and therefore (theoretically) will hold the chill longer.
Good luck on the trip and let us know how you go.
Sometimes when the water is quiet, you can hear the fish laughing at you !
randall df223
Posts: 6454
Date Joined: 08/08/11
I have milk bottles rinsed
I have milk bottles rinsed out with hot water, three quarters filled with fresh water and frozen. take two or three times what you need for your esky. I run a 100 LT maccie esky so at least three per day. Have a set for the esky and a set (or two) for the freezer. alternate them daily so they have 36 hours to refreeze. This will all be governed by your available freezer space
Fish! HARD!
Ovaworked
Posts: 6
Date Joined: 13/03/15
I thought I'd post up a bit
I thought I'd post up a bit of a report
The track to the point was only open to big lagoon so we made camp there with the intention of moving if it opened after a few days as predicted but when it rained on the day they had planned to open it we decided to stay there.
Due to the protected waters of big lagoon, we were able to take the tinnie out most days and feel quite safe and comfortable.
After a couple of days of getting the hang of things we found we could take home a feed of black snapper, orange or black spotted cod with little effort.
The bluebone only seemed interested in crab which is strangely scarce in big lagoon but a couple of undersized and bust offs showed they are there just elusive to us this trip.
Sharks are always there but not to the point of taking hooked fish.
Pinkies were also there but we only picked up 1 legal but got harrassed by undersized reguarly and I didn't get to try at night unfortunately.
A couple of points in regards to questions I raised originally:
To keep fish fresh on the boat I went with the long life milk cartons and found they worked well but after a couple of times submerged in a bucket of salt water they got soggy and had to be rotated with new packs.
Water is only $1 for 20L at the filling station just near denham
Track wise we towed the camper fully loaded with the tinnie and all the related stuff reasonably easily, some boggy sections but with correct tyre pressure and gear selection etc it's doable with a prado:-)
Hope that's useful to someone
Cheers
Out fished by a 5YO.... Reguarly
kirky79
Posts: 1356
Date Joined: 13/01/12
Sounds like it was good trip
Sounds like it was good trip even though you didn't get out to Gregories. I'm taking the family up to Gregories first week of the next school holidays so it's good to have another option such as big lagoon if the track is closed. Fingers crossed it hasn't rained too much when we get up there. Thanks for the follow up report too.
Chris.