Wayne Kampe heads to the fish rich waters of Exmouth to tick off a bucket list item – billfish on fly!

Fly fishing is an interesting business. When I started 40 years ago it was strictly about trout and it stayed that way for years. Soft plastics combined with fine braid hit the genre pretty hard but we stalwarts kept on enjoying our sport while it quietly progressed from trout to tuna, garfish to goodoo, bass to barra, and beyond. So what about billfish on fly then? Certainly; this article looks right into it.
Luckily, we’ve got some of the world’s best fly fishing right here in Australia. Every state has something special to offer with trout on tap down south, barrel sized barra rampant in Queensland’s dams while the Territory and Gulf have fly fishing that ranges from upriver to offshore. New South Wales has both inland and coastal fly fishing on offer for the long rod enthusiasts while Western Australia offers the fly angler some truly incredible fly fishing experiences with Exmouth arguably being the jewel in that state’s crown.

Guide Alan Donald helps revive Wayne’s sail fish.

SIZE DOES MATTER
Let’s back track a little. As a dedicated fly angler who’s unashamedly on the outer edge of 60, and with a keen fly angling wife, I decided a few years ago that we’d target larger fish while we could still do battle with them. There’s nothing wrong with little fish, it’s just that we like big ones better. So, with fly rods from 3 to 13 wt at home, we’ve been there and done some, but the pinnacle, billfish on fly, has been a mighty hard climb. Hervey Bay let us down twice and we’ve found the Gold Coast’s billfishing to be hugely dictated by weather. We’ve been close but never scored.
Interestingly, WA’s Exmouth and its mighty marlin and outstanding bluewater fishery, as well as that of nearby Ningaloo Reef, kept coming up in both visual and social media. Finally, it got too much for us so we bit the bullet and got the ball rolling towards a trip to Exmouth last spring. You never know if you never go, eh?

SPOILED FOR CHOICE
For the record Exmouth – population 2500 – is situated on North West Cape, on the western side of Exmouth Gulf. As an important tourist centre the town’s infrastructure covers the lot so visitors won’t run short of tucker, tackle or accommodation. Also, as the Cape is a natural barrier to prevailing winds the fly angler usually has options for both boat or shore based action. Shore based fly fishing around Exmouth is facilitated by the areas’ jetties, the Cape’s rock platforms plus the beaches and lagoons inside Ningaloo Reef where fish like permit and bonefish are prized fly rod fodder.
For the boating fly angler the horizon’s the limit. This is deep water fishing at its best – with over 250 m of water only 11 km offshore west of Ningaloo Reef, yet it’s the surface where all the action takes place. It’s entirely visual and when it comes down to the nitty gritty a true test of both tackle and the fly angler’s capability. When push turns to shove, with a marlin or other fly rod prize heading for the horizon and the fly reel’s fit to spin itself to bits – the moment of truth looms – and one begins to ask oneself, “am I good enough for this or has my mind written a cheque my body cannot cash?”
The question is valid as fish such as marlin, sail fish, long tail and yellow fin tuna, Spanish mackerel, wahoo, mahi mahi, queenfish and cobia are all small boat accessible when conditions are right.

Denise and guide Alan Donald working the flats inside Ningaloo Reef.

For our fly fishing trip of a lifetime, Denise and I opted for just over a week at Exmouth in spring last year. Billfish were the main game but we planned both land based and offshore fly fishing to see what the area had to offer.
Alan Donald, Fly Fishing Frontiers Exmouth, came highly recommended as a billfish guide and I engaged him for five days fishing out of seven. I’d not enjoyed guided fishing previously but for time poor visitors it was brilliant and worth every last cent. Alan met us at nearby Learmonth airport as we collected the trusty cricket bag packed with fly rods after our flight from Brisbane via Perth.

GAME ON, OFFSHORE
On our arrival to Exmouth seas were smooth with a low swell prevailing so billfish on fly was the priority game plan. Alan Donald runs a 6.2 m Tru-Line centre console powered by a 115 Yamaha four stroke and with both poling and casting platforms aft, a casting platform with leaning post up front, his craft was excellent for work in the Exmouth area. On day two we launched at the Tantabiddi boat ramp on the west side of the Cape, slipped through a wide gap in Ningaloo Reef and within 10 minutes of leaving the ramp we were in cobalt blue water.
The technique to coax a billfish into fly casting range is pretty simple. A fish loaded skirt, or pusher, is trolled in the normal manner with the following idea in mind: to give the gamefish just a taste, then the teaser, with the fish hopefully still interested, back to the boat. When the teaser is out of the water, the boat’s put out of gear and then the fly goes out.
Billfish have weaknesses that are exploited in this system. Firstly, they are not afraid of a boat: boats make enticing bubble trails and washes that are well worth a look at. Secondly, these fish are like the ultra-rich in our own society: thoroughly accustomed to having things much their own way and tending to become somewhat cranky when something they value is taken off them.
In the case of a billfish, if an item suddenly appears back of the boat that’s very shiny, right sized for tucker, and has a similar colour to the teaser that had their interest and is now suddenly missing; it’s likely to get nailed.
Accordingly, a bird and squid daisy chain teaser system was set up to starboard while a pusher loaded with a tuna belly flap was set to smoke smoothly on the second pressure wave to port while we trolled.
Our chosen billfish tackle consisted of a TFO Mangrove 3 m 12 wt rod, TFR Super Large Arbor 10/12 reel , Rio Outbound Short WF12 fly line with 2 m of 80 lb Jinkai attached to a Spardean 12 inch Wild Hog tube fly set up with snelled 8/0 and 6/0 Gamakatsu SL12S game hooks. A couple of practice casts confirmed I’d have no trouble casting this somewhat heavier tackle and then it was game on.

Reckon these fellows don’t fight! Especially when they see the boat..

ONE FOR THE OLD BOY
We trolled at the standard 7 knots while covering various underwater ledges and canyons of the Continental Shelf. The whole area was rich with bait balls, flying fish taking off like quail, whales wallowing as they breached and mutton birds wheeling, as they patiently waited for some baitfish action. Aboard the Tru-Line we did not have to wait long at all for the sort of action we were looking for.
On the 20 minute mark we saw a massive splash on the belly strip loaded pusher to port; a black stick was belting the daylights out of the skirt as Al valiantly wound it back to the boat. With the teaser in and the boat out of gear, I lobbed the fly out the prescribed 10 to 15 m and like clockwork the large dark shadow under the boat, with bright blue patches reflecting brilliantly in the clearest of blue water, cruised over and grabbed it.
Three quick but very hard strikes saw the reel spinning, the low held rod bending and the fish making plans to get away from there at best possible speed. Head shaking, some tail walking and a series of lightning fast runs kept me quite busy for around 40 minutes. I’d near bust my arms and retrieved some of the 50 lb Daiwa braid back onto the TFR’s four inch spool, then the fish would bolt off with a few jumps and I’d be back where I started.
But as the saying goes, old age and cunning will usually prevail, and at last the most beautiful creature I’ve seen on any of my fly line’s leaders in over 40 years of fly fishing was in Al’s hand beside the boat. A sail fish, around 40 kg, was my reward. After photos the fish revived well and with colour returning swam off quite smartly. We raised another billfish that day but it would not stay engaged long enough for the fly to go out. That’s gamefishing of course. It doesn’t always go to plan.
Not surprisingly, it was celebrations all round that night when we had dinner at Whaler’s restaurant at the Exmouth Escape Resort. I’d scaled the peak, Denise was next.

For dinner tonight? Denise Kampe with a neat emperor.

SHORE BASED OPTIONS
With an adverse breeze making billfish work uninviting and with ample time to explore on our hands, we concentrated on fly fishing from the shore with queenies, trevally, small GTs and decent goldens, north west snapper, barra, and a mangrove jack added to the species list. The rocks around the Cape and those on the outer section of the boat harbour’s wall were good value and we also had some unforgettable sight fishing inside Ningaloo Reef after we set up with the 10 wt rods, intermediate lines and 8 kg tippets with 1/0 Gotchas and Sparwolf crabs.
With fine, clear days we had a couple of sessions inside the reef and although we took trevally and queenies without much trouble, we found permit and bonefish to be tricky customers. Thankfully Al showed us how it was done with his accurate and discreet presentations. I’m the first to admit our casting let us down. It was good but not good enough: too much easy going impoundment barra work of late, perhaps, where a sloppy cast is just as useful as a neat one. Barra don’t care.

COBIA CAPERS
After launching at Exmouth boat harbour Al introduced us to cobia. Within sight of the harbour there were big manta rays mooching slowly along in various wind lanes while they hoovered up minutiae and most of these mobile FAD’s, if not all, had cobia under them. As cobia are renowned opportunistic feeders, it was only a matter of getting a 2/0 Lefty’s Deceiver or Clouser on a 10 kg leader well in front of a manta so the big critter passed over it without being pinned (it’s bad form to hook one) and a cobe would scoff the fly, try to go back with the manta before all hell would break loose as the manta, in turn, panicked.
Furious fishing and sore fingers were the usual outcome, but wait, there’s more! When the cobia finally succumbed to the power of the 10 wt fly outfit and saw the boat it would then redouble all efforts to get away. Fly rod fun? You bet! We enjoyed a fair serving of this during our time at Exmouth and with tuna also in the area we sometimes nailed one or two as a bonus. Sashimi, yum!

BILLFISH BONANZA FOR THE GIRL
With light winds on day 5, Denise had the 12 wt TFO in hand with marlin and sailfish on her mind. The trolling was pretty quiet until a mahi mahi turned up for a look at the bait loaded skirt. On cue the dolly faithfully followed the teaser in and gladly pounced on the Spardean tube fly. Denise soon showed us that the recent time spent on metre-plus barra at Peter Faust dam had given her some muscle power and the dolly came into the ice bag fairly soon after hook up. Next hour was fairly uneventful except for an airborne wahoo snipping off the fish loaded teaser just for fun.
With a new teaser deployed, the trolling re-commenced after smoko. Denise and I were both watching the pusher smoking through a wave when a black bill erupted in a fury of white water to belt the pusher. I pulled the daisy chain in while Al wrestled the pusher and the determined fish to the back of the boat. As soon as the Yamaha was snicked out of gear Denise cast the fly out and a black marlin afire with blue stripes along its length scoffed the Spardean tube and went crazy as she struck hard, twice, three times. Al gunned the boat and it was game on for the girl.
The feisty black then commenced to show us the main differences between sailfish and marlin in terms of sheer strength and dogged determination. The ongoing series of hard runs, tail walks and deep dives saw Alan keeping the boat perfectly positioned for Denise while she worked and worked on that marlin. Braid would be wrestled in then lost again; when the fish sounded Alan would drive the boat off and plane the marlin upwards. Seas were building too, but this girl is made of strong stuff and at the 1 hr, 40 minute mark the black marlin – estimated at around 50 kg – was right beside the boat. Al reckoned it was maybe more tired than Denise but that’s hard to say.
As Al grabbed the 80 lb leader, the unthinkable happened. The fly came out… who’d believe it! Luckily I scored a jump shot or two when the fish was fresh but we sure would have liked some grip and grin images for Denise but hey, that’s fishing. Regrets? None.
Alan had the leader, so the fish was ‘caught ‘under IGFA rules. For Denise, the pinnacle of her fly fishing career had been reached as well.

Wayne’s a long time contributor to Freshwater Fishing Australia and other AFN publications being involved with FWF virtually from the first editions. He enjoys boating, all forms of fishing, but most of all fly fishing. Whether it’s twig stick stalking in tiny trout water, brawling barra in Queensland’s dams or out in the salt water with string being well and truly stretched Wayne loves the feel of a fly rod under strain. Wayne’s wife Denise also loves fly fishing.