For some time now, I’ve been becoming pretty obsessed with the European Bluefin tuna. You only need to look back a few years and this fishery was all but annihilated, but over the last few years some improvements in fisheries management have seen a return to Mediterranean waters of this iconic species.
The Bluefin is a species I’ve chased far and wide recently, but Gibraltar is one place I have always wanted to visit. Partly because they have a great fishery there that I’d heard so much about, but also because I’d started chatting with the main man in the area Jamie Triay, who assured me of good fishing and good times – how could refuse?!

My good friends Dave Huckle and Stephan Kerger joined me in what was my first (but what will certainly not be my last) jaunt to Gibraltan shores. We were an Australian, an Englishman and a Dutchman with a range of fishing experience, but we had one thing in common – we all wanted to get our hands on an awesome BFT, especially with the Rock of Gibraltar in the background!

We arrived on a Friday night to fairly stiff winds and colder temperatures than we expected, but Jamie assured us this was nothing to worry about – the tuna would still be around.

Early Saturday morning we set out to sea. We had brought quite a range of kit, but the rods used were mostly to be the Yamaga Blanks Blacky series (specifically the 81/6 and the 81/8) and a range of lures including Temple Reef Ballista Tuna, Lamble Bait CD Pencil, some prototype Amegaris and BFP Swimbaits Mafia One.

On the first morning we almost couldn’t believe it. Almost as soon as we left the harbour we started seeing the fish bust up. There were tuna everywhere! But perhaps they were not that hungry or perhaps our casts were not on point, but after an hour or so of still no hook-ups, we noticed the fish activity dwindle and disappear. We had had some opportunities with fish swiping at lures, but they just were not committing with gusto.

Just as darkness was beginning to fall and hope was all but lost of a successful first day Steef, who was working his Amegari stickbait, had a fish have two swipes and then a hit, BANG, his lure was engulfed. A fast and spirited fight ensued, and we had our first tuna of the trip on the deck and Steef’s first Bluefin to date – after many high 5s, the fish was released to fight another day. The releases were helped by the fact that we were using only single hooks on the lures. The favoured combination was a Shout Ringed Kudako of around the 5/0 or 6/0 size on the tail connected with Owner size 10 split ring, and then an assist hook off the front (for which we were using more Kudakos as well as the ever-reliable Owner SJ41 in 11/0).

So we certainly hadn’t cleaned up, but there had been fish on the deck, and at least Steef went to bed that night with a little less pressure on his shoulders (with the help of a few well earned lagers).

On our second day, the weather had taken a turn for the worse. On and off throughout the day we had rain that varied between drizzling and pouring, which made conditions a bit less pleasant to be out on the water. There were however breaks in the rain, and whilst the rain might have made things so so for the anglers, it certainly seemed to change the behaviour of the fish!

We were outside the harbour in pitch darkness, waiting for the sun to rise, and no sooner had the sun cracked the horizon, than we saw dolphins and tuna appear around us. Things were looking up already! Sure enough, we hadn’t been casting long, when I heard line peeling off a Stella. The bloody Dutchman again! Who brought this guy! Steef was onto another great Bluefin and it wasn’t long until the fish was boatside, pics taken, and fish released to stretch someone else’s arms in the future.

Shortly afterwards we came across what was probably the largest bustup we saw on the trip. Predatorial fish, birds and dolphins were smashing bait all around us, and justifiably nervous flying fish were scattering everywhere. We all lobbed in a cast, and straight away Dave and I both got tight! The fight was very different to Steef’s tunas and before too long we saw why – these were tunny rather than BFT. Whilst hard fighters these guys fought quite differently with a lot of fast runs along the surface rather than the deep back busting circles we’d come to expect from the tuna. The tunny were not so fortunate as the Bluefin and were instead released into the cooler box, and the fishing resumed.

As predicted by Jamie – the first fish were the hardest, and now the floodgates opened. The bite heated right up, and I took two great Bluefin in quick succession on sinking stickbaits. The first fish fought hard, but the second fish (which was no bigger) fought like a demon. Kilo for kilo I think that fish hurt me more than any other I’ve had. I think drag strategy came into it a lot. For this second fish (as you can see in these pics below) I was running some pretty silly drag figures, so the fish came to the boat pretty quickly. But when he got there, he was still very green, and we had a series of tug of wars with me regaining 50-70m, then him taking them straight back out under the boat. And so it repeated, until we landed him for a few quick shots.
I was running a BFP Mafia One stickbait in 85gr size. This proved just perfect for the tuna here. It casts a mile and has a great action which is very easy to get the best out of it. You can work it with a continual retrieve or with a sweeping style action, or even a more typical walk the dog technique with lots of quick stabs of the rod tip. The Yamaga Blanks Blacky really helped to belt out long casts with these relatively light weights often into stiff head winds, and brought the lures to life on the retrieve. I think I’d done no more than 2 or 3 casts after the second tuna, and BANG! Third fish was on! This was a lovely looking fish and perhaps a bit better size than the others, so was very happy to see him on the deck.

What was even better, was that Dave managed to also subdue his first Bluefin after this great specimen came up on another sinking stickbait and again on the Yamaga Blanks rods. I think for the size of fish we were catching, the 81/6 is probably the pick of the bunch but there were some MUCH bigger fish in amongst them. We saw one fish totally airborne that Jamie and I both called for a 100kg+ fish, and I think if you hooked one of them, you’d want at the very least the 81/8 – preferably something heavier! When that fish came out we were almost nervous to cast at it (almost) 

We went back in for lunch and to check out of our hotel, but managed to get back out for an afternoon session before our flight home. By this stage the weather had worsened and we’d had our fair share of lunchtime celebratory beers, but there were still fish around and I managed to bag one last Bluefin before we turned for home.

As a general observation the fishery in Gib is very different to what I’ve encountered in Italy and Spain. The fish are very often travelling with dolphins are often feeding on flying fish. Neither of these factors is present in those other destinations, and I think it changes the feeding characteristics of the fish a lot. Large bait in the water means you can use larger lures, and the fish when feeding seem very aggressive, often having 2 or 3 swipes at a lure if they miss on first pass. There also seemed to be a lot less focus on spotting the tuna than there is in Italy – more often than not you were just casting at pods of dolphins in the knowledge that they often worked together with the tuna and where one was feeding, the other wouldn’t be far away.
All in all we had an awesome time, popped two Bluefin cherries, and put some new lures and other kit to the test. We will be back!
Dan
Tackle used
Yamaga Blanks Blacky 81/6 and 81/8
Shimano Stella and Daiwa Saltiga reels
Sunline Monster Battle PE6 line
130lb YGK Leader
Temple Reef Ballista Tuna 80gr
BFP Mafia One 85gr
Amegari prototypes
FCL Labo CSP
Lamble Bait pencil
Shout Ringed Kudako hooks 5/0
Owner SJ41 Hooks 11/0
Sasame 1/0 swivels
Owner Ultra Wire Sz 10 split rings
Jigging Master 2 way gimbal belt
Most kit used is available at www.adventureangler.net and if you want to follow further trip reports and updates, follow https://www.facebook.com/AdventureAnglerUK

 I spent an overnighter with Assassin LFC including mates Manie Bekker and Dave Sheppard out at White Hill and witnessed some great landbased fishing. In the YouTube video link below you will see the slider tecnique that has resulted in numerous great fish off the beach.

Photos are of Manie, one of the better land based anglers around.

https://youtu.be/woTCNkG0Jv0

Thought i wud hit my local crabbing spot
This morning,i managed 7 crabs all above 15 cm it
Was a awsome day.

 Pulled the pots today from the 18m mark off Mindarie. Couple of crays in each pot with 3 keepers coming home. There was a lot of pots in close the other day and not very many today. I'm thinking there is not much in close ATM.

Looks like 1 of our pots was tampered with as it was 30-40m off the set line and in the middle of a sand patch. Possibly pulled with the eastery blowing them out and then just dropped back. very suspicious. 

Anyway pulled up for a whiting fish before the breeze started and scored a few as well. Headed in for a squid drift and ended up getting 2 nice KG's so the day was a sucess. 

 With the weather looking great and the ban coming up we headed out on Omega with a full boat (4). Launched from Two Rocks just before 5am with 4 other boats already preparing to launch in the carpark. No where near as bad as the last Monday launch (public holiday) but surprised me so many people there when it was still full dark. 

Headed out to test some new ground that was spotted the last time we went out in the 40's. First drop, and a messed up drift away from where we wanted, and the first Dhuie came onboard. Only 55cm so much discussion later it was bleed and put in the esky. Set the second drift, correctly, and i hooked my first cuttle fish on SP. Fresh bait mmm. Not another bite for the blokes with stink baits so off we headed to 55-65m.

I had decided that i was going to fish SP all day and not give in to changing over to bait, as i usually do, when everybody else is catching and i'm not. Well my total for the day was 1 large cuttlefish, 1 sargent baker and 1 baldie.

The others however managed to bag out with Baldies and blackass with my son managing to get his first Dhuie and therefor PB at 58cm just under 4kg.

Beautiful weather and some nice fillets to add to the freezer before the ban starts.

A shout out and thank you to a kind fishwrecked member who stopped by on their way back in to say hello and ended up passing us a surplus beer. Much appreciated.

Got back to the ramp and fisheries were there doing their job. Was a bit surprised to be boarded by a guy who was not surly. Had a good chat and cleared up the new cray pot rules with him and suggested they get a bit more vigilant about unauthorized pot pulling off Mindarie. He actually took it pretty well considering i was suggesting he wasent doing his job properly..Lol

 Any Skippy out on the FFB...

Launched from Hillarys this morning, normally launch Leeuwin but to save miles went north, standing in the launch lane 0545 preparing the Reefy through races a small SUV been driven like a stolen car by an Ice addict. What the f@#k is exchanged between myself and the boaty in the next lane. The car with body roll speeds into the front parking bay, out jumps a large bloke like Sheila running late to jump in the Trigg island surf boat with some good looking sorts waiting patiently holding up a lane. I pipe up with what the f@#k it replies sorry mate! Any way if any body has connections with this crew give them a bake as it was the craziest boat ramp shit I've seen and I have seen plenty. Glad I didn't have to fight the bloke shiela as she was pretty scary. Fishing wise caught 5 baldies really slow using fresh cuttlefish. Couldn't get the last so steamed home from 15 miles east at lunch.

 So decided to stay in Broome for the holidays. For the first week my wife's brothers were here and we went camping at Barn Hill. Brought the tinny along. Was spring tides and the swell was up. After setting up camp we went to the beach and straight away i regretted not bringing the thrownet. Had a school of fish the size of a standard backyard cruise past to the left of the beach then once they passed the point they flew back past to the right. Got charged by queenfish, school sharks and more pelagics that I couldn't ID. So we all chased them along the beach and every so often jump in. The fish were so thick they swam right into you. Great start to the camping trip. Fishing was poor even though I did all the small things right. We managed to get a big coral trout that was 60cm+ and made for a tasty lunch. Gave half of it away and after that everyone in the camp was asking where to go fishing. 

The next weekend my wife got her first cobia 700 m from the shore in Broome. That day I got my first frigate tuna. 

Bagged out on mudcrabs today. 

Fair to say its been fun. 

Coming to Perth on Tuesdayday the 13th October if someone takes me out for pinkies I'll return the favour up in Broome with crabs and barra 

Hey Fellas finally got round to posting some pics of our Exxy trip back in August. We normally camp around at ningaloo station but this trip we had a big house on the canals with a 15m jetty was pretty sweet. Copped a fair few days of howling easterlies which was quite frustrating but still managed to fish 7 out of 10 days. Main aim of the trip was to spend a few nights out at the islands on the other side of the gulf but the wind really only allowed us to do the one overenight trip on the last couple of days we had. Typically the day we left and the following 3 days were the best for the whole trip! 

Did some awesome jigging out at the islands in 35-50m getting smoked by big rankins and trout where the sharks play a bit fairer as well as catching trevs and mackeral in stickbaits in 3-4m. Spent one day exploring out around the Muirons where we we found some good lookoing patches of ground in 100m where we were hooking up straight wawy buit couldnt get away from the sharks, not landing one fish. Found plenty of Spanish Macks around the back of the reef off Tantas and even managed a few Dollies including two which a couple of the boys caught at the same time winding there baits back up while bottom bashing. A couple of the lads spent a day out deep dropping with the boys on Diversity Charters and smashed the Rubys. 

Big thanks to Bodie and Reece for pointing us in the right direction in regards to the islands. Legends!

Next trip minimum 3 weeks and definately taking deep drop gear!

Cheers

 Hi Guys 

Snuck out Wednesday arvo with my oldest son.

Anchored up on our favourite pinky spot and not long after my son had his biggest ever snapper at 84cm, previous was 81cm.

He was that excited he could hardly talk and was shaking all over.

With the pink snapper action still red hot in the outer areas of the Cockburn banned zone us staff at Oceanside Tackle have been all over it.

Last night shop owner Ryan Thipthorp took out good mate & FW member Frank on his boat and staff member Reese Powell took out his old man on their boat.

We all ended up with our 2 fish each and the McArthy softplastics in 7 inch bullhead minnow and 6 inch paddle tail doing the damage.
There's still time to get amongst these hard hitting reef dwellers before the demersal ban comes it.

If your needing any advise or gear we're happy to help - Open 7 Days

Spoke to a bunch of blokes today down there they said only been about 30 fish all week come out of the channel. it's dead for last 8 days apparently.

But Margret River pebble beach about 10ks out of the town. some big fish coming off the beach. and the river leading off it.

We had another awesome week up in Greenhead last week for the first week of the school holidays with some great family and friends. What amazing weather it was for swimming, fishing and lazing on the beach. Great part of the world.
Took my boat up again as I cant leave on holidays without it.

I was able to take a couple of new comers to boating out for some fishing. They all picked up a dhuie each over a couple of days. All caught in the shallows in 6-8m of water. Which was great fun as they were fighting all the way to the boat.

Unfortunately I didn't. But I did get a lot of satisfaction out of seeing them with big smiles on there faces reeling them in. Team effort I say :)

Apologies in advance if I veer into overblown literay eloquence with my trip report for Sandy Cape. It's been a long time between drinks in regards to fishing (my last report here was back in late 2013 i think), after losing enthusiasm for it for some time after a long stretch of insignificant catches or none at all. Sandy Cape was our destination with family friends for my first ever camping trip. It was also the first time my 2014 Navarra would get a solid shake down off road and my first time doing such activities. The weather was great initially as we set up, checking in on the mighty Hawks progress at the camp caretakers big screen setup for the occasion, before going for a good walk to check things out and of course to gather intel for future fishing adventures. The high dunes provided excellent view points and a damn torturous workout for unprepared leg muscles. 

*at the bottom of the pic is supposed to be a large school of fish been harrassed by an ominous figure but it didn't come up properly. 

Pretty much all the beach fishing was a waste of time due to persistent weed and the poor weather on Monday, which gave our tent a hard time, made it generally unworth the effort, aside from a little cod dragged from the wash on the first night.

Went offroading Sunday for the first time and the Navarra handled it well before hitting the beach and been forced to drag our more experienced companions from a rather sticky situation. This is what happens when you hit the anchors on beach sand waiting for us to catch up!  Took a bit of jiggering and the help of the bloke in the middle and his excellent advice, who had been following behind us,  to save the day for the Pajero and earned much bragging points on our behalf. 

Took all the kids snorkling and sand boarding later, after all that excitement and noticed with a fair degree of amusement after coming back from behind the dunes rounding up stray kids, that a Hyundai mini van tried to imitate a fourby and bogged itself at the entrance of the beach access. The camp attendant was on hand and was able to extract the unfortunates from their predicament. 

The crap weather that rolled in Monday morning was not enough to put me and my mate off from hitting the point after missing out the day before on his little tailor sesh. In between intermittent showers and a cold westerly, casting into nice fishy looking wash, we landed one nice size tailor coming close to 50 cm and was busted off by three other hooters. These fish would have been at least 70 cm. One shook free at the bottom of the cliff as I attempted to help bring it up, the second cartwheeled its way to freedom along with my ganghooks, going over the reef with manouvers that would make a gymnast proud and the third showed itself with an enormous green and silver flash of its flanks before screaming back into the wash, ripping the first two gang hooks from its eye and leaving me with a pathetic looking single 5/0 hook and hollering with frustration. Strong wind threatened to derail the following morning but it had eased off to a rather moderate but chilly ESE. It was nothing like the other day, with bites few and far between and was surprised when I managed to hook up and land another tailor, smaller than my previous effort but still very welcome.

With nothing really happening, time was called and it was back to pack up the campsite in an easterly that had just contrived to pick up in strength at that very moment...not a lot of fun I am sure you can imagine. 

While i myself havent been fishing because of work commitments and moving house my little bro has been holding up the fort with some outstanding catches while fishing solo. myself and him have been exploring a very remote stretch of coast and slowly but surely we have been finding more and more ledges to fish with Aron making the trek on his own a few times with great sucess, catching and releasing heaps of blue groper and when he isnt on the rocks getting a few mulloway in the river on hardbodys again. ive saved some of the better photos for articles but these self timered ones are not to bad.

few more photos of the groper on 50lb spin gear and the mulloway on 12lb.

Just got back from the midwest with an unbelievable week of light winds, many highlights including first Dhu on jig and plastic, young blokes first Dhu at 11kg, took the old man out for his first big Dhu, also got first baldy on plastic and just had a magic time with family and friends. Freezer is looking healthy for the demersal ban. Not sure if the Mrs will let me out this upcoming weekend as the weather is looking the goods again.

Over the many years I've enjoyed targeting pink snapper with great results. Catching pinkys on fly is a big buzz for me and with the demersal ban looming I'm taking any opportunity!

Over the last few nights I've been out fishing the outer area's of Cockburn Sound and doing well on snapper on fly. I went back out again last night and got into another 2 fish on fly whilst my good mate Scott (FW soupster 51) got 2 on McArthy softplastics!

Cheers Ryan

 Spent a few days up with Tangles and to say the fishing was hot was an understatement monday night on a solo fish i landed about 20 mullaz with the biggest 15kg clean the other in the photos about 10kg bar those 2 all me other fish were released every bait resulted in fish or spat hooks left them on the chew

The following day Axey Tangles brother joined us and we pulled the all nighter releasing another 5 or 6 solid mullas between us and getting smoked by nohas after a quick nap axey and i tried a differnt spot to find some pink fellas chewing there heads off  this was a hell session with a big double hook up on pinks to bag out

Every session landing quality fish and having a good laugh with the boys some of the best fishing i've ever seen and thats only 2 sessions there was lots more didnt manage to get a real big one this trip but not a bad fish real long one and went hard 

Ten very long weeks after my double knee replacement and I could eventually get back on the water again. Gail and I launched just after six in the morning from Woodman Point and made our way towards Rottnest Island. We got up a half an hour later than we should have and were probably going to miss the moon set before we got to our destination. As we passed Seaward Reef we noticed a commotion in the water which turned out to be a pod of three whales slapping their tales on the water. We stopped to enjoy this wonderful spectacle and were now guaranteed to miss the moon set, but what the heck – one does not experience this type of show every day!

We eventually arrived at our “Snapper Spot” and one drift over the drop-off indicated some decent returns on the sounder. The anchor was quickly dropped and the burley trail introduced to the swim. I took the Shimano Nexave loaded with the Shimano Stradic 4000 and dropped a soft plastic over the side of the boat. Soon after this we hooked a bird that picked up one of our scalies before it had a chance to drop down into “the zone”. As we were trying to free it the Stradic started peeling off line and I caught a Snapper of 58cm.

A little later Gail hooked her first of three Snapper, this one going 65cm. Her subsequent two Snapper went 86cm and 85cm consecutively and we had reached our quota within 90 minutes of dropping the anchor. We tried for further fish, but got smoked no less than four times before we pulled anchor in an ever increasing South Westerly. Before we left for Woodman Point we experienced a further two whales, one of which breached fully out of the water – what a sight!

On the way back we decided to stop off at Rowboat Rock near Mewstone to see if we could entice one of the Aussie Salmon which had forgotten to go back down south. My first cast with a soft plastic and bang – I was into a 85cm specimen. After a good tug on the light tackle the fish was snapped and released.
This was a welcome return to our wonderful fishery – can’t wait for the next trip.

YouTube clip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=rBcLMDpit0c

has there been  an official announcement if the cockburn sound will be open this year for crabbing??????

Hi Guys

We just got back from a 5 day charter to the Montes on board Top Gun 2.

Had a absolute blast with a insane 5 days fishing with some good diving thrown in aswell.

This Video is my brother in laws 1st go pro edit and he did alright. The music works for some people but not others.

didnt take anywhere near enough still shots but this gives a pretty good summary.

Cheers Jayce

Thanks for the encouragment guys.

Here are the results both of us bagged out 7.5 KG 76 AND 8.5 KG and 86 one my best sessions in metro ever. Lost a few to gear failure as well. My mate got two 900 models

The call was made late last week that Monday was looking promising for a fish out wide off of Ocean Reef. Target species Greyband Cod.

It’s a fair way to travel so we don’t venture out there that often, but when the effort is made, rewards are generally received.

Call for additional crew was met with silence so it was just the two of us heading out.

Launched at ocean reef and headed West. Easterly was still puffing about 15kts so it made for an average trip out at about 22kts. Have definitely been out in worse tho!

Lined up the first bit of ground and some blips on the sounder gave us some glimmer of hope. Put the electric reel back on the rod, (this time the right way up!), rigged up, and bombs away.

First drop we were both on to some little fish with a red snapper first fish in the boat, slowly followed by another. Slowly because I realised that when I put the reel back on the rod, I hadn’t put the line through the level wind and could only get 2 of the 3 hundred metres of line back on with the last 100 metres pulled by hand!! 2nd error for the day out the way!.

The wind was dropping but we were still drifting a little quick which we thought may have been the problem – snapper are willing to chase the bait whereas the cod seem to be pretty lazy hunters.
Anyway, the next couple of hours were pretty much the same with hook-ups of red snapper and pink snapper on every drop and we probably boated 20+ fish. The snapper all seem to handle the rise from 200+ metres really well and go back fighting!

Going that way for four snapper isn’t really worth it and we were holding out for some Greyband. The backup plan was to pulls stumps out wide and hit Direction bank on the way back in for some Dhu’s etc.

About 11, the wind dropped right off so we decided to have a last drop on the ground we started on before trying in close – good decision.

Lined up the mark again and the sounder lit up. A couple of minutes in the drift and we loaded up with a better fish- Definitely a cod and the long wind to the top commenced.

As soon as it surfaced, there was a sigh of relief that we had one in the bucket and our reputation would be retained.

2nd drift and bang, one cod on and then followed by another Big hookup. The Second hookup was dropped pretty quickly, only to hookup again with a smaller model (for a cod) within about 10 seconds! and we were both on again. Both fish reached the surface about the same time and the models were just getting bigger!

Another drift just to complete the bag and I took a hook off (as they don’t release well at all and didn’t want to get a double header!) and stacked the bottom 10/0 hook with a mix of Occy and whiting – probably lasted about 10 seconds on the bottom before the rod loaded up big time again – this was a big boy for sure and it was pulling the boat back towards the fish!

Don’t think the other rod and rig even made it to the bottom before having to wind up again (as we couldn’t catch any more fish anyway) and about 15 minutes later, up pops the big boy about 40 metres out from the boat- they hit the surface like a submarine when they are that big.

This completed the bag of four greyband so we cruised on back to the marina at a leisurely 30+kts.

Not a bad Monday at all.

Hi All,

Just returned from our annual 2 weeks at Coral Bay with the family before the start of the school holidays. First few days were pretty quiet with strong southerlies. After that the weather really turned it on. Had some absolutely glassy conditions, some of the best I've seen.

Scored plenty of variety with some top quailty table fish coming on board along with some hard fighting sport fish (returned to fight another day) on the light jigging gear to make for great fun. A couple of firsts for us tomato cod, got a couple in one session one which I recon I dropped about 20m from the surface. It popped up a couple of minutes later next to the boat, out with the net! Plus an amberjack on the light demersal jigging out fit retrieving the jig off the bottom flat out as you would expect. Unfortunatley I couldn't find the demersals on the jig, bait did the damage this trip. The brother in law scored his PB mackie in a fairly unconventional way. We were inside the reef having a bit of a spangle bash in about 15m of water after trolling for about 3 hours on the out side skipping gars, laser pros, rapalas the kitchen sink all for one barracuda. He was using his light jigging combo he had bought off me, a sustain 5000fg loaded with PE2.5 on a eupro giant king PE1-3. A single 6/0 attached straight onto a rod lenght of 50lb fluro with a chunk of squid just lobbed off the back of the boat floating in the current. Initially called it for a big trev but after about 10min of screaming runs and not being bricked figured maybe a big cobe. Then a big flash from off the bottom with those awsome stripes appeared, a few tense moments boat side and had it on board. A good effort on the little gear.

Had a couple of memorable snorkling sessions with the kids 4 and 7 years old out on the reef it was the first time my boy 4 has seen what is actually under water. His face was priceless when he saw everything that actually goes on down there!

Anyway been back 2 days and already fanging to get back there, I'll let the pics do the talking now.

Cheers Chris.

 Had a good day out on the water off Geraldton today with some mates.

Hooked up big time on a good fish on the soft placcie I was drifting along the bottom and was quite surprised when after a torrid stuggle down deep the fish came up to the surface and turned out to be a nice Cobia around 15 or so kilos by my estimate. Went 1.2 metres approx on the brag mat later.

We fell one short of our demersal bag limit with 2 Dhuis, 4 Coral Trout and one Pink Snapper 

Whales everywhere too!

Cheers

Gadsy.

Took the old man and young bloke out for a fish. Top day out, back just after lunch after we caught more than enough.

Sounder looked good when we stopped.

Young bloke with a nice queenie (released) and then 73 cm dhu (not released....yummo).

The old man then got in the action with a size dhu released and pinkie that got snaffled by a toothie right on the surface.

Smokey Joe Submarine cruised by, we could hear and see it from miles away with smoke (steam) pissing out of it......classic Collins class I presume.....even the Yanks could find and sink this heap of crap! haha.

Ended with a KG fish where the action was hot, and landed several up to 52 cm, and got a nice 76cm dhu on the KG gear that went quite well!

 As it was such a nice day today we decided to go out of Two Rocks and head to new ground in the 50-70m range.

The plan was to load the boat at 5:30 and launch by 6am. As a few of the fishwrecked members i spoke to today will confirm the line to launch at Two Rocks went from the ramp out to the main road leading into the town. 1 1/2 hour wait to launch and we were on our way by 7:30.. Doh Bloody public holiday.

We never made it to the 70m mark as we found some pretty good ground in the mid 50's dropping to the mid 60's. Great mixed bag caught and a few tanks not stopped. The weather played ball and it was an all round great day.  Apart from the launch..Lol

Thinking about having a go this weekend arroung Cockburne Sound, Five  Fathom or Rotto. Just wondering if any you guys have had any sucsess on the full moon day or night? Any advice positive or negative much appreciated.