S
hark Bay is a special place. It consists
primarily of a western and eastern gulf
and is largely pristine. It’s a sparsely
populated area and the only settlement on
the eastern gulf is Monkey Mia.
The place is world renowned these days as a
place to view wild dolphins which come in most
days for the strictly controlled feeds they are
given. But it is the fishing and exploring
opportunities that have found me venturing there
annually for the past few years.
Monkey Mia is not a town so much as a single
resort/caravan park complex where you can stay
metres from the sheltered beach and watch the
dolphins cavort. It is frequented most commonly
by families and overseas tourists anxious to see
these engaging marine mammals. There is a
restaurant and a pub and a shop where you can
buy $7 loaves of frozen bread... and there is also a
boat ramp which is a gateway to some quite
remarkable fishing grounds.
Like much of the WA coast it is often windy
here. But the bay itself lacks swell and offers some
shelter from the worst of the winds. This means
it's very accessible in comparison to other places
that are more exposed to the often furious winds
of the Indian Ocean. In the past this led to an
unsustainable level of fishing pressure, primarily
by the recreational fraternity, and because the
snapper are genetically separated from other
stocks they were fished to a point where the whole
fishery was in critical danger of collapse. From
1998 to 2003 the fishery was shut completely and
since then restrictions have slowly been lifted as
the stock has recovered. The current two fish bag
limit and three month spawning closure will
hopefully stop it from happening again.
As an angler Monkey Mia can be a confusing
place. It’s largely a sandy and shallow
embayment with very little structure. But there
are fish there – and when you find them the
action can be intense.
It’s not just snapper you will catch here
either. Mulloway are plentiful and school and
even Spanish mackerel show up regularly.
Longtail tuna can often be found busting up
bait. Estuary cod and black snapper (blue-lined
emperor) also occur in the same places you
encounter pink snapper. And of course sharks
- lots and lots of sharks.
On my first trip to the area I had no spots given
to me and the only guidance I was offered was to
find a channel and fish it. That was honestly all
the information I was given. But in this day and
age of GPS points turning everyone into an
expert, I still enjoy the challenge of finding and
figuring out my own ground.
My first day on the water there was as
memorable as much as it was surprising. As we
skimmed along the crystal clear seagrass covered
f lats (only possible at high tide) looking for these
“channels” we could see all manner of marine life
including turtles, stingrays and dugongs – which
was nice enough until I decided I’d had enough
and wanted to go fishing. The only “channels” I
could find were lifeless looking and only 3-4
metres deep and maybe 25 metres wide. There
was no way that these channels would hold any
decent fish – let alone a pink snapper or mulloway.
Or so I thought.
You see, the Monkey Mia pink snapper (quite
literally) is a different breed. With the addition
of a little berley I soon found myself in the
middle of a hot little session on 3-4kg pinks in
ridiculously shallow water in the middle of the
day. They were happy to take plastics too, and on
the 4 kilo gear I was using they ran hard and fast
in that shallow channel. And with absolutely noDESTINATIONS: MONKEY MIA, WA
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