.. then you should go to the south side of the dawesville channel, directly opposite the water from the jolly frog. i went there last night, caught herring every cast using diced coral prawn. also caught 6 tailor a few cms undersize on same bait/rig, 2 squid and a cobbler. fish came on the bite at seven o'clock on an incoming tide with the southerlies blowing striaght over your shoulder.

Hi There,

Went fishing yesterday with Chan,and his Mrs, we started at the South Mole but it was blowing a gale so we sought refuge among the rocks of the North Mole.

We got there at about 6pm and started fishing for light stuff whilst Chan was rigging up his rods for the bigger stuff. We caught a few whiting and then Chan put one out as a live bait. All went quiet for a bit and then it was on again!

Chan had a couple of big bites and runs on the heavier gear, and at 9:30pm we had probably 10 whiting, 4 herring, 1 skippy. I then had to leave, as I got halfway home i got a txt to say that he had caught a 43cm Tailor. I hear that from then until 3.30am the whiting did not stop biting and the tailor were on the bite as well.

 Was a great night out fishing.

Dannyg

Went for a fish down at Long Point with a mate this arvo. Not a great deal happening down there. Fished from the south side of the point and finished with a couple of herring and a sand whiting. The choppers came on the bite around 7pm but it clouded over within a few minutes and went dead straight afterwards. So the tailor are still there - but judging by the bites very small.

Cervantes again on Saturday to fill the fridge with herring... :o)

Anyone tried these areas recently looking to take the brother in law out this weekend, to score a feed of bluey's.

Any help where the crabs are at the moment would be greatly appreciated may even drop you in  a feed if we bag out.

After not catching one size crab at Busselton over Xmas with the brother in law I am hoping to make ammends.

Oy maybe he is just bad luck !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

good weather poor fish

Took a mate out on Sunday for a crab down at Mandurah.
Been a while since I've been but soon got into the swing of things.
Got our quota of + size blues a threw back a shite load of undersize.

Good to see fisheries doing their job, pulled up along side us and checked
every crab and who has a skippers ticket. All good and have a nice day!!! (-;

Bit of excitement when putting the boat in though!
Came back down to the jetty after parking the car to the sounds of a poor little
kid screaming his box off. The group in front made up of the grandparents and some
lil sprogs were just about to set off when a lure got embedded into the kids foot.
My mate was over already to see what was going on so I went and had a gander.
Poor lad was in stress mode as it was a decent size treble that was set deeply
in the top of his foot.
Grandpa was not impressed so I picked the kid up and carried him back to their
car, all the while he's screaming "I don't want to die, I'm going to die, call mummy grandma".
Reassured him that it happens to the best of us and he'll have a tale to tell to his mates
when he gets back to school! Poor lil bugger!

Anyway a coupla pics of the meaty sweet blues . . .I forgot just how good it was to feast on these suckers...mmmm

Headed out Sunday morning for a fish, left woddys at 8 and hit the back of 5 fathom, the wind was far from perfect with a 10ish knot south wester blowing first thing, we fished the five for an hour or so and landed a nice BB, foxy, a small sambo and skippy.

With the wind not dropping we decided to head in closer in search of more Skippy however they weren’t on the bite and decided to hit Mewstone before heading home. The fish were on the bite in a big way with the first tailor coming in the first cast. We anchored and fished the reef using SP’s and the tailor didn’t disappoint with 15+ landed and many bust offs, and a bloody big sambo that didn’t mind our tailor either. The biggest fish going 64cm and the smallest being 50cm and all were caught on 10lb.

Grandads Tailor

Ollies tailor

With the weather being so good over the weekend, its hard to fit the rest of your life around going out fishing. Today the plan was a fish in the morning and then be at Kings Park for a family bbq at midday. Bit of a rush trip, but you got to do what you can, to get your fishing fix !

Hit the  Hillarys ramp at 6am. Fair few boats out already, but there wasnt any line up at the ramp. Pushed old mate traily into the drink, and then headed out 13 miles to our Kg spot. Took a good 75mins to get out there, with 10kn sw winds, and inconsistant swells coming from all directions. First few drifts were pretty quiet, with Claire getting 1 undersize dhui.

We then had to leave our spot, and put in a few dummy drifts, as for some reason every boat starts to beline straight towards you for some funny reason. Managed to shake the pingers and put in a few more drifts. With a bit of fresh cuttlefish tenticle from the other day on my rig, it was to much to resist for one Mr king george. It went 54cm, and was the fattest bugger i have ever caught.  The clocked turned nine and we were out of there, with the wind pushing us home, the trip back to the ramp only took 50 mins. Great day on the water, Claire was a bit quiet today for some reason!

Hi Guys, new to this forum so this is my first post. Fished off a beach up at Yanchep yersterday afternoon / evening and if you enjoy catching sharks (bronzies) and rays (eagles / blacks) then there are plenty there at the moment. Bronzies were all between 15 and 20kgs. Left them still biting at 8.30pm with all returned live to the water. Slimy mackeral worked the best for bait.

Hi There,

Went to South Mole - South side of the wall - at 5:30pm and stayed there until 8:30pm-  Didn't see any tailor that anyone caught, but there were plenty of other fish around. I was fishing off the bottom with prawns and caught 6 good sized whiting, 3 skippy approx 25-28cm a heap of grunter (good for crab bait) and a few butterfish.

 All in all a pleasant night out fishing.

Dannyg

Howdy there! Late start this morning, got to the ramp at 7am, about 40 trailers in the carpark. Headed straight out to the mid 40s. The ride out there was a bit sloppy, with a 15kn easterly . Arrived at our spot around 8am, and the fish seem to stay on the bite till about 10am, then all went quiet. We managed to catch a feed.

Claire clocked in with nice blackarse and a nice 57cm flathead. I managed to catch another big cuttlefish, on my bottom bashing rig, using squid for bait! I also dropped a bloody big fish at the start of the day, but we wont be mentioning that now will we.

Stopped at the 32m mark out front of scabs on the way home, and picked up a nice feed of whiting, which seem to be very plump at the moment.

Great day on the water...with the weekend still to come!

There aren't any haha!!! Left early this morning we were the only boat out there for an hour. Another boat came along and tried live herring aswell nothing. Nothing on the sounder either. Jigged for a good hour and a half, trying different jigs sizes/colours. Ended up with one 2kg on a 420gr jig and lost one other. Thought id give you guys the heads up for tomorrow. Goodluck to all:)

went to moore river chasing taylor wednesday to windy fished thursday morning hooked 7kg pink snapper of beach very happy

Mandurah

I was there on Australia Day morning, picked up a few skippy, a trumpeter, a couple of tarwhine and a decent sized octopus casting weighted bluebait on gangs off the north wall. I also hooked up on something big, it spooled my 3 kg outfit in no time, not sure wat it was! Has anyone had any luck there since then? I was going to head out during the week

Went crabbing today clse to G.I. Only turned up 8 crabs, but we nailed 12 squid in half an hour, which i thought was good for this time of year, sorry no pics but yall know what crabs and squid look like.

We have just returned from a very relaxing 10 day family holiday staying at Rest Point Walpole. After a hot trip down there (43 degrees in Donnybrook when we thought about stopping to let the tin lids have a play on the great playground there) we unpacked and set up the tent before preparing the boat in anticipation of a nice weather the next day. Woke to a light south easterly wind, not ideal but as it was the first day we decided to head out through the mouth for a look. Once out it wasn’t too bad so headed out towards Goose Island and drifted a couple of lumps we picked up on the sounder without luck. We ended up doing quite a few miles plotting a few more likely spots but not picking up anything of note apart from a 6kg queen snapper and a blackass which were consumed that night.

It then rained and blew for the next 24 hrs, time to spend with the kids. We decided to go chasing a feed of marron, drove to our spot and hiked into the river through the bush. It was a spot I have been going to for many years, and upon arriving you could see there had been fishers there recently.   It was hard work but we managed a bag of ten marron between the two of us, not monsters but some nice size ones. Fresh warm marron with a little vinegar and pepper, oh so nice.

 We woke the next day at 7am to very light winds so it was decided to head outside for another fish. Out of the mouth we were greeted with 1 1/2m swell and no seas. We headed towards Rams head, stopping about 2/3 the way on a lump I had plotted last Easter but not fished. As I was setting the drift I lost my sounder gps combo, while trying to sort this out Dan landed a fox fish. It turned out to be a power problem, easily sorted. Started another drift and Dan was on again, this time a nice Nanigi, then next drop a 7kg duie, I still hadn’t had a touch. After this drift I decided to leave the spot, after all I will be back down there at easter time. Found another lump a few hundred meters away and picked up more fox fish, breaksea and a couple of queenies, all this before 830. Things then went very quiet, fished and explored for new ground for the next 5 hrs with only a double header of large leatheries, just size pinky and another nanigi to show for our time.  It was a great day out on the water and a few feed for the two families made the wives happy.

Saturday was a day for the girls to go to denmark for day out, so what do two blokes and for girls (2 4yrs old and 2 2yrs) do, go out fishing in the inlet of course. Did a spot of spinning for herring, lots of strikes but when you have 4yr old in control you loose way more than you land, stopping for a chat and a look over the side doesn’t help. Anyway they all had great fun and managed to land a herring each without any assistance at all. The delight in their eyes when they got the small herring into the boat was worth a million dollars. The herring were cooked up for pre dinner nibbles for the kids.

The next few days were spent doing family things (too windy for outside fishing) like treetop walks, boat trips up the Frankland River and the likes. We stayed on in Walpole for an extra couple of days after Dan and family left with the hope of the wind dropping again, no luck there. I decided to go marroning again but this time with the wife and kids, no bush bashing this time. Drove into a spot that I used to go to many years ago, there was a full on camp set up there, tent, lights, cooker the works. There was however no one around and no vehicle about. I started off wandering down the river a way to set my nets but then thought hell I here to marron with the family so carried my nets back to the river crossing and set them all around here, the furtherest net 30 meters from the car. The kids could come with me to all but two of the nets and when you are talking a 4 and 2 year old you know what I mean when I say it was easy going. So in the 2 hours before we had to head back to the caravan park for lunch and an afternoon nap I had 9 marron in the bag. 

  Woke the next day to be greeted by light wind and blue skies but alas it was pack up day and time to head home. A great break from the mundane life of work, the kids had a ball spotting kangaroos and rabbits around the camp along with the resident stingrays which they saw every day and generally running amuck. Now I am just dreading Monday when it’s back to the grindstone of work and I start counting down to Easter when we are back down there again. 

finally got to head ova to the back of garden island tonight after charming a naval cop into taking me with him and it was everything i had hoped for. nice deep gutter surrounded by reef with an opening at the end, beauty. one of the deepest beaches i have ever fished it was all quiet until the sun went down then it was ON!!!

for me new mate with chopper tailor nothing for me bar a small breaksea. at about 9 i had the first decent run and it turned out to be the biggest portjackson i have ever seen about 5ft long then next cast zzzzzzzzz"ping" something busted me on the reef that happened another 2 times until i landed a small wobbiegong straight in the bucket with him i cant say no to fresh wobby so i had my fish so i let my mate fish on his own (while i cleaned my fish) and he managed a little soapy mulloway that put a cap on the night.

then came the downside of the night. a big wave rushed up the beach and swept everything around.  we didnt lose anything but we got pretty dam wet (the ocean wanted its wobby back haha) and i think my slammer took its last slam. will have to get it checked out but all up it was a good night and the good news is i have been asked back.  he probably knows that he would get cheap bait from me haha 

 no pics sorry didn't take my camera    

hey guys,

need some advice on fishing for herring,as in bait used,how to set up a line for herring,locations...just new to here and looking for as much help as possible.any drawings on the line set up would be great..

thanks everyone

Late report as only just got a couple photos.

Well sat morning I joined my uncle and a few others in his and another boat and headed out to around the 40ms. Conditions were alright until the southerly blew its guts up.

I was keen to only use jigs while the others all baited it up the old fashion way. First drift turned up a black arse and undersize dhu and pinky for the baits and nothing for me. Second drift and my uncle was onto something with a little more fight in it, turned out to be a small sambo around 65cm. This got me excited as I wanted to hook a few up to test out the new rod I'd brought out. Back over the same spot you could see the small school of sambos on the sounder as a thin line around 5-10m up off the bottom so first drop and jig and I was on! At just over 60cm it didn't take long to land but was still fun. Straight back down and a few jigs later and another hook up. Man I love the hookup while jigging!!! Another one around 65cm landed. The bait fisho's landed a small one of the same size and another 2 black arse too.

Back for another drift and I was on again, little bigger this time and put up a bit more fight.

 Much easier pulling them up from 40m instead of 100m like on the charter the other week! After watching me constantly hooking up it was time for my bro in law to have a go.

He as pretty stoked with his biggest fish yet!

After the sambo action the skipper was keen to go try find a dhuie so we didn't head back to the spot just continued the drift away from the school. I continued to jig away hoping for another sambo, and whatta ya know I hooked up again. Slightly bigger again, this one put up decant fight! It was hooked right on the bottom tho so first call was for possibly a decant demersal, but after a good fight another sambo was landed.

Great fun!!!! I could have fished there all day catching sambos but the others wanted a feed so we moved onto another few spots. Did manage 1 more small sambo from a little school right at the end of one drift but that was it. A few more nice plump black arse were landed and a good fox fish but no dhuies. Was a fun day out and now even more hooked on jigging! Feel free to take me out anytime you're going for a jig guys... :)

Thanks!

Hey folks,

Just got back from a three week hiatus to Bangkok and Samui. Had a great time with friends and saw a great mate tie the knot in tropical island fashion.

For the bucks we organised boat out from the north of the island - with the intention of chasing shark, barracude, cobia, spanish macks, etc. On the day all were in great spirits, headed out with three big tubs full of Singha & Chang beer and several blokes were a few beers down before we even got to the boat....I could smell a disaster a brewing.

We headed out to a FAD in shallow water - probably only 7-8m or so and the seas were big. Within 15 minutes of dropping anchor one the lads was laying a burley trail of their own. Within 30 minutes, we had lost half the boat, much to the amusement of the few of us that did not suffer the ill effects of being on the ocean. Nothing caught within an hour, so we moved on.

We went behind a small tropical island that had nothing but a bar and a beach volleyball net on it. Several of the blokes were pleading to be dropped off - it was bloody hilarious! Despite the pleas, we ended up between two islands where the currents came together - making it nice and choppy. We now had lads crawling around and praying to god. A couple of small unidentified fish pulled up by one lad.

After a chat to the skipper, we asked to go out into deep water to chase something decent. After being outvoted about 15 - 3 we ended up on the island with a coke so the lads could recover. A buffet lunch and an hour or later, we were heading back in to land to start the bucks evening early.

Most lads cracked beers as soon as they got on the boat. Not many made it to a second brew.

Bad fishing, but a bloody hilarious day out.

Oh...it cost about 13,000 baht ($400) for the boat charter (a 50+ person boat). Not per person....for the whole bloody thing!

On a side note, I did make up for not catching any macks by eating them at every opportunity on the island. They sure know how to cook seafood in Samui! mmm mmmmmm.

Of to Hill River tomorrow with the old man to try and catch a feed.

Cheers,

Rob

.

Hey guys, heres a pic from a fishing session on Australia day. Got to woodys point at 630 and headed out to pick up a few squid in the cockburn sound, unfortunately the squid werent playing the game with 1 squid in half an hour and by the looks of things neither were the crabs in the same area. So we made the call and headed out a bit further ending up at the mewstones, had a quick scout around and out flicked my 60gm raider. First cast and i was on in no time, a decent 50cm+ tailor. We fished with the raiders for about an hour and got ourselves 5 nice tailor, once the tailor action had died down we anchored up and berleyed. We gave the berley 5mins to work and we were back into the action, using my light bream gear i managed a few nice size tarwhine and some herring also which put up a fun fight on light gear. All up a great way to spend Australia day. Cheers :)

I dropped into see the boys at the Tackleshack today and picked up a new bream rod and reel that I so desperately needed (well thats what I told the missus!) so I thought I had better find the time today to "blood" the new outfit before I flyout in the morning so I made an hour in between a couple of meetings that I had to attend and found these two hanging on the same snag. Xzoga rod and Stradic 1000 make a good combo. 

hey all

got out for a fish at last. left mindarie marina at 6am (missed tide) and headed for back edge of 3 mile. started the burley going in and started with a couple of lightly weighted baits. we were their for about 2 and a half hours for not a lot. big ray and a couple of shit fish , so anchor up and go have a look at my nearest marks. plenty of bait around marks but pretty quiet in the 32 meters,

decided to head out a little bit deeper to the 40 meter line. sounder now set to shift and we see a decent lump of about 2 meters as we were travelling (pic) with fish all over it. lump wasn't big so set up the drift and came up with 2 pinkie's and a dhuey . all undersize. bugger.

still , unsuccessfull trip but good finding little fish havens in the desert out there.

next time!

Just got back to Ktown after several flights from NC and I'm glad to be over with lugging 32kg of tackle all over the place... to say I'm exhausted is a complete understatement. I'll keep it breif for now, at least until Brad gets back and he's decided what pics he wants to keep for articles etc... Unfortunately we suffered bad weather almost the entire trip, strong winds and overcast weather made it extremely difficult to fish most of the time and we ventured very little to the outside of the reef. We had one afternoon of glorious weather, sunny skies and 0kt wind. Alas, this is also bad weather for GT fishing but being able to see the bottom in 30m of water on the outside of the reef was noticeably eeerie and add to that not being able to distinguish the water from the sky made for some pretty incredible conditions.

Brad managed to land the biggest GT for the trip, and on the last day too. At 35kg it wasn't big by NC standards but a new PB for him and given how tough the fishing was the entire time we were all absolutely stoked! I managed to land a 40kg Wahoo on popper which was a new LPB record and a first for our guide Rudy - awesome!. Glenn managed to boat the most GTs for the week at about 8 fish, but between the three of us we only managed about 12 GTs for the entire week - very hard work!

Apart from that there were a few good reefies landed, Brad got the biggest trout and red bass at 10kg and 9kg respectively. There were also Blue Cod, Spaniards, Green Jobfish etc at certain times. I managed to get busted up in pretty spectacular fashion by a decent Dogtooth Tuna on the outside, apart from the jigging was also hard work with spaniards and barracuda making a nuisance of themselves.

... to be continued

Went down south over the weekend, first two nights at wellington dam, next night down to molloy island (augusta) to stay with some friends, then Jane and I camped last night on the blackwood near balingup cause the wrights bridge campground was shut.

Was crap with the snare on the first night for a bit, but once I worked it out, I got 3 undersize marron which of course went back.   Molloy Island was nice, we fished about 100 mts to the left of the ferry and got smoked by some black bream and I learnt that the drag on my Okuma Hardstone 30 is stuffed.  I caught a fishing rod and reel and brought it up rigged and all from the snags. Me and 3 mates all lost a few rigs each, you would get a big hit, then run for a few seconds and get busted off.  The next day we went to the no fishing area near the ferry and dropped some pellets in and saw why we lost so many rigs, Some of the bream were 50cm easily.

Last night on the banks of the blackwood, while waiting to check our marron baits, Jane wanted to fish the pool in front of us but we had no bait.  I said try some of the cheese or salami we were eating. Evidently Margaret River Cheddar works in the Blackwood river too as it accounted for this trout in a cast or two.  In fact, I was on my way to the car to get some soft plastics to try, and Jane had landed the fish before I got to the car.

So fishing for me wasnt so great, but on the way back today we stopped at mandurah for a Miami Bakehouse Pie and a swim at the beach just down the road.  When we went down to the beach the whitebait were massed up on the shore and there was a school of herring smashing into them.  So I borrowed Janes rod and put on a bait chaser rig and got a herring.  Another bloke came down and was using a blob and green lumo tube on a hook and was cleaning up.  So I put the bait chaser rig onto a blob and sent it out.  First hookup massive school of herring chasing in and a triple hookup blew the rig off.  Despite Janes best effort to chase the blob with her fins and snorkel set, it was gone.  So I put on a halco twisty 10 gram in gold and got a few more herring before they went off the bite.

So at least I caught something edible! The weekend was great, and tubing at big rock wellington dam with the blokes from the campsite next to uswas a highlight in the heat of the second day. Lots of new ground seen and cant wait to get back down south again.

Anyone know what access is like at Loonies getting on and off the beach at the moment, or would White Hills be better this time of year ??

Any help would be appreciated wanting to catch something this Australia Day.

Maybe someone is planning on the same destination as I am and can meet up ???

hey guys was just wondering if anyone could let me know if the blue swimmers are as far up as lano and if it would be worth throwing a few nets off the jetty thanks.

Spent the morning onboard Dave Gray's 28 Deepvee BlackJack 2, working bait and birds off Westend in slightly undesirable 18-20 knot southeryly.  Caught the usual culprits, yellow tail king, southern bluefin tuna, striped tuna and sambos all on skirted lures on 2-3kg gear expcept for the sambo which engulfed an Xrap on 24kg.  Only two other boats out, a liesure cat and Alex Scholz with Cam and Matt from BW Melville running in his new tower on his Rampage 36.