Western Australia's South Lefroy stretch of the Ningaloo Coast has produced one of the more outrageous tinny missions of the autumn - Cal and Kate's two-day deep-drop assault on the 100 m to 250 m line that delivered pearl perch, gold band snapper, a manually wound ruby snapper and one very unwelcome tax-man.
The pair set out from camp with a 3.5 m aluminium tinny, a 255 g Meathead jig spiked with squid, a Vexed 350 g and an honest plan: catch live squid for bait, run out four miles to the 260 m mark, and see what came up. "Here we're along the Ningaloo Coast and we are going to get into some deep sea tinny missions," Cal told the camera as they cleared the swell.
It started with comedy. After hand-bombing four small squid into the kill bag, the fifth bit Cal across his "brand new shorts and shirt," inking him head to chest before they had even reached the deep water. Onto the bait squid went, into 100 m of water - and the first hit was a baited rat that ate the tentacles off the jig. Cal vented at the camera and reset.
The second drop produced an unusual-looking fish that Cal initially mistook for a fox-coloured deep reef species, then a Robinson seabream - better known on the coast as a big-eye - which he and Kate agreed was "premium grade eating out here." An amberjack followed soon after, double-headers tangling the braids in the wash. "That's a new one for you. That's an amberjack, babe," Cal said as Kate boated her first.
Then came the headline fish. Kate's drop on the heavy gear came up gold. "That's a good fat gold band there," Cal said at the unhooking mat. Kate followed it with a second and a third gold band snapper in the same drift. "Three for three. Third gold band," Cal said, jealous but laughing. "What pretty fish."
The weather window held just long enough for them to go again the next day with the gardening rig, but the real test came on the manual reel. Out to a mark on the 200 m line, with a 350 g Vexed jig and a squid flap, Cal hand-wound through 160 m of braid for a fish he was convinced was a pearl perch - and he was right. "Pearl perch. Wow. Wicked. Yeah. I never thought I'd get one of these," he said over the unhooking mat. "Northern Jewey. That's awesome. That's a good eating fish, that one."
One more drop to 250 m on the heavy outfit produced his target ruby snapper - a baby, but the species he had set out for. "It's a little ruby. Little baby. It's not the size we're after, but it's a ruby nonetheless. It's the species," he said, blowing through 500 metres of braid by the time the fish hit the deck. "Manually, man. You do the hard work."
The day was not without tax. A yellowfin tuna that had finally come to the boat after the school surfaced under the hull got hit clean in half by a shark right at the leader. Cal called the offender the "tax man" before rigging a single garfish as a switch bait and pushing on.
A fouled prop wrapped in melted mono almost ended the trip early - Cal pulled the prop off with fishing pliers in the swell and rewound the rig with wire trace - but with marlin and sailfish never showing, the deep-drop highlight reel held its own. Three gold band snapper to Kate, a pearl perch and a manual-wind ruby to Cal, with a Robinson seabream, two amberjack and a handful of mystery deep-water species rounding out the bag from a 3.5 m tinny in 100 to 250 m of water.