off mindarie

G'day Michael,

I have heard of a few people recently going to the back of the 3 mile and berleying up hard and sending down free floating baits for sambo's and pinkys out from Ocean Reef. Just head out there and look for some nuggety ground from anywhere between 15-30m of water and give it a go. We tried last Thursday but unfortunately couldn't hold anchor in the big swells, but there were heaps of schooling fish swimming through on the sounder that could easily have been pinks or sambos.

Hope that helps,
Cheers,
Adam

how deep were you when you saw that school on your sounder???

We were in 25m of water Michael. There were heaps of schools that came through in the hour that we were there, unfortunately the swell moved us off the spot and the drift was taking the berley away from the lump. Definately worth a shot, I got a couple of sambos out in 40m of water out of Mindarie a few weeks back bottom bouncing about 11 mile out.

so would you say to look around the 20 to 30 meters mark for pink snapper we always go just behind the 3 mile [where the waves break] and burely up but the only things which come are skippy and sometimes blackarse and small dhuies
does this mean we are fishing the wrong ground for snapper and samboes where would you reccommend for snapper and samboes ie [how far behind the reef or in front of the reef where the waves break where abouts would you classify snapper grounds or sambo ground north of the breakers south of the breakers ???????/ WHERE

we know how to fish properally but have never caught an pinky or smabo at the 3 mile just would like to if its gonna be rough just go in close for snappers and sambos your help would much be appreciated!!

would like to test the new saltist at the three mile

Ok, couple of questions for you Michael. What size boat do you fish in? Do you fish the same spot when you fish the 3 mile? Are you only fishing out of Ocean Reef?

What types of rigs and baits do you use when fishing the 3mile? What depth are you roughly fishing in and what sounder do you have?

Just want to get a perspective of your fishing so I can maybe give a hand.

ok here goes we use a navman colour for gps' a lowrance x100c colour for our fish finder, we have a 6.5 meter aluminium boat with 140 hp mercury we mainly fish around the 40 meter area off ocean reef but occasionly when its a bit off wind we just stay around the 3 mile we also go up to jurien when its calm weather predicted area use 24 kilo gear have tld and spheros and getting a saltist prepared to fish anywhere too catch some decent fish
we have been too the 3 mile like 7 times before burlied up with only success with skippy sharks and little dhuies and blackarse and bonitos never have caught a pinky or sambo their but would like to....

we use paternoster style rigs but also unweighted mulie rigs for the 3 mile

we use mainly squid occy and mulies for the 3 mile mulies on a gang we only have about 3 spots behind their and the are about 200 to 500 meters away from the reef where the waves break we always launch from the 3 mile when fishing in the metro

Ok, sounds good apart from the 24kg gear. When fishing the 3 mile I find that using mono on free floating baits is the most successful mode of fishing. I like using line anywhere between 6-10kg as samsonfish in shallow water are pretty cluey and often see thicker line and shy away from the baits. It just depends how fired up they are or if they are shutdown. Sometimes having heavy leader is also a turnoff, anything over 20 pounds and under 60 pounds should be more than sufficient.

A good way to find fish on the 3 mile is to spend a day sounding out lumps and rises which you think might hold fish or is holding fish that aren't biting. When you go out next time, go between your array of spots and try and locate the fish on the sounder and anchor just off your spot so your berley trail will float in the current and bring the fish to you. The other main thing is to try and pick the difference between solid soundings of schooling fish like snapper and sambos compared to the specs that small schooling fish like skippy show up. I'm not a big fan of fishing in close to the reefs on the 3 mile, most of our luck has been on the back edge of the reef where it meets the sand in about 20 m of water. Apart from that, it really is having the spots, spending time looking over them and finding the fish rather than just dropping at one of the usual spots and hoping that the berley will bring them to you.

will take that into consideration.