Sometimes we as anglers can get caught up in the competitive nature that goes hand in hand with fishing, and this is quite justified. I mean who doesn’t want to catch the show stopper, the fish of fish, the trophy? However, by constantly chasing the biggest and the best we can lose sight of other aspects of fishing that can be equally as enjoyable and more abundant.

Teaching a young person to fish is a responsibility all in its self. Concepts such as why that fish didn’t hook up, why did the fish stop biting and “why can’t I take this dead stinky crab home for mum” are hard for a young person to grasp.

My daughter Charlie has been on to me for a while now to take her fishing, and I have a few times. She still hasn’t stopped telling the tale of how she caught more fish than me last time we went out. So I cracked. We packed her small k-mart rod, some tiny hooks, some pillies and the old mans fly gear (I’m not completely selfless), and headed down to one of my favourite nursery type locations. It was a lot of fun. With a bit of burly in the water there were plenty of small fish to keep us entertained. Charlie caught a few nice little finger mark, but as a school of ‘Goldens’ swam past I had to tell her to please move aside as there was work to be done. A hook up and a ten minute fight ended in devastation as the hook pulled as I was trying to land him. A few more fingermark’s for Charlie and a small cod for me and our day was done. No show stoppers, no trophy fish but one of the most fun fishing sessions I have had, simply teaching my daughter the wonders of fishing.

Charlie fishing a nice bombie

Charlies small fingermark

Turtle

Don't worrie if you think your hooks might be too big

Hey guys, are there any charters you pilbara-based guys would recommend around here? Has any of you been on them before?

Ideally if we could do a bit of trolling and bottom-bouncing and maybe even chase a sail/GT or two that would be ideal.

We're trying to get a few guys from work together to go...but if anyone needs a deckie on a sunday i'll be happy to ditch them haha

Cheers,

Justin

http://s285.photobucket.com/albums/ll58/pilbaraBrad/?action=view&current=spangos.flv

http://s285.photobucket.com/albums/ll58/pilbaraBrad/?action=view&current=pilbaraBrad.flv

Finally hit some good weather this weekend and even had D1 climb aboard for a day on the big blue.

First stop at the bait spot produced two suitable specimens in three casts and then it was off to Anchor Island so James could see if that elusive wave was working. No wave so off to see if we could find some reds.

First few drifts were uneventful but on the bottom of the tide I picked up a nice PB red. Next drift saw me hook up in a big way, but thirty seconds later that sickening feeling of instant loss transpired up the line. Inspection revealed both the snapper lead and paternoster busted off. The spot quietened off so we headed out prospecting. D1 was feeling a bit seedy so she had a power nap up front.

Found a great current line out wide so we trolled some zukers along it while looking for anything worth fishing on the bottom. D1 rose from the grave to battle her first ever dolphin fish. Very happy D1 and skipper!

Eventually found a small show and pulled some rat rankins and a goldband jobfish for James.

By this stage the water was glassing right out and a few birds started working the current line so we started trolling again. Several hookups resulted in a nice yft, mack tuna, another dollie and a lost 8 inch zuker when the lines crossed on a double hookup. Buggar!

Cruised home on an ever flattening sea. Top day, and about time to.

John

Just a small Cuttlefish,LOL

Caught freediving

Hoping for the weather to hold this weekened and be out on the Big Blue.

Aquagenes

I am just throwing up some random photos to have a crack at Photobucket. se here goes...

this is the smallest jack i have ever caught...and a hill

 and a hill

Queenie, a new species from the yak.


Not a new species

Double hook up and another new species Rankin cod



Another old species

Waiting for tide

Something interesting when i cleaned the cod, it had a puffer in it stomach

"Come down to Onslow I'll take you out for a fish."

…Friday night i made a call to see if that offer still stood. It did. After a delayed start due to some car troubles we rolled into town midafternoon Saturday.

Hit the water shortly after in perfect conditions.

A flying fish launched itself out of our way.

Tuna erupted on edges of the currentlines disappearing equally asfast. Occasionally bigger ones glinted in the sun as they rolled on the surface.

The anticipation was high as we prospected a few different marks to see which were holding fish.  Eventuallywe found what we were looking for a school of fish holding close to the bottom.

It didn't take long for Matt onto something unstoppable, we gave chase but it reefed him.

My rod loaded up and I got stuck into my first good fish of the night. My first splanglie

It didn’t take long for Matt get his first keeper too

Lines got tangled as fish were being hooked every drop. I put myrod in the holder to try and help with the untangling. Right on cue my rodloaded up and the tangled braid whizzed through my fingers. I free spooled so I could get the tangle undone. Eventually clear I set about fight what felt like a good fish. The weight on the end of line surged, ‘Sharked!’ I cranked the lever to full and applied my palm to the spool. I gained some line on the beast then lost the weight. Expecting just a head to come up I got a surprise when a big spanglie surface with a bit of damage but still intact.

We drifted away from the spot and the bite shut down. We worked a few different drops and managed a few more keepers mixed in with a lot of smaller stuff. I managed a small one on a SP.

On the way in we made a detour past the wharf. We scored a couple of live baits but couldn’t tempt anyresident beasties. I spotted several solid fish cruising the edge of the light they looked like GTs. We moved spots and I saw the fish again. I cast a big SP in its direction and came up solid. A great aerial display revealed it as a Queenie. It was the thickest Queenie I have seen.

Quickly released. We looked around for its mates. I spotted them again but my cast spooked them.

We called it a night but decided to make the most of the weather and head out again in the morning.

Next day the weather was almost as good,

Reefies were the primary target. Our host showed us how itsdone landing most of the mornings keepers. Including this beast of a cod.

I caught this which I now know is a rainbow monocle bream.

I tried a lucanus jig and got bricked as soon as I dropped. I managed a small trout on a SP.

On the wayback in we spotted tuna bust on the current lines and decided to give them a crack.

I stood at the bow armed with my 20lb spin gear and a halco twisty. We raced around all over the place chasing the bust ups. I got a couple of swipes but didn’t connect. With the forward momentum of the boat I couldn’t wind fast enough to keep the lure skimming on the surface. A new plan was formulated…

We came up on the school, I made my cast right into the action and braced as the boat was cracked into reverse. This gave me the extra speed needed and Bang! Zzzzzzzzzzzz

Is there a sweeter sound?

A solid first run of around 100m then the wide arc and finally

Then it was matts turn. What an introduction to fishing!

I went another just for fun before the bust ups stopped.

We checked out some structure on the way back and found the queenies crawling over each other to eat our lures.

I dropped a jig down the side on the pylon hoping to test out my new outfit.

It easily account for acouple of these with plenty of pulling power in reserve

Sun setting we called it a day, a bloody good day!

with the billfish shootout on this weekend taking all of the boats out of "all the other spots" and some forcast magical weather, Fozz, Kelvin8tor and myself decided to take my 5.2m ali cab over to the montes on a solo recon mission. An a mission it was....

Where to start, we were umming and ahhring where to go and what to do. We were going to go to a few spots we had been to before then on a final weather inspection and a quick phone call to Andy Mac we decided to go to the montes. We left my joint at 0130 to drive down to fortescue river mouth (1 hr 30 min drive) Got to the ramp just in time for high tide, and after a few final checks we launched the boat on an absolute sheet of glass and we were on our way.

We made our way accross a dark indian ocean onroute to one of te nearer islands, only about a 14 mile journey where we decided to drop the pick until the first hint of sunlight came over the horizon. At about 0530 we weighed anchor and set off on the remaining 33 miles to our nice little island (base camp for the one day and night we were staying)

We passed through the rigs early morning it was awesome, the montes came into view and still the ocean was a piece of glass. We couldnt have asked for a better transit. It was then that things actually became a little overwhelming. By that i mean there are over 200 bits of rock and island in that place and we just didnt know where to start.

We went for a bit of a spin after dumping all of the jerry cans and swags etc. Had a bit of a pop for not much luck, fozz was doing allright on the placky dackies catching jacks, flag, we also got bluebone, cod, mack tuna and a heap of other stuff just flicking them at small bommies and bits of reef.

Well it was getting warm and we wanted to go for a bit of a dive around some of the islans. We found a group of rock bommies and pulled up at each of them along the way for a dive. We stumbled accross schools (thats right schools) of trout saw heaps of chinaman, rankins, bluebone and your other typical reef species. I also followed a largish GT into a cave to find another 4 in there with it. There were 5 good sized GT's just cruising around. We speared a few trout and grabbed a few crays before heading back to camp to chill out for a while. Sheldon trolled up a nice trout on the way back to our island, and then proceeded to put the trebble of his lure into his palm and out another part of his palm. Great, well i bet he is glad he listed to me about some of the rules of the trip, CRUSHED barbs and no lures on deck, hey matey!!!

Well we chilled out for a while then rigged up for an arvo session trolling for trout. It didnt take long. We found a piece of ground that we aptly named "the trout highway". Was in about 9 meters of water rising up from 19. We pulled probably a dozen trout off that area in as many passes. On top of that we got bricked by a few unstopables, caught about 5 shark mackeral the bigges was about 8-10 KG's and a couple of spanyids. not a bad way to finish off the arvo. We probably caught over 20 trout in the short time we fished that day, plus all the other stuff we cant remember, we wernt even taking photos because we just wanted to get the rods in for another pass, it was HOT!!!!

Fozz's first on an SP,

one of the baby Sharkies

Anyway we went back to camp and after the early early start we all crashed. Got up nice and early to top up the boat with fuel, pack up (unfortunately only a short trip this one) and head back closer to home. had a pretty good run back to an island closer to home where we stoped for a quick beach session. Got a heap pf baby GT's, Bigeye trevs, spanyids, queenies, longtoms, and i cant even remember what else.

The nor easter kicked in after that, i was glad that we got the good weather for the open water part of our transit would have been a slow ol trip home otherwise.

All in all was a great trip, none of us had been there before, had no idea where to go and what to do but still managed to get quite a few nice fish along the way. Next time we will hae to stay at least three days i feel

good stuff fellas, had a ball altough i dont think this overnighter helped my flu one bit, feel like crap!!!

Brad

Well after checking the forecast I pretty much had Sunday written off and we hit the piss hard on Saturday night until about 3am. After a sleep in and a big feed of bacon and eggs we went outside Sunday morning at 9.30am to find out the 20 knot forecast easterlies hadn't come in... a quick check on the internet and it was only blowing 5-7 knots. Crap, let's go fishing. We were on the water shortly after 10 and the water was like a millpond. Once we got outside the islands the wind had significantly increased throughout the voyage and it was now noticably hairy. Alas, it died off shortly after and the remainder of the afternoon was bliss.

We put in a mega effort on the GT front considering the previous nights effort, but they were the quietest I've seen them in ages. I got one good hit from a good GT and raised a few rats but that was all we managed however Glenn got one of the biggest queenies I've ever seen on a Hammerhead pencil. I was popping in one of our favourite areas when something very exciting happened. I was retrieving my popper when I saw something very big and very black cruise in behind my popper. At first I thought it was a big black GT but as it got closer I noticed a BILL come out and slash my popper! It was a bloody sailfish.... in only 6m of water! Well, after he'd had a go (and unfortunately not hooked up) he free swam around the boat for a further 20 seconds while Glenn frantically tried to find something to throw at it. He swam off before we had another chance. Wow, one of the most awesome things I've ever seen.. soooo close to getting a sailfish on a popper.

Soon after, we noticed a mega school of something going nuts out a little wider. We cruised out hoping there might be some sails balling up some bait, I had a small sinking stick bait in case there was but it turned out to be hundreds of rainbow runner... never seen these off Dampier before. First cast with the stickbait and it got annihalated by the ravaging rainbows. They go extremely hard for their size, not suprising since they're related to Yellowtail Kingfish. We cruised around chasing them for a little longer then started popping again. We tried some new areas we don't usually fish in case the fish were holding up in different spots due to the easterly winds we've had but we had little success. Oh well, you get those days.

Now it's time to look forward to this years billfish shootout. We've got a great forecast for the three day event and there's record numbers of boats fishing this years tournament. Plenty of billfish have been caught recently so it's shaping up to a fantastic weekend. Look out for team Hammerhead. See you on the water.

Kelvin8tor and i jumped at the chance to go for a spear yesterday at an area we havnt been to for bloody ages. There was a nice break in the easterlies so it gave me a good opportunity to test the new 115 HO out. We started out the day with some light spinning for baby GT's and queenies, the action was hot with almost a fish a cast for a while. We saw some good sized GT's in a new area and managed a few strikes but didnt manage a hook up this time

We movd over to some good dive ground on the low and i jumped in for a look. Water is a bit chilly at the moment (23 degrees) almost need a wetty. There were HUGE chinaman fish all over the place i saw some good sized trout and a couple of bluebone among heaps and heaps of other stuff. I didnt spear a fish for a while was busy looking around as it has been quite a while since i have been here

Anway i managed 2 average bluebone before we pulled the pin on that spot, was heaps around but i am happy to leave after two fish, saw a trout that must have gone 850, very nice

We moved to another spot and had a bit of a look around, took a while to find it because i didnt have this GPS the last time i was up this way. Did manage to find a heap of good ground there were bluebone and trout bloody everywhere as well as a few GT's first time i have seen them in this place

We saw heaps of turtles, and i even managed a ride off of one, was pretty cool, sheldon also managed a few trout, we had our bag in about 5 minutes, my couple went 740 and 700, pretty happy with that

Well it was a bit cold while we waited for the other boats, had to take a photo of how stupid we looked, i wraped bandages around my legs to keep warm while Sheldon used the wet towles, pretty fnny stuff

all in all a great arvo, oh i got the boat to 45 knots before i pulled back the throttle, it wasnt even maxing out yet, dont think i will be going that fast again...

The benefit of fishing the outgoing, get your lost lures back at the end of the day.

Hi

Ill be travelling up that way in a month or so. Just wondering about camping on the stations between Karratha and Portheadland. How strict is it? Are there fixed camping areas or is it just a case of paying a fee for your stay then finding your own area? Any other info regarding fishing or camping in the area between Dampier and Broome would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Bryn

Had an R&R day today so i decided to make the most of it by camping at 40 mile beach with the intention of an evening sess and pre dawn assault. I arrived and setup with a few hours of day light to spare. But the wind didn't look like dropping to allow my evening session so Plan B was put into action.I made my way to the sheltered part of the bay armed with my light spin gear and some nuke chooks. It didn't take long to get a bend in the rod. Thanks to a fun size GT. At this point i realised i had forgotten my camera, lucky my phone does alright.Very next cast i was on again I called it for another GT but i was wrong, A bream!Fish attacked my lure every cast but the hook ratio wasn't great because i was using a heavy gauge hook (just in case) I managed about a dozen fish including a couple of half decent bream, really thick through the shoulders.I prepared my kayak that night for an early start the next morning. I knew it was going to be a good day just because i didn't have my camera!I hit the water just as the first glow of orange appeared on the horizon. It was a little more windy than i was hoping but still fishable.I explored the shallow reef with a popper for a while before taking up the troll. My lure got hit almost immediately some thing small was nibbling but missing the hooks. I kept paddling and as i hit the drop at the edge of the reef my lure got slammed! I felt the fish dive straight into the reef. I pulled the kayak over the top of the spot and managed to extract the fish from its hidey hole. With a couple of quick pumps i got it clear of the reef and pretty soon i had a nice coral trout yak side. I took the opportunity to change to a deeper diver now i was past the drop off and it payed off almost immediately. I gave this fish plenty of stick to keep it out of the reef, a big cod was the result estimated 60cm a new PB! Since i had a nice trout already I removed the hooks without taking it out of the water. I head out wider still but didn't get anymore action on the troll. I deployed a drift anchor on my new anchor trolley setup and worked some nuke chooks. Again plenty of bites but the hook ratio wasn't great because i was using a heavy gauge hook (just in case). I managed a little sweet sweetlip and stripey. It gallsed right off and I was happy with i anchor setup. I set off on the troll again towards some circling terns. I chased the boils and birds for a kilometre or so but couldn't get close. I lobed my plastic to where the action had been 30 seconds ago as i retrieved it i saw a long thin shadow slowly following. I quickly yanked it out of the water to keep it from being barracuda food. The fish turn side on as swam away and revealed it self as a mackerel! Out came the old faithful 30gm twisty and eventually i hooked up to something. I got it in without much resistance and was surprised when i saw a mackie! It was surprised to see me too and still green it went mental, evading all attempts to net and gaff it. Eventually it managed to shake the hooks free and i was devastated as i watched it sulk down out of view. All was not lost as two of its mates were still hanging under my yak. I dropped the jig in front of their noses and jigged it a few times and i was on again. I eased the drag off on this one and let it tire. I managed to steer it into my net, my first kayak mackerel! I was keen for another and i managed to get amongst a school of bait. Unfortunately the little run of tide there was had stopped and the bait was feeding on the surface quite happily.The wind started to pick up so i headed for the beach.Again sorry I forgot the camera and i wasn't getting my phone out of its water proof case until i was back ashore.

Would this be any good for the pilbara? 

Smith OFFSHORE STICK GTK-70JP (Jerk & Popping)

and

Saltiga-S Extreme Z4500

with 

Varivas Avani Big One Max Power PE 3

Hello Fisho's

Ive finished kitting out my 4by and have set up the tinny trailer with Patrol rims and Im looking at heading up to Karratha for fishing trip.

 When is the best time of the year up there for Barra in the creeks and Mackies out in the blue ?

You never know maybe Ill like it too much and not want to return to the big smoke !!

Cheers

Anthony

I had half a days leave owing from work so i took it on friday arvo and we packed up the camper instead of the boat and decided to stretch the new car's legs a little. We had a pretty good wet this year so many of the rivers still have plenty of water in them

was a bloody great weekend, two nights parked up on the Robe river and i mean parked right up on the river. The kids had a great time, spent the days swimming and eating and exploring and all only 2 hours from the front door of our house.

Will remember to take the fly rod next time, plenty of jacks around and some good size ones as well

have attached a few photos to inspire you guys to get out there with your kids, they will have a ball!!

mine did, beats nintendo wii thats for sure. Ill be back out a couple of weeks after exy

cheers

Brad

Been planning a remote trip for some time and the weather gods smiled apon us for the easter weekend and we finally managed to get away. Left around 10pm on Thursday evening and once we left the ramp it was bit choppy so we decided to hide around one of the close islands and leave in the morning. The following morning we woke to light winds and only a slight chop so on we pushed on for the long journey ahead. Throughout the course of the trip the wind slowly died off so we cruised with glassy seas - beautiful.

On our arrival we geared up and found a likely spot to throw some poppers. As we neared the rocky island I caught a glimpse of something in the water and to my amazement it was several GTs cruising around. I yelled out to Glenn to stop the boat and I bombed out a cast. Didn't get any hits as I think they were moving pretty quickly so I threw out another cast in the opposite direction. Got walloped almost instantly by a good sized fish but no hookup. Next cast I managed to hook up but turned out to be rather large queenie.

We cruised around a bit more when Glenn spotted bait going ballistic so we pulled up. I looked to see what they were swimming from and I saw 1, 2, 3... 5, 10.. 50 GTs going nuts there were so many you literally couldn't count them.. all ranging in size from 15-40+ kgs. I let out a cast and a millisecond after I closed the bail arm a BIG black GT came out of no where and smashed my popper so hard but it didn't hookup. I blooped the popper once and on the pause 2 big GTs shouldered each other out of the way to try and get it but they both managed to miss. This continued for a few more seconds before eventually I conected to one of the smaller fish.

Confident I wasn't going to need Glenn to drive the boat out I told him to cast out so we could get a double hookup. Pretty much the same scenario repeated itself and about three quarters through the retreive Glenn was smashed by a rather respectable looking GT but unfortunately no hookup. I was nearing the end of my fight with my fish so Glenn stopped fishing to help me land it. A little shy of 20kg.

We took a few snaps and then spent a bit of time trying to find the bait and fish again but they seemed to have dissapeared so we decided to do a bit more exploring. We cruised up the island further and found some good looking ground on the sounder so we dropped some jigs and both got smashed instantly. Thought we were onto some good reefies but turned out to be some gold spotted trevs so we moved on.

Found some more popping ground but it was difficult to fish, the swell was up and the water was fairly green with weed everwhere. Still, we managed a good fish that nailed the popper in 22m of water. Around the 20kg mark.

The GT fishing was proving difficult due to the conditions so we cruised out wider and found some crystal clear water for a jig. Moved around a bit to find some good ground and shortly found a nice little patch. Fish weren't very interested in our taikabura jigs we switched to some knife jigs. The change worked instantly with a couple of nice rankins coming over.

We moved on in search of more ground. Found another nice patch that was a bit larger so we got a much better drift over it. I used knife jigs and Glenn switched back to the taikabura. Glenn got an awesome hit but dropped it and then, WHACK! the fish came back for another go. Went pretty hard and fought all the way to the surface and we were stoked to see a nice Red boatside and quickly in the net. Reds on jigs - awesome stuff.

Went back for another drift and it didn't take long before Glenn got whacked again. We were hoping for another red but turned out to be a nice Chinaman fish not a bad consolation prize.

It seemed taikaburas were the flavour of the day so I switched back and we went back for another drift. It was a bit quiet and we didn't get anymore hits, it was getting late so we decided to head back to the spot where we popped the GT in the morning. Had a few casts for not much interest so decided to anchor up close to the island and kick back with a beer or two while the sun went down. Once the sun went down and the moon was out we decided to go for another pop. It wasn't long before Glenn hooked up. It went hard and dogged deep for ages, we were expecting a big GT but turned out to be a whaler shark around 50kg with Glenns $200 craftbait popper in it's mouth!We managed to get it back, put in a bit more time popping then pulled the pin. Went and had dinner, smashed some beer and then hit the sack.

The following morning we woke up and went straight over to the spot where we hooked the GT the previous morning. First cast and about 2 bloops in I saw a big GT cruise in on a wave and then smash my popper hard as. It went hard and ripped off line, I pointed the rod at the fish and gave an immense amount of drag but it managed to find reef and bust me off. Damn.

It went quiet so we found some nice ground in 10m dropped some plastics down. Managed a multitude of species including various cods, trout, spangos & bluebone.

Went back for another pop and the queenies were being a real pain hitting our poppers intended for GTs.

I downsized my gear so the queenies were a bit more fun and Glenn persisted with the GT popper. After a few queenies Glenn hooked something different and said he thought it was a good GT. It went pretty hard and gave a real good account of itself and were stoked to see a good GT boatside.

Measured 109cm fork and was around 28-30kg mark. We continued popping for a bit longer but all we could manage was queenies so we moved off. Found some other ground that looked real promising. It's a nice reef ledge about 200m off a beach that faces the swell, rises from about 10m and just breaks the surface with white foamy water around it. Had a few casts but no interest, perhaps because it was at the top of tide. Definately a place to revisit next trip.

Went back to the island and had some lunch. It was so calm it was awesome!

It was decided that after having done reasonably well we would head home as it was really calm and we weren't sure if it was going to blow up or not. Got most of the way back in 4 knot winds and glassy calm seas and waited at an island for the tide so we could get in at the ramp.

Overall a really good trip considering we've never fished there before. Barely scratched the surface but got some good jigging spots marked and know where to find the GTs so next trip should be a cracker! Hope you enjoyed the report.

Jay

Well we got out for a fish today, the weather wasnt too bad , got a bit blowy and a bit too green and weedy but hey cant really complain i suppose, life is pretty good up here. Moved into spot number one for the morning and got a fish on the second cast, was only a couple of KG's but they cant all be horses. Was still good to get the monkey off the back straight away

nice morning

Rat GT number 1

moved along to some more fishy looking ground, got a good follow from a rather large fish then another rat GT on the next cast. There were fish all over the joint, Fozz dropped two one probably around the 15kg mark and another unknown but pretty solid.

another rat

and another

we moved along further and keept finding the little fish, i managed a nice wind knot and while i was re rigging after having to cut my line fozz hooked on to a really good fish. I pushed the boat into some deeper water and the rest is history. The fish dogged him deep for a while and sure stretched the arms. Was great to put fozz on to his first GT, i even lent him a Craftbait GT2 to help him out, well done mate!!

approx 20kg's on a GT2

well done mate first on popper

well i was trying out one of my new Full Scale Kong 180's was pretty luky to keep it after about the 5th cast. A spanyid about 15kg's launched about 4 meters out of the water with my lure in its mouth, was pretty funny. It managed to stick and i landed a nice mackie without busting off, not a bad by catch i suppose

spanyif on a Kong180

Full Scale Kong 180 (aussie owned and made get behind them)

Anyway i got another couple of rats, i also got BRICKED!!!!!! and pinged by a big GT, first time i have been pinged for quite a while, ahh well thems the breaks i suppose. Also stopped for quick spear on the way home, speared my PB Jack prob 63-65cm however a bronzie decided it wanted it more than i did, ahh well

another Rat

not a bad day home just after lunch

cheers

Brad

BOM website was forecasting a strong wind warning for this weekend but with a bit of a trough hanging around I had a sneaking suspicion Saturday might be okay. James and I left the ramp around 6.30am and headed out. Didn't take long to reach the bait spot and a couple of small queenies soon graced the icebox.

Weather was looking good so we kept travelling out, ending up in 50m of water looking for some fresh bottom ground. Water was 28 degrees and nice and blue so as we searched I deployed a large zuker out the back. Took about 5 minutes and then James hooked his first Onslow yellowfin.

Kept searching/trolling for half an hour picking up a plethora of small longtail tuna about a foot long. Greedy buggars.

Found the odd patch of fish on the bottom but was plagued by small sharks. Suspect the very small tidal movement was not helping the cause. Decided to cut our losses and head in to an island and do some snorkelling.

Nearing the back of the island we started coming across a lot of bait schools being harassed by some good size longtails in 6 metres of water. Tuna weren't to finicky and we managed to get in close. First couple of casts missed the spot but just then it all came together and a patch exploded 20 metres behind the boat. The cast landed straight in the danger zone and by the time I engaged the bail on the 3500 game the rod was bending in protest.

Line was peeling off the spool at an alarming rate and we ended up chasing the fish with the boat for about half a kilometre. Once the spool was looking a bit more healthy we cut the motor and went to work on bringing the fish to the boat. 20 minutes later the one fish that I'd been constantly looking for since I arrived up here graced the landing net. Very solid fish I estimated at 40lb on the light tackle braid outfit.

Unfortunately the switch flicked off after that and the bait was left to flick around unmolested.

Went for a snorkel but James had a bit of sinus so we just had a quick look, saw a couple of greens but they were deep in their ledges.

Heading home at 30 knots we stopped in at the bait spot to pop some bigger queenies.

Good day all in all and looking promising for the school holidays starting next Friday.

Thought would post a few pictures from Dampier. All close in due to lack of 406 but have one now. Thank God and at least now should be able to get further from Dampier so Gillian does not wake the whole town when she gets a big fish. I might also like to know anyone on here that might help with my left ear hearing problem, but is it not wonderfull to hear the screams of joy, pain and frustration that makes this hobby/sport so wonderfull.

Nice Chinaman but the better half stoked this one

Almost pulled her in and the power of these fish is awesome for a southern fisho

The bigger one. Gillian would not hold it. Chicken!

This acrobat Queenie jumped straight over the boat after a battle with a reefy. Queenie won, reefy had (and I hope still has) a nasty headache from collision with a Trailcraft hull. Had to take it picture off the little athlete and then he swam away. Plenty on the day with jigs and twisties (Gold).

Fun 46cm Jack on bream gear. 4kg Sic stic, Penn Affinity and 4kg Fireline and 15lb Flouro leader. Trying to catch live bait and this was about the most fun I have had in years. And did it taste good! Another picture to follow.

Now Gillian with the biggest Longus Thomas I have ever seen. Makes great bait for crabs and muddies so kept.

All in all some fun time and now at least we can head for deeper water.

hi guys,went for a fish along the rock wall at point samson yesterday and saw some gt,s,cruiseing up and the wall for a good hour or so.i threw soft plastics at them and also tryed bait,also there was another guy using a hard bodyed red and white lure,but neither of us had any luck.so any recommendations on which type of lure to use,on my next rnr trip back tp perth i will bring up my saltiga 6000gt reel,that will help with the fast retrieval of the lure,thanks
cheers ray

My first report on the site.

Hit Forty 40 Beach this morning.

Run in tide, Shark shield off, crystal clear coral reef 2m. 30 seconds later reef shark circling  

shark shield on ..

Coral reef 4m I start trolling, casting and trolling some more.following the birds, they are mostly looking sometimes diving whoosh bait fish spray in the air then nothing... too slow

I keep chasing the birds for half an hour but the action is spread out and inconsistent.

I give up on the boils for now tie on an SP. I lose plenty of tails and get reefed a few times eventually come up solid on a small red cod.

I hear splashing, right in front of me 100m, its big fish and it goes on for long enough for me to decide to paddle over. Again too slow. I go back to my SP but bait sprays within casting range. No time to retie a popper or metal slug. Satay chicken away! I am shaking because i can see it is huge GTs. :shock: I know that my 20lb outfit will be no match for them but my lure is in the mix anyway .I get nailed! But it doesn't feel like a GT freight train. I don't know what to make of it. I feel the reef on my line but somehow stay connected. A big coral trout slips into my net.

Had a big day out today off Dampier chasing the sailies. Weather at the start wasn't that flash but Daisy, Frank, my young fella Josh and I pushed on out wide to see what we could get onto. It was pretty uncomfortable there for awhile with a large swell and a westerly pumping so we went and chucked a few lures around some rocks for a bit till it improved somewhat and luckily it did improve slightly as the afternoon wore on.

We weren't having a great deal of luck as 1 saily came and had a look at, and play with the teaser but must have decided that the offerings were no good. Nothing then for the next 4 hrs.

Started working our way back through the ships feeling somewhat deflated and then all of a sudden it went NUTS. The first saily that I have seen properly lit up started to whack the teaser and then followed up by hitting one of the gars ....before whacking the other one and hooking up. Was crazy as teasers and lines came in, all the while the saily was putting on a full on aerial display for us. Played it for a while and after a couple of blistering runs we got it to the boat and I had my first ever sailfish in my hands. Estimated at 30-35kg. A few photos taken of this glorious creature (the fish Mick.... the fish) and then back in to be released. What a buzz!!!!!

Soon after it was Franks turn. This time though there were a couple of sailys at the teaser and then one hooked up and one disappeared. Franks fish went ballistic for a while but unfortunately it got off anf that was it......gone. He was stoked though as it was his first hookup and we had a fantastic trip out.

Thanks boys  for a top day.

Cheers

Mullows 

Well Glenn and myself took a look at the weather forecast on Friday evening. The weather off Dampier looked a bit iffy and was supposed to blow up in the arvo, further south it looked much better so we made the call to head down there for some light jigging. I'd been GT popping for the past 3 weekends in a row so it was good for a change and rest so I'm fully charged for next weekend when Kasey arrives :)

The drive down was great, and there appeared to be no wind when we arrived at the ramp. One look at the very lumpy horizon and my thoughts changed dramatically. As we lauched and headed out of the river mouth we faced a stiff westerly that was kicking the water up real bad. The water was like mud for as far as you can see. We managed to limp out to one of the closest islands which felt like it took forever.

We found a lee behind a nice rock on the island and I jumped in to find some crays. The water depth was only 2m and I could barely see the bottom. When I headed close to the rock I noticed a school of big jacks so I went back to grab my gun. I had a few shots but with the vis so bad it was near on impossible to connect.

We decided to head out to another island a little further out in the hope of finding some clearer water. I jumped into a spot where we'd caught heaps of crays before but the vis was only marginally better and it was deeper. I struggled to find the bommies we'd got crays at last time and it was hard work swimming against the surging swell pounding the back of the island.

We headed out to another spot, an isolated rock out in about 4m. It was a little clearer and we threw a few small poppers around on the light gear. Glenn got hit by a GT that would smoked him on the gear he was using but didn't connect. We caught a couple of small GTs and Big Eyes and what we're both sure was a blue fin trevally but it got off near the boat.

I jumped in for a dive and smashed a 48cm trout and then we cruised off in search for some slightly deeper water so we could jig. We found some nice looking ground and first drop I got nailed almost instantly. Gave me curry on PE3 so I put the brakes on and when I landed it I noticed a straightened hook on the Jig - a blue-lined emperor was the culprit.

Next drop Glenn got whacked by a nice trout which was 50cm, great fun on his PE2 gear. We continued moving around and jigging wherever it looked decent. Managed to pull more trout (undersize), several rankins, other snappers, plent of cod and a baby red. The best thing is we were using light gear and jigging in water around 15m - good fun :)

I was very dissapointed to find out when we got home that Dampier had glorious weather all day and we had crappy weather down where we were - the complete opposite to what the forecast was meant to be... grrr

Well with only 1cm of tidal movement in a 12 hour period we were not really expecting too much today. Kelvin8tor and i grabbed the popping gear, my new fly rod and the dive gear with the hope of finding some new ground. Set off in a completely different direction, was really weird to be heading west for a change.

Anway it was a bit blowy early but with the clears up everything was ok. Got to some pretty fishy looking ground, it was way to windy for me to try out my fly rod so in went the poppers. It didnt take long before i managed a solid stike from what looked like a good fish. I was stoked to bring a 22-23kg alongside the boat on a very neapish day so earrly in the piece. Very very happy, i love my craftbait GT2, im sure i mentioned that last time

Number 1 approx 22-23kg, 106cm fork

Number on on my fav popper, craftbait GT2

well we were pretty stoked after that but it seemed to turn the fish off, moved around some more and found another likly looking bit of ground, there was a bit of swell surge so i think it made up for the lack of current. I had a huge GT come up on my popper unfortunately no hook up. Sheldon was the next to hook up. His first ever trout on popper, not a biggun but a good effort, well done mate

Nice little trout on an Andos weezel popper

Kelvin8tor's trout on a WEEZEL popper

Righto, we moved back to the spot where i hooked the first GT, was pretty stoked when on the second cast i managed another solid hookup. Kelvin8tor drove the boat into some deeper water (8m) and i played the fish to the boat. Pretty stoked to get another GT given the circumstances, the swell surge was creating an area the fish seemed to like

estimated about 20-21kg fish, 103cm fork

Another solid pilbara GT

number 2

Well the wind had backed off and it was getting hot. We decided to move over to another spot for a swim, i broke my speargun handle and i new i would only have one shot before it was US. I made it count, managed a nice trout for the missus, was about 65cm not too bad should make a few troutburgers anyway

sorry about the edditing, the new spot is pretty much untouched, want to keep it that way

Well we found thie hole that had about 4 bronzies ranging from 3 - 6 or 7 ft. We had an awesome swim with them. Was pretty bloody cool the sharks were loving the attention, we were circling each other really close, could almost pat them. I managed a few shots but they are not very good

Anyway i was spewing i broke my gun, there were trout everywhere and some good bluebone as well. Kelvin8tor got up close and personal with a manta no cobes on it though. I had a quick go of my fly rod when the wind dropped of, had a spanyid and two trout stalk my fly but no hook ups unfortunatly, sheldon took a few more snaps underwater but the vis was pretty crap

overall a great day, glass for the mid day motor home to for the second week in a row

gotta love the pilbara

lil trout

another lil trout

Pilbara Gold fish

G'day Fellas

Went out for a blat with a mate on Sunday and managed to have a great morning. Tide was absolutely pumping off the back of one of the islands and the run had the fish seriously on the bite.

GPS was giving me grief so just used the sounder to drift over a couple of lumps in the usual area and it was game on. Last week was roughly in the same spot and the sharks had a field day on the neaps.

First drop got onto something that pulled pretty damn hard in only 12m of water...thinking here we go, sharks at it again and a repeat of last week!!!! How wrong was I.

83 cm of pure unadulterated run and serious FUN in the form of a bullocking Chinaman, I reckon would have gone at least 10kg.

For the next 2hrs the place was full of Coral trout and managed to pick up one on nearly every drop around the 60-65cm mark. All but 3 were released to get just that bit bigger.

Things went pretty quiet when the water went slack so we had a cruise around for a while looking at a few other spots on the sounder and GPS when it decided to join in before pulling up stumps and heading home on the smoothest water seen for a long time.

Apologise for the lack of quality in the pics. Taken on camera phone.

Cheers

Mullows 

Well well, what a start to the day we had, hang on, ill have to go back a few steps to set the scene properly

Jay got to my house at about 0430, we had to have the boat on the water by 0500 to beat the tide, remembered the clears this time which was a good thing. The wind was comming from the south west at about 15-20 knots. The sun wasnt due to rise unti about seven so we made most of the way out to our spot and and then dropped the anchor for a half hour or so. First crack of light and we were off again, moved around and found a bit of ground to bomb a few casts, we were looking for some GT's. Without any luck on the first half donzen casts we moved to the ever reliable rock for a quick cast. Jay was using his new favourit lure, an orion bigfoot 170 sinking stickbait and i had just switched up to one of my new craftbait GT2's. I didnt even get a cast in and Jay was on, bastad. It was hooked well and i moved the boat into some deeper water, a 20 odd KG GT surfaced, i netted it and it was one to us, pressure was off nice and early, wooo hooo!

Orion Bigfoot 170

The first of the day

Well jay was in a bit of a purple patch and it was my turn to get some revenge. My first cast with the GT2 got a MASSIVE hit, but unfortunately no hook up. Second cast and it got swiped again, this time by a mackie that came screaming towards the boat estimated to be over 20kg, unfortunately it pinged me, not happy my new craftbait GT2 on the second cast of its life, GONE!!
But you just have to love crushed barbs, we spotted the lure floating 50 meters or so away on the surface a few minutes later, stoked!

Ok my lure was a bit battle scared but good to go, i was rigged up and we did a drift through an area that has produced a few fish for us in the past. Again i got a masssssssivvvvveeeee hit from a fish in some rpetty shallow water that probably would have resulted in death to my lure yet again. We kept the drift going and it wasnt long before i hooked up again, this time i landed it, a solid Pilbara GT on the Craftbait, my new favourite lure!!!

Nice Pilbara G Train

Thanks Kasey!

Anyway we moved back along got some really good hits in some new ground which is promising. I was just about to cast and jay bloody hooked up again, it dogged him pretty deep for a while, but it did come to the surface eventually. jay had switched to one of his craftbaits on the back of my success and came up trumps, well done mate

Number three

Another solid Pilbara GT

Anyway we popped a nice ledge for a half hour or so. we didnt really work to hard, just enjoyed being on the water. The wind had eased and life was just getting better. I managed another trout about 55cm on popper again, actually had two trout arguing over the poper was pretty entertaining. We had quite a few trout take swipes at our stickbaits today

Nice trout for the missus

Anyway the tide was starting to slow down and so were the GT's. I managed one more gold spot that had a large bronzie hot on its tail for most of the fight. It glassed off for the trip home while we enjoyed the last of thos bloody xxxx beers. Thank god they are gone

Cheers

Brad