Captain Billy’s Landing and the great Trevally

We turn off for Captain Billy’s Landing which is a 30km track of big humps and corrugations, it was an effort to get down here.
The camp spot is on the beach and lucky because it is hot today. After setting up camp I head down for a fish, I have spotted a school of Whiting being followed by a school of Trevally and behind them are 2 Sting rays. I head down to where the whiting were but they have gone and there are some small mullet hanging around. I catch 2 Shovel nose sharks on the big rod and a couple of other fish that I don’t know what they are both around 24cm so I chuck them back in. I move to the smaller rod in search of some live bait for fishing. I catch about another 15 of these strange fish but mostly smaller.

As I often do these days when I can’t seem to catch anything I just ask Tina to hold the rod and something normally happens. This time is no exception because within a couple of minutes she gets a hit and whatever it is it is off. Not just like some fish we normally catch this thing is heading out to sea and even after tightening the drag he is still pulling out line. We try tightening the drag again and this only excites him more as he goes for another run, and then again 3 runs so far. Tina has been working him for a few minutes now and he is closer to shore, this is a big fish.

Eventually we swap as she can no longer reel him in. I tighten the drag again but now I’m getting scared about how much more this line can take, no 50lb line and shark hook just my 20lb with a small hook. I keep reeling him in and finally we can see him again, Tina heads into the water to grab him but he must of seen her and goes for one last run, then she strikes and grabs him by the tail and we haul up the shore. He is a huge Trevally the biggest fish Tina & I have ever caught and we didn’t even need a boat. Its lucky we got him in when we did because the hook was only just hanging on. It is one hell of a fish and we are not having steak for tea tonight. He is 68cm long and must weigh at least 4kg, we get enough fillets off him for 4 nights tea.

We just can’t stop grinning and talking about him and today will be long remembered as the day we caught the big Trevally at Captain Billy's Landing. We have two huge fillet pieces for tea and he tasted just as good as we had hoped. I must add a special thanks to Pete who taught me how to spot the schools of fish this really helped me pick where to fish today.