Charter Booked :-)

Hey guys,

Been a long time in the making but finally booked in with Whitey - going out on 23/04 with the old man (who is celebrating his 60th). Neither of us have experience fishing off shore in WA - but plenty of time on the boat back in the UK (although this is going back 20 years!).

I know Whitey is a top skipper and if the fish are there he will put us on to them. Was just hoping to get a better idea of what to expect from those who have gone out with him before?

Also, is it worth taking anything extra on the day - additional tackle/jigs, food, etc?

Just as exciting, have a couple of days up in Greenhead early in April so looking forward to getting into some tailor and something bigger if the fishing gods are kind. :-)

Cheers all

Buschy

 


Snags's picture

Posts: 558

Date Joined: 07/05/09

When i went

Tue, 2014-03-04 13:01

They supply bait (incl. livies which we caught) and appropriate gear (t-curve, 8000 saragosa & paternoster rigs) for bait fishing.  

If you want to fish artificials, i would suggest BYO everything.

 

Bring nibbles and drinks, sausages were put on on the way back in.

 

They definitely will put you onto fish!  

Posts: 241

Date Joined: 27/08/11

hopefully the winds may have

Tue, 2014-03-04 13:01

hopefully the winds may have desisted a little by then.

If you are bottom bashing then don't worry about taking anything other than food with you. I prefer to jig so tend to take my own gear anyway, if you want to take a selection of jigs the deckies will rig them up for you. I should imagine, depending on the weather and the other patrons, he might go for a troll early doors over a few spots and then head out to 40/50m (or deeper depending on how the day is going) for a bottom session.

The gear is good quality and the deckies are generally attentive - though they seem to spend more time fishing these days than previously, however they almost always share their catch if anyone is running low on limits.

There was a recent topic on the forum regarding peoples reports up there - might be worth finding it and having a read.

 

Ben Derecki's picture

Posts: 1926

Date Joined: 10/10/07

As above.

Tue, 2014-03-04 13:28

I went out with them last week and the lads above me are spot on.  Agree with GH's comment re them spending more time fishing than being deckies, we had to chase up bait refills and sort out a few fish ourselves a couple of times.  The flip side of this is that anything they catch goes into the kitty for the punters which I certainly benefited from.

Note that they don't provide any food so definately take some, plenty of drinks there though inc a few beers which was a bonus.

Posts: 241

Date Joined: 27/08/11

How did you go Ben?Any

Tue, 2014-03-04 13:45

How did you go Ben?

Any pelagics?...the only issue I find with the trolling is that it can be a 10 person $hit fight for a rod when one goes.

I was looking to go in a few weeks for a jig as long as the water temps havent started to changing too much (I think it was April last year there was a cold wet spate late March/early April and they dropped off a bit).

Ben Derecki's picture

Posts: 1926

Date Joined: 10/10/07

Yeah was a good trip out.  We

Tue, 2014-03-04 14:20

Yeah was a good trip out.  We steamed out for an hour or so before Whitey dropped the the skirts out for some macks.  We bagged five in about half an hour and noone else wanted any so we kept going for a bit before hitting the demersals.  Didn't have any troubles with people fighting for rods, was all pretty smooth.

We bagged out (bait outfishig jigs big time) by around 11.30am and ended up pulling out the serious troll gear for a few hours - Tiagra 80s on bent butt rods kind of thing.  That was pretty quiet but we nabbed a largish stripey tuna in there on the way home.

Jody's picture

Posts: 1578

Date Joined: 19/04/07

Fresh Bait

Tue, 2014-03-04 14:07

Would definately be my suggestion. The fresh stuff. That is if you are it instead of plastic/jigs.

Whitey stops for some livies but, IMHO, you will outfish the crowds by hunting some fresh squid / herring / whiting and bagging it up for the trip. 

____________________________________________________________________________

 TWiZTED

Posts: 241

Date Joined: 27/08/11

Yeah hadn't thought about

Tue, 2014-03-04 17:05

Yeah hadn't thought about taking my own bait actually, though good suggestion.

When I was last out jigs outfished bait 2 to 1, but  the bait brought in much better diversity overall.

On the past 3 occassions i have been out of Jurien there has been a 17kn+ wind, and bite detection with bottom bashing in fast drifts isn't great i find. Though i was casting jigs 20m upwind on the last trip to get em down to the bottom for very few jigs before retrieving at 45 degrees.

 

Posts: 43

Date Joined: 04/11/12

beer

Wed, 2014-03-05 03:40

skipper drinks heineken..... handy bribe

 

Posts: 626

Date Joined: 27/11/09

Thank you everyone

Fri, 2014-03-07 07:46

Really appreciate the advice and practical suggestions....sorry it's taken a while to reply, have been offline for a few days.

I'm hearing food, fresh bait and a carton for the skipper.

I do plan to focus on bait, but if the jigs are really getting smashed then I'll swap....so might have to add some to the tackle box prior to then.

I'm in Greenhead at the beginning of April, so might focus on freezing up some quality bait depending on what I am catching,

Really hope the pelagics are around and the weather is reasonable....April is a pretty good bet though from experience weather wise.