Mandurah Artificial Reef

 

Hi all -----  Last weekend , I tried to find the new reef off Mandurah but had no luck  as my GPS was not easy to read and the Recfish  coordinates were in decimal degress so maybe my conversion was a bit off.   I also found it to be a bit far out as I rarely go beyond the 5 fathom Bank reef.  Just wondering if anyone else has been there and how is the fishing there.  Does it look promising ???

 


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Mandurah artificial reef

Tue, 2017-01-17 20:57

The artificial reef is coming along real good, by that I mean that a lot of sea life has taken up residence already, long before such was expected.

How to get the gps fixes for the modules, write down the locations given by Recfishwest, then google up "latitude, longitude conversion" there are heaps of sites that will convert decimal fixes to degrees, minutes, seconds. Just fill in the required fields with the decimal fixes press enter and walla you get the degrees minutes seconds come up easy peezy.

To the best of my knowledge there are no resident big fish on the modules yet, you will get the odd sambo coming through but don't bet your house on catching one. You can get a feed of Skippy and bread and butter fish, all good to eat. I float a mulie/small livie off the back while I'm fishing in case any thing big comes along.

Do not anchor on the modules (repeat) or you will lose your anchor for sure, work out the direction of the drift so it will take you over the group of modules you want to fish on. Then anchor about 20 metres up from the modules and lay off enough anchor cable that allows your boat to hold above where you want to fish, use some berley and you should do alright.

The fishing future on these modules for the future looks real good to me.

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Date Joined: 06/09/10

 Thanks for reply and info re

Wed, 2017-01-18 20:52

 Thanks for reply and info re getting the conversion.  I will do that asap .  Good points you made re the snagging of anchor and I dont like the idea of using a rope too shoert for the depth so will stick to drifting when we finally get there.   I guess I was hoping for  a quicker result re the big sambos as they are fun to catch.  You only have to see the schools under the Busselton jetty at the observatory there on the end to appreciate how good a fish they are to catch and release.    

carnarvonite's picture

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Anchoring

Thu, 2017-01-19 07:59

From my understanding , you should have enough rope to anchor in what ever area you are fishing in, if not then you shouldn't be out that far

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Date Joined: 23/04/14

Not very practical

Thu, 2017-01-19 08:22

By that guidance the vast majority of trailer boats shouldn't venture past about 30m deep. 

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carnarvonite's picture

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Why

Thu, 2017-01-19 14:36

Probably why I carry approx 150 metres of 12mm anchor rope on a 5 metre boat.

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 Damn. There goes my

Thu, 2017-01-19 15:43

 Damn. There goes my billfishing in the trench. Haha

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Auslobster's picture

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One thing to keep in mind...

Wed, 2017-01-18 04:03

 ...it's unlikely that somebody is going to catch something noteworthy from there and then post it up on a public forum. So despite a lack of reports, it's always going to be worth dropping a line there, at least if you're in the area.

Depth there is 25m, so dropping anchor 20m away won't give you enough rode...bare minimum would be 50m away, which gives a ratio of 3:1. Which would be barely OK on a flat calm day. Better to aim for closer to 5:1. The two farthest points in the entire six-cluster system are only 200m apart, so boats are fairly close together and drifting would be a better option anyway...as long as the other boats are drifting too!

Finally, the reef is less than a km from the back edge of the FFB...the location was chosen to make it an equal distance from the Mandurah heads and the Dawesville Cut. Something like six or seven nautical miles, from memory. So if you can make it to the five, you can make it to there!

 

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 thanks for reply  and info

Wed, 2017-01-18 20:59

 thanks for reply  and info re length of  anchor rope etc.   I still think it would be a bit dicey going there in anything less than  5m  boat especially as the sea breeze and South wester are a problem twhen the wind speed are up and the white caps are everywhere.  It can change in a half hour so fishers should be prepared to head in as soon as the wind starts.

By the way ---- did anyone suggest to Recfish that a floating Fad type marker bouy in the centre would be a good nav aid to use there. I am sure there would be a couple of local sponsors to cough up a couple of hundred bucks for the marker. 

 

crasny1's picture

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Date Joined: 16/10/08

Living here

Wed, 2017-01-18 08:21

Yes there is fish, and much more than expected sea growth for the age. There is a underwater camera there much like the one at the navy Pier in Exxy, but not sure if its for research or public viewing.
So far a few catch reports (And I do see lots off people in my job and they know I am a fisho) is semi good hauls of skippy (not large size yet and lots of pike. Heard off one baby sambo and the usual whiting, wrasse etc.
Give it another couple of yrs and it will probably be OK, but will be overfished.
I haven't got the coordinates in both mins or decimal on me here but if you pm I will try to post them to you (or on here, its no secret).
Personally haven't bothered yet.

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Date Joined: 06/09/10

 Thanks for reply.  I found

Wed, 2017-01-18 21:10

 Thanks for reply.  I found the converted decimal coordinates on a recfish map that showed them as 32 degrees 31 minutes and 33.5 secs South  and 115 degrees 34 minutes and 58.8 secs East.   Will try these next time I am heading out that way.

 

 

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Total waste of $$$.

Wed, 2017-01-18 08:34

 Am I missing something. Is there a shortage of reef off our coast. I wouldn't have though so. Less than 1km off the back of the FFB...what...are there no lumps and bumps along the FFB. Lets build a structure to attract fish...and then have boats hammering the crap out of it at every occasion. I can't see how this is money well spent....unless you are part of the crowd paid to put it out there. Very expensive skippy and sambo attraction device.

Auslobster's picture

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Agreed, West Coast.

Wed, 2017-01-18 09:28

 It also stands to reason that the nearby section of FFB will cop extra hammering as well. But what else do we do with the licence fee-generated funds?

It bothers me that we, the ones that pay for this stuff, don't have a say in how it gets spent. Artificial reefs? More patrols/enforcement? Research? Stocking programs? How about using the money to buy back selected pro fishing licences? 

 

My point is, why have some pencil-pushing buerocrat take our money and make decisions about it's use, instead of us?

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Hmmm not quite right there

Wed, 2017-01-18 13:17

Recfishwest are always asking for members input as to what they would like to see their funds spent on.
Your idea of buying back selected pro licences is a good one, act on it, send them a Email about it and post up what reply you get from them. With the poor results of this seasons yellow fin whiting (YFW) season looking at how many pros gave the YFW bio mass such a hammering last season I think it would be a damn good idea to get rid of a couple of the pros.

The take of YFW last season was far bigger than fisheries floor limit that should off triggered a study of the sustainability of the bio mass to such size catch.

As far as the artificial reefs go, we will have to agree to disagree on that point.
After the success of the artificial reefs down south there was a strong push to have one located closer to Perth with its large number of boat fishermen and Recfishwest responded to that push to have one located closer to the city, as they have by putting in with pelagic fish FADS. locally.

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Not all (natural) reefs hold

Wed, 2017-01-18 15:06

Not all (natural) reefs hold fish, but artificial reefs are designed to produce more biomass through growth and water movement than a flat piece of limestone ever will.

Recfishwest is far from a mob of pencil pushing beaurocrats, and the decision was from rec fishers who took the time to fill out the surveys of where they wanted their rec fishing licence money spent.

As far as using rec fishing licence money that are meant to improve recreational fisheries, (from memory 25%) for extra fisheries patrols when the other 75% already should be getting used for just that. Put in more reefs and more FAD;s with our 25% JMO

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Wed, 2017-01-18 21:30

 

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Love the West!

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Well said Sulo

Wed, 2017-01-18 15:16

Well said, I couldn't put it on paper how I wanted to say it

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Artificial Reef Tower

Thu, 2017-01-19 08:36

 Can't wait for the arguments between the fishermen and the divers to start.

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Date Joined: 23/04/14

That could be a problem

Thu, 2017-01-19 08:45

Given that there are wrecks/reefs around that permit diving but no fishing, ando that this was funded with recreational fishing funds, it would be good to have a site that allows fishing but no diving.

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 Even as an avid diver, I can

Fri, 2017-01-20 16:15

 Even as an avid diver, I can see your point, and wouldnt object.

Heaps of other good places for us to go.

 

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I know it's an old fashioned concept

Thu, 2017-01-19 15:30

There is an old fashioned concept called common decency, or at least there used to be. With all the various dive wrecks/sites along the coast that preclude fishing within 50 metres or so from them and the restriction that they are exclusively for divers it would be nice to think that those with a mature sense of decency would not go diving on this site. And other artificial reef sites in the south west that have been put in place for the attraction of bread and butter fish for line fishermen.
It is hoped that common decency will prevail.