Hey Guys,

Im just getting back into fishing now that work doesnt chew up all my time. Just wondering if anyone can give me a couple of spots to fish round the bunno area. I got a 4x4 but no boat so just land based (unless you are offering a spot on your boat :) )

I wouldn't mind trying for a mulloway. What is the best bait/setup for them?

Cheers

Rob

Well, who said there wouldn't be a Salmon run this year.

Went for a 3 day fish over the weekend with 10 mates, sighted PLENTY of Salmon in the surf and landed 10, biggest 6.1kg with the average just over the 5kg mark. Dropped just as many. Herring in the surf in plague proportions. Made for an awesome weekend on the light gear, a Stradic 2500 matched to a 3-6kg Shimano Jewel with 10lb fireline. All fish were taken on Halco Twisties or a Rapala X-rap 

Anyone hesitating about going south to get in to the fish.....DON'T! Can't wait until they hit metro beaches now.

Hey guys decided to head down to two rocks today just before high tide. Got there and cause of the howling winds heading out to sea blocked off by the rockwall it was flat as. Basically only person fishing there :), started chucking around a 40g surecatch knight and varying up the retrieve. When on a medium retrieve skipping across the surface I saw a huge tailor come from beneath and BANG! I was on. The water was that clear that i saw the whole fight (great leap too) and due to my panacing of getting busted off I skull dragged him in. Let me tell you that when you are by yourself with nothing but a glove it is very hard to land a fish on the rocks. So as I picked him up the line cut (lost my lure) and he fell into a crack in the rocks. Managed to get a photo of him upside down in the rocks hehe my only proof before I pushed him back into the water to swim off with my lure :(

It was my last metal so after this I tried for about 30 minutes using a popper with no success. Anyone know the best way to work poppers for tailor?

Will try upload the poor photo in a second for some size predictions. So disappointed I couldnt get a good snap to show my family so next time I can try and drag one of them along!

This was my first tailor experience and now I am hooked!!!!!!

Quick report on the FW comp day 1, great conditions early up which turned average late afternoon.  Plenty of fish were caught from the few teams I've spoken to.  Reds to 70cm, a 1.75m 35 odd kg spaniard, plenty of big rankins, several marlin (ours was 70kg), big jobfish, coronations, spangles and lots of tuna and I've only spoken to 4 of the 16 teams. 

Big day tomorrow, great weather forecast.  Stay tuned for more reports and some great pics to come.

Cheers,

Adam

I always have the liking of mama toman, their beautiful stripes and distinguishing color pattern. The joys of having your topwater lure in actions when the mama whack the lure. It really exciting & your heart can stop beat for a second. haha !!!

"Nothing beat fishing mama toman in the wild" ;)

Pound by pound it is still the BEST & STRONGEST freshwater fish in asia.

So when I heard of news of mama toman with baby fry in a dist location DAM off bkk, I loadup my fishing gears, lures box and off I go for yet another wild fishing adventure trip.. ;)

The distant drive 400KM (4HRS) from bkk city.

Fishing toman fry in Thailand is not as easy as some pPls think.  You need alots of  patience, endurance and it mind fishing game with you vs the mama toman.

As more & more local thai anglers  practise catch & release in Thailand. You will not be surprised to see a mama toman been hooked up before. Once those mama toman hooked up once, it will be very wary of lure and will not strike so easy..

If that is the case, you need to keep pestering & pressure the toman fry. For those young & impatience anglers, after a few castings may give up chasing the fry.

For angler like myself, who love the great challenge & love the mind fishing game with the mama toman. As long as the mama toman starte to chase the lure away from its fry, I know I'll have  the chance. It is only matter of time, it will bite my lure.

But still, you have only 1 chance if the mama strike. If the mama toman bite your lure and you failed to give a good strike. It will not bite again for the next 3hrs or so... Having a proper set of medium-heavy tackle and hooks are important for a 'home run' on the mama toman.

My recommended tackle for toman :
Rod : 10-20Ibs
Line: Braided Power Pro PE 3 or 4
Hooks: Change all split rings and strong 4X hooks.
Lures: Bring all kind of topwater lures and deep diver lures.

 
See all actions in this short video clip of mine..

Explosive actions !!! ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSsEboXsma8

Some of the highlights photos of the day...

Has anyone been giving North Mole a crack lately thinking maybe give it a go this wekend was wondering if anyone has given it a go lately

During my last service trip we had plenty of time to get a line in as there was over 800 nautical miles of travel involved. At 10knots i was able to run skirts most of the time occasionally picking up the odd fish. At Clerk reef we had loads of action, tuna, macks, barracuda, mahi  but couldnt pick up a sail or marlin.  Then on route to brouse island in some clear water i landed a blue marlin which went 35 to 40kg i guess. It went deep at the end of the fight and on a jigging outfit it was punishing me well. In the afternoons at the island i was able to do a little jigging with average success. The Black trevally were in plague proportion, Caught the odd small trout, some good longnose emperor, and those bloody grey coats fleeced me of loads of jigs.

Was supprised to see crocs 50knm out at Adelle island. Its a hellish place, scorching heat, sand dunes, thich long grass full of mossies and sharks that ate all my poppers.

Spent a few days in the gorges/ creeks. Up around cockatoo island, Gods counrty up there. Amazing landscape and coastline. Went to the Squaters and had a beer with those guys. They were great but there departing moon is was a disturbing image.

Fishing the creeks was a learning curve. I had to leave what i know about southern techniques behind and learn afresh. Had some great sessions on the fingermark, jacks, cod and barra.

Diversity Charters looked after us and definately going to take the Mrs, kids and friends back with them. Theres a lot more id like to see up there.

Anyways heres a few photos

My cousin caught a baby bull shark at a secret spot in fremantle and i also found a bull shark head in the same place where my cousin cuaght the bull shark.

Well I joined the Metro Mac Club today.

1m Spanyard .

Ran a spread of lures and fresh baits, but in the end a well used and beaten up laser pro 190 in chrome pink did the trick.

Gday decided to go for quick troll with weather being so good boat in water by 430 headed out to ffb put 2 divers out and caught stripey tuna in 10min and these macks in next hour,tried 3 different lures but all 3 fish caught on the one lure halco 160 anyway was a awesome little session and back by 630 cheers nick

Not sure who coined the term, but I heard it first from Till yesterday.

I did a solo session this morning and was shocked at the amount of bait out there today.  It was almost one continuous bait ball and with so much bait in the water, it didn't surprise me that the bite was not as hot as the day before.  I know they were there because I stopped to clear some weed and I noticed a mac swimming along side the lure all the way back to the boat!

I think some guys got into the act of drifting with live bait, but I am not sure how that worked.  Anyway I made the decision to peel off and head south away from the crowd and to also work a different depth and was rewarded with 5 hits all within a minute or two of setting the lure, but only converted 3. Had one bite off, one that did not connect. Was also a good feeling releasing one.

This is the lure that did all the damage.

Decent sized fish

another about the same size

Bloody hard to get action shots alone!

Quick report following an early morning session, day of work & then, a late arvo session.

First light saw Jamie join me on the Prowler. First time he's been on it & boy, is he a good decky.

The NE'ly was fairly stiff this morning. We were trolling by 6:45, and I was back at the ramp at 8:30. Then, off to work.

As was expected, we got stuck into a few spaniards. Straight forward to catch - I have seen comments from people saying they have proven difficult. The swarm of boats should be a dead giveaway to many.

The only strange thing I have seen lately, is the amount of people trolling behind someone that's trolling 200m in front of them. Don't wait for seconds because they won't be there.

Moving on, JohnF met me at the ramp late this afternoon. Again, the boat needed some action & despite John being involved in several metro Macks lately, he actually hasn't landed one himself.

I was keen to get him onto one, however, we found a couple of spotty mackerel instead. They really reminded me of my days in SEQ.

The sun set & we found ourselves further afield than planned. We persisted to move on & I soon pointed out some nice fish on the sounder. A healthy school appeared in the middle of the water column. Within 10 seconds, 1 outfit started singing. Continuing to drive, I was hoping for another strike - strike 2 came true.

We had hooked up solidly to 2 fish. I worked mine up within a few minutes & called it a big macky until I saw some yellow sickle fins. With John tied up on his fish, I somehow managed to place a quick gaff shot behind its head. John continued to battle his fish for another 10 minutes until it finally hit the surface. Another gaff shot secured tuna number 2.

They were good fish & we cheered for 10 minutes & took a few photos with the dodgy camera.

Excuse the photos fellas.

Daz.

We headed out to the Fads again last Sunday with high hopes of landing our first dollyies, as none of us had ever landed one. We were still flat after the two monsters we lost last week but as we arrived at the FAD it didn’t take long to have our first sighting, they were a bit picky but there were hundreds of them compared to the very few we saw last week, however the size was also a long way different. We were getting very frustrated with the hundreds of bloody mutton birds, as we had caught two birds before we had a hook up with the animal we were after. We finally got a bait down and a school smashed the baits and we had a triple hook up and we later lost all three to being busted off around the FAD. However it didn’t take long for another hook up and this time we got the other rods out before another fish could take it, we finally got the fish on board and we were getting the hang of these slippery little fish as we bagged out within an hour and left them biting in the perfect conditions.

Heres a few pics

 I headed out disarvo after uni with some mates to try and land a few of these metro macks, as we were yet to get one this season. We hit the water around 4:30 and we headed out behind the reef. It took around half an hour for the first strike, this fish was to be my first metro Mack.

It then took another hour for my mate to boat his first ever Mack, he was stoked and you can see it in his face hahah. 

went out tonight for a quick troll up toward mindarie , in the water for 4 and out at 6 30 in mates boat.  a little 17ft  chivers pursuit.  great little boat.

no macks but a couple of tuna to 7.5kg's in the one double hookup.  any idea what they are ??  didn't think they were sbt's , sorry for the at home pic.

 After our successful Marlin hunt in Jurien couple of weeks ago. Went for a troll south Rotto on sunday

No Marlin but a 18kg Wahoo will do.

Tough going today in Exxy with a stronger than forecast northerly blowing.  We ended up with a few small bits and pieces and lost a couple of good fish, got a few tuna and didn't see any marlin.  Gully had a similar day and lost a good dolly and also got a few bits and pieces.  Guess you all know who did well today though, bloody lucky bastard (well, his deckie)!  Stay tuned for a few pics I'm sure (reds and monster jack).

Unpredictable winds over the next week, but you gotta be in it to win it. :)

Took a mate out for a squid from woodman pt ramp around 11am. Headed over to Petrov bay and started a few drifts and had a great time boating 15 squid.  Well, I only boated 14, but Cuttlefish Cameron got 1 squid and about 4 tiny cuttlefish.  After the wind swung around the squidding dropped off and we went to the sand patch north of the island and had a crack for kgw.  First cast with a fresh squid tentacle and Andy Macs KGW rig on and got a double header with a 33 cm kgw and a wrasse,  Put the wrasse out as live bait and released the kgw to the esky.

Home by 6 and all cleaned by 7. Here are a few pics from the day, some great sizes about.

John's son, Rob, scored his first Mack this afternoon. Hotdogs (Chrisp), also landed a nice Mack shortly after.

Rob will grow up to be a good fisho, so it's a rewarding feeling having the young bloke tangle with a nice fish at an early age. John was probably more stoked than Rob.

 hey crew

today went back to my families 'old spot' next to bandiyup prison. place was pretty packed for so far up river. went there 2 weeks ago and caught 20 bream nothing over 23 cms today went back and caught 10 bream nothing over 25 (getting bigger) defiantly found the nursery with a few 12-20 cm's. 

anyway i heard some guys drag screaming but didnt think much of it only to find out he *supposedly* caught a 40 cm mulloway. but then again nothings surprising me this summer

my question. i bought a td zero a few months ago first cork grip today i decided to be lazy and use bait and now the cork stinks. how do you clean the cork (total noob sorry) hahaha

one pic of many bream caught

Yeah, bit out of date now, but better up than not.

Oracle invited Hlokk and myself out for a FADs run Thursday before last. I was keen to get out, it had been awhile since I had made it out to the FADs this season and the fish ought o be a decent size by now.

We set out in Oracle's Stabicraft at a pretty decent pace, just finding the occasional wave with a hole behind it. Conditions were pretty snotty with the Easterly still pumping, it was forecast to drop off, *fingers crossed*

Birds were up and circling on the way out, a few false alarms over diving birds, but as usual you really know when its on when you see it. A good bunch of birds bombing and a couple quick casts into the mix, Hlokk and I come up with some super-fat Stripy tuna.

We made it out to Hillarys, pretty much fish the first cast. Not sure who had the first hookup, but Matt had the first on-deck. Jason got a few hookups but no conversion, I lost both a fish and a shiny new toy on the damn fad when the fish went around the post, but I did manage a nice bull 800mm or so. They were hitting mostly plastics on Hillarys although I also got a couple on an 80mm vibe.

We did get to see about 3 dozen dollies, anything from 30cm to three feet, racing across the surface like baitfish, so clearly there was a bigger predator down there. We dropped some trolling gear down there, but it wasn't enough to get whatever hoo or stickface was scaring the dollies on. We dropped a mix of other gear out and trolled down to the next FAD. Just as we were leaving a US-registered boat trolled over, they hadn't had much action further South, but we were prepared to give it a go.

Next was Furuno. I think our best fish came off that fad, it took my IMA honey Trap 95S in sardine. It hit the meter mark, nearing my best for the season. We racked up a few more fish there, but as it shut down we pushed onto FSC.

At FSC, there was some guy in an old berty there, he was livebaiting, that and trying to scrape the paint off his boat on the fad at the same time. Everyone tells me that live hezzas are the bomb for dollies but this guy wasn't getting a thing, it had me kind or worried actually. Clearly they weren't interested in stickbaits, divers, or plastics, then Matt had the revolutionary idea of using cubes! Whoa, they went crazy - great timing too, it was just as the berty buggered off *grin*. I even got one while I was trying to line out to get out of Matt's way, a totally-desperate dolly snapped the cub as I skittered it across the surface. Whilst the bit was on, it was fun, but I sure don't miss those damn rats of the sea/air - mutton birds. They got so annoying we left for one last FAD.

We bagged a few more fish at All Marine Services, including nearly landing Matt's first on fly. We got it to leader a couple of times but it was pretty green (doh!), and 9' rods are just a pain boatside. On the way home we also had a terrible accident, and poor Jason copped a bit of a bump in the head, check that last photo! I sure hope it has worn off now!

A good day in all with everyone landing at least 6-8 fish, just a few coming home for dinners!

Certainly dolly is good on the tooth. I managed Cayman-style dolly, and a very naughty friend of mine made dolphinfish curry.

Thinking of heading out for a troll but can't be bothered with the punishment of heading to the FADS again. Like the idea of getting into some Macks but don't want to drive up to Mindarie. Anyone heard of them being caught out from Woodmans point around Garden Island, 5 fathom, Stragglers, South side of Rotto or the reefs on the western point of Rotto?

Do you ever get them in deep water (30-50m) or is it always in around 20m?

Cheers.

A few people had asked about squid around in the last few weeks and sizes, well I reckon they were ok!

On wed it was my intention to attend the rally, but I had a divemaster physics exam in the morning and some work lined up for the afternoon.  Anyway, I got 97.5% for my exam which I had been shitting myself about, and decided to flag work, the rally and go out for a squid as it has been a months.

Got the boat to the ramp about 2:20 pm and the wind was blowing fairly hard shifting from SE to S, and as the afternoon went on it went to SSW.  I headed just to the north west (150mts tops) of woodman pt and set up a drift. I only used three jigs, all yo-zuri aurie Q Aces I think, two brand new jigs caught squid within a minute of hitting the water.  Awesome!

Had a rod leaning against the side of the boat with the jig just in the water while I sorted out the other rod and had a squid streak straight up off the bottom in 20 ft of water to hit the jig nearly on the surface right beside the boat.  Immediately the squid went nuts with ink and blasted me and the boat to hell and back.  I have never gotten the boat dirtier than this trip, but I landed that squid!

End result: 11 squid in four drifts over 2 hours.  It was wet heading back upwind to reset the drift, but well worth it.  4 donkeys like the one in the photo.

Side Story: Got a voucher for BCF for my birthday and thought a few new squid jigs would be nice, so I went to the jig aisle, having a look, sales bloke comes past several times, finally I ask him 'hey, have you got any of the yo-zuri flashdancers?', reply 'I dunno mate, I cant read japanese either'.  Then told me he used a cheap jig brand and put Kiwi Boot Polish on it, as apparently it is made of prawns or something that makes it an attractant. 

Dunno about that, but the Yo zuris kick ass as always.

The weather in Thailand is getting weird. In the month of march  suppose to be hot , the temperature dropped to between 18-20 degree in bangkok for the past few days.The southern part of Thailand especially Surit Thani is flooded from the past weeks of rainings.

I had to put up my cold sweater while going for fishing trips. :(!!!

Looking at my rather tight fishing schedules, I managed to squeeze 1 DAY of toman wild fishing trip for my own leisure fishing.

Drove some 300KM in the wee morning (12.00AM) and be back late night at 10.00PM and then be ready for the next morning fishing trip at 5.00AM, is not everybody cup of tea. Only a crazy addicted toman angler like myself will do that... haha !!!

Despite the cold spells I managed to land a nice size 5KG toman (snakehead) and missed a few small takes on sebarau, haruan and little toman.

The biggest catch of the day is spending time for myself with the nature. Only me and the nature, away from city.

Understanding the nature, different tactic & presentating of lures in the wild fishing ground. Things like these, you need to experience it yourself. The more you fish in the wild,, the more experience & avid angler you'll become in the future.

Enjoys the slide photos clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oFtfqSmXBQ

Some of the photos highlights of the day... ;)

In actions !!!

Can you see the toman in the clear water... ;)

Just a quick report to say there's some thumper gardies out there at the moment! Had a big school of them around the boat and grabbed 20 for a feed. Big boys they were!
Also the squid are gettin bigger! Got 17 in 3 drifts and covered the boat and us in ink. Good times!
Had a quick snorkel too but only found 3 crabs.

Having read all the reports of macks caught in metro waters recently I decided it was time to get in on the action. Friday RDO, wife at work, kids at school and a willing deckie free on a Friday - the stars were well and truly lining up!  Packed the boat, picked up the deckie and by 8 we were on the water, mission metro macks was on! Headed straight to the back of 3 mile reef, put the lures and teaser out and started our trawl.

Trawled north for a while with no success, no sign of any bait schools or larger fish on the sounder, not a good sign. Decided to turn around and head south, again following the 20m contour. After a while we found what we were looking for - the sounder lit up with big bait balls and larger echos below them. Problem was the bait schools were deep and the predators even deeper. We trawled over them a number of times but no takers.

Started to have doubts about what was actually down there so decided to drift over the area and drop a jig, 100g Shout Stay in blue was the jig of choice. First tried a slow 'demersal' retrieve - nothing, then tried the crazy Sambo retrieve - nothing, then dropped it to bottom and cranked it back up as fast as I could. Quarter of the way up bang, I'm on! 2 seconds later I lost it - the leader came back minus the jig, sliced straight through. That's all the confirmation I needed - put the jigs away and send the lures back out along with a teaser.

Second pass one of our lines went off! I took up the fight while the deckie brought in the 2nd line and teaser. After a couple of good runs I got the fish close enought to get our first look at it -  a nice mack! A few minutes later I got it boat side and the deckie did a sterling job with the gaff. My first metro mack was in the boat!

Trawled the area for the next hour or so for nought, decided to move on a little further south but the bait schools disappeared and the weed didn't. Headed back to where we got the first mack and on first pass back one of the rods goes off again! This time it's the deckie's turn. A couple of good runs later we have the fish boat side and I do the honors with the gaff. High fives again as the deckie's first ever mack hits the deck!

Did a couple more passes but only picked up weed so satisifed with our efforts we called it a day.

The weed was really bad, but persistance paid off. Both fish fell to Halco Laser Pro 160 in chrome pink. We tried Laser Pro 190's in redhead, kingbrown and yellowfin but had no takers.

If anyone catches a mack with a Shout Stay still stuck between it's dentures I'd like it back please! :-)

Fun !!! Fun !!!! Fun !!!

Nothing beating fishing in the wild...- the saying goes... :)

Not only I share the same sentiment, there are many avid anglers like Fred Goh( Rapala rep ), Darren Shan (Kingfisher mag editor) and another SG avid angler Chong, we  all share the same likeness and common hobby to fish in the wild... :)

Myself , together with Rapala rep- Fred Goh, Kngfisher editor and magazine - Darren Shgan and invited guest Chong (from SG) , we had 2 FULL DAYS  of wild sebarau fishing in a distant nature dam off bangkok , some 300Km(3hrs) drive by transport.

Fishing in the wild is like going for an adventure fishing trip. You never know what you're going to get that day. More like wild hunting trip.... ;)

First DAY !!!
We landed a total of almost 50++ sebarau (jungle perch) + 3 toman fishes by Fred Goh. Man....... thiss is what I call good fishing trip... ;)

2nd DAY !!!
The 2nd day was also as exciting as the first day,  manage to land 20-30 pieces .....

What day !!!! What a trip to remember !!!  ;)

For those who want to read the whole story, you can buy this month March issue of Kingfisher magazine over the shelve and read all about the new exciting wild sebarau fishing trip. ;)

For those who can't wait.... you can have a glimpse of the whole trip inside my music youtube clip... ;)

Enjoys  !!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwmR1Fj9jKc

Here some of the photos highlights done by Kingfisher magazine editor - Darren Shan himself.

Just did 4 hours trolling along 3 mile for nought. Anybody else have any luck today. I think going from 12 - 4 may well have been the worst times to try.

Try again tomorrow..............

A few weeks ago i went down to the guildford bridge for a quick fish and i found huge mulloway scales on the ground. I also saw a shag eating a little soapie around 45cm just under the bridge. Good mulloway spot?

Seeing all the pelagic reports and as the weather was mint we went out to the fads last sunday with the hope of catching macks / tuna / dolly;s etc.

Stopped at rotto in the shallows to try get some live baits. Where were the herring? didn't get any! Did see a few 5-7kg sambo's cruising around and managed to land one. Were only fishing in 4-5m of water which was interesting because i've never seen them in the shallows.

Time to start making our way out wide. Trolled along the west end, not a touch, bugger. Stuff this - lets hit the fads.

Next stop - PGFC fad... but it was nowhere to be seen, must have drifted. oh well off to the next fad. Arrived, trolled around, tried all different lures, baits etc but it was quiet as. nothing there whatsoever. Bugger. time to move. Hit the next fad up and finally got stuck into some dollys. my mate adam pulled one up within about 5mins of arrival. that got all of us fired up. Everyone on board managed to hook up at some point and land a dolly. We manageg 6 all up, they were not huge....  all around the same size too - approx 80cm. the photo's dont do these fish justice. Their colours are absolutely incredible. Was really great seeing their blue silhouettes cruising through the water.

We headed back rotto way again trolling all through the west end with no avail so made our way back to fremantle. Whilst it was a shame not to get a mack or other pelagics we were stoked with the dollys. Cooked a few up Sun night and they sure taste great. the meat is sweet & juicy, doesn't taste like any other fish i've ever had. Was really good for sashimi too.

Here's a few photos (mostly poor quality from phones) & i'll upload some more pics later.

Cheers and best