I was invited to West Moore Island by the owner Kel Brown. And what better setting for it than wonderful West Moore Island in the Pilbara, where my brother and I visited and fished for ten days.



West Moore Island Lodge

Our first full day on West Moore started with a mind blowing view from the Veranda. Under a rising sun behind Depuch island, we fished the beach and rocky point on the island's eastern side. So we had our first encounter with queenie's and other local predators.
The plan for the week was simple. We got our butts in one of the dinghies and fished until we could fish no more. The rest of the family were occupied with work around the lodge and a pearling operation in the channel between West Moore and mainland. Perfect by me and my brother, because we both think that the whole process of finding the fish and the way to catch them, is part of the fishing experience.


Getting the anchor in and out of the dinghy each day was a bit of a task - but once deployed we never drifted an inch!

The stealthy approach we are used to on our home ground, the barren and desolate North Sea, paid off. On our first fishing day we managed to move (drift) into a school of predators. Within minutes fly and spinning reels were screaming and lines were going everywhere. Our first queenies were not only big (around a metre), but also a fighting revelation. Several times my eight weight was put to the limit, with fish that went into the backing within seconds. In the end I resorted to my twelve weight, just to get some more fighting power and a quicker release. My TFO Bluewater was to become my ‘to use' rod from the dinghy.
When the dust of the fish school mayhem settled, we made up the score: a stack of big queenie's, a couple of very nice golden trevallie's and a hookup with a very big GT that just hammered away. With 250 meters backing out (After 300 yards I have put another color on the spool) I pulled the hook. Big shame, because I felt confident about landing this fish.





Day two
The day before we had a close encounter with a mackerel of some species. ‘If only we could hook one of these beasts', we sighed. But to us West Moore was a bit like Fantasy Island (without the annoying midget).

-As for Fantasy island: youngest son Danny didn't share our view. His was: 'Fantasy Island? Can't see any of my fantasies walking around here..-

Day two saw us landing in another big school of predators, only hundreds of meters away from the lodge. This time the hunters smashed the bait balls with lightning attacks. First cast revealed our opponent. Jan smacked a lead spoon into a bait ball and was immediately connected to ten pounds of jaw snapping mackerel (I think grey). I struggled with the fly rod. The fish followed but missed my fly.
We repositioned the boat and landed right into the bait ball. Jan had already four mackerel on spinning gear, I had to make amends. With only a couple of yards of my first cast left, a monster moved in and snapped up my worm hook clouser. I was like I was onto the Perth subway, it just went and went. With the drag of my TFO Hayden cranked to the max, the fish took 200 yards on the first run and copied that run twice. I had to have that fish, so I took my time. Hands off the spool and let the fish make his run; apply side pressure; don't high stick the rod. Common sense to all you big fish fighters. But absolutely new to a couple of guys from a country where no fish is able to even reveal your backing.
I landed my fish, which turned out to be a 12 kilo Spaniard (I thought it was way bigger). And I went on to catch another five grey mackerels on fly. Two days in our trip and the fish count was higher than the total of my trips in the previous four years, put together.

The next day's weren't carbon copies of these first two. In fact, with the tide building to a full moon, the fishing got tougher. West Moore tides can run to seven meters. And a fast moving incoming and outgoing leaves the fish with small windows of time to feed actively. But even then we found fish. We hooked our (big) queenies from the dinghy and smaller queenies from the beach.
And because of the lack of pelagic predators we found ourselves vertical jigging for reef dwellers near the pearl lines. This resulted in some very good dinner for us all, with fish like coral trout and black spot tusk fish.







I do however prefer to fly fish. And luckily so, on our final two days the big schools of queenies, goldens and gt's, returned. To make this a text book trip, we got our revenge on the gt's.







We ended our trip with a morning afloat in the feeding circle of a massive school of yellowfin tuna. Three hookups resulted in no boated fish. Ah well, you always have to keep something to go back to.

During our trip we spent some quality time with fellow West Moore guests Matt and Maree. We had a great time fishing, having a beer and just hanging around on the lodge's veranda.



My many thanks to Matt and Maree, our new fishing buddies who were as enticed by West Moore as we were.




Cheers,
Jeroen