Went down to Hamelin bay again last weekend to Retreive the boat. It surrvived the Storm, and made the journey home.

While there, we got some great weather on Saturday so made the most of it.

Spent the early morning on the beach, with a school of Salmon i would estimate 25+ Tonne right on the end of the boat ramp and around the edge of the reef near the boat ramp. got 4 that morning.

Love the bend in the rod!

Double Hookup

The wrong way to catch Salmon!!! 2 caught like this! Man the fight hard this way!

Then went out on the boat by 10.30,

Did some trawling for a bit for not much, all the way to cosey corner, but only got 1 Big Pike, and a couple herring.

Headed back to Hamelin bay and did some trawling in a known hotspot for Pike / YTK's and had a ball

Landed some nice YTK's, Salmon on almost every run, and one was over 90cms (Will enter in Salmon comp :) )

Got another nice Pike!

Stopped in the Arvo, out behind the island for some Skippy, and wow if only the fish wernt as thick and i might have been able to get some photo's. Ended up with 2 Dozen 1.5KG-3KG Skippy, plus i lost about a half dozen rigs on 6 LB to suspected YTK's.

Had a ray swimming up close t the boat :| not on the bottom

The water was so clear, we could even see the YTK's chasing the Salmon on the end of the line when it got close to the boat.

Dont get days very often there that were this Calm

Bodie

There here! Well enough of them anyway. School I saw was about 150 to 200m long.

Was watching the birds working hard, oil slick and a couple of boats havin' fun this morning off North Beach. Only about 3-400 m out.

hey guys this is my first post so hope all works!
headed out to rotto saturday arvo for a night in narow neck so we could fish early the next morning! sat night we caught everything imaginable! from sharks to octopus to a crayfish my mate caught!!!! on line too mind you! sunday we woke to a howling nor wester. we trolled chicken run for three hours.. nothing.. around lunch it got calm so we went out to the fads only to hear that nothing was around.. back in to my spots in 80 mts and we made up for the day with a couple of red snapper and an absolute hooter of a kg that went 56 cms!! good weekend all round cant wait for tea tonight!!! did anyone see dollies this weekend?

Stu and I headed up to Jurien on Saturday Night

We decided to head to Hill river and have a look there.

When we arrived the beach was pristine.
No one around, Ocean flat as a tack with the occasional 6 inch wave breaking Wink

The mouth was closed and as there was no gutter to easily been seen and no swell to help find one we just set up at the mouth.

After a couple of cast found that there were a few pickers about so a change of tactics was needed. A couple of flicks with some prawn got some bait in the bucket and a live herring was put out.

Unfortunately the only thing interested in the herring/whiting baits were crabs. We fished until 2 am and the large baits didnt get a hit. Actually surprised there were not so much as a ray having a sniff.

Put out a big burley trail in the morning and got the bread and butter fish so thick out in front that you could of walked out to drop your bait in.

We picked up something close to
2 - 3 dozen sand whiting most went back as bait
3 - 4 dozen herring lost count as we were catching and releasing
6 nice skippy
45cm garfish

I manged to land about 10 herring on the same squid tentacle.

We may not of had any luck with anything large, but had a ball on the light gear.

2 great days on the beach with glass like water and only a light breeze to take the edge of the sun.

Bloody bewdiful

Leaving from Jervoise Bay about 5.30am, had my father in-law on board as deckie & we were all set to bottom bounce around carnac, hoping for a few pinkies.

The old man was a shocker. Armed with his Penn 750 O/H, he dropped down his 100lb wire trace pre rigged with paternoster, 2x 3oz snapper leads & 7/0 hooks, baited with cut up pillies. Then it started, as soon as he got a touch, he ripped the rod so hard, that if it wasn't for a loose drag, even a bronzies jaws would have ripped clean out of his skull!

It was terrible, touch after touch if he didn't smash his rod tip on the bimini 3ft above him (he's only about 4ft tall) you could here the zzzzz as he ripped line from his spool.

After an hour of my gentle advice & tips, I had only landed some perch/wrasse looking things (will post pics to find out what they are), he had foul hooked in the gut at least 6, & 1 35cm pinkie,I decided to pull pick & try a new tactic as he wasn't improving.

We steamed over to the Nth side of GI, where I threw the berley bucket in to attract herring & gars. Arming the aquatic dentist with a small abu 2000 loaded with 3kg line, I showed him how to rig a #10 hook on float & bait up with wogs.

Worked a treat, after pulling hooks out of a few fish, & watching me pull in gar after gar, he started to learn finness, & catch some fish! It was like watching a kid learn to fish, start with the basics & if they're catching then they're happy, & the father in law was grinning like the proverbial cat. All up we landed 50gar & half a dozen decent size herring as well as educated on the difference between angling & fishing.

An eduacation on cleaning the catch was another ball game, but managed to score some nice butterfly fillets, as well as bait for next trip

I've bought him the mag "how to catch a fish", as he now believes that by targeting a particular species, you have more chance than just throwing a line in anywhere.

Next trips lesson: you don't always need wire trace, & that big hooks = big fish, small hooks = all fish 

I decided to head down to the grain terminal this arvo for a bit of a fish. Got there at about 4pm and expected the beach to be quite packed, but luckily there were only about 3 other fishos there. So I had a bit of room.

I quickly set up, chucked some mulie on some hooks, cast out about 15 metres, then bang I was on. Salmon trout were on the bite. Right up until sundown. I let them all go, but got these pics of 2 that were caught.

They were great little fighters for their size.

As the sun was going down, it switched from salmon to herring, kept 3 for a feed.

A 25cm tarwhine and herring double header followed, took a quick snap of the tarwhine, then released him.

Just after dark, the choppers came on the scene, all around the 28cm mark, just shy of size.

After the tailor, everything seemed to slow down, with the occasional herring getting caught. By about 7:30 bites stopped altogether.

I had a herring out on the 12 footer all the while, got a few bounces on the rod tip but nothing solid. Still waiting to get that mulloway!!!

It was a pretty decent little sesh, got a few herring for the fish curry tomorrow night

On the down side, some idiots down there decided to break into one of the other fishos cars...poor guy got told by some people that had just arrived that his car had been broken into. That's gotta wreck your Sunday arvo.

I hate tools that do stuff like this.

A couple of pics from Tues day trip to Dunny, 2 of over 20 fish between 3 of us. Didnt matter where you fish, Eagle Bay, Pt Picquet, Bunkers and everywhere in between had schools and schools of fish passing through. No huge fish that some ppl reported seeing. Biggest school would be no more than 2tonnes. NOT 20-40 tonnes. There may be one out there somewhere. Geez they go hard on bream gear.

Loco....where's your pics??? 

can anyone tell me how the fishing is down in esperance at the moment cheers

We'll, i've been getting stuck into the salmon landbased down at Injinup (Yallingup)lately and having a ball with plenty of salmon falling to the Rapala X-Rap 14. A lot of the early runners called front runners are eating/hunting baitfish so they're moving fast and the diving minnows are getting the results with surface lures including poppers and my favourite metals getting ignored often. There's been some chaos lately and not good ediquette re L/B but the salmon fever does that to some.

I did another trip just recently this time taking down my boat and a mate Simo. The plans were to go boat base and get amongst the schools with some relaxing captures and no shyte fight. I was down for 3 days with the first day being zip as the fish didn't show up but i did get a small Southern bluefin tuna on my 8wt fly but thats it. Simo unfortunately got seasick and therefore said he'd pass on the next day with plans for himself to do L/B.

The second day was upon us, Simo launched me and i went solo on my vessel this time and hoped things would be better with such a good run lately L/B etc. With flat calm warmish water i had a feeling that just maybe today will turn around as the previous day was a fizzer. After launching i found a school and got my first fish withing 5 min and it fell to the Rala X-Rap on my 14lb spin outfit. With getting to my destination i looked up and down the beach for zip so i had a look at the baitfish a bit further out to see if the salmon were harassing the bait. On arrival there was plenty of bait but after jigging my SP there was no salmon takes so i dropped the jig all the way to the bottom where there was a bit of a lump and got an undersize DHU on bream gear........released!

Okay by about lunch i was thinking not another fizzer again but things did turn for the better and i sighted my first big school which came through, welcomed sight bigtime. I manage to get plenty of salmon on my 8wt fly outfit and 4lb bream gear which made every capture very rewarding. I didn't use anything heavier and had a ball on that school with no boats or other pressure. Ironically the last fish i got was shadowed by a seal that look like he was playin with my salmon throughout the fight but the smart bugger waited for me to wear out the salmon and just as i pulled it out of the water (literaly) the seal came out and ripper it out of my hand and took my favourate fly also.....ggrrrrrrrrrrrrrl

The second school came through later on with a lot more fish again and my stickbaits, SP, poppers and flys getting nailed and again i was enjoying every single minute. Then what happened over the next 30 minutes was truely awesome and never experienced before. The salmon had bailed up the baitfish into the beach and went crazy with the cristal clean water throffed with salmon hammering small anchoviers by the looks and every boat who came over to the comotion and landbased angler hooking up nearby. The was plenty of yelling and a BIG buzz for that 30min with so much visual excitment i felt i was back up North gain but not the case.. Well that was it for the day and i was stuffed, i did drop my pair of Boga grips ($499 worth) in the water after releasing my last salmon that would of made 25 fish for myself that day. I decided to get the lost grips the next day with maybe another opportunatly to get into more fish, we'll see.

The next day Simo said bugger that i gotta get out there after what you experienced and Simo's L/B action didn't occur when i was running a muck as he had a bit of a fall on the rocks and decided to lay up for the day. The 3rd day arrived, Simo came out armed with sea sickness tablets and got onto salmon and also a bonito on the X-Rap not long after departure which made his day despite the changing conditions. The days weather was deteriating and i dived in and found my Boga grips which was good concidering it was buried in white beach sand with a GPS co-ord enabling me to get it back only.....lucky eh. We found one more school but the conditions weren't the nicest so we bailed with a few more fish under our belts and drove back to Perth............WOW awesome few days..

All i can say, it's the best salmon fishing i've experienced.........ever!

No pics unfortunately, sick decky!!

when fishing the north mole where is the best place out the front of the kiosk there or all the way till the end

Just returned from a pretty good trip to Hamelin bay.

Went down on the 25th of April from 12 days with the Family, the Girlfriend and Scano and his wife.

We packed over the easter weekend hoping to get away early on Tuesday morning to beat the traffic, and setup before dark. Since there was upto 15 people there at any one time, we needed to pack quite heavily for the trip, including a fridge, freezer, 4 engels, 3 ring burners, and much more.

But first things first....the Beer!!

Last thing you would want to do is run out!!!!!

Off we left leaving around 9am in the morning, with boats in tow and arrived at 1.30pm to our site...
Setting up would be the hardest part of the trip, and usually takes a good half day before we get anywhere.

We were hoping to get out and put the cray pots in before the end of the day but t his was not to be.

Camp site setup on day 1.

The next moring saw us hit the beach early looking for Salmon... and a great moring it turned out to be, with the sun shining and the water crystal clear....but no fish in sight!

Quiet morning with no Salmon around but still a good walk early on always gets you pumped up for the afternoon fish!

So in went the boat for its first trip, drove it off the trailer and out we went.

First things first, get rid of the 4 cray pots onboard.
Stopped for some skippy and herring on the way out to get some cray bait and out we went (Didnt go more than 1 km out :) )

In went the pots and us hoping to get some good crays in the next couple of weeks.

First couple of days saw no crays but there was still a big moon around just after easter.

The Thursday Saw Scano and his wife turn up (Altho very late in the day) they still made it. We set them up, had a few beers then hit the sack for an early morning.

Friday morning up for Salmon... but once again, none in sight... We were starting to wonder if the Salmon had reached hamelin bay yet or not....
As the weather was a little blowie we decided not to hit the water, and hang round for the day.

In the afternoon we went down the beach again chasing the Elusive Salmon again, but this time....we found some!!

After some patient waiting and what i would say good eye sight on our behalf...we spotted our first school!! and only 25-30 Metres off shore.

Off we tore down the beach, and before you knew it, there was 15-or 20 people chasing you, but none of them new where the fish were...

After a few Casts Both Scano, myself and an uncle of mine were on!!!! the first salmon hookups for the trip!!... After 5 or so minutes of fighting... we landed all 3!

Finally the smiles started to appear!

The next morning Saw us his the beach agaiun for more slamon!! this what the outcome!

Another nice couple of Salmon in the bag from a small school of Salmon in close.

In the afternoon we headed out in the boat in chase of some fish behind the Island and to check the cray pots.. And low and behold look what popped up!

And there were a few fish landed aswell, with some nice sized skippy coming onboard, and 1 Bonito, and 2 Good sized king George. We also stopped along side the Island for some fun on 6lb line with small lures on flicking into the massive schools of herring, getting 4-5-6 hookups each cast. After landing quite a few we decided to head in.

Scano's Bonito hookup

Bonito onboard...great cray bait.

Over the next 4-5 days we caught plenty of Crays, with getting upto 9 in one day. Of which we caught 7 Jumbo crays during thenext couple of days.

We also hit the beach most mornings chasing the Salmon, and they didnt disappoint... Even the ladies got invloved!

Great Fun on fairly light gear. The days were so clear and so calm you could see the fish in the water!

Great haull.... the walk back up the beach SUCKED! Altho we were very popular with the Tourists!! many photos were taken!

The next lot of Pictures are of my Dad bringing in a nice Salmon

This is where we walked to, the rocks on the corner.

Cleaning the Salmon on the beach we were pretty popular with both the rays and the tourists wanting to feed them.

On the monday morning we headed out early in the boat, stopped out on a bit of reef forsome skippy. We were fishing with light gear, Scano and myself were on 6lb and Maz the other guy was using 12lb. A couple of times Scano and i got blown away on our 6 LB, and then Maz was on!!! and this was the end result.

We ended with 3 for the day, 2 were landed on the 12lb with a Small Chemically sharpened hook with a small running siker...used to catch skippy!! and a workout it got!

After we pulled the cray pots for some more good crays, we headed back in

The next day we headed out chasing these fish again, this time landing one YTK

Some More skippy were caught and as also managed 6 very nice KG's from a spot we find quite rewarding most times we visit it.

A few other interestying things caught

Small Ray

Bandid Sweep

A Few more awsome pictures taken of the sunsets, kids, and boats having fun launching and retreiving.

The wash at the ramp and catches so many people

This was the 2nd car to jack knive their trailer on the ramp with the swell, and weed causing drama for all who were retreiving and launching. We found ourselves after we came back in had to help the next 6 or 8 groups get their boat back in. This one i had to put the camera down and help them out before someone got hurt!

Sunsets

Little cousin of Mine struggled getting up!

Thanks for Coming down Scano, great time it was!! more drinking required next time!!

went out after work last nihgt to hillaries to get some bait for next weekend at mindarie. i only got a herring, a yellowtail and a small bream. i hooked up to what i thought was a tailor (it fought hard) but then it kept diving and then i got a look----- it was BIG------ defenitely over 30cm----- well over
just as i thought i had won, it took one last run into the weed and busted me off :(
tried next to spinnakers-- som guy was using soft plastics, so i tried softies and got one good hookup but it busted me off.
he hooked up about 10 times in 10 minutes and only landed two BIG Skippy-well over 30cm--
we got pelted with rain twice------ im amazed i didnt catch a cold.

im rying canning bridge or the flats at canning this arvo after my soccer game if the weather holds off.

Well the hevens opened up and rained the fishing out ,we were drenched.Went out 18 mile from Two Rocks once out there the wind picked up and there was a strong tide running which made it hard to hold bottom.we droped a couple of fish early on I guess sambos as the line was peeling of the reel at speed..Jesse saved the day with a 13kg dhuie other fish 4 boldies two released ,2 breaksea 1 released ,and a couple of nice tuna on the way in both released.will head out in the morning try for the snapper on the three mile

hey every 1

looking at going down to the e-shed tommorow arvo

just wandering if any1 knows whats there at the moment

Cheers 

As I mentioned in another post recently, my wife (deckie) and I had two occassions to get out between the foul sothern weather within the last few weeks.

THE QE II

The first occasion was actually driven by my wife's desire to grab a few picks of the Queen Elizabeth II paying a unique and last visit to Albany. We launched the boat around 06:30 am with a planned rendevouz with the QE II at 07:00am in King George Sound - just after she was scheduled to pull anchor and head, via the sound, to Pricess Royall Harbour for the 08:00 am dock tie up and expected (and obligatory) fan fare and retail invasion of Albany by the crew and passengers.

Under her own steam, she made quick headway through the main channel and only quick bursts of speed at a polite distance (due to the expected satelite 'protection' boats) allowed us to acheive an position and opportunity for a few quick pics. Daylight saving, combined with very overcast skies made light conditions less than ideal for photos. But here is one:

FISHING DAY I

Whilst we were out on the water, with the photo mission completed and (always) with gear on board, we decided to hit a certain spot 'nearby' which I'd previously waypointed and recorded as good structure. The intention was to have some fun pulling in a few skippy after berlying up. This was certainly the case for the first 30 minutes, but my wife's rod bending more aggressively signalled either a much bigger skippy to the small school stuff we were having fun with, or even something better. After ten minutes of struggle, in only 15 meters of water, Sandra soon had a nice pinky alongside. Carefully netted in, it weighed in at a very respectable 7 Kg:

FISHING DAY II

This was a Sunday morning, exactly one week after our previous trip. After studying the plethora of weather sights all week, finally this Sunday showed some promise. Three sights had wind and direction all different, but a 04:30 am rise and check of Albany airport wind showed the magic word - CALM! Mind you, this (as we had previously found out) was never a guaranteee, with the airport slightly inland and winds having a tendancy to attenuate under certain conditions.

But still; it was worth ago.

We poked the bow out from King George Sound, as an exploratory means of assessing the 'out wide' conditions, we were rewarded with almost glassy and small sea lump conditions. This time I had in mind a spot not far of the headland just east of albany - approx 35 nautical miles from the ramp (thanks to Google Earth) - so with 140 liters on board, there was plenty of fuel.

Forty five minutes later, we were dropping our rigs into very good structure, ranging in depth from 7-45 meters, depending on our position across an unassisted drift. A drift we repeated a number of times as 45 meters appeared to be the point where action on the bitey end of the line dropped off completely.

Sandra chose a standard patanosta rig with a 4/O and 7/0 loaded dropper combination. I elected to free bait two snelled 7/0s loaded with a fresh slab of seargent baker.

All of a sudden, the bait took off and, depsite the drag of the reel, peeled off 50 meters within seconds and circled the boat in only 15 meters of water. With the circle action, I called it for a shark, but 30 minutes later, and the strain of several more runs, I had a decent sized sambo alongside. I didn't want to gaff it, so a very full net and team effort had the sambo on board. Onto the sales, and the marker hit 22 (kilos):

After a very required rest, I dropped another slab of free baited SB (thank goodness for the absence of muttin birds!) and again the line took of, but this time with constant nose serge, as it sounded to the bottom. Queenie or Pinky, was my call. Some 10 minutes later a good sized pinky was alongside and the marker on the scales register 10 Kg:

A few more drops and drifts added another pinky, a red, one harley and a couple of BA's before the wind finally kicked in and it was time to head back in. All in all, a great day! 

Had a dive north of Two Rocks today water a little merky but still got six crays .Plenty of small fish skippy , wrase, drummer, morong . Also fished the beach this morning one guy got some nice tailor x 5we got some hering gardies and whiting..beats sleeping in

With yesterdays arvo conditions looking nice i though it was too good to pass up.

Departed at just after 12 noon, went to Rotto and did my first dive with calm blue coloured water making a nice difference. Got a few crays there and then did my second dive at Garden island. Ended up with my eight crays but with the full moon the little prics were tucked into many holes so i saw more but they live for another day!

A quick pic, the ice box is 130L.

hi all i have got the mojo back a long time and no fish and here they are back in bizzo ,we were out the back of the north west reef and we found afue fish, looking looking looking we came to the spot and after 3 hours we only had 2 fish a long start ,looked and looked and once the tide had changed we went back out and found it was enought to turn the fish on it was a great day........that was last sunday .................tuesday the weather was excellent so i asked the boss for a day off and away we went,i have never tryied trolling for bill fish before and i throught i would give it a go {thanks to all the help from the fishwrecked crew } i made a teaser and away we went ,the first 5mins we had a tuna and 2mins later we had raised our first bill ,i had a guess at about 14feet long it was massave to me,not seeing to much before ,after 4 hours trolling we had raised 5 bill fish and caught 1 sailfish it was awesone ;} the first trip was out off bundegi and the 2nd was tanda jeff PS; got to meet the man him self Mr Adam Gallash a really top bloke thanks mate

you wouldnt believe the luck i had today .. launched the tinnie with busso fisho today to look for a few more salmon (pity you had to work Honsu) . the weather was really poor with 25kt easterlies screaming over the hill making the water a mess and very annoying in a 13 foot tinnie. anyway we found a school of fish before getting to the beach and i landed a nice fish to 6kg then lost em .. so we continued to the beach and found anouther school with shore based guys casting at them. i fired off a cast and hooked up allmost instantly , well the silly salmon runs straight into the shallows and i got tangled by a shore based angler ... now having only 8lb braid on a 2500 reel left me with no line .... SNAP - SPOOLED .. after a bit of swearing i ripped in closer to the beach looking to find my backing on the water surface .... and i did .. retied the backing to the reel and wound up the slack .. what do you know - still salmon on the end .. i lost him a few minutes later but was still bloody funny  .. ended up with about 15 salmon for the day up to 6 odd kg

lucas has a pic or 2 but wont post till monday

iv been down at hillarys for all 3 days of the easter holidays so far and theres not much grerat news. on friday i got a 33cm flounder, on saturday i got 2 nice skippy and yesterday i didnt catch anything, but i hooked up to sumthing that took a big run and i was quickly reminded that i better tighten my drag otherwise id be spooled fast!. it was probably a big ray, but it busted me off within 30 seconds of hooking up. there were a few skippy around and a few small tailor up at the lighthouse. there wweere also a few herring and yellowtail. ill be the today working in the fuel kiosk for a few hours so come through and say hi.

1 hour session down rockingham thismorning for me and Kristian.

Looks like BBQ whiting for dinner :wink:

So is anyone heading out Monday for a fish. What do you guys make of the weather.

There were no salmon in front of Scabs saturday morning

Seeing as Bouttime has got his boat in for service I thought I had better take him out and show him that the tinny brigade know how to catch fish. We got over to Tantabiddi at 7.45 with absolutely glass conditions. We managed to get lines in the water at 8.00 and trolled up the reef looking for a mackie for a mate thats heading back east and wanted a few fillets. Without a touch we got to the spot and set out the baits, first drift Steve pulls up a nice Coral Trout that gave him some stick in the shallow water. I managed to pick up a small spangled and then the plagues of small emperor moved in.

We decided to troll again up to my next location and encountered a good double hookup of sizeable spaniards. Mine was a good fish and took some serious line on 10kg, only to be sharked not far from the boat. Steve managed to get his in and we bled him boatside, unfortunately we cut a bit too close to the gaff and slip, off he sunk into the depths to be sharked. :( A quick bog lap around the spot saw us land another good spaniard of 6-7kg, we were a little more careful with this one and slipped him into the icebox to bleed out. As we weren't far from our next spot we pulled up and took a drift and that is when we encountered another magical Exmouth experience. We were in 25m of water and were looking at our baits on the bottom.  I was first to hookup and got a small shark of 3 foot and then Steve managed to snavel a nice rankin and dark tailed sea-perch.  On the next drop we witnessed 7 decent sized sharks circling underneath us keeping an eye on anything released or sent down. The visibility was sensational, I took some video footage that will hopefully turn out, pure magic!  You could see baitfish, fish on the bottom, sharks in the middle and tuna on the surface.

I then talked Steve into putting out a couple of skirts, the only 2 on the boat as I wasn't planning on going for a marlin or sailfish. About 5 minutes into trolling a solid sailfish came up and smashed the jethead Steve was running and took a pretty decent run. Caught up in the excitement I backed off the throttle too early and he shook the hooks, not happy Jan! We got back to our first spot pretty quickly and took one last drop where Steve pulled a 7kg mack tuna off the bottom which we released. After that the bite seemed to shut down and we had to be in by 12 so Steve could get some sleep before night shift.

All in all a top morning in sensational glassy Exmouth conditions and a nice tucker box of high quality fish. Sweet!

Cheers,

Adam

We we chasing a change from Pt Walter, its a long drive and we were a little sick of it.

Went down after dark with two others. Started at sea scounts, worked our way through the yacht clubs around to the Kiosk. We only found crabs about the front of the Matilda Bay Restaurant, and then only 4 good-sized ones.

The big surprise there were the bream and flathead around the yacht club and directly in front of the kiosk, where the steps are.

till

Headed out of Two Rocks at 7 oclock, went out to around 6 mile where the tuna were smashing up some baitfish. Jesse let out the skirts and they hooked up stright away. I think they were striped tuna around the 3 kg mark .
We moved around a lot during the morning, fishing lots of small patches a lumps.picking up some undersize and just size fish.We decided to head out a bit wider towards the bank but the breeze came in so we headed in a little closer still with no joy

3 x Sargent baker released
1 x Snapper
2 x dhuies both under size
4 x tuna 2 released
4 x samson fish all released
2 x bluebone
5 x black ass 2 released

Most fish were just size which were keeped ,seems to be no shortage of sambos as nearly every spot had them schooling ,we droped the jigs on one spot and got hit sright away fish around 8kg great fighters got to love em.We got a good feed and had a great day on the water. Heard a few of the guys from the forum on the blower, from what i heard thing were slow for most.. anyhows happy fishing

Went for a fish with Steve (Bouttime) and his roomie Paul yesterday afternoon and had a ball out there once the wind died off a bit. Once hitting the water tower we ran into what can only be described as a tuna frenzy. Everywhere you looked out of the front of the boat in a 180 degree direction had tuna flying and baitfish getting smashed. It was truly an awesome sight!! We managed to land a couple of 6-7kg longtails on the light stuff before moving onto the spangly spot. After picking up 5 good spangles and the current starting to rush we decided to head back in. About 500m closer to the marina we encountered the tuna frenzy again, this time even more full on! At one stage they were almost hitting the side of the boat as they pursued the baitfish. There must have been literally thousands in the school.  After a couple of quick flicks we landed a couple more longtails and one barrel size mack tuna and called it a day with them still flying all over the place.

I've seen some pretty awesome tuna schools up here, but this was just insane. Unfortunately I left my video camera at home, which is a damn shame because it would have been some sick viewing.  Maybe next-time... Just thought I should post this up for a few of the crew that are headed up soon, just a bit of amp for you. :)

Cheers,

Adam

Fill a deckie spot with Simo to head out wide...really wide, the Derwent. Bumped into TC and Makomagic. Pretty slow out there but there is fish sighted on the sounder so persisted abit longer than them and was rewarded with 2 pinkies, a red snapper and a Oceanic White Tip shark. After that we went everyone for not much else. I jigged up a nannygai, undersize and upon retrieving my jig so we could move to another spot. Hooked up to something that felt like a skippy before it took off like a rocket. A couple of mins later, a fat stripey was added to the catch. Geez its was beautiful out there today, we stayed out to almost sun down looking for more fish. Beats working anyday, unless you have a job like mine =)

Had a mixed day out today.

Matt had something come up and couldn't make it so I headed out on my own, was on the water late at 10am and started out for the Hillaries FAD instead of the Derwent. Already with HYC FAD I was cutting it close with my afternoon commitments, but I figured it would be worth the trip even if it was just to see if the mahi were in.

The wind was starting to blow abit and the swells were huge but far apart, so it made for a easy ride out, infact, considering the conditions, the hull only slapped a few of times on the way out when I ran out of water, when a wave rolled away from under me. I managed to head out at 23-24knots and stayed dry.

About 24 nm out, I saw something that got me all excited! I can across a large weed clump ( about the size of two cars and it also contained the vital ingredient for mahi - a buoy with some rope still attached! I slowed and circled the clump looking for tell tale signs that there were larger fish underneath, then I saw it. A quick flash of a fish coming out to inspect me! I didn't get a good look but I did see something and that was good enough for me! The sounder showed a few fish under the boat, so I baited a hook and at the same time threw a few cubes of mulies over. When I looked up from cutting the mules, I saw a few small mahis taking the cubes.

I tossed the baited hook over and bang, I was on! Only problem was ........ there were all still tiny. I didn't even bother to measure, I knew they were all undersized. I was hoping that there would be some larger ones mixed into the school, but no luck.

I can't figure out why the mahi are so late this year and still so small. Anyone have any clues?

I only did a few drifts and when it was clear that none of the bigger ones (if they were there) wanted to play, I started in. Stopped at what I called my YFT mark and drifted a bait. I got a couple of taps then a solid hook up. I was on, good fight and all, then I got colour. Sigh! Sambo.............

Headed back after that. On the way in, the wind went south. The swells got larger and longer apart and this is where I had the most fun.....

I managed to average 35 knots SOG all the way in! Not bad for a boat that tops out at 32 knots on mill pond days! I just surfed the swells. I realised the swells were moving very fast and I don't recall exactly, but I rode only about 10 waves in total and before I knew it, I was back in at OR! Not one slap, the smoothest ride I have had since I got the boat here. It was like surfing the waves back in Hawaii.

Was a great boating day for me.

Two questions.

1) I don't see weed clumps out here, in fact today's was the first one I have seen. Why is this?

2) How did everyone else do?

Thursday saw me packing the car to head down to Hamlin for our annual salmon trip.

I was packed and ready to leave at 6 just in time time to still be stuck in the Traffic from the narrows all the way through to Roe H/way.
Rest of the traffic waas nice and quiet.

As it was my b/day, I thought it to be great to head down to the boat ramp, sit around, listen to a few tunes and have a vouple of nice quiet ales. Well someone had other idea. Light showers the whole way down and constant drizzle when I got the hamlin bay boat ramp.

So it was a comfy night trying to sleep in the car, yeph right, upright in the drivers seat. Sad.

Friday morning after a very poor sleep I woke up at 6, still dark but no rain.
I was out of the car and getting my rods and boat ready.
Sure enough, as I was ready it started to rain.
Isolated showers was the forecast so I knew it wouldnt be long.

Hmm how wrong was I.

6 hours later of me just sitting in the car reading the paper, doing the cross word, reading the weather, doing the puzzles, checking the weather yup isolated showers, isolated showers my arse.

1 oclock the rain stopped for long enough to get out and stretch.
I was ment to be meeting friends around this time but they were no where to be seen.

Stuff it, Ill go out for a look.
Quick launch the boat head out a way only to remember I had put the bait back in the freezer when it had started to rain.
"$%#)* ^$*@@#@ $*#&# "

Trolled around for a while with no luck.
Saw loads of dolphins but little else.

Headed back in hoping to find my mates but nope they still hadnt rolled up.
3pm I headed out to the Karridale tavern just to see if they had gotten stuck. Smile Nope not there so headed to the beach track to see if they were on the beach.

Who was I to meet coming out of the track. yup, mates had just got there and had done a lap of hte beach to look for me.

The track had a bit of work sinceI had been there. Erossion control mounds that made the drive in very insteresting towing the trailer.

Did a lap of the beach to find a likely looking spot.
Set up the tarp and through in some line to wait, and wait we did.

A few Herring and crabs were the only thing biting.
Our other mates rocked up a little after 10pm as the had to work Friday.

Oh well nice night anyway, stars are out, after having plenty of beers crashed for the night.
Well untill it started to rain and my dodgy swag was getting me wet so it was back in the drivers seat to sleep.

Saturday had the surf up with no chance of a beach launch, the track was so crappy I wasnt going to head out until it was time to go home so beach fishing it was.

Saw a big school of Salmon heading south through the bay but were well out of casting range.
We did manage to get 3 stragglers just after the school went past.

The south wester was blowing a heap of weed in, you couldnt leave your line out for more than 5 mins without tangling up heap of weed. Any longer than ten mins and the surf was making some really nasty tangles.

After a day of catcing half a ton of weed only one of us was tempted to fish after the sun went down. That was short lived as reeling in the weight of the weed snapped his line.

So it was beer time until crashing, with the clouds total covering the sky, no chances this time. passenger side with space made to recline made for a semi decent sleep.

Sunday dawned and it was time to pack up.
Mate had a home open in the afternoon so we had to leg it early.

3 salmon, a dozen herring and 6 sand crabs.
Not a bad effort for 6 people fishing for 2 day.

I was really surprised by the lack of anything else. we usually get a number of rays, sharks, shovel noses and skippy but they didnt even put in an appearance.

Oh well, here to a better trip next year.