Anyone been down there lately?

Was there this morning chasing whiting after last weeks efforts (30+cm)...some old bloke was saying they had been jumping on the hooks yesterday. Today, just wee little whitebait and some good size herring...welcome addition to the fresh bait arsenal. Anyway, landed a few of these. Not entirely sure what they are but I think its the common dart...if anyone can confirm or deny?

Great fun landing them too...had a big fat one literally slam into the bait but lost it as I got it right on the shore line...bugger....think I have found my favourite spot now. Nice for a change to be getting amongst the fish after such a barren run.

Im going to keep this report as short as possible so here goes.

Just got back from Phuket Patong Beach, trip was originally 5 days but stayed for 10.

I actually went to get some tattoo's but after speaking with the guys realised a couple of them where mad keen fisherman, one of the guys showing me pics of snake head he'd been catching in little lakes/ponds dotted around the place (i really want to catch one of these next time, kept waking up about 2pm and he was telling me mornings were best). Next stop tackle shop, I was a bit disappointed with the gear there although he did stock some ok stuff like a couple of stella's and twin powers, a few accurate reels ect ect. I bought a little penn battle 3000, matched it to lemax slim max 8-20lb 7ft 2 piece rod and some 12lb line, a heap of lures sinkers hooks ect were also purchased, all up about $230 oz so no biggy. Next night we went for a fish at a local jetty after i spent 6 hours sitting in a chair getting tatt's done, nothing caught but was still fun. A couple days passed and another 6 hours in the chair and one scoota accident and 2 hours sleep we were off for a fish around some islands, the boys (my taxi driver and one of the artists from the shop offered to chip in but again for less than $100 au was my shout). I was extremely hung ova and cuts on knees elbow feet ect but enjoyed it nonetheless, the skipper cleaned up using a handline catching things that i would describe as spanish flag/stripeys from up north tiny coral trout/cod things that looked like small nannagai but striped, plenty of small nw snapper type species and a couple respectable size trigger fish. After a long day we pulled into a bay where they proceded to catch 4 squid in quick succession, and i got a big surface hit from something on a squid jig, one of the boys was saying they get quite a few small GT around the area but the water was a bit warm at the time. Most of these small fish were kept (i have no problem with this they eat em and love it) and were taken to a local resturaunt where the boys paid the cooks to make em up in soups and fried whole, chilli squid and a few other dishes, the guy doing tattoo's absalutely loved it, he's the guy in the last pic. Btw i caught a few fish but had my ass handed to me by the taxi driver and skipper using handlines, massive current light rods with mono and light sinkers just didnt cut it. Also my tatt artist mate snapped one of his rods, poor bloke he looked devastated, couldnt even laugh like i would at one of my own mates.

Hope you enjoy the report, next time im going to do an overnighter and maybe offshore for some jigging as they catch reasonable GTs, Amberjack and things that look like massive mangrove jacks/cubera snapper, Also want to hit the ponds for a giant mekong catfish and even maybe organise a trip with bbkguy for a giant snakehead (toman).

Cheers

Righteo

Well, photos can tell the story, I'm cactus, been a big weekend, billying yesterday and diving today (plus a troll).  Add to the mix one missed striped marlin and one small black today, but overall, pretty happy with this weekend!

Cant ask for much better, beautiful day, beautiful location, rig up then thread on the mulie and spot this guy less then a meter in front of me in a foot of water, dropped it on its lips and BANG!!! Took it, almost felt guilty ! I usually catch and release but this guys going to be dinner tonight. Packed up 30 min later and went home, great day!!!

Tonights dinner, Swan river flathead by Marc Russo (Australia), on Flickr Beautiful Swan river Flathead, very yummy! by Marc Russo (Australia), on Flickr Oh and this Blowie haha The Swan River Blowfish by Marc Russo (Australia), on Flickr

With these bad boys about i think the juien FADs are going to be a sure winner.

The moring session on the first bank was exciting.

 Took the family down for a fish at Myalup yesterday arvo... Stayed til about midnight but not a hint of a tailor or bigger, tried mulies, live herring, whiting, lures etc.

The 6 kids had a ball though with the flick rods though, catching 2 dozen fat sand whiting and about the same amount of herring... which are all filletted and ready for a big ol feed of fish n chips tonight... 

I was surprised how many 4wds were down there, but most of them disappeared by about 8... bumped into a couple of fellow fishwreckers too, cant remember their names(sorry guys)...

No salmon run yet :(

Troy

Went out in the sound for a few hours on sunset to see if I could get a few squid... got 1 squid and a crab that grabbed the swivel (released)

Gonna give it a go again tomorrow.

Thought I'd take the boat out for a run today as it has been over a month since the motor has been started due to bad weather and a new bub being born so I hand balled the wife and kids off and launched from Point Perron with a mate. No bait as I couldn't be bothered so I took out a soft plastic rod with some home made plastics with the intent on just running the motor and no worry if I came home empty handed. Pretty quiet fishing wise to start off with a scorpion fish and a sargent baker with lots of weed in the water. Ended up sounding around on the ocean side of five fathom bank in about 18-20 metres of water on a lump after no luck on the inside and I must have hit this snapper in the head with the soft plastic because the first jig of the plastic and it was on. Got it in the net and the hook fell out of the corner of the mouth. It measured 675mm from nose to the fork in the tail. That was it for the day and we called it quits.

Then whilst retrieving the boat, snapped the winch rope on the trailer. Off to get a new one. At least it happened today and not tomorrow as I could get a new rope before everyone closes for the long week end. No boat winch, no fishing. All set for Monday;)

Hey guys,

Few of us went for a fish early thursday morning and did a bit of ballooning and some fishing off the beach.  there was a fair bit of weed around the beaches but after driving a few k's we found a nice stretch with none at all

Had 4 balloons out. One of the boys got a nice black tip reef shark on the balloon and we got 2 baits that were smashed.  saw the splash below them but cant determine wat it was that hit them.

Sherbs got a nice tailor first thing in the morning and i got a nice little black tip later on in the morning.

Jeffery saw a big sting ray cruising up and down the beach and decided to try to catch it on his 5000 stella. basically he said it was the worst fishing decision he's made after it made its first run that didnt end :P

headed off at about 11am after Jeff and Sherbs had some fun with som herring and Sherbs showed us what a crazy old man he is by driving back to two rocks on the beach (or should i say in the ocean haha)

Overall a great morning :)

morning all

any one know how rockingham and places near by that are fishing  atm ?

as its a long week end there is only one thing to do FISH 

Hi all

My son and I headed down to Whitehills for a quick fish after work today. Arrived to pretty flat conditions (must have been a great day out on the water) and headed a couple of kms south.

Didn't take long to set up and get our lines in the water, but it was pretty quiet. Caught an unidentified fish...see 2nd picture....released ok. Cam was on first but lost a tailor right at the shoreline and not long afterwards, just as the sun had set, I landed my first Whitehills tailor for about 3 years. Hung around till 7.45pm but nothing was biting so we called it a night.

I only live 4kms from the beach so you'd think I'd be down there all the time. After this evening's effort, I'm sure I'll head down there over the weekend.

regards
rusty...

Up in Exmouth for the next 2 weeks fishing with my husband. First day out (Tuesday) proved successful with dinner coming in the form of a 63cm Spangled Emperor and a nice sized Mack. 

Best part of the day by far was watching an enormous bait ball getting smashed from underneath by dolphins (including one launching through it - see attached photos), tuna and I am pretty sure I also saw a shark lurking in the depths, and masses of birds from above. Could have watched the action for ages. Unbelieveable how close all the action was - the bait ball took refuge under our boat until the tuna herded them out again. Amazing.

hi everyone

been a while since i fished and im itching to get back...looking to find out whats the go with tailore these days...is there many around up the north shore?..have a few spots from before and looking to go sat evening..any tips pm please!!!!

thanks guys

 *Edited- added photos. Sorry about that- They were on my preview, now I see 2 of all photos... Oh well  *sigh*

Saw a couple of North Westerners at Rockingham on Sunday 27-2-2012.

Phone camera, didn't have long to catch a pic but you can see its tail in the blow up. Sea snake about 2-3m long, seen by about 5-6 of us. It swam under the jetty where the kids jump off, about 10m to the west then dived down out of sight.

The next pic is a google one- but it shows what he looked like going underneath us, except much longer and skinnier. There were lots of different ones at google images- but this is the type we saw for sure.

Then later I thought I hooked a car tire! Turned out to be the biggest blowfish (78cm) I've seen in years:-

Hey Guys, 

Havent been on for a while but thought I would throw up a few pics from my recent session crabbing in the swan. Had a nice day out on the water and have not caught Blue's this big for a long time.

Its good to see the Swan is in good condition with a fair bit happening at the moment with a few nice tailor sessions down near the Raffles and near Blackwall Reach. I am heading to Steep soon so I will post some pics of that once I am back. 

The Results are:

Mystery fish - Whiting: Seniors - First Clayton Rybka (350g); second Matt Sinclair (294g). Juniors - First Elena Spirkoska (99g); second Joseph Gardner (80g).

Flathead: Seniors - First Jason O'Neil (950g); second Gareth Dudley (936g). Juniors - First Joseph Gardner (448g); second Kerin Bond (418g).

Herring: Seniors - First Bert Gasper (222g); second Jeremy Nunn (194g). Juniors - First Boyd Rogers (167g).

Mystery fish - Tailor (Closest to 430g): Seniors - First Matthew Jeffery (430g); second Paul Braithwaite (468g). Juniors - First Bobby Chanmalk (456g); equal second Jason Bloor (466g) and Georgia Christie (394g).

Flounder:

Seniors - First Matthew Jeffrey (214g); second Anne Watts (180g). Juniors - First Jacob Slater (239g); second Zac D'Souza (215g).

Tarwhine: Seniors - First Graham Shoobridge (480g); second Dennis Peresa (450g). Juniors - First Read Mogridge (670g); second Nick Griffith (609g).

Yellowtail grunter: Seniors - First Sami Huikkala (186g); second Davia Fulker (182g). Juniors - Equal first Steven Clohesse (185g) and Seth Ahern (185g).

Children only: Heaviest from boat - Equal first Daniel Kucinic (390g flathead) and Cody Cleggett (390g tailor). Heaviest from shore - Chloe Wallwork (815g black bream).

Tiny Tots: First Mason McKrill (806g black bream); second Jessee van Derplank (580g black bream); third Malachi Tumoana (520g tarwhine).

Most unusual catch: Joseph gardner (150g grinner).

Feral fish: Simone Masia (1136g koi carp); Russell Gordon (448g goldfish).

Catch and release: First Thuong van Le (892g black bream); second Katherine Szeliga (712g black bream); third Stuart Chamberlain (322g black bream).

Specialist species - black bream: First Gordon Birch (1.568kg); second Brett Brown 894g).

Specialist species - mulloway: Michael Martin (13.9kg).

No tagged fish were caught.

So it was looking like a average day on the water conditions wise but this didnt stop us. We hit the water at 3:30 am to go and find some live bait to try and entice a few dollies out at the fads. Found a spot nice and close to Pt peron boat ramp and loaded the live well with a mix of herring, whiting and skippy with no trouble at all.

Started the 1 hr 20 min ride out to the southern FAD just on sunrise, was a little rough and so was I but still managed 20-22 Kn. Arrived to decent conditions with the FAD all to ourselves, out goes the first herring and within 30 sec it was smashed by a dolly but to keen to set the hooks resulted in one dead hezza and no hookup. Out goes another but unfortunately the fish had shutdown so a move was needed to the FYC FAD. First drift through looked promising but sizes were only average,Ok this has to be it so out goes another hezza and bang hit sraight away and not wanting to miss this one i waited a bit longer to strike but no good.By this time both me and my bro were getting rather frustrated (especially ben).So he threw out another hezza and within no time was hooked up with a nice specimen and being the good brother he is handed it to me as this was my first ever dolly. After about 5 min it was landed and ended up being about the 5-6 Kg mark, not bad for a first but i really wanted one that would weigh up against my bro's on tuesday.

Next it was bens turn so out goes the livie and wasnt to long until we saw it smashed by one angry dolly that really didnt like what was going on, with an awsome display of aerial acrobatics it got to about 100 mtrs and snap the line goes slack with a failure of the braid. We continue to do our thing when ben tells me to try the 30 cm skippy, so out it goes while he had another hezza out but it looked like these fish had shutdown aswell until about 15 min later when my rod with the skippy on goes off ZZZZZZZZZZZ. Picked it up and set the hooks and boy was i in for a fight, after a few launches it tried to wrap me around the FAD but thanks to my bro again for some excellent skippering we avoided any tangles. After the first run it proceeded to dive to the depth of around 100 m and give me curry for the rest of the 20 min fight, i eventually tired it out and won the battle and with some nice gaffing skill's from ben it was landed. What a horse it was weighed at just over 12 Kg and 1280 mm long and i got what i wanted with it being slightly bigger than the one ben had got on tuesday, But wouldnt have happened without him. Oh and a big thanks to my dad for the use of his boat(Soome).

The ride home was very painfull to say the least as the wind had picked up a bit so it took 2 1/2 hrs sitting on about 10-12 Kn, but we were well rewarded for the effort with about 9 Kg of fillets from the two beautiful dollies. All in all it was a great morning out with a first for me and the biggest fish for the boat so far and a huge thanks to my bro for helping me tick another species of my list. Happy Days

Chris

Mon 27 February, 2012

Portfolio: Fisheries

Hi all,

Just wondering if squid are still being caught in cockburn sound. I havent been for a good year and wouldnt mind making the drive that way if there still around.

Cheers

Got 12 BIG crabs and 2 just above legal size (looked small compared to the others).  South of the four poster.  In a bit shallower water today becasue it was a bit cooler.  Others at the ramp got their boat limits apparently.

Nice day out, not as windy as I thought.

 well im fairly new to fishing and have already found a preferd spot around the ascot area. so far so good ive been there 2 times now and so far pulled in nothing but bream unfortunatley they were undersized but i no the big ones are there anyway all just good fun!

just wondering what hillarys marina has been like lately i have the balance of a 3-legged elephant but i dont mind walkin on the rocks if there is fish about ahaha and another question does anyone kno what parts of hilarys are out of bounds for fishing and what arnt..........cheers

First Post for me and I have to start with a negative. Went down to Floreat Drain last night with a mate, first time at the drain, anyhow no fish and get back to me car and the window has been smashed in,glove box gone thru. Wasnt going to post anything about this but thought some people would want to be aware. S&*t happens I suppose

Went out with luke yesterday (fishon570) aiming for a troll. Got to west end, and it was far too weedy. So decided to do some jigging.

The day was very slow, and the weather was quite average but still managed to get into a few fish. Luke got a decent baldy on jig which he called for a dhuie (never seen anyone so dissapointed to see a decent baldie come on board), along with a blackarse and a little pinky. I picked up a Blackarse and a sargent baker all on jig.

On out last drop as i was retrieving my jig, something smashed it mid was up. I called it for a sambo as it was making my 5000 stella cry, taking very fast and long runs. as it came to the surface we saw a tuna.

Cheers luke for another trip. been out plenty of times and never came home empty handed. Great bloke, mate and skipper.
Now its time for us to go to the Gym.

Peace out fellas.

Ps. Sherbs, i kept my shirt on in the Photos just for you ;)

Yesterday I returned from a fishing trip to a truly memorable destination, the Pacific country of Kiribati.

Until booking the trip mid way through last year, I actually didn't know that Kiribati existed, however after reading a report written by Duncan of Fish Head about a trip he had been on recently, and hearing that he may have spots available for a further trip in Feb, I signed myself up.

Getting to Kiribati is a bit of a mission from Perth with 3 flights required each way, and my trip home involving a gruelling 31hrs in transit. The remoteness of the place, and the fact that most of my usual fishing mates had also never heard of the country, resulted in me flying solo on this trip with Duncan plus 6 other guys who I'd not previously met making up the balance of the 8 man crew. This all worked well, and as always, it was great to meet and fish with some new guys.

Despite being pretty tired on arrival (at least partly due to us having knocked off a litre of local Rum during our stopover in Fiji), we were keen to get into some fishing as soon as we landed.

We checked into our lodge (which, as you can see from the view from the breakfast table below was about as waterfront as you can get), and readied the tackle.

Upon arriving at the water, we saw the two boats that were to be our fishing platforms for the week, a fibreglass centreconsole, and a traditional outrigger canoe. The outrigger canoe (despite being slow) made a great casting platform, and some great fish were landed from it over the week.

We had a mix of keen fly fishermen wanting to chase bonefish, as well as some offshore enthusiasts. This mix worked really well, as with some of the anglers spending a lot of time casting from the flats, the boats were never crowded.

The pics and captures listed below are mine only - whilst great fish were caught by all, I will leave it to the others to post catch reports and pics of their fish on this and other sites if they choose, and expect that Duncan will also do a full writeup after finishing the second week of fishing on his E-Mag The Tight Line

DAY 1

On the first day of fishing I went out in the glass boat to focus on popping and jigging. Though still getting warmed up and not having a full day after having flown in during the morning, I boated 4 smallish GTs (missing several more), a red bass and some dirty barracudas on popper, with one such dirty barracuda stealing my 3 cast old Craft Bait. This was to be the first in a series of many tackle sacrifices for the week (at least excess baggage charges were not a problem on the way home!). The jigging was good too, with a Yellowfin Tuna of around 8kg, solid coronation trout and some great long nose emperor hitting my jigs.

DAY 2

Day 2 we ventured much further around the island to hit up some different ground and had a much better session. Im not sure how many GTs we landed for the boat, but I got 6 to the boat that day (including a couple of better fish than the previous day), with lots of pack attacks happening. We then switched to the jigs for some deeper water jigging, and I got a couple of nice Jobfish, my PM red bass (no pic unfortunaty), my first Almaco Jack, small YFT, plus heaps of other reefies incl Coronation trout and Longnose.
Considering we were fishing without any sounder in around 80-100m of water, the bite was really pretty insane on the jigs that day (the best for the trip I think). Heaps of great fish landed by the others that day also. On the way home we stopped at one last spot to throw a few poppers and an absolute barrel of a Tuna lept completely out of the water for mine. Didnt hook up, but probably lucky that it didnt, or a spooling all but guaranteed.

DAY 3

Light tackle day for a bit of a break on the third day. Was fishing a 100gr jig rod and a PE3 caster casting for small GTs, several trout (including this vibrant black/purple one), red bass on small stick bait, coronation trout etc.

DAY 4

Much slower day today. Landed 3 GTs from 4 strikes, but then the topwater shut down. Spent a bit of time jigging around a bait ball and got my first rainbow runner (my first) and a small GT, then jigged deeper for a decent cod and some other reefies.

A selection of the days gear below.

DAY 5
Another light tackle day much like day 3, no real notable captures for me but did get monstered trolling a metal slice on the way home.

DAY 6

The plan for day 6 was to hit the northern parts of the island which (due to the wind and swell direction) dont get as much attention. Unfortunately, the wind and swell had other ideas.

We still made an attempt to get there though and trolled a couple of small YFT on the way, with me getting my big Richter skirt snipped off at the swivel by a wahoo also. The waves and surface chop were rubbish for popping, and only one fish was raised with none hooked. We had a great session on the light jigs though with me landing a great coronation, jobfish, plus many other reefies all on a 100gr rod which was fun (but dangerous to the already depleted stock of jigs).

Landed a pretty solid shark that hit my Andaman jig on the drop. Was interesting bringing him up into the front of the dugout canoe!

DAY 7

What a difference a day can make.

Day 7 was the last day for 4 of us, so we decided to hit the distant destination that we hit on the second day for another shot at some GTs and Tuna. The day panned out exactly as hoped, and was a great end to the trip. On the way to the spot that came to be known as the Happy Spot, we noticed some birds working on the surface and decided to stop to have a cast or two with the poppers. We were glad we did.
Immediately we were on with a triple hookup of Yellowfin Tuna. Two of the blokes got their small model YFTs in pretty quick, and then began giving me grief about taking forever to get mine in, but it was a bloody solid fish! Ended up landing this 40kg+ YFT on an 8ft popper rod, that was incredibly hard work. Only had a standard 10,000 spool on the reel with JB 100lb, so didnt have much capacity, meaning I had to fish max drag for the whole fight (came close to going in the drink a couple times!). Saw the bottom of the spool a few times but got there in the end.

We then carried on to our original destination and were greated by the hottest GT bite Ive seen. Double and triple hookups were pretty common, with most casts yielding a fish. Im not sure how many we boated, but I got at least 12, possibly more than 15 to the boat, with the other guys doing really well also. Could have caught plenty more, but needed a break so went off to jig for a bit before the long motor home.

Unfortunately there were no horse GTs landed, but a couple were seen, and Ill definitely be back for them.

All in all it was a solid trip with the slow days you expect on any trip, but also some extremely hot action that will definitely get me back there. Thanks Duncan for organising a great trip, and a great bunch of guys to get out there with!

Dan

Hey all, just started fishing seriously since last december. These are a few of my decent catches since December. Got a few good tailor of southern Perth beaches, the one in my right hand is a 49cm other is a 43cm. Last Saturday, seen a bloke pull up a 1.3m Mulloway(pictured above) at E-shed, I measured it for him. So the next night I decided to give it a shot. Put some new line on my reel 50lb braid. Hooked onto something big! Thought this was the moment I got my first Mulloway, turned out to be a big bronzie. Quite disappointed it wasn't a mulla but still lots of fun, always a good feeling when you have something heavy on your rod and it's kicking!

Shortened version now as I just spent the last hour doing a full blown report only to have lost it when I went to preview it

Went out yesterday morning, on water by 3:15am as I couldn't sleep. Live bait search began at the end of woodies and resulted in 1 whiting, moved to channel marker picked up a taylor 32cm off the bottom which was a bit strange lots of small pinky's.

Left for southern most fad (furno I think) at first light bit rough but averaged abot 20kn, tried a few diferent methods but it was the taylor which did the damage landed my first ever dolly 120cm 10kg. It put on a great aerial display and fight time was about 20mins on 15lb. It was a little tricky landing as I was solo.

Left fad about 9 went to southern barges first drop hook up 10 seconds later ping minus 1 brand new JF Lab jig purchased from oceanside the day before, Jig worked a treat thanks guys will be back soon for more! Rigged a Benthos had about 10 more drops for no result.

Trolled west end no takers on trailer 1pm.

Great day, great conditions, first dolly and first solo mission.

Sounder pick is channel marker pinky school.

Sorry for the roughness the first take was so much better and far more entertaining but I don't have another hour to spend, Weathers far to good to be inside.

Oh and what a great tasting fish yum!yum!

Last Tuesday and Sunday I visited my usual metro tailor spot looking to catch a feed.  I didn’t have high hopes on the Tuesday because it was a lowish high tide and not ideal moon phase.  I don’t evaluate moon phases too much, but I have been keeping a keen eye on it, just to see if it does make a difference (and I THINK it does?).  I pay more attention to tides, but the two are related at the end of the day. Although not huge, high tide was just on sunset and it was blowing a decent southerly, ideal! 

What a dramatic evening (for all the wrong reasons!), it was one of those nights where you lose more fish than you land, getting bitten off at the swivel, fouling hooks, and resorting to using makeshift rigs because I was very low on stock.  Still managed to come home with 5 tailor, ranging from 32-40cm.  They didn’t hang around for long, but I wasn’t expecting them too.  All in all, success.  Also went back to using cork to keep the mullie off the bottom. As much fun as rays are, they are a burden during peak tailor time!  Which my mate experienced, Tuesday tailor score: 4-1 to me.   

Sunday I was quietly confident, all stocked up with rigs, sinkers and an esky full of VBs.  High tide was around 9pm with the usual gusty southerly and from my research, an ideal moon phase??  …few days either side a new or full?!?!  

Anyway, my mate and I were surprised to arrive to a near-empty rock groyne!  This spot is usually very popular so it was a nice surprise.  We got there right on sunset and it didn’t take long before the VBs came out and the esky became an ice slurry full of tailor.  They hung around for an hour and a half, and there was a 30min period where they were smashing the bait before I could close the bail arm!! Sunday tailor score: 7-3 to me.  Again I used cork.  The ones we kept were between 35-43cm, 30-35cm specimens were released.  My mate also got onto a fat 45cm snook, which came bait.  I will never get sick of the tailor aerial displays and their final lunge close to the rocks!!

The Port Jackson’s moved in, so out went the snook fillets.  They didn’t take long to get some attention, however we both got smoked.  I was devo because I reckon I may have been onto my first ever toothy, but I stupidly didn’t top up my spool and was soon on shitty old unknown poundage mono backing.    Then lost a few rigs to rays on yellow tail fillets.  After losing 7 star sinkers for the night and no more beers left, we packed up.

After 3+ years of fishing the same spot, learning from my own experiences/mistakes and doing my own research, I think I can finally say I’ve sussed that spot out.  Now I am no fishing expert, but if I am to give any advice, it is to go out and see for yourself.  Pick a fishy spot and keep trying.  Observe what others around you are doing and pay attention to conditions.  And if you’re getting outfished, don’t get angry, GET BETTER!  It has taken me ages to be a confident fisho at this spot. 

But, im still searching for my first 50cm tailor and for a shark with teeth   I really need to get off my ass and buy some gas for these bloody balloons sitting in my boot!

Dark, phone pic of dead fish available upon request.

Cheers,  Alex.

Well, what a day it turned out to be yesterday, best conditions I've seen in some time (mind you it looks pretty superb out there again today)  Heaps of coral spawn out there yesterday and strange tides which made the bottom fishing very tiring, all my usual favourite spots around the rons were shut down.  I had to do the solo and after being frustrated for the first few hours of not finding anything substantial, my day was made when around 100 'short finned pilot whales' (please correct me as I'm not really sure what they were) decided to play under the boat and ride the bow wave. 

The sonar singing was amazing to listen to and when one of them launched a couple of meters out of the air with a 5kg + mahi in his mouth (like a dog with a bone) it was a sight to be seen.  He then brought it over under the boat and let the little ones hunt it down again, was a sight I'll never forget. (I have it on my phone camera but the footage doesn't really show it well, you can still make out what is going on - will edit it up later) 

Anyway, headed wide behind Peak only to find more crazy tides/current (surface water moving one way, tide on the bottom moving another) which had the fish completely shut down.  Deciding it was time to do something else I chucked out some lures and looked for ground around the back of the island.  Around 70m I had a solid hit on the lumo which stayed connected (even after not snapping out of the outrigger clip for 30 seconds), the water visibility was so clear you could see the lumo and the marlin about 60m out a few meters down. 

After a quick tussle and some awesome jumps at the back of the boat in glassy glass conditions I had him boatside for the release.  Unfortunately my good camera battery had died after the 'whale/dolphin' photos so had to capture it on the phone, which I'm spewing about as the marlin pics would have been sensational.  After setting the spread again it took about 5 minutes for the next billie to come up and smash the lumo three times before not staying connected. 

Doing a loop in the area it took another 2 minutes before the third billie came up, a solid 50+kg and was so fired up he had half of his body out of the water angrily looking to smash the lumo, was one of the best takes I've seen in a long time.  Unfortunately the clip in the rigger got stuck again and when I managed to free it the slack from the drop back was just as he was about to jump, spppewing, but still pretty stoked.

I tried back in the shallows again to no avail, everything extremely quiet on the bottom - tried trolling the ledge for an hour on the way in - no love, but all in all had a phat day in some sensational conditions (even though it was pretty bloody warm)

Cheers,

Adam

(Will add some video to the thread later)

Hey all,

          Went out to my regular spot on a Northern Beach, in hope to get some Tailor for a feed. (Saturday night)

They were scarse on Saturday night. Hardly any bites. I thought that there might be something out there scaring them off.

I was fishing with a 20 pound line and the regular rig for Tailor. (Top surface rig). Then behold a massive bite, which had set the drag off. Couldnt reel it in.

It snapped my wire trace. The trace was 45 pound. Set up the same rig again and 10 min later another run.

Managed this time to reel it in and land it. A whopping 4ft Bronzie. The regular rules. 700mm from back of top dorsal fin to rear dorsal fin. Just under 700mm.

I decided that this was a decent catch, and call it a night.

Took me 20 min to skin and enough fillets for 15 people.