DIRK HARTOG ISLAND BOAT TRIP AUGUST 2024
Dirk Hartog Island has always been a special place for me,
Spending countless days on the ledge fishing land based, this trip it was time to send the Haines Hunter over & explore the island from a whole new perspective.
Fuelling the Haines in Denham at first light,
We rolled out with close to our usual, 550 litres in the tank, 120 litres in 6 jerry cans & 130 litres in the soft fuel bladder. Running total of 800 Litres.
Destination 1 was Turtle Bay
Being around a 90K trip. Leaving Denham, we cut straight across to Dirk Hartog Island, then headed north through the marked channel. The run across to DHI is calm water, however once you cut north, its quiet shallow, with a bit of tide running over this it can get quite sloppy like it was on our run over, something to watch if you are loaded up.
On the subject of being loaded up, we burned 120 Litres of juice to do the roughly 90 k trip to Turtle Bay, this partly due to the heavy load mixed with a fairly rough sea. One crucial factor in fuel calculations is accounting for rough seas. If you encounter a heavy sea while carrying a full load of fuel, you can burn through it quickly—rough waters can make a big impact on your fuel reserves.
Tucking into some calm waters
Once we hit Turtle bay, we attend fuel duties. Draining the 130L fuel bladder with a Scintex drill pump & cordless drill. This process requires a bit of calm water, two people is ideal as one can hold the bladder up to maintain a good prime with the pump. With the bladder now drained it can be folded away and now takes up no deck space (unreal bit of kit)
A clear deck and a few hours left in the day it was time to send it fishing to sort dinner. Hanging close in 50-70 meters the first few patches of ground we found didn't produce but a few quick moves to find feeding fish, it didn't take too long for the Rankins to pile on.
Rex with the first fish of many to fall to the vexed bottom meat (whole squid bait)
Time to camp up
Once a few fish for dinner were sorted , Turtle Bay was the anchorage of choice, as we arrived it was a light to medium southerly wind with low swell. This wind direction is perfect for this spot—any southerly breeze is sheltered by the land, however it is an ocean anchorage so any swell comes straight into the bay.
We knew the wind was set to shift around midnight, swinging easterly, but it still made for a rude awakening. Right on cue, the wind hit hard—Turtle Bay is so exposed that easterlies blow straight in, turning the bay choppy in no time.
Running on little to no sleep
From the rough night, we set off early to revisit the same areas we’d fished the day before. Again, we worked through different spots to locate feeding fish. Sticking to our usual strategy—one of us using vexed jigs and the other using bottom meats with bait to cover both approaches. The fish once again piled on, with bait & jigs working at about the same ratio.
Glamour conditions on
Day 3 saw us sending to the bottom of Dorre Island, covering a heap of ground from 80-30m we found the best bite on the 30-40m ridge running off the bottom of Dorre, with no shortage of ground long drifts were a plenty.
The best anchorage
Knowing the weather was soon to turn bad, we needed a sheltered anchorage, Turtle Bay in bad weather would be horrendous for a night's sleep. Il leave the name out for a little bit of adventure of finding this anchorage, however i will say it's very protected and even when the winds came right up, we still had a boat that barley moved and perfect night's sleep protected from all wind angles. Also noted a very easy entry and exit with no reef so great for leaving or arriving in the dark of the night.
Howling winds & a big swell
On day 4 saw the boys really taking it easy, we stayed shallow fishing the shoals on the inside however i think the sharks caught wind we were in town because the tax rate was near on 100%. Throughout the whole trip any fishing over shallow ground was a high tax rate, possibly because these are more frequented areas Aswell
The biggest swell
Was forecasted for day 5, with a predicted 4 metre swell & 12-16 knot east winds it was decided to head to the west side of Dirk Hartog island to see if the swell was manageable and if we could find some land shelter from the east wind. Sticking our nose around the corner it looked do able so we sent it to the 60’s and worked our way down the island. With the rough water the fish were fired up, only problem was we couldn't get past the Rankins with the only other fish in the mix, a beautiful coronation trout. (not a bad problem to have)
Time to go home,
day 6 we took a slow cruise down the inside of DHI making our way back to Denham.
Total fuel used for the 6 days was 568 Litres, that was
DAY 1
1x 90k trip to Turtle bay
½ days fishing back of DHI
DAY 2
Full days fishing back of DHI
DAY 3
Full days fishing Dorre Island
DAY 4
¼ days fishing in close on the shoals
DAY 5
Full days fishing back of DHI
DAY 6
Rough water, slow cruise back to Denham 80-90k multiple stops exploring
