We have a dog who thinks himself as a bit of a crab hunter!! In 3 trips to hearsons chasing mud crabs he has found 5 crabs for us. Who needs to walk around aimlessly looking for the crabs when you can send the pooch to do it for you! I think more people should try this method of catching crabs, it serves two purposes the dog gets to have great fun chasing crabs and you get a feed!! The crab on the left in the pic was a monster with enough meat in its claws to feed half of karratha!

And yes the pooch is available for hire.....

Happy Fishing!

Matty

Lunch is served

The crab hunter himself

Hearsons at high tide

A good mate and I went for a look for mud crabs at a local spot, had the rods with us as well so we thought we'd have a crack. Check out his effort with a baitcaster off the rocks. Moments later I got one as well although on a handline. We did get a few muddies as well.

hey just wondering if there are any charter boats up karratha way that target GTs?

Thanks to chris for the inspiration to post, and the info on how to insert text, but will save that for another day.

Big trip that cost us a lot of money ($4000 in boat fuel alone and over 1000kms), but compared to the peeps on Orion who payed $20K plus for a cabin with a view I think we got to see alot more.  Thanks to the crew way up yonder who let us stay on empty barges and house-boats and who supplied fuel, its handy to know the right people!

The highlights: Hells Passage in full run, scared the beejesus out of me and I go to war zones on occasion to shoot (pics), waking up and checking the anchor and finding a lunar eclipse well under way (seriously thought I was dreaming!), and having a big saltie smash the back of our transom, launch itself over the 8hp Merc auxillary, and eat the drainpipe off the bait board. Hope it didnt get stuck in its throat. Amazing he knew exactly where the only bit of fish flesh and blood was on the boat after we washed it fearing such attention. Every day just got more amazing, we saw no other trailer boats north of Cone Bay. We missed Montgomery reef by 5kms after wisely turning around in a 40kn easterly and ran for cover to the closest Island, where we found a lagoon, tranquil waters, and a hole in a reef full of GT's! If you ever get a chance go to kingfisher island, it has everything.

Id like to say we had an epic, but we didnt. I will say we had a close call one night when we pulled the anchor and only one of us just woke up to the alarm. Had we grounded in the extra-ordinary 10m deep canyon we were now surrounded by, the boat would have probably filled with water on the 50o slope before she floated herself.  And there were crocs everywhere. We threw caution to the wind and went deep into huge mangrove swamps both in the 8m and in our $800 blow up.  You really need to keep your wits about you and be so on the ball, you get the feeling that you are seconds away from disaster at any given moment, buts that was probably just the Indiana Jones in us after a few too many tequilas.

We carried a tonne of fuel on-board, and went thru it twice

A Kimberley convoy would be a good idea for next year if anybody is interested.

PS Salt is probably gonna be for sale now Ive done this trip, which was her third big traverse of the area. Let me know if you want any details

dave@fieldtouring.com

Well where to start......Been dreaming for years about doing a trip in the Kimberley. You know, Malcolm Douglas style. After years of dreaming it became a reality a few weeks back.

Started planning some time last year, a thousand thoughts running through my mind daily but a week out from leaving for our trip the last questions closed out. Now just to shop, pack and go. Packing was interesting as we are going in my boat, a 5.8m Chivers centre console. Once I got all the gear together the realisation that it won't all fit and my mate Adam still hasn't brought his gear over. Time to start culling.

All packed and ready to go, 6am start for the 800km drive to Derby to launch. Had thought about launching from One Arm Point but not keen on towing the boat over 200km of dirt road.

Arrived at Derby Caravan Park with the sun still up. Organised with Ian, the guy who runs the park, for a bay to leave the rig all hooked up and ready to go. Then we head to the pub for a meal.

Launch at 7am and Adam runs the car and trailer back to the caravan park. Ian kindly offers Adam a lift back to the ramp.

Weather Gods on our side for the 2.5hr run with the tide up King Sound heading for Hells Gates!!

As we head up the Sound the water clears up, it about knows that you can't wipe the grin off my face. A saying that starts today and stays for the rest of the trip - 'HOW AWESOME IS THIS WEATHER'.

We get to Hells Gates about 1/2 hour after low tide. Need to negotiate a small channel that's notorious for extreme currents. True to its name we approach slowly, about 8-10 knots of current in 30m of water and up ahead standing waves that are foaming. Thank God it's only 1/2 hour after the turn. As we go through we realise that we're driving up hill, the water is 1m higher on the other side.

(Shows current but nothing compared to Hells Gates)

Our first look at the real Kimberleys

Once through Hells Gates we head for a beach where we spend our first night around the camp fire in our swags.

We head for a look around Cone Bay on the morning of day 2. Go past the barra farm and start exploring. We have a fish on a nice looking lump but just can't beat the sharks. This becomes a common theme for the whole trip.

The landscape up there is amazing.

We head along to Gerald Bay to do a reef walk at low tide and fish some blue holes. Great walk in stunning country. I have no luck fishing but Adam gets a queenie that becomes victim to a shark!!

We move on to Stickland Bay. Whilst doing the research for this trip I was told the real Kimberley start at Strickland Bay. CORRECT!! This place is......Amazing. I'll take the time now to thank Jim who provided so much info for the whole trip, thanks mate!

True to form 'HOW AWESOME IS THIS WEATHER'.

Slept on the beach again but got bugger all sleep. Spent all night thinking about the boat, from now on I'll sleep on the boat; it's a little cozy but gives me peace of mind. Ah the boat, may as well give some info on that. It's a 5.8m Chivers centre console fitted with a 150hp Yamaha 4 stroke. It has a 20deg deadrise and big reverse chines. I fitted an aluminium prop for the trip just in case I find some rocks but carried the stainless prop for a spare. At least the aluminium prop gives me one life. It carries 180L of fuel under the deck and I have another 150L in jerry cans and another 200L waiting at Dogleg creek.

While in Strickland Bay we head up a small creek that Jim had marked on the chart as a freshwater spring (more like a waterfall). If you get up this way explore everywhere you can. We soon realise that there are heaps of springs in places you wouldn't think to look. It's at this spring that we see the only croc for the trip. I've spent time fishing the Lower Ord, Daley River, etc and was very surprised not to see many crocs. That said I'm sure they are there so we treat them with the respect they deserve.

We spend some more time exploring Strickland Bay but there's heaps more to see next trip. We spend some time on Edeline Island. Interesting place to look around with some graves and bizarre weathered rocks.

We do some fishing in the creeks and get a few small Goldies on plastic. Couple of things that are worth mentioning, the first being that we planned this as a fishing trip but barely fished. I would get to the end of the day and realise that I hadn't even put a line in the water.....bizarre, not really just so much to see that we got caught up in the beauty of this place. Second is that I thought alot about the safety of this trip, we did things like squash the barbs on the hooks so if we were unlucky to get hooked it could be easily removed. You're a long way from home.

Cruised up a fairly long creek on the top of the tide to be greeted by some nice water falls. We only ever swam in the pools that were high up, just in case of crocs.

Was now time to make the run from Stickland Bay to Dogleg Creek to get the drum of fuel I had organised from CMC Barging. From Strickland we went through Whirlpool Pass then on to the top of Yampi Sound. This was the only long run where we hit the howling easterly winds. Slowed down to 8 knots, cranked up the Ipod stereo that seemed to be stuck on Pink again - I think my wife set me up for taking her Ipod away. We punched into the wind and soaked up the amazing view.

Arrived at Dogleg Creek and took on 200L of fuel, had a chat for a while then headed off to Silver Gull creek to take on some fresh water and catch up with Phil and Marion at Squatters Arms. These guys set up camp here about 17 years ago. They have put in some hard yards and now have beautiful gardens with the best view you have ever seen. There is a large freshwater spring that they have flowing into a tank that then cascades out the window and down the hill.

Marion has a jewelery shop, if you call in to see these guys be sure to bring some cash and buy up!!! I did and the wife loved it. Remember if going in to pay them a visit give them a call on the VHF as a curtesy.

It's about now that I should explain that we made the call not to bring the eski with ice to keep the weight down. That meant no beer, well almost until Phil offered Adam some home brew. Home brew in a tank with the best view you've ever seen.....life is tough!

Once again 'HOW AWESOME IS THIS WEATHER'.

View from Squatters Arms.

We begrudgingly leave Squatters Arms and make camp in the boat further towards the mouth of Silver Gull creek. Wake up at first light and off to Croc creek to try to get in before low tide. We make it in and to our surprise there is a large boat tied up. Must have been a mission to get it in. We jump on the VHF and ask to raft up beside them.

This place once again blows our minds, the amount of fresh water up here is great, good to have a swim and get the salt off. The guys we raft up to are kind enough to drop us to the ladder in the dinghy.

We leave Croc Creek once we get enough water too. Heading for Strickland Bay for our last night before the run home. We also need a fish.

Guess by now you know what I'm going to say 'HOW AWESOME IS THIS WEATHER'.

We hit a lump for a fish with about 2hrs of light left. The fish are on fire with no sharks in sight. Once the light starts to fade we head for Mooring creek to camp up for the night. Laying in my swag I think about this trip and how a dream has come true when the anchor drift alarm goes off, scaring the crap out of me. After fighting with the zips on my swag I get up to find that it was just that the tide had turned. Bunk back in for a good sleep.

We get up at first light and head back to Edeline Island for a couple of hours while we wait for the tide, wanted to get the incoming for the trip to Derby. Trip back is uneventful with great weather once again. Get back to the ramp and there's just enough water to get the boat out. Adam picks the car up, backs it down the ramp and I drive the boat on. Another pub meal on the way then an 800km drive home tomorrow.

We travelled 0.83nm per litre. I had worked out how much fuel we need based on travelling 0.6nm per litre. I normally travel 0.9-1.0nm so have allowed a large safety margin for the 12m tides and the fact that the boat was heavily loaded. We clocked up slightly over 540km using 350L. Meaning that we arrived back with 180L on board. Better more than not enough. I just can't say enough about this boat, if you're considering a new boat do yourself a favour and check them out.

Hope you enjoyed the read!! One hell of a week.

CCC

PS some of these pics where taken by Adam

 If i preveiw just the text all is good

Cheers

CCC

I have been watching this comp for a couple of years but decided to line up and have a go myself for the first time. Dampier Billfish Shootout is famous for 2 reasons, lots of Sails, and notoriously bad weather with last year attracting over 30 knots of 'sea breeze' every day.
With this in mind the Fee's were paid up, the crew locked in and boat prepared. The initial plan was for the boys to slug it out and brave the elements in my little rig but as the date drew near and the weather stayed good we decided to add an extra crew member.
Days one dawned with high hopes and we were out at the ships sounding around for the bait. The bait wasnt hard to find but there didnt seem to be too many fish around them.
The first morning heard a few fish called in with it becoming quite apparent the the majority of fish were coming from well wide of the usual grounds. Being in my little Haines meant pushing too wide was out of the question so we made do with what we had.
Our skipping gars failed to attract any attention so the pushers went out and we bumped the revs up a couple of hundred rpm.
After a couple of hours trolling between bait schools we finally had a strike on the rigger. After a spirited fight on the 10kg spin gear a little Sail was wearing a fresh tag and was swimming alongside the boat awaiting a quick release. Couple of happy snaps and it was on its way.




Unfortunately the overcast conditions eems to have shut the fish right down and the 55 boats were having trouble finding anything more than the odd fish.
Everyone was working hard but they were just not firing and this was the pattern for the final 2 days of the comp.


It's times like these that a good crew really makes the difference. I would like to thank Pete and Alyssa for the great company, great laughs (and Alyssa for the great boat snacks and lunch) and will hopefully line up and have another go next year.  
BTW, Alyssa. The outrigger clips go where the line comes out of the rod TIP. Haha.


Final results were 55 boats for a total of 67 Billfish tagged and released.
Champion Male was Kevin Deakon with 3 Marlin
Champion Female was Fiona Jamieson with 4 Marlin
Champion Team was Tourettes with 5 Marlin and Runner up boat was Pursuit with 4 Marlin.

Fiona Jamieson also managed to win the Polycraft/Etec door prize so that was a great end to their weekend.

 I thought that it was about time that I started filming the spectacular fishing in and around Hedland. This clip was taken from the first few minutes of ever trying to film myself fishing and I couldn't be more stoked with the results. I am filming with a Canon 7D and Tokina 11-16mm lens that is mounted to a mini tripod with a suction cup base stuck to the front seat. 

Cheers and enjoy

Please click here to watch the youtube clip- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJrm08hgr3E 

Paul 

Went crabbing yesterday, got a couple of nice full crabs for my daughter snapped this shot of the crab pot going down on my sounder you can see the rope coiled up there and the dark patch in the middle is the bait holder.

Cheers POC.

Mark and i spent some time chasing brassy trev's on some of our smaller gear the other day.  The weather was glorious and it was a good opportunity to try out some of our new toys.  Hopefully once this next high pressure system passes we will get a chance to get over to the montebello islands and give our gear a real work out.

Best lures were the Stick Shads and the Flat shads in sinking models

I got a new Nitro Viper the other day as well, i was prtty happy with how far it was able to cast.  Mark was using a new Interline, lets just say i couldnt get used to the fact that a rod had no guids, it does have a great action though as you will see in the pics. 

The strange but cool interline, MD hooked up

the result

the viper

water temp has dropped and the bait balls are starting to show up every where again

couple of snaps of just one we found yesterday, good fun.

A good spearfishing day in Hedland with big tides ! 

Estuary Rockcod - 15Kg 96cm

having major dramas trying to upload pics is there a knack to this lol

Hi all

does anybody know how far up the river you can go from the mouth?  Ill be coming down alone ocean-side from dampier in an 8m ally and looking to camp up for a few days before meeting another boat to go over the montes.  Not too fussed about fishing (yet) but just need a nice riverbank wth some water for a tranquil camp-site with a good few books!  Anybody been up a few kms into the river?  cheers for any advice

Pics from our trip a couple weeks ago in the Dampier Arch.

Gday Guys

I am heading to the Monties in August (same as I did in 2009) this time around I want to do alot of Jigging, I have never done much of it before and am curious about the following...

* What weight jigs?

* What brand jigs?

* Colors?

* Quantity to take?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in Advance

Dancer

Caught in Dampier. Pulled like a bone, in a spot known for bone, on a day bone were being caught!

You can imagine the disappointment when this appeared.

After being seen several times on Port Hedland coast, here 
first photo of the crocodile! Take care!

www.hedlanditsupport.net/crocs.pdf

Anyone know wwhat this strange creature is?Caught in 20m off Dampier. Massive mouth lined with rows of tiny pin teeth. Real lay and wait ambush thing. Hit like a train but came up like a sock. And yes it went back to lurk on the bottom.

Cheers

Kev

G'day all,

Heading down to Exmouth in July(from Karratha) and looking for house style accommodation, as we will be bringing my parents with us on this trip. Will look at bringing the boat down so will require a house with adequate parking space also.

If any members have any good recommendations of places they've stayed in, all feedback would be appreciated. Price won't be an issue, just looking at something that would be cosy for four adults.

Cheers,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Brynner.

Hey all

After so much crappy weather for so long, the weather gods looked like they were about to let us play the game we had been praying for. Forecast was for shit hot weather and as we had the trip planned for awhile it was go, go, go on Thursday and for the entire Easter weekend including the Tuesday. The trip over was sensational to say the least and when getting close we had a couple of drifts at the monopods with little success, but that didn't dampen the spirits much. It was the first time for the young bloke (Josh) and myself but had my great mate Daisy along and was a great opportunity to put the new boat through its paces on a large extended trip. Plenty of food, water, piss and extra fuel came along for the ride as well. After we dropped off the fuel and water we had a bit of a look around the Northern end of the group but not much so settled into a few beers and a feed.

Day Two saw us head over to Tryall rocks for a look and a bit of exploring the area and the young bloke picked up a couple of good Rankins to open the account for the trip. Headed back to the beach for an early arvo swim and a feed and yep, you guessed it.... a few more frosty ales followed by a feed of rankin and trout.

Day three was where the anticipation for the trip had come down to. A trip out to the Rankin Bank with a few stops off along the way. Did around 25 miles out to a spot we thought might be good for a look at, and it didn't disappoint with plenty of good trout (650mm) and rankins along with double headers of trout and coronations also. The grey coats turned up and we lost a fish but that was cool, we headed off to the next spot and as we had to cover a bit of likely ground thought that a wahoo might be a goer. So Daisy rigged up a killer vibe with a wire trace x 2 and off we went. What happened next was a spin out!!! We weren't expecting the billies to play around here as you could guess with the wire business, and although we had the big Tiagra on board, the TLD 25 and the 30W were the reels of choice. I was at the helm when I heard the reel start to make that noise that gets all of our hearts racing and looked around to see a smallish black somersault out of the water...cool shit and the call was to Josh get on the reel and do the work. After half an hour of toil, the boy had the fish at the boat but what happened next chilled us to the bone. As we had the rods rigged to catch a HOO, a leader wasn't a high priority and when tested the fish leapt out of the water and at the angler pushing Mick aside and gave Josh a short sharp jab in the chest with her bill leaving a small wound and the boy with a bit of shock. Thank Christ it didn't hit him a little further North or it would have been all over red rover.

After that had happened, the fish calmed somewhat as had Josh, and he managed a photo with his first 50ish Kg Black Marlin. We pushed on after this with the adrenilin pumping, and nearing the second lump Daisy was on with the Hoo that we were actually chasing (after putting on some 100olb leader just in case). Had a drop as well and got a couple of fish, but the pelagics made a bit of a nuisance of themelves but never the less a cracking mack came to the boat and went into the esky. Off we went and after a little while with nothing happening, the 30w went off and my turn to have a crack and a nice little yellowfin came to the boat not long after with little fuss and was released happily to the esky. Pulled up near the bank and a couple more coronation trout came to the boat however tried to jig up a puppy dog with little success on that front which was not surprising given the hordes of wahoo everywhere. Time was winning the battle of the day and it was decided that we should probably head home to the islands given that dark was not far off, but stuff it... chuck one more lure out and tempt Josh from the cabin after his brush with death :-) Sure enough, the line absolutely peels off the reel and if you have heard a large mackeral go, multiply that by 5 and you have one frigging amazing sound. After a solid fight a cracking wahoo comes to the boat and there were a few high fives going on and a bit of back slapping.

After such a big day thet day before, day four was a quiet affair with plastics chucked around the islands and a bit of time to take in what was around by exploring the group..as well as having a rest, a good feed and a bit of shit talk about the day before.

 Day five saw us plan to explore the southern end and stay close, which we did for a while but the weather was toooooo good to knock back the opportunity to have a look out towards Barrow. As a result we picked up some solid trout, with a good double header coming to yours truly,  as well as daisy with a double header (and not too far off the truth) with  one only having the head left (lucky it was the small one). Explored some more with some quality ground to go back to next time with a decent red coming to the boat. That was it, left the fish biting for a blast back to the anchorage for the night in preparation for the run home the next day.

 Trip home was glass all the way really with a couple of stops along the way to sound out ground we havent been to in a long time and it was a friutful one with a couple of good fish to Daisy.

What a fantastic place to visit and I really can't wait to get back there one day soon to really learn what we have missed out on and only scratched in terms of where to go and what to look for. The fishing was shit hot, and really these words only describe part of it but the company was every bit as good and the memories will last forever!!

Pics are probably in fairly random order but its late :-)

Cheers

Mullows

found a good spot in port hedland last night for getting prawns..

cooked them up when got home.. very tasty..

off there again soon for some more.

Hey Guys..

caught this funky looking trevally down at finucane island this morning, went back in water after photo..

bloody long toms were crazy today, everywhere, other than that, loads of little queenies

missus told me that she drove past a boat on the road (literally on the road with no trailer) coming home from work last night from Pluto. was apparently a pretty decent sized boat too around 5.5m

sounded pretty bad, so hope noone from here.

ok...so here's my first real bitch on this site.

I took my missus out towards Stagg for a bit of bottom fishing yesterday. We couldn't see another boat for miles and miles. Caught two awesome Spango's on plastics then this complete asshole (in a trailcraft around 6m) drives up and anchors up right next to us...in the path of our drift!!!! My arms waving and the "bird" didn't seem to worry this wanker. In disgust I took off past him and found some more ground about 1km away....after catching a nice Trout and a Rankin, this dickhead drove over and did the same thing!!!!! We had our feed and decided a swim at Rosemary island would cool us off.

I hope this person is on here...and realises how much this pisses people off. Two spots I had to work for just given away to some idiot who is too stupid to go find their own....

On a positive note...had a great Easter Weekend and hope you all did too.

Well Photobucket is finally playing the game so heres our report take two - lost the first effort and not happy about it either! Anyway our team this year consisted of myself, Tobi, Pickles and Gareth and we fished out of Tobi and Pickles new 670 Coraline, a big step up from the 5.3m Polycraft we brought with us last year.

We had a more defined plan on what we wanted to target for the comp but that didn't stop us bringing too much tackle with us, i had 7 combos alone and three tackle boxes, not including things like teasers, gimbals etc etc, needless to say we had all bases covered.

Our plan was to load up on fish for the freezer keeping to our limits of course but anything was going to be a win considering we brought back 1 pack of Dolphinfish last year so our main focus was to concetrate on things like Spango's, trout, reds and rankins and well we came home with a full 40L engel for the three families.

We arrived at lunch onthe Wednesday before the comp, unloaded the cars and boat then set about getting our groceries, drop off the kids to the grandparents and get out for a arvo squid session to start the food and bait gathering, this didn't happen due to Pickles and Tobi getting caught up with the oldies but we where set to go and our plan was hatched to hit the marina at 6am and head north to 50m.

Like every well played plan it doesn't always work, we woke to a stiff SE wind, not fazed mind you we packed the boat, grabbed a feed and hit the ramp, it didn't take long to decide we'll park the boat plans that morning and the trip was having an already familiar feel for it, all weather reports suggested good conditions for the whole week but we'd been lied to again so we hit the cape and had a bash from the rocks.

The tide was coming in but it was pretty shallow with turtles EVERYWHERE. We had all bases covered, one person with a popper, one with a twisty, soft plastic and bait to see what was to strike gold first. Bait failed as the reef just swallowed up rig after rig, popper was looking good with some small hits from queenies in the first few casts and lots of effort with the twisty and SP. I cracked the shits with the popper after a while as we said if it's not working this week we need to change it up ASAP so i grabbed my new little 2500 Daiwa SOL combo and tied on a 1/4oz 5/0 jig head with a McArthy 5 inch finesse minnow, now i love these little suckers but i always feel they are too small but after some reading in mags of late it had been 4-5 inch models accounting for the Spangos in the shallows so off i went casting around. 30 mins in and finally we had a hookup and GOD DAMM did it take off, called it for a shark straight away and i was waiting for the inevitable from either it's jaw or the reef but the run slowed and i began working that little combo very cautiously to subdue whatever i had hooked, 10 mins laters and its at the base of the rocks and i couldn't believe it! a bloody monster Spango, i then spent the next 10 minutes trying to get it up on the rocks without a gaff or help from my teammates (thanks guys haha) but he stopped running and i grabbed that 40lb leader and wrapped it around my hand and heaved him up onto the stones.

I peaked WAY too early, a massive PB by 14cm and he measured in at 680mm, it soon had everyone tying on SP's and having a crack but the lack of a esky soon cut this session down and we agreed it was a good start and lets keep it going on the boat. Take two at the ramp and we loaded up the game gear for a test run as we hadn't done it yet from the new boat and with two first timers but we also grabbed the squid gear, the weather had turned better but it was already 3pm and it was going to take 45 mins to get to the 50m line and so we just stuck to squid as rumour had it they where out and about, so i took my little girl out too for her first fishing trip in a boat so we spent 2 hours drifting around in the gulf for 3 squid but the little one had a ball and we enjoyed the afternoon watching the gulf glass off and enjoying some tunes and cold beers, we'll get out tomorrow and make a day of it for sure!

Day two and well there was some shady looking characters rising at 7am, we'd checked the weather that night and we had a repeat from yesterday on our hands so out came the biltong and beef jerky, the scotch, Hahn super drys and red wine until 2am so needless to say we waited for a bit.

It wasn't getting better until 2pm and so after a brekky run to Brumbies we hit the point up again armed with a esky this time, the scraps from the squid on hand for fresh bait and we settled in to another landbash session. i persisted with SP's for the day with a small but very acrobatic queenfish giving me a good fight on 15lb. Gareth was dieing to get into some fish as he had never caught a fish on SP, he was already converted after showing him the number of trout and snapper i had accounted for over the summer back home so he set out to open his account on his new Monstermesh rod and Saragosa 5000 and sure enough he got stuck into a nice little GT for his troubles followed by a Golden Trev.

Pickles in the mean time moved to the western tip of the spot and flung out a hunk of squid and waited patiently away from the shore as we where all copping a hiding from the swell on the rocks, 20 minutes latter he's stuck into a ripper of a fish. he wrestled it to the rocks on 30lb on his 4000 stradic/fin nor ahab combo and he holds high a healthy 630mm spango and so it began a bloody hot session of 1 hour hooking into 5 spangos to Gareth and Pickles between them with the smallest at 560mm as well as a few turtles that just took off like a frieght train.

We called it quits as the esky was getting bloody heavy with all the fish and ice so we loaded the boat for billfish take two. Once again we left from the marina and headed ASAP to 50m but time was really against us and so was the weather and conditions. We set the spread and headed west but we only had 30 mins of fishing time before we had to head back, clean the fish, clean the boat and be at Adams for the briefing night.

With a few beers in hand off we went to register the team and catch up with all those i'd met last year and get the goss on whats been biting so with the formalities out of the way we went back and sat around and checked the weather, suprise it was going to be breezy from the east but not as bad so with not one bottom bash session in the bag, no GPS spots at all it was decided to hit the murions and go from there, try and find some trout in the shallows and if the weather allows head out and try and find some reds somehow.

The conditions where amazing, the weather man had screwed up but in our favour and we launched into the gulf and it was dead flat and there was birds everywhere, i told the crew to screw the plan and tie on a twisty and lets get a tuna, so Tobi who had yet to catch a fish for the trip she was eager to fire the first cast, but not before we chanted the Boat Oath and had a skull, Pure Blonde cans aren't too bad at 8am in the morning after all and boy did it work! first cast and Tobi is on solid to a tuna, we played him cautiously for 20 mins on Tobi's SP combo and finally tailed him and into the boat, man i love catching tuna like that! Tobi was shaking as this was her biggest by far and her first longtail tuna at 97cm, we where pretty confident of a win here straight up, it was a shoe in unless someone found a Yellowtail so straight up 2mins from the ramp on the first morning WE HAD A ENTRY!!! objective 1 ticked off with a species we didn't want to chase. We tried to get Gareth onto one and we spend another 30 mins chasing the schools but they went quiet so off we went but as we did the conditions got worse and slowed us right down so Pickles found something on the sounder but the wind was casuing havoc and it was hard work hitting the bottom but somehow we jagged another entry with Gareth hooking into a 73cm Golden Trev, 2 hours in now and two entrys but we knew this one would stand up but you have to be in it to win it.

The conditions got so bad that we where down to 11 knots heading to the islands so we chucked the spread out hoping to fluke a Sailfish in 25m, no love there just weed in the spread. no probs lets chuck out the trout lures and find them, no love there either which was strange, in fact all we hooked was one pick handle baracuda, this was gettting frustrating so we ducked around to the outside of the murions and searched for Spangos but it was still really slow, lots of red throats and yellow tail emps but nothing, at least Freo was winning the football then my SP got nailed! i was calling it for a mackeral at first then a big Trevally, shark was thrown in there but he would have busted me off pretty quickly i thought so i got all optimistic and called it for a Cobia, nope it was the grey suit brigade trashing the party and i had managed to hook him in the corner of the mouth, the little Lucanus jig rod and Tyrnos 10 had a hard task boating him but we got him up and cut the line. We'd had a good day and we left home early to sort a big dinner out with some friends and family in town. Day one was a winner!!!

Day two and what a shocker!!! the wind was cranking hard from the east and it looked threatening from above, oh how right that was going to be, we launched from Tantas as the rain bucketed down while we launched, i said to the crew that there is some interesting ground to the north of the north passage before the sanctuary zone hoping to find a big golden trev or more spangos cruising the shallows. visability was shithouse but we anchored up and waited for the weather to pass so we could hit Helby Bank up for some deeper water, the fishing was slow and the weather was clearing so we moved out into 25m as the swell was running a fair bit along with the wind, Pickles didn't have enough rope to anchor any deeper due to the amout we needed to play out so we targeted this depth, again the fishing was slow with lots of little emporer around and charlie courts, we got boared so we enacted our plan to win at least ONE prize, it was an idea i had a week out from the comp while we polished off a few bottles of red and scotch and suggested to the men in our crew that we pinch the wives bathing attire and get some pics of us fishing in it, now thankfully all evidence has been erased i hope of this down right horrible sight but the male body is not meant to squeeze into a petite two pieces of fabric and string, we had a good laugh about this and promptly got back into more comfortable attire and settled in for another hour before we said we'd have a crack at the land based section seeing as we'd found a bloody good spot during the week but it had been noted we hadn't chanted the boat oath that day and we'd jinxed ourselves so we belatedly shouted it out and settled in for a good finish. Sure enough pickles little SP combo loaded up hard on a good fish, he worked it beautifully off the bottom on 30lb braid and boated a spanker of a Rankin Cod, his colours where a little funny and we weren't sure it was one but there was enough blotches on the underside to have me sure we'd got a pearler at 78cm, we didn't want to look silly with a so called rankin to be told otherwise.

Another entry and it was off to our landbased spot with fresh bait and a feed and so yet again we had another hot session on Spangos, we collected another 4 that day with the biggest at 610mm for Tobi then Gareth hooked into a small Tawny Nurse Shark which was soon photographed and released, anotehr great day with 3 more entries for fish and that never to be discussed again bikini shoot.

The last had me grovelling to the mrs that the comp didn't end until 6pm that night and i hadn't got a entry in the comp so i got my permission slip signed and got out of family day and we hit the water on the best day of the week, again we hit the murions and drifted around in 40m on what the chart called a coral bottom but for the two hours we drifted there wasn't much to show, so we headed shallower and found nice ground in 25m which showed fish holding off the bottom. some fresh strip baits did the trick allowing the pickers to bring in the bigger fish and sure enough another 3 spangos and a rankin cod to myself had graced the decks. The call was made to knock off early and start cleaning the place up as we where off the next day but we dug in for one last effort because we where convinced the bait board prize was for the longest trout so we had the hard bodies out on bundegi reef looking for my first entry in the comp, i only preceeded to lose 3 lures to the reef and one very small mackerel, we also tried for squid as we had none in the freezer yet but no love but hey we couldn't complain we had 6 entried in the comp and fillets to come home with.

Team Twitchemup may have taken out the majority of the prizes but we snuck under the radar for what i am calling second place. We took out the landbased section with the shark and that horrible bikini shoot won us the photo prize but we had a runner up in the Rankin Cod pipped by 1cm by Kye on Re-Lisa, Tobi had two runner ups with her tuna pipped by as we predicted a Yellowfin Tuna which tasted fantastic too! and Tobi's landbased spango at 610mm pipped by 2cm for what we found out was the bait board, never the less we had a ball and of course we will be back next year, great to see you all again and tight lines, i look forward to the 2012 edition of the Fishwrecked Invitational.

Big thanks to Adam for your works over the weekend and to the generous sponsers for their prizes

 Gday everyone ! I m new on the forum, Living in Hedland since over 2years, love fishing and spear... there are latest fishes cautch around

Ok, first my fish dont match Brad's, dont come close, but i just fish from the shore, went down to the Boat ramp this morning, in Port Hedland, low tide was @ 6am. 0.9m's

took my ever trusty Kmart Special down with 10lb mono.

no leader just tied the Plastic onto the main line and away i went, sorry i didnt weigh it

Here are a few photos from around Hedland taken in the last month or so. The water was really muddied up after all the rain we received and the fishing went nuts as it cleared. The surface action has been intense with Brassies, Goldens, Queenies and some big G's coming up to smash stickbaits and poppers. I broke my collar bone at the beginning of it all so cheers to Renae and Brad for driving the new boat so "Gimp Arm" could get amongst it. 

Renae Mercer and her first taste of it all. 

Av Swami had had enough after a morning of constant Brassy's just like this one.

Mark Davis and Av sharing the fun. 

Seriously bending a 8w Innovator

Sightcast Golden from the back of the boat.

As Pilbara Brad had previously found out, whipping the water with the fly will get these suckers all wound up. To my suprise it was actually less painful for me to fly-cast then to cast spin gear. 

Renae's biggest Queenie yet. 

The following photos came from after Cyclone Bianca passed. Renae managed to capture some of the ridiculous fun that was on offer. 

"Grinder" as Brad says.

'Living the Dream' as usual. 

Cheers

Paul