Well it had been a looong time since Lucky had been out for a fish and during his absence his fish stocks had mysteriously vanished through the appetites of Merman and Hotstuff.  (who could blame them with red and trout in the freezer)  So with next to nothing left we decided that we had to take it upon ourselves to go and replenish the stocks, especially considering the weather we have been having lately.

Heading over to the islands we spent the morning spearing in clear water, there was decent tidal surge and swell making things a bit more interesting, but still well and truly good enough for what we wanted to do.  I won't go into the spearing details too much, but one thing I must say is I have never seen so many well and truly legal trout in all my life.  At one stage there would have been a school of 6 of them swimming around underneath me following me from ledge to ledge, one of them almost tickled himself on the end of my spear.  Getting back to the boat and telling Tim what I had seen he pretty much repeated the same story of what he had encountered on a totally different part of the ledge.  We didn't end up finding any easy to get crays over the session, but ended up with 2 trout, 5 bluies and 1 green jobfish and a nice bag of goodies.

As the wind was starting to drop we decided we should look for some ground, not having much luck we went back to an ol faithful that had produced many a time.  First few drops weren't really producing much, I think only one small spangled came over the side and we lost a rig or two to sharks.  We then changed the drift a bit and started getting a few more small (but size) spangos which went back, I then lost my rig to a shark and thought it was time to pack up as it was getting late.  We went back around again and Tim had one more drift and got some thing small, calling it another spangly it hit the surface bright red but undersize.  Hmmmm we thought, I re-rigged and Tim got a nice 50cm Jack and I got a decent moses perch.  We reset again where Tim got bitten off and I got a small spango.  Tim decided not to re-tie and waited for me to provide inspiration and bang, up came a nice jobbie to complement the tidy bag we had.  Upon seeing this Tim decided to rig up and around we went for what we had called for the last drift of the day.  Living up to his nickname, a torrid tuggle ensued and Lucky brought up a beautiful red at 68cm and we couldn't think of a better way to finish the day on.

We got back to the ramp and with less than knee deep water managed to push it across the sandbar to retrieve, another 10 minutes and we probably would have had to head down to the marina to get her out.  In all a top day, thanks Lucky.  Hopefully it will be out into the depths next week to do some more exploring!  On a side note, there's been some excellent catches at the local comp on this weekend - a 9kg red, 7.5kg trout, 22kg spaniard, 23kg wahoo and lots of other bits and pieces.

Cheers,

Adam

thanks for the bits of advice i was given got out today and picked this little guy up looking forward for a few more species.

Went crabbing on the  jetty tonight with my son Sat.18 a bit quiet with a lot of weed in the water and the guys out the end weren't catching any fish either so it's just one of those nights. The reason why I'm making this post is that I use Tuna heads in the crab nets my son swears by herring and others were using spleen. None of us caught much but what is your preferred bait?

has anyone been into new beach south of carnarvon wa since the floods?

looking to see what condition the roads are in..

thanks...

Headed out sat morning with my neigbour who i owe most of my fishing knowledge too.
He only fishes bait with heavy gear so whenever we get together it always a bit of fun having a comp between us.
Round 1 went to him as he landed the only fish worth bringing home. This time would be different though.

We arrived at our spot just on sun up and Scott began getting a constant berly trail going. I droped down a 5inch double drift and before Scott had his line in the water i was enjoying a tussle with a small skippy. I was off to a good start.
Scott sent out a floating blue mackeral while i continued with the plastics. I wasnt long before the skippy had found the bait and Scott was on. The next 15 min had Scott landing skippy after skippy while from some reason i couldnt get a hit on the plastic.

I dropped down again feeding line out allowing the plastic to sink. Once i thought i had reached the bottom i turned over the bail arm, gave one twitch and bang......i was on. A couple of good head shakes and a nnice run had me thinking it was a pinky. A few seconds later i could feel the solid heavy weight of what could only be a stingray. Sure enough after a 5 min tussle the small eagle ray was boat side. We removed the lure and sent it back. While i was anoyed at cacthing a flying carpet it was my first on a plastic.

By now Scott had brought out a light rod to use while the blue mackeral floated out back. He rigged on a 1/4 jig head and threaded on a squid tentacle. If the jig head could make it past the skippy small snapper where waiting on the bottom to snaffle it.

I changed over to a Pink 7inch Madeye Double Drift rigged on a 1/2 TT jig head. I too was into the small snapper that still give a great fight for there size. By now we had been there for a couple of hours and while scott was well into double didgits on the skippy we were condsidering a move.
I decided we should stick it out as high tide was approaching and by now we had a nice berly trail.

I continued casting and retriving the pink double drift hoping it along the  bottom. While Scott realeased yet another skippy my rod suddenly buckled over
and i felt then tell tale head shakes that only a snapper can give. After a short but nervously fought battle i had colour. Scott netted the fish and we finally had a good fish in the boat. We put the fish on the lie detector and it messured 71cm at a guessed weight of around 4kg.

We stayed at the spot for another hour but could only manage skippy on baits. The decission was mad to check one last spot before heading back in.
Within seconds of scotts bait hitting the water a Skippy had smashed it. After re-rigging he sent a mullie out back. Once again i was hit well before it could reach the bottom. This was a far bigger fish taking long fast runs coupled with head shakes. The fish kept bolting to the surface and Scott's Experience called it for a Samson Fish. Even on heavy gear Samson go hard and Scott had use all his skill to steer the Samson away from the anchor rope on a couple of occasions. Eventually we landed the samson at over 1m and after a couple of happy snaps released it. Small Samson are very under rated on the chew but the larger fish are dry and often have worms.

Scott continued landing skippy on his light rod but now had it doubled over on somthing alot bigger. To our supprise the 8lb straight through wouldnt let go and at least 10min went past before any line was returned to the reel. Sudenly the line went slack and we thought we had lost it. But no the fish had just headed striaght for the surface. To our disapointment a small eagle ray skimed out of the water. Now we knew what it was Scott locked the drag and went hard. Another 5min latter and the line went slack but this time it was a bust off.
 Time to head back in.

Last Bait Vs Lures We had more fish seemed to fall to the lures but today was the oposite. For some reason the skippy werent interested in any lure i threw at them and Scott must have caught at least 30+ to me only catching 2.
But i had got the only keeper so round 2 goes to lures.

 A huge school of herring at ocean reef yesterday, they were bitting on peeled prawn, and gulp maggots. Didn't even need berley, although it may have helped. I had two rods going and as soon as i'd get one out, finish baiting up the other, and casting that one out, the first was hooked on. Also got a couple of wrasse and put them back. 

went out around two.....

got our limit today, was hard work was out from 2 - 7 with a majoirty bait sized, only a few worth cleaning and eating none the less.

Those dhues best be hungry next week!

brett

Happy days nice win

Just arrived home from our annual Coral Bay trip and what a trip it was. We decided to go for the sole charter for three days this year and i must say we will be doing that again. While some of our fellow fishers were not overly impressed that the only available boat in town was tied up for three days, we definatley benefitted from having the space and luxury of 4 people fishing a variety of methods on the MAHI MAHI II.

The catch and fishing techniques we enjoyed were very varied and succesful. A day on the red emperor followed by switch baiting for sailfish and a day fishing out wide for the ruby snapper and monster cod was a highlite. All followed by various hookups trolling in sail fish alley where sails and marlin were hooked. In all it was the most succesful and well run trip we have had, and i challenge you all to get up to Coral Bay, hook up with Bernie and and get yourself in some of these photos below.

 Figured I'd finally sit down and attempt a report on our little trip northwards this year. We hit the road at the start of may for four weeks away with our little boat, dive gear, bit of fishin gear and a tent. Hope it doesn't go too long, probably will...

First day started off well with a late departure from perth to jurien for two nights to get some fish in the esky for the next week or so. We got to Jurien, set up camp, met the neighbours and set off to check out the hill river mouth in our magna... and anyway magna's are only usefull for about the first 2 k's of the beach track and after the first 200k's of our 4000k trip i was in the sand digging out my poor bottomed out car with a pissed off girlfriend watching from the sidelines arms folded... great start to the trip.

The next day was the start we we're hoping for and we had a cracker day out with an awesome dive and boating 2 macks from 3 hits in less than half an hour. One baldy kept from the dive and a mac, both kept for the icebox back at the park. Wrote a report on it a month or so ago for pics and such.

The afternoon was then spent vac packing our bounty, some of which got shared with the neighbours. That night we had a cool sunset to finish an awesome day and then the night was spent packing the car again for an early departure for shark bay so jac could see the dolphin feeding.

Arrived in sharkbay for the first time for both of us and with no real intinary we checked the place out and decided to head over to monkey mia to see what they were all about. Unknown to me they had a ramp there which was a big plus and once we saw the only campsite left was right on the water front we decided we'd settle in here... then the flies settled in... and there she was again, even though she was asleep behind flyscreen I'm sure she had her arms folded as the tent was besieged by an onslaught of flies, me I probably just inhaled half the fly population that afternoon walking around. But I was happy as i stood there trying to regurgitate a fly outside some backpackers balcony and taking photo's as the sun went down. Good thing flies dont show up in photo's, place really was awesome though.

The next day we we're up and at the dolphin feeding contending with the other 400 tourists getting their kung fu on and trying to get pole position, we just stood on the jetty and watched a motley bunch of dolphins with varying degrees of shark bite come and go, one had a fresh gaping hole missing out of its head. cool but pretty average expirience and we were itching to do some exploring. An hour later we were pushing the dory into the water without a clue of where to go and what to fish but conditions couldn't have been better and they stayed that way all day.

Jacqui had never seen a turtle in the wild and seeing "green turtle flats" on the chart had us burning over to the northern tip of faure island, surely with a name like that she'd see a turtle. As we dropped anchor near the beach the place was alive with all kinds of activity literally hunders of juvenile shovelnose basking in an inch of water, blacktips rounding up and slicing through schools of mullet and turtles popping up everywhere over a glassed off ocean all within a hundred meter stretch of beach. we spent a few hours there casting the old twisty golds at choppers and snorkelling in poor vis trying to get some reef shark action.

After a while expecting a SW wind that never came we belted back towards the western side of the gulf stopping on the way to troll through the channels and to harrass a large group of dolphins. didn't have much luck trollin just a few snook. We then went to venture up in the direction of point peron to see what we could find.

Conditions were still magic and from 100's of meters away we could see turtles coming up for air all around and little ripples travelling on the surface that on closer inspection they turned out to be schools of golden trevally breaking the surface with their fins, the water was that good! so we spent the rest of the day casting everything at these little ripples that would bolt when a few meters from the boat. hooked up a fair few but unfortunately boated none so it was back to harassing the local dolphins that were everywhere. Clocked up almost 50 NM that day in the little dory chasing all kinds of wildlife pulling the boat out of the water just as the sun set... no folded arms today.

Next stop was coral bay for a week, pretty much a week of wind and we never got outside the reef. Fishing wasn't high on the priority list anyway as we still had a mountain of mackerel to eat. The first day out we had a whipping easterly so it was inclose snorkelling just off five finger reef dodging the big boats burning past for south passage. The water was a lovely 28 degrees and gotta love that moment when you jump into the water up north with a totally different surrounding to the southern waters we're both used to. Huge gardens of plate corals and staghorns all in really good condition. Hump Head mouri wrasse, flute fish everywhere, but never saw any crays outside of a sanctuary for the whole trip.

Usually we drive past coral bay but figured this time we'd pull in and give the car a break as everything is nice and close. Diving was awesome and we dived inside the reef in all the deepest water we could find from south of south passage all the way to the north passage(all around 7-9 meters). It sounds strange to say coz its was awesome reef and excellent condition but all the diving at coral bay is all much the very same no matter where you dive along the reef.  After 5 days straight of diving at CB we were itching to get to Exmouth for a bit of variety.

Second last day in coral bay it started pissing down so it was a mad rush to move the boat and dive gear out into the rain to get a good wash and with everything cleansed we were off to Exmouth, Seriously how good is to after a year of day dreaming to finally see this glorious sign in its unglorious immediate surroundings.

First night in exmouth was awesome........

Great tent weather as the thunderstorms rolled around in the distance and 40 knot easterlies handed our arses to us, in our little tent.

Next day the wind still blew hard so we pretty much just drove around down to yardie and got a few snaps. Next day we figured we'd take a chance and put the boat in at tanta's. A chance never came but we/I pushed out the passage for a bit of a troll but all I caught was a straight face and glaring from my faithful deckie so back in. The day then took a turn for the better as that night we got to eat steak!! after days and days of eating mackerel, mackerel stirfry, mackeral burgers, mackerel curry, mackerel drowned out in anything so it didn't taste like mackerel ect ect.. love mackerel but after so many days straight we were hanging for a f*&kn huge steak.

Next day it all came together and by 10am we were flying out through the passage in beautiful weather and sounding around for a good spot for our first dive out behind the reef.

We found our spot and dived in around 14 meters, we had a sweet dive with reef sharks constantly coming in to check us out and bolt off out of sight, coral was a fair bit damaged but we had heaps of fish life around with trev's and both spanish and school macks buzzing around. Trolled that day right out to the 90m depth with the skirts but with not much luck. Coming up to the 30m line out from Jansz both skirts went screaming only to both be bitten off half way through the fight, it was out with the wire and soon we boated another couple of small macs. My eyes began to light up with fish fever again with the bonanza of more fish for the ice box... after a few choice words and once again with folded arms i was then promptly releasing them back over the side. After that it was another snorkel at tantas sanctuary.

After that it was pretty much glass offs every afternoon. The next day we were diving out in 27meters on the west side. Seeing the massive Rankins on that dive soon after had me fishing with a salami sandwhich for bait and cursing that i never bought any SP's on the trip... soon gave up on that though. We spent the avo casting poppers at bait schools connecting up to those bastard macks that wouldn't leave us alone, good fun though watching them smash the surface lures as in the distance we could see them launchung 20 feet into the air and gliding back in on a perfect arc. Heading back to the ramp we almost collided with two fins breaking the surface and moments later Jac was in swimming with her own private whale shark i got her onto, but the b*^ch was refusing to pay my $395 fee. 

pic from the boat

Last day out for the trip we launched at about 2pm at bundegi for lighthouse bay to dive Blizzard ridge. Another day of pure glass and easily the best dive of the trip even in shocking conditions. We had a surface current of about two knots, the boat even had its own little bow wave while swinging on the mooring. Visability was around 5 meters and were litterally having to pull ourselves along and down the mooring rope, It had jac thinking to call off the dive for fear of being swept away. After talking it through she agreed to atleast decide at the bottom of the mooring and if it was no good we'd pull ourselves back up. Surprisingly when we let go we were able to hover almost motionless, smiles all around! Absolutely awesome dive in poor vis, no coral and everything was a sort of green colour but so much life! saw massive turtles, olive headed sea snakes, lionfish, trout everywhere, 3 types of nudi's we'd never seen before, morey eels and more all in a 45 minute dive in 10 meters. As we de-kitted all around us the bay was full of bait schools being smashed by fish, after a few casts with the popper on the old herring rod we found the culprits to be little trevs. What a great way to close the last boat trip of the trip, awesome dive and catch and releasing little trevs as the sunsets over a glassed off ocean.

Last thing I had to do was tick off something thats been on my exmouth bucket list for the last 7 years,

PLANET BURGER VAN!!!

Yep... thats a fly

After I melted the tent walls a little that night we packed up and it was off to a unit in kalbarri to sleep all day, enjoy a real bed,TV and showers without thongs.

 Just gotta try come to grips that now is the longest possible time before the next trip!

Thanks for reading! 

Didnt manage to land a descent fish till the last day of the trip. Was supposed to leave bright and early Tuesday morning but decided to balloon out one last gardie and ended up getting one more smaller Mackeral. Plenty of sharks around had one take about 700m of braid before my line snapped at the reel. Lucky i had some spare spools of braid with me.

Hope ya like the pics.

Kris 

Spent the long weekend with the family down at Point Peron in some holiday shacks - only 500m to the ramp, which is very nice. Saturday, we spent a few hours in the sound - cleaned up on the squid and had Till's GT stuffed squid for dinner - highly recommended too!

Sunday morning was the traditional BBQ breakfast at about 9am.  This is a late breaky for me, so this still left some time to have a quick fish. Dragged my teenage nieces out of slumberland at 5.50am. On the water in ten minutes and a quick (well diesel blurt) out to the back of FFB. With no points, I sounded a little bit of ground in 20 metres and didn't promise the girls anything too much. At least we had beat the sun, so a Pinkie could be on the cards. I set up two of my spin outfits with drift baits of two squid heads each(from Saturdays catch). First drop - Pinkie time....too easy. Nice fight and biggest fish ever for Niece1 quick pic and release.

Next drop, big heavy weight with slow pumping - 'cuttlefish' was the call from me to Niece2 now don't freakout when you see it! The cuttle surfaced about 5m away from the boat. He was a great size and the accuracy of his water jet produced a few screams from my crew!  Took a while for me to convince Niece2 to pose with a live Cuttlefish, but if she wanted to keep it, well, she had to;

Down side was that as I was about to leader the cuttle in, Niece 2 high sticked behind me - Oh, I know that sound...doh. Reset drift again, dropped down and whack - hang on tight to that outfit, I yelled to Niece2. Pump and wing, big screams again when a beautiful sheen of silver caught the rising sun beams.

I'm shaking my head, thinking, it doesn't get any better then this.....lets head in. >We got back to the shack and breakfast was ready at 9am...what a start to the day! My young one practice casting on the front beach.

That arvo we launch around in Safety Bay and head to Penguin Island  - a first for all of us. What a pleasant surprise this place was.

Hi guys,

Just a quick report on my latest adventure. Tried a spot north of the Leeman area I have been meaning to get to for some time. There is still a lot of weed on the beaches and the water is generally brown and murky in close. Evening session was very quiet. Caught a few small tailor (15-20cm) on prawns and mulie cubes but no signs of anything else around. The morning session was not faring all that much better but a few bread & butter species came on the bite closer to high tide. I had one big hit around 9am. The drag screamed momentarily and as I picked up the rod and felt the weight the line went dead. Whatever it was must have grabbed the scaly between the circle hooks...all that was left was a head. I dare not dream about what it may have been...

I was only in this spot to try for a mulla. So mid morning I packed up and decided to head back towards Hill River for a kayak session and a fish. The water in the area is a little bit murky in close and there is a little weed around in parts - but generally easy to find a clean spot to fish at the moment. The river has not broken it's banks yet so after recovering a bogged SUV I decided to hit up one of my favourite spots closer to town.

Went out in the kayak for the first time. It was just sloppy enough to make life hard for a newbie and after 30 minutes sitting 200m offshore I decided to get my feet back on solid ground. Will definately get out again on a calm day and am really looking forward to chasing some big bream in the river.

Low tide session was again non eventful. Caught a couple of small mullet for bait and the rest were blowies. No tailor off the reef. Moved again looking for a good spot to soak a bait for the night session. Night was uneventful except for two runs within 10 minutes. The first one I'm calling for a big ray. Couldn't stop it and the mainline gave out (60lb) quite quickly. The second run went west and I could feel headshakes so I am assuming a shark. This time one of my knots pulled...I guess that's what happens when you drink and fish.

Morning session was a bit a better. Started landing some really good sized mullet on whole prawns (all around the 25cm mark) and plenty of sand whiting. Caught an absolute thumper PB Sandy which went 36cm! Couldn't believe it and it put up a great fight on 4lb braid. Not many herring around but I got a couple in the bag. I did drop what felt like a decent tailor - but besides that the tailor never seemed to come on the bite.

Finished up with a quick session at Cervantes Jetty to see what was around. The place was packed with juvenile tailor (<20cm) but did not seem to be holding other b&b fish. Also caught a small squid on a mulie cube...which was a nice surprise.

On the way home I did check out Sovereign Park (Two Rocks)....will definately head back there with the poppers in winter!

Brought home a feed which is the main thing and have also found a couple of great areas to fish at low tide when the conditions are right for the tailor. Was great to get away though and have a break.

Sorry no pics as I am too lazy to upload!

Cheers,

Buschy

well well well

what can i say, first time up in the kimberleys and the place blew me away.This will be a regular future destination!

Arrving in kununura we were told the area of the wilderness park we were staying had only just recently opened due to the very heavy rainfall over the wet season and flooding. A lot of damage was done to areas, and some scenic parts of the the wilderness park are still closed off, Some areas for example, the zebidee springs and the moonshine billabong had just recently opened. 

I didnt have much time to fish,due to it being a family holiday with over 20 of us up there. Though i did manage some everyday, waking up at 5am and going till around 9 am then  most nights as well right till dark. Now i have zero experience in barra fishing what so ever,so wasnt confident heading up there even scoring one. The conditions werent in my favour as well being that water temp was only around 22-23 degrees within all the river systems/billabongs. I arrived with news that there was still some barra being caught, but it was hard work finding them and enticing them due to the low water temps. 

One afternoon  my lil cousin of around 10, casts a lure and bang, hooks up to a baby barra of around 250mm just off a lil rocky ledge. Funny enough i look close and realise where we're fishing down at the bottom of the gorge, that we were actually on larger shelfs, and there were barra EVERYWHERE!!!! swimming in and out of cover, mind you the avg size would of only been around 30-40cm and a fish or two pushing 55+cm, at one stage at the half way point of the gorge, with the sunnies on, I counted 15 barra all over these rock flats chasing small bait fish. 

We focused our time here for a while and it resulted in no fish being hooked, but countless and many frustrating follows all the way to our feet but then to shy away and disappear. Me and a friend got up every morning at around 5 just before dawn, and would either take a small dingy out trolling, or go bush bashing and find our own holes to fish, walking down the river banks. Which again we found some fish, but they just wouldnt take the lures, constant 2-3 fish at any one time all the way to the bank just to turn away! 

Come the arvo/night we turned our focus back to the huge river system at the homesteads door step. and boy did we fish. we focused here more and more inland of the penticost.  The last arvo some of the fam went off to zebidee springs for another swim, i took the missus out for a lil troll in the dingy. straight away the missus rod kept getting strikes but poor hook ups that would never hold. Mind you she hooked a fish in the middle of the day while i was setting up the boat on the ledge next to me! not bad for a girl thats just learnt to cast that day. and finally on our last pass we had a nice strike which the hooks helds and it resulted in a fish of around 300mm, real small but put on a nice lil show with real light drag, and all of a sudden mariahs wants to go fishing more and come out on the boat! 

back home (i always try and get her out there) we headed in for a quick break and 2 of us were back walking the bottom ledges of the gorge flicking hard bodies again. and this night everything just came together for some reason. A couple casts into a snag/ledge resulted in some nice strikes and on the third cast bang i was on, and this fish felt somewhat a tad larger. Resulted in a nice 500mm fish. Stoked my first ever barra!!!! from then on i caught a couple more all between 250mm-400mm. A couple minutes later my mate was on and after a short tussle it resulted in a nice 600mm. My lil bro came down after hearing we had a couple nice small fish and i told him to grab the spare rod and cast where im casting, as im getting hits regularly and there was small sooty grunter getting chased everywhere. 

and what happens first cast, bang rod buckles over, mind you this gear would only of been small 4kg spinner, line starts peeling and all of a sudden around 5m out directly in front of me this big big barra of my estimation (this is an exaggeration due to me not catching this fish) of at least 850mm + and thick, erupted trying to spit the hooks, went back down and jump  again and the hooks went foul.  On closer inspection some of the trebles had nearly been straightened! devastating. We fished again the next morning which again resulted in only another small barra of around 400mm. 

We went walking just along the river system to a boat cruise just around 1km inland, and we never fished here.  we fished more out on the penticost, where the boat tour was on the chamberlain, and we some what regetted this as we saw nice nice fize fish in the snags. We wished we took our rods but like i said 20 fam on the tour didnt really want us fishing 24/7. Where we stayed was right where the chamberlain and Penticost rivers meet. 

So the fish resulted in around 8 barra being caught, the biggest being 600mm and all released back successfully. Its always the one that got away, but for that exact reason ill be back up there again, chasing the mighty barra, as just like me and billfish, i really get a thrill targeting such hard and remote fish to find! At first i never thought id get into barra fishing but now im well and truly hooked. 

Funny enough the rangers we talked to when chasing advice, told us to focus in that area where we found that nice fish, they said they knew of some very decent fish in that hole, but they are well fed unfortunately and very very hard and fussy to get. Though mind you just walking down a dirt road track and then just veering left into bush and finding a creek system and just walking down it was just as fun than whether you hook up or not. 

Love the exploring side of things that come with barra fishing, out in the middle of the bush, no one else, no cars nothing! and yes we saw a couple of fresh water crocs and always were on the look out. 

Unfortunately a lot of the fish photos are on other cameras which i will get and post up. 

Brett

Spent the long weekend with the family in Dunsbourough. Dragged the boat down for a squid and yes there were plenty around. No Pics cause I am sure most know what a squid looks like.

My Father in law tagged along on this morning as he is a keen Cottesloe herring fisherman. He uses an 15 year old Diawa spinner on a glass 12 foot rod which would be 20 years old with nice new pretest. Funny that. Any way he got a few herring while my wife cleaned up on the squid. We were given a secret spot to try for some bottom fish no more than 1 km from Dunsborough town site.

I rigged up our bottm gear with fresh squid baits and driffted across the ground we found. My wife was bitten clean off on 100 KG leader. I snapped off on a snag and my father in law thought he was snagged as well until his big arse beach rod started bending under the hull and around in circles. 30 Minutes later with the old Diawa holding on for grim death we boated a sambo that bottomed out my lip grip scales.

Big smile from the old man and pleanty of tales to tell when we got home. We took a quick pic or 2 which are below and spent a few mins getting the fish healthy for a nice release.

Looked like being a great day but after the sun got up the wind came .Which made for some choppy conditions very hard to hold the boat on the ground .The dhuies were still there but were not on the bite like last week still ended up a good day with 4x dhuies 3 released 6x baldies 4x snapper 3 released 1x KG YES KG not that offen we get them, I think we were all more excited to get the KG than the other fish .Seen a whale doing some tricks .breaching and fin slapping .We did have a slight misshap when the boat got around 150lt off water in it from reversing into the chop and the bilge wasn't working  A quick fix it job and away see went .Long day but still a good one .

went to shelly yesterday hoping for some bream or flathead and got absolutly nothing besides my dad got a 30cm flatty. all day i got 2 massive hits and a follow by a massive flaty. i was using a arrangement of bream lures in my tackle box and was suprised how the two massive hits didnt end up being hookups as those little bream lures have got very sharp little hooks

 Finally I left Perth and pedalled north hoping that the weather would be on my side. The previous few days had seen thunder storms rolling over freemantle which was definately not the perfect weather to begin a long distance cycle trip. I won't bore you guys with the cycling side of things here but will get straight to the fishing. 

Gday Fwreckers any reports of the critters coming out with the rains, spose the tides are not at there best for them yet.

Hi everyone,

Last couple of trips over here has been pretty good although the fish haven't come easy and I have found myself driving big distances (up to 460km a trip) trying to locate qaulity fish. Fished areas out from the town of 1770 and Fraser Island.

Most fish have come from isolated rocks in 55 to 80mtrs of water including the qaulity Trout.

We were using mostly paternoster rigs (80lb) and mullet/Hussar fillets for bait.

Enjoy the pics

As some of you may know, I am now living in Perth as I took a new job that is fifo up north, 2 weeks on 2 weeks off. Bit of change of scenery but I look forward to the challenge :) Myself and Glenn decided to make our way up to Lancelin last Saturday and take advantage of the low swell. As we came over the hill into Lancelin we were stoked to see a beautiful glassed out ocean and couldn't wait to get out there. We quickly launched and made our way out to a nice lump that just lit up the sounder screen. Decided to have some fun with some Sambos and after donating a few too many jigs decided to see if we could pull anything off the bottom. Glenn was working a plastic when something grabbed it and hooked up. Didn't look like a sambo fight and I mentioned to Glenn looks like he might have a decent demersal and then a lovely 6.5kg Dhu made it's way to the surface.

Not long after boating the Dhu as we were heading back for another drift a boat came screaming right up to spot we were fishing and yelled out, "Wow this lump looks awesome on the sounder, got anything good mate?"... so we replied with "Nah mate nothing except sambos", to which he screamed off in the opposit direction... geez some people are rude.

Things went a little quiet so we went out searching for some more ground. Found some nice broken ground with some good fish showing. Wasn't long before I got a nice Baldie that made a good account of itself on PE3. Went back for another drift and came up solid again to a nice fish but pulled the hooks halfway up. Glenn managed to hook a big 3kg cuttlefish on the huge BOZO grub so decided to drop down a squid jig on a paternoster and boated another couple.

Went round for another drift and I hooked up again, this time a nice big black bum made it's way into the esky

Decided to head back to the first spot which was on the way home and landed a juvenile pinkie which was quickly released and then not long after Glenn managed another nice baldie. Decided to make our way home as it was getting late and we had our limit. Glassy seas made the trip home quick and enjoyable, all in all a great day on the water.

So if anyone wants a deckie to fish midweek, I'm usually available during my 2 week break.. split fuel costs and all the other usual stuff.

Seemingly can't get away from these gummies. Not complaining.....

Tried a different beach spot in this wild weather for a pinkie. No luck on the pinks, but first hour I managed a 1m 4kg gummy shark again! I'm not complaining....at all! 2 gummy's in two trips!

No beach photo shot unfortunately, as didn't take my camera. Digital SLR's don't work too well in pouring rain. So only the home trunk photo for yas. 

Are crab nets still legal? Someone told me the other week that it wasn't anymore? :S

I went fishing last week at a jetty and there were crabs EVERYWHERE. Plenty of monster sizes!

Also caught a bream that spat out a tiny little crab

The hunt continue.... for the record size toman (10KG or >) in Thailand.

Just last week, we did a 1 DAY trip there. Driving some 400KM for 1 DAY fishing trip is no joke. The return trip is very tiring !!!

This time round, we decided to make it a 2 straight days fishing trip. This way, more resting time for myself (I'm the driver) and not to mention more fishing time...keke !!! :)

Looking at my rather tight fishing schedules for this month May, I managed to  squeeze in 2 DAYS of wild toman fishing before I head back bkk on my 2nd night to continue my fishing appointment then.

Preparation :

All itinerary , tackles and lure box checked and ready.

We set off at 12.00AM midnight (bkk time) and drive slowly.
Arrived at the said toman spot at about 5.00AM. Just in time  to catch the morning 'first light'.

Although the said monster toman spot has plently of big & huge  toman of size 8-10KG or more. Getting these monster fishes to bite on your lure is not as easy as what some think.

Any toman of size 5KG or bigger , especially those 'individual wild toman' are very strong fish. You may hook them but may not necessary land them successfully.

A great amount of fishing skills and knowledges are required here.

Terry landed a whoppy 6.52KG toman on his rapala risto rap.
As for myself, I landed 3 tomans of size 2KG, 3KG and a near 4KG toman..No big one this trip round, will try again next time. ;)

When come to wild fishing, catching a big fish is always a bonus for me. The whole fishing trip & journey are already a new experience and advenutre for some.

"The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of that which is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope”- Quoted

For 'live actions' fights , click onto the below vid clip.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vmU-MBfTZ4

Enjoys some of the highlights catch photos....

So I've just come back from a two week trip up to Broome and The Dampier Peninsula for a bit of a random look around the place and to catch the Birds of Tokyo live at the Mangrove Resort. Had a couple of german girls tag along for the trip, not too many fishy pics as I was flying a little blind but managed a queenie to stick in the red curry and my first Barra from a land locked spot between the Willare Bridge Roadhouse and the Fitzroy river.  Struggled to find rock crabs to feed the local Tuskies with, so the local hermit crab population got a bit of a touch up with no joy there.

Bloody beautiful part of the country, checked out the Gas Hub location at James price Point and gave the hilux a good workout on the corrugations. Racked up about 3800 kms, too much fuel to count and spent far too much money but a good dose of R&R and plenty of vitamin D as the weather was a constant 30 with not a cloud in the sky.

Anyway heres a few of the pics that took my fancy.The german girl fishing in the pics initially came out with the statement/question "are you going to fish? Is that where you just stand there with a long pole in your hands? Looks boring!!" After my fourth barra then said "So how do you throw one of those things out??" Half an hour later having never held a fishing rod before was casting better then some fellas I know and working a barra lure all whilst this dirty perv took pics and vids!!

I highly recommend the Matso Brewery Ginger Beer however at 90+ dollars for a carton of midstrength 330ml stubs I can only put it down to an impulse buy whilst high on holiday joy!!

Anyway check some pics.  Very Jealous of Davos Kimberley pics

Went down to the swan to  a jetty near a well known big bream spot looking for river squid , and came across a few guys with buckets full of crabs. Was quite surprised to see a bag full of crabs at this time of the year, but proceeded to chuck a few baits and lures around with no real luck apart from bringing in crabs holding onto the bait.

A while after we arrived I started to shine the torch around and noticed crabs moving into the shallows everywhere I looked. I have never seen such a density of blue mannas in my life, they were literally 2 to the sq meter minimum around the jetty. Only problem was the majority were females, with only a few monsters males lurking deeper. There must have been some breeding event occuring as the males were often sighted latched onto a female.

It was quite the event and with a scoop net whoever was there could have bagged out during an hour of madness, which is rare from a jetty in my experience. Ended up keeping a couple for dinner myself, although they were covered in green gunge.The only downside was a couple that backed the car right up to the jetty and proceeded to take liberties with the bag limit. After i confronted them and they pleaded ignorance they hid there bucket in the boot and just walked the crabs to the car. After talking to others I found they have apparently been doing it all week. I just hope taking so many females doesnt ruin next years season as this spot has been producing consistently for a while.

Is this a common event for this time of the year and could it be related to rain flushing last week?

also, even after cooking and scrubbing the crabs, there was still a lot of green gunge on their shells. The meat tasted fantastic, but is the gunge toxic from the swan or just algae accumulation?

Cheers

Cam

No pics as it was too dark

Went out with hunterdive (Jared) and enjoyed the nice conditions on Friday afternoon.  The wind was a bit stronger than we expected it to be but the conditions weren't uncomfortable.

We started off trying for a few squid close to the Woodies ramp and between the two of us we had three small cuttlefish and about five squid in the icebox in fifteen minutes.  The sizes weren't great so we shot over to the other side of the channel closer to Carnac and got a good sized squid there before deciding to move outside the Sound.

We found a spot on the back of the Five at about 5:00pm, anchored up and started burleying.  We put some baits out but the tide and wind (S/W) were going in opposite directions which made fishing quite difficult.

Things were quiet other than a small breaksea cod that Jared pulled in so just after dark I thought I'd try dropping a placcie down in the hope of giving my new Luvias a workout (cheers Twitchy).  The first drop was nailed straight away by a 40cm breaksea.  I was pretty stoked as I didn't expect to get anything on it.

The rest of the night was pretty unproductive (any PM-d tips for fishing the FFB at night will be gladly appreciated) but a couple of bustoffs, a large eagle ray and a hooter cuttlefish kept us entertained.

hi guys

well we finally got on to some fish off mandurah, being such a perfect day we decided to head out to the 50mt line which is a bloody long way out in a 4.75 but it was the best conditions i have seen in a long time.

we started fishing around 8.00am and caught a couple of skippy and that was it for that spot so we went in a little bit shallower around the 40-45mt mark and this is where the action started first drift we got 3 pinkys and a massive sambo which was a awesome surprise as we were bottom bouncing baits it is the biggest fish i have ever caught and my first sambo ever aswell so i have set the bar high to beat that. at a guess it would of been 30+ kg's.

2nd drift and another 3 pinky's and a black bum as well as a couple of skippys. 3rd drift some more skippys and a massive bust off just before we could see colour guessing a sambo. the water glassed off now and the fish went off the bight pretty quick so moved on to a couple more spots with not muc success. most fish were returned to see another day only kept what you can see in the pic.

and to the bloke that abused us for pinching his spots we also have spent alot of time/money on the water searching for spots and we were only fishing spots on our gps which happend to be within 50mt to you on the first spot which was a quick look around before we went to our main spot. when we got to our main spot which im guessing you assumed we followed you out there as we left not long after you from the first spot, we were a good 500mt away from you as this was the spot marked on the gps then you steamed over to us and lost your rocks for no real reason so grow up mate your not the only one that deserves to fish these spots which we caught sfa on anyway.

cheers

Roddo

Well it's been one year since I transfered here to Kununurra in the East Kimberley.

Although I've been active in the outdoor pursuits I must admit I have been rather slack on the posting front, but maybe that had something to do with my really old laptop's slow speed, but now I've replaced her. 

Anyway, as they say 'a picture paints a 1000 words' so here's a small snapshot of photo's from our Kimberley adventures.

I know some of you are heading this way this year so feel free to stop over and say G'day.

It really is a playground up here

My second passion is trekking. I've been fortunate to trek some of the most remote places around the globe but it's definitely a big draw card here. As the season swings to the Dry and the Barra shut down it's the best weather here for exploring on foot.

Bungle Bungles was first on the list;

Heading out

Up Picanniny Gorge

Making camp

Macpac & Wilderness Equipment backpacks

Refreshing waterhole to soak your worries away.......

We also get out camping heaps......

Some more shot's of the surrounding landscapes

Ancient landscapes.......

Can't leave the dog at home

Even won't let you bath in peace

Now to the business end of things......the fishing

Well suffice to say we have plenty of space and options

I have a favourite in the Victoria River in the NT

Leah scored a PB Barra at 96cm, only her second  ever Barra

Escarpment at Angalari Creek

Typical runoff colur change, a few fish bagged here and biggest was 98cm on a live longtom

This little bugger followed the popper all the way to the boat and then sat under the bow......lucky he was only small

This shot is a Barra from Dicks Creek which again is in the NT about 80km west of Timber Creek. She holds unbelieve Barra and it's not a matter of hooking them but landing them as it's small hard wood. Lost countless meteries as she always finds the wood. You either fish the bridge were they hold up boofing bait or just downstream.

Next real option outside of the Ord is Wyndham.

Plenty of options and it's a 80km run to the big blue. Here's some pictures of various trips with some mates.

Nick my usual fishing buddie

Craig with some Nulla Nulla Barra. Was balistic for about an hour

Wet season runoff

Ultimately this is what the Kimberley is all about. Wide open spaces, Beautiful colours, peace and solitude, remote locations and fishing and spending time with mates. We caught Barra this day but who really cares......

So after being here a year I made the decision to upgrade the boat. Sold the old girl to a mate here and bought a Noble SuperV 5.1 side console. She's running a 115 Suzuki 4 and a Minn Kota 80lb i-pilot. She's one sweet rig and will serve exploring the Kimberley (and where ever else) well.

Picked her up from Ingham, QLD, way cheaper than Perth and closer by road

Front end of the boat

Transom end

If you are ever in the market check them out. I dropped her in the water yesterday for her maiden voyage. We hit the Lyne River which ended up being a 160km round trip. Report to follow.

I've travelled and worked different parts of the world but there really is something magical about the outback. Hopefully you will get the chance to travel and experience it.

Got a late call up to tag along with a few diehard DHI landbased fisho's, spent 10 days at the Withnell Point shack.

The drive up the island

The shack

It was my 3rd trip and the 8th for the others. The other guys were flat out bait fisho's and laughed at the amount of lures I brought along. "You might as well just walk up to the waters edge and empty your wallet, they wont do any good here".  We will see

The swell was pumping on the first few days but we made do fishing their secret bream hole. Was a bream a cast, with the majority being 40cm plus. Great fun on the light gear. The most frustrating thing was that I threw every bream lure I had, hard bodies and plastics only managed a few runts. Was not a good start for the lures. I gave up and converted to the prawns.

Bastards loved the prawns

Ventured up around the turtle bay area and had a blast on medium sized spango's, pinkies, baldchin and trevs on the shallow reefs. Pinkies on richter plug a highlight, sp's were doing well on the spango's. Also found a new reef system that was holding thumping stripeys, pulled in some that would have gone close to the 2.4kg state record.

Both quite hungry

Light tackle fun

A regular session catch

The swell finally dropped and we hit the west side, the guys promising 80cm plus tailor. The three sessions we had on the reef were by far the most productive with some solid spango's & baldchin landed. The tailor were on aswell, I spent the majority of the time chasing that trophy tailor. My biggest was 65cm, Rowan landed a solid 84cm monster. Had plenty of follows, dozens of missed strikes and landed 6.  With the platform only being 2m high and the water depth knee deep you could see all the action. The oyster stacks took a hefty toll on the tackle supplies.

I watched a jumbo tailor smash my popper, bust off on a oyster stack, only to continue chasing bait fish for the next 5 minutes, all with the popper still connected.

Some of the best tailor wash in the state. Was definately a few metre long tailor in there.

The pure variety of land based fishing options on the island would be enough to please anyone. The scenery isn't too bad either.

Will be back next year.