Perth Metro Species Diversity

This place never ceases to amaze me.  Having joined the MAAC to participate in the monthly competitions I have learned that the Club rules for fishing competitions have been carefully designed to “level the playing field”.  It is not the guy with the big boat that can go out wide and bag a big dhu, or the bloke that targets and brings in a heap of huge Sampson that will win the day.  The rules provide for 2 points per species and 1 point per kilo for the total bag, with a maximum of 10 points for a Sampson where you can only weigh in one.  The emphasis then becomes one of targeting lots of species in daylight hours and that is the challenge.

Being new to WA, this was indeed a challenge.  After gaining a lot of knowledge from this site, spending a lot of hours on the water and talking to members, that have become my friends, my young fella and I are starting to learn. The main message is that to catch a range of fish in limited time on a set day with unknown weather conditions requires lots of different techniques (rigs and baits) at different spots that provide habitat for different species.  Adaption to the prevailing conditions is also very necessary.

Anyway, we probably had our best day out on Saturday.  Tried and tested lures for tailor around near shore reef first up, burley and bobby corks for herring and flashing lures for pike over shallow “patchy” ground, shallow beach with very light gear and small hooks for sand whiting and other bread and butter species, and then 20+m depth with burley on a range of “structure” for demersals and others using bottom bashing and floating rigs of various types.  The image shows our bag (the competition day is the only time I would ever keep a lot of these – destined for the burley).  We only fish near shore as we have a little boat.

Being an avid “pink hunter” that targets “missions” very carefully, it is really refreshing to chase other species on a given day when conditions are not ideal because the completion rules dictate that you do.  I don’t care about winning, it is just nice to challenge yourself in a place that provides such diversity and quality of fishing experience.  We still have a long way to go as there are a lot more species techniques that need to be learned – you never stop learning.

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Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it - LH.

 

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Diesel80's picture

Posts: 196

Date Joined: 29/08/13

Good haul Mick!

Mon, 2014-09-15 09:58

Whats up top left?

Cheers,

D80

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Member of the Offshore Angling Club of WA
www.beachfishingwa.org.au

Posts: 187

Date Joined: 19/08/13

seargent baker

Mon, 2014-09-15 10:01

 topleft look like a seargent baker!!!!! very good bait

Mick C's picture

Posts: 605

Date Joined: 26/12/13

Kept for Bait

Mon, 2014-09-15 23:01

Yes, Sgt Baker.  Normally a throw back but this one's fillets were too good to pass up.

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Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it - LH.

 

Belly88's picture

Posts: 380

Date Joined: 08/02/12

Great bag

Mon, 2014-09-15 19:51

 Not sure how you did over all in your comp mate but we struggled probobly more then we ever had.. In fact I'm pretty sure your bag would have won our comp Ocean Reef sea sports club by almost double.. Everyone bombed out.. 

Well done!!

Belly

Mick C's picture

Posts: 605

Date Joined: 26/12/13

Burley is the Key

Mon, 2014-09-15 22:59

Thanks for the comment.  My young fella (YPM) won the Juniors for the 3rd month in a row.  The "expert repairer" won the visitors, we placed 3rd in the doubles and runner up in the species on count back.  A good day out really.

It was hard work though.  I have no doubt that the home made burley helped a lot.  When we fished in close, you could see the schools of fish in the burley trail.  Further out, the KG's only came on after I renewed the burley.  The demersals and sambos had also been feeding on it (we caught quite a few under sized).  Without the burley I don't think we would have got half of what we did.

The other key factor was the Minn Kota which allows you to "hover" over the spot.  I don't think the value of the minn can be underestimated - I will write a story about this soon.   Cheers.

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Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it - LH.