Letters of my life; some of them positive, some of them about fishing, all of them about US = Johnno a mad keen (obsessed) fisherman, Myself (Positive Karen), and our two dogs Puppy and Charlie, as we enjoy a life of fishing, food and fitness, while trying to keep some kind of balance.
My intention at Yoga this morning was A Peaceful Mind. I went to the town marina for some alone time after yoga. Straight away I saw a dolphin, not sure if it is the same one I have seen there a few times before. He was just floating around on his own, it looked like he wasn't doing anything, so I went back to the car to get my snorkel. To my surprise as I got close to the water he started swimming straight towards me, FAST! My heart skipped a beat. Then the water turned black! Seems he was chasing squid, not coming to swim with me after all :) Then there were 4 dolphins. I jumped in with snorkel. The dolphins stayed in the area but not close enough to swim with. So I swam with the little fish instead.
Peaceful morning swimming with the little fish
What a wonderful relaxing Peaceful moment!!The marina wall is becoming my happy peaceful place.
Licking our wounds from the previous day when Black Thing broke down, we dusted off our pride and hit the water again, in Little Thing this time.
It was a perfect day to be on the water in a little tiny!
As our luck would have it, the weekend our big boat Black Thing broke down (see previous blog for details) we had the best weather of the year!
Thankfully we are a two boat family, and the calm waters were perfect for taking out our tinny, Little Thing ;)
We headed south of Exmouth, down the gulf. Always on the look out for the elusive Permit for Johnno on Fly, but happy with what ever we find.
We found big Queenfish straight away, too soon actually, we motored right over them. It's moments like that you wonder, what if they are the only fish we see all day, and we blow it? But clearly the fishing gods had laughed at us enough this weekend already, and handed us more Queenies straight away.
We had a few casts at solo Queens, Johnno on fly and myself on Popper, but they weren't to interested. We realised quickly that the schools were much easier the excite, they are a lot more 'competitive', fighting for what is offered in front of them. I love that moment when you see two or more fish turn and chase down the popper, you know it's 'almost' a sure thing. They will race to get to the food before the other, so inhale it quickly without looking too closely at it, unlike the solo fish whom all seemed too weary of what we were offering, and had the time to consider before taking it.
Less than half an hour on the water and that is what happened. Johnno (my personal guide) spotted the fish coming, I cast in their direction, started winding, they rushed for the popper, it was a given!
Karen's ON!
In such a beautiful open flat area I was able to give the Queenfish time to wear itself out. Jumping 3 times, to my cheers of delight every time, I never get sick of seeing that!! Then circling the boat a few times before we gently guided it on board for a quick photo, then let it swim off slowly and safely.
Another beautiful Exmouth Queenfish for Karen on Popper.
The Permit stayed elusive, we couldn't find them this day. However the by catch of Squid was plenty of fun for me. As we cruised the flats I had a lot of interest from squid with my popper, I'm sure they should design a Popper Squid Jig! Normally I do not give them much attention, but when we found a large school of them, I couldn't go passed any more. I swopped to a squid jig, while Johnno kept them interested by teasing them with his fly.
First cast they all rushed the jig, and i was on without even doing anything! We netted the first squid, leaving it in the water to 'ink' while we chased down the rest of the school. It was all too easy, and how I'm sure squiding should be? I'd cast, squid would rush the jig, we would get it into the net then race ahead to the school, cast again...
As you can see in the movie clip, I haven't done a lot of Squid catching, any tips on how to get them to 'ink' before boating them would be much appreciated please!!
Yes I got covered in black squid ink, much to my surprise most of it came out after soaking in Nappy San.
Within half an hour we had 9 squid in the eski.
First half a dozen squid caught in a matter of minutes.
Totally thrilled with my day, and the wind picking up, we headed home for the long ordeal of cleaning my squid. Thankfully earlier in the year I had been squiding with my work mates and leant how to clean the messy little buggars! Christmas dinner with the family who are coming to visit just got even better!
It's not very often we break down, but when we do we make sure the whole town knows about it.
Leaving Tandibidi on an amazing calm Saturday morning.
We learnt a few things in the weekend, like the importance of Logging On with Sea Rescue, and telling friends where you will be fishing.
After our first year anniversary in Exmouth we realised we had been West Side in Black Thing only ONCE that whole year! Finally the weather was perfect so we decided to do it....the weather was also perfect for fly fishing down the bay, but sometimes Johnno has to put his Permit dream on hold to work on my Billfish goal!
We arrived at Tandibidi boat ramp as the sun was coming over the ranger, excited at the perfect weather forecast and our more than usual tackle preparation. Johnno's recent purchase of a new Marlin reel, perfectly prepared with a very sexy looking Gulf caught Binito, we were confident this was the day for my dream big fish!
New rod and reel ready to catch Marlin!
Three hours later after zig-zagging what we thought was the right spot, our beans started falling out. Not a sign of fish life anywhere! No bait balls, no birds working, but even more of a give away: no other boats any where to be seen. Realising we had guesstimated the wrong spot (guessing where to go since it was our 2nd time ever West Side, first time chasing Marlin), we decided to head towards the reef, to fish a little bit more in our own knowledge area. Chucking big poppers at the reef for Big GT's was the new plan. Being a sucker for GT's, I was just as excited about this as Billfishing.
We stopped short of the reef to rig Popper tackle. Full of excitement I shouted 'Too The Reef', but no, it wasn't to be. Black Thing made all the right sounds, but wasn't moving forward. It didn't take Johnno long to work out what had happened. With a slipped Hub stopping the propeller from doing it's job (moving the boat forward), we were in for a very long slow trip back to the boat ramp. We started off confident we could make it on our own. I called friends to tell them where we were just in case.
Trolling under 2kph just doesn't cut it! Watching birds working that we couldn't get too! Johnno said I wasn't aloud to hook a big fish anyway because it would pull us off course.
We limped along at 2kph, thankful for the lack of wind and swell so we could stay on a straight course. But when the wind started gusting, blowing us towards the reef, we know it was time to radio in for help. Johnno got on the radio asking if there were any boats in the area that would be able to help us with a tow back to the boat ramp. We got offers straight away, boats offering to pack in their days fishing to help us. It was a very humbling feeling, such wonderful thoughtful, helpful people, willing to stop everything to help us.
In the end the luckiest fisher man of the day came to the rescue of the unluckiest! Ben had caught FIVE Blue Marlin on his own already that morning. WOW!!!!!! Yes I said FIVE Blue Marlin ON HIS OWN!!! Well almost, he had to get help when he had a double hook up!! We got a few little pointers of what we were doing wrong that morning. Everything happens for a reason ;) Now we have met the man who caught FIVE Blue Marlin ON HIS OWN, (hahaha I'm still taking that in days later) and learnt a few very important tips from him. Well we had already worked out where NOT to fish for Marlin hahaha.
Although Black Thing was out of action for the rest of the best weather weekend we have had in ages, we got straight back on the horse/boat, and took Little Thing down the bay on Sunday....that's my next blog, it was awesome!!
A reminder that we have had plenty of great weather this year, it didn't rain our whole first year. Here Johnno is playing a beautiful Spango that we eat for dinner.
We arrived in Exmouth November 2015 with no work organised or plans for the future in mind.
We had an open slate to do what ever we wanted, we were open and ready for new and exciting adventures.
My only goal when arriving in Exmouth was to have Cocktails on the Beach for my birthday. It was a few months later, but my work mates finally made it happen for me. We slept on the beach that night!!
Our one and only goal, whole point of moving to Exmouth, was and still is...
FISHING, who guessed that?
Exmouth had an unusual winter, with a lot more wind and rain then most years, so the fishing was limited on a few weekends.
Johnno started working around the same time the weather turned crappy, so we were no longer able to choose from the good days. It did feel for a while there that we had not moved to the best fishing location after all. But after every rainy stage the sun aways shines again (if not where you live then you should consider moving to WA!), so lets not focus on those grey months, actually lets forget about them altogether, and instead remember the good times and sunny days when we did catch good fish.
I could go on to list all the wonderful fish we have caught in the last year, or I could just mention mine! hahahaha, Writer of Blog wins over Driver of boat!
OR My biggest Exmouth fish so far, this beautiful Golden Tervalley:
The waters, fish and fishing techniques in Exmouth are all so different than what we have been used to over the last 10 years of living in Derby. We knew we had a lot to learn and were hungry to do so. Thankfully we had two amazing opportunities arise in the last year. Firstly the LOOP Saltwater Fly Fishing Festival. Five days of learning from the best fly fisherman in Australia!! Each day they had talks on all things Fly Fishing related, tying, casting, techniques, fish behaviour. I learnt so much everyday, and Johnno finally got to hang out with other Fly Fisherman (there aren't many to learn from in Derby). After 15+ years of Johnno Fly Fishing on his own, and myself always giving up because it's too hard, we learnt that we aren't so bad at it after all. But we also learnt we aren't really cut out for competition fishing, we will stick to fishing for the fun of it!
Seems we are not serious competition fisherman.
I did start to take the whole competition fishing a lot more seriously when I got my second big learning opportunity. Four days of fishing in an all girls sailfish team, with very serious girls I have been reading about for many years. I put the beers down (for a little while) and listened and learnt. Once again I was beaten by this years unusual weather (which is starting to feel very normal to me), with 3 days of rough seas and the worst tagging rate for this comp on record!! Three out of the 4 days fishing together we didn't even see a Billfish, but I would do it all again. I learnt so much from the team, I feel confident when my times comes (very soon please universe) I will be ready and able to land my sailfish that I have been dreaming about all year. We had team on line chats and evening knot, line and tackle lessons. On practice day I got to see how it should be done. I watched in awe as Jeni drove the boat, watched to birds, found the fish, talked us through what to do and then tagged the sailfish, all at once without any stress or hesitation. My goal is to be as calm and cool as these girls when playing fish, no more panic attacks 'get the net, get the camera'. I'm now going to be Miss Cool and Calm, just like Deb was when she cast in, hooked up and played the sailfish to the boat without any stress.
Smiles all round as the girls tag a sailfish on practice day: First Sailfish I have seen tagged!
Strangely enough the last year hasn't all been about fishing, there had to be a bit of fitness talk in here somewhere! This time last year I was struggling with the extra 10kg I had put on while sitting on the beach doing nothing (but fishing and eating). I was just trying to get myself back into some kind of regular fitness routine when I found out the women running boot camps here in town was leaving. I played with the idea of doing Positive Steps Boot Camps for a day or two, na just kidding, as soon as I started thinking about the idea I knew I would do it. With no original intension of doing my own business here, we moved here for the relaxed fishing, beach life-style, then within weeks it was all planned and going ahead!
Positive Steps in Exmouth OPENED in September this year!
It's been a wonderful learning year, I'm really looking forward to putting all we have learnt into practice over the year ahead. Hoping the weather holds good, if we don't get the wind and rain next winter, there should be a lot more fishing blogs coming from this page!!
Humpback Whale season was amazing! So many Whales in the Gulf, I was in heaven!
Other accomplishments from our first year in Exmouth:
- Renovated washhouse and spare bedroom.
- Learnt to cook the best Pork Belly (all those rainy afternoons).
- Karen stayed in the same job for ONE WHOLE YEAR!! (yes staying for another as well)
- Drove to Perth for Xmas, reminded why we live in the country!
- Published in Magazine
- Swum with a Whale Shark!
- A million wonderful wild life encounters and photos: Dugongs, Whales, Dolphins, Turtles, Sharks, so many Osprey but all other birds of prey, down to tiny little wrens, Lizards and snakes. I feel a wildlife blogs coming on!
- Karen did 100 Burpees a day for 100 days challenge Again... NEVER AGAIN!
