i have an o/h spooled with 20lb braid - that would probably be the go hey?

I've never really chased fish in the sound much, only squid. Plenty there and very tasty, although 50lb could be a bit heavy!

closed in Cockburn Sound but around in Owen Anchorage is still ok to crab.  Old fart has about 10 meters of line on crab pots, always have more than you need, as if not the float will bob up and down lifting the crab pot up and down, guess what no crabs.

We've caught nice whiting, herring but mainly squid.  Got onto a nice ball of under size snapper, that was fun catching then releasing didn't know how hard they pull even though they were little.

Good luck with your your mates new boat.

i was starting to put 20 m on each, i might go down to 15 :D 

wheres this owen anchorage; near the sound? i have nil experience boating round perth- except for the rivers but thats only in a 10ft, is it a pretty perilous journey from cockburn to five fathom?  id like to catch something decent ;P 

I'll assume one of you have a recreational skippers ticket and at least one recreational boat fishing license between you. If you intend to go to the five fathom bank, then  you will also need an epirb as you are going outside the epirb exclusion zone. If you dont have the first 2, then you shouldn't be heading out.

As mentioned, the crab closure is now in effect so you can fish within cockburn sound for crabs. You can fish for them north of Woodman's Point (an imaginary line from woodies point out to sea) and the other side of garden island.

If you have "nil experience", then stick to the inside of the Sound and get used to driving your boat in the ocean. Slowly venture a bit further as you gain confidence and have a better idea of the economy of the boat and how far you can drive safely with a margin for error (rule of thirds).

Within the Sound you can catch a fair array of fish icluding herring, tailor, salmon (when they are around), snapper (when they are around), skippy, squid etc. May not be the "monsters" you are after, but its all relative. Tackle them with light bream gear and you'll have a ball.

skippers ticket- check , RBFL- check, EPIRB- check, CB - check, Flares- Check- Bilge- Check - etc.. we just dont have a naut chart - i cant find any on the net and i cant make it to a shop before they close, will shops be open tomorrow? nah hey ;L   ?  is a chart necessary?

You will not need a chart if you are pokeing around in the Sound,but you might be able to buy one at the Woodmans pt shop,,handy to have i guess.

 Just remember it will be chaos at the boat ramps . Good luck .

heading out from woodys a few months back now, we got to the shipping channel marks that are about half way to g/i, our motor blew up (drop a bigend and sized) and we where foreced to anchor while a freind came to rescue us, a couple of ours late mind you.

anyway just east of the marks we anchored in about 10-15mtrs and started to fish while we waited.

the amount of baby snapper we got was amazing, along with some nice size skippy, and that was not even trying.

also near the mussle farms has always produced some nice skippy,hearing,sqiud.(very hard to see at night as we found out, be carefull).

the weed banks over near rocko foreshore (where all the boats are mored) have always produced some nice squid.

i have also spent many years fishing the f/f bank with some very amazing results for water in to 8-15mtr.

alot of snags if you drift but i have found that it is the best. if anchored always try to put a floater or livey out as you just never know.

becarefull of the wheather as i have seen some huge waves break on the bank in average wheather. just about anywhere on the bank will produce fish.

dont be shy of eating the big rock cods, they are very tasty.

all in all enjoy!

cheers all, sounds promising :D 

Shorty: good point about the boats ramps. might be a whole bunch of fun :p

does anyone have a basic range of co-ords for the bank - so i know roughly where to head?  

i will  pm you a couple of my spots

:D much appreciated ron. will let you know if they turn up trumps :D

Call in at Cockburn Pleasure boat storage, they will have a chart, bait, your fishing needs and good food.

my best bait to use would be squid and whatever i can catch yer?  i got a bunch of mulies left from tonight at south mole (not a bite we bailed at 9) ill probably use them for berley, is it worth towing mulies on gangs behind us or stick to lures? we got a few skirts on the weekend as we have dreams of catching something decent, tuna mackeral etc.. but heres hoping i guess... :P

wont last very long unless you putt along at 1 or 2kt!

I have attached a pic of cockburn sound and surrounding area (I hope its not too big).

• You can see Owen's Anchorage just north of woodies point.
• The five fathom bank is the area to the left of GI that rises from 20m to 6m - 8m (the dark blue band)
• The Parmelia Bank is worth a snoop for king george etc (just north of the tip of GI)
• The Southern Flats (area around the GI overpass / Mangles Bay) is my preferred squidding area.
• You mention tuna, so it'd be worthwhile (if the water temp is high enough) to tow some Halco 190's along a few of the contour lines around the five fathom, I wouldn't bother with mulies but you could chum the water with them as you troll I guess.
• If you keep going north of Carnac Island you'll find Mewstones reef (not in the pic) where you can find all sorts of goodies like tailor, small reef sharks, baby sambos - its a real treasure trove IMO.
• Beyond Mewstones and heading towards Rotto is Stragglers where I have found good salmon schools (when they are around), an area worth a bit of exploration.

Hope it is somewhat helpful.

Thanks HuggyB , that chart is awesome- cheers.. we ended up today launchin in teh river and just heading out to freo and beyond - not too far, came out the moles and up to the shipping channel markers and just played around in there , watched the fish finder - still yet to figure out what all the squiggles mean :p  and gotta sort out the GPS, cant even work out how to put a co-ord in.. time to google some manuals :D

ended up on some herring.. woo :P

next time should be better (touch wood)

HuggyB- can i ask where u got that chart img? coz its looks pretty good  :D 

thanks for that info HuggyB.  Mine is a similar story to Hekser's.  Picked up a Coastrunner at start of the year.  Been fishing the Sound with little knowledge and patience the last 3 months.

I will be laminating your post and chart.  It will accompany me on the next trip out this Monday.

Will be nice to get some return on investment.

PG

Its a program called Mapsend Blue Nav - you get it with Magellan GPS.

PerthGlory - I'll be out and about tomorrow as well - my boat is called "peelin reels" so come over and say hi if you see me! Will be hitting Mewstones for tailor, then southern flats for squid.

Yeah, the upper reaches.