G'day guys just thought I would post a little bit of a 6 month perth metro report.
January- Well I still hadn't owned the boat a year yet after buying it late February 2013, but already having clocked up 110 hours, it was getting well used to say the least. I got out for 5 metro trips in Jan. Spent quite some time teaching my bro n the old man plus some mates the basics on jigging for demersals, as I was sick of messy bait users on every trip! There were a hell of a lot of small 420-490mm dhufish around this time of year but we were struggling to find to many good ones. There were quite a few nice size blackass around too, and as aggressive as always. With the temps soaring on the land there were a few hours put on the clock just sipping coldies and trolling the coast, the bait had not quite pushed inshore at this time of year and hence results were slow, I was noticing a lot of bait starting to stack up further of the coast in over 30m. My best day came in mid January. We left hillarys at 5am, plan was to head to the north of rotto and look for the bait and hopefully jig some predators off it. We motored over an area in the 40s on the way to another mark and bang the sounder lit up with bait and some better fish deeper. We stopped, did a drift, landed a double of 8-9kg sambos, then another drift, another double hookup, one fish buried the angler on the bottom, the other got taken by a large shark. Re tie rigs, sound around find the fish again, do our drop n another double of sambos, I still hadn't hooked up and I'm thinking what the hell is going on!? The other boys were on as soon as we hit the edge of the school each time. In frustration I let my jig hit the bottom and ripped it straight up as quik as I could, I was pretty stoked 10 mins later with a 12 kg yellowfin hitting the deck. My first metro and on jig, christened the new N-S too. It was a great day with another tuna hooked n dropped (by me) and a variety of dhuies and sambos for the day. Ended up with 21 undersized dhuies throughout January and only 2 size!

February- Only managed the 4 trips in Feb. Well much like January the warmer currents were flowing from the north and with it some interesting sightings and catches around perth were being reported. There was bait just everywhere off the coast n all the marks were lighting up every time we visited them, some times frustrating as often it didn't end in fish, just lit up sounder screens and lots and lots of bait. By late Feb the back of the 3 mile from hillarys to staggies was teaming with bait and along with it the birds, all the signs were good, I am quietly praying for my first metro mack.We had a ball catching the watsons leaping bonito on light gear and small divers, and picked up some small yellowtail kings. No mackerel. With one more day out up my sleeve for February, I decided on a hunt around on the first bank in 31-38m, found some nice ground and picked up a 60cm dhu on jig, marked up a lot of new stuff but got no more fish. By now I'm convinced that there is too much bait, it's like the fish had really shut down to the jigs in February, could the amount of bait have been responsible in some way? We trolled in for 8 miles on the way home before the rod went off, good first run, I was sure I had my mack, but after a short fight and a final dive under the boat I got colour, my spaniard had morphed into a sambo! Bugger! Trolled the rest of the way home for no more results. My mate did manage a nice 12kg macky on the jig in February but it happened on a day out with my cousin and his boat. All in all February was very hard work I found on the demersals and perhaps should have spent the time to try something else.

March- With all the bait off the coast I decided to take advantage very early in March and do my first solo mission with the tub to do some bait collecting. The water was quite dirty on this day so I continued south past some of my squid grounds and towards the shipping channel, I found water to 24.8c and with it the bait, sabiki jigs are great and in no time I had my bait freezer full for most of March. Spent the next day trolling the south side of rottnest at sunrise, conditions were unbelievable, glass off. Too good as it turned out, no fish, disappointing because again all the signs looked good with water of 23.8, plenty of bait and a few birds, plus the first light and early start. Gave up trolling by 11 and headed west of rotto too a few marks, had a drift here and there but all was very quiet except for a healthy blackass to my bro on the bait outfit. Next trip out was a squid bash which was slow but steady and resulted in 10 good sized squid with a few tubes going over 300mm. The herring turned up whilst we were squidding so on went a couple of metal slices rigged with singles and we had some fun mostly catch n release but kept a couple each in the live bait tank so we could slow troll them behind the reef, or set some live baits through the afternoon. We tried these options till late arvo early evening but still I couldn't entice my first metro mack! The next and last trip for March was just a short, late arvo squid on the high tide which resulted with 7 nice squid.

April- By late march and into April there was a lot of weed washed into the metro area which made trolling very tedious. I managed 6 trips in April, most late April, doing my usual favourites. The squid were a no show due to some big swells stirring the water up and making it very dirty. So next trip I headed to some ground I had off Ocean reef in about 38m, got a few black bums in one hole, but decided to move and search for new areas when my mate jigged up a nor west blowie. The sounder found something that looked promising and 2 drifts later a slow day had all turned around. We bagged out with a nice little dhuie and pinkie to add to the 2 blackass, also picked up a good kg. Home by 2.30. Next trip was another successful one. Launched ocean reef n went to some new ground about 16 mile out, first drift resulted in two small dhus, 58 and 55cm, the rest of the day was spent sounding new areas, we picked up 2 good black bums to finish the bag and a nice big cuttlefish for a bonus. In late April we had some weather and swell stir things up a bit, snapper was the go as soon as the opportunity came. With a high tide in the early morn, light winds but still a fair bit of swell, we headed to our stomping ground and set the burley trail. Was a little slow at first with some big skippy showing up first and a little while later the pinkies, we ended up with some nice fish to 75cm. Also picked up a little gummy for our efforts.

May- Well we had had a few days of clear weather between my last trip out in April and into early May. I was a bit sceptical as to whether or not the snapper would still be in close, but decided to give it a go. By 11 it was clear they were not going to show up. We pulled anchor and as we did we noticed some disturbance on the surface, bait. I had 2 casting rods ready with stick baits rigged. Next minute the surface exploded with salmon, and a couple of casts were fired out for a solid double hookup. Two nice fish hit the deck, around the 5kg mark. After releasing the fish and looking around again for any commotion I fired a blind cast out the back of the boat, the bait and salmon had dived at this point. I let the stick bait slowly sink for about 20 seconds before starting a slowish twitch and retrieve. I got a hook up almost instantly but the fish felt different to the salmon. At first he swam straight to the back of the boat and then he took off on a run that left me with 20m of backing. My mate had fired a cast out too and as I asked him to start the boat and chase my fish he starts ripping the lure in, all of a sudden with a big flash of electric blue his lure is engulfed by another big fish. His fight lasted 3-4 mins before teeth found his leader. Luckily I just managed to get the fish turned on my 20lb outfit (certate 2500 did the job,) and 10 mins later I was the happiest bloke on the planet with a beautiful Spanish mackerel lying on the deck. To land him on such light tackle with no wire after working for one for months made it so much more satisfying. He bottomed my scales out at 20kg, wouldn't have been too much over but it was a solid fish, couldn't have been more stoked. My next day out on was a trip over to rotto trolling and casting the reef systems on the south side and west end. We saw some other guys fishing a similar style but no one could find the salmon, which is why we were there. The day was spent mainly catch n release on herring. Fortunately the derby was on in the arvo so the quokka arms was our next stop seen as the fishing wasn't going to light up. Only managed 2 more trips out in May one was spent with lures hanging out the back whilst marking ground off ocean reef and mindarie. No fish on this day, but plenty of ground being mapped for future trips. The last was a late arvo squidding session, conditions were good with clean water and a big high tide, we managed 12, which I was pleased with because often with a sou westerly wind blowing I have been left disappointed on the squid.

June- This ended up being a quiet month for me due to an injury. I managed 1 trip early on with a day off two rocks. Beautiful conditions but the slowest day I have ever had up there. We boated just 2 undersized dhus, 1 little pinky and a few horrible nor westers. Disappointing after waiting so long to get up there.

Looking forward to the next 6 months now. Tight lines, cheers for reading.

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