Got some pretty good footage yesterday. Tides weren't particularly ideal for GTs but we managed to get 2 fish on stickbaits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3MHUOVNpgM

Well after the last couple of trips have been average by Onslow standards, mostly due to the amount of dirty water coming down the Ashburton and the last tropical low, yesterday finally produced the goods. Forecast was ok, but occasionally you get those days when the weather turns out better than expected, yesterday being one of them.

Blasted out to the bait spot and picked up some small queenies for strip baits. Then kept heading out, ending up about 26 mile from the ramp in 30m of water. No wind and no current made for very slow bottom fishing but James then chucked out a floater which lasted about 5 minutes before it gently took off. After about 30 seconds it must have felt the hook because then it lit right up and started pulling 30lb braid easy peasy. 20 minutes later James was starting to think shark but after being told to keep positive, a nice mack ghosted into view.

This was a very stubborn fish, circling in full view for about 10 minutes before coming to the gaff, where Peter did the job nicely.

Very solid fish in great condition, estimated him at about 60lbs.

James learnt a valuable lesson with this one when dehooking it. Thankfully he didn't lose it at the knuckle!

The next floater then produced a 25lb mack for Peter. At this stage the sensational weather was driving us crazy, so we had to go for a dive. Blasted over to a favourite island and jumped in. Took a while to find them but eventually 7 big green crays made it into the catch bag, along with a 50cm bluebone on the gun.

By this stage the wind had picked up to about 8 knots, giving us some good drifting conditions so a plan was hatched to head wide and try and find some good bottom fish. The new chartplotter was working a treat and as I cruised along the 50 meter contour a little show of coral with some fish piqued our attention. How good is it having a colour sounder that can read at speed.

Out went the sea anchor and down went our sweetened leadheads and Peters standard bottom fishing rig. First drift only produced some 60 cm spangleds and a small rankin. Re-adjusted our position for a second drift and then hit pay dirt with Peter pulling a nice 65cm red and myself a 65cm crimson sea perch.

Next drift saw Peter and James get buried by big fish. Peter quickly rerigged and and then hit paydirt with a PB red for my boat. I chimed in with another sea perch.

Next couple of drifts produced another red for Peter and then one for myself on the leadhead.

By this stage it was about 4.00pm, and with an icebox full of mack and goldfish to clean and being 28 mile from home we decided to leave them on the chew.

Home and washed up by 6.45pm, it was a big day but very productive, especially with a new red spot locked away in the GPS.

John

Despite a tropical low (which was predicted to turn into a cyclone) crossing the coast 200km east from us on Sunday, Mondays forecast was surprisingly good with light winds and sunny skies.

We decided with ideal tides we would go out for a pop. It was an early start and we were on the water by about 6am and at our destination by about 7 just after sunrise. We still had a little wait until the low tide but we decided to start popping straight away on the tide that was still running out.

We fished some areas that have produced some really good fish for us in the past but things were unusually quiet for most of the morning. Brad and Glenn both got sharks on their poppers, one of which would have been over 30kg, but fortunately didn't get bitten off.

We had a few lousy strikes by some average GT's and after a while I decided to change to a 170g Orion Bigfoot sinking stickbait. I was rewarded pretty quickly with the hookup of a nice Coral Trout but unfortunately I didn't stay connected. Shortly after, we saw a really good sized GT take a good swipe at the stickbait in the crystal clear water but that failed to connect properly.

We moved along, Brad finally managed to hook something and he shrugged it off as just a really small GT but turned out to be a nice Coral Trout, a first for Brad on popper. Well done mate.

Brad suggested we move to a different Island where he had some luck last weekend. It didn't take much convincing as things were unusually quiet at our current location.

When we arrived, Glenn hooked up on the first cast and it turned out to be a little junior around 4kg. Not huge, but a convincing sign.

We continued casting over the drop off and I had a nice follow from a GT that had about 4 swipes at my lure without hooking up. Brad placed his popper directly behind mine and hooked up fairly instantly. After a short fight he landed a GT around the 10kg mark, things were looking better.

It went a bit quiet so we moved to the other side of the island. We had couple more hits but nothing to really brag about. We moved back to the other side and Brad pointed out the area where he caught his biggest GT last week. I threw out a cast and got monstered almost instantly, over the next few seconds I had about 3-4 huge hits from numerous GT's that all looked every bit of 20kg+.

Eventually I came up solid, we were fishing really shallow water so I locked up my PE10 gear and started to extract him from the shallow bommie studded water while Glenn drove the boat out into deeper water. After a short but strenuous tussle I had him boatside, Brad grabbed the tail and Glenn grabbed the leader to lift him in. After a couple of quick snaps and a weigh on the scales I speared an approx 20kg GT back into the water.

The Fisherman Bigmouth 130 HP Tail had some serious damage from the fish that swallowed it head first.

I suggested to Glenn that he change from a pencil to a chugger as the water was very choppy due to the wind/tide direction. He chose a Black Craftbait GT2 and I started to drive the boat exhausted from my fish, while Glenn and Brad continued to cast into the same area.

Glenn had results fairly instantly with a solid hit but failed to hookup. This continued for a couple more drifts until he finally came up solid. This was a noticeabley bigger fish than my previous GT and I ripped line from Glenn's twinspin at a great rate of knots.

Fearfull of losing the fish Glenn increased the drag but it didn't slow it. The result was a straightened Owner ST66 treble. The boys continued to cast while I stayed at the wheel, Brad had a nice hit but it failed to hookup. Glenn hooked up again on the craftbait.

It was a similar sized fish, Glenn fished his PE8 to the max but it wasn't much good. This fish was huge and it wasn't coming easy. I started to drive out into open water when Glenn stated he'd been buried. He stayed connected however, and the fish came free only to have one final surge for freedom and bust him off. Spewin.

I started to cast again but it went quiet so we put in a few more drifts before coming home. Overall it was a good finish to a day that started off really slow, Glenn got smoked but in brutal ground there's not heaps you can do - definately an area for PE10.

Can't wait to get back out there.

Well forcast was awesome for today however with the amount of rain we have had up her in the last week(over 300mm) Kelvin8tor and i decided to spend the first half of the day doing some exploring on the way out to or GT ground. We trolled using our barra gear and managed a heap of good cod up to around the 5kg mark.
It was getting quite hot so we decided to have a dive around some fishy looking structure in the hope of finding some ocean barra. Well we did, we found some really awesome looking ground and through the coarse of the dive i saw probably 5 or 6 barra ranging from around the 40cm mark to about the 90cm size, marked that spot in the GPS, i will be back!

Anyway we moved on to a pretty common piece of ground, first cast (thats 9 from 9 now) and i landed a small big eye trev, not a GT but good fun. It is very neapish in the tide at the moment so not really ideal for GT fishing but hey, we decided to have a crack anyway. Kelvin8tor was the next to hook up, his first ever fish on popper, not huge and not a GT but still good fun. He was stoked to land a nice little brassey trev, it was released.

Anyway things were quiet so we decided to move to some better ground. We arrived to see schools of fusilers all over the place, there we heaps of spanyids, queenies and other mackeral everywhere, looked promising for some fish anyway. We both threw out our poppers and sheldon got bricked by a horse GT on about his third cast (told you you need for than 50lb mate) and i got a hug hookup from another GT straight after him, i didnt land it unfortunately. Next cast i did hook up and manage to get it to the boat except my deckie had the net upside down and bodged it, fish got off again

A big school of spanyids came rightast the boat so i grabbed my barra rod (only rod with a lure on it) and flicked it out, got a hit straight away and i was on, except it wasnt a spanyid, somehow in a school of about 20 macks i managed to hook a nice trout around the 60cm mark, no time for photos because it was too action packed, straight into the esky

I picked up the GT stick again and threw into into the bait school, straight away i was on. Sheldon drove the boat and draged me into some blue water, finally after we had dropped about 4 i had one in the boat, not huge but good fun

WE took turns driving and chucking poppers, sheldon was the next to hook up. Went pretty hard for a small G train but he did well in between laughing at how much fun surface fishing was in shallow water. Good stuff mate, you got your first GT, and on popper too!

Kelvin8tor's first GT

Anyway it was my turn, i threw out another cast and watched as about 15 (no not stretching the truth) GT's argued over my popper, my lure got thrown into the air by a missing GT and somehow i managed to get it back to the boat without a hookup. I could see the school so i threw it near them, straight away i was on. There were some BIGGGGG fish in that school but the one i managed to hook was one of the smaller ones, still good fun

GT ville

Another suberb in GTville

Well sheldon was rooted so i had another cast. It was the first cast after the last fish and i watched as another GT took swipe after swipe at my lure, finally after the third attemt it got it, and it wasnt letting go. This fish was a little bigger (the biggest landed for the day) and put on a really good show. After sheldon moved the boat into deeper water we netted the fish and that was it. Great fun

Getting stretched

Biggest landed for the day, no where near the biggest seen

Well with our arms stretched we decided to call it quits for the day, had a beer on the way back to the ramp, what an awesome day in the Pilbara

Cheers

Brad

Hi all, my name is Desley and I think Fishwrecked is great reading and the images fantastic.   I was in Karratha for 6 weeks over Xmas - New Year and had a great time fishing and crabbing but did not catch anything the size I have seen on here! Next visit I hope to change that.   

On 27th Dec I was talking with the folks on the boat "Hocus Pocus" at the Back Beach boat ramp. I would like to get in touch with them again but do not have any contact details.  Can anyone please help? 

Hpoing to get out Sunday and try and bag a few XOS deepwater KG's. Scouting prospective ground off Peron in 35-40m. Heard that snelled Occy is the go. Unfamilar with skinning the stuff, as always used it unskinned. Any tips for a hassle free skinning session would b appreciated.

Cheers,

Ado

See if I can get the last 1 on to here.

The other Photos

G'day all, just thought I'd post up my latest landbased effort, my bro' inlaw Frank had some recent success at this spot recently (including a suspected metery but he didn't have a measuring board). Myself, Frank and Adam (the Barra virgin) left around 2 in the arvo with a low at around 5:30 and started casting SP's (mainly Slickrig Dropbears 100-130mm), saw Skinny from Just Tackle rock up across the way and said Hello. Another mate Maso and his wife Mandy and son Toby also paid us a visit.
Although we got a few hits we didn't get a fish till after 6 with myself hooking up to a nice fiesty Baz jumping and pulling heaps of string, Maso netted it and we measured it off at 81, while I was lining it up on the Brag Mat I lost my footing and went arse up into the drink slicing my fingers up on the oysters OUCH!!, released the fish and went and washed myself up picking the bits out with a hook.
Next to hook up was Adam who's fish came out all silver and we called it for his first Baz, he got it under control and a nice Queeny came to the rocks, spewin'. Still picking shell out of my fingers the boys had some fun with a few Tealeaf Trevs, I looked up as one of Franks fish neared the rocks to see a nice Barra slide into view, leaping into action I scrambled down the rocks and landed it going 76. Spurred on by that fish I recommenced casting pretty soon got a near twin to my first at 81.5 as the sun went down.
In the twilight I clipped on a Skitterpop and was working it in the quiet water on the leeside of the rockbar and was rewarded with a strike on my 5th cast, unfortunately it didn't hook up sending the lure sailing through the air. As I wound it up Frank hooked up and landed a nice 80. We were just getting into casting again when a squall rocked up from the NNE and with winds up to 45 knots it chased us off the rocks. All in all a very enjoyable arvo.

Cheers, Daisy

A last minute decision was made last week to do a trip with a mate to some new bluewater ground. The trip was more of a pre winter look and recon type mission with of coarse some fishing thrown in. We didnt really know what to expect so we had a few types of lures and gear to try see us through omst situations weather dependent, main tactic i guess was to drag some lures around looking for trout. Well after a smooth run over that didnt take long, lures were out for less that probably three minutes and i was on, a nice 70cm trout made its way to the boat for a quick photo then it was released to grow a bit bigger.

700 trout, released

another 5 minutes in the water and the laser pro red head proven itself again, a chinaman in less than 3 meters of water gave me a bit of entertainment, although the fish wasnt very big. After that quick little session it was already late so we decided to anchor up eat some tea and have a good night sleep before the next day, that was straight after luke and i both got smoked by some "unstoppables" suspect massive GT's on our pe 5 gear, we waved good buy to those lures, something that would happen pretty regularly over the next 2 days.

Chinaminza, on a laser pro, released

Stella bling

Nice sunset

well we woke to some pretty good weather, after a blustery night that is, a squall came through and fortnately the rain missed, was a little dicey there for a while but hey you get that is suppose. Out into the blue we found some good ground in about 10 meters and managed to troll up quite a few fish, good sized trout, cod and spango's were the norm. Spangos are not something i have ever caught on hard body lures before, i even managed one on a lucanus jig, another first for me

one of many trolled up spangos, released

Spango on a lucanus jig, first for me

we moved spots to some shallower water out of the swell for a dive, we found a few lumps which had quie a few fish on them, i managed to spear a nice bluebone probably around the 650 size, went straight into the esky, there were a lot of medium sized trout and other fish around but we didnt take anything else, happy just to do some exploring, time to move again. i did managed to spine myself on a sea urchine while i grabbed a cray - it still bloody hurts!

One of quite a fe decen sized cod trolled up out of 8 meters, released

next spot the lures went out again, and again we got smoked by some massivve g trains. We did manage to find a school of feeding tuna and shark mackeral as well as the odd queenie, for a while there it was double hookups on tuna or mackeral every minute or so, after loosing a few too many lures we moved again

Baby GT

More chinamen on lures

Heaps of shark mackeral around, must have caught close to 15 in an hour or so

We managed a few more good sized torunt too 700,we kept 2 for a feed and let the rest go, again we were there to look around and a few fish was all we really wanted. We jumped in for another dive and luke towed me around behind the boat while we searched for new ground. Massive chinaman and a few sharks i saw along the way. I dropped off the line and stalked one of the biggest bluebone i have ever seen, being conservitave it would have go at least 90cm, unfortunately i didnt get a shot on it, i suppose it didnt get that big by being stupid.

More trout, think we kept this one

More trout on lures

and more

And more

Well we trolled a little more before we dropped the pic, we managed more than 15 different species on lures that day at the last count, pretty amazing really, was a good day.

well that night after dinner the wind had changed from the south west to the east to probably began gusting to about 35 knots, we had to move the boat at two in the morning to a safer anchorage, was pretty hectic there for a while but lucily things calmed down and we managed to get a few hours sleep, again we woke to some rpetty good weather
things were a bit quite on the second day we worked a different area again and although we got a few good hits it wasnt like the previous day. We upgraded our gear and tried for a few of the GT's we had been smoked by the previous day, we had a double hookup unfortunatly at the time luke was getting a wind knot out of his line and was pinged straight away, i managed to stay connected on my 50 pound gear and land a nice GT of 20-25kg,s was good fun. It was 116cm fork length, and released.

well with the previous nights bad weather and slow fishing we took advantage of some nice weather to make our way home. Arriving we later found out that a cyclone had developed and that we were pretty luck we got out when we did, ahh all good. Just another days fishing in the pilbara. While i am sitting here now it is pissing down outside, i think we made the right decision to come home!

Cheers for the trip luke

Brad

Hi Guys
Headed up north of Samson on the weekend for my first serious crack at some Pilbara Barras. Had a good run up the coast early on the high tide with the only hiccup being marking the wrong system on the plotter. After pushing the boat back into the deeper water and checking the plotter the error was found and we were quickly heading back to where we came from having travelled over 5NM more than we had to. We only just snuck up the creek with bugger all water to spare. The decision was made early in the trip to be exploratory and test some soft plastics on the local barra population. After a few casts a legal Flattie was landed and quickly returned back where it came from. As the tide was dropping and the water getting skinnier the decision was made to punch up the river a bit. The signs were promising but the only fish showing any interest were Northern Power Tails. We eventually found some deeper water and interest was picking up. It wasn't too long and the first barra made it to the esky at 67cm long, the boys back in camp were keen for a feed. Another 50 casts and my mate was on again this time landing a 87cm Barra which is shown above. This perked up our interest and we kept on casting and working the water column over all day resulting with myself landing a 75cm Barra. We continued casting all day until the runout was well and truly finished with a few shows of interest and about four more Barra's spitting hooks. As the tide had turned and the run in tide being unfishable we headed for the mouth to be confronted with white water every where and blowing twenty knots. All I can say it was a very wet and slow trip home travelling at between 12 to 15 knots with the chop coming at beam onside the myself the driver. Thank god I have a glass boat with self draining decks or the ride home would have been a lot worse. Landing this barra has now allowed me to obtain my own personal goal of landing them in all three state; WA, NT, and QLD.
cheers
Rob Dickson

Sheldon (kelvin8tor) and i decided that we would both take some time at the beginning of the week to do some barra fishing. After speaking to a few people we new it would be hit and miss if we went, water temp was way up (36.8 degres) and quite a bit of fresh had made its way into a few of the systems, either way we decided to have a crack anyway. We made our way down the coast by night fall, we had some pretty crappy weather for the transit and i once again neglected to put those bloody clears up, oh well at least the water was warm. We navigated into the creek at night via the gps and set the anchor ready for a good sleep. We awoke to some pretty awesome conditions and a lot of midgy dangas. After a quick sound and gathering of bait we settled into a hole with some livies and waited for things to happen, and waited, and waited.......
Had a few half assed runs, there were fish on the sounder however the water temp was already over 36 degrees and things just seemed to be sluggish, ahh we got a few threadies and i managed the one barra in the first session, at least we got a fish i suppose. The barra was released.. went 70 something from memory

Sheldons first black jew, released

Sheldons first ever threadie, in the esky!

Well as i said things were quiet and the wind had come up a bit, we moved up river for a bit of soft plastics fishing. Even that was a bit quiet but we did manage quite a few bream, jacks etc was pretty good fun. After that we went and grabbed a few more lives, at least in the heat the bait was easy to collect. 6 or 8 good sized mullet a cast was the norm.

Jack on SP

Sheldons baby jack, released

Well we moved around a bit looking for some deeper water that fish might be holding up in we found some and decided to soak a few livies on the high. Sheldon and i both managed a barra this time both around 81cm which was a PB for sheldon, congrats mate! There was at least plenty of bycatch this time with heaps of jacks to 40cm, cod, baby black jews tto keep us occupied. I vertically slow jigged soft plastics under the boat for quite a few bream, jacks and cod this wasnt a technique i have ever tried before was good fun.

Sheldons barra on the mat

Sheldons 81cm PB barra

My very lean 80 odd cm barra

lean silver pilbara barra

Anyway things went quiet again so we put the boat into another hole after collecting some more bait and waited for the night time low, we cooked up some spag bowl for tea and had a rest before the night time session. Baits out at 1030 pm and this time it didnt take too long before sheldon had a crancking run, by the time he got to his rod it was ll over, dropped it. I decided to throw a popper around for a little while, i picked up a rat barra on about the third cast and had a massive hit after that, unfortunately no hook up. Got another hook up on bait but dropped the fish on the jump so again although we had a few runs didnt manage any more than the one rat barra, time for bed. Night time temp was about 30 degrees with no wind, thank god for the 12 volt fan which made things bareable.

Packed to the rafters

rat barra on popper

Home sweet home for 2 days

Anyway awoke to another glorious day, again had a troll first up with no action besides the odd catty. Opted for some bait as the only fish we did see ont he sounder was holding up in deeper holes, still do you think we could get them to take anything? was a long time inbetween runs thats for sure. We had quite a few but they were half assed and baits were just comming back mouthed.

Beautiful morning

Another baby black jew

A Baby blue nose salmon and sheldon getting too close

Well i had a HUGE mullet soaking for well over an hour in the prime spot that had fish holding up on the sounder befor it happened. Finally got a massive run and a solid hookup. The fish ran hard to the other side of the creek and powered accross the surface, i didnt get a good look at it then because the sun was in my face. It came back into the deep water and ran back under the boat, sheldon was filming the whole thing so that will be a good keepsake. Anyway managed to subdue the fish and netted it, was stoke to see it was my new PB a 104cm barra and my second metery in a couple of weeks. It was released.

PB 104cm barra

Anyway things were very quiet still after that, we got a few more jacks and i made a few jacks burgers for dinner before we settled down for a good night sleep. Sheldon had one last crack at a fish before bed and managed his PB thready, 97cm well done mate, it was released

Sheldons PB threadie

Well weather was great for the run home was pretty good overall although quiet by the normal standards

Cheers

Brad

Cody Danga on an SP

Hey all!

I have just received the (currently sad) news that I'll be starting full-time work in Karratha in Feb. How is the fishing up there?? What fish can you get up there?? I'm assuming the general barras, threadfin/bluenose salmon, queenies etc??

Are there many decent landbased spots?? Or if not, will anyone up there need a deckie from feb onwards? :P

Apparently I'll be on the Pluto B project with Leighton Contractors if any of you know where that is - i dont! If the fishing is good at least I'll have something to look forward to!

Hope to hear from you guys up north! See you in a bit!

got the call from Glen last night asking if i was keen to go for a fish with him and his wifey today, the forecast was ok so it was an offer to good to refuse. Well the weather man got it wrong as usual so we ended up trolling for trout on the low only managing a few cod and small trout. Decided to throw sinking stickbaits around for a while in the clear water and managed a bluebone, a few snapper, a couple of trout and even a cuda, was good fun

we moved to another area on the flood and saw a few free swimming GT's on the flats in well less than a meter of water, we trew stick baits at them and i hooked up straight away, they were only small but good fun, glen got a good follow from a very black coloured GT

anyway we anchored up in some deeper water and after a few more species on stickbaits we decided to have a rest. The current was ripping so we decided to throw out some deeper divers and sit the rods in the rod holder. It didnt take long and Vicky got a good hit on her rod and landed a nice little GT, Glen threw a lure out too and got a good hit straight away but no hookup.

I got a good hit on the staionary lure as well so i picked up my rod and twitched it a few times, then it got absolutly nailed. I was only fishing with my stella 8000 and 50 pound on my jigwrex, i had 60lb leader and the fish ran hard against the current on to a shelf probably less than a meter deep. Somehow i managed to land the fish with halco's standard trebbles and rings on the lure, pertty lucky allround considdering the fish circled the boat. Glen tail grabbed it for me and i landed my PB GT in the most unconventional of methods, but hey, ill take it

cheers

Brad

well i flew back into K town last night and had an offer from daisy to go to his little landbased barra spot, Unfortunatley he couldnt come but hey im not fussed was too good to refuse after looking at some of his pictures over the last couple of weeks so off we went once at the spot i think it was only about my 4th or 5th cast with the Sp when i got a good whack almost at my feet, was pretty stoked when a barra jumped not long after. After a fun battle i landed it, it went 86cm and was released. well we didnt get any more barra in the short session we had but did manage a few good cod and even a trout, was good fun thanks for the spot daisy!

cheers Brad

Kids with baby sitters .

Do the righty we take the missus out for the day to serve the piss and look what happens!!!!!!!!!! (it was four nill actualy)

She can join up her self if she keeps this up, she won't be comming again, not this season anyway.

Great start for my post's hey fella's

POC

Yes Brad finally figured out how to sign up.

Can't let you take all the glory mate.

Hope to be able to contibute to this site although cant get away fishing as much as some of THE OTHER MEMBERS.

Have had some experiance to share.

Anyway cheers.

New member POC

Well Glenn and I decided that with the full moon and good weather forecast we would head out Friday afternoon for a night time popper session, then pop the incoming tide the following morning and then head out for a jig on the high.

Unfortunately the predicted 4-6kt winds friday afternoon felt more like 14-18 and it was quite choppy for the first half of the trip. We then found some protected water in the lee of some islands which made the remainder of trip like traveling on a millpond. We kicked back with a beer and some KFC cruising along at a comfortable 50kph.

I didn't finish work until 6pm so it was a late start but with DLS we arrived at our destination with a little bit of light left.

First things first and stright into the GT fishing. We tried one of our favourite spots but there was a huge swell pushing into the back of the island and it was extremely difficult to fish. With little interest we decided to find an anchorage in some protected water further back along the island.

We anchored up and started casting poppers from our anchorage. It wasn't really a spot we'd given much time in the past during the day but I'd seen some bait get smashed by something big so I was queitly confident.

First cast resulted in one of the most visual hits I've ever seen popper fishing before. It was absolutely awesome and could have only come from something with quite a bit of size to it. Unfortunately it didn't hookup.

What followed was one of the most dynamite sessions I've ever had, it was quite phenomenal really. We probably averaged a hit nearly every second cast with some casts resulting in 2, 3 and even 4 hits. The most bizzare thing about the whole situation - NOTHING hooked up.

The bite only slowed when we got to the top of the tide. Then we went to bed. Up bright and early the following day we got straight back into the GT fishing. The going was slow, there was still a reasonable swell pushing in which made the popping difficult. I think I had one half hearted hit and then we decided to cut our losses and head out for a jig.

It took a while to get out to our spot as the water was a bit lumpy. When we arrived we sounded around to find the schools. It's quite a large plateau and the bait schools move around. Where there's bait schools there's mackies, and they're just about always there.

We located a few schools and set up a drift that took us over all 3 schools. First drops and we were straight into it. Catching spaniards on jigs is awesome fun but you inevitably lose gear. It's a comprimise between using wire and sacrificing strikes or not using wire and losing gear. Unfortunately they wouldn't touch any of our offerings with wire.

Usually between the bite offs we manage a few fish (we've gone 6 from 6 in the past) but this time I think we lost close to the vicinity of 15 jigs between us. It was pretty demoralising. Not a single fish was landed and those that got close to the boat were lost to the sharks.

Glenn hooked up to one of the many Spaniards

We decided to head back to the island for another GT session before we lost any more gear. When we got back I got a lovely hit from a big silver GT that hooked up momentarily before pulling the hooks. Unfortunately that was to be the only interest we got.

Well we were pretty dissapointed at this stage, it had been a rather unusual trip and we hadn't even seen a single fish landed for our efforts. We decided to have a troll for some trout on our way home in the hope we could secure a consolation prize.

We ended up getting a nice little 45cm and 50cm fish for our efforts which was enough for a feed - happy days.

Glenns 50cm Trout

Junior Trout - Released

Jay

Went for a lurecast this morning and as usual watched someone else (Stevo) catch a Barra, Fish went 84. Been getting a few from this spot on SP swimbaits of late, with slickrigs, Reidys Rubber and Tsunamis 4-5 inches all working.
Cheers to all and Happy New year guys & Gals.
Daisy

When i grew up we chased flathead and bream around the rivers and esturies all day.

There was an old italian guy "Franko" always was where the fish were ALWAYS.

I remeber he had time to talk to us a share his knowledge and even bait every now and then.

Times have changed now but he was our local Hero.

WHO'S YOURS?

Well with the full moon on Saturday we decided to go and have a GT pop. The weather forecast didn't look that flash but since it'd been ages since we'd been out we went for it.

It wasn't too bad in the morning and it didn't take long to get out there. We stopped off at a spot on the way to our regular spot where we've had some good hits/hookups in the past.

First bait school we passed and Glenn bombed a cast into the direction. Bang! A good size GT walloped his popper but no hookup. It went quiet and we couldn't find more bait so we headed off to our usual spot.

Couldn't really find any bait so we just threw poppers around randomly for a while before moving on a little further. Glenn smashed out a cast just after moving and was instantly rewarded with a SOLID hit. No hookup unfortunately, but the massive GT followed the popper all the way to the boat and then had a second go just meters from the boat.

This thing was HUGE, possibly the biggest I've seen so far and would have gone 30+ easily. Anyway, it managed to hook up on the second go. Glenns rod loaded up and then after a loud crack the 80lb braid popped on the spool. Damn it, 80lb braid, heavy drag and a HUGE shock load don't mix.

We cast around for a bit longer but still couldn't find any bait so it was difficult to find the GTs. I had a hit from a GT around the 20kg mark but he missed the popper completely, silly fish. We opted for a little bit of light tackle fishing to fill in time while we waited to pop a later stage of the tide.

Picked up several small coral trout, cods and other bits and pieces on plastics and then it was time to get back in the popping. Second cast and I was on. It hit the popper on about the second bloop, right next to a huge bommie. After a couple of short runs I had him out in deep water and Glenn landed him. At around 15kg he wasn't a bad fish.

After that, we popped for a little bit longer but the tide slowed and so did any sort of action. We started to head home and stopped off at a nice area sheltered from the easterly. We trolled around with 8m divers and picked up around half a dozen coral trout, most undersize, and kept of couple of size fish for dinner. Not a bad way to end the day.

hey fellas

Im new to the sport..I was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions for spearing off of Port Hedland

Also any tips or advice would be more than appreciated

Cheers

hey lads

went out for a fish on the weekend managed a few barra.. thursday i got the little one witch was 600 and we also dropped a little one that would of been 400.

friday i got another small one around 720, didnt get a photo but as the camera went flat.

we were only out for a few hours each day as we only wanted to fish the tide changes!

 saterday arvo me and another mate decided to load up the esky and head out for another crack, this time we were going to throw a few live baits around and see if we could entice any bigger fish. latley i have only been using real small mullet, no bigger than a lighter witch has been paying dividends, i find that with small live bait big barra tend to smash it alot harder and the hook up rates using a small circle hook is 100% better than a normal hook.

after getting about 20 odd livies (all pissants) we went to a mates spot and through out a few baits, after a few small touches but nothing in the boat after a few beers i pulled in and changed my bait, and the very next cast i had a solid run and hooked up, as i was only using my small millionare 253 the barra steamed up the creak. after a bit of percistance we got him to the boat and realised why it didnt jump, FOUL HOOKED!! argh... so i back of the tension and eased him up! we landed him and took a quike snap and let him go, as i left my brag mat at home we only had a small fish sticker to measure him with and he went somewere between 850 and 900..

 The next bait my mate through out resulted in the same thing, this time pinning the barra in the top jaw bone...

two big barra landed and two big smiles gleeming from both our faces.. we also managed a nice jack and two fingermark from the same spot.. next bait out was a stinking cattie............... enough said, we packed up and went home!

Continued from Part I,

So we headed out wide to see if we could find some fish for a jig. On our way there we found a school on the sounder so down went the jigs. Instant hookups on brassie trevally. After a bit of fun we moved on.

We got to our spot where we usually jig up plenty of trevs and the odd reefie. The sharks were a pain so we pushed on wider so explore some areas we hadn't been to before.

As you could see, the weather was awesome.

We sounded over some good looking broken ground that had fish showing on the sounder. First drop and Glenn nailed a nice Rankin on a knife jig. We changed to Taikaburas to entice some more strikes from reefies and Glenn hooked up onto another Rankin.

We moved back to the spot for another drift. First drop I hooked up straight away, another nice Rankin. Glenn also hooked up, this time it put up a bit more fight and he landed a nice little Red on the taikabura.

All up we landed 5 Rankins and 1 Red on the jigs. Was an awesome day out, fantastic weather, got some good GTs in the morning and topped it off with a feed of reefies on jigs.

The plan was simple, pop for GTs on the morning incoming and then head wide for a jig. We headed out to our GT spot and on the way we noticed a nice break over an exposed reef shoal. We decided to have a crack at some GTs in this spot we'd never fished before. We started blind casting in the first area and had no results so we moved along the back of the reef break further. Glenn noticed some scared baitfish so I bombed out a cast in the direction. It didn't take long before a good sized GT smashed my popper. Unfortunately, when I was rigging up I got a bit too eager with the drag. The result was pinged 100lb braid due to the shock load the fish put on the line. Damn. We moved on in the hope to find some more baitfish but it went quiet so we moved on the the spot we were originally headed for.

It didn't take long before we got into some fish. Just a baby but a good start.

Glenn with his first for the day.

We moved along the island a little bit. On my next cast I had a GT so big follow my popper it made me squeal like a little kid in excitement. It just shadowed it without striking, damn. Meanwhile Glenns popper get's annihalated, close to some reef.

This time it was a better fish. I had to back the boat out into deeper water as it pulled line in some dangerously looking ground. It didn't manage to bust him off and as he got it boatside I tail grabbed it.

Glenns second for the day

I threw out another cast into the same area and was rewarded straight away, this time, only a small GT.

It went quiet so we moved along the island some more. I decided to change lures. Before I even got a cast out, Glenn hooked up to another good sized fish, a PB for him off Dampier. It seemed Glenns fisherman popper was the flavour of the day.

Glenns 3rd for the day, PB for Dampier

We kept popping for most of the run in but it went quiet, most of our action occuring on the first half of the tide. It was nice and calm so we started to head out wide for a jig, stay tuned for Part II.

Well today Glenn and I decided to head wide for a jig at one of our never-fail jigging spots for something a little different as it's been ages since we've been out there.
It was a little bumpy in the morning despite the fact that there wasn't much wind. We decide to have a quick pop while we still had a bit of tide movement and while we waited for the water to calm down.
The tides weren't the best for GTs and the fishing showed. I got one hit from a small GT and this nice Coral Trout as a consolation prize and a first pilbara trout on popper for me.

It calmed off a bit so we pushed on. Our spot was a fair way out so we decided to jig a few likely looking spots on the way. First drop at the first spot I came up solid on a good fish. I cranked the drag on my stella 8000 which put the brakes on a good Spaniard of about 20kg that rocketed out of the water like a torpedo, shaking my jig free in the process... dam.
We pushed on further, and at the next spot, Glenn was rewarded with a nice Rankin Cod on about the 2nd or 3rd drop.
We kept heading out wider to our spot, the last glimpse of the islands dissapearing on the horizon behind us. The sounder indicated that we had arrived, lit up with fish.
First drop and instantly we got a double hookup on a Brassy/gold spot combo. Next drop and we got a brassy double. We kept fishing there and I lost count of the number of fish we caught until the sharks moved in and shut it down.

We moved out wider to another spot we had marked close by. We got hit straight away by some unsusual trevally that you don't see every day. Always nice to get something different.

The brassies were still abundant, and they provided some good fun. I managed to extract a nice little GT from amongst the hordes of brassy trevs whilst Glenn hooked onto something really good. It took him right to the surface and then bit him off. My guess was a mackie/wahoo. Dissapointed, it would have been good to see what it was.

Soon after, Glenn nailed a nice fish right on the bottom that didn't fight like the trevally we'd been catching. Up came a nice Spango, a first for Glenn on jig.

We moved back to the other spot and the fish were back on. Double hookups on the first drop to some more trevs. We hooked a couple of good fish which we think were demersals but we couldn't get them past the sharks.
It started getting late so we decided to start the 51km trip home. All in all a good day, we lost about 3 jigs each, some to sharks others to some toothy pelagics. All up we probably landed about 40 fish on jigs between us, mostly trevally of various species with a few demersals mixed in.

Well Glenn and I headed out to one of the Islands off here early saturday morning for an overnight trip, fortunately the weather looked awesome. The main plan was to do some GT popping and then a bit of bottom bashing when the tide slowed a bit.

The tides were pretty slow and not very ideal for the GT fishing but we worked hard and still hooked a couple of good fish. We also found some new GT ground which would probably fire really well on the bigger tides.

Glenn had two hookups which toasted him on 80lb, quite funny watching him hang onto 10kg of drag :) I had one AWESOME hit that didn't hookup from a car bonnet sized GT. Half it's back came out of the water when it hit and the amount of water it moved was phenomenal.

I was dissapointed we still didn't manage to land one but it's only a matter of time.

Glenn managed this nice gold spot while we were GT popping, it barely managed to pull and inch of the drag we had set for the GT's.

When it started to get a bit slow I started casting a 30g twisty for some queenies on the lighter gear. I managed a few little ones and then on about the 8th cast a massive GT nailed it. The result was a very fast spooling on my stradic with 30lb :)

After the GT fishing we located a school of mack tuna so we both caught one each and kept it for bait. Unfortunately the bottom fishing was extremely slow. Glenn had a live flag get hammered and then busted off after a few seconds. Damn.

We headed back to the island to call it a day, have a few coronas and a feed. Afterwards, I noticed a little baby turtle on the beach... then it didn't take long before we noticed all his mates coming down the beach, racing to the water. I'd never seen it before and it was a wicked experience seeing the baby turtles.

Once they finished we decided to go and do some reef walking on the low tide. In about 15 minutes we had 4 good crays in the bag... awesome. A bit of running around chasing ghost crabs and then it was off to bed.

The following morning we woke up to find the boat high and dry, we'd missed the high tide by a couple of hours. Damn, we were stuck on the island until the afternoon high.

We decided to go for a walk and fish some cliffs with our crabs we'd caught. It was hard getting past the pickers but Glenn managed a reasonable estuary cod and hooked up to a decent bluebone. Once we'd used up all the crabs we threw out all the left overs into the water. It acted as pretty good burley because about 10 minutes later we had a bluebone about 90cm milling about in 50cm of water at the base of the cliffs. What a sight.

We headed back to the beach and decided it was time for a snorkel, I headed out to a rocky hedland and located a nice bommie. Sure enough, there was about 4 crays underneath the ledge. I dived under and grabbed one, swam to the rocks and put him in a rock pool. Went back down and grabbed another. I decided I had more than I could handle so I headed back to shore.

We swam around for another couple of hours until the tide had come in just enough for use to shimmy the boat into the deeper water and get it floating.

We had planned to do a bit more GT fishing so we both put in about a dozen casts each before we figured it was pretty pointless with the nil tidal movement we had. Both pretty tired we decided to head home.

Not the best fishing but who can complain with weather like this?? Half a dozen crays as a consolation prize and witnessing some pretty special wildlife made it a really good trip... watching Glenn get toasted by some pretty big GT's was good too hehe..

Well today the tides were really big so I figured it would be a good chance to head out and do some serious GT fishing. I was fairly excited becuase the tides were good, weather was good and the spot I had chosen was renowned for having heavy tide rips and showed a lot of potential.

Glenn was armed with a custom G-Loomis 15kg spin stick and a Saltiga Z-4500 with 40lb line. I had my new Carpenter SP-78H-SHP and my Stella 20000FA with 80lb line.

When we first got there we cut a few laps around the small island to suss out a likely spot. We put in a couple of drifts but we soon realised that it was useless as the tide was moving so fast we barely made 2 casts before we were out of range.

The water was shallow so anchoring was the better option. We anchored close to this small reef complex that consists a group of bommies that come out of 7m of water with channels between them.

It didn't take long before we had some interest but they were only smalls trevs and they weren't hitting the poppers, just following them. Then after about 5 minutes Glenn had a big GT shadow his popper all the way to the boat and then at the last possible minute the GT hit.

We knew he was seriously undergunned but he managed to apply a fair bit of stick with the 40lb and since the fish hit the lure so close to the boat he already had a serious advantage. Unfortunately the hooks pulled witch was dissapointing as he had a pretty good chance of landing the fish. We estimated it to be about 20kg.

The Dumbell lure had some serious damage. Looked like it was almost bitten in half.

Glenn hooked up to the first GT

A few casts later Glenn had another strike from a 20kg+ GT but it didn't hook up. On the next cast a MASSIVE GT that dwarfed the first one hit and hooked up. It was all over in 4 seconds. Glenn never had a chance.

Meanwhile, I hadn't had much interest on the pencil popper I was using so I switched to the same as what Glenn had been using. It didn't take long and I hooked a small GT about 10-12kg. Unfortunatley our lines tangled during the fight and I lost the fish.

It went a bit quiet so we moved around to the other side of the small reef complex we were fishing. On about my 3rd cast it happened. A Volkswagen sized black GT materialised behind my popper and had a good swipe but failed to hookup, on the second go he made sure he didn't miss it.

Line ripped from my Stella like no tomorrow so I cranked the drag until I had as much as I felt comfortable hanging on to. I started to gain control and managed to turn it's head. I started gaining line and then he got me on a smaller bommie that was between the boat and the bigger bommies. My 100lb twisted leader was ripped to shreds.

Me hooked up to a 25kg+ GT

While I was tying my bimini to re rig Glenn started popping with a big blooper. I never saw the fish but I saw the splash as I looked up to see Glenn frantically wind the popper to avoid hooking up to another monster. Glenn said it was easily the biggest so far and would of pushed 30kg.

Some of the GT's were so big you hope that you don't hookup because you know it's just going to cost you more gear.

Glenn changed to a little Classic Popper and he hooked a nice little Big Eye trev, one of the few fish we managed to land.

After a frantic session that would have lasted around an hour and a half they went off the bite as it neared the top of the tide. We hooked about 6 GT's the smallest being about 12kg and the biggest around 30kg.

We decided to head out a bit wider and chase some bottom fish. Glenn got a nice Chinaman and we got smoked by some big Goldens before we had to high tail it back due to the wind picking up.

It was a wicked day that was just non stop action and the GT fishing was mind blowing. I will never doubt that there's 40kg+ GT's in the archipelago now. We'll be heading out again for another crack tomorrow, this time hopefully we land one!

Brad rocked up at my house this afternoon coz he had the day off work and asked if I'd like to go fishing... as usual, it didn't take much to convince me.
Neither of us really had an idea of where to go but we were both desperate to fish some new ground. Brad suggested we head out to the burrup for a fish, I'd never been out there before so it was agreed.
A quick stop at the shop to buy a couple of lures and then we were off. It was a pleasant drive out there, saw a few roos around. It didn't take long to find a spot that was suitable. We parked the car and after a short walk we found a spot where we wanted to fish.


Walking to the spot
It started off a bit quiet but as soon as the sun came out (it was quite overcast when we first arrived) I got a nice hit from a bunch of rampaging queenies. Next cast and I hooked up right at the base of the rock I was standing on, after a short little tug of war I pulled in the first fish of the trip... a nice little queenie caught on a 30g gold twisty.

Brad was persisting with plastics whilst I was fishing with metals. It wasn't long before he got some good hits then he hooked up to another little queenie.


Brad dropped another fish then it went quiet so we decided to move around the corner. I had about 10 queenies shoulder each other out of the way to nail my little twsity, I hooked up, dropped it, and hooked up again. Landed another queenie.

Me hooked up to another queenie
Brad hooked up to a little G right at the base of the rock he was on, he got buried within a couple of seconds and busted off. After he re rigged he decided to try an RMG.
It didn't take long before he was onto a nice little cod which buried him but he managed to extract it.

Brad commented on his badly conditioned 60lb leader that had been chaffed during the battle with the cod, next cast and he hooked a monster.
I knew straight away that Brad had hooked a good GT. It made him piss on the 30lb barra gear and we both weren't very confident, especially due to the leader.
The fish took him all the way around the corner and Brad did well not to lose it although I think alot of good luck also came into it.

Brad hooked up to the big G
Brad got it close to the rocks and I got in the water to land the fish, a nice GT around 10-12kg and an awesome effort on 30lb baitcast gear.

Nice one mate!
Brad persisted more with the RMG and also hooked a nice little barracuda but the hooks pulled right near the rocks.
It was a bit quiet on the metals so we switched to the squidgy Brad had success with earlier. Little GT's crawled all over them and it didn't take long before they destroyed a packet of SP's.


Eventually the little G's went off the bite so I switched to a little popper. I got a few hits from some small GT's but failed to hook up. Soon after, it got smashed by a GT that I reckon would have given 20kg a nudge but it didn't hook up. Probably a good thing as I don't think I would have had a chance in hell of landing it.
We put in a little bit more time for a few small hits then decided to call it a day. A nice sunset topped off a great arvo. Thanks for the day Brad, we'll have to do some more exploring around the area on big tides when you get the boat - especially with the heavy gear.

Well Brad, Glenn and I headed up the coast for a day trip chasing some barra yesterday. It was fairly calm in the morning but the water was quite lumpy due to the weather being quite crap for a while now. When we got there we decided to try and get some bait but the tide was still too high so we opted for a bit of a trolling session.



I got a few hits during the troll but no good hookups. Brad hooked what we originally thought was a small rat barra but it turned out to be a little giant threadfin. Released.







After a few trolling runs the tide had fallen a fair bit so it was time to get some bait. Brad and I went in opposite directions then met up further down the creek. I hadn't really caught much but Brad had found where all the mullet were hiding out and had gotten quite few. I proceeded to cast around in the same area and it wasn't long before we heaps of bait so we started fishing.



It was very hot so after the lines went out Glenn decided it as time for a swim and a beer.







It was fairly quiet for a while but we still had heaps of tide to go out. Brad got a little hit and pulled in a reasonable jack around 42cm.







It was very quiet until the turn of the tide. I got a solid hit and hooked a nice little barra about 60cm but it spat the hook on the first jump, spewin!



Soon after Brad had a bit better hit and hooked up. It erupted out of the water and we realised it was a respectable barra. A nice little fight followed and then we had the first for the day in the net, estimated around 70cm. A few snaps and then he was on his way.







About 5-10 minutes later Brad hooked up again and another barra blitzed out of the water, this time a bit better in size. I went to wind in one of the other lines when it was nailed by a queenie. It was a bit hectic as we had a queenie/barra double hookup and fish jumping all over the place.



 Brad did very not to lose this fish as it took him under the anchor and some good rodwork skills ensured he landed his second of the day, 80cm.







Glenn was next to hookup, the hit was solid and the run consistent with typical barra behaviour but it turned out to a be a nice queenie, very golden in colours.







After that it went very quiet and we ran out of livies. I started flicking strip baits into the snags for not much apart from a flattie, a few catties, bream and some cod. I was hoping for a decent jack but it was not to be.



By this stage the tide had come in enough for us to head out of the creek so we headed home. It had blown up to about 20 knots so it was a pretty rough and slow trip home.



Congrats to Brad for his barra duo, he caught the most fish - again