Ethan Scantlebury from Bunbury is up on holidays with his family.  He’s been catching queenfish on Roosta poppers off the access roads around the west side.  Ryan Taylor reported queenfish at Janz access road as well, particularly on the high tide.  Ryan changed his treble hook, to a single tarpon barbless hook and says that the hook-up is more successful.  Keeping pressure on the fish once hooked is important, especially if they jump. Once landed, retrieving the single barbless hook is far easier, safer and
better for the fish: especially if you are to let it go like Ryan did several times this last week.

The weather has been fairly ordinary for anglers through these holidays.  Of course, if the weather is really bad, there are plenty of good fishing DVD’s these days and servicing your gear is always a good idea, not to mention getting rigs ready, particularly if you are reef fishing.  Different options such as fishing the marina and the creeks in the gulf for shore based anglers can result in new species to add to your list of encounters: there are many different species in this area.  If you’re not sure of what you’re catching, it is best to release the fish.  There is a basic free guide that the Department of Fisheries produce available at the local tackle shops. There is also a comprehensive book on identification of the species you are likely to catch in Exmouth and the north-west.

Jack and Jasmine Murray are on holidays with their parents from Kalgoorlie. The brother and sister have been busy catching Charlie court cod, bream , whiting and they told me they caught a 37cm dart.  They are trying to get some photos of their catches to enter in the monthly fishing competition, so we may see some next week.

We have had some reports on sad wasting of good fresh fish through bad filleting at the marina.  If you’re not too flash at filleting the fish, don’t forget that you can cook up the frame on the bbq that has all the missed pieced of flesh on it.  The meat close to the bone is sweet and wings hold a lot of meat also.  A quick dusting with herbs or brush with soy, honey and ginger turn it into another meal or two.  Fish heads can be boiled up on the outside bbq to use for all sorts of dishes including seafood
chowder, fish cakes and seafood sausage rolls with a sweet and sour dipping sauce. Plus, the water that you have left over from the cooking up of the
head can be used as stock. We are lucky to get fresh seafood and have a great resource that is often overlooked by people who only ever relate fish
to fillets you can purchase in a cryvac pack at the supermarket.

Releasing a queenfish found off Exmouththis Roosta Popper still had trebles but the barbs were crushed