Sport-fishing enthusiasts will find few places in the world as unexplored as the mostly uninhabited, rugged coastal wilderness of Australia’s Kimberley. It’s a region so remote, it remains a mystery even to most Australians, few of whom have ever ventured to this distant northwestern corner of the continent.

The fishing remains unspoiled and untouched, and anglers who do manage to visit here marvel at the terrain, replete with dramatic gorges cut deeply into red sandstone cliffs, rugged ranges, waterfalls that tumble right into the Indian Ocean, and flats that daily become totally exposed and then hours later completely disappear when flooded by 25- to 30-foot tides that are part of this watery world.

The Kimberley includes many national parks, and ancient indigenous rock art can be found throughout the area on rock walls and in caves, estimated to date back as far as 40,000 years. The population of the Kimberley is roughly 50 percent aboriginal. Here’s a thumbnail look at four fishing destinations in the Kimberley.

Broome

Broome might be considered a gateway to the Kimberley. The largest city in the territory (about 15,000 population), it’s located at the southern end of the Kimberley. Typically visitors to the Kimberley jump off from Broome or, to the northeast, Darwin.

But Broome is a fishing destination in its own right. It offers excellent surf-fishing without having to travel far, starting at Roebuck Bay along Crab Creek Road. Fish rocky points for the iconic barramundi, as well as trevally, queenfish, threadfin and mangrove jacks (as the Indo Pacific version of gray snapper are called). Charter boats will fish reefs nearshore for a great variety of gamefish, including various snappers, groupers (cod and coral trout), narrowbarred Spanish mackerel, longtail tuna, trevallies and more. Serious anglers can book a multi-day trip to the famed Rowley Shoals (about 200 miles out) for amazing fishing.

But more than any gamefish species, sailfish are quintessentially Broome. It’s not unreasonable to consider this one of the best fisheries for sails in the world, with doubles and triples common. Renowned Australian fishing journalist John Ashley has experienced the fishery, and he says it’s common for Broome boats to tag-and-release a dozen or more sails in a day. Boats typically run 15 to 40 miles to find sails (which they generally do by finding schools of baitfish). These Indian Ocean sails run 45 to 55 pounds or so—similar to Western Atlantic sailfish. And, similar to Florida, anglers generally fish light spinning gear, often pitch-baiting ballyhoo (aka garfish).

Rather than walking down a dock to meet their boat, charter anglers in Broome wade out to a dingy just off the beach, which will run them out to deeper water where boats are moored. There are no docks here on the extensive sandy shallows where huge tides are a constant fact of life.

Broome also offers heli-fishing (kashelicopters.com.au) on an extended half-day tour to drop anglers into otherwise inaccessible spots. It’s a pricey but a unique fishing experience, with barramundi the primary target. Information on the biggest offshore tournament here can be found by searching online for the Broome Billfish Classic.

Kuri Bay

A bit over an hour north of Broome via floatplane, Kuri Bay sits deep in the Kimberley coast. For human purposes, it’s less a sport-fishing center than a base for the pearl industry. The Paspaley pearling center here was established in the 1950s, but only recently (in 2016) did the isolated spot become accessible to sport fishermen when well-known Kimberley guide and charter operator Peter Tucker worked out an arrangement with Paspaley to house small groups of anglers on-site at the working pearl farm, via his Kuri Bay Sportfishing Tours.

Often the Kimberley’s coastal waters are turbid, but at Kuri they’re generally clear. That makes it an appealing destination for fly-rodders, who have the chance to sight-cast to one of Australia’s most elusive inshore prizes, the blue bastard (actual name), a large (reaching at least 3 feet in length) species of sweetlips in the family of grunts, as spooky and unpredictable as any permit.

Fly- and light-tackle anglers alike fish for abundant trevallies (giant, golden, brassy and others), as well as barramundi, queenfish, mangrove jack, fingermark, cobia, longtail tuna, narrowbarred mackerel, various groupers and more.

As everywhere in the Kimberley, where and how one fishes always depends upon the massive tides. Some mornings, boats will remain briefly at the dock high and dry when low tide empties out Kuri Bay. The flip side means that when the tide floods the bay and the coast, it completely swallows shorter trees underwater. The guides at Kuri Bay, out of necessity, know how to play the tides and where to fish at any time.

Kimberley Coastal Camp

Other than this resort, there is simply nothing in this remote part of the Kimberley for many miles around. Visitors reach Kimberley Coastal Camp only by chopper or floatplane. The camp sits on the Admiralty Gulf north of the Mitchell Plateau and Lawley River National Park, northeast of Kuri Bay.

There’s abundant wildlife and ancient cave paintings (take a tour of indigenous rock-art sites), but fishing is the major draw. Barramundi are a primary target, but anglers catch the typical, wide variety of gamefish here including mulloway (aka black jewfish, a large croaker), threadfin salmon, mangrove jack, fingermark, giant trevally, narrowbarred Spanish mackerel, longfin tuna, queenies, coral trout, blue bone (blackchin tuskfish) and more. That diversity’s not too surprising with such a variety of habitats to fish at KCC: huge tidal rivers, mangrove-lined creeks, estuaries, flats and offshore reefs and islands. The resort claims that it’s “one of the few fishing tour operations that include tackle on an unconditional basis. No cost for loss or breakages.”

KCC owners Tub and Jules take pride in their cuisine, and in fact wrote a book about it — Cooking in Thongs, Recipes and Stories the Kimberley Coastal Way. The modest resort (16 guests maximum) is open year-round. For barramundi, in particular, the wet season is recommended, with February a peak month.

Kununurra

One needn’t venture far from this Kimberley community (population about 5,000) to find some outstanding barramundi fishing. Lake Kununurra, formed in 1963 with the construction of a dam across the mighty Ord River, has seen well more than a million barramundi fingerlings released over the past decade by the Lake Kununurra Barramundi Stocking Group. The result: a world-class fishery for Australia’s most iconic inshore gamefish.

The ragged coastline of the Cambridge Gulf and its estuaries just to the north of Kununurra also offer great barramundi fishing. The entire area along with the lake is included in the annual Apex Kununurra Barra Bash competition held each September. For information on that tournament, visit lakekununurrabarramundi.com.au.

Local fishing guides can be found at visitkununurra.com/tours/fishing-tours. For a very different sort of fishing experience, there’s barra fishing using hand lines with Pete’s Cultural Adventures. One spectacular site is famed Ivanhoe Crossing, a concrete causeway across the Ord River with water flowing over it—and plenty of big crocodiles (“salties”) hanging around.

Here too you’ll find heli-fishing opportunities. See helispirit.com.au. Kununurra’s airport is served by regular domestic flights, and the Great Northern Highway from Broome is paved for its length.

Helpful Links

For more information about fishing Western Australia, visit Tourism Western Australia (westernaustralia.com) and Great Fishing Adventures of Australia (part of australia.com). For general info about visiting Australia, see Tourism Australia. My thanks to these agencies, whose assistance made visiting the Kimberley possible. Also, be sure to check out the free digital magazine Allure for more Australian fishing adventures.

The post Fishing the Kimberley—Australia’s Most Remote Region appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Kiritimati: Disconnect and Fish!

Kenya: November Sails Balling Bait

Panama: In-Country Travel Getting Faster

Bimini: Special Packages for Wahoo Season

Australia: Exploratory Trip Starts Near New Guinea

Colombia Fishing Trip

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This video shows how easily you can release fish that have “blown up” at the surface and greatly reduce mortality.

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You can make a difference in under 60 seconds…

Click Here to lodge your official submission

I apologise for making fishing political for you, but there are times when you just have to stand up and be counted, as the alternative is to sit back and watch many of the areas you love to fish get closed over the next few months and years. You sent a letter to the environment minister a month ago, and this made a huge difference, as you can read below, but the time has come to send in your official submission for the last phase of the MPA zoning process public consultation period, and to tell the Government “Don’t lock us out”. This is now a national issue affecting every part of Australia, including the Coral Sea.

Share the link to the submission page on your Facebook page. Anyone who cares about recreational fishing needs to do this. It is that serious!

The Full Story – The last letter we asked you to send was a huge success, achieving a great deal, including a statement of support last week from the federal opposition minister Tony Abbott, and you can read below what was achieved as a result of this, but the job is not done yet. If you value recreational fishing in Australia, you need to click the link above and send your own submission, please also be sure to add just a few words of your own comments as well, but please be civilised, as you will be making an official government submission on this link. Please also to remember to share this link on your facebook pages, and get everyone else you know to take action.

Some background info – the above link will take you to the Keep Australia Fishing website, which is the national voice for all recreational anglers in Australia. Every recreational fishing group in Australia (Sunfish,AFTA, Recfish, ANSA, GFAA and every other state organisation) is 100% behind this campaign, and the letter you will be submitting is going to the Federal Environment Department as part of the final round of the three year submission process.

I’ve been in Canberra recently, and been to meetings with the federal environment minister, Tony Burke, and had a significant involvement in this process so far. The previous letter that everyone sent to the minister, through the Nomad Sportfishing website, made this meeting possible, and made the government realise that this is a serious issue for recreational anglers.

All we want to achieve here is to ensure that our marine reserves are implemented with thorough scientific planning, scientific principles and practical outcomes that work for all user groups. All recreational fishing groups support closed off areas, but only when thorough scientific processes have shown that these closed off areas are required. The current process is closing off huge areas to recreational fishermen simply so the government can keep green groups happy and stay in power.

The massive problem that we face here is that Science has long ago been abandoned by the politicians, and they are now playing a game of drawing colours on maps simply to keep the powerful and well funded green lobby groups at bay.

I have a first hand example of this from the meeting with the federal environment minister. The current process is proposing to close off the main area of the Perth trench to all gamefishing activities, essentially shutting down the entire gamefishing industry and community in Perth. We asked the minister why this zone had been placed in it’s proposed position. We were told that the minister drew that zone himself because they needed one in that area, and there was no information to tell him where to put it, so he just placed it where he thought was appropriate.

Are you serious…………? And yes, this is really what we were told. I would not have believed this could happen if I had not seen it with my own eyes! I hate to think how they make decisions about the rest of the country and serious financial decisions! Maybe a dartboard is involved? Nothing would surprise me….

The problem with this entire process is that scientific process has been thrown out the window in favour of keeping green groups happy, and the current Labour party government in power through green group preferences. The point here is that the current process is deeply flawed, and lacking any scientific credibility at all in terms of it’s application and implementation.

The letter that we recently asked everyone to sign and send to Tony Burke, Federal Environment Minister, was a powerful enough message to make the minister change his mind on meeting with recreational fishers. Prior to the letters being sent, he had said that no meetings were happening, and the proposal was final – it just shows what people power can achieve.

I was at this meeting in Canberra, when the heads of every Australian recreational fishing group sat before the minister, and as a united voice, we all told him the same message. “Don’t Lock Us Out” was what he was told, and we explained why the current closures were wrong, and what can be done to find a compromise that works for all parties.

The bottom line here is that we have been given encouraging feedback from the Environment department, and told that if recreational anglers unite, and there is a significant show of support, through official submissions to the government, then the government will take action to amend the marine parks boundaries to provide better access to recreational fishermen. Even the Federal Opposition Leader, and likely next prime minister, has come out in public support of recreational anglers last week.

All that needs to be done now is to let people power win the day.

If you care about recreational fishing in Australia, and having access to areas that you enjoy fishing, if you want your children and future generations to have a say in where they can fish, now is the time to stand up and be heard. Be very clear that if the Australian Recreational fishing community lies down and is not heard at this time, we will be steamrolled by a powerful and well funded green machine, and widespread closures will be proposed and implemented over coming. Don’t let these green groups tell us where we can fish, it’s time to stand up and say that we want proper scientific procedures and research to help decide where we can fish, and how to best protect our waters.

This is the single most important event that has happened in relation to Recreational Fishing in Australia in the past 20 years, and now is the time to be heard.Just click the link below to take one minute to add in your comments and name and details and you’ll have made a huge difference, and helped to protect your recreational fishing rights for the future.

–– Source: Damon Olsen | Nomad Sportfishing Adventures

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Hammerhead shark

Hammerhead sharks will now be entirely protected in some Australian waters.

According to a report in Australia’s Fishing World, neither the great hammerhead (listed as “vulnerable”) nor the scalloped hammerhead (listed as endangered in New South Wales) may be caught by any means or harmed. Other shark species protected off southeastern Australia include the grey nurse and great white sharks.

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It doesn’t get much crazier than this. An angler standing atop coral on the Great Barrier Reef in water literally ankle deep fights a giant trevally and suddenly finds a huge bull shark virtually snapping at his feet. Watch how nonchalant he is about those snapping jaws.

Keep in mind this is in inches of water. Memo to self: No wade-fishing on the Great Barrier Reef.

The angler is Capt. Glanville Heydenrych; the operation is Nomad Sportfishing Adventures (featured in Sport Fishing in 2010).

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We’ve seen it before, but still — it’s hard to turn away from the fascination of watching the most incredible set of choppers on the planet devour a large animal. And so it is again, with dramatic footage shot last year but just recently surfacing on Youtube showing anglers feeding a blue shark to a big white (said to be more than 18 feet) next to their small boat off the Australian coast.

I was amused to read the report on news.com.au that says, “The shocked fisherman [sic] watched on as the great white proceeeded to devour the smaller shark which had latched on to the fishermen’s line.” Wrong. Apparently that was written either by a reporter who has no possible clue what fishing is about or was trying to heighten the drama. These guys got the footage they were after — no shock there — since they aren’t “reeling in” a blue shark when a white nailed it; rather, they are clearly teasing up the white with the smaller shark, having secured a rope around its tail and holding on as the shark munches it. It does make for some fantastic video, of course — just not quite as represented.

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When fishing’s so hot that a major tackle manufacturer has to call from the ship to have more lures sent up the coast via next-day air to replace all those lost in the first two days of fishing, that speaks volumes.

After encountering sizzling action out of Shark Bay, off Australia’s far side — its Indian Ocean coast (aka the coral coast or Gascoyne region) — that was the dilemma faced by Ben Patrick, owner of Australia’s popular Halco lures.

I was one of six other anglers joining Ben, among them Halco’s marketing and product-development manager Tim Carter, and Ben’s dad, Neil — who brought Halco to prominence and has for decades been an International Game Fish Association trustee. By the end of our second day of fishing within a short run of the coast, we had lost countless Roosta Popper lures to narrow-barred Spanish mackerel and Laser Pro diving plugs to rapacious wahoo. Even wire traces were bitten off or occasionally bitten through; Ben added more premade traces to the lure order as well.

On the second evening, aboard Ben’s 48-foot custom convertible, Mandalay, we sat at anchor in tranquil Turtle Bay, feasting on fresh wahoo (and calamari, thanks to squid attracted to the boat’s underwater Aqualuma blue lights). After dinner, Doug Nilsen called home to report in. Doug, co-owner of Accurate Fishing Products along with his brother David, also on board, were joined by their VP of sales and marketing, Ben Secrest. Before signing off, Doug handed his iPhone to Secrest for a quick hello. Since I happened to be sitting in the salon and working on my laptop, I jotted down Secrest’s comment to Doug’s wife verbatim: “Kate — you know I’ve fished a lot of places, but I’ve never seen anything like what I saw yesterday or today. It was crazy!”

Trident-Missile Launches
Everyone knows about Australia’s fabulous and famous Great Barrier Reef, but most American anglers — and quite a few Aussies — know little about the remote and mostly uninhabited coral coast of southwest Australia. I wanted to see how worthwhile the area might be as a new option for ­adventurous anglers looking for something different.

We started our trip at Shark Bay/Denham, to which we flew from Perth, about 400 miles south. There, aboard the Mandalay, Ben and Neil waited, ready to cast off. (While it does boast a small airport, Denham — with population numbering in three digits — held little else of interest to us.)

After an overnight at Turtle Bay (eating fresh pink snapper — actually a very large species of porgy — we’d caught an hour earlier), we cast small poppers to shark mackerel before breakfast. These sharkies were great fun and, as it turned out, a mere warm-up for what was to come.

Our first surprise of the day was the weather: The ­forecast had called for clear and sunny, but things started out calm, gray and drizzly. (This was far from the only weather surprise in store on this trip, but more on that later.)

We put out four Laser Pro deep-diving plugs of various sizes and colors, and started hooking fish at once. Most of the action came from Spaniards, as Australians call their narrow-barred mackerel, similar to the Atlantic’s king ­mackerel but with faint bars on their sides and a particularly badass disposition. The species is found throughout the IndoPacific region. We hooked one or two every so often, then suddenly all the rods were going off at once. I mentioned to Ben that, with the fish concentrated, it might be worth making a drift to throw poppers.

We did just that and, in short order, chaos reigned. Shouts of amazement arose from bow and stern as mackerel, attacking our Roosta Poppers from below, vaulted far above the surface. We’d see no telltale precursor to such Trident-missile launches; they could happen at any moment, and it was seldom long on any cast before they did, inevitably producing a chorus of cheers. More often than not, the mackerel missed the lure, but it mattered little; just seeing the high-flying, gravity-defying predators was its own reward.

More astounding still was the rare sight, as the morning went on, of dozens of Spaniards simultaneously erupting from the calm water over a large area, chasing down baitfish. Every angler stopped, mouth agape, at seeing so many freejumping torpedoes up to 40 pounds or so.

Over the course of the morning, we managed to release more narrow-barred mackerel than anyone could keep track of, but lost many to sharks as well. We also “released” a frighteningly large number of poppers during the melee, with all the bite-offs, break-offs and sharks.
**
Small Blacks Near Shore**
When the action finally slowed, we headed farther offshore in the afternoon to troll for marlin. We didn’t have to run far before putting out trolling lures; black marlin often patrol these waters within a few miles of shore. If we’d been after big blues in particular, a run of 40 miles or so to the 3,000foot zone would have been called for.

But we were looking for blacks since, in recent years, the whole nearshore coast from Shark Bay north to Exmouth and beyond has been a hotbed of activity for small black marlin, with 100- to 150-pound fish offering a fabulous lighttackle fishery Down Under in late spring through fall.

However, the black fishery often sees wide swings from season to season in ­availability; that’s the case for many other pelagic targets in these waters — blues, stripes, sails and yellowfin — so it can be hot for a season or two, then turn cold. Unfortunately, that day and, in fact, most of the season last year (unlike the outstanding fishing in 2010) proved a bit slim on the marlin-pickins’ side. Outside of raising a pair of sails, we didn’t see any billfish that afternoon.

Wahoo All Around
The next day we’d put on some miles, continuing our journey up the coast, keeping in mind that we had to reach Exmouth (to fly out), nearly 300 miles north of Shark Bay, on the eighth day.

But first, we couldn’t pass up the chance to have one more go with the Spaniards just after sunup if they proved to be as thick as the morning before. At first, it appeared we were in luck. Initial casts brought macks blasting from the water. But things proved different this morning. For one thing, bright sun had replaced yesterday’s overcast, low ceiling.

Plus there were the sharks.

We’re talking big sharks, of the 10-foot, bad-boy sort — at least one tiger plus bulls and other whalers. We knew we wouldn’t stand much chance of getting any mackerel to the boat and, indeed, saw some smashing (literally and figuratively) attacks on hooked fish. Some sharks even keyed in to the loud bloops made by the biggest Roosta Poppers and followed them to the boat. All of this served to remind me that it ain’t called Shark Bay for nothing.

We headed north to Dorrie Island, where our next big surprise awaited. The drop-off just outside the island proved to be wahoo city. Replacing the topwater strikes of Spaniards were slashing attacks by wahoo on trolled lures — Halco Laser Pros, Max wobbling plugs and the ­globally popular Giant Tremblers. More often than not, when one rod went off, so did all four, and for at least a bit, a marvelous mayhem ensued.

While yesterday’s fishing had decimated our supply of poppers, today we had to raid much of our diving-lure supply. Even though we fished fairly heavy braid and wire leaders, bite-offs and sharkings aplenty kept us rerigging. Minus those lost to sharks and three ’hoo we kept (to 50 pounds), we released more wahoo than we had count of.

Midway: Mining the Lumps
After a pleasant night in a lovely, shallow, sandy bay inside Berniar Island (also a great place for swimming), we trolled on northward, picking up several species of mackerel and some longtail tuna (the 10- to 20-pound tuna are widely called northern bluefin in Australia).

We picked up the lines and ran nearly two hours north and west (farther offshore) to some numbers Ben had been given; these held the promise of finding “lumps” on the bottom in 250 to 300 feet that should offer good jigging action.

For the most part, the seafloor off southwest Australia is rather like the Gulf of Mexico — a gently to moderately sloping bottom that’s uniformly pretty smooth. Any real structure would certainly be a gold mine for anglers. We didn’t find much structure, only slightly discernible bottom relief, but that was enough to produce some action.

Our first six bottomfish to the boat comprised six different species — red-throated emperor, pearl perch, pink snapper, gold-spot trevally, a coral trout and a dandy rankin cod (a species of grouper).

Yes, we ate very well that evening, at anchor near Carnarvon — the largest community midway between Shark Bay and Exmouth. Carnarvon sits at the Gascoyne River mouth. That’s one of the very few rivers on this arid stretch of Australian coast where rivers are dry beds most of the year. This larger river did have a bit of outflow — enough to create muddy estuarial water where the boat sat.

Knowing that drums and croakers around the world are fond of estuaries, before I joined the boys at dinner on the back deck, I baited a circle hook with a hunk of rib meat from one of the fish we’d cleaned earlier and left it to soak off the transom. I’d all but forgotten about it when the clicker sounded a short staccato alarm. I grabbed the rod, put the reel in gear to let the line come tight, and the circle hook did its work. Soon, I found myself hanging on and dipping the rod low when the fish ran under the boat, then hustling from corner to the next, until finally Tim pulled in through the tuna door a beautiful silvery mulloway, which seemed to me well over 20 pounds. Such drum — looking very much like their close relative, California’s white seabass — are ­considered a prized catch in this area.

Caught in the Open
The southwest coast of Australia gets its share of wind. Sure, there are calm days any time of the year, and March, April and May offer long stretches of nice weather. But wind is always a possibility.

Fortunately for us, the forecast for the next morning was light southwest winds all day — perfect for a long, 75-mile run up the coast to reefs near Coral Bay. But by midafternoon, we faced conditions very much at odds with the benign forecast. A due-north wind had started to build, and by nightfall, the Mandalay was running head-on into gale-force winds that had whipped the Indian Ocean into a frothing, confused, angry frenzy. And with the coast offering absolutely no protection from a northerly, there was nothing for it but to batten down and pound our way north in the blackness for another seven hours until we finally made Coral Bay where we could hide inside a fringing reef. That run, veterans Neil and Ben later assured me, was really tough, even for this windy region.

We hadn’t the time needed to begin to explore the waters around Exmouth by the time we made the area, and never did get into the excellent giant trevally action for which it’s known. Nor were we able to fish the huge fringing Ningaloo Reef. We did, however, find packs of good-size queenfish anxious to climb all over various lures, particularly Halco’s Hamma lure, when twitched hard to make it dart erratically.

Nor did we have the opportunity to run out to drop lines for billfish, which was a shame: Exmouth has recently become the newest hot spot among Australian billfish anglers. In addition to billfish, the area holds a great variety of game fish. Carter pointed out that Exmouth and the Gascoyne region represent a “crossover zone” where many warm-water species at the southern end of their range mix with many temperate species at the northern end of their range.

The Gulf of Exmouth is a vast body of water, and its ­extensive eastern side offers flats and shallows known to harbor bonefish, permit, golden and other trevallies, queenfish and more. Precious little serious effort has gone on here — though Halco recently teamed up with Australian fishing magazine Fishing World for an extended inshore adventure to better assess the potential of Exmouth’s extensive inshore fishery. (Read that account and see images at fishingworld.com.au/news/sneak-peek-amazing-exmouth.)

Even with all we did get to see and do, eight full days wasn’t nearly enough to truly explore and fish this area — offshore, nearshore and inshore.

The far side of Australia is a fascinating place for anglers with the means and sense of adventure to ­experience it.

Fishing the Far Side
Getting there: Fly into Perth for starters. We flew Air New Zealand (airnewzealand.com). Along with its high ratings (airlinequality.com), ANZ has many flights from L.A. and San Francisco directly into Auckland, and offers nonstops to Perth from there. Fly up to Exmouth or Shark Bay from Perth via Skywest (skywest.com.au).

TIMING: For the calmest, most pleasant fishing, figure March, April and May. That’s normally a good time for many game fish, including billfish. Also, the Australian International Billfish Tournament is held in fall, this year March 19 to 23 (for information, visit egfc.com.au, site of the Exmouth Game Fishing Club). If you can take the seas — since October through February can be cob-rough — anglers will find the best black marlin fishing from spring through fall. October’s also a good month for baitballs and sailfish.

To book charters or get more information:

Coral Bay
Coral Bay Ocean Game Fishing Charters
Capt. Bernie Vale
www.mahimahicoralbay.com.au

Shark Bay
Dirk Hartog Island Lodge
Capt. Keiran Wardle
www.dirkhartogisland.com

Exmouth
On Strike Charters
Capt. Josh Bruymnzeel
www.onstrike.com.au

Reel Teaser Charters
Capt. Ross Newton
www.reelteaser­charters.com

True Blue Bones
Capt. Brett Wolf
www.truebluebonefish.com.au
(inshore: bonefish, permit, queenfish, etc.)

Tackle World Bluewater Exmouth
A large, impressively well-equipped tackle dealer run by and for serious enthusiasts, and a great source of information about fishing the area.
www.bluewater.net.au

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You know the cliché: “You won’t die; you’ll just wish you had.” If there were ever an ailment for which this adage rings far too true, it’s ciguatera fish poisoning.

Ironically, this most common form of nonbacterial fish poisoning around the world remains a mystery to most people — including those who particularly need to know: saltwater anglers.

And while few might know about ciguatera (pronounced sigWAHterra), no one who’s ever contracted the ailment, symptoms of which can recur for years, will ever forget it.

“A living hell” — that’s the phrase that Kevin Deutsch used to describe the “agony at sea” that a group of anglers went through for eight days after eating a meal of delicious yellowfin grouper. “Stuck out at sea, the men wasted away for eight days before feeling well enough to venture back,” he wrote in a Palm Beach Post story. He quotes one angler, who dropped 14 pounds, as saying, “It was the worst I ever felt” and “If I touched anything cold, it burned my skin.”

A Texas woman who contracted ciguatera fish poisoning told news outlets that the symptoms were “horrible. I couldn’t walk on the tile floor; it felt like it was burning me.”

Nervous System Gone Haywire

“It was a great lunch,” recalls Julian Pepperell of his coral trout dinner in a northeastern Australian restaurant. He rates the colorful Indo-Pacific grouper as “one of the ­best­-eating (and highest-priced) fish on the reef.”

That night at about 1 a.m., he “awoke with intense muscle aching in my thighs and buttocks. I felt like I had run a marathon and could hardly get out of bed.” But staying in bed wasn’t an option: Pepperell also suffered acute nausea and diarrhea. Then his palms and soles began to itch ­excruciatingly, turning bright red.

By the next evening, a weak Pepperell had recovered enough to stop for a beer at the local watering hole. “Soon, my palms and soles started to itch and turn red again, and then the penny dropped! Alcohol triggers symptoms of ciguatera poisoning. And I had eaten coral trout, a species implicated in the disease.”

Pepperell would know of ciguatera since he’s one of Australia’s preeminent fisheries scientists. Most victims — and physicians — don’t have a clue, however, when they find themselves blindsided by a double whammy of gastrointestinal explosions coupled with a nervous system gone haywire.

Symptoms of Ciguatera Fish Poisoning?

Although 50,000 or so ciguatera cases are reported worldwide each year, health officials estimate several times that number go unreported or misdiagnosed. Frequently, neurological symptoms lead physicians to diagnose the onset of multiple sclerosis.

One reason Pepperell didn’t guess what ailed him on that first night: the absence of the prevalent, most “classic” ciguatera symptom — hot and cold reversal. That means a victim senses an ice cube as if were a burning-hot coal or, conversely, a warm bath as a tub of ice water.

But ciguatera presents with a confounding variety of (sometimes bizarre) symptoms, especially neurologically. In Pepperell’s case, “a weird thing I experienced for the next several months was a sensation when I stood up and took a few steps — I felt as if I’d stepped into a hole, so my body didn’t seem to register that my feet were actually making contact with the ground!” Pepperell says he learned later that “this definitely can be another symptom of ciguatera, [stemming from its] effect on peripheral nerves.”

Deadly Plankton

The ailment’s name doesn’t explain much but reveals that this nasty fish poisoning has been around for a long time. Spanish explorers who described it very clearly in the 1500s attributed it to a small snail they called the cigua.

What actually causes ciguatera is far smaller and more insidious than a snail. A type of plankton, appropriately named Gambierdiscus toxicus, produces ciguatoxin. G. toxicus is fond of attaching itself to marine algae on coral reefs. Small fish that eat the algae accumulate the fat-soluble toxin. As larger predators eat these herbivores and are in turn eaten by still larger fish (you know, the size you like to throw in your fish box), concentrations of the toxin — which, by the way, affect only mammals — increase geometrically.

Such fish become time bombs for people unlucky enough to eat them.

Beware the Reef’s Biggest and Baddest

Given the source of this toxin, anglers have little reason for concern with any cold-water game fish nor, for the most part (though not always), with open-ocean pelagics. The association of Gambiendiscus with coral reefs makes it common in tropical fish. A wide range of species that inhabit tropical reefs and/or eat reef fish can concentrate enough ciguatoxin to be a danger.

A host of well-established bad actors frequently ­implicated in ciguatera poisonings include amberjack, hogfish (a type of wrasse), cubera and mutton snappers, many other jacks such as black jacks and giant trevally, and many species of grouper — including the widespread coral trout that nailed Pepperell, and particularly the lovely Caribbean yellowfin grouper (note its scientific name, Mycteroperca venenosa, the latter meaning “poisonous”). But the list is long and also includes king mackerel, triggerfishes, wrasses, parrotfishes and dozens of others.

Most notoriously associated with ciguatera by those who live in tropical waters would have to be the great barracuda and red bass. The latter is one of the most common members of the snapper family around much of Australia and the Indo-Pacific, a very aggressive shallow-reef-loving fish widely sought by anglers.

Russian Roulette

If fish eaters who live in the tropics lack knowledge about ciguatera, those who live far inland know even less. It’s unlikely that dozens of diners ever heard of the disease when they indulged in tasty dinners of fresh Gulf of Mexico amberjack in various St. Louis eateries in December 2007. They know about it now, having found out the hard way, with many hospitalized after a typical incubation period as short as 10 minutes or as much as days after ingestion.

Consumers in Canada learned of ciguatera when the Canadian Food Inspection Agency warned the public against consuming a brand of leatherjacket — a large species of smooth puffer — imported from China after ciguatera reared its ugly head, victimizing at least two diners.

Eating amberjack or, in fact, any of these fish, even large barracuda or snapper, does not mean you’re doomed to come down with the disease. Far from it: Around the world, people eat these fish every day with no problem.

On the other hand, one can’t entirely rule it out in many instances, and therein lies the rub. It’s like Russian roulette, albeit with one bullet in a clip that can hold thousands of rounds, not just six. Still, it’s one bullet you don’t want to bite.

Ciguatoxin is particularly treacherous in a number of respects. For one thing, it’s heat stable, so cooking doesn’t faze it. Nor is it bothered by freezing. In other words, if it’s in a fish’s flesh, nothing you can do will get rid of it.

Here’s more treachery: The toxin has no effect on the fish’s flesh. You can neither smell nor taste it. In short, it’s pretty much undetectable.

Reducing Your Risk of Contracting Ciguatera

Never eating any fish that live in or around coral reefs would probably assure you of avoiding ciguatera, though such a step is a bit drastic. But you can reduce the odds even further in your favor that your favorite fish, whether caught or bought, won’t prove host to the toxin.

Consider the size. The larger the reef fish, the more likely it is to be ciguatoxic. That makes sense since the toxin concentrates, like mercury, as it moves up the food chain. I’ve heard various rules of thumb — e.g., any fish less than 5 pounds is safe and some no more than 2 pounds. There is no hard-and-fast rule, but it’s empirically evident that larger fish generally account for outbreaks. (The owner of one of the St. Louis restaurants serving meals unaware from a ciguatoxic 60-pound AJ told a newspaper reporter he now understood big fish could be problematic, so he wouldn’t serve any amberjack exceeding 25 pounds in the future. In fact, that arbitrary cutoff probably means little.) As an angler, you have the opportunity to throw back larger predators if you wish (unlike diners, who have no way of knowing how large a fish provided the fillets on their plate).

Consider where and when caught. Some areas are hotbeds for G. toxicus. Often this is well known locally. For example, Ray Waldner, Ph.D., a well-known fisheries biologist, cites Cuba (especially for hogfish) and the Dry Tortugas in the Caribbean. Fish from Bahamas reefs have been implicated over the years as well. Yet there are many tropical regions where the disease remains virtually unknown. But just to complicate matters, reef areas apparently historically free from ciguatera can become “infected” at any time, while those infected can later become ciguatera free.

Unpredictable Outbreaks

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned fish ­processors to buy no fish caught within 50 miles of the productive Flower Garden Banks far off the Texas coast following ciguatera outbreaks in 2007. Not a single incidence of ciguatera had been attributed to the waters off Texas in recent memory but then, suddenly, there it was, with many cases of ciguatera from fish caught in the area.

I’ve fished some large Pacific atolls where the islanders commonly eat all fish from one end of the atoll while shunning them from the other side. For whatever reason, apparently the toxic phytoplankton had bloomed just in one area.

No one is certain why Gambiendiscus does bloom when and where it does, or why it endures in some areas or fades in others. Many factors might be involved, including water temperature and quality. But scientists believe the opportunistic plankton take advantage of increased algae growth on coral reefs that have been disrupted or degraded, whether by natural causes such as hurricanes or by humans from pollution, dredging and the like. Some have pointed out that reef communities growing on oil rigs and platforms might also provide new opportunities for Gambiendiscus.

Eight Days of Living Hell

I alluded previously to a disease that made its victim wish he or she were dead. It’s important to understand that not all individuals eating ciguatoxic fish will suffer similarly. Indeed, some might remain completely asymptomatic; others might take a (relatively) mild hit, with symptoms limited mostly to gastrointestinal distress for a day or two. However, many victims are beset with a host of agonizing symptoms that can continue or recur over days, weeks or even years.

While ciguatera episodes generally do start out typical of most food poisonings, the effect of this neurotoxin on the nervous system is most likely to be both acute and chronic, miserable and frightening.

Among the affliction’s many symptoms:

• hot and cold reversal
• intense pain in one’s teeth and sometimes the feeling that all of one’s teeth are loose
• intense and burning itch
• numbness or tingling in extremities
• sharp, shooting pains in arms and legs, and/or heightened sensitivity to pain
• pain when urinating
• blurred vision, dizziness
• various abnormal sensations
• malaise, physical weakness, extreme fatigue
• slowing of the heart
• hallucinations

Regarding the last, “Today I am experiencing a new symptom: hallucinations.” So wrote a South African victim in a blog after he’d eaten some “great-tasting” barracuda (and also received an initial diagnosis of multiple sclerosis). He describes his visions as “dots that float around the room as if they have some sort of purpose.”

Being unable to identify anything hot, since it feels cold to the touch, could even lead to scalding. One Australian marine biologist writes, “I had an enormous amount of difficulty telling if something was hot and had someone else run showers for me for two months.”

The array of symptoms often masks the ailment. For example, a Kalamazoo, Michigan, ciguatera victim was ­diagnosed with MS. Five weeks later, after MRI scans, visits to neurosurgeons and four trips to the emergency room, she finally received the right diagnosis: ciguatera, contracted during a visit to the Dominican Republic 10 days before the onset of symptoms.

Just When You Thought It Was Safe

If there’s any good news for those who contract the illness, nearly all sufferers live through it. Most recover in days or weeks, though granted, those generally mean some mighty miserable weeks.

But various symptoms often persist and, to make matters worse, certain triggers can induce symptoms with greater severity, even years later. Alcohol appears to be the most likely such trigger — as Pepperell found out over a beer in his favorite Aussie pub.

Another trigger: eating fish — apparently any fish! For example, Waldner cites the case of a University of Puerto Rico marine-science professor who contracted ciguatera from eating a piece of fresh almaco jack. “It took him months to recover,” says Waldner, and the man steered clear of fish for a year. Then he had a meal of dolphin (mahi). Big mistake. “Although dolphin is considered to be a ‘safe’ species,” says Waldner, “the meal resulted in full-blown ciguatera poisoning again.”

Waldner explains that apparently some ciguatoxin remains in the blood of one who’s contracted the disease; after several months, toxin levels in the Puerto Rico prof gradually dropped below a threshold, so he suffered few or no symptoms. But presumably, even a minute amount of the toxin from a source — such as the dolphin — can be enough to cross the threshold. “It’s conceivable that older folks who come down with ciguatera may never be able to safely eat fish again,” Waldner adds.

But wait — there’s more. Ciguatera victims cite a number of other triggers all-too-well documented over many years, including eating nuts, chicken or eggs, drinking caffeine, and exposure to certain chemicals or fumes. Hard exercise, particularly in a hot environment, can bring on an attack. And, to pile on further insult, so can sexual activity.

Treatment for Ciguatera Fish Poisoning

Nearly always, by the time a ciguatera victim gets the proper diagnosis, there’s no treatment, and beyond (marginal) success in mitigating symptoms, there’s going to be a whole lot of suffering going on.

That said, in recent years, it has seemed that mannitol — a sugar alcohol — given intravenously could help (though no one ever determined exactly why or how). But a check of literature on this shows mannitol to be variously helpful if administered with 48 hours of onset to absolutely worthless, depending upon the study.

The drug Brevenal appears to hold promise, perhaps as the first real treatment for the disease. Scientists discovered that this patented polyether compound could treat neurotoxic shellfish poisoning (typically a result of red tides) in humans. That toxin is related to ciguatoxin, so scientists in Australia and North Carolina acted (independently) on a hunch that Brevenal might treat ciguatera as effectively. The Brevenal apparently blocks the effect of ciguatoxin on sodium channels in cells, since that’s what causes the nervous system to start going haywire.

Ciguatera is a very scary disease. It’s also one of the most common ailments from eating fish and considered a global health concern (that might be getting worse). All that said, your odds of getting it remain very low indeed. But the risk is there, and a little knowledge can go a long way to avoid it, especially for those of us who catch our seafood, and can pick and choose what we keep — keeping only smaller reef fish if we’re after real peace of mind. And it’s good to ­recognize the symptoms of the disease for what it is, should you or someone you know be suddenly laid low by a mysterious ailment after eating a meal of delicious fresh fish.

Symptoms: It’s All About Location

It seems that where one contracts ciguatera can make a difference in the nature of the ailment. That is, victims in the Caribbean region are more likely to suffer greater acute gastrointestinal distress with a more gradual onset of neurological effects than victims from the far Pacific, where neurological symptoms prevail and might be worse. The reason probably has to do with the composition of the toxin produced by the different species of Gambiendiscus. Of course exceptions abound, and the bottom line remains the same: Wherever you get ciguatera, it pretty much sucks.

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