"Fishing World" Magazine - February 2001
excerpts from five page article - © Copyright Fishing World

In fishing terms Shark Bay is best known for its pink snapper. With more than 100,000 visitors to the area a year and most chasing pink snapper, over the past decade there has been a serious collapse of the fishery.

With this in mind it was with some trepidation that we made a booking with Sportfishing Safaris. I need not have worried for it turned out to be one of the best half day's fishing I've enjoyed in a long time. It more than made up for having to cut short our trip to South Passage.

There's something special about catching pink snapper. While the average size doesn't compare to the monsters found in South Australia's Spencer Gulf, there was an endless procession of them when I fished Shark Bay.

We travelled east skirting various seagrass beds before commencing a drift on the edge of a drop-off bank in 32 feet of water. Using whiting heads as bait (superior to pilchards), the bites were instantaneous resulting in a procession of snapper coming to the surface only to be carefully unhooked and sent on their way again, hopefully to procreate.

If the group on board didn't get a bite for about a minute the boat was re-positioned and the bites recommenced straight away.

The day before a group caught seven mulloway in addition to a bounty of snapper. On my trip our group caught and released about 70 snapper and one mulloway. The snapper ranged in size from about 3 kilos to one whopper of more than 9 kilos. The average was 3.5 kilos.

Sportfishing Safaris commenced in 1999. They operate a 27 foot alloy centre cab well suited to the shallows of Shark Bay.

June to September is prime pink snapper time while black snapper along with mackerel and tuna are targeted during the rest of the year.

I was most impressed with their professionalism. They provided a full briefing on safety procedures and the state of the pink snapper fishery before leaving Monkey Mia. Once at the grounds we went through baiting and fighting procedures before fishing began. Their concern for the fishery shone through.

It was money well spent. Highly recommended.

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