Hey All,

I went for my first cray dive of the season today and came home with six. All caught on the last 100 bar, it took a little bit of swimming to get into the 'cray zone' but once I was there they seemed to be every where. I'll be going back real soon.

reporting this after chatting with a mate who was at the narrow this morning. after work about 1am, he went

to the narrows for some time off. bought along a penn power graph III 2000 with a 2-6lb bream stick. having about

200yds of 6lb line in the spool and a halco 10gram twister (crome). was casting with no result until about 2am when

something took the twister and not giving him a fighting chance clear him of his 200yds line on the 1st run.

all he hear was the ringing of this reel which drag was set to 2kg and the final "ping" when the line was cleared.

he did added that there was alot of bait fish around but nothing  was disturbing them other then some penlicians.

told him i would post what he told me here and he would like to know if anyone would have any suggention on what

it could have been.

' 

First off, sorry for the lousy lack of pics, its just we didn't really get any seriously cracker fish. Punchline in the first sentance, nice work there!

Went down to Dunsborough, mostly to meet a few people involved with an oral history project about fishing the capes. At the BBQ I met Ray Walker who contributed to the project and is a frequent wangler poster as well as other contributors (local abalone divers, longliners, local fishers and caravan park owners) as well as people involved with commissioning and writing up the report.

Mostly my brother Cameron, friend Mark and myself dived for abalone off Shelley Beach, and around the corner to the cape over a couple of days. There seemed to only be roe's there, no brown or greens, but there were some +100mm in the mix. The best spot seemed to be right inshore, at the base of the cliffs, well away from the seal colony!

We saw a couple of crays, but they didn't want to play along!

I could also see a big whale well into the bay broaching, it got right out of the water several times.

In an attempt to give everyone a go on the boat, we came into Bunker Bay and while waiting for Debra to drive over, we had a few drifts for squid. I got quite a good sized one, but then it was the first thing caught on the boat, so over it went!

Next we had a visit from the Marine Police, they wanted to see all of our safety gear and let us off for not having our tickets on us.

We swapped Debra on and my brother off at the beach, then went out to berley up some fish for Debra, she got a bunch of wrasse, skippy and a few huge trumpters. I livebaited one, but no takers.

We then trolled back to the old dunsborough boat ramp, but with no takers. We also saw another whale between us and pt piquet, just a little one.

The next day my brother and I (attempted) to get up early to fish wright's bank. It was a very slow ride out there, the wind and wave directions were at 90 degrees to each other, so it was either water over one side or the other and barely better than 10kn. The seas were pretty big once we got out past the cape and we saw a few bait schools and flying fish. The sounder looked really fishy, but its new and I don't really know what I'm looking at all the time. We hooked a bunch of blackarse and my brother got a good keeper, and a blue snapper, lots of wrasse, sgt baker and blackarse when back over the side.

We really took the wrong bait, there were simply too many pickers on that reef for mulies and prawns, even the side off a fresh wrasse was gone in under 1min. I recommend live baiting or occy, even a fist sized limpet was destroyed, and it was harder than workboots, I had to cut it's foot off to get the hook thru it.

We called it a day there and headed back to the protection of the cape and just as well, some rain came in and I could barely see 50m in it!

Oh well, better luck and better weather next time!

Laters,

till

a pic from a while ago,some more of them spawners for wally

pick up the boys at about 7-7.30pm and went to E shed to get some yellowtail as live bait. manage about 15-18 of them then we took off to the narrows.

arrived there about 9.30-10pm. rig up and cast in which ever was still alive. tailors were not firing up yet and we were having some trouble as our live bait quickly died off and we were at a stage without bait. not till about 12am when the tailors start to bite when we were all happy knowing that we will not have worry about live bait for the rest of the night or should i say morning.

there were a couple of faulse alarm that got our hopes up and down i must add  but come about 1.30am.. the reel went screaming. the fish was quickly set and the battle of the fitter begun.

15-20mins later... this baby was landed.

again, good job OT.

went out wide of the cape today with a few mates and ended up with a reasonable feed .. 13kg dhu, 8.5kg queeny, 2 good snapper and a few good black bums and sweep etc. will try to post pics if lucas sends them to me in the near future .... next good day might have to see us going into the 200m water for a look around again i think.

So, my training continues this week as I learn about fishing in Oz.  After about 6 weeks off with the new baby, I was itching to get back on the water.

A quick trip by the Tackle Shack yesterday, and we were out amongst it this morning!  Ron and Brad wanted to teach me about KG fishing, so it was off to Rotto.  We had our lines wet by about 7:30 this morning.  Next time we need to start earlier, bc the fish were on the bite as soon as we dropped.

 We were fishing weed/sand patches in about 10-12meters of water.  At first it was sand whiting after sand whiting, but then the KG's struck.  The action was hot and heavy for about 1.5 hours.  In that time we caught 8 KG, about 30 sandies, another 20+ herring, 4 legal flathead, and a few each of skippy, goatfish, leatherjackets, yellowtail, trumpeter, and of course a few wrasse and blowies.  After hauling in the first few sandies we noticed that some big squid were following them in, so we popped a jig on a spare rod, and as I brough in a nice flathead, Ron cast behind it and caught a beautiful squid.

It was a lot of fun!  Weird thing was that about 9:30 the fish just completely switched off.  We tried a few more places with no joy, so we packed it in for the day.  Would have been nice to have taken a few more KGs, but all in all it was a great morning.  After developing some serious cabin fever over the last several weeks it was just great to be out on the water with a few mates!

So what do ya reckon my next training trip should be??  Still haven't caught a dhuie, sambo, spanish mack, or alot of other WA greats!  So much to learn....

was at E shed from 10.30pm till about 2.30am. there was almost no current and zero boats. there were alot of yellow tail and along with it some tailor. landed myself 3 (2 about the 30cm mark and out about 40cm mark, all pop back to the water) and got snapped a couple of time as i was again using only 2lb line connected to 4lb main. and boy do tailor have sharp teeth. the bigger one bit me on the thumb when i was trying my best to get the hook off as quickly as i can and now there's still a V shape tooth make on it.

at about 2am, a school of something (yellow tail, mac or mullet) swim inwards and that school was huge! like maybe a zillion of them. took the whole school about 3mins to pass me. but they were not chased after by anything neither were they hungry. just crusing along  

no whiting, herring or gar fish tonight.

now i know where and how to get fresh bait. heehee~! thanks for your advice.

Okay folks

Just to let you know that the FADs have been deployed.

Now all we have to do is wait.

I went up to Flatrock to have a look for some gardies to take up to Wagoe.

Arrived to find the rock totally out of the water. Was able to back the car up to about 15 foot from the waters edge.

Threw out a few handfuls of spess's brew and then went to rig up.

uncle stu, you pollard mix is just brilliant. I was getting 5-6 casts without having to reload the berley cage.

First 4 casts, 4 nice thick gardies. Then I picked up a few monster hearing as I slowed the retrieve and it sank down a bit.

Swapped over to a cage with a cork and sight casted another 4 gardies.

Thats the clouds came over and I couldnt sightcast any longer.

I ended up with 10 very nice sized Gardies and bought 10 nice size herring home after releaseing about another 10-15.

Was a great fish for 3 hours with some big gardies and herring up there.

Saw a school of what looked like tailor swam past but they were long gone by the time I have the rod and reel out of the car, I rigged up a small metal slice and they never came back.

The beach was busy with cars and bikes going back and forth. 1 car got towed out 3 times along that 200m of beach. They had no idea on how to drive in sand and would of surprised me if they even had their tires down. some people should give up while they are ahead.

went down today and got stuff all. the north wall is not producing at all so i am imposing a ban on myself. gonna ty the south wall in the next few weeks. tired of spending 20 bucks on bait and tackle and getting nothing in return. few small squid but nthing great

Hi guys, just wondering if anyone with pots caught anything this morning??

Was that the lowest tide of the year today? Another half of Pt Peron was out of the water  Some good sized abalone if you're prepared to dive, much less competition from the walkers.

I'll try and a couple shots up later!

Ok we made it to the narrows around 8:20 pm where we started using dead scalies and boney herring as slab bait and soaked them well. After a few hours we tried our luck on tailor with some lures and SPs to much success, about 10 30cm-40cm Tailor and many smaller ones aswell.

I chucked out a live tailor about 30cm in size just left on the bridge where i suspected a drop off and continued to fish for tailor on SPs. At about 12:30am (rising tide) the two other fisherman with us informed me that my rod was going bezerk.. So i ran to it, slowly lifted my rod.. Waited, waited.. Then a slow run.. I tightened my drag, leaned back and closed my eyes.

30 minutes later i had landed an 18kg 130cm Mulloway.

Removed the hooks, took a few photos and bled it for home.

The rig i was using was Rovex 7500 running 30lb platil to a 60lb jinkai leader with two snelled 7/0 Gama circles.

Photos to be put up later tonight.

Thanks To original teenage for jumping in the water (shoes on) and picking up my fish :)

Ok we made it to the narrows around 8:20 pm where we started using dead scalies and boney herring as slab bait and soaked them well. After a few hours we tried our luck on tailor with some lures and SPs to much success, about 10 30cm-40cm Tailor and many smaller ones aswell.

I chucked out a live tailor about 30cm in size just left on the bridge where i suspected a drop off and continued to fish for tailor on SPs. At about 12:30am (rising tide) the two other fisherman with us informed me that my rod was going bezerk.. So i ran to it, slowly lifted my rod.. Waited, waited.. Then a slow run.. I tightened my drag, leaned back and closed my eyes.

30 minutes later i had landed an 18kg 130cm Mulloway.

Removed the hooks, took a few photos and bled it for home.

The rig i was using was Rovex 7500 running 30lb platil to a 60lb jinkai leader with two snelled 7/0 Gama circles.

Photos to be put up later tonight.

Thanks To original teenage for jumping in the water (shoes on) and picking up my fish :)

Spent the weekend just gone up in Karratha.

Unfortunately the winds were blowing like no tomorrow (Sunday was not too bad), so we decided to head up the creeks for a littlke action in the tinny.

Managed about 15 muddies over 2 days, and Sunday dropped 2 Barra (First ive hooked, and first ive seen) but didnt last more than 10 seconds each.

was flicking lures about, also got hit a coupld times by jacks and saw a few threadfin salmon?? think thats what they are follow the lures in.

Was in the cossack creeks, man that place is alive on a changing tide. fish everywhere!!

Managed a couple catfish and bream in the crab nets which was different.

Also heres a few creek shots aswell.

Was humming around in a 14ft tinny with a 40hp merc on the back :) good fun that was....shallow creeks in some parts!!!

went down yesterday and arrived at 5.30...... bit later than i had of liked but we got there. fished the night for a few hours and picked up a nice 31cm king george whiting from the gazebo on the bend. went to sleep and woke up early to pack up the tent. got out about 9ish and i caight a red gurnard. moved up to find a few gardies... didnt bother with em tho. we walked up to the dodgy jetty near the UWO gates. it was swaying everytime a wave came past but we were catching herring and skippy. burleyed up heaps and soon after we had a plethora of herring skippy and trumpeter milling at our feet. unweightede peice of squid and we hooked up a lot. got plenty of skippy and a couple of herring with one being anice plump bull. about 20 minutes before we were sposed to leave, we saw some baitfish jumping. minutes later i hooked up to a nice big tailor. with a bit of a struggle we got him up and measured him...42cm my new PB and just over a kilo. dad hooked up seconds after to one that was bigger but he lost it to the pilons...

FINAL CATCH

8 good size skippy out of over 20 with only one undersize

2 herring ( one bull herring)

one good KG

one good tailor

Finally got out for a fish on Sunday 2/11 after not getting out for about a month.

It was our clubs first comp of the year and headed out with Scott (Mexican) from the club.

As we hadnt been out for a while we were deciding on where we should head. As the conditions werent bad and forecast to get better we decided to start around the 90m line. I picked a point I had marked a while ago while travelling through the area as a starting point for the day and headed off. The trip out wasnt bad and we managed to cruise out comfortably at around 20knts.

Once near the mark we slowed and all this ground started to show up.we circled around a bit to work out the area and set a drift on a likely looking patch. 

Scott was first down and it wasnt long before he was on. First drop and a nice double of a pinky and Dhu.

While Scott despatched his fish I dropped and had an instant hookup. Another double header. This time a Pinky and a Red Snapper of around 2kg.

Was a good start to the day with 1 drop each and 4 fish on the boat. Wepulled in the sea anchor and went over for another drift. The wind was moving around and changed our drift but we were still over good ground so we just went with it. This drop we both got a Dhu each including my new PB.

We did a couple of more drifts in the area and picked up a few more fish including a Dhu sent back on the release weight. By 9am we had a good selection of fish in the esky and had also caught a good chunk of our personal limits as well. We decided we would stop fishing for these sorts of fish now and decided to head out deep and do a bit of exploring and try out the new broadband sounder.  A quick look at the chart and with a spot picked we headed out to the 300m line.

We spent the rest of the day out in the deep water and picked up about 3 million green eyed sharks but also got a flatty of just over 2kg and a nice pinky for Scott.

Finished off the day after that with a few nice deepwater species to round the bag out. We found a heap of new ground out there as we planned to do and covered about 20km while looking for it as well.

Just one of those days when a couple of early fish take the pressure off and you can really havesome fun.

Took out the tub today and launched out of point peron and headed out wide on such a nice day took  Justin aka (JNG ) to get a feed ended up with a nice pinky , Ba , Swallowtails and a few assorted bait fish oh yes and the paddle tail , it went 9.4 kilo on the lie detector .

And Justin caught this ? Its a cod of some sort I think any idea's ? released back ok

Took the rug rats out for a squid this mornin' !! Being on my own with them it took some timing to put the boat in and get them ready. But everyone at the ramp was very patient and we got away well !!!!

Hit the weed patch and got the girls jig down first. Then down went the boys !!! I was tying my jig on when Kyles rod bent over and a few excited screams came from both. I held the butt of the rod and had him reel it in !!!!! HE WAS WRAPPED !!!!!!

We did a few drifts and I got 3 of my own before we had to go home!!

A quick photo with the catch .

They had a great morning and will probably nag me to death about doing it again soon!!!!

headed down to hillary's after i finished work, 

i joined SOI and Reub and according to them it was a very slow day with only a few whiting.

 the lack of fish continued until about 6:30 and then with alot of burley and oil the fish came out to play.  A few nice skippy landed and a small flat head as well as the usual whiting.

How'd everyone else go?

Well with the purchase of the new tinnie i thought id try and get out to get some crabs. Ive been out 2 or 3 times now in the swan around mossy bay and claremont with some luck. Im finding pretty good num,bers at the moment but the sizes are the ones too watch. Plenty that are just size or just under with the occasional thumper chucked in for good measure.

The blueys are quite full for this time of the year as well which is always a good thing. Ive been dropping pots in anywhere from 20 to 5 metres with all producing the same results. I just thought id do a quick report as many people have been asking me how ive been going. So here we go. Hope this helps SPESS.

Hey guys i went down to white hills on the weekend with ash06 on sat for a all night fish probably not the smartest move eigther of us had made due to the massive winds that night lol hahahahaha. anyway i braved it for a few hours really wanted to get a fish on the new outfit. so i was using strips of mullet on a running sinker after a few hours of nothing but cold wind i finaly got a hit was a nice gummy shark 1.2m in length a really nice one(i have photos put them up soon) after that we deciced to wait till the morning for some better weather. in the morning we where up around 7. straight away the big rods went out with some mullet while we cooked breakfast. with about an hour gone by i decided to see if any whiting or herring where around and sure enough as soon as the line hit the water we where catching them with ease with some going out as live bait. nothing really big to report had a big run one of the big rods but no solid hook up. i thought there would of been some good news when not one stingray was caught and i thought finaly i had broken that run of luck when wack big run by none other then mr ray lol

all in all it was a good couple of days done there and cant wait to get back.

jas

Went out for a fish on Sunday with my mate Graham. Started the day off in the 40s, got a 67cm Dhuie on the second drift. It was in good condition so I sent it back with the release weight. We moved around on a few spots getting Foxies and Black Arse also picked up an Ambo that went like a train. Then I got my first KG it was a nice fat one too.

After that we headed out a bit further, then it was Grahams turn to get into some fish. First drop on the spot resulted in a nice pinkie and a missing hook. A minute later I pulled up a pinkie with line sticking out of its mouth  haha. Next Graham got a Dhuie of about 57cm, also got a few more pinks (released) Graham got 2 queen snapper and a nice big red snapper.  

Was a good day out and the KG was great eating

went down yesterday before lunch. first cast resulted in a 28.5cm tailor that was really thick. the whiting were biting big time and along with some skippy we got some great bait. had a live skippy out and had two runs on it. first run resilted in a headless remains of my skippy and the next cast it resulted in no skippy left. it was a 26cm one aswell so it woulda been a fair sized fish or stingy. left rueben fishing. howd ya go?

Got up 3am!!!!! Fished on a boat around rockingham and landed 4 real nice KG whiting 40cm+ each and this unreal coloured wrass of some sort.

Got home 430pm buggerd tired and rememberd i teed up to take a girl i know fishing at 5pm :lol: and fished hillarys till 8pm! Caught a nice sized gurnard
Such nice colours and by the way DONT TOUCH THEM!!! I am typing this with a real sore finger!!!! They are poisonous!! Hurt like hell :evil:
!

Teaching Sarah to cast..

Busted off by what i think was a tailor (The look of sadness)..

Sooo tired right now lol

Well unfortunately the wind didn't play the game this weekend and I was stuck in drydock. Twiddling my thumbs got boring after a while so late this arvo I hooked up with Kane and headed down Beadon Creek to see if we could find a fish or two. The weather and water has started to warm up noticeably in the last few weeks and theres been a corresponding increase in bait and surface activity. Kane enjoys his bait fishing and he proceeded to pick up a few bream and a good cod. Lure chucking is my preferred forte however and I proceeded to prospect along the rock wall. What followed was a great session as I nailed some small trevs, queenies, a couple of unexpected giant herring and a cracker jack (his brother took my lure home so the jack situation worked out even). Here's a few pics.

Went out with the brother in-law and his mate today !!! It was supposed to be under 10knts and dropping !! Headed out and by the 5 fathom bank knew they had got the beginning wrong and hoped the wind would drop soon. WRONG AGAIN!!!!! Stayed over 10knots all morning and as we had to be back by lunch a few choice words were said dirrected at BOM!!!

Got out to the lump and set for the first drift. It wasn't more than 5 mins and the Bro was hooked to a fish. I could see it wasn't overly big so told him to slow his retrieve. A couple of minutes later a just size Dhuie hit the deck with the other two lines following!! A quick measure and a check on the Dhuie had me thinking of releasing it but it was blown a bit so in the esky it went. Lucky I did as it was the only Dhuie for the day!! (no picture as he didn't want me to show it to anyone)Good BBQ size but at 53cm!!!

A few more drifts across a bank of colour produced nothing and once again I was thinking I was going home without a fish!!! On the last drift I put us over the top of a 3m lump which gave us nothing so we started tossing the bait and giving the boat a general clean-up before heading home. The Bro hooked a small BB and I was preparing it for release when my Staal gave a scream with a reasonable fish. So while pulling it in I was giving the Bro a lesson in release weights. Release complete and colour showing I could not call what it was all through the fight. No head shakes and smallish runs! Well up popped a nice Pinky of 5.5kg and I was excited to say the least !!! As it was on Wed a WOOOOHOOOO lept from my mouth!! The first legal snapper I've caught on my boat(other people had) so in the esky it went and home we headed!!!!

A little more cleanly shaven but just as happy!!!!!!!!!!

Went out for a run out past the islands to get the kinks out of the arms with a few others on a mates boat
Total=4 reds[2 hooters]2pinkies,1 cobia,1 just size baldy1 thickskin shark and a crimson sea perch.Let heaps of u/size spanglies and flags plus a bronzie of 7-8 foot go.
Weather was spot on.No wind at all untill lunch then sw at 15kn for the run in.Spoke to another boat at the ramp and the bagged out on the same quality as us about 10 mile further south from where we fished

went down this morning for a fish

very choppy which resulted in a lot of tailor

lost a big one to the rocks, which i was spewing about....could have been an entry for the junior landbased comp

but the usual skippy, yellowtail and whiting were around

...still no herring to be seen

hope that helps anyone heading down there this weekend