Fishwrecked Welcomes new Site Sponsor - Mackerel Islands
Good Morning All,
I'd like to welcome aboard our new site sponsor; Mackerel Islands
Cheers,
Adam
The Mackerel Islands began with a dream of fishing, fun and adventure fuelled by mateship, hard work, and business built on good old fashioned trust and handshakes. 43 years later the unique, rugged, unspoilt beauty of the string of ten islands and atolls that have become known as the Mackerel Islands still abounds. Of these ten, two islands welcome guests with accommodation, facilities and activities – Thevenard Island and Direction Island.
These islands are a discontinuous extension of the Ningaloo Reef system. The coral surrounding the islands are teeming with fish and marine life including painted crayfish. The diving has been described by Nigel Marsh in Divelog Australasia Magazine as “WORLD CLASS DIVING” and is one of his “TOP TEN DIVE SITES IN AUSTRALIA”. Fishing opportunities on and around the islands include beach fishing, fly fishing, bottom fishing and game fishing. We run fishing charters from Onslow and the Mackerel Islands, which are very popular as we only take on small groups, so everyone gets plenty of time with a line in the water.
To quote Al McGlashan on his Fish’n with Mates TV Show, the fishing is “INSANE, AWESOME, lives up to its name, and the variety of fish is simply out of this world”. Thevenard Island is a major turtle habitat and hundreds of female turtles nest on the island each year. The newly hatched turtles can be seen during the summer months as they make their race down to the safety of the ocean. On the west beach, we have our own “TURTLE HIGHWAY”, a stretch of beach where visitors have a good chance of spotting a female turtle trudging to and from the dunes during nesting season.
The Mackerel Islands are located 22km off the coast of Onslow, and can be reached by boat or plane. Onslow lies between Exmouth, Karratha and Karijini National Park. We offer daily transfers by boat, and also have moorings at the islands for the use of private boats. We are also really excited that Virgin Australia now flies daily from Perth to Onslow. We provide accommodation on two of the islands, Thevenard and Direction.
For more information, please check out the website:
https://mackerelislands.com.au/
Site Admin - Just ask if you need assistance
Silver Fox
Posts: 1097
Date Joined: 19/06/14
Sweet
Was there 25 years ago, an awesome place. Should still be pretty much the same as it was . A session chucking Halco twistys to ravenous Trevelly out of the dingy at Sandy Cay is still one of my most treasured fishing memories . If you ever get a chance to hit this place up Do It !
My wife understands why I clean my rods n reels in the shower....
sea-kem
Posts: 14857
Date Joined: 30/11/09
Same Chris was there when
Same Chris was there when old Bernie was managing the place. Went twice and just an awesome adventure, only used the dinghy's back then but still filled the bags. And Sandy cay was Trevally paradise.
Love the West!
bod
Posts: 2318
Date Joined: 03/05/06
Welcome
Welcome to Fishwrecked. What an awesome place.
Madmerv
Posts: 672
Date Joined: 24/01/15
Welcome aboard
I have been to the Mackerel's a couple of times fishing with groups of mates. One time diving and fishing and one just for the fishing,
Bloody awsome is all i can say.
Booked a beach hut for both times and cant fault the accomadation or the service we received. Fishing was fantastic with several PB's and firsts got on both trips.
Sometimes when the water is quiet, you can hear the fish laughing at you !
TF in DZ
Posts: 48
Date Joined: 06/01/17
Looks Awsome
If anyone knows would Direction Island be worth spending a week at? Was looking at somewhere like this to go with my old boy and his 5 grandsons between 14-17years have a 6.5m boat but may need to leave a 2-3 on the island some days is the fishing/diving better than Thevenard?
Thanks in advance Toby
MackerelsSkipper
Posts: 17
Date Joined: 19/04/18
G'day Toby!Direction Island
G'day Toby!
Direction Island is great if you enjoy being on a secluded island, it's full of rustic charm! If it's good fishing and diving you want, I'd reccommend booking in at Thevenard.
Thevenard gives you cose access to both shallow and deeper water fishing options, where as from Direction you have to travel further if you want to fish the 40 metre contour for example.
In saying that, the fishing from shore is decent around both islands, with Queenfish, Threadfin Salmon, Mackerel and Spangled Emperor all prevalent. If you stay at Direction yopu can duck over to Thevenard to refuel, grab ice/bait if needed but there's a decent freezer in the shack you can store supplies.
Depending on what time of year you're coming the airconditioning in the cabins at Thevenard might be well appreciated.
Hope this helps!
CHRIS SAUNDERS
MACKEREL ISLANDS FISHING CHARTERS
TF in DZ
Posts: 48
Date Joined: 06/01/17
Cheers
Cheers Chris
uncle
Posts: 9353
Date Joined: 10/02/07
So many memories of that
Place. Great fishing
all aggressive fish love bigjohnsjigs
MackerelsSkipper
Posts: 17
Date Joined: 19/04/18
Thanks
Thanks guys for the welcome! Just getting the hang of posting. Any questions or advice, feel free to shout out.
CHRIS SAUNDERS
MACKEREL ISLANDS FISHING CHARTERS
Helen
Posts: 597
Date Joined: 06/02/10
Its on my bucket list.
Its on my bucket list. Welcome. :)
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.408848386241.187244.576756241&type=1&l=8a3bfed72d
Calzone
Posts: 3
Date Joined: 15/01/14
We stayed on Thevenard for a
We stayed on Thevenard for a couple of nights about 3 years back and it was awesome. The staff were waiting for us on the beach as we arrived on our boats. The cabins were modeern, clean and very comfortable....and the chest freezer was huge!!. Get a group together and it becomes very affordable. Plenty to dop and the staff will bend over backwards to make sure you get the most out of your stay.
We also did a charter with them a year later with Simmo as skipper and we picked up plenty of fish....Mackies, Saddletail snapper, Rankin Cod, Spanglies and a few others. He had some good spots.
Will be definitely visiting again in the future.
Raf
Posts: 1
Date Joined: 04/05/20
Thevenard was a disappointment
Land based fishing was average,due to weather we couldn't use hire boats we booked ,well can't blame anybody for that but I think manager got scared when he saw few guys and loads of gear coming in for a week of fishing adventures
not a word of wisdom came from manager about where and how we could catch fish ,first timers long way away from home ,spend a sack of money to get there ,it was a failure .......
Thank you Darren and Lockie ,boys did the right by us happy to help
won't be going again anytime soon
I'm sure it's awesome every other time .....
Picked a new location after lock down see how that goes
p.s FYI