Reports
World Record
Submitted by Ashram on Wed, 2009-12-30 16:15
Went out on Monday with my mate Mark on Reel Addiction (commodore 670) to try and get some club points and look around for some marlin or Tuna. The SEaster that was blowing in combination with the swell made the early start hard work with a few big waves coming in the windows to freshen us up for the day and get rid of the cobwebs from the nights drinking activities. We ran straight out to the All Marine Services FAD to look for some Mahi but nothing around. We put the big out for marlin and worked our way up the trench zig zagging around the temp breaks and current lines. We only managed some small tuna on the light gear that was being run in between the marlin gear. We checked all of the FADs out and they are all there which is good news.
When we got upto Hillaries gametime was trolling around for some Marlin and he was as despondent as us so we decided to head up to the north Sambo patch to get the arms working. Ther was about half a dozen boats there and the fish were thick an active on jigs. I did the first drift but underestimated the sped of the drift and by the time the 200g jigs got to the bottom to be worked, we were past the school. Upped the jig size and got the drift a bit better when we worked out we only had one gimbal belt so the decision was made that first on got the luxury of wearing one. Well lucky me I hhoked up first. Whilst mark was putting it around my waist he left his rod in the gunwhale rod holder and bang his went off as well. Douuble hook up but ha ha lucky for me i didnt have to stick it in my groin like poor Mark did.
The fish made a great account of themselves as we were using 8kg pretest so we could get points. I did think that we would get the fish up a bit quicker on 8kg but these fish were persistent with some good runs at all depths. Finlly we got them up and unfortunately we couldnt revive my well enough to send him to the bottom with a release weight so looking at the size of it we decided to weigh it as it looked good enough as achance to take off the current records.
Well we got the weighmaster down the Club and you little beauty she came in at 29.75kg on 8kg becoming the new State, Australian and World record.
My bloody arms felt a touch on Tuesday though. All worth it!!
PS I hope the photos work
- 19 comments
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tuna lures
Submitted by fishcrazy on Mon, 2009-12-28 20:33homemade tuna killers
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- 2449 reads
today was goin off
Submitted by fishcrazy on Mon, 2009-12-28 18:34we went out off rocko bit lumpy in a smallish rig but we bagged on dhue, black ass, my pb ba ,pinkie, and bluefin top day in shallow
- 14 comments
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Todays dhufish in 5m
Submitted by Northwest on Mon, 2009-12-28 17:17in the last 8 years diving off perth i have encountered spaniards,kings,sambos, pinks but never a dhufish underwater.
about a week ago i went out with a mate to my usuall spot, and was greeted by about 30-40 undersize kings as soon as i hit the water. as they where to small i kept on swimming until about 15 minuites later i arrived at what seemed to be a pack of big buff breams at about 3-5m of water. At a closer inspection there lies what i estimaited to be a 6-8kg dhuie. (at this point i was in a bit of shock) I took a deap breath and reached the bottom only to face a very long range and difficuilt shot.. and so i snuck up a bit closer only to see the only dhufish ive ever seen (whilst diving) piss off into the blue. (spearing while freediving is much harder then what some ppl may think) got back home told dad only to get laughed at...
today we went out to the same spot, i was on the hunt to shoot this dhufish. on the way to the spot dad was joking with me saying his going to shoot it and that i have no chance. dad was right within 10 minuites of being in the water he saw his first dhufish ever (sized measured 54cm) and had it on the end of his spear in no time. (only in 5m of water) I must admit he showed me how it was done lol...
luckily the dhufish i saw the week befor was bigger and had a ~10cm cut on his back, keeping me at peace with dad knowing there is a 6-8kg dhuie out there with my name on it lol
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Weather question
Submitted by Asahambe on Sun, 2009-12-27 13:27
Tomorrow looks good for a launch but Tuesday is all over the place. Is this a normal occurrence in WA waters I'm still learning these part of the woods it's a lot dif from Melb waters.
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swan crabs
Submitted by thesupervisor on Sat, 2009-12-26 17:09went out crabbing at 130am today at spyc gave it away at 730
got one nice crab was great morning on the river
anyone else gettting crabs in the river yet?
Xmas eve on the 3 mile
Submitted by octopus on Fri, 2009-12-25 18:32Went out on my boat with kackles yesterday hoping to get onto some decent fish.
Took him out to an area on the 3 mile where ive had luck before. Had a great day out especially for kackles as he 'd never caught anything bigger than a wrasse before.
Burleyed up and came onto a school of snapper we ended up catching about 12 between us, most undersize between 40 and 50 cm, we ended up with just 2 that were big enough to keep, kackles caught one at 51cm and i got one at 62cm, and as massive ray about as wide of my boat really tested my rod and reel, then was released..
We left with the fish still biting but too much wind to fish comfortably. Great to see that there are still fish on the 3 mile with so many boats and fishos about. forgot to take the camera out guys, sorry.
Want to give a shout out and thanks to alfred (for my marine radio), the guys who recommeneded the garmin etrex, and all the guys on this site and at oceanside that have given me advice and tips on catching bigger fish.
merry xmas
dave
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This morning, Snapper/Crays
Submitted by southcity104 on Thu, 2009-12-24 19:32Christmass eve family lunch this morning at 11.00 so the expectations were high for fresh seafood.
Headed out from cockburn at sparrows
Found pinkies schooling north of the sound then headed to Rott for a cray dive. Found more reds than whites in the teens and saw a dozen large YTK's
Anyways Merry Christmass fisho's
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Making the best of the weather
Submitted by till on Tue, 2009-12-22 18:26Quick buzz out to Rotto with Southcity104 turned up the goods.
A quick dive for a bag of crays. I saw a few queenies down there and ginormous blue groper but really had to work hard for my crays - feelers sticking out of plate coral, but no way in, rays 6' across trying to hoover me, ripping current but Tony put us on the spot and there they were.
Next, a bit of fishing turns up a steaming run for Tony, but no %&&$#$%@ convert. Whatever it was got sick of the ride and reefed him hard. I managed a PB pinky (71cm) on a Fanky jig, a tail-rigged caprice copy.
Time ran out and we settled in for the hard slog home in fairly bonecrunching conditions.
Ta Tony!
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Another jigging report - Sat 19th
Submitted by Ben Derecki on Mon, 2009-12-21 11:49After having watched Seabreeze all week we were stoked to see Saturday's weather hold up so we were up at 5.30am Saturday and on the water by about 6.30 for a day of jigging. I had a new Lemax SlimMax and an Ajiking Wahoo jigging setup that I was looking forward to blooding on what was / is hopefully the first of many trips this season.
Went straight out the back of Rottnest to the usual spots and on the first drop I was on, 'this is looking to be a promising day' I thought - which was accurate to an extent. The fish that came up was about 10-12kg, not massive but a good start.
Following that we ended up getting onto fish consistently enough but it was hard work in between and that seemed to be the same for the boats around us. We tried a few different locations and probably got onto one fish every 2-3 drifts including a small amber.
The biggest we got was the last fish of the day and it would have been about 25kg. It was pretty cool actually, this was the first time my mate had been jigging and he hadn't got anything all day. When he finally hooked up and then eventually brought this fella to the surface he was stoked.
All in all it was a good day - enough fish to keep us occupied, I was stoked with the way the SlimMax and Wahoo handled everything and the weather had been tip top. On the way back we were cruising along at about 30kms when we saw a flash of white underwater about 10m to our left. I pulled up straight away and it turned out to be a momma humpback and her calf doing a u-turn out of our way... which was pretty nice of them. We tried to follow them for a bit but they weren't interested in hanging around, so neither were we.
Stopped off at Carnac Island on the way home for a brief snorkel and a cool off swim, but with the southerly picking up we decided to call it a day and headed back to the ramp.
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yanchep
Submitted by poketz on Mon, 2009-12-21 10:16hey everyone im heading up o yanchep tomorrow and i just wondering if anybody has heard what is going on up there lately.
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How good was the vis
Submitted by sunshine on Mon, 2009-12-21 08:00Dived the 26 metre line behind FFB on saturday and I have to say that the visibility was some of the best I have seen in perhaps 5 years, rolled out of the boat only to clearly see the bottom 26.9 metres below, the reef we dived was stunning, loaded with crays, with a single ledge providing the bag limit in a few minutes and the place was alive with fish. Lots and lots of juvie dhuies as well as one really good fish, harlies, queenies and even one large boar fish...................hope these conditions hold over Christmas.
On the down side - the three boats that pulled up 500 yards further out and then systematically dived a string of pro pots - yes we have recorded your boat regos and they have been passed to fisheries. The bottom out there was flat sand and it was patently clear the reason for diving that string. Guys like you earn legitimate divers a bad name and deserve everything coming their way!
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Hill River 18/12/09
Submitted by buschy on Sun, 2009-12-20 16:20Hi all,
Made it up to Jurien for the weekend with the wife and proceeded to spend most of it fishing. A quick stop at Cervantes to catch some fresh bait - the herring were out in force and while mostly small in size were good sport nonetheless. Also a great opportunity to test out my latest creation - 'Buschy's Best Burley' (sorry Spess) - it works like a charm.
Got into Jurien and checked in to our accommodation for the weekend. At $110 a night ($130 peak) - the self-contained chalets in the caravan park are reasonable value and well situated. Headed out towards Hill River about 3:30pm.
There is a gravel track that takes you out to the beach - then you can pick up a sand track and head either south towards Cervantes or north towards Hill River. I did a quick reccy a couple of K's in each direction and was really impressed with the variety of structure that the beaches threw up. While I did not make it up to the river (did not want to run the risk of getting bogged on my own) - I settled on a section of beach where there was a decent gutter. Reef about 50m offshore and it looked like it would fish really well at high tide. The stiff SSW that was blowing produced some nice chop on the surface and it looked like perfect tailor weather.
Mucked around for an hour with different setups, baits and lures to see what was out there. No interest. Then about 30mins from sunset I started getting nibbles. Something was stripping a whole mulie - nothing big - but cast after cast it was getting a feed and I was reeling in baitless hooks. After about 10 minutes of trying I finally got into it and had a nice surprise when I landed a small flatty. Was not what I was expecting. Unfortunately he had swallowed two of the gangs and by the time I got them out he was worse for wear so he became destined for the dinner table. My first flatty and the first time I had eaten one too - boy they are a B-E-A-utiful fish to eat - great flavour and texture plus catching him in that clean water would of helped too.
Now someone posted asking for advice on tailor rigs about a week ago. I chipped in with my views and then added my disclaimer than in my 6 short months of surf fishing I had only caught the one! I was hoping that would change and sure enough as soon as the sun kissed the water I was into something better. Even though I had only caught the one previously, I knew straight away what it was. It had that distinctive tap as it took the bait. On light gear, I thought it was a small tailor and then when it realised it was only a few metres from the beach it took off on me providing some great sport. A couple of minutes later and my PB tailor was on the beach - about 44cm and while hard to be accurate with the spring scales about 1.6kg.
After that - nothing. They were off the bite as quickly as they came on. I perservered for about 45 minutes then decided to swap over to the big rigs to target my mulla. In that time the stiff breeze had swung around to the east and dropped off completely - it was now the perfect evening for sitting on the beach and enjoying the night sky.
I put out a whole fresh herring on one and blue mack tail on another. Waiting for the run to come the lightning storms rolled in to the SW making for some spectacular night viewing. I just hoped that they would stay away from me - being on a beach furing an electrical storm with a rod in your hand is perfect recipe for a 'shocking' end to the evening.
The first run came about 9:30pm - not long before high tide on the herring. Having caught a mulloway once before at Wedge (approx 7kg) again you can pick that distinctive hard hit on the bait. By the time I had picked up the rod though, it had dropped the bait and didn't come back for seconds. After a few minutes I dragged half a herring back in and replaced it with a fresh one - when all of a sudden the other rod went off. Yes! That same fish again...grabbed the rod out of the holder - and what do you know. It dropped the bait again. So frustrating but being this tentative with the baits it just had to be a big mulla - no doubt with plenty of experience frustrating would be fisherman like myself.
After that it all went quiet again. No runs for a couple of hours so I flicked out some small baits and caught a few bull herring....there were plenty around and all good size, however I did not have an appetite for fishing small and wanted that Mulla!!! I popped a livey on the big rod but despite my best attempts it always wanted to swim right up to shore. When the livey finally kicked for the last time I lopped the head off and put it out on the smaller rod as an unweighted bait (3x 5/0 gangs) on about 50cm of 27lb trace. A whole mack on the big rod - maybe I could snare a reef shark if I was lucky.
After about 15 mins there was a massive splash in the water on top of the fresh herring. The rod tip doubled over and as I reached for the rod it went dead. Whatever it was had snapped me clean off (I can only deduce that the line got caught on the tail of the fish). As I reeled in 50m of slack line I watched my glow stick slowly drift away, hanging out of the mouth of my dream catch..... :(
I kept waiting for it to come back - but that was it and no more runs. Gave up about 2:30am. FISH 3, BUSCHY 0. An exciting night and 'nearly' a big one! Nonetheless was absolutely wrapped to take home a good solid tailor (finally!).
Went back the next night for a couple of hours back no runs on the line. Next time....
Some photo's attached of Jurien sunset, Jurien Jetty at dusk (packed!), Dynamite Bay (Greenhead) and Sandy Bay (which looks like a GREAT fishing spot).
Cheers,
Rob
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Sambo Jigging Today
Submitted by Lucky Tim on Sat, 2009-12-19 19:21Thanks to Brutas I got out for a jig today but unfortunately things were quiet compared to last weekend. We did land 6 fish to about 25kg but there was a lot of km's and heaps of jigging between fish. Anyway I only took a few photos, including this sequence of Brutas on a fish which he did eventually land.



Anyway he did jig on and landed 2 more fish without his handle.
Thanks for a good day out mate.
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Mackies are in at Rotto
Submitted by wadetolley on Fri, 2009-12-18 19:47A few guys on here might be intrested......Talked to a guy at work today. Said while he was diving at Rotto last sat, he saw 4 spanish macks. Time to get out the lures boys!
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whats the best esky 2 buy?
Submitted by streaker boy on Thu, 2009-12-17 13:34hey guys just wondering what esky you guys uses?
im after one in next few days and tryin to decided which one to buy?
any of yous uses that techni ice boxes? what are they like?
evakool esky???
or anyothers?
goin have to be bout 85 or 110 lt?
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Saturday afternoon Tailor at The Cut
Submitted by Simmo on Tue, 2009-12-15 12:52Had a good couple of hours at the Cut on Saturday arvo. Beautiful conditions, bit of chop and a nice but not too stiff SW.
Plenty of tailor around. All were size, though not overly large. A good size salmon trout was landed too. The blowies were out in force, heaps of the bastards everywhere.
Didn't see any skippy though.
All up we had 10 tailor and a salmon trout. All were released.
Cheers.
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Jigging with the lads
Submitted by Chuditch on Mon, 2009-12-14 19:10After booking a jigging session with all the lads 2 months in advance we were extremely lucky to get some of, if not the best conditions of the year on Sunday. Was the maiden jigging voyage for 10 out of the 12, with a large range of fishing experience between the group we still did fairly well. Managed to boat around 60 fish.
My biggest of the day at estimated 45kgs.
Another solid fish
Learning the hard way
Jigged bronzey
Pete pretty happy with himself

Robbo - Numero 7

Great day was had by all.
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Even more jigging pics
Submitted by Wrassassin on Mon, 2009-12-14 16:31Hey guy's
I was out there to yesterday to pop my sambo cherry. It was fantastic and after 5 years in port hedland i can say i haven't come across anything that pulls like that.
Southern cross charters were impressive helping get those fish back down.
I forgot my camera so pics from the phone
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More jigging action
Submitted by chrisp on Mon, 2009-12-14 09:24Headed out Yesterday with Southern Cross and was joined by fellow fw members Schecky and Sam C.
We arrived at hillaries aggs aroung 8.30 and there was about 15 boats hovering about. It was definately the best conditions i have ever seen out there.Absolute millpond.
Plenty of fish for all,
Gotta Give props the the boys at Southern Cross for doing the right thing.We spent at least 1/2 hour netting other poeples floating fish and making sure they went back down.
We did see one Boat with a guy who jumped in the water with his underwater camera to get some footage.All i can say is "balls of steel" with some of the sharks that were hanging around.
Sam C having some fun with the Smith/Certate Hyper 4000 Pe3
After a good 30min the result
Scheckys nice fish
It Was another great day out on the water
Cheers, Chris
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Metro Tailor
Submitted by wicksey on Mon, 2009-12-14 08:11Got a good feed of tailor last night, 11 between the two of us.
Most were around the 40cm mark, the biggest were 43cm.
Quite amusing was the fact that when either of us said something along the lines of "jeez its gone quiet" we would get smashed before even being able to finish the sentence.
Lovely warm evening for it too.
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Sambo Jigging Today
Submitted by Simo_ on Sun, 2009-12-13 18:06Went out jigging for Sambos today. Got to Point Peron at 10am, it was totally packed.
Headed out to the containers out the back of Rotto, it wasn't hard to find the spot, there was about 15 boats already there.
I got 2 and Amanda got 1. It was a PB for both of us.
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crabs!
Submitted by sarcasm0 on Sun, 2009-12-13 14:49Went out last night to mandurah for a shore based dive/scoop. Saw heaps of tiddlers and a few big berried females in the bay just to the south of the cut and ended out with three just size, when we left I counted 45 scoopers as we headed south along the estuary for a few mins to look around. I also lost another flipper?!@!@! Now I need a new set, and so does dad haahaha! I dunno whats going wrong, both were lost while chasing crab in the shallows. Won the fight, Realised I only have one flipper and havent been able to find it in the silt.
Went out to woodies this morning at about 8am, farkn every man and his dog was there. The public car park was nearly full. I went north of woodmans pt and there were shitloads of boats/pots out so I found a 100m2 patch where noone had anything in about 9 ft and set out a couple of short lines of pots, anchored up in the middle and went for a snorkel(with no flippers!) Took one size one, saw a few tiddlers. Dived for about 1/2 hour went back to the boat, had a rest, then pulled the pots, got nothing went for another 1/2 hour snorkel, saw tiddlers, got none. By this point most other people had left, so I took advantage and pulled all my pots, and moved out setting them in a line heading out into the deeper water. Anchored up at the deep end of the line, and went for a snorkel in about 16ft. By this time it was about 10am visability was just enough to see the weed/sand on the bottom, so swimming barefoot I could cruise the surface and see anything unusual on the bottom. Within a min or two I saw a massive crab, So got a good breath and went after him. He stood his ground and was easy taking a nice male blue manna, 15 cm. From there on swimming circles round the boat I got another 6 blueys all 15cm+, the last one on the way back to the boat. I could see a whitish thing swimming away from me, so I chased it for probably 30 mts, it stopped, I got a breath and went face to face with the biggest bluey I have seen this year. It was a bit of a funny chase with him darting left and right, I thought I was gonna run out of breath, but finally grabbed him, 19cm across the shell, but only short arms so claw span was about 45cm.
Anyway I was back by 12:30, Its bloody hot again and I wish I was still diving, but I have a bloody christmas carol thing on now at home, looking forward to a nice feed of crabs and salad though. Not to mention about a dozen coldies!
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Fishing today out of Hillarys!
Submitted by wadetolley on Sun, 2009-12-13 14:40After a few to many cold rebacks last night, the skipper slept well. He awoke at 5am to find Deckie (Claire) had been up for a while and had sorted Lunch, and had packed the boat with rods ect. Short trip down to Hillarys boat ramp, uncovered what i can only say as Bloody busy chaos! The carpark was near on half full at 6am in the morning.
With a light eastly blowing on our backs, we headed out to our king george spot in the 40s west of Hillarys. Must of passed a couple of hundred Professional cray pots on the way out, which thankfully ended at around 30m mark. We arrived at our spot and a light eastly it was giving us just the right drift speed. First drift i pulled up a couple of flathead, and claire a king wrasse. The second drift was better with Claire picking up a nice King George at 50cm.
We had a few more drifts, and few more Kg runs, but today they were smarter than us, and were being hard to hook. The wind started to die down to nothing...and with that the fish shut down. We then headed to a nice lump we found some time back, and was glad to see some action on the sounder.
We set up our first drift and sent out occy/mulie cocktail to the bottom. It wasnt long before Claire was getting smoked by something big, and after 10 mins her hook straightened, and she lost her fish. Normally there is only skippy at this spot..but today old mate sambo had moved in. Next drift a few rat sambos were raised, which were around 60cm, and then my rod buckled over.
A few big runs and 20 mins later, i could see my fish coming to the surface. The big sambo was about 10 m under the boat when all of a sudden, she was gone...it rubbed thru my leader. Claire proceeded to calm me down, but after 20mins and 28 litres of sweat running down my back..i wasnt at all happy. We then rigged up with heavier leader and bigger hooks. We then had a few more drifts but they bigger fish were no where to be seen just rats evrywhere.
With no more big fish showing up and the wind starting to blow from the south west, it was time to head home. Got back to the ramp and there was a line up of about 20 boats. We loaded old traily up and headed for home..another lovely day on the water!
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Cottesloe Groyne?
Submitted by buschy on Sat, 2009-12-12 11:54Hi guys,
Anyone had any reports on or fished the groyne or beaches around that way in the last few days?
I'm heading to Cott. Groyne early on Monday morning - probably aim to wet the line around 4am. It doesn't look like there will be much of a breeze around but I'm keen to find out what happening around that way?
I'll let you all know how it goes too.
Cheers,
Rob
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shoalwater beach
Submitted by young_yakker on Thu, 2009-12-10 21:55went down to shoalwater to try my luck with tailor i ended up loosing 3 good sized metro tailor around 40cm-50cm on there last jump. i also hooked bonnet sized black stingray it was great fun nearly spooled me not much action though little stop and starts i eventually got it close to the shore and saw how big it was and this older dude next to me laughed i ended up locking up my drag and busting it off all in all good fun.
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Any size crabs down at Mandurah yet?
Submitted by wadetolley on Thu, 2009-12-10 18:15Hi thinking of going down to Mandurah crabbing this weekend, are they just over size yet?
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Just Back from Exmouth Land Based
Submitted by desmond on Tue, 2009-12-08 14:56Hi all,
Just got back to Singapore from over a week of land-based fishing in Exmouth. Didn't get what I was after (GT), but the fishing was great so no complaints. Travelled alone but met great company along the way from all over the world. Everyone has been extremely friendly and helpful and you bet I will be back there again to burn another hole in my pocket.
Had to drive from Exmouth to Perth, catch a flight back to Singapore and go straight to work, so am a bit knackered now. Gonna take some zzzzzs and will get a more detailed report out in a bit with some pics.
What size pics should I upload? You guys prefer few high quality pics or many low rez pics?
OK SO I'M WRITING THE REPORT PROPER NOW
My camera ran flat a couple of days so no pics of some outstanding fishing. I must have dropped the camera at least a dozen times so luckily i had it strapped to a bungee. Lost my $40 pliers like four times - managed to miraculously find it again sometimes hours later - taped a glow stick so I wouldn't lose it for good. And it was particularly difficult trying to land snapping fish and staying balanced on the rocks while watching the waves at the same time, so thanks to the guys on this forum who warned me about doing Quobba solo.
I was told that this is the quiet season and the fishing is better in the summer, but I liked it nice and quiet and would not consider going back to Exmouth during the busy season. At one site in the Reserve, there was only one spot available during one of the weekend nights - can't imagine the peak season. Most of the caravan parks were pretty empty so I could decide at the spur of the moment if I wanted to just show up for the night. Also, it was really windy a couple of days, so that gave my feet time to heal. They got pretty badly cut up and sore from abrasion - a lot of walking, and my hands were cut up from handling all the prickly fish. Of the 8 days spent fishing, 2 days came up scratch.
So I did not get any REALLY REALLY big fish, but I got plenty of game on light tackle. I would have done a lot better on bait, but this was primarily a luring trip, baiting only for shark - though I did get a few on poppers on 16-20lbs tackle, which was an absolute ball.
Some of the species I managed to get:
Coral trout - various types some kept changing colour
Trevally - various types and sizes but unfortunately no GT
Baldchin garoupa
Various types of wrasse and reef fish
Spangled or Longnose - i can't really tell the diff
Queenfish - big and small
Barracuda - freak sizes
Squid, octo and cuttlefish
Bream - freeflow
A million flies of the biting and non-biting variety, all extremely irritating especially when mixed with coffee
I'm sure I have not mentioned some of the rest.
In addition, I managed to see maybe bonefish (could be whiting on steroids), permit, bait balls, nesting turtles, various weird birds, kangaree, bunch of different reptiles and the whole dune community,
I did see LARGE GTs but they would not take lures though I'm certain they would have taken bait. I also saw large fish swim past but refrained from tossing out lures as some places it would be impossible to land the fish without causing it damage or putting myself at risk of falling in. I found releasing and reviving large sharks especially challenging on my own at night, so cut off the really big ones once they were close enough even though I use circle hooks, it was a lot of work.
Numerous bust offs, especially on large hard-bodied minnows. I ended up using 80lbs bite guard even on the light rig as i was loosing too many lures. 2nd day out I lost 7 poppers alone. Went back into town to burn another hole in my pocket. Lost various other lures the next couple of days, but ended the trip with over a kilo of GT poppers still intact. With the sharks I started out with 40lbs cable, but they only last 40 seconds, went up to 80 and they last maybe 80 seconds, finally settled on 200lbs doubled over and fused together making it 400lbs - didn't lose any more sharks.
Not forgetting to mention thanks to some very specific people.
Brian and Jenny at Bluewater
Rusty and company at Exmouth tackle for the wind report
All the wonderful people traveling through Australia
Tim and Dave for pulling me out of the sand and for showing me how to drive a van the aussie way. Also for directing me into the sand pit in the first place!!! Thanks for sharing the spot (came with a confidentiality clause) - but if you walk up from the Gulf and back down the west side, you'll find it - spent 2 days fishing that spot and got my best fishing there. Will look up you friend Allen when I need a 4wd next time round.
The attached pics are just some that I managed to capture on the camera. There isn't a way to describe watching the sunset on your left and the moon rising on your right, then having a turtle crawl right past you.
Had a wonderful time and this would be one trip I would do on my own again.
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Till & Hlokk dive hillarys 8 Dec 2009
Submitted by till on Tue, 2009-12-08 14:08Haven't been out since Friday and the gills were starting to dry out - but they wen't the only thing.
Dived one of my regular spots and its really wearing very thin, only managed a few on that dive. Matt seemed fine in the water and we spotted a few PJs, cuttlefish, cobbler but not much else. It was one of those days when you're seemigly drier in the water than out, it was very windy up top.
Next we went out and to a bit of reef a little further north-west, and I noticed the pro string had gone. Dammit, those crays really must be legging it! We carried on to the out edge of the marine park and dived the last of the structure there.
The structure of the last dive was very low, only a couple of metres high, but we found plenty of crays along the sandy edge. Its so much more relaxing than the shallow dives that are all nooks and caves I must say.
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Karratha fun
Submitted by Bodie on Tue, 2009-12-08 11:50Headed to Karratha last week for work, and managed to get a days fishing in while i was up there
Conditions were not perfect to say the least, with the wind pushing along, but still easily fishable.
Started early in the morning, only to be stopped by an extremely low tide, and couldnt get out of the ramp at dampier due to there being no water!!!
So waited an hour for the tide to come in and finally managed to launch.
Headed out about 15 miles and played with some mac tuna (i think they are) for a while.
6-7kg tuna go hard on 8lb gear :)
Hooked up to a Tuna on 8lb gear!

Sometimes happens on light gear!

Another nice Toona!

And another

Quite a few cobia around too with a couple double headers coming up. They went hard on 30lb!!

and another


Mr Charlie had a hard day!!

Managed some trout too, this one went 58cm

Also a nice Mangrove jack which was a surprise.


All in all a good day on the water, but dam hot!!!!
Bodie
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