A hung over Stelleen and a disinterested Eleni left My crew as Pete, Hanno and Carol. Beggars can't be choosers.
With Tantabiddy Ramp silted up, fishing was restricted to putting in 2 hours before high tide and retrieval by 2 hours after high tide so with high tide at 1:00pm we launch the boat about 11:00am despite a 15 knot easterly stirring up the Indian Ocean into a mass of white caps. Trolling the famous purple lures at the recommended 7 knots meant we were being over taken by the waves that were picking us up from behind and causing a skiing affect that felt decidedly unnerving for the first 30 minutes or so of trolling. As the Easterly began to abate our luck seemed to improve with a really nice run that resulted in Peter boating a Spanish Mac of about 95cm. A pretty positive start and still a few hours till the tide forced us to return to the ramp.
The next hour or two proved quite frustrating with 3 decent macs hooked and all taken by sharks. One even cost us a prized purple lure. Another shark with a purple lure firmly lodged in its jaw took about 20 minutes to bring to the side of the boat and after gaffing and tail roping the 4 or 5 foot bronzey, we were able to at least rescue the lure.
Time to go bottom bouncing and between us we landed some nice reef fish including sweet lip, estuary cod and a pig fish which combined with Peters Mac meant the restocking of the freezer was pretty successful.
On one of our drifts a whale shark emerged right behind the boat. It didn't stay long but provided another highlight for the crew.
After arriving back at the ramp and having to walk the boat the last 10m we were really pleased we didn't stay fishing for another 15 minutes because the tide drop in that 15 minutes would most likely have left us high and dry. Anyway we got home safely and bagged some great fillets before Eleni provided Tacos for tea. Another top day in Exmouth.