Story & Photos: Dr Julian Pepperell and David Granville

The first thing that strikes you about Exmouth, especially after a day and a half travel across Australia, is its incredible remoteness. The next, when you step off the plane, is the heat. If there was any doubt before arriving, there is no doubt now -this is the real Australian outback, with all its harshness and beauty combined. I had been invited to make the journey to attend this year's Gamex tournament, courtesy of the Exmouth Game Fishing Club, and it was an opportunity too good to pass up.

I had always wanted to visit this famous gamefishing centre on the west coast, especially after hearing tales of the fabulous fishing for blue, black and striped marlin from well-known locals Matt Gates and Jeni Lerch. But Exmouth's reputation had begun to be forged a long while ago. Back in the early 1980s, pioneer angler George King first fished these waters aboard the legendary boat The Gun, putting the early runs on the board both in terms of capture and tag and release of many species, but in particular, black and blue marlin.

The Exmouth Game Fishing Club was formed in the late 1970s and the Gamex tournament has been an annual event on the WA gamefishing calendar pretty well ever since. A quick perusal of the club's statistics for the past 25 years reveals some impressive results, with as many as 95 marlin and over 100 sailfish being tagged in any one year. And if last year's Gamex was anything to go by, 2005 was going to be another big one.

Having been duly met at the airport by amiable club President Mark Damian, my first impression on driving into and around Exmouth was the predominance of four primary colours: the rich red earth, the green lawns and trees of the small township (watered from bores), the snow white beaches and, of course, the turquoise blue of the Indian Ocean both inside Exmouth Gulf and lapping the famous Ningaloo Reef and beyond.

With BlueWater editor David Granville covering the fishing side of the tournament, my job was to give an account of the town and its surrounds, and I could immediately see that this was going to be an interesting assignment.

HISTORY 101
I am always interested in the history of anywhere new I visit, so one thing that puzzled me a little in this case was the reason that Exmouth was here in such a remote location in the first place. Located 1270km north of Perth and 1394km south of Broome, Exmouth is indeed remote.

A little bit of research revealed that the first European use of the peninsula, from about 1850, was as a pastoral lease, and a little later, as a pearling port. A whaling station was established there in 1912, the same year that the northwest Cape lighthouse was constructed.

The next development was the construction of a submarine base in 1942 by the US Navy. The area was also used by Australian military operations and was bombed by the Japanese in 1943, the southernmost point in Australia to be attacked. After the war, the area was extensively explored for oil and significant deposits were first discovered in 1954.

However, the town of Exmouth did not in fact exist until 1967 when, following an agreement between the Australian and US Governments, a very low frequency (VLF) submarine communications station was established, the town growing to fulfil the needs of the base. Commercial prawning and pearling also developed there in the 1960s and gamefishing took off in the 1970s. With this background, the coat of arms of the Shire of Exmouth says it all: a rampant marlin on one side and a giant prawn on the other, flanking a submarine antenna in the middle.

Of course today, the town has become a seasonal tourist destination for the 'grey army' of caravaners who swell the town's population enormously during the cooler months of the year.

And then there is the added attraction of Ningaloo Reef, a pristine fringing reef running along the western edge of North West Cape. The reef is a transient home to large numbers of mighty whale sharks which come to feed in these tropical waters like clockwork every autumn. So important has the whale shark diving industry become to the town that it would not surprise me to see an image of one of these leviathans taking up its own position on the local coat of arms.

WEATHERING THE STORMS
Just prior to my departing for Exmouth, the weather forecast for the area did not look good. That particular part of the northwest coast has more than its fair share of cyclone scares each year, and right on cue, a big one had formed to the northwest of the area.

Cyclone Willy had the potential to wreak havoc, as many of its predecessors had done before, some in the not-so-distant past. The worst cyclone to hit Exmouth, one of the most powerful to ever affect a populated section of the Australian coast, had struck exactly six years earlier.

On March 22, 1999, Tropical Cyclone Vance had headed straight down the Gulf, crossing the coast very near to Exmouth, flattening many dwellings and buildings and causing widespread infrastructure damage in the process. Flash floods had poured across the peninsular ripping many yachts and commercial fishing vessels from their moorings.

One of the most destructive aspects of a cyclone is the associated storm surge, caused by the sea bulging under the intense low-pressure cell. Waves and normal tides can exacerbate the effect, which is exactly what happened in '99. During Cyclone Vance's assault, the storm surge at Exmouth was measured to a height of 3.6m, and the aftermath of massive erosion caused by the inundation can still be seen along the beachfront and near the marina.

With this information in the back of my mind, and with Willy hovering off the coast in the days leading up to Gamex 2005, I was naturally a little nervous. A quick call to the tournament organisers however indicated that, while seas were naturally a bit on the big side, the eye of the storm was heading further away from the coast and all would be well.

In fact, there was some disappointment that barely a drop of rain had fallen in the area even though the skies had been uncharacteristically cloudy for several days. (I later discovered that the annual rainfall in Exmouth is close to zero and that passing cyclones are pretty well the only source of precious rain). As it turned out, the tournament was fishable on every day, and even though the water had been stirred up to quite an extent by the big seas, the fishing lived up to its reputation.

TERRA AND AQUA
If you were allowed one word to describe the terrain of north-western Australia, that word would almost certainly be 'flat'. This is ancient, geologically-stable country which time and the elements have relentlessly worn down to a vast plain with little relief as far as the eye can see. I was therefore quite surprised when, on a tour of the area, I realized that we were actually driving uphill! Heading into the Cape Range National Park was completely unexpected and a truly memorable part of the trip to this remote region.
This limestone range forms the backbone of the Exmouth peninsular, and no doubt it was a serious mountain range many millions of years ago. Weathering by wind and water has left a remarkable, rugged landscape which rises to 314 metres above sea level at its highest point. Looking for all the world like a smaller version of America's Grand Canyon, this natural feature revealed surprises at every turn. Huge gullies and chasms, foreboding limestone caves, jagged cliffs, multi-layered rock faces and an amazing variety of arid plant life presented an awesome vista.

Impressive as the natural features of the area may be, the big attraction which had drawn me and a couple of hundred anglers to this spot was, of course, the fish. And when it comes to fishing, Exmouth really has it all.

The town is situated near the tip of the long prominence of land tipped by North West Cape, a peninsular protecting the huge Exmouth Gulf on the eastern side, and fringed by Ningaloo Reef and the Indian Ocean proper along its western coast.

The mangrove-lined Gulf itself, about 80km long and 40km wide, is mostly very shallow, rarely becoming deeper than 20m, while in contrast, the continental shelf to the west is as narrow as it gets along the entire Western Australian coast, dropping off into the depths as close as 6nm from shore. With marine terrain like that, is it any wonder the area has long been regarded as a fishing paradise?

BABY BILLIES
While the tournament is largely based on tag and release, it also has sections which allow smaller gamefish to be weighed in. And the variety of fish brought to the weighstation clearly demonstrated the richness of the surrounding waters.

All the usual pelagic suspects turned up including Spanish, spotted and broad-barred mackerel, barracuda (at least two species, including one which I had not seen before, the giant seapike or pickhandle barracuda, Sphyraena jello), mackerel tuna, yellowfin tuna, wahoo, shark mackerel, rainbow runner, cobia, golden trevally and queenfish. In addition, plenty of sailfish and black marlin were tagged and with several blue marlin making an appearance also, Gamex had once again shown this area's true potential.

One interesting issue which came up during the tournament was that of identification of marlin. This didn't surprise me since all three species of Indo-pacific marlins are found off this part of the coast, and it is not uncommon to hook quite small, juvenile billfish. Add this to the fact that most marlin are tagged and released, and it is perfectly reasonable to expect problems with telling the species apart boatside.

Inspecting some photos of fish prior to release, and chatting to a number of anglers, it seemed likely that most of the small marlin being caught were in fact black marlin. However, the appearance of very small blue and striped marlin could not be discounted so I left the club with a request for some good photographs of suspect fish to be collected and sent over for identification. I for one will be interested in the results.

For a number of years now, I have had a standing request out there in gamefishing land for anglers to keep any particularly small billfish they might catch for the benefits of science. By small, I mean fish less than about 10kg in weight. Billfish of this size are surprisingly uncommon encounters for both commercial and recreational fishers, but specimens can be extremely useful from a scientific perspective.

Exmouth happens to be one of the areas that these rarely-seen baby billies do sometimes frequent, so before my trip there, anglers had been keeping out an especially watchful eye - with a fair amount of success. Three small billfish were extracted from various domestic and commercial freezers, two of which I could positively identify as baby black marlin, while one very small one will have to wait for a DNA test before positive ID can be made. The efforts of the anglers (and freezer owners) in helping with this work are certainly much appreciated, and the results indicated to me the added importance of this area as a nursery ground for billfish.

This memorable visit to Exmouth will certainly not be my last. The hospitality of the locals has to be experienced to be appreciated and one could not hope to meet a more dedicated, harder-working committee than the one which put on Gamex 2005. Mark Damian and all of his committee are to be congratulated for once again putting the town of Exmouth well and truly on the gamefishing map. With any luck, I'll be there again in 2006 and you never know, I might even wet a line when the time comes around.

GRANVILLE GEARS UP
Like Julian, I had not had the opportunity to visit Exmouth before Gamex 2005, and as the Skywest Fokker 50 made its final approach to Learmonth airport, I too was blown away by the contrasting colours and natural beauty of North West Cape and Ningaloo Reef.

We often describe parts of North Queensland as “where the rainforest meets the reef” but over this side of the country, “where the desert meets the reef” would be a more apt description.

As Julian provided an excellent outline of the area's geography and history, I'll get straight into the fishing.

Gamex has a long history and for many years was one of - if not 'the' - premier gamefishing event on the Western Australian coast. At its peak more than 70 boats attended Gamex and that was before there was even a marina. Boats would travel from as far as Perth in the south and Broome in the north to attend. They'd fish all day and anchor up behind Ningaloo Reef of a night.

The tournament went through a quiet patch for a while but thanks to several enthusiastic members of the Exmouth Game Fishing Club, things are back on track and this year's event, which was conducted from March 12–19, saw 33 boats and 123 anglers competing.

During the tournament there were a total of 40 black marlin, 13 sailfish and eight blue marlin tagged and released while just one blue marlin was weighed. There were also no less than 17 other gamefish species weighed on 11 different line classes, which really highlights the diversity of this fishery.

While the billfish statistics mentioned above aren't mind-blowing, I can tell you that a lot more billfish were seen than were caught and the stats aren't indicative of how good this fishery really is.

I spent six days at sea during the competition aboard three different boats: Mahi Mahi II, Nordon, and Gotimon. On each of those boats we averaged four to five bites on billfish per day which isn't bad fishing in anyone's language. The fact that we could only make one or two a day count on the scoreboard is another story but generally I think the potential of this place is amazing.

VARIETY AND SIZE
Probably the most incredible part of the Exmouth fishery in my eyes was the mixing of species. For example, trolling along in 200m of water (which is just 6nm offshore mind you) you never knew what was going to eat the lures next. Mixed in together were juvenile black marlin, big black marlin, big blue marlin and sailfish. Indeed, matching the tackle to the fish was almost impossible.

If there was ever a location made to suit switchbaiting, this has got to be it. At least by running teasers only you have a chance of seeing the fish before you present it with bait on the appropriate tackle.

Most of the fleet persevered with trolling big lures with big hooks on heavy tackle though. That's fair enough, there are plenty of marlin over 300kg regularly hooked off Exmouth and most boats were prepared for those fish when they came along. The only downside to this was there were quite a lot of 30–50kg black marlin caught on 130lb tackle. Not exactly sporting.

The biggest marlin I saw during the tournament was a black that I conservatively estimated at 500lb hooked on 130lb tackle by Tim Niikkula aboard the Nordon. This fish managed to pull a lot of line out in no time but water pressure couldn't keep the hooks in and it threw the lure during one of its rampaging leaps.

I only saw the one blue marlin hooked which was aboard Coral Bay-based charterboat Mahi Mahi II with well-known owner/skipper Bernie Vale at the helm. This fish ate the Mold Craft Bobby Brown on the long corner and tore up the ocean before also throwing the hooks.

Some big blues were hooked though and several reports came back to the weighstation of fish over 300kg being lost. Most of the blues tagged were estimated around the 200kg mark and the one that was weighed went 158.4kg after being caught by Ken Angell on 24kg stand-up tackle aboard My Vice.

EASY ACCESS
With the continental shelf just 6nm from the edge of Ningaloo Reef, Exmouth is a great destination for trailerboat gamefishers. In fact trailerboats made up the majority of the fleet in the tournament. In a way the trailerboats actually have an advantage over the big boats that leave from the marina because they can be on the grounds much quicker.

The Exmouth township and the newly-developed marina are on the eastern side of North West Cape, so boats departing the marina have a 10nm run up Exmouth Gulf before they can round the Cape and head for the shelf. Most trailerboaters however, choose to tow their boats over to the western side of the Cape to a place called Tantabiddi where there is a boat ramp behind the protection of Ningaloo Reef that provides very easy access to the fishing grounds.

In fact, the two days I fished aboard Adam Gailey's trailerboat, Gotimon, we didn't even get a chance to get on the plane before putting the lines in. After we left the ramp at Tantabiddi, by the time we got the boat in order we were outside the edge of the reef and it was time to put the gear in. That's right, there are sailfish and juvenile black marlin literally minutes from the boat ramp.

The other thing I found heartening about the trailerboaters putting in and out at Tantabiddi was their camaraderie. Because the ramp isn't the best in the world, everyone helps each other during launch and retrieve duties. No boaties are left to fend for themselves. It's something you wouldn't see at any east coast city ramp.

While I spent all of my time in Exmouth fishing aboard boats who were chasing billfish, the diversity of other gamefish species that frequent Ningaloo Reef and the nearby Muiron Islands is quite spectacular. Big Spanish mackerel, huge giant trevally, wahoo and mahi mahi all hit the scales. Actually some of the biggest Spanish mackerel I have ever seen demolished our teasers on a couple of occasions as they launched into the air with daisychains of Mold Craft squid hanging out of their mouths.

I feel as though I could go on and on about Exmouth's gamefishing potential but space here does not permit. Ningaloo is indeed Western Australia's equivalent to the Great Barrier Reef. Let's just hope we don't see another government bungle by allowing a major proportion of the reef to be made out of bounds to recreational anglers, as recently happened on the GBR.

Don't be surprised if you hear of a 1000lb black marlin or two being caught over Exmouth way. With that many juveniles around there has to be another black marlin spawning ground nearby. I'll let you know if I find it.

Thanks to everyone who helped get me and Julian to Exmouth and who displayed amazing hospitality while we were there. You made us feel very welcome and we had an absolute ball.