Scott Coghlan finally does some long overdue Exmouth Gulf exploration out of a new fishing camp at Wilderness Island and discovers incredible sport-fishing in a stunning unspoiled natural setting.

THE east side of the Exmouth Gulf is one of those places that had been on my fishing wish list for many years, without ever being ticked off.

When I bought my first saltwater fly rod many years ago, Roland Venables at the legendary Crackel for Tackle entranced me with his tales of shallow water sight fishing for a wide range of species. He pulled out pictures of nice queenfish and trevally taken in waist-deep water that was as clear as a New Zealand spring creek, and I just knew I had to fish there.

It has always been at the back of my mind ever since, and yet it never quite came to pass until early this year. For a variety of reasons, one of which had always been the extra day of travel to get to Exmouth compared to Shark Bay, things never seemed to fall into place for some serious gulf exploration.

I did have one day down the bottom of the gulf a couple of years ago with Jamie Chester, which produced some exciting fishing for giant herring and trevally around a little sand cay, but really only offered the most tantalising taste of what the area had to offer.

So when the chance arose earlier this year to spend a few days camped on the east side of the gulf at a spot known as Wilderness Island, there was never any doubt I would juggle my other commitments around to make sure I took advantage of what shaped as an exciting opportunity for a dedicated lure chucker like myself. As it turned out, I was not to be disappointed…

WILDERNESS Island is a relatively new fishing camp set up on the east side of the Exmouth Gulf by Jim Alston.

Jim’s family ran neighbouring Yanrey and Koordarrie stations for many years and although they have since moved to Jurien Bay, he saw the opportunity to create a unique getaway for sportfishing enthusiasts in what he describes as a “fishing and ecological paradise” and has been working towards that end for the last couple of years.

I say sportfishing enthusiasts because while the fishrich waters of the gulf are close at hand, Jim and his expert team, guiding duo Shane Wunhym and ‘Harry’ Butler, are dedicated to promoting a sustainable catch-and-release fishing experience at Wilderness, where only a couple of fish, or maybe mud crabs, are kept for the table during the stay and anglers take memories, rather than fillets, with them when they depart.

Although he has guided all around the world, Shane is an Exmouth boy whose father Michael, was one of the pioneers of game fishing in the area, and has committed to basing his business out of Wilderness, while Harry knows the gulf like the back of his hand, having fished it commercially and recreationally for a number of years.

Wilderness Island offers the chance to either have a fullyguided fishing trip with this pair, or bring your own boat and explore at your leisure, or even combine both. There are also some kayaks provided on the island as another way of exploring the local waters, and I’ll certainly be looking at taking my Hobie up there in the future, as I reckon the area is absolutely tailor-made for some serious kayak fishing.

The beauty of Wilderness Island is that there are so many options easily accessible – there are shoals offshore that offer something of a bluewater experience, shallow flats perfect for wading or prospecting by boat and countless crystal clear tidal creeks full of fish, and mud crabs.

The beach right in front of the main shack at Wilderness offers some great light tackle fishing when there is a bit of water over the reef, and the south-western point of the island has some superb rock fishing from low ledges for just about anything that swims in the gulf. And because the east side of the gulf is generally unaffected by fishing pressure, there is a huge range of species available to anglers.

Over the four days we were there we would have caught around 25 species, and seen many more, and that was even with a few noticeable absentees. The top end of the gulf is not that far away either, making a day trip out to chase billfish and other bluewater species another option.

In reality, if our experience is any sort of indicator, the hard part will often be deciding exactly what to do next, such is the range of angling opportunities on offer.

Our team of three anglers visited Wilderness in early May, after an invite from Jim to come up and sample the fishing on offer.

Darryl Hitchen and Russell Waterman headed to Exmouth via Kalbarri, where they caught up with WAngler columnist John Bormolini to catch some longtail tuna and spanish mackerel.

Due to work commitments, I skipped Kalbarri and flew straight to Exmouth, where I spent a relaxing night at the Novotel Ningaloo, which enabled me to blow out some cobwebs by throwing a few lures around the marina, catching one little GT and having a couple of other hits in an enjoyable hit out.

Russ and Darryl did the donkey work with all my fishing gear and arrived right on time the next morning, and it wasn’t long before we hooked up with the Wilderness crew for the first time, got the introductions out of the way, and packed Shane’s 8m boat for the trip over.

Within a few a minutes of arriving at Wilderness I had an itchy casting finger and headed down to the beach in front of the shack with my light spinning gear.

Getting There:

WILDERNESS Island is not really an island; it is part of the mainland, but gets cut off at high tide.

The main method of access is by boat from Exmouth Marina and when the tide is up Shane’s 8m ally drops off visitors in the creek just behind the resort, which is full of bream, jacks and cod. If the tide is down, there is mooring for a couple of boats at the southern tip of the island, just a few metres from shore in a deep hole that always has enough water under the keel. Another option is to fly in by light aircraft, with a small airstrip a few hundred metres inland from the resort.

Directly in front of the camp is a large fringing reef platform that stretches out about 100 metres and it proved to hold good numbers of fish, despite the shallow water.

It was almost too good to be true when some small queenfish duly charged into the shallows to smash hardyheads right at my feet and offered an easy way to open the account, on a small popper.

A short time later I heard some shouts coming from the balcony and turned around to see some frantic finger pointing. I figured they had seen some baitfish being attacked, so started to work my way back along the beach toward the shack.

I had only gone a few metres when an exploratory cast with the same popper saw a huge bow wave bear down on the lure.

The fish had three or four goes at the lure, which I teasingly kept jerking away from under its nose as it became more and more aggressive, before finally hooking up solid in a spectacular spray of whitewater followed by a sustained thrash of the tail out of the water as a big queenie tried to get some traction and put the pedal down.

This was a 6-7kg fish and in water not more than 30cm deep, it had its back out of the water as it peeled line off the reel. It didn’t get airborne, perhaps because the water was simply too shallow to allow it to manage an upward trajectory, but it was nonetheless spectacular as the queenie hared across the shallows.

I wasn’t expecting something so big on the light gear, but was pretty confident I could land the queenie in the shallow water if I was patient.

Unfortunately, it ran me around some weed on its charge across the shallows and I was just about to wade out to try and free it when the line went limp. While disappointed to lose a good fish, it was an exciting start to the trip.

That afternoon, we would wander a few hundred metres up the coast to watch Harry catch a feed of succulent mud crabs, before enjoying a great light tackle session along the same stretch of beach, catching small GTs, queenies, cod, barracuda and other assorted species as the sun dipped and the tide rose.

That evening, I even tried some late night poppering under a stunning full moon with a large Halco Roosta for GTs, without success … perhaps on another night I might have had more luck.

The next day found us up early working creek mouths from Shane’s boat for big queenies and we enjoyed early success, with horse specimens nailing Roosta poppers and Saltiga stickbaits in typically spectacular hits.

There was a frenzy of early activity and it was great fun sight casting to cruising queenies in the shallow, clear water, but as the sun and tide rose the action slowed markedly. We dropped a couple of giant herring and keen fly anglers would be interested to know that we saw a lot of permit during the morning, usually spooking them as we idled along parallel to the shore.

Towards midday, we ended up in deeper water over some coral chasing trevs, but aside from one hit Russell had from a good brassy, it was pretty quiet and we decided to head back to the camp for a relaxing afternoon. A late stop on the way in saw me nail a solid mangrove jack, on an X-Rap pulled past a very fishy looking rocky overhang. The jack charged out and smashed the lure with extreme ferocity, but fortunately I was awake enough to apply the brakes before it made it back to the sanctuary of its rocky home.

We rounded out the day’s fishing by wading out to the edge of the reef platform at the bottom of the tide that afternoon and flicking little poppers around for small queenies and GTs. Darryl went for a quick dip after snagging his Twisty in a reef hole and came up for air vowing to bring his goggles and snorkel next time for some closer exploration of the underwater wonderland.

What To Take:

We arrived at Wilderness Island with a mixture of spinning and baitcasting gear, and I mainly used a 2.1m flick stick and 2500 size reel for creek and shore work, spooled with 5kg braid. For bigger stuff, I used a 2.4m Daiwa Saltiga combo, spooled with 20lb Fireline, which was more than adequate.

It would be worth having some stiffer gear in case you run across some big GTs, while I would also take some lighter bream gear, with 2kg braid, for flats and creek work next time. I won’t visit Wilderness again without fly gear, as the opportunities for feather flinging are endless.

A nine-weight outfit would be ample for most things Wilderness will throw at you, but also having lighter and heavier fly gear would allow greater flexibility. Lure-wise, we threw a wide selection of minnows and poppers/surface lures of varying sizes, as well as metals, jigs and plastics.

There are so many species available to anglers that it is worth having a wide range in the arsenal. The only time we used bait was when Darryl put out a floater from the back of the boat in 8m of water, and when he and Russell were chasing mangrove jacks around the rocks.

The following morning would see us working the creek mouths again and it was a similar story, with early queenie action before things quietened down.

We pushed up one of the creeks and it was so clear you had a perfect view of anything ahead of us. We startled countless turtles in the 2-3m deep water, but of more interest to me was the huge number of permit we saw dash past. There is no doubt fishing this particular creek as the tide drained it, and again as it started to fill, would offer a great chance for tangling with one of these revered sportfish, especially for cautious fly anglers.

When the queenies went quiet, we headed out to a spot in about 7m of water. It wasn’t long before the trevs showed up, goldens and brassies, and made for an enthralling session on relatively light gear. Soft plastics, minnows, poppers, jigs and metals all worked, with hooked fish invariably followed to the boat by a number of their mates. At one stage, all five people that were fishing were hooked up at once, with four of the trevs landed, and then released after quick photos.

With their willingness to hit lures and downright stubbornness when hooked, plus the fact I reckon they are a striking looking animal, I just can’t get sick of goldens.

The brassies are easily mistaken for GTs and while their yellow tails and fins give them away, they put up a pretty similar fight to their bigger cousins when hooked and certainly tested my 9kg spinning gear. The fishing just seemed to get better and better and my day took a pleasing turn when I decided to try a River 2 Sea Gecko minnow.

In the next half an hour, virtually every cast produced a hit or a hookup on a mack or trev as the Gecko worked some magic. There were weary casting arms and biceps as we headed back to camp, where fish curry was on the menu, and yours truly whipped up a bowl of custard for dessert – splendid! Our last day on the island possibly even topped those before it, as Darryl, Russell and I explored the limestone ledges and tiny little beaches at the south-west tip of the island with gear more suited to bream fishing.

At the top of the tide, we had an absolute ball on an incredibly diverse range of species, which were willing lure takers in the crystal clear waters. There were heaps of small queenies, spangled emperor and little GTs, along with an assortment of other species, including flathead, dart and hefty yellowfin bream. At the very southern tip of the island, schools of little brassy trevally and GTs attacked anything we threw in the water relentlessly, while Darryl finally managed to wrestle ashore one of the many sizeable mangrove jack that were cruising the ledges we were fishing from.

It was fish-a-cast stuff as the tide started to empty out, with Russell also having a good spaniard follow his Roosta popper.

The Facilities:

ACCOMMODATION at Wilderness is basic, but comfortable and more than adequate for the keen angler.

Several small cabins offer sleeping quarters for up to 10 people, and these ensure a restful night free of sandflies and mosquitoes.

The main shack, which sits atop a ridge overlooking the beach, offers the centre for activity and is where most downtime is spent, as it is the dining room, shade during the middle of the day, bar, and centre for tackle adjustment. The balcony offers spectacular panoramic views of the gulf and is perfect for enjoying a cooling afternoon siesta when the sea breeze is in, or for taking in a spectacular sunset.

There is a hot saltwater shower down at beach level, which is all about location, location, location.

Jim and his team offer fully-guided stays, or anglers can bring their own boats, and all meals are provided.

They don’t allow fish to be taken away, preferring to help preserve local fish stocks by promoting catch and release angling.

For more information on rates and availability visit www.wilderness-island.com.au or ring Jim on 0409 430 688.

Harry told us that in another few weeks it would be possible to catch big longtail tuna from this same stretch of coast, and even in less than a metre of water directly in front of the camp, as they followed schools of garfish into the gulf, with big GTs another target at times.

Seeing the incredible fish life at our feet – it was like the most magnificent natural aquarium – it wasn’t hard to believe you could catch just about anything at Wilderness Island. As the water levels dropped, the other boys headed back to camp, but I decided to wade the flats at the mouth of the creek. I saw several small schools of painted sweetlip cruise past, while catching more little queenies, and the odd GT, bream and grunter.

There were occasional baitfish sprays as the creek system emptied out, and I could have sworn I heard a barra boof up the creek at one point, my inattention nearly causing me to step on a buried stingray at one point. It was hard not to be impressed with the sheer diversity of sportfishing targets around Wilderness – we had more than enough things to do and didn’t even get around to targeting permit or big GTs, while it was a bit too early in the year for spaniards and longtails.

Sailfish are another option in the waters close to Wilderness later in the year.

There’s not just fish around Wilderness either – I’ve already mentioned the local mud crabs, and we saw dolphins, dugongs, sharks, sea snakes, turtles and countless stingrays.

There’s also abundant bird life and whales and manta rays are yearly visitors to the gulf, while kangaroos and bungarras call Wilderness home, so there’s plenty to entertain nature lovers. But in essence, the camp is aimed primarily at the keen sportsfisher, and certainly has much to offer.

With a vast array of species, and a diverse range of angling opportunities, Wilderness Island is sure to establish itself as a favourite destination for WA anglers in years to come. I’ll certainly be back there again … quite probably with fly rod in tow and my first permit in mind.