Short trip to Carnarvon Part 1

PART 1.

After a lot of false starts and missed opportunities my good friend Greg Pickering and I finally managed to get a away for a few days diving together. We planned to go north to Carnarvon and dive the offshore Islands in search of Broad Bar Mackerel and their larger cousins Spanish Mackerel. As the departure date got closer it looked like we would be blessed with some of the best weather seen over the last 2 months, could we really be so lucky?
I fueled up the car and boat and filled the jerrycans with extra fuel for the boat the day before we were due to leave, Greg finished work and drove up to Perth arriving late in the evening and got a few hours sleep before arriving at my house at 6:30am. I had packed everything in advance so all we needed to do was load Greg's gear and set off. We left my house at around 7am and headed off on the long 10 hour drive North to Carnarvon. The weather was as forecast and as we topped the hill outside Wedge Island we could see the water was clean and there was no swell, hopefully conditions would be the same 700km's further North.

We made good progress and arrived at the 440 roadhouse north of Geraldton at around midday and stopped to refuel and have some lunch and a drink. After a half hour break we continued on our way looking down at the ocean from the road leaving the 440, things were looking even better than we hoped, none of the reefs were breaking, a very good sign!!! Around 2 and a half hours later we stopped at the Overlander roadhouse to get some more food and drinks and change drivers, Greg driving the final 220km into Carnarvon.  We arrived at our friend Andy's house just as the sun was setting and quickly unpacked our gear while Andy made dinner for all of us. We ate dinner and swapped stories for a while before heading off to bed in preparation for an early start.

We woke at around 6am and after a quick breakfast loaded the boat for the long trip to Koks Island at the very Northern tip of Bernier Island offshore from Carnarvon. We launched at the new town boat ramp and slowly weaved our way through the channel to the Ocean. The exit form the channel was a bit tricky and a dredge was working to remove a large mud bank that had formed blocking the last part of the passage. After overcoming this obstacle we were into open ocean and made way for Koks island, the light wind and small chop hardly noticeable during the 1 hour trip.

On arriving at Koks island we were greeted by clean water but a strong current making things a little hazardous, so we opted to anchor close to the top of Bernier Island out of the current. On entering the water we were greeted by schools of Golden Trevalley, Goldspot Trevalley, Blackfin and Common Barracuda and Broad Bar Spanish Mackerel. Greg swam out to the edge of the reef while I filmed the schools of fish. Shortly after Greg returned holding a nice 15kg Mulloway, which was promptly placed in the boat and covered with wet hessian bags to keep the fish cool.

Greg's Mulloway 

I then swam towards the edge of the reef and took a Broad Bar Mackerel before returning to the boat and placing my fish under the bags. I was then lucky enough to locate a school of Mulloway in another gutter and took a nice 12kg fish back to the boat.

My Mulloway.

We both then swam South along the edge of the reef looking for more fish on the sand edge and I added another Broad Bar and a Coral Trout to my catch. I then worked the edge North and secured a reasonable Spanish Mackerel after the Barracuda continually made things difficult by spooking every fish that came

within range. I also added a medium sized Baldchin to my days catch before heading back to the boat for a drink and something to eat. Greg had also done well with a big Baldchin, a Cobia and a couple of Broad Bar Mackerel.  By this time it was getting late in the day and we decided to have a quick look on the Eastern side of Bernier Island at some of the reef life before making our way back to Carnarvon. During this brief stop I managed to get a few minutes video of an old green Turtle that was not at all concerned with me.

We made the long trip back to Carnarvon in reasonable time with a light wind and very little chop making for a very comfortable trip. After washing our gear and packing the fish in ice we settled down to Pizza and a couple of drinks before an early night.