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Exmouth fishing report

Ben Knight and junior angler William Knight with the awesome 78cm coral trout caught in the Exmouth Gulf.

The school holidays are here and the town is filling fast as the weather cools down south.

Thankfully, we had no cyclones this year and the little rain we have had has been welcomed by many locals.

The fishing has continued to shine in all areas and April would have to be my favourite month for just about everything: the days are cooler, the waters are usually calm, the winds are generally predictable and the fishing is usually fantastic.

Having said that, there are some anglers that have had a run of bad luck lately despite all their efforts over two weeks on a fishing holiday from Perth. Their results were disappointing, yet they still enjoyed the break from the city.

Others have had some amazing catches, including the one pictured right of Ben Knight, who took his son William out fishing in the gulf.

They were using scalie mackerel as bait at anchor and catching golden trevally one after the next.

Then, to their surprise, they brought up a thumper coral trout measuring 78cm in length.

The awesome fish was kept for dinner that night and I’m sure William is still talking about it to his mates.

The whispers around the deepsea fishermen are that large yellowfin that have been showing up in schools off the Muiron Islands.

These super, hard-fighting bullets of the ocean can take to trolled lures both on the surface and sub-surface.

Typically they pull hard and take screaming runs until almost at the boat.

At this time they usually swim in circles and if you’re lucky, they will eventually surface.

They are amazing to eat as sashimi if you put them straight in an ice slurry to chill the flesh right down.

You can’t really beat soy and wasabi with freshly chilled yellow fin tuna caught from your boat.

The marina has continued to show good numbers of a variety of fish and that’s just in time for the holidays.

Some holiday makers who are lucky enough to be renting one of the houses with a private jetty should be able to get amongst the jacks, cod and bream.

While most of these fish are small, it is a good idea to practise catch-and-release in this area, especially with the children.

Small baits or soft plastics and little jigs work well in this area, while a bit of berley always helps with just about any fishing.