went out first thing this this morning to try and free my cray pots, managed to get them free with one cray.

then went for a squid and managed to get the one, I've struggled to find the squid this year.

Fished for my 30 whiting then out for a feed of crabs. Was a tough day being solo but managed a decent feed.

Went out and got a bag of herring last week so I could make up a pickle. Used to eat a heap of this as a kid when the family would goto Lancelin in the school holidays. This recipe is a cross between what my old man taught me and little johnnys crayfish pickle.

1 ½ cups malt vinegar

1 ½ cups ssb white wine

½ cup french salad dressing

½ cup water

1 red chilli

1 clove garlic

1 green capsicum

1 finely chopped onion

Salt and pepper

1 dozen herring fillets cut in half

Mix all ingredients together and adjust to taste, put herring into mixture and leave in fridge for 24hrs, if you can.

 Couple from sat. Smelly bass moved in. Plenty of puka around.

With Thursdays weather predictions looking good I thought I'd take advantage of it and have my first attempt targeting KGW.... I have only managed to catch a few as bycatch in the past.

The weather predictions didn't dissapoint, I headed out in probably the best conditions I've had my boat out in. This trip is was also the first time I got to test the 628 out, I had to make a few minor height adjustments to the transducer on the trip out but overall I was happy with the returns I was getting.

Unfortuantly I was unable to locate any KGW but the day wasn't a total waste, I managed to mark plenty of ground and get into a few other species. I started on the inside of the FFB and the first drop of the morning resulted in a Dhu which was brought up slow and released well. After this multiple small pinkies, good numbers of sandies and a decent Blackarse came over the side.

With no luck I decided to head to the back of the FFB and have a few drifts. I had a good show on the sounder and had a drop on it which resulted in a small pink, as I was bringing it up a school of sambos stalked it all the way to the boat. I flicked a 5" plastic back to them and watched a sambo crush it 1m below the surface. For the next hour and half or so it was one after another with 15 sambos of different sizes hitting the deck. I was able to land a fish, release it and flick back to the school of followers. Was good fun on light gear and can't wait to get out and have another crack.

Sorry about the glare and quality of the sounder pics, thought I'd still post them up for people's thoughts.

 was hard going at the start and had to move around a lot! Once I found them was throwing plenty of bigger ones away once I got my 10... using drop nets

 On subsurface lures, biggest 33 and 32. Had a crack with topwater gear for no result.

 With the demersal ban on, its time to switch the focus to Kgs and whiting and crayfish. Took my boy out last weekend and he caught his fisrt KG. Stoked!!. 48cm. Nice fish. seems to be plenty around at the moment. Bought a new outfit from Ryan at Oceanside the other day. 4000fb Rarenium matched with Ab u Garcia Salty Stage Rod. Dont know if he has any left, but absolute weapon! 

Great to have some good weather - roll on Summer!!.

Im not a superstitious person but on this full moon tonight at the jetty i had it already in my mind that it would be hard to land a barra. Larry was already down there who i would now call my fishing buddy, we had fished together in the recent weeks and would help each other out taking in turns catch live bait, many times he had seen me walk away with a barra and not usually come home empty handed.

I feel like i am a keen fishermen but Larry is next level regularly putting in 8 hours a day for four days a week.

He explained to me it had been his dream to catch his first legal barra.

After weeks of trying finally his time was tonight the barra grabbed his livie leapt into the air throwing its head in that iconic way that barra do with guidance on how to prevent the fish from stopping on hitting the pylons, i ran down to the water edge on the rocky platform and guided the fish in just as a i had in in my hands the hook fell out but with my finger lodged well and truly in its mouth there was no way i was letting this fish go.

With a few high 5s and even a hug thown in it was a fantastic moment that i know will be cherished forever.

I myself lost 5 barra in a row and just as a i had given up i dropped my last live bait in the water and finally managed to land one and get past that unlucky 13!

Headed down to Pirate's local last night and bagged a few reasonable tailor as well as a little spinner shark.

Not the best conditions with a fair bit of weed blowing through but ideal for the choppers.

was very quiet at the start but things soon fired up after sundown, wind picked up so Russel & I pulled anchor and was heading back to the ramp by 9pm... was hard going scooping the crabs due to the murky water but we managed a small feed.

 The demersal ban means we get to focus on catching better eating and better fighting fish, all in shallow water......love it. 

We posted on here a couple of months back looking for a crew to help us fish this years Bonanza before we opended it to the general public. To our suprise we had more than one intrested group wanting to book the boat strait away. We feel we know our stuff when it comes to game fishing, espically for Blacks out of the Coral Bay. But we had never had the chance to fish Exmouth and wanted to get some experiance up there before we contested next years Gamex with the plan to target Marlin and hopefull place in that catagory. Well mission acomplished I am happy to say. Not only do we have a much better understnding of where and how to find the fish in Exmouth, but we ended up with some silverwhare to boot. We know the Bonanza is a very small comp and are not getting ahead of ourselves, but we are happy with what we where able to achive in average fishing conditions and not very hungry fish.

DAY 1

Having tagged a nice 90kg black quite wide on the way up and scoped out the gulf to find a lot of mud and very little bait the day before, our plan was to go wide, cover ground and hopefully find some Blues. Leaving from the marina just before 6 we wanted to be onto blue water before lines in at 8:00am. We passed a good looking current line about 7:30 but decided to stick to the plan and by lines in we where in some good looking water. We did not have to wait too long, at 8:45 we had a small tap on the long rigger and could see a bill in the spread. Our usual speed change and drop back and quick retrive of the lure had him following the lure in and he hit the long coners on the way up. Nice solid hookup saw a quick fight with little need for backing up on the 24kg gear. Tag in and being a small fish decky Matt was easilly able to hold the fish and remove the hook quickly while it was still fresh and in exelent condition. Quick hi five and lures back in this was a comp after all. Radioed it in and the 45kg Black was the first fish of the comp. With the plan to cover ground we did not loop around and kept heading wide. It payed off and within a hour now out wide we spotted a monster in the spread. The fish disaperaed so we did the same routine and I had a perfect view of a huge bill followed by a black hole of a open mouth destroy the long rigger. Before the drag even started screeming I knew this was a real fish. Still clearing the spread just as we noticed we where allready getting low on line we the fish went arial with one huge jump then a 50m long tail dance. But this was way out to the Port side of the boat while we still had line peeling out to Starboard. I knew we where in trouble and before we could do anything about it, with too much looped line in the water and the fish still running the 24kg could not hold the water pressure and gave way. Not even dissapointed we where just pumped to have seen the display. Hard to judge size from a distance but it was a Blue well en excess of 200kg. Happy to be finding fish we where strait back to it and withing an hour had another fish on. Still not that hungry and having to tease him onto the lure agian after seeing the fish first. With a really good first run and a bit of a show, but then behaved very well we had the fish tagged, hook out and gone in now time. We where happy to see a nice 35kg Striped Marlin. For the next few hours we saw nothing except other boats. Heading further south in the cnayons we found at least half the fleet and now knew we where not the only boat after Marlin (at least for now). Trolled back to where we got the Striped and just as we made the turn to head towards home at about 4:00pm (lines out at 5) we had the long rigger go off. No sightings of a fish but with the amount of line taken in the first 5 seconds I knew what ot was. We where quicker on it this time and just as we where cleared had some tight line and the fish slowed down I saw the fish strait out the back. A good Blue, not as big as the last one but we had a nice strait line to the fish and I thought we have this one. Seconds later pop, spat the hook..... It was only at this point I realised that if we had just hung onto that fish (or the eariler Blue) we would of had a Grand Slam on day 1!!!

DAY2

Happy with day 1 and after finding out we where the only boat to tag marlin so far the plan was to copy what we had done on day 1 minus the wasted time down south. And that plan worked, at 8:50 on the same sopt as the day before we had another Black. Still not hungry and having to be teased, he took the shotgung just as we thought he was gone. A good fight for the size of the fish we kept the fish out the side of the boat and slowly closed the gap and got onto the leader with some quick and short backdowns. Another good tag shot and the hooks fell out just as Matt grabbed hold of the bill wich is not too suprising after having to change angle so may times during the fight. Nice 55kg Black and we where pumped for a good day. Now thinking we had a good idea where the fish where we headed for our Blues. But the weather had other ideas allready having some good sets stading up from the South and just as we got to a good area the wind turned to the West a bit more and went next level. I remember watching Matt trying to get the long corner length right only to have the lure disappear into a 2m high rolling white water. We where a long way from home and having to keep a bit of angel to the sea I knew it would be a long run home so we started heading that way. But just the at our furthest point out in 800m of water the short coner gets hit for the first time, with a ok run and eating a 14" lure I thought it must be a ok fish. But it started to come in fairly quickly and halfway in it make its first jump. A Sailfish??? We where targeting Marlin and at the time I had never been more dissapointed to catch a 25kg Sailfish. Got it along side and a tag in. few quick photos and back to trying to get home. We ran in to the back of the island hoping it would not bee too bad in tight. But it was not much better and had to run allmost strait on the rest of the way home. Not too bad out the back but had a few good free fall moments in the cab.

DAY3

Final day and lines in at 3:00 today we only had limited time. But I knew if the fish came on our 3 fish marlin lead could be gone in minutes. Very quiet morning and we did not push too wide, not wanting to give the boys another hammering as the weather was up a bit and threatening to come right up agian. So we concentrated where we got our blacks. The wind did come up again on cue but at least we where not too far out. It was about 1:00pm and with no marlin being called in I thought we would just start trolling in untill lines out at 3. But just after that the ocean seemed to come alive. started to see lots of bait and see a few dollys in the spread. and at 1:30pm Long rigger gets a solid hookup with no sighting of the fish. Another good fight and plenty of water over the back with the final backdowns to get on the leader saw a good 70kg Black tagged and finally a bit of excitement after a long day of nothing. Was on a Mack Tuna strait after and at this point I was thinking, the fish are on, somone can easilly tag 4 marlin before 3pm. So no more heading for home but back kept in that area to try and make the most of the late bite. Seeing fish everywhere and the Sailfish tags started comming thick and fast on the radio. We had one more hookup on a 100kg + Black. But we saw it spit the hook on a jump near the boat. And at 2:30 it seemed to calm down so decided to start trolling home agian. Back at the club we where supprised to find we where still the only boat to tag a marlin dispite seeing several boats in simmilar area to us durin the day. Our target was to hopefully at least place on the marlin side of things but it looks like we topped it. At the presentation it was good to see a lot of sailfish had been tagged especially on the last 2 days, and the OnStrike had been killing it on them over all 3. We where happy we had exceeded our goal with the Marlin but during the presentations I found out that that Sailfish that I was allmost anoyed with also made us the Campion Boat Combined.

A Huge thank you to the Exmouth Game Fishing Club. They put on and amazing show. Thank you to all the compeditors and hope you all enjoyed the weekend. Congrats to Onstrike winning overall and Chanpion Team Sailfish, And thaks to Exmouth Bluewater Tackle World for helping out with the prizes.

Sorry I have no photos (not camera safe weather for most of it) of fish but will soon have a few videos.

We ended up with:

Chanpion Team Marlin

Champion Team Combined

3rd On Points Overall

4-4-3 Black Marlin

1-1-1 Striped Marlin

1-1-1 Sailfish

2-2-0 Blue Marlin

We will be back for our Blue!!

Video that our decky made up on our fb page

 Had my 1st trip to Gnaraloo back in August, great place, only got the boat out a couple of times. Hoping to get back up there again next year. Yellow fin tuna were thick, couldn’t get past them and the long tails to get a Mackie, finally had a double hook up of XXL mackies only to have them smashed by sharks 5m’s from the boat, heart breaking stuff! Fortunately they were the only sharkings for the trip. Had a few good blokes give me some great info and even some spots to try so a big thank you to them

It has been an up and down year for me. Lots of happenings in my life...mostly good...but also some troubling times. I was still fishing and catching some new species, but I was quite nonchalant about it and the desire to update the blog and the lifelist simply wasn't there. I barely spent any time on the fishing forums.

Anyways...I was invited to fish in Mazatlan by my friend George, joined by our friend Josh. We graciously stayed at George's timeshare and enjoyed some luxury that we're not accustomed to. The fishing was fantastic, the food even better and what a treat it was to dip in a pool at the end of each long fishing day.

I had previous caught 33 new species from Mazatlan. I had an ambitious yet achievable target of 15 new species for this trip. But by Day 3, I upgrade that target to 20 new species and actually finished the trip with 25 new species!

If you wish to read more, you can start here and navigate through the 6 days.

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2017/10/2017-mazatlan-day-1.html

If you simply wish to see fish pics...here they are.

Species #751 - Oraangemouth Weakfish (Cynoscion xanthulus)





Species #752 - Mexican Barred Snapper (Hoplopagrus guentherii)



Species #753 - Blackblotch Pompano (Trachinotus kennedyi)





Species #754 - Burrito Grunt (Anisotremus interruptus) - previously misidentified the Silvergrey Grunt for this species.



Colorado Snapper (Lutjanus colorado) - previous misidentified the juvenile of this species as Pacific Dog Snapper. So I've caught this species in 2015, but this time properly identified.



Species #755 - Longfin Salema (Xenichthys xanti)



Species #756 - Bigeye Trevally (Caranx sexfasciatus)



Species #757 - Pacific Creole-fish (Paranthias colonus)



Species #758 - Gafftopsail Pompano (Trachinotus rhodopus)



Species #759 - Pacific Dog Snapper (Lutjanus novemfasciatus)



Species #760 - Unicorn Leatherjacket Filefish (Aluterus monoceros).



Species #761 - Threadfin Jack ((Carangoides otrynter)





Species #762 - Grey Grunt (Haemlon scudderii)



Species #763 - Mottled Soapfish (Rypticus bicolor)



Species #764 - Gungo Highhat (Pareques viola)



Species #765 - Vacuocua Croaker (Corvula macrops)



Species #766 - Banded Wrasse (Halichoeres notospilus)



Species #767 - Longnose Puffer (Sphoeroides lobatus)



Species #768 - Threebanded Butterflyfish (Chaetodon humeralis)



Species #769 - Bumphead Damselfish (Microspathodon bairdii)



Species #770 - Giant Damselfish (Microspathodon dorsalis)



Species #771 - Tinsel Squirrelfish (Sargocentron suborbitale)



Species #772 - Mexican Hogfish (Bodianus diplotaenia)



Species #773 - Spotted Head Sargo (Genyatremus dovii)



Species #774 - Mexican Lookdown (Selene brevoortii)



Species #775 - Longfin Silverside (Atherinella eriarcha)



~~~

And now some non-fish pics (sorry, not many food pics on this trip since we ate at the same locations, and the same dishes, as my 2015 trip)









Homemade ceviche

 Has anyone accessed Black Point Road recently and give a report please. Alternatively is the bridge over the Donnely on Scott Road still open.

Cheers in advance

David

Headed up to Kalbarri for a couple days with Callum on a boys trip. Conditions weren't too bad but different to what was forecast with the swell staying up resulting in weed being a major nuisance.

Fishing was slow and we delayed coming home by a day, allowing for a last ditch trip up the coast with Tangles (a big thanks to him for everything) in hope of a big mulloway. I managed a small one before first light and then a nice shovel which put me through my paces. Callum dropped a good fish which would without doubt have been mulloway of the trip with only a few schoolies hitting the beach.

The tailor were on the chew with Callum and I landing 5 between us (4 on lures) over the few days with the biggest going to Cal at a cool 78cm (20mm short of the mark that's been haunting him for a while) and the smallest coming in around 65cm. A bigeye trevally was a first for me on spin, not such a common catch that far down the coast apparently.

A great trip with plenty of laughs, you'll land that Spaniard you lost at Red Bluff next time Cal!

Hutch

It's nice to cook not under the pressure of the mkr and following someone else's recipe. Defiantly appreciate it a lot more when you've caught it yourself

Hi all 

well after a horror run to steep last year seeing me have 5 days stuck in Geraldton while my cruiser was repaired and missing most of the trip.

having to call a big favour from my brother to extract my gear and another bloke and gear, cost of fixing cruiser and stay in gero around $5000.

I returned again this year with some anticipation .

stayed for 8 nights and while the wind was blowing we caught some great fish .

we fished a little heavier gear this year (usually 20 and 30 lb) due to losses to sharks and reef on previous trips.

I was using a Terez/Saratoga 10000 combo with 50lb braid and still lost some battles.

anyway here's some pics.

Hit it early Saturday and it was on from the first drift. All my spots were producing dhus around 8-10kg and we couldnt find anything else besides an undersize black arse, a tuna and couple of squid on the metal jigs so gave up around lunchtime. One mark in 24m had a school on it and resulted in a triple hookup as soon as we hit the bottom. Max depth of 32m and all fish were brought up slowly and released well.

Epic conditions out there

Couple of nice pinks Saturday morning out of Bunno in the 40's. Best conditions I've been out in for a fair while.

Ladies King George, Plus More!

Inaugural MAAC ladies completion yesterday.  All the girls that fished did well.

I was skipper and deckie for Jill and Sarah and we had a nice day on nearshore and inshore waters out of Hillarys. 

14 King George over 0.6kg and we left them biting to chase others – the biggest KG was 0.87kg.

The Harley was 2.1kg and the tailor 1.75kg.  Nice work Sarah, and good for a junior to win the best bag of the day.

Nothing better than fishing with family, in good conditions.

 coast harliquin. Caught down around the cape and Albany before and an awesome chew this one i couldn't bring myself to keep as I don't see many around , they are a stunning fish , and taste great so best it gets breeding. Nice day out off the mindge with truckloads of skippy caught inside the 3 mile and the harli, out the back we hit a sand patch and retrieved a 51 cm flatty. Blackarse , schoolie, and squid came over on the ground to follow. Great mixed bag morning with superb conditions. 

Yesterday good mate Rhyss from Furuno rang me and said we’re going fishing Ryan (chasing pinkys) so knock off work and come for a fish!

We headed outside the banned area and started searching. We searched some of Rhyss’s spots and some of my spots and things were quiet!

We could of anchored and did “chuck & chance“ but I said to the guys I reckon we keep on persevering and we will find fish …. hopefully!

After a lot of driving around we went over a spot and the Furuno sounder lite up and I said to Rhyss “yep pinkys” and within seconds the anchor was dropped and baits in!

All of us were looking at each other thinking okay why aren’t the rods loading up? within minutes all the rods started to load up periodically and what happen next was a hectic bite session that was all over quickly with us bagging out (8 fish)!

The fish were good size with a few big ones and geez they fought hard. We got one tagged fish that I will hand in the details soon to Fisheries Research!

Awesome session indeed, cheers Rhyss for the invite and great company with Chris & Dave also ... cheers fella's 

MAAC Comp on Sunday and we fished inshore and nearshore out of Hillarys in my small boat.  A pleasure to go out with Sarah and Birdy.

We had a nice day and got some quality eating fish (the KG, Dhu, and Breaksea fillets have already been consumed).  Perth local waters hold a lot of fish, and you don’t have to go far to get them.

At one stage, we found a patch of large KGs and landed 5 over the bite time.  Sarah 3, Birdy 2 and me, SFA. 

They were Sarah’s first KGs and I am still copping the good natured sledging, which is awesome.