A Rather Nice Mackerel

A trolled "Mackerel Mauler" nailed this Spaniard off Floreat!

A simple plan was hatched. We would launch the tinnie at first light, head outside the 3-mile reefs, and spend the day, as good old Rex Hunt loves to say, “trolling, trolling, and more trolling”.

A red glow from the east lit our early morning launch at Hillary’s. Once outside the heads we powered due west to quickly position ourselves outside the reef, narrowly escaping disaster by dodging around a few old, very weed and slime encrusted cray pot floats! Turning south and slowing to 8 knots we ran out an enticing pattern, a smorgasbord of Rapala CD14, 6” Mackerel Mauler, and Halco red and white laser pro lures, and way out back as a shotgun a small bright pink pusher. Without doubt a tempting array that no self respecting Mackerel could resist!

The forecast South-Easterly had a lot more South than east, but at only 10 knots and along with a spectacular Perth autumn morning, spirits were high! Just to look back at the pattern of lures trailing in the wake gladdened the heart and released “we’re on holiday in Exmouth!” emotions.

So we trolled, and trolled, and trolled some more… and it wasn’t until a few hours had passed that we remembered we were of-course, fishing in the Metropolitan area. We had trolled south, trolled north, trolled close to the break, and trolled out wide. We had even laid a burley trail some 500m long and trolled through that a half dozen times.

But it was alright though, because you see, the boat hadn’t been in the water for a few months and desperately needed a run, and of-cause the batteries needed a good charge up…

Around mid-morning, passing Scarborough Beach and tracking south down the extension of the 3-Mile reef, I noticed a cray boat dropping pots a few miles out. “There’s got to be reef there” I thought, so we adjusted course and headed southwest into deeper water.

As we approached the area a nice slick could be seen on the surface, we assumed from the fresh cray bait, and soon we had the lure pattern reset and began to settle down for another dogged session of trolling.

And then it happened! Before we had time to resume our “Exmouth dreaming”, the sweet sound of line peeling of a reel broke the routine and the Mackerel Mauler running under the wash right in close to the stern was now 100m out the back!

After a moment of disbelief, my brother-in-law, Kerry Jones, had his rig out of the rod holder and was cranking furiously. But something was wrong, there was little resistance and his first comment was “It must have been a lump of weed”. Funny how the mind works…and of-course, we were fishing in the Metropolitan area.

The instant high had immediately plummeted to a familiar low, but this was just as quickly replaced by disbelief and excitement as the ratchet started screaming again. The fish had been swimming straight towards the boat and within a few minutes a sleek 1m Spanish Mackerel was crashing around the deck!

The look on Kerry’s face was something to behold, he simply couldn’t believe that here we were, a few kilometers off Floreat, successfully trolling for sportfish that we previously had to plan annual leave around!

And it didn’t stop there, 2 more fish were landed within 30 minutes (including 2 or 3 stops for de-weeding lures!).

We had a Spaniard each so we headed back to Hillary’s, still somewhat incredulous about what had happened. Is this a sign of things to come? Is it something to do with the Leeuwin current? Is it global warming? Maybe the fish have always been here in autumn.

One thing I do know, I intensely hope that in the years to come we can launch at first light and head out 5 miles or so to troll up a few good size yellowfin tuna. Then immediately following this come back in closer to pick up a Spaniard or two and be home for a late breakfast. And when asked about our successes say…

“But of-course, we are fishing in the Metropolitan area”!

Note: The sport-fishing gods where definitely smiling on us that week, a few days later the crew landed, in the same area, a 28kg Yellowfin!