Hey all. Took a flatmate down by blackwall reach last night to get him interested in fishing.(he's got a car!). Blowie on the first cast, and the next, and the next. Got a few juvi whiting myself which went back in the water. Any suggestions where i could go on the river to give them a bit of excitement? Herring and the like should do the trick. (he's got a car!) Looking at places between the leftbank and melville. Not expecting your secret spots, just want to get them interested enough  so they WANT to drive further than 5k! Any help much appreciated in my quest for voluntary transport. Lol. Tight lines all, and have fun!

 A mate and I headed up to Jurien on Wednesday with the plan of getting my mate onto his first Mack. We left Perth at 9:30pm and hit some pretty shitty driving weather and was down to 50kmh at one point due to some bloody heavy rain. We arrived safely at 12pm and quickly got to bed excited about what might jump on the lines the next day. We awoke to some far from perfect conditions but we left the marina at 9am and started heading out, the south passage was pretty efffed with the prevailing 3-4m swell so we decided to head north and hit the areas I had luck on last week and with the lines soon in the water it didn’t take long for the first strike. My mate was up and fingers were crossed for a long slender fish, however after a good fight we landed our sashimi for dinner.

It still wasn’t what we were after so we continued heading north and all I can say is these bloody tuna became very frustrating, we couldn’t have the lures in for more than two minutes before one would jump on, and it made getting my mate his first Mack very difficult. However we still weren’t complaining and it was far better than nothing.

I think it was after our 8th released tuna the call was made to get the skirt out and just leave the deep divers to do their work, and it didn’t take long, 10mins in and the X-rap went off, my mate was up and the early call was made for a Mack. A few mins later and after we had sight the call was backed up.

After my mate landed his first Mack we decided to have a little bit of fun on the way home and grabbed the smallest cheapest combo in the cabin. It didn’t take long and I was on, the first run smoked all the line and I was down to the knot, I stretched my arm to get as much distance on it, with some quick driving we were after the fish and somehow managed to stay connected, thank god the knot was solid. After a good 30min battle the fish was on board,

We decided to call it a day after that, a very fun day in some trying conditions but we ticked all the boxes and made the trip back home today. 

Hey fellas,

I was in two minds about doing a write up for our family trip to shark bay, as it wasn’t as spectacular as some of the exxy, abrolhos reports I’ve read. But as I haven’t seen one, on FW, for boat fishing the bays i thought i might as well do it. and FISHNTIME and Faulkner Family gave me some very good advice, that hopefully can be put to use next time if we bring a few more jerry cans ;)

We left home on Sunday the 3rd of April at 4am, with the car choccas with gear and the 4.85m trailcraft in tow, we arrived in Denham around 2pm, and were welcomed by bugger all breeze and .5m swell (tops). But there was unpacking to do, so the fish had to wait.

Monday the 4th
As we (me mum and dad) were accompanied by our fishing-virgin Uncle, who had never held a rod in his life we wanted the first day to be smooth, we went out to Monkey mia, as we had a couple of spots this side and its generally alot calmer than denham. Departing at 10am, we had the lures out by 10.20 for a troll through the channels and over some of our previously marked spots (from 08 and 09) to see if we could find any sort of action. Having a good strike already, dads light 10kg Abu outfit screamed into life and we soon had a nice 12kg Mack on board.

Shit this is gonna be easy I thought. We then trolled for another half an hour, with no hookups. Most of that time was spent chasing longtails. So we went to our bottom bashing spot, from 2009 where we pulled up monster pinkies every drop. Turned out to be empty so I threw a handline in, to get some liveys, but managed to hook my first decent fish on a handline, a just size baldy :) which i thought was a snag, so i let some line out then pulled it up slowly and out of his hole he came.

Michael was bringing a small fish up and then it took off like a rocket and "ting" it was gone, probably just sharked we were telling him, then a tiger shark surfaced and did a big belly flop 20 meters off the back of the boat. which was a pretty awsome sight.
The bite then dropped off so we headed back to the ramp and put the boat back on the trailer, which was a breeze with the new jetty. Cleaned the fish at the cleaning troths in Denham and headed home

Tuesday the 5th
It looked good, so we headed out of Mia again to an old spot to the North West of Faure Island and with a couple of western butter fish collected as bait. 

My uncle got his first esky fish in a nice blue lined emperor (nicknamed black snapper in shark bay) which are a very fiesty fish for their size.

I got my pb baldy at 53cm and mum a nice black snapper, the undersized blackys pestered us all day and we threw back a tonne of borderline ones back. Headed home with 3 fish in the esky. We met a couple of nice blokes at the cleaning troths who just got back from an overnighter at turtle bay and had a good yarn...

Wednesday the 6th
seabreeze said it would be better than the previous days so we manned up and headed out the Denham side, the night before we found some good looking lumps on the map and planned to head out there, before seeing the same couple of blokes from the cleaning table, who told us about a spot called the bent peg (one of the channel markers for the salt ships) which sounded promising and was basically the same spot from the map.
took about 40mins to get there at 18ish knots, fished for a couple of hours getting nothing but small black and pink snapper, which a pesky dolphin would grab some once we threw em back. The bigger fish then turned on with me landing a pb 43cm Spanish flag after marking a big cave on the sounder. too big for a livey it was eskied.

and mum hooking a XOS pinky, but handed it to dad once it took off, turns out it was sharked... massive bumber

threw the lures out and trolled to the next marker and then both rods took off, beauty me and my uncle were on, mine had a massive run under 6kgs of drag then dropped the lure. the uncle was still on and landed his first longtail tuna, which took off after a successful release.

we then trolled a bit further and were overtaken by a giant ship

had another drop for no result then headed back to Denham.

Thursday the 7th
did the tourist thing and went to the marine park as the wind was a steady 20 knots, where they had a big outdoor fish pond with a heap of big fish including: jacks, barras, black mullas, pinkies, an XOS baldy, nor-west snapper and black snapper, just to name a few. give me a pack of squid and 30mins and id easliy have half a dozen new pb's

they also had a another tank full of sharks, but no big tigers.

Friday the 8th
the wind was up again so we 4wd up to point Peron, the track was real good, mainly soft sand ontop of hard ground, making it 60kph in some spots and down to 10kph in the really soft spots, which were mainly up near the top.

we were hoping of getting some greenbacks, but couldn’t find any at the point so threw out light rigs and got some whiting for bottom bashing bait.

we were all getting a bit pissed off by all the flies, which were incredibly friendly, so we went over to skipjack point and then to big lagoon before going to mia as mum wanted a sunset pic, while waiting Michael and dad got more whiting as bait and I hooked a 30lb ish ray, which was my maiden run for my 5k stradic, 20lb braid and fwa 9ft rod. took a good 30mins to get in and I pushed the rod to its limits and it felt good (I measured the drag I put on it as 5kg!! it felt sweet).

Saturday the 9th
weather looked alrightish so we went in search of some big whiting off Mia, the spot was from a guy at dads work called the red cliff, and didn’t produce much more than western butter fish. so we went for a drop out deeper, but only got small blackys and pinkies so we trolled back to the ramp without any luck.

Sunday the 10th
we were meant to be blessed with 5knot breeze and .5m swell all day according to seabreeze but it was up around 20knots, so we waited til 12 when it looked like it was starting to drop off. then launched from Denham and started heading towards the bent pin, but it picked up again to 20knot northerly, coming straight into the bay, so we headed back to the ramp after being drenched for half an hour. and we lazed around for the rest of the day.

Monday the 11th
we went to the industrial area to get our tire fixed from a slow leak and got to hear all about the owners’ life for no extra charge. and also got the radio checked out as it wasn’t getting any signal, turns out the antenna and base were stuffed from unscrewing it from the base, so a warning never unscrew the antenna from the base, always lean it down or the antenna and base will get corroded.
then took the boat out north of Mia for a change, it looked nice from the shore, but once we were out there it just picked up

Tuesday the 12th
Went out of Mia again as the weather was really average, so we stayed close to the west side of Faure for some protection, had one long drift looking for structure. the bite started picking up and the wind dropping off, so we went for a troll waiting for the wind to drop more and dad found some really good ground on the lowrance, so we headed back and had a couple of drops. dad picked up a great baldy that bet mine by a couple of inches and we got a funny pic where it looked like it was eating uncle Michael, who was also hooked up.

Michael ended up with a good little stripey seaperch (Spanish flag) and then not long after landed a baldy, both firsts for him.

mum was complaining about not hooking up when she got big bites all day and when we got home we realised the hook was bent out.

Wednesday the 13th
weather looked bad again, so we went for another treck up to the point with some balloons, which we forgot last time. the track was allot softer and took an extra 20mins to get there.

we got a hit from a small shark on the balloon, but the mulies from shark bay fish supply were so fat the gangs we bought weren’t big enough and didn’t have enough barb showing to get a proper hookup. I was throwing a twisty around but didn’t get any attention, except one good flash close in to the rocks that shot off after I lifted the lure out. we then went back and soaked our toes in the natural hot tub containing 40 degree water from 520m underground.

Thursday the 14th
the weather looked like it was gonna drop off in the Avro so we headed to the tackle store and stocked up on some old school style tuna circles for mum, so she wouldn’t bend it out. and some more sinkers as we lost tonnes. we launched at Mia and went to our new favorite spot from Tuesday. I went for lures today, losing a black magic demersal knife to a dodgy hawian snap, and then a lucanus jig to a rushed polamar knot and finally landing a frog fish on a Gilles rubber. :(
mum put her new hooks to use landing a 3kg estuary cod that was the only esky fish for the day, nothing else was caught but the sounder was going off!!

Friday the 15th
Today was talked up as being a great day and we were on the water at 8am heading towards the bent peg. we got there and had bites straight away. I lost my Gilles rubber to a nick in the mainline, no more jigs left, I put a placcy on and got nothing so switched back to the dark side of bait. we then got massive schools coming up on the sounder and Michaels drag started screaming, and he pulled in a 76cm thumping pinky, but the max size for shark bay is 70cm, so back it went. it was a bit big for the dolphin to grab, but shot off like a rocket once it hit the water anyway.

then dad had a massive spangled emperor sharked. which i just had to get a photo of

after that the bite dropped off so we went north to the next marker and found a patch holding some huge blackies, mum got 2 of the biggest and I was the only one not to chuck one in the esky.

the fish went off the bite again so we went back to the first marker, where Michael finished it off with a 45cm Rankin and we headed back to Denham.

Saturday the 16th
we had no wind all night and it was meant to stay like this all day so we headed out of mia, and went to the north of Faure, then the east and got nothing, then threw some lures out and still nothing. Michael got his first ray, a shovel nose, which tested him out. but it was a shame we couldn’t match any esky fish to the great conditions. and got back in denham around 1 to strat packing up.

all up the trip was an awesome brake from life, but most of the time the fish weren’t playing the game, but when they were it was great fun. well that’s why it’s fishing not catching.

cheers rob

Just got back from exmouth after roughly about a week there. Here's a quick report of our trip.

The first few days were spent off tanta's with the plan to troll until we found some good looking ground to flick plastics around. Got 4 mackies in the first 2 days without really trying so that allowed us to focus more on fishing with plastics. After getting buried countless times on 20lb by what we finally managed to land a few fish. Highlights were a nice coranation trout and a 3kg coral trout.

A few days in and we were joined by Petervb from the site and went out for a fish. Headed north of tanta's in search of some ground to chuck softies around. Got a few red throat but by this time the wind picked up and drift was too quick which made lure's diffucult (and expensive). Resorted to fresh bait and scored a 10kg cobia and a 5kg trout not too mention all the red throats.

Checked out the bay of rest on one of the days but was really quite down there with visability in the gulf not the greatest. Did get a couple of jack on the straight hooks for dinner tho.

Also checked out Murions which we did a bit of fishing and free diving. The corals/bombies and visability around the island are amazing. Heaps of fish about even saw a good red bass (damn they are one mean looking fish!). Caught a heap of spanglies, blue line and a baby cobe. Saw possibly one of the coolest things too.. was just getting ready to move spots when we turn to the back of the boat where we saw a mackie grab a flying fish out of mid air, it would have jumped a good 5-10m into the air (no shit) with the flying fish out hanging out of it's mouth. It looked so elegant in the air which is a weird thing for a fish! After that display i chucked out a pusher which got me a 20kg? longtail for my trouble (geez they go hard)

Last day we went back to the old faithful spot where we got smashed day one. Similar result with 2 good coranation trout, a little rankin and a long fin snapper from out deep.

Was a good trip with good company and plenty of fish. Weather wasnt too shabby either! Cant ask for much more.

Oh and how tasty are coronation trout! Just polished off a bit for dinner tonight and it was brillant.

Hit the river again last Saturday arvo in the usual spot, looking for my 40cm + Bream (My PB being 36cm). Took the gf along as i always do, and started fishing around 4pm. Pretty nice conditions, wind was non-existant and the tide seemed fairly high. Figured first up i would test out my newly bought HRT lures. The main problem was, like always, im pretty awful at lure fishing. I love the concept and the idea but cant seem to find the right technique for hooking those bream on them. Fished for about 3 hours with it, to my suprise i was getting bites (other then blowies) on it. I kept reeling in till.... a pretty decent size squid happened to be chasing the back of it!!!!! I was pretty shocked and enjoyed watching it chase the lure. But no hook on. For about half an hour we had 4 squid chasin the lures but no hook ons. No bream either. Eventually it got dark and i decided it was time to put the lure away and change to bait.

Wasnt a bad night, but it was much more quiet then usual. Hooked into some nice Tailor and Herring. Caught 3 of each up till midnight. But still no Bream to be seen. Finally as i was about to head in, i hook on to a Black Bream.... not the size i was looking for though, about 25cm. It made me want to stay though, figuring maybe the guys were finally coming out. The blowies kept destroying the bait though, even after dark. The time hit 1am, we were almost out of bait, and the night had seemed pretty much up... Untill out of no were i was on with a fish that felt the biggest of the night. It felt heavy and i was hopping it was that 40cm Bream i had been chasing. I slowly reeled it in until nothing.... I figured i had lost it, and was now snagged. I moved along the river and managed to pull it out of the snag... i was still on! i pulled it up and landed it... I measured the fish and it was a.... 36.5cm Bream. It was still a nice fish, but damn... exactly the same as my personal best though haha. I still kept trying though, figuring that big one had to be around with them... eventually i ran out of bait and the night was over. Better luck next time i guess.

I would post the photo of the bream but i cant find my camera cable to upload it :S 

Ill have a look around tonight and hopefully upload it for you guys.

Mitch

Well it was that time of year again when we pack the utes and head for Wagoe Farm just outside Kalbarri. This year with Easter and Anzac Day coinciding in the same weekend, meant we could stay up there longer in the hope of scoring an easterly breeze or two over the weekend.

The weather gods were once again smiling down upon us as we had jagged perfect conditions for the second year in a row. Every morning saw relatively flat seas, easterly winds and favourable swell conditions on the beach. Bright blue skys, tempretatures in the mid 30's and warm balmy starlit nights a pleasure for the 10 of us who made the trip.

Fishing wise it was relatively quiet from the reefs with sand snapper/ painted sweetlip almost as prolific as the menacing flies on the farm. An unfortunate bite off at the shoreline after a 30 minute fight with a 6 foot shark on balloon the first day and the usual heap of bust offs to big unknowns, with a few missed chances of landing that prized pink snapper thrown in the mix were quickly forgotten by the Easter Sunday.

At first light absolute mayhem out on the water broke loose no more than 150m out. Have never witnessed so much surface activity that close in to the reef before. Tuna and Mackies were being boated everywhere along the coastline in front of the chalets, as they courtesly trolled in and around our helium balloons.

In amongst all the commotion our balloons were amazingly remaining untouched. Thankfully, that Sunday saw myself land the first spainard on balloon of the trip @ 1100 long and 8kg. The only fish caught that morning. Spinning metals in between also had no success.

Anzac Day Monday was much of the same but less on occasion compared to the morning before. Still large schools of baitfish being smashed left, right and centre, but out further in around 400m offshore. This turned out to be more successful with myself claiming a new pb land based mackie @ 1360 long and 16kg on the scales. My brother Dave also a fellow fishwrecked nut managed to land his first and pb lontail tuna @ 1080 long and 14kg.

The morning got better with another two hook ups on balloon resulting in another spaniard the same size as the day before landed by my old man and cousin. The only downer on the day was the unfortunate bust off of the 4th hookup. The breeze had swung by then, but we had already had ourselves our most succesful wagoe trip to date.

Can't wait to get back up there next year. Cheers to Ted and Jenny of Wagoe Farm for once again keeping the weekend as smooth as possible for us die hard fisho's. No doubt my favourite landbased location in WA.

Cheers

Rob

Hey Guys went down to denmark for the easter break.

Day 1

Got down there thursday night around 12pm decided to get up 5:30am and hit Black hole. Got there it was the coldest morning ever still have not adapted to the winter hahaha, anyway first rod in the water at 6am with a mulie and got slammed by about 100 herring so i put on small twisty on my flick rod and spent the next 3hr catching big herring every cast (they where like blowies). I had a live one out and at about 7:30 it took off but must of hit a snagg because it snapped very early on the first run,  but it was way to big for a salmon. Then the guy next to us hooked a salmon on his popper so i changed to a 30g twisty and started with that not a touch!!!! then my mate who was happy on his herring outfit hooked one but on 4lb line did not stand much chance but managed to get it to the rocks. The swell was huge and we missed the gaff shot then snap gone he was not a happy camper hahaha.  Then the guy ext to us got his second on a popper and that was the last bite by this time it was around 9am and we packed up and went home. 

Day 2 

This time we decided to give Migirees Rock a go hit the water at 6am, first cast brought in a few live herring so out they went as live bait!! then everything went very quiet not even the herring where out this morn. At about 7 My big rod took off unfortunatly there was no headshakes and i called it for a stingray very early and i was corrected got it to the rocks comfirmed then cut the line. rigged up this time with a dead herring and out it went. Then it went very quiet fro the next hour i was using my twisty walking up and down the rock praying for just one salmon . then bang i was on now there where 6 of us and all of us where on at the same time it was crazy then my big rod went as well and down came my dad to tackle that one (not that 30lb line would of been a struggle with a salmon) we landed and release about 30 salmon in about 45min!! it was the best salmon session i have had ever we threw every lure we can think of at them they took everything. They ranged from about 3kg to 5.3kgs.  I was talking to a local there and he said he had not seen them go off like that in 30 years. we did keep to for a nice fish currie which was sick.

Day 3

Went back to Migirees Rock this time decided to sleep in we arrived at the rock at about 8am first cast was slammed by a satle salmon and we caught and released anther 25-20 salmon in an hour they where a little smaller on average but still great fun overall we  here loving them and we had a competition in who caught one on the lightest line ( I managed one on 6lb line which is not a bad effort on rocks and trying to grab it was not the safest task in the world but managed to get him in and swimming away safe) 

Overall it was the best salmon fishing weekend ever and i did not want to come home!! one problem the carmera broke on the first day and i only have one photo of the other guys two fish hahahaha. Was talking to the guy that runs the fishing tackle place down there and he said they have  been very late this year, So im guessing we will still get them in perth just a lot later then usuall.  

On Monday after fishing off all the rocks walls and stuff up here around Hillarys way and getting 3cm whiting and under size herring that you can fit in the palm of your hand i got sick of it and herd that around Blackwall Reach distance up river give or take was not to bad. I found a little secret spot. I was really after whiting but thought by chances are slim and if i did they would be 2inches. Well second cast i pulled up the biggest one in this picture. From there on it was a fight with the blowies, i would walk down 50m and get a couple, then the blowies would come, then i would walk back up and i played this game for 6 hours. At the end of it i ended up with these. The 2-3 smaller ones i didnt wanna keep but the hook was so deep when i put them back in the floated so they where keepers...Also picked up a 25cm Pink Snapper which fought like a steam train. Biggest whiting came in at 27cm smallest about 17cm. Just a padanosta rig and prawns...What a fun day! I had been chasing good whiting for years, so second cast god did i smile. There not big. But im a happy camper :) I have a new secret spot to..

On Sunday arvo we made the decision to head out first thing Monday morning, so Al Bevan, myself, Chris, Dick, Ricki, Harry and Oscar got our gear ready for what would "hopefully" be a good day's fishing. We got to our first spot just before sun up and got into the fish straight away, with Ricki landing a nice Pink Snapper to around 6-7kg on blue mackerel. Harry hooked up to what we think was a King, but ended up getting the better of him and his Saltiga outfit. Meanwhile, us boys at the front were hooking up and loosing a heap of fish, but come second drift we were hooked up for good. Oscar hooked up to a train and myself as well. 15 minutes later Oscar got his fish in, a healthy Samson fish around 15kg on a Soft Plastic while I toughed it out and managed to bring up a decent Samson from 30m on Pe3 gear. 

As you can see the sunlight really does affect a photo aha, but thanks for Dick (all the way from Kununurra) for the pictures. Sorry I couldn't get all the pictures as I was sent these pictures via email, but if you check the Norther Terrirtory Fishing mag, you might find a more detailed report :)

As the sun came up the fish began to dissapear, however Harry managed another good Snapper and I hooked up and lost another bigger fish to the reef despite how hard I was fishing...

With the good progress early on, we made the decision to head out wide, first trolling for an hour out of West and then getting the outriggers out and trolling out near the trench, but to our disapointment nothing to show for our effort.

Tried the fads for a while, however didn't have any luck either, despite watching all the dollies swim under and around the boat. 

With not much luck, we worked some jigs behind Rotto in around 100m with nothing to show for, other than a few Skippy, Flathead, Gernard and the occasional Snapper.

All in all, not a bad day out, good to get into the the fish early on, despite not getting anything later on; all had a good time, cracking a few beers and jokes :)

Had a good day out with a friend of a friend today who is a relative fisho newby, but jeez he brought some luck to the boat.  Went over the Rons and first drop resulted in 2 nice trout after about 30 seconds of being on the bottom, one about 65cm and the other 55cm.  First drop and trout bag limit, ahh well, time to move on...  We then headed to my next spot only a couple of km's away and had rankins taking the bait 20m off the bottom, along with a small red (size but released) and a couple of spango's (released).  After half an hour of action the pickers moved in and with a tidy enough esky I decided it was time to troll.  Another half an hour in and two dolphinfish jump into the spread and load up both rods, one I managed to release boatside and the other was released mid photo shoot (before the first pic could be taken - approx 5kg).  Trolling a bit further I found an awesome lump in 50m and knew I would go back to it, not before a 10kg wahoo jumped on and bit through the line boatside (could have got the gaff into it but it was going to be released regardless)  Back on the lump there was little action which was quite disappointing so it was time to troll again, with a couple of other game boats in the area I knew there was going to be action, first a little stripey tuna and once the spread was put out again a decent sail smashed a little sprocket I had out (great visual take).  The sail went crazy for the first 5 minutes but I couldn't get any jump shots in time due to clearing the lines, he proceeded to come in rather easily for a nice grab, photo and release.  We then set the spread one more time and gave it another 15 minutes only to have a wahoo snip the lucky lure and on that note, called it quits and were back at the ramp by 2pm.  Happy days. :)

went breaming yesterday and caught absolutly nothing (we were using lots of different hard bodies/soft plastics). we have caught fish on lures at this spot before and this time they just wouldnt take it. the more devastating thing was that the bloke next to us was catching heaps on coral prawns!!!!

Hey All 

Spent 4 nights down in dunsborough this long weekendend. Not a salmon anywhere. Water temp was averaging 22.8 degree before that first front came through then dropped down to 21.8 for the rest of the trip.

 There are bait balls every where!! from castle rock to to bunkers in depths of 5m out to 35m. We found that if you found the the right bait school, you'll find the the fish(thats the key). We had balls on Southern blue fins to 6-8 kg/strippeys amd bonito to a fat 4kg. Neally got spooled on one of the SBT's which was a bit hecktic! Boated around 10-15 SBT in the trip, and around 10 strippeys and some bonito. as well as the bread and butter stuff.

We did have two, big blind stricks out in 30-40m of water. big disappointed as one was screaming line for around 10 secs, to just here a pop and the braid snapped! lost my 3 favourite lures

We did a small amount of bottom bashing, im not the most skilled at bottom bashing yet out deep, and just gotta get some more experience,dont really know where to go , wha to look for, fully understand my sounder yet.... Caught one queen snapper looking fish, but obviously isnt it, does any one know what it is?(pic 2/3)

Im down again next weekend, will only take boat if i here the salmon have turned the cape, we were hearing reports that they hadnt really hit the corneer at leeuwin real hard yet either

Over all probs Lots of SBT,A handfull of strippeys and bonito, squid, bread and butter stuff, and getting experience with the new toy is the best! good trip. If anyone want to give me some hints or pointers regarding bottom bouncing down there or in general would be very vey appreciated.

im sure thats enough with the photos theres plenty more!

brett

Landed this horse bout 2pm today would have to say atleast 20kg ?

plus this one the missus caught two days ago

Well with the weather 'meant' to be reasonable on Friday, decided to head up to 2 Rocks with Scano, and 2 new guys who we had not taken out before.

Early morning start and at the ramp just before light around 6am. In the water and on the move.

Once outuside the 3 mile the conditions were no where near as good as expected, with a stiff easterly still blowing through. But we pushed on, at about 22 knots out to our destination out at direction bank.

Not long after we  arrived, the first casualty. One of the new blokes was not handling the conditions, and was already creating burely! not a good start.

We started to fish, with some good fish showing up on some lumps which has proved fruitful in the past, however nothing was on the bite, with only a small BB coming over.

Must have been 3 or so hours before any of us had even received a decent bite!

Sem one of the new fellas was first to hook up. I must state it was one of the first trips for him on the boat, and given the crap conditions didnt get sick at all. He thought he was cursed, as even beach fishing he just couldnt find any fish. So I was determined to prove him wrong.

After a nice fish, Sem brings up a nice baldie!!

I think the smile says it all! the biggest fish he had ever caught

Not too Long after Scano hooks up, again a ggood fight and another baldie hits the surface, 2nd good baldie!

Another couple of drifts later and both scano and Sem are hooked up. Strangely enough Scano hooks a great Cuttley, which even pulled drag on the Saltiga!! Not the best photo shot, but no net onboard!

Sem hooked up! As he was quite new to using an overhead, it was bloody funny watching him, Scano and i saw him hook the fish on the first strike, but he wasnt certain he had hooked it, so sat and waited, then tried to set the hooks again, still wasnt sure, even with Scano and i both giving it too him saying he was hooked up and to give it hell!

Finally the penny dropped!

and the Fish, a new PB for sem in any fish category!!!! his face says it all. To go out on a boat and hook into one of WA's finest eating fish. This dhu gave him some curry too!

can see the envy on Scanos face!

Quietened down after this, so decided to make our way in. Good day on the water, the conditions got better as the day went on, and a new deckie happy as larry! A quiet day by all means but a couple of good fish bought up

Cheers

Bodie

Hi all

Sunday 24th

As the weather wasn't looking too flash, we decided to have a look around town and take in the sites of the pinnacles. Did put the boat in the water at 4.30pm to chase some pinkies in the bay but we didn't trouble the scorer.

Monday 25th

Up at 5.45am and headed down to Cervantes for the dawn service. Back for some brekkie and on the ramp at 8am. Headed out to some ground that Auslobster told me about (thanks John)...on the way out we started seeing lots of red so we stopped for a quick fish but after a couple of norwest blowies came up, we moved on.

It wasn't long before we were on some good looking ground and some red shows....I was first on the board with a nice sweetlip, then not long after, mrs gates had her first ever baldie in the boat (with help from the rest of the family)....followed shortly after by another, but this one was undersize and went back well on the weight. 

Things were biting but not hooking up, so we drifted for a while before heading further out. Not much there, so we decided to drift over our previous ground, where I picked up a bigger baldie than Friday's...then the daughter's partner chipped in with a double header of blackarse and undersized dhuie...a quick photo and down it went on the weight.

By this time it's mid afternoon so we called it a day and headed home. Fish on the bbq for tea and a couple of fillets for tomorrow and we're all happy.

Now it's time to pack up and load the car and boat for a 10am departure Tuesday morning for the trip home. We all agree that we've had a great time up here and that we'll be back to Jurien shortly....a great place for a holiday with plenty to do and lots of fishing opportunities. We sure ticked some (fishing) boxes on this holiday but there's still a few more to go...trolling for a mackie is just one!

regards
rusty...

 My Granddad and I headed out today with FAD’s in mind, we were off to a good start when we forgot the jerry  and had to head home to get it. At the ramp and in the water by 6:30 and we were greeted to some more than ideal weather.

We got to the FAD and were surprisingly the only ones there, and it didn’t take long for the fish to show. We hadn’t had the lures in for more than a minute when we had a double hook up to very nice size dollies. My granddad soon lost his and I continued to battle it out and I soon landed my PB Dolly at 7kg.

With the lures in again it was on for young and old literally, my granddad lost another one and I continued to land my second for the day and another stonker at just under 7kg.

It was granddads turn to get in on the fish and the next fish he managed to land and this was soon to become his biggest dolly.

 It was then time to have a bit of fun and the light gear came out, I lost a monster on a softy, I quickly re-rigged to hook one the polar opposite to the earlier fish, it wouldn’t have gone much more than a kg. We continued to catch a few more and loose plenty more on the light gear and we left soon to more glassy water. What a day to be out on the water.

 Normally Anzac day i spend with 8wt flyrod in vast salmon schools at rotto - not this year!!... instead,

Launched at Mindarie at 0530 this morning to see if the spaniards were about.

After trolling the whole back edge of the three mile - from the leads, to north of staggies, at 6knts, for nothing.... i was starting to think the spaniards may have gone quiet....thus not too many forum reports lately.

I though to head further north to where i have done well on the last few spaniard missions and as i got close the bird life picked up a notch and the water looked good.

To cut an even longer story short.....I noticed a surface bust up that i mused must be small tuna so i slowly tonked over to where they were, and as i got within 100m the school dispersed, bugger, not even a small tuna today- i thought.

Basically a second later i noticed a small splash at the bow then a much bigger boil along side the boat - bigger tuna i thought,,,beeaaauuwdy!!

Next thing i know im staring at a decent spaniard which is now audibly chewing and knashing its teeth less than a boats width away from my boat -level with my head.

Luckily it was going the same way as me!!

I then just happened to be in the right place and time and watched a school of at least twenty, realistically i would think easily more, spaniards rip into a massive ball of bait.

NEVER before have i seen this many spaniards airborne at once - they were busting out of the water attacking the schools of scaly macks with so much aggression!

Best bit about all this was i was now eagerly awaiting a hookup on these bigger spaniards and it took longer than i expected and i almost made it past the melee when the x/wrap went off.

anyway still spaniards about, i ended up with three released one kept two - 14 and 18kg - my biggest so far for perth this season.

then topped them off with a dhufish and Baldy before coming in and leaving the marina by 2pm.

All spaniards were taken on a xwrap in a ridiculous yellow and silver colour right in the bait schools that were out a bit wider in 24m - 28m - did see other bait balls but nothing happening on those for me.

So if your thinking all is over on the mackie front like i did - dont, get out there.They aren't as thick as a week ago but still worth a troll.

Happy Anzac day!

Bec and myself and Faye and Adrian from Bunbury headed out for a bit of relaxing around some of the islands out in the gulf for easter. Had a bit of a look out there last weekend and thought the Pikes are in town without their boat so why not take them too. 4 adults living on a 24 foot centre console for 3 days/ 2 nights should be easy.

Loaded the boat with rods, dive kit, swags, beer , wine, food and ice and all ready to go. A bit of Qantas inaction at the airport friday meant the 1.30 start was delayed till 4. Finally got the boat in the water and blasted off to the island of choice for the night. Got there at 5.30 and into the water for me so we didnt have to eat chops for dinner. First dive a nice little bluey gave me a look, second dive and he was dinner.

After an awsum feed of fresh fish and a few drinks we rolled the swags out and nodded off under the stars. A wind change in the early hours meant Bec and I didnt get a really good nights sleep, Pikes down the back of the boat slept pretty well though. Saturday morning we moved the boat around to the other side of the island out of the wind and cooked up bacon and eggs for brekky. Faye had never snorkelled before so we got her in the water in the calm shallows and after a bit she was confident enough to try some deeper stuff. Up with the anchor again and off to find some crays for lunch. After a bit of looking we had 5 greens and a nice red in the bait tank , lovely. 3 squid made a tactical error and swam past the boat so they got nabbed for dinner . Someone tell me why we have meat in the fridge ??

A spot of trolling after lunch ( a little sleep for Bec) and a wander around on another island and it was time to head back to the anchorage for a well earned drink and some squidrings. The wind dropped right out just on dark and we spent the night in a total glassoff . . . Best sleep I`ve had in a while .

Sunday morning and a bit of a blast around to brekky bay for more eggs and bacon and then off to look for something to dive on. Bec and Pikeys chucked poppers while we motored around the end of the island and got a few little gt`s at one point . Moving around to the next point and look at the size of some of those , the big ones easily went 25 kilos. Bec hooked one of the smaller ones and after some fancy boat and rod work did really well to boat a nice GT on 14 pound , The leader was split about 200mm up from the lure when it touched on the rock at one stage.

I was pretty keen to get back in the water by then so out a bit deeper to look for a fish. First little ledge gave up another red cray. Second spot had hundreds off buff bream and a few sharks but nothing else. Third spot we found I finally got to pull the trigger and a couple of nice trout went onto the ice. With my urges satisfied we let the boat drift and made some lunch . As luck had it we drifted over a pretty big lump, 12 metres up to 6 with some pretty big golden trevally swimming around under the boat. Bugger lunch lets have a fish.

Bec gets cut off by a mackie and there is mackies to about 15 kilos in sight so I get back into the water to try and get one. Bec hooks and lands one about 10 kilos while I`m loading the gun. I finally get it loaded and none of the bigger ones are in view, plenty of smaller macks but not what I want. Swimming from one end of the lump to the other theres a few trout and blues but nothing outstanding,plenty off buffs and a few sharks. The water is pretty clean and I spot something different in amongst the buffs, quick dive and my first green jobfish is on the spear. Nice. As I put him in the boat a pretty chunky cobia swims under me, this spot is looking good. Follow the cobe to the edge of the lump and there are some really solid fish in with the buffs now. They are a bit deeper and I cant decide if they jacks or red bass. I dive to try and get one and they vanish either out into the gloom or into a cave in the lump, as I turn to surface another cobia cruises past so I swing the gun and after a short but intense contest Ive got my hand in the gills of my first speared cobe . . Not huge but it`ll do . Drop him into the boat and back to try for one of those big red whatevers. After 5 or 6 frustrating dives one turns for a second look and I get the spear into him. I`m a bit dissapointed with the shot and that its not a jack but I`ve got the fish and happy with another first and a pretty good fish. Thats enough for me so back into the boat for a rinse and beer. Pikey nails a very solid golden while I clean the fish and we say thats enough and decide to head back to the marina.

The wind was nonexistant as we blast back at better than 30 knots with a stubby in my hand , perfect way to end an absolutely fantastic weekend.

Magic surroundings, excellent company, perfect weather and a couple of crays and fish thrown in as well. Does it get any better ??

Gday Crew,

Finally decided to put up a few photos from our trip to the Mackies earlier this month. Absolutely awesome spot, Cant wait to get back there... which I dont think will be too far away!!

Finally managed to get away for a few days. Headed up to a spot just south of dongra for a few days. The plan was to test out the newly fitted engine and all the new gear.

Day 1 fishing was a solo adventure fairly far offshore. It was a late start but the water was still flat as.

First stop was a troll at the back bank where it drops from 15 to 23m. After 30 sec with a pink halco chrome I was onto a macky.

After another 40 min trolling with no luck and the wind starting to pick up, I dropped down a bottom rig. first drop produced a 49cm pink (released), second drop produced a nice dhui.

With the wind picking up, I decided to head back in. An hour of fishing and a fair end result:

next up was watching the sunset and cooking up some fresh dhui

Day 2 of fishing was slower with only a few reefys, undersize demersals, bb cods, and a solid samson

Got to play around with the new lowrance units. I was suprised at the level of detail and accuracy.

All packed up ready to hit the road home

 hope you enjoyed!

Cheers

Day 1 – Sunday 17th: A few of us decided to try our luck at Bundegi  after lunch. There were heaps of small Red Throats, Spanish Flags and other small SP “nibblers” to keep us entertained. Mattyoga  caught a nice sized cod and Yakyaker had some follows from good sized Trevors  over the reef later in the afternoon. All up it was a good shakedown session on the water.

Day 2: We hit a spot south of town for a crack at some bigger fish, but the gap through the breakers was not passable, with waves breaking right across ruling out any attempt to fish the back of the reef. The tide was huge too, coming right up past the camping area. As I was heading out I was visited by a school of Cobia, with a couple being in the 15 kilo range, but they didn’t hang around unfortunately. That was the high point of the day for me, as I caught bugger all and donated some lures to the reef. This location certainly looked fishy though, as proved to be the case later in the week!

On the way back to camp, I stopped in at Turquoise Bay and managed one reasonable pic of a Cod sitting on the bottom. I also saw some good sized Chinaman Fish swimming with some trevally, so it was a good snorkelling session.

Day 3: The day dawned a ripper, with light winds and a dropping swell. We tried a different spot  closer to camp and had some success both offshore and inshore.  This is where poor old Fozzy’s not so excellent Adventure almost met a watery grave. We were just heading out when we heard a yell – “I’m sinking”, upon which I looked around and was incredulous to see Fozzy’s bow pointing up at the sky, the stern submerged and him bailing out into the water. I caught a Red Bass plus a couple of Red Throat Snapper offshore. Mattyoga was the hero of the day, as he trolled up a sizeable Spaniard of 17 kilos plus. Yakyakker also scored with a big Trevor he estimated at around 20 kilos and Shufoy caught a good Coronation Trout plus a small Red Emperor.

Some of us headed inshore to some reef and had a ball casting poppers at the back of the reef. Here we got blown away by some horse GT’s that could not be stopped. Yakyakker and Brendon did manage to extract some “smaller” specimens though. You could hear Brendon from a mile away when he caught his – he was a happy chappy!

Day 4: The weather was again close to perfect and we hit the same spot again, with Shufoy, Carms and me heading out wide hoping to troll up some mackies and going over some good lumps found the day before. Unfortunately the mackies weren’t on the chew and the bigger bottom dwellers weren’t too hungry. I caught a succession of small cod plus some Red Throats and lost a good fish that spat my SP unfortunately. The guys who stayed inshore also had limited success too. We blamed this on the moon phase and the tides.

Day 5: As the swell was still very low, we decided to try the spot we went to on day 2 and this time we got out behind the reef with no dramas, although the wind was a bit stiff and the sea a bit choppy. We headed south trolling for a while with no hits. Shufoy caught a fish of some sort casting a lure, so I thought I would try chucking a small Twisty. As it was on the drop something grabbed it and proceeded to strip line from my little Shimano Slade at a very fast rate. Whatever it was ran quite high in the water initially then dropped deeper in the water after a while, but unfortunately I wasn’t using wire and the inevitable bite off occurred. At this point Brendon, Alec and I noticed a fairly substantial drop off from around 20 to 30 metres in the space of around 10 metres, so we started dropping down jigs to see what might be lurking below. This is where we experienced the best fishing of the week, with Brendon and Alec landing good sized Rankin Cod and yours truly landing a nice Coronation Trout. We also hooked some absolute monster fish that could not be prised off the bottom and ended up reefing us. I was reeling in my Octa Jig and it got smashed on the retrieve and promptly dragged straight back to the bottom by something evil. I put as much hurt on the fish as I could, but my $45 cheapy glass rod just wasn’t up to the task and eventually my leader frayed through on the reef.

After a while we started heading back to the gap in the reef and I thought I would try trolling my trusty Green / Gold  Rapala CD18 Magnum for a Mackie. As I approached the others who had already gone some way further ahead, I felt a hit on the lure and hooked up solid. The fish didn’t take much of a run at all and slugged it out near the surface mainly. After 5 minutes I had colour on the fish and it was a Spaniard of around 8 – 9 kilos. I have been dreaming for quite some time how I would handle a bigger / toothy fish if I managed to catch one and now the dream had come true! After a good gaff shot, I grabbed my club and gave the Mackie a couple of good clouts on the noggin which pacified it well and truly. I managed to slide it in along the right foot well and let out a triumphant yell and punched the air in my exuberance. This was the icing on the cake on what was my best day’s yak fishing ever, despite the big ones getting away.

Hey guys. we had a late morning start yesterday at 11am out of two rocks. the swell was kickin it and it made for some fun on the way out. glad we had travelcalm or i woulda been burleying for the whole day. anyway, i started off with plastics - 7inch Slams. got some good smacks but no hookups. Rob then switched to bait and soon had a sgt. baker on board. put him into the tank for bait if we ran out. i then switched to bait, and that drift managed a just undersized dhuie and a tiny blackass. next drift, rob managed to pull up a stonka blackarse, which went straight into the esky. i then managed a smaller blackarse, but he also went into the esky. things went a little quiet so we set up a redrift, and just as crossed the mark, rob was on again. this time, a nice sized baldie. next drop, he had another baldie on board. in the meantime, i managed to pull about about 3 tiny blackarse, one scorpionfish (or spiky,poisonous thing) and a large norwester. in the next 3 hours, we had little luck. we finally managed to hit a good patch, which resulted in rob and i hooked up. my fish was a nice baldie; robs was a very nice queenie. the next fish up, after a long fight, had us calling a big dhuie, arose a big blackarse. we already had 2 on board, so we released the guy with the release weight. felt good releasing it.

final catch was:

8 baldies, 2 kept

5 blackarse, 2 kept

an undersized dhuie

Queen snapper

2 norwesters

3 scorps

two wrasse

got into the marina at 8pm to start the trek back home. we stayed out longer than we expected, because the conditions were absolutely mint. didnt take long at all to get back in. we headed out this morning aswell, hoping to replicate the efforts. the day was pretty much over before it started. we got 2kms out and turns around because it was way too rough. the top half of our bodies were absolutely soaked. hoping monday stays good, hoping to get out again. i have some pics of the fish at home, but i will put up the actual pics of the fish when i get them tomorrow.

cheers guys.

 Does anyone know if the river is still dirty?

Hi all

Team gates arrived Thursday arvo and after checking out our holiday house, we checked out the marina, boat ramp, sea rescue group and the local beaches. There's some weed on the beaches but the water looked ok, colour wise.

Hit the ramp at 8am Friday (yes, I know we should have been out there earlier but we've got some sleepyheads in our family!!). With a light easterly blowing, we headed out thru the north passage and decided to troll south along the 20m line behind the islands. After about 30 mins and not much happening, I got outvoted because 'trolling is boring' and so we headed out to a spot we'd been given.

Heaps of red on the sounder but nothing was really taking out baits, but the drift was pretty slow so we moved on the wind a bit.

The daughter was first on the scoreboard with a double header of undersize pinkies (38cm)...spewing! Both released with the weight, so that was good. A short time later, we had a couple of rods loaded up and after alot of anticipation, we had 2 norwest blowies in the boat, then back over the side....double bugger!! The commentary on the video went from excitement to bemusement.

Moving further west into 50m of water, we finally got some runs on the board....the daughter landed a nice baldie and a black arse, both firsts for her, followed shortly afterwards by yours truly with his first baldie...bigger than the daughter's so I got the bragging rights.

Got back to the ramp around 3.30pm, tired but happy with our catch. Baldie on the bbq tasted so sweet!

Saturday 23rd

Headed for the ramp at 8am and joined the queue to have a boat inspection by the local water police...formalities over with, we headed out for some trolling again because the winds from the NW was making things a bit lumpy. Lots of boats doing the same thing but we had no luck, not sure about the other boats.

Decided to try some bottom bouncing a bit further out, but the sloppy conditions meant we called it a day and got back to the ramp at 12.

Baldie and blackarse fillets for lunch went down a treat....conditions tomorrow are looking worse than today, but Monday looks a bit better.

Hope everyone is having a great Easter...take care and stay safe.

regards
rusty...

It's been tough going of late to hit the water with work etc. but recently I have been able to put some hours in with MattMiller in some very trying conditions. We have been searching for a dedicated Sambo jigging spot & on the way out 2 days ago we hit a lump whilst on the move & luckily decided to hit it up, that brief session was hectic with YTK's smashing us on light gear & staying well clear of the heavy. Matt almost boated a beauty but it wasn't to be so sadly no pics.

Today we headed out with my old boy in shite weather, after some messing around we decided to have a jig at the spot & it was on! Matt was killing the Sambo's & whilst I got into the YTK's & the old boy watched on as a novice to jigging let alone much fishing.   

It took him one drop to get into & he took YTK line honours today with the most boated, he also provided much amusement for Matt & myself when i cranked up the drag on the Stella & gave it back to him none the wiser hehehehe. Unfortunately didn't get any pics of Matt's Sambo's but he was slaying it & did very well on them with a switch to some light gear punishment. 

I was decided to have a break from jigging at the end of our drift and chucked out a McArthy on the pe 1.5 for this dhuie to give me some serious stick. Good day out in shit wind & just stoked to have a fish with my old man.

Better pic at home

As per the title, headed out with my brothers today from midday until 6.30. Very quiet in the 30's and 40's most of the afternoon, so we headed into the 3 mile. Bait balls everywhere but we couldn't connect with anything, apart from a few very angry pike. About an hour later we see tuna free jumping about 150m away, we tried sneaking up on them, roaring around at WOT  and gently meandering, but whenever we approached they disappeared, and no matter what we tried they just wouldn't take what we had to offer when in casting range. Tried popping, stick baits, spinners, bidded minnows, even ganged mulies at one stage.

In the end we threw on the X Raps and trolled back, and with 15 minutes of light left we covered the last 8nm back to the marina at a lovely 35knots. Conditions were beautiful after 4.30pm. So wish I went to Rotto tonight like I had planned.

Sooooooooo much bait in the water up there, very frustrating.

is there still macks around mindarie and hows the gemini wreck fishing

 Planning to head out for a fish Saturday arvo/night, was planning on going to Woodmans Point Jetty but the prospect of having my car broken into has made me look at other locations. Used to land a few rays at the Esheds but last time it was quiet, anyone had luck with the rays or anything else half decent? Dont mind just catchin the bread and butter variety.

Cheers,

Langerz

Im heading down to bussleton this weekend for a couple of nights and was wondering if anyone has heard any reports on the fishing there. I've been told that the squid there is pretty amazing, but wanted something a bit bigger. i was there two weekends ago and managed to catch a banjo shark and a monster ray, but looking for something decent. Also has anyone heard any news on the salmon? eagle bay perhaps. any reports would be appreciated.

oh and also, if ur looking for any camping/fishing/boating gear for the long weekend, come into getaway outdoors in malaga, i work there, and would love to have a chat and hook u up with some great deals. corner beach rd and malaga drive.

stay safe and catch lots of fish peoples.

Anyone been down this way any reports going im off there tonight with my fishedwreck shirt say hello if you see me!!

HAVE A GREAT EASTER GUYS AND DRIVE SAFE