Well, full of enthusiasm for Perth Metro fishing after our first King George last week (http://fishwrecked.com/forum/first-metro-kgs), YPM (http://fishwrecked.com/forum/young-pinky-master) and I eagerly awaited the monthly MAAC monthly competition on Saturday.  Although we picked up the jackpot fish a couple of months ago (http://fishwrecked.com/forum/pb-3-mile-pink-snapper), the previous June comp was an absolute failure as we thought we could go to the 3 Mile with a 45km/h north easterly blowing (what a “schoolboy error” that was as we limped back in at 9.30am absolutely soaked, cold and miserable with the white towel being smashed by the breeze – our only success was going to the Club for the weigh in and presentation and learning from the members about what idiots we were).  The weather forecast for last Saturday was moderate to fresh easterlies dropping off to gentle in the middle of the day – conditions where you certainly wouldn’t go in the morning under normal circumstances.

Anyway, the day arrived and yes the wind was up.  The memories from a couple of months back were “flooding in” and we had made a conscious decision to stay very much inshore (hiding in the shadow of the land) and see what happened with conditions throughout the day.  There were plenty of fishos at the ramp as I think there was another comp on as well.  We launched at 6.30am and as you can’t leave the marina until 7am we had a chance to catch up with Ken, an octogenarian that that has won the yearly small boat and singles countless times and is a really good bloke – you need to commit to memory every bit of advice you ever receive from legends like Ken.  He was kind enough to hand over a bunch of squid tentacles and give us the technique to troll up pike and herring around the near shore reefs.

So that’s what we did first up.  The wind was howling but the reefs around the marina were relatively sheltered.  Out go the Halco Twistys and some circles around the reefs had a pike and a few herring on board – missed a nice tailor (comp points in the first half our on a windy day!).  The MAAC comps are all about the number of species you can catch (2 points per species and half a point per kilo) so it was time to assess spots and techniques and do something else.  We headed out to Tim-o’s “lump” about 1.5 miles off shore but the wind was horrendous and we soon gave up and came in with “our tails between our legs” to hide near the land.

We have a nice reliable spot for sand whiting down off Trigg so decided to head down there along the coast.  We trolled for a little bit but the sea was glass right on the coast so motored down at 20 knots a few hundred metres off shore to get to the spot.  Arrived and rigged up the really light gear (4lb line and size 6 long shank hooks with squid and peeled prawn combo) and proceeded to get a couple of sand whiting (2 points and no kilos).  It was a bit slow but we threw out the floating whole pillie and this was picked up by a 1m+ gummy that was a good fight to the boat (not on the 4lb rig though). 

The wind was starting to drop and we made the call to go to the spot where we got the 8.5kg pink a couple of months earlier – not too far away.  This was the first chance to really try the Bonito we caught on Thursday (carefully prepared with a lot of love).  Within minutes, we had a point scoring Skippy and a bonus King George.  Too many Wrasse and Parrot to waste all the bait on so the decision was made to head to our “new” spot even though it was half an hour away.

What a great spot - everything loved the Bonito.  Hooked into a solid KG that went 50cm+ (our first Metro half meterey).  The pinks were there but unfortunately the four we got were all undersized.  We has a double hookup and while mine was a 43cm pink, YPM pulled up the biggest black arse I have seen on the boat.  A 59cm Sambo was a good fight but you can’t weigh in undersized so back he went (the comps are the only reason why we ever keep one).  Although the fish were on, it was time to head off as you have to weigh in by 4pm and we had a lot to do in a couple of hours.  We were quite happy with our daily bag under adverse circumstances.

What do you know, YPM won the Junior Angler and had the biggest Break Sea Cod (1.444kg).  My Gummy was the only Shark weighed in and at 3.33kg picked up that award.  The 50cm+ KG weighed in at 0.881kg and was the biggest of the day as well.  4 prizes and $100 in vouchers – not too bad for the novices that don’t really have a clue about fishing in WA.  Lots of spots and lots of techniques seemed to do the trick on the day.

We have met some really nice people at the MAAC.  I have had a number of discussions about the merits of burley and the subtle nuances of its production referring to a previous post about burley recipes and techniques (http://fishwrecked.com/forum/burley-recipe-and-technique).  The burley post had a number of replies from FW members about the “industrial mincers of choice” that were eagerly picked up by a MAAC member to the point he purchased the suggested machine on ebay.  We arranged to collate all our “stuff” the next morning and “christen the beast”.

After much work constructing a suitable “workbench”, in went Herring, Whiting, Skippy, Snook, Tailor, Pilchards, Harlequin frames, Squid, Octopus, Cray shells, chicken layer pellets and heaps of Tuna oil.  A primary 12mm mince was followed by a 6mm one adding in pellets and oil to get the consistency right.  37 bags, that fit into the burley cages, were produced for the freezer so it shouldn’t have to be done again for quite a while.  Hopefully we can turn all of this brown to pink.

I have the most understanding wife in the world.  As we drove back from the burley making extravaganza along West Coast Drive at 3pm, conditions looked great.  She headed past us to the supermarket and I rang to enquire about her day without the kids, and the possibility of chasing sized pinks at our new spot.  Unbelievable, a favorable response (something to do with taking the kids away all day I guess).  Home to prep the boat with YPM and out we go.

The NW chop made it a fairly slow trip out but conditions were good when we got there.  Those fresh whiting from the day before seemed the go so out they went, along with the half and full pillies.  In what was a “quality” hour, we were constantly being smashed by pinks.  In the end we got 2 of size (little ones of 55cm+ and 3kg) but it certainly topped off the weekend and broke our month long “pink keeper drought”.

WA fishing is awesome.  5 bags of “desired species” frames to give to fisheries and kilos of 10/10 fillets to feed the family and friends.

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