Just thought I would add some pictures of the trip I did with Faulksy and dodgy last month....... what a great trip we had.

Hey guys,

ive been offered a management postion in port hedland, and relocating family up there, if all goes to plan with removalist's should be up by first week in november.

i was up there for relief a few weeks back but didnt get out fishing,

for now ill be stuck to shore fishing until i get a boat.

what sort of fish am i likly to catch and where, i dont have a 4x4

OK here she is.

                      Like it or hate it, this is how it turned out.Took her for a run with my daughter on Sunday in less than average conditions.

With an early and reasonable conditions we made our way up the coast with high expectations. We entered the creek with the top of the tide and started to fish,on our first troll run we both hooked up ,but only one made it too the boat. What a start, but unfortunately that was it there was a mixed bag of other vermin but no more barra.(Water temp way down) Oh well good hit out any way. Weather was terrible on the return trip in the afternoon but the Twisted leader ate it up. (a little wet)

Will catch you Brad when I get a overnighter mate………….LOL

Should be a good season ( I hope)

What a battle this last couple of days was. The weather was very odd, we encountered squalls, hot still weather, rain, cloud and cold nights however we sailed on in search of some new ground.

Adam arrived late in the afternoon and we set off pretty much as soon as we could after picking up a carton of beer and a few extra litres of fuel. We were racing the tide to a place neither of us had ever been to before, infact the whole purpose of this trip was to do some exploring, find some new ground in the port Hedland area. Anyway we got to an area and nosed our way in, only to realise that we had gone into the wrong creek. The tide was falling fast and with less than a foot of water we managed to crawl out and into some slightly deeper water near the mouth. The tide had by now dropped too much and we were stuck for the night.

Well the spot didn’t look too bad so after gathering a few livies and cooking up a few snags we soaked a few. It didn’t take long for Adam to hook up, unfortunately we only had 25lb fluoro carbon leader at that time of the trip (don’t ask) and he was pinged. I hooked up almost straight after Adams bust off, a barra was tail walking in the moonlight only to have me bust off next to the boat (again we didn’t have any leader). Anyway we fished that spot and dropped about 4 barra. We did land some nice fingermark, jacks, threadies and other typical creek stuff.

The next morning we decided to bite the bullet and return to the ramp so that I could pick up my bag of leader, we pretty much lost half a days fishing because of that. Not to worry. Once again we were on our way, this time to a different system in search of some new ground. We entered a creek later in the afternoon and sounded out some fishy looking water, looks promising I said to Adam, let’s fish here. And we did after some procrastinating. Anyway we got some good sized livies and after some more snags in bread we settled into a session.

Adam managed the first landed barra after enticing a mid 70's fish out of the snags on popper and some dodgy 12lb braid. He was pretty stoked and I was too. After wasting the first day of our trip and dropping probably 6 barra all ready we had one in the boat.

first fish of the trip

the sleeping quarters

popped bazz

first of the trip.

Anyway not long after that Adams livie rig screamed off. What followed was a pretty intense fight. The barra went hard and actually got him into the snags a few times. He managed to get it out but there were some pretty adrenaline pumped moments before this new PB went into the net. 101cm of barra, Adams first metery and as you can imagine he was pretty stoked. The beers flowed after that.

101cm

a happy camper

well we settled into a good little session, I dropped about another 2 fish before I landed one, Adam landed another two smallish fish but it was a good session anyway given the water temp was down around the 26 degree mark

89cm

Anyway the next day was very odd, things were shut down and the water temp was down to 24 degrees. We ended up doing some more exploring since we had the time. We ended up finding a nice hole in another creek out of the wind. There were a lot of fish showing on the sounder so that is where we ended up fishing for our last session. Things were pretty action packed there for a while. We caught a heap of gold snapper, jacks, good sized threadies, grunter and a couple of barra on SP's. We also dropped another couple of bazzas on live bait.

bazzas on the sounder

more threadies

Nice Jack

Hungry

Small bazz on an SP

more threadies

Another bazz on an SP

Anyway we rounded up a pretty good trip and in 25kt winds made our way home. On the way out we saw something pretty amazing. A kangaroo was having a swim way out on a sand bar. Not sure if he new what he was doing but he did eventually make his way back to shore before the incoming tide got a hold of him too much.

cooling off

Myself and Webby had not been out fishing together for quite a while and we where long overdue to hit it up in the Polycraft again before we get serious with the Barra season. I had just aqquired a second had Saltiga Dogfight loaded with 100lb briad i was dieing to put to use and load up my Monster Mesh rod as well. We planned to give the GT's a bash as it had been 6 months since we last had a crack at them and i really did owe Webby a trip to Legendre Is to find some big ones.

I had also received a mail order of McArthy SP's and was keen to see what the fuss was about so we brought the SP combo's for some fun if needed or we wanted a rest. All started well with a smooth trip out and then plenty of tide and a small swell bashing into the rocks and the locations screamed GT's, a few casts in and Webby connects but it didn't stay hooked, no probs the day was young, we tagged in and out with short, sharp bursts of 10mins of hard work as it was pretty warm and humid. Our hopes quickly dashed when around the northern point of Lengendre Is which looked very nasty and fishy just didn't produce.

We both checked out the sounder as we cruised around and there was activity everywhere on the bottom, heaps of bait and some nice big arches in the mid water and just off the bottom, we decided we'd have a crack and see whats down there, maybe the Trevally didn't want to come up from 20m to hit our offerrings.

I had to rig up but as i did off went a 7 inch Gulp pearl jerk shad from Webby's Shimano Raider rod and Daiwa Exceller 3000 loaded with 20lb braid, a few jigs on the bottom and Webby was loaded up big time!

Some big head shakes kicked off the fight then a searing run, we initially called it for a big Trev of some sort as Webby was attached to 80lb mono leader and we where still connected so we ruled out the tax man. The remained a stalemate for about 10 minutes until Web managed to coax the fish to the surface and then to our suprise a good 6-7ft shark appeared from the depths who was hooked in the lip, the call was made to just cut the jig off and let him go, it was either a Bronzie or some form or black tipped reef shark but not what we came for and not the rest Webby wanted.

we played around for a little longer, i managed to get a good hit that just pined my leader off, possibly another shark, we went for one more drift and then a little lapse in concentration almost cost me plenty. I had dangled my rod off the back of the boat with my SP hanging down and so i put the boat just into gear and went to turn and saw my Monster Mesh PE 1-3 rod and Daiwa Tierra 4000 reel went overboard. Me being the ninja i am popped the boat into neutral and leaped into the water, sunnies, hat and all to rescue the rod, grabbed it before it got out of reach and got it back in the boat. I unwrapped the line around the prop and checked it was moving all O.K. Those McArthy's sure can catch things!!

Went around to the eastern side of Legendre for another crack at the GT's, found some bloody nasty country and had another go but there was just no action what so ever! another solid hour was put in and some territory covered without a strike or even sighting a GT. We made the call to hit up the SP's again and we decided to have a risky play at Madeline Shoal.

Out went the SP's on our little PE2-3 combo's and it didn't take long to get some action, Webby hooked a nice bottom fish that was giving him hell, but due to our sporting nature and our light tackle nature it didn't take long for the tooth brigade to settle in and another fish was lost. We lost a few jigs to the reef and a few more fish before we had a decision to make, move elsewhere or do we piss off the twisted leaders and poppers and tie on the SP's and get some of our own back. We went with the big guns.

Popping gear is a challege to jig with and we found the going a little tough but once we settled the fish came in. We had both gone for the McArthy SP's in the bullhead design and the hot orange was running hot in the 7 inch size, definantly a good SP for the big jig heads opposed to the Jerk Shad which suit something around the 1/2oz size. Webby hooked a nice fish that shook it's head hard and we called it for a small shark, finally we got it up from 35m and Webby called it for a tuna, then i called it for a YTK/Sambo, it was so round and long it had us stuffed untill we got it to the boat for a nice size Trevally.

We were drifting at 1.2knts and moving quick, we had to put another small sinker on to get them to the bottom but we managed a pair of small trout whcih we put back and then i got myself a nice reefie which Mr Taxman found very tasty, the Dogfight put the fight up hard to shark and he let go so i wound it in for glory, my first Rankin Cod for a while and measured 57cm in length.

The Spaniards moved in and all it took was a flat out retrieve from the bottom saw them tearing from side to side to hook up, man the hit with power! Webby hooked up and so i joined the fun and cranked up from the depths and hooked up too! we got Webby's fish in and i dropped mine not long after trying to assist him with his but what a buzz, the best decision we made all day by far, fish went about 1m, we didn't measure it but it had to lose it's tail to fit in the esky.

The tide was really ripping in and the fish started to slow, i managed one legal trout at 47cm who is going to make a lovely dinner tomorrow night. The McArthy SP's proved very deadly and i think i'll be stocking up on a few more for my Onslow trip in two weeks especially the Bullhead Minnows and in the bright colours like the ornage and pink but i'm sure they are all deadly, but a sucessful trip none the same, The wind came in from the North and we made the drive back in 1 hour to Dampier, some nice fillets now in the freezer and a sucessful SP trip and a nice back up plan to have. Still need to give the GT's a flogging but it's getting a touch warm and i'm sure Webby wants to put his new tinny through it's paces very soon.

I was lucky enough to have some mates over this week and it coincided with some awesome weather, we made the most of it by heading out wide and were rewarded with some sails and a couple of Wahoo. The Wahoo were firsts for both my self and Paul and we were not dissapointed with their fighting abilities. 

One of the sails that we caught had a tag in it and I was a bit surprised to see the wound that had developed around the tag. I called the NSW DPI to report the capture and was advised that the fish had been originally tagged i the same area 2 months ago.

Great weather and good company the fish were just a bonus.

Hello Guys

Im sure this question has been asked many times....but here goes anyways. 

Do you believe that the solunar tables effect pelagic fish?

  I am from Victoria and a group of Fishing club friends are planning our 2nd trip to the Montebello's mid next year (2011)  sometime. 

We went in August 09 and had a mind blowing experience.  We were lucky enough to be leaving Dampier when there was masses of Small black marlin and sailfish going great guns!, We ended up with 13 Blacks and 18 Sails for the day (all released in healthy condition) and lost lots more.  It was actually harder to get live baits than billfish!!!!.

We had Spanish mackerel to 30kg, Reds and all the typical bottom species.  but the GT fishing was quiet

In your opinion(s) when is the best time of the year for the following?

Reds and bottom fish...

Mangrove Jack.....

Cobia.....

GT's....

Spanish Mackerel....

Billfish....

Wahoo.....

Dogtooth tuna....

Dolphin fish....

I have a copy of the Solunar tables and will possibly try to book a Charter boat based on this, I am genuinely interested in some of the locals (& non locals) thoughts on pelagic and reef fish/fishing and the effects of the moon ect.

Any feed back would be fantastic

Thanks in Advance

Dancer 

As a few of you would know I am involved in the Port Hedland Game Fishing Club.  Earlier this year we were approached and asked if we were interested in taking over the running of the Mackerel Islands Game Fishing Tournament. The previous host club had lost interest in the Tournament after 25 years which was a shame but these things happen.

The Tournament is limited to lines classes up to 8kg so a combination of Mackerel Islands fish rich waters, light line and experienced fishermen coming from all over WA mixed together to ensure a lively competition.

The format is 5 days of fishing, of which a team must select one 'lay day' of their choice.

Teams came from all over WA, Kalbarri, Exmouth, Port Hedland, Karratha, Busselton and Perth were all represented.

With a lift in competition this year, and also a big lift in the levels of prizes and trophys on offer, 2011 is already shaping up to become a massive year. Port Hedland Game Fishing Clubs vision is for this to be restored as an Invitational Only competition within 2 years.

10 boats lined up for the comp this year including 2 from the Leisurecat sponsors. We also had Ryan and crew from Fishing WA there to cover the event as well as shoot a couple of episodes for their series.

The first night saw every team introduce themselves and their crew and the Tournament briefing. Some prizes were on display as well as the Tournament trophies.

Approaching Thevenard Island

View from the cabin.

Breifing night and some of the prizes on offer.

Day 1 saw our team take a lay day after a late night and long drive. Picked up this little Sharky on popper just around the corner, nearly first cast of the trip.

Had a few squid following poppers and divers so tied on some jigs. Skipper copped a jet of ink. He was even saying he hadnt seen it squirt yet.

Another nice squid. Tasted lovely with flour and salty and pepper.

Turned out flattening off nicely in the arvo.

Day 2 was a quiet one for us. Our focus was on raising Billies and only raised one for the day. A brief hookup and jump off. I also lost a nice Tuna at the boat on 3kg. Found it hard to get a solid hookup on the light gear. The skipper was still in high spirits.

Kelly Lane landed this nice Shark Mackerel (Large Scale Tuna) on 3kg. Its a potential ANSA Australian Womens Record at 9.2kg.

Murchison Boat Hire crew with a double hookup on 2 and 3kg line alongside us. These guys stayed light all week and put some good fish on the score board.

We had a couple of quiet days as we struggled to find the Bill Fish. Raised 5 on day 3 but failed to convert to tagged fish. Day 4 was even worse with only one fish hooked briefly within minutes of lines in.

Day 5 saw us hit a patch of water that looked much better. I had an acrobatic little Black attached within half hour of trolling. Put up a good fight on 8kg and was tagged within around 40m.

Ten minutes of trolling later and the flat line was hit by another small Black. This one on 6kg. Sure have to work for your fish on the light stuff.

Then it was the skippers turn for a go. His 8kg rig lept out of the rigger and he was onto our 3rd Black of the day.

The day quietened right down with a few fish raised but no hooked and another Black dropped by me due to a stupid mistake on hookup. The 8kg just wont tolerate heavy handed tactics.

One of the other boats called in their second Sailfish leaving me trailing the Billfish count on countback. Pressure was on to produce one more whhile trying not to think about missed oppurtunities.

An hour before lines out was called my rig popped out of the rigger. Line flowed from the reel and I set the hooks and the fish accelerated. Praying for a Billie we held our breath until a Sail finally left the water.

20 minutes later the tag was in. An estimated 25kg Sailfish.

Our total for the day was 8 Billfish raised, 5 hooked, 3 Marlin and 1 Sailfish Tagged.

Headed back to the beach for weigh in.

These guys were hiring on of the Islands Plaka Boats. Keen fisherman but not fishing the comp they came in every day with something in the esky. Here is one of 'Team Euro's' catches.

A nice Mack Tuna to Sue Malton caught on 2kg line.

John Hoye with a 13.1kg Mackerel. This was the largest Mack weighed for the week.

Laurie Malton with a nice Yellowfin. Pretty sure this one was on 6kg.

The Calcutta for largest Red Emperor caught on a lay day went to Mick.

Presentation night was on Friday night with a fantastic dinner prepared by the Mackerel Islands staff.

Brad Spiers accepts his prize for 'Most Tagged Species'

Kelly Lane with Highest Point Scoring Gamefish. 9.2 Large Scale Tuna on 3kg line.

And also the Highest Point Scoring Female for the Comp.

Island manager Drew Norrish 'accidentally' caught the Runner Up Largest Mackerel. He also won the Calcutta for Largest Mack as the John Hoye hadnt entered this Calcutta.

Runner Up Champion Boat, Tara, from Port Hedland Game Fishing Club.

Champion Boat, Awesum, from Exmouth.

Greg Lane colleted this years MIFU (Most Ingenious F*** Up) for managing to impale his tender on Tara's skeg with daughter on board. It rapidly deflated.

Final morning blew right up. We waited for a couple of hours before heading off home. It actually wasnt too bad once you got off the island.

Anyone thinking about hitting the Mackerel Islands I couldnt recommend the place enough. Fantastic facitities. Awesome, hardworking staff. Good fishing. And the beer is pretty cheap considering as well. It wont be long until you see me back down that way again.

This is a link to my first fishing vid on youtube. Have a look...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ST5xGGoGcI

Early Trip.

Getting withdrawals so packed up the camper trailer and roof topper on Friday arvo ready for an early start Saturday. (as new boat still under construction) Bacon and egg sangers on the road kept us busy for the 11/2 hour drive to the launch site. We arrived with about 3hours of the run out still left, there were already a few boats on the water and a few more arrived after us.

We unloaded the gear and headed up stream to the rock bars to cast for some Jacks. I was using soft plastics and my daughter was flicking some hard bodies around, she struck first with a good size jack now the pressure was on. All I could hear was one nill one nill from the front of the boat, we stayed till the score was even (if it took all day).When the tide had dropped enough we headed for some trolling sections, pretty quiet till the tide bottomed out then Sarah hooked up on a nice little 72 cm Barra which she bought to the boat in a very professional manner.

Not much for the rest of the arvo bar one little Cod and a couple of small flatties and bream. The score was 5 to 4 her way mmmmmmmmmm oh well up to the camp for some beers and a camp fire, what a way to spend a week end.

Took advantage of the good weather on Sunday and Monday and took my little rig for a run out wide to see if we could find a Sail or little black. We went fishless on Sunday but managed to get a couple on Monday. I landed my first ever sail and the other half caught her first ever Black Marlin which she later followed up with another little Black. All in all an awesome day.

 Cheers

Pete

Taking some time off in November so am thinking of heading up to Exmouth for a change.

Have never been up there that late in the year so would be interested in info on what the weather is normally like.

Any info would be appreciated.

The 2010 Pilbara Boats N Bikes/Pilbara Motor Group Bluewater Classic is to be held over 4th, 5th and 6th of Sept. Port Hedland Game Fishing Club has been running this extremely successful comp for quite a few years and is expecting a strong attendance this year.

Landbased, Dinghy, Bluewater and Game Sections with over $20 000 of prizes make this a comp not to be missed.

Main drawcard is the chance to win the Dinghy package just by entering. You dont even need to land a fish for the weekend.

Registration is to be held at Pilbara Boats N Bikes at 6.30pm on the 3rd of Sept. BBQ and refreshments will be available.

Call Jon Jarvis on 0413 238 518 for further details.

Hi All,

New to this forum, have been reading it for a while and there are some great stories and pics about.  Anyhow has any body been to geographe shoals before?  I'm heading up there this saturday night camping at balla balla and then out to the shoals on sunday, A mate of mine tells me stories of big reds out there.  Can't wait.

Cheers

Fun in the Karratha sun. :)

Cheers,

Adam

Picture this, the sky is blue, not a cloud in it, the water is a dark cobalt colour and almost flat, not a single white cap as far as the eye can see. There is rippled water where three or four different bait balls the size of basketball courts are busting up with 12 to fifteen boats all working the same area. To the left, only a stone’s throw away is a vessel with a lucky angler leaning back with bent rod in hand and a leaping bill fish skimming across the water in a desperate attempt to free itself. To the right a pod of dolphins are launching from the water, making the most of the free feed and only 50m in front, whales breach the surface with massive loud eruptions.

This was the amazing position we found our self’s in off the coast of Dampier on Saturday. My sister and her boyfriend matt were leaving the next weekend to move to Kununurra and asked if I could help them get their first billfish before they left. Well it was a hell of a send off. We landed three marlin and one sail. Matt, his brother mike and I all caught our first marlin. My partner jess was hooked up to her first ever billfish but unfortunately the hook didn’t set properly and the fish let go.

This was defiantly one of the best days fishing I have had.

These guys played with us for about five minutes.

Hope  everyone  is  swell.

Just  wondering  if  anybody    has  tried    those  squidgie  boof  frogs?

Thoughts, success stories,  failures  and  advice  on  rigging  and   action?

Seems  pretty  popular  in  the  territory  and  queensland.

Might   consider  giving  them  a  crack   next summer.

Just wondering if anyone who has been there can pass on any tips / advice for fishing the place to a few newbs who haven't been before... Bluejuice have said that everything is on the cards, from deepwater (200m+) to trolling, popping from their tender, shorebased off the islands plus the normal bottom bouncing for reds, etc.

Me and a mate are heading to the Montes with Bluejuice (http://tiny.cc/qyqzj ) next month - woohoo - so we're starting to have a salivate about what new gear we can take up to give a workout.

I guess I'm hoping for some general ideas on tackle tips, maybe some thoughts on what country to look for to have a GT pop (assuming we can take the tender out for a hoon by ourselves)... anything else that comes to mind.

Due to the weather and the missus in the middle of uni exams I haven’t been able to get out as much I would have liked, as a result, this caused me to start spending. So sitting at home looking at my two new reels, new rod (with another on the way, cheers matt) and various untested sp patterns, I decided it was time to give it all a workout. I didn’t have to ask my good mate Robbo twice as he will use any excuse to get the fly rod out.

We hit the water before sun up to hopefully get a few fish before the wind kicked in.   The first spot we hit up was a nice shallow reef area which was a perfect spot to try out my new sp reel, a daiwa excela 3000.  Between that and Robbos 10 weight fly rod we managed to nail 6 trout and I was blown away but a huge seventh, in just over an hour. All the trout were small, between 30 and 50cm but they were great fun on the light tackle.

We then began to head wide for a jig, stopping along the way to chase some tuna schools. At first the tuna were skittish and when john did manage to put us right amongst it, we both launched out a cast at the same time and a sea gull swooped in and collected both our lines. Robbo finally connected to one but after a 10 minute fight it was sharked

By the time we reached our lump the wind had picked up and drifting became hard, I did manage to connect to a nice little golden that gave my new stradic/monster mesh combo a good workout. I was very impressed with how it handled. But the wind was getting worse and we had scratched our itch so we called it a day.

Took the spouse out for an hour or so this morning. Took advantage of having the mother in law in town so we were able to leave the kiddies at home. Weather was pretty good for the first time in a while, was more of a jaunt than a fish but i couldnt resit throwing a few rods in.

We had a quick jig on some of the pylons and did pretty well on little trevors, mainly goldens and brassies.

On the way home i threw few poppers around, got quite a few brassie strikes and managed to land one small fish. The current had slowed by that stage so we diecided to pull out for the day. Out and in in less than a couple of hours, but still good fun

We kicked off our annual exmouth trip with a 72 cm bone on the fisrts day! Windy con ditions made it challenging but we found trevally and spangles on most of the stretches.

Milkfish are next on the list as fish to crack. found plenty of them but couldnt convert. Did foul hook one to watch it launch out of the water "awesome" only to shake the hook.

Trolled a little on the outside as we headed to other flats and nailed a decent wahoo and a few mackies.

At night we chased GTs of the beach which was a hoot! Loads of yellow fin bream, small blue salmon, spangle, trevally, cod, sharks and plenty of unstopables.

Best fish of the trip was caught by the Mrs. 76cm Bone! Hey at least im honest. Dam thing ate a whole mullet #$%^&*(!!! 

Anyways great trip all round.

hi guys im 16 and i have never caught a fish on lure

however i live in perth and my dad said i can go up to karratha as hes working up there so im going in july any ideas on what should be around then or anyone want to guide us for a day?

Well the Fishwrecked Invitational has snuck up very quickly on us and with all the talk from Gamex about the billfish caught we have been just a little excited about the chance to tangle with some big fish in the coming weeks. Problem was we have a very green team when it comes to chasing the sails and marlin, Webby is the most experienced in our team and i'm sure he doesn't count himself as any expert he just knows what he is doing, Tobi had never seen a Billfish before and my experience was limited to a 1 day charter off Broome 10 years ago, this was going to be fun!

We had the gear but did we have the skills and nerve to carry this mission out, it didn't start well. I repaired a leak in my bungs last night only to see the silicon takes 1/2 to dry and a week to cure fully, it was still tacky when we pulled out of the driveway this morning. We get to the servo and we are about to leave when a woman in a work ute backed into the car, no damage there just a dent to the bullbar and the spottie bent up, then find the brake still on the trailer slightly before we pulled away with me thinking if we shouldn't just shit-can the idea and go home to bed.

We arrived to the boat ramp with not a breath of wind in the air, the decision was made to press on and if the silicon didn't hold we head straight back so this had me worried but because we wouldn't stop for the whole day i was hoping the low pressure effect of going through the water would help, it did no issues.

Cruised out to the 30m mark and set the teasers and baits not really knowing what to expect, the bait was around and the bird where working the schools with small tuna jumping through the air hitting the bait, they are just such little balls of muscle but we resisted the urge to catch one and kept trolling the edges of the bait, 45 mins in and a Spanish Mackerel fly to the air and hit the right corner bait hooking up on the 15kg outfit, thankfully the circle hook did it's job and we got him in the corner of the mouth, a quick release and a new bait was set.

We headed to the back of the ore carriers and found a free jumping sail so we set course in his direction, sure enough we found a pod of sails and both baits copped attention, they hit the baits and we dropped them back, the knees started trembling for myself just being patient waiting for the fish to swallow it deep, both fish ran off and we put the reels to strike and nothing from me so i dropped it back again and Webby hooked up briefly but dropped off. A new bait was needed and rigged up. We didn't find anymore action from this area so we headed towards the furtherest ore ship. Once again we got some attention on the way over and the baits dropped back, line flew out of my reel and once again waited 15 seconds and hit strike, To our amazement a big black marlin probably around the 50-75kg mark errupted on the surface and jumped away from the boat at right angles, he spat the hooks early in the fight and i would have been lucky to keep him with the big belly of line i had out. This was getting to be good fun.

We concentrated on this one area for 6/7 passes with regular enquiries, Webby and I still manned the rods while Tobi kept driving for us, we thank her for that as she rarely likes to miss the action. The plan was to get Tobi in on the action once we had one released. Sure enough it diddn't take long as a Sailie swiped Webby's gardie and he dropped it back and waited, i left my bait in and hoped for another fish as we seemed to raise 2 or 3 every time but he was on his own, Webby hit strike and we were on!!! Tobi got the teasers in and i cleaned a path for Webby to fight it out, It took to the air early in the fight jumping several times away from the boat as we chased him down, tensions rose when he turned and swam with the boat so we frantically got tension back in the line and worked on getting him to the boat.

I was getting nervous as i was on deckie duty and i made it very clear to Webby i haven't grabbed a sailfish before, especially seeing his reaction when i dropped a queenie one day and the tone of his voice to Pickles when he was landing Webby's big GT last mont i didn't want to stuff this, i slowly leadered him in and when he was settled by the edge of the boat i grbbed that bill and hung on! he settled down and i swapped out with Webby so he could unhook him alongside and swim him, Tobi got the camera out and we got some happy snaps of the impressive fish, he swam away peacefully.

We had 90mins to kill and so we rigged again and Webby jumped behind the wheel and we started again but it all shut down, we saw one free jumping sailfish but not action which was a shame for Tobi so she will get first crack in exmouth.

Stopped for a quick pop at Nelson rocks with the new Saltist/MonsterMesh combo's Tobi and I brought but it was short lived as the screw holding the handle on for both reels let go and rendered the reels useless, fixed now mind you.

So for 2 virgins to billfishing we have a our tecnique down, we can rig the baits, set the spread and keep calm when it goes off. We rasied 7 sailfish and 1 black marlin, hooked three and landed 1, not a perfect day but one we can build on.

After a false start at Easter when the weather blew up Anzac weekend was the next chance I had to have a crack at the Montes.

Hit Fortescue and dropped the boat in at around 8 on Friday night. Was a little blowey for the first ten kms or so with the little 17r Haines sitting on around 24 knots. Calmed of the further we got until glass around Veranus area and we hit a fast cruise of around 32.

Fisrt thing we noticed in the morning was how fishy the place looked. I was honestly pretty hard to make a decision and then stick with it without getting distracted.

Headed west of the islands and got onto a few lumps in around 35-40m and worked our way north. Found some nice fish but the sharks were never far away. Fair few Shark Macks around and lots of little Tuna as well.

 Red Bass really did some pulling.

Made our way up to Tryall Rocks for a look around there. Suprisingly little pelagic action. Shows great potentialbut will have to leave out exploring there for a bit later.

Came back down to the old Observatory overlooking the Nuclear testing area. The little Ray got spooked in the shallows and beached it self. Took a pic then de spooked it back into the water.

View from the Observatory.

Did a bit of trolling around and looking the next day. Some nice fish coming over the side. Some not so big but always plenty of action.

 Just to prove we did find a GT Brad.

Got up before sunrise this morning for the ride home. Awesome conditions. Sat on 34 knots for most of the way with only a quick stop for another couple of trout. Sunrise over the rigs was pretty impressive.

We caught plenty of fish but really only scratched the surface of the place. At least now I have a picture of the layout and can plan the next trip a bit better and try to stick with one plan.

It has been a while since our last visit to the motebello islands so with the long weekend upon us, Tim and i were on our way. Unlucky for us we only had two days this time but who is complaining. We set off late friday night with the weather gods smiling upon us. A 4 1/2 drive down to fortescue river followed by an absolutly sensational night transit accross the dark ocean guided by the gas pods on route to the montebello islands. We set the anchor at around 0130 to grab a couple of hours sleep before the morning popping session. We awoke to a beautiful bright red sky and fair seas, we rigged up, topped up the fuel and set off to the popping grounds.

Red in the morning

Words can not describe

Well after a late night and a gentlemans start to the day we were where the GT's liked to hang out. I asked Tim if he would like the first cast, as soon as he said no i didnt give him half a chance to change his mind. I bombed a cast toward the said bommy and on the 4th bloop on the first cast of the trip an explosion of water errupted behind my popper and I was on. Surprisingly what followed was a pretty easy fight, before too long i was surprised to see a nice GT of around 30kg's surface. Not a bad start to the trip.

hooked up on the first cast of the trip

Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeteeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Right, Tim's turn. Last time he visited me he caught a number of GT's but notthing over 20kg's. He got bricked more times than a labourer and the start of this trip was to be nothing different. His first cast resulted in another hook up and yet another lost lure. This happened again soon after. I was getting frustrated with the situation, i really wanted him to land a decent fish. We moved spots after about 5 strikes and 2 lost lures for instant success. This time tim stayed connected and managed to subdue a his first pilbara beast, 25kg's of Pilbara GT finally made it to his arms

hooked up

A very happy GT camper

Righto we then settled in to a pretty good sesion landing another three fish taking us to 5 for the morning session with as many if not more dropped in the couple of hours. the fish we caught were 30kg's, 2 specimens at 25kg's 20kg's and a petite 15kg's. Not a bad morning.

Another cracker from Tim

Well we decided to go for a quick jig in the arvo. I had not ever been out wide of the montes so much of the time we spent looking for any sort of structure in the 40 meter zone. WE found a lump approx 10 miles from where we were and opted for some pe5 fun. We found a ledge that dropped from about 25m to 40m. As usual in the pilbara the bloody thing was teeming with spanyds resulting in quite a few lost jigs. We did manage a ffew nice trout and so did the sharks that were obviouly lurking bellow.

yummo!

Anyway before the afternoon disapeared completely Tim and i went for a bit of a recon in amongst the islands around an area we had not been to before. We were looking for some of those monster jacks the montes are renound for and the only real species to evade us in the last two trips. WE did find some ground and it was covered in good size bar cheek trout over 70cm. I found one ledge while diving that had a 30 plus kg GT on it as well as a 90 odd cm trout and a few of those huge jacks we were looking for. I went back to the boat to get my spear gun but by the time i rreturned the bigger jacks were gone, I settled for a couple over 50cm and a couple of trout. Not a bad way to round out the afternoon.

by the way we named the spot undies, for an undisclosed reason

Well that night keeping with the montes tradition Tim and I share we feasted on coral trout Sashimi. Bloody beautiful! After a good nights sleep in the swags on the beach we woke to yet another beautiful day. Tim sugested we have another pop first thing followed by some plastics in amongst the islands and lure casting on the flats. We made our way out to the popping ground this time it was tim up first. It didnt dissapoint with another first cast hook up. We took turns popping that morning, apolagise for the lack of photos we decided to film instead. We landed 4 fish in ten casts ranging from 15 to 25 ish Kg's we litoraly left them biting, not a bad start to the moring.

Preparing the feast

Yummo, we ended up eating this for diner both nights

trying to get some sleep

Tim pondering the day ahead

Only photo we took on the second moring

Well after another successfull GT session we headed in for ome breaky. After that we headed in a different direction looking for some structure to throw some placky's around. We had reasonable succes in our last trip in one spot so we decided it was time for a revisit. First casts from both tim and i resulted in a double hook up. Tim was burned pretty hard on the pe2 gear resulting in a bust off. I on the other hand landed a nice little trout. We threw plastics and hard bodies around here for an hour or so with some prett good success, we landed a few nice trout and spangos, we also got bricked about 5 or 6 times by some onstopable jacks. I know they were jacks because i jumped in with the mask and snorkle to inspect, i saw jacks to an estimated 8kg's lurking in on the drop off, no wonder we didnt stand a chance on the light stuff, ahh well next time!

trout on an SP

Spango on a stickbait

Trout on a trembler

Well after that we went for a bit of a flats fish to round out the day. Tim had a bit of a cracker session on the pe 3 landing both a chinaman on a sticky bait and an estimated 15kg GT on a red snapback. It was pretty entertaining, i jumped in with the water camera for a few shots of the chinaminza, the water was a bit green but some turned out ok i guess. I speared one last fish to bring home, a nice bluebone.

Tim hooked up on the chinaman, pe 3

almost there

About to net him

Walah!

GT time

Not bad on pe3 gear

one last fish for the esky

Well thats about it. Once again had a great trip, highlight for me is definatly the 30kg GT on the first cast of the trip, tims well probably given the circumstances probably his first brute of a GT, it took him three trips and about 5 of my poppers to land it, hahha. We had glorious weather for the transit home, made a great end to the trip that bit better

Cheers

Brad

Anyone know of any good spots for a spear around the dampier archipelago or close to shore out of Karratha? I have a 15 foot runnabout to get me out there. Heard around rosmary island is good for crays aswell?

Matt

Went for another look out the front of Hedland this morning. Forecast was to blow up and then drop off after 8. The first bit was right but it didnt drop off.

Hit a couple of the usual spots for a few more of the usual suspects. Few Macks around but not too much gear lost fortunately.

I started with the PE3 on the Trevs while Brad opened with the PE2. Double header of Brassys on Slams.

I switched to a 60g jig and the hookups kept coming.

Moved across to another spot and decided to pull out the PE .5. Queenies were great fun on the light stuff. Loved the little Chartreuse jigs. Was awesome to watch them smash the jig at the boat then just sit there and shake their head. Then wake up and start cartwheeling all over the place.

Every drift was a double hookup and at one stage there was 4 boats coming right on top of us. 

Weather was pretty bad but was good to still be able to get out for a quicky.

Home just in time to take the family out for a swim.

Decided to try and salvage a long weekend by heading out for an early morning fish this morning.

The deckies little brother had made the big trip up from Perth with high expectations but 25 knots from the South saw the planned Montes trip dissapear from our sights.

Hit the Hedland ramp around 5.30 this morning and was immediately greeted by around 20 knots of wind. Here we go again.

Bit of a slow troll around the channel markers showed a bit of action. Left Brendon on strike all morning to make sure he remembered the trip.

I did pick up a flick stick for one quick jig at one of the pylons. Mmmmm, Golden Snapper for dinner.

Funny thing, the Queenies that were around in plague proportions last week just didnt want to play. Still a few around but not interested. Macks are in close too.

Some photos from a couple of weeks ago. Had a couple of days spare after a job in exmouth. Lined up a 12foot tinney and hit the flats in search for Bones and permit.

Weather was a blowout so spotting was a nightmare. Plenty of spangos and goldens. Big goldens were busting me up Bad. The 12lb set up copping a beating and long 20min battles with large goldens always ended badly. No luck on the bones. Spotted 3 pemit for 1 strike but no hook up .

damage- 1 Lox rod, loads of leader,

Found a few jacks and spangos in the harbour at night too.

Best fish- 70cm spango on 12lb in less than a meter of water in and out of coral.

anyways.

back in May