Exmouth Fly Fishing

06/04/2024

A warm welcome to Nickie and Alex du Preez who are in Exmouth for a week to sample the excellent saltwater fly fishing we have here. A father and son duo always makes for great vibes out on the water.

As the guys are relatively new to the sport, we spent the first part of the morning doing some instruction on everything saltwater from casting to stripping to line management, presentation and fighting techniques and more.

The learning curve in saltwater is very steep, especially when you come to such a diverse fishery as Exmouth. The guys had some excellent opportunities before lunch but the fish remained safe for now, until after lunch, young Alex du Preez managed to get his fly in front of this GT and all hell broke loose.

An excellent effort to stay connected, using my 9wt Orvis setup and 20lb leader. I wish I was doing that when I was 15 !

01/04/2024

Just finished up an awesome week with Alan McCarthy.

Alan and I have been fishing together for over 10 years and he's been up here every second year consistently. We've had the maddest fishing together over the years, we came across big baitballs way down the Gulf with trevally and tuna all over them, queenies and goldens every year on the flats, multiple permit, free swimming sailfish in the Gulf, black marlin offshore ... we've done it all.

This week was no different with solid queenies, goldens and a few new species ticked off the list, including a solid GT that's eluded us for years.

The Exmouth GTs are no joke, never easy, always catching you off guard, challenging as s**t. As anyone who's tried will tell you.

On one swession Alan had his flyline ripped through the mangroves and snapped in half by a big black GT that decided to head into cover once he ate the fly. A quick change of line, new leader and new fly and Alan was soon hooked up to another solid flats GT.

We've wanted a good GT for years and have had our chances, but getting multiple eats in a day, loosing a line, overcoming failures and then it all comes together with one fish. Epic !

20/03/2024

With a large low pressure weather system looming offshore, our options of sight casting on the flats was out the window.

George, Doug and I spent three days offshore, teasing in the blue water., while our main target was black marlin, they seems scarce and it was this sailfish that stole the show in the first hour.

The monster wahoo that demolished my teasers is another story completely!!

Well done to George on this Exmouth sail.

20/03/2024

A warm welcome to George and Doug from Montana in the US, who were due to fly to Weipa on the East coast to fish with my old friend and mutual guide Lee of Weipa Sportfishing, but unfortunately a cyclone messed their plans.

I had a late cancellation and was able to accommodate the guys for a last minute booking. With our own potential cyclone looming well offshore, we took one day at a time. Miraculously the weather just got better and better every day and we managed 6 great days of fishing.

Here's a couple pics of the first three days flats fishing the Exmouth Gulf for a variety of species.

05/03/2024

Thanks for the well wishes everyone, cheers to the next 50. Still living the dream ..

25/02/2024

There’s no point going into battle unprepared. Being armed with the right flies is no guarantee the fish will eat them, but it sure feels good to be armed correctly.

6/0 brush flies, 4/0 foam poppers, 6/0 poppers made from a white flip flop (best foam), piles of 2/0 clousers.

21/02/2024

Bucket list fish, we all have them.

For some it's a rainbow trout in NZ, others it's a vampire looking toothy critter from the jungles in South America, but for many saltwater fly anglers, the GT sits firmly at the top of many angler's list.

Gav's bucket list fish has been a big GT for many years and he's come close on a couple of occasions. They're an enigmatic species that have schooled and humbled the best anglers. They have zero regard for expensive gear and are sometimes found in large schools, but the really big ones are usually single fish that spend their time cruising the reef edges and channels around flats.

We've all seen the amazing bird eating fish in the Seychelles, and the videos of geets running in at full speed devouring flies out of rod tips, we all dream for such fish - well that isn't how the GTs in Exmouth behave at all.

Our fish are weary and very spooky, with the uncanny ability to position themselves upwind and behind you at the best of times. Anglers need long accurate casts in the 80+ ft range with careful presentation to the fish as the water is crystal clear.

While we didn't manage any behemoths, we did stalk, cast, fight and land two decent fish each. Me on a 10 and Gav using a 9wt.

An epic day to seal off an epic trip.

16/02/2024

Two days offshore produced some good numbers for us, 8 fish raised on the first day but they were in a strange mood not wanting to follow the teaser in. 4 sails, 3 blacks and a BIG blue marlin up, but zero bites.

The second day was noticeably quieter, but as we all know, persistence and perseverance is key when fishing to challenging species. The right fish came up while Gav was on strike and just like that we were connected to a feisty sail.

It's quite remarkable being able to mix up the days by spending a couple hours inshore then popping out a few miles to target billfish.

Exmouth is unique like that ... and so is my mate Gav with his socks and lucky hat !

10/02/2024

There's few things better than spending time with your good mate, hanging out tying flies, drinking beer and being an absolute piscatorial menace with the fly.

Gavin Davis aka Gav's Crab creator is out here to celebrate his big birthday which was in October last year and it's my big birthday in just under a month, so we figured what better way than to enjoy the best of what Exmouth has to offer.

This is his 7th trip out here and every time, it just seems to get better and better. Yesterday was proof of that with a double header on permit from Exmouth Gulf.

How's the amazing colours of the sickle fins that match Gav's beard perfectly! Happy birthday bro 👊

06/02/2024

After a short break, it's nice to be welcoming guests back to Exmouth to experience some of the best saltwater fly fishing on the planet.

John and Linda Baker have flown from Alaska and are here for a week. With variety and exotic species being the drawcard, today was just one of those days when everything went our way, despite a very slow start.

We fished the inner Ningaloo lagoon and John landed his first indo-pacific permit, then after lunch we headed out in search of a sailfish. On the way out I passed a big ray and noticed a few shapes besides it, one cast later and he was onto his first cobia.

After heading into the ocean, the teaser went out and an hour and a half later, John landed his first sailfish on fly.

Permit, cobia and sailfish on the same day ... an Exmouth grand slam of sorts. What a day !

03/12/2023

Nice indo pacific permit for Brandon .

We had a great morning sight casting to a bunch of big GTs which were playing at being picky, then we enjoyed an afternoon session casting to permit on the flats.

Shortly after this fish was released, Brandon hooked a second permit but it spat the fly mid fight.

Thanks to for the flies 👍

24/11/2023

Jim Bigus flew out from the US to come and experience his first proper week of saltwater fly fishing. There's a lot to know and to take on, the learning curve is steep and it isn't easy, especially when there's big fish around you.

As with all anglers who are learning, I run through everything that's required from casting in the wind, various strips, fish fighting techniques and a bunch more.

Jim did well and managed to bend a rod on numerous occasions, size wasn't really the objective, species and variety was what we were after.

05/11/2023

One of the fastest and most aggressive predators swimming in Australian waters, the Spanish mackerel.

These guys love demolishing a fast stripped fly.

We’re using 10wt setups with fast sinking lines, big deceiver flies and single strand wire trace.

The best part of all is the take and the first run, and of course fresh mackerel fillets on the bbq.

26/10/2023

Just had a superb few days with Ross Roberts who’s flown in from New Zealand to sample the amazing species and fly fishing variety on offer in Exmouth.

We’ve worked on distance casting and efficient casting and it’s paid off, Ross has had many firsts and has fished and cast really well considering this is his first proper saltwater trip.

Well done mate, great fishing.

18/10/2023

The perils of fishing for tuna when there’s hungry sharks about. A solid longtail gets taxed

11/10/2023

Col Merriman is no stranger to difficult and big fish. This trip is no different and we’ve been focusing our attention on getting Col another big Exmouth GT.

Two trips ago we were fishing the Gulf and I ended up swimming Col’s rod through a bunch of mangroves after that GT tried to stitch us up. Not this time however!

26/09/2023

My family of fly fishers !

Recently my parents and my sister and her boyfriend came out to Exmouth to visit me.

The weather was kind and we enjoyed some amazing sights, mother nature showing us all her glory. Plenty of whales, dugongs, manta rays, turtles ... and we all got into some fish.

23/07/2023

The US adventure continues…

Michael Peck and I headed down the the Everglades National Park to fish with Ken Diaz for a couple of days. It was hot and humid as hell but great to see this world famous area and getting to explore new waters.

The mangrove lined shoreline and vast open spaces was very similar to Exmouth but running through extremely shallow water everywhere was new to me, Ken’s flats boat was perfectly suited. We caught snook, sea trout and redfish which are all new to me.

After fishing the Glades we headed down the Florida Keys to Islamorado which is pretty much ground zero for saltwater fly fishing - a lot of history in this area.

Once again, this trip is reinforcing how fortunate I am to be living in remote Australia with so few people and how good we have it back home. The state of Florida has almost 23m people, the entire population of Australia is 25m !

19/07/2023

New species in a new location, fishing Biscayne Bay out of Miami Florida with Carl Ball .

Michael Peck and I have had a wonderful couple of days in cloudy conditions, fishing for tarpon, bonefish and permit.

This tarpon on the 9 wt was a fun introduction to tarpon fishing, but it’s the big ones that we’ve had shots at that really get the heart racing.

16/07/2023

Just wrapping up an awesome week in Mexico with Charles Tyson, Rod Wentworth and Mark Walker.

What a great opportunity to join the guys on the East coast of Baja for some fly fishing, meeting new people, eating amazing food and staying in a great place.

Thank you Mexico for the amazing hospitality, I’ll be back for that elusive rooster fish.

Now off to Miami for a couple of weeks for more fishing 😁

22/06/2023

Starlo put this awesome video together of our day on the water fishing the flats across the Gulf.

Days spent sight-fishing on the warm, shallow tropical flats with a fly rod in hand don't come too much better than this one. Join me as Jono Shales of Exmou...

17/06/2023

Black marlin on fly are the real deal !

There no other species that conjure up more images and dreams of Hemingway’s stories than a marlin.

Exmouth has been firmly placed on the map as one of the best places on the planet to target perfect sized black marlin on the fly.

Talking of old men and the sea … here’s old man Chuan with his two magnificent fish from his trip.

10/06/2023

Chuan and I have spent 4 days out in the ocean chasing black marlin. First day we blanked, second day we raised 6 and he landed one and dropped one, third day we raised 7 and he hooked and dropped one, today we raised just one and it ate the fly perfectly.

Well done to Chuan for getting his second black on fly. It’s awesome to have such variety in our fishery, when the flats are cold and quiet, there’s blacks not far offshore

09/06/2023

That time I went commercial mackerel fishing for four days and nights straight and ran out of fly tying material, so resorted to using one of the other fisherman’s hair to make a fly. It worked and this fishi made up part of a total of 1400kg of mackerel that we caught.

Some light hearted fun making a fly from the hair of Kurt, one of the deckies on board while out fishing one night. We were catching spanish mackeral and wan...

08/06/2023

After a couple of quiet spells over the last week, Exmouth regular Chuan and I have finally managed to land a good fish.

We raised 5 black marlin today, he hooked two and landed a very nice one. His second marlin on my boat and his biggest too. A great day !

29/05/2023

Rick Schwartz and Michael Gerrity have enjoyed the past couple weeks targeting a bunch of various species and using different lines and techniques depending on what we're doing.

Some days have been great, others windy and challenging, but the guys have done very well.

We've also been out in the ocean trying for a marlin, raising 4 blacks, a sail and a wahoo. Michael hooked a black and Rick hooked a sail, but both fish threw the fly on the first jump.

Here's a selection of captures ..

18/05/2023

Four and a half years in the making, Rick Schwartz and Michael Gerrity are finally in Exmouth. These poor guys were due to be here two weeks after the borders were closed in 2020.

Finally they've made it and after a couple hick-ups on day one, the guys have managed to get their flies in front of a bunch of nice fish over the past three days.

Peachy weather has meant easy travel and glam conditions for fly casting, we couldn't have asked for a better welcoming. I couldn't be happier for the guys who, like all of us, had to persist through challenging times to get to the good stuff on the other side.

13/05/2023

Couple captures and releases with Steve Starling from an awesome day on the water. Giant herring are such a bonus species on the flats, I got one that almost jumped clear into the boat

12/05/2023

While sitting outside the local coffee shop yesterday morning, I noticed Steve Starling walking past.

Steve and I fished together 19 years ago on Greg Bethune’s Carpentaria Seafaris mothership where we spent a week and had amazing permit fishing using floating crabs.

I have a couple days off between bookings so I suggested we head out for a fish together. Steve hadn’t fished the flats and mangroves of the eastern side of the gulf so we headed across in glam conditions.

We spent the day sight casting to everything swimming in front of us. Queenies, goldens, giant herring and we both had shots at permit.

Top day catching up and wetting a line together

07/05/2023

Amazing effort by Christopher Williams from Sydney in landing his fist black marlin on fly. It's the first time he's ever seen a billfish let along tried to catch one, the first fish that crashed the teaser also ate his fly as we switched it.

Cloudy days aren't conducive to sight casting on the flats, fortunately we have so many options out here. Well done Christopher !