Heading the steep Friday week - weekend of the 21st Feb for a couple

anyone heard / seen the track condition (in particular after the tyres down sign)? 

Also keen to hear water colour / temp if anyone knows?

and of course - how's the point fishing? 

Heres my sons catch from sunday

Hes turning into a real Rex Hunt lately well done m8 2 more dhues were released

Hi all,

We are heading down Busso at the end of the month for our annual week of fishing and relaxation.

Any reports on how the jetty is for Taylor and Squid?

cheers

Jason

Visited Bremer Bay for the first time this week and was keen to know where the good fishin spots were. Staying at the Bremer Bay Caravan Park which is very good and clean. Met some older gents at the fish cleaning area opposite the caravan park and they mentioned that the Wellstead Estuary has some some good sized bream and some extremely large ones have been caught there in the past. The estuary is currently closed and has been for a few years apparently but does open up to the bay when the water level rises. They were cleaning their catch at the time and they said that the bream weren't biting much at the moment and they "only got half a dozen each". There were three of them and that makes 18 fish. If that was classifed as "not biting much", it sounded like a good invitation to me. They said the estuary was quite shallow and had a lot of rocks. They had a small 3m tinnie and we have a 4.2m Stacer so with the engine up a little, we should be ok. There is a boat launching ramp on Bennet street which looked ok so I pondered whether to take the boat out. Meanwhile, Bill (the bloke staying next to us in a Caravan) said he had been to Bremer 3 years ago and seen people bring in big bream from the jetty so I decided to give the jetty a go the next morning.

Got to the Jetty (which is located on Bennet street just down the road from the general store - there is a small parking area there and then a very short walk to the jetty). Nice jetty, just wide enough for one person with rod holders conveniently located on the rail. Got started at 6am with my rods with paternoster rig, small sniker and 1/0 suicide hooks using the coral bay prawns. Nothing happened for first hour. Not even one bite got me thinking that there were no fish in that Estuary (or at least not many or not here). Decided to change from Prawns to strips of herring. Caught some small herring the day before to use for bait. Scaled these and cut into small strips (5mm wide by 25 mm long) and threaded onto the hooks. Cast out as far as my small rod would cast directlyin front of the end of the jetty. Wait 5 min, 10min then small tap, tap, dont strike - you know the drill with bream - tap, tap, small pull then strike softly and feel the weight. Could tell was a good sized bream but strangely did not fight all that much, not like the bream I have been used to at say Lights Beach - Denmark or Sydney for instance. Just a few short runs and then came to the jetty and lifted up easily - 35cm and nice and fat. Over the next 2 hours caught 6 ranging between 32-35cm (along with one suicidal crab caught on the hook). Filleted these and had them for lunch the next day with the family. Delicious. Next day, repeated the routine and got 6 of the same size. Caught 6 more and released them. I experimented a little with the hook size and strike time to try and avoid the bream swallowing the hook. Increased the hook size to 2/0 and strike a little earlier so the fish are hooked in the mouth.

The bream here are large and patient. Generally, you have to wait around 5-10min between fish for the next bite. This is just like bream in an estuary and you have to be patient but know they are there and checking out the bait. Don't move the bait around and leave a little slack on the line. When the first tap,tap comes, don't strike and be patient. I had to leave after 3 days but am convinced there are some very large bream in there of the 40-50cm range.

P.S I also put out 2 crab pots and got 10 crabs all up - all females released (where are all the males?)

 caught these a few weeks back in the yarda gully in northampton

biggest went in at 115mm

 hey fellas, new to the fw website, just want to kno wats been happening at lancelin recently, are there any tailor or mulloway running?

any info would b much appreciated and wil upload photos sunday. 

cheers.

Headed out for a look tuesday as i wasnt going to let the good weather get away. The red arrows seem to few and far between at the moment. Lets hope march is a glass off! Anyways first drop paid out with decent GB. Second drift we picked up a 14kg trevalla which fought hard all the way from 300m to the surface.  There after we dropped a couple of fish and the action went to ground. Nothing from there on untill late in the arvo where we boated a snapper and a small GB. Had Manta ray circle the boat for a while but wasnt holding any cobes. Late in the arvo the pelagics seemed to turn on as we spotted numerous birds working bait on the way home. Spun one small yft and dropped one which felt much better. The little yft gave and impressive battle as at a guess a 3 meter whaler was hot on its tail all the way to the boat. All up a good day.

Just a quick report from the trip down to Walpole over the weekend. We mainly fished the inlets due to a fairly large swell.

The whole system is alive with all sorts. We used plastics and jigs for the whole weekend.

we caught Whiting, Flathead,Bream, Flounder and more Herring than you could poke a stick at and a few Salmon.

The mouth was fairly easy to get out of and we could make it about 500m out around the first couple of points before the swell started to roll through. The first couple where sheltered from the headland. We where catching some undersize pinkies out there aswell.

Crabs where around aswell but not in huge numbers.

Sorry no photos. Some of the flatties where big fish 50-60cm.

Cheers Jayce

 Not very interesting, but... Had a go for whiting this morning at mandurah, went near the mouth of the Serpentine. Arrived at 6.30, in the middle of the bite time of 5.30 - 7.30. Tide was low (bottom of the tide was at about 5am). Used r2s bubblepop and berkley popdogs, all variety of retrieves. Fished the flats and the river channel, nothing except a few blowies. Heaps of mullet jumping, also heaps of small female crabs, was like walking through a minefield in places, got nipped a few times as well (might have squealed like a girl). Never saw a whiting.

So on this day, early morning + low tide = no good in my books, bite time didn't have any effect. 

The latest monthly competition was held over the weekend , fishing Saturday through to Sunday morning north of Perth . Sea conditions were pretty good with not much weed in the water but the wind was constant all day and most of the night.
Club members were spread out over a wide area with some finding good fishing and the others having plenty of time to contemplate life.
Greg Uren has a stellar night and produced the goods , he was the eventual winner and has the highest tally of points awarded for a single competition. Shaun Visser caught a beaut Mulloway which was released after a quick photo.

Results were Greg Uren 1st Place
Vincent Stacey 2nd Place
Shaun Visser 3rd Place

Next competition will be a lure competition in a couple of weeks , check your emails for details.

 After 10 straight 14 hour days at work, it was great to get on the water with my brother for a quick fish on Wednesday this week. Out from Ocean Reef, with only 3 other trailers in the carpark, we managed these couple of keepers, 1 at 65cm and 1 at 45cm, and a nice bonus of a dozen or so fat sand whiting. The early easterly was fresh, and the southerly too...but about an hour and a half in between was sensational!

11 of us (dad's and son's) headed to the shack at Wedge a few weeks ago and the kids had an absolute ball. Not many photos taken but here are two magical ones.

We decided to head down a little over a km from South Rocks for some tailor (and possibly mulla - no luck) which only the one was caught. Was entertaining watching an 8 year old try to reel in a tailor with a 12 foot rod. Naturally I had cast out the bait - he did the rest.

Looking at heading back up in a few weeks.

Gday Guys,
I am considering a trip up to Jurien in 1-2 weeks time for a few days.
Anyone have any reports on the FADS?
Are they still deployed? Any fish around?

Thanks

 weres a good spot for bream useing hardbodies

Went for a quick flick and got a 37cm, it went pretty hard I thought for sure I was in for another forty... Can't complain though happy with a 37.

 

Finnaly I was able to get out and chase some fish on Staurday 25th Jan. It has been a good few months since i have been able to get out wide and chase some freezer fillets.

Took a mate out along with my neighbour (James) and his mate (Craig). They had never fished on a boat before off Perth. On the water at 7 and fishing a sambo spot by 7:30. Got onto around 20 sambos for the best part of 3 hours. Good fun watching James and Craig get stretched by sambos. Their biggest fish prior to this was a whiting.

Not massive but good fun size. Brett below with a nice sambo

Then decided to chase some dhuies and Pinkies and had some success.

Craig with a nice Pinkie

Then James got his first ever Dhuie. 9kg and a pretty good way to open the bank. pretty happy boy.

As soon as his hit the boat Brett hooked up on a dirty Gulp!!! another 9kg Dhuie.  check out the colour of this one. Albino me thinks???? anyone else ever seen one this white? is it that it dies as it is coming up and it changes colour? was still pretty fiesty at the boat though.

After the obligatory photos and beers we went back around for another drift back over. Hoping for a nother pinkie to get our fourth fish for the esky.

Brett again on a dirty gulp goes bang...... anothe dhuie. didnt weigh it as didnt want to hurt it but was much bigger than the others so i gave it a 13kg. Few photos then realeased with the weight back to fight another day.

 headed back when i almost ran over a cray rope. stopped to untangle when the sounder looked nice. dropped down to pick up a blackbum to top off the day.

Sadly the skipper got f all. Tied lots of knots and took lots of photos. but had fun watching others enjoys a day that i usually take for granted.

Thanks for reading.

 Missus joined me for a fish on Five Fathom Bank.  Started the day with a Sambo of 105cm followed by a number of species.  We got to see a Tiger Shark of about 7ft which circled the boat a number of times. She managed to out-fish me once again.

 A Good day out off Bunbury The Dhu was 700mm

Got an opportunity to take my old man boat fishing on Saturday. He's now 78 and just recovered from a bout of cancer, so these opportunities are to be treasured. Makes up for all the times he took me growing up and he's responsible for turning me into the fishing tragic I am now. Just listening to his endless stories of fishing in the old "days" is priceless, and he managed a few nice fish too, including this Baldie. I hope my kids read this :-)

Hi i was just wanting to know a few good good land fishing spots in the Swan River and what type of baits, lures & soft plastics you have had success with?

I caught 4 undersized Bream under Canning bridge the other night just using river prawns!

cheers..

Anyone get much offshore yesterday?

Struggled all day and burnt a lot of fuel, just for one undersize dhu

Hello to all, love the site, been reading the forums for a while and finally have something to post, albeit not that exciting. went with a mate down to the ammo jetty for the first time tonight, both being fairly new at fishing were just hoping to get something to take home. arrived around 5pm and out by 8, i can honestly say ive been to nightclubs with less ppl but we got an ok spot near the end and every1 stayed out of eachothers way (mostly). started off alright an after a few minutes wed both landed some butterfish and undersize tarwhine and that was basicly the whole session, baby tarwhine almost to a fish a cast at points. even managed a juvy pink snapper, wouldve been 12cm. everyone around us was mostly using baitchaser rigs for tailor bait but other than that nothing sized was caught. is this normal for that jetty or this time of year? or mabye we were doing something wrong? mostly just using running sinker and dropper rigs with coral prawns and squid on light rods with 8lb leaders. it wasnt a bad session in the end so just trying to learn more about new spots so any help would be appreciated. cheers

 Just a quick Mack caught with in 10 minutes of leaving the boat ramp trolling from the river mouth in the 20's

 Hi guys i went fishing yesterday for bream i came to a point were there were bream every were i put my lures and my soft platics down but they dont take it they ust look at it and swim away how can i catch them????

Went out sunday morn for a bit of a dhu bash but only the small ones wanted to play but the gs were very obliging nice baldy too

Hi

Firstly sorry about the length of this report. I could have written so much more.

A week with BKK guy – more than just fishing.

Before you leave for any holiday you have certain expectations, a set of hopes and a handful of ideas. This is particularly true when embarking on a fishing holiday. You have an idea of the species you hope to catch, the dream that these fish will be of monstrous proportions and you will often find yourself fantasizing about the way they will have your reels begging for mercy! Well, these were at least my thoughts before I boarded my flight to Thailand. I and a good mate of mine Clayton had booked a 4day fishing adventure to Thailand fishing with BKK guy (John). We would be fishing for predatory fish on the first day, wild fishing for Toman (Giant Snakeheads) for two days and the final day we would hit the Barramundi ponds for some top water action. I have been fishing seriously for about 4years and have been an avid aquarist all my life. Many of the species we were to target were dream fish of mine, many of which I had previously and currently keep in the confines of an aquarium. So this trip was particularly special to me.

Day 1 – Predatory Pond.

John picked us up from our hotel at 4am; both Clayton and I were both nursing a severe hangover. In reality, we were both probably still a little on the inebriated side, rather than hung over. Not a wise move, but nothing a quick stop to Maccas didn’t fix. The first thing you notice about John is his personality. After a couple hours of talking fish with John on the way to our first fishing location I felt like I had known John for years, to say he is personable wouldn’t be doing his warm personality any justice.  I talked fish biology with John the entire way to the first pond, everything from how often Arapaima come up to breathe to the way in which other species spawn, it felt good to talk to someone who was perhaps an even bigger fish nerd than myself, no easy feat to manage.

We got to the first pond while the sun was still down and quickly noticed a couple young Arapaima slowly drifting around the shallows. To say I was now excited was an understatement, I could see the fish. Bait fishing is not permitted at this pond; our fishing method is a little bit of a secret. It was a hybrid method between float fishing and fly fishing.  Within our first handful of casts we had both landed an Alligator gar each, a truly prehistoric looking fish that was a challenge to photograph, get your hand anywhere near the business end of this fish and you will quickly cut your day short. The fight on these prehistoric gars was a bit disappointing, but still good to get a nice picture.

The next thing I noticed about John was his photography skills; he knows just how to hold fish and the angles required getting the best possible photo. Photography is a strong point of Johns, which is great as you don’t need to worry about taking any pictures yourself; the pictures and memories you get are fantastic. Back into it – next up is a double hookup on Red Tailed Catfish, one of the previous hopeful species I mentioned, I was wrapped. Things then went a little quiet for me, and by a little quiet I mean I didn’t catch a fish for a whole 20 minutes. In which time Clayton had already managed to land another two Red Tailed Catfish, at which point we both decided they were the Samson fish of the freshwater ponds, they pull like steam trains and head straight for structure. After a couple RTC your back and arms are sufficiently warm.

Then it was my turn with another RTC, quickly followed by an African Walking catfish (Clarias sp). The walking catfish did its best to slither its way back into the water, but John knew exactly how to handle this fish in a professional manner. On the topic of professionalism, the way in which the fish were handled by John and the owner of the pond is first class. They know the importance of handling these fish in a professional manner, ensuring that the fish are not harmed and returned to the water in the best possible condition. Something that I am told other ponds do not do very well, and is subsequently why the catch rates in many ponds around Thailand is less than desirable at times.

Clayton then hooked into something, something big! This fish took him straight for structure, in the way of a bridge that went over a narrow area of the pond, we immediately called this fish for a RTC and it was. The biggest for the day and an absolute horse of a fish, a few photos a couple fist pumps and we were back to work. While at this point, I was happy that we had caught some great fish of those monstrous proportions I had talked about earlier. One thing was still missing, an Arapaima.  Which I was a little taken by as over the course of the morning I had seen a countless amount come up for air, but alas, we were still yet to land one between us. So we moved to an area of the pond that was known for deeper water to increase our chances of catching one of these truly majestic creatures. 10 minutes after a spot change and Clayton was in, we could immediately see that this was something else to what we had previously caught. A very spirited battle that had Clayton retrieving and losing line for 10 minutes and we finally saw its big golden back emerge from the water, what a fish! At an estimated 65kg, this fish was expertly put into a sling by the pond owner and hoisted onto dry land. We were both speechless, the size and even more than that just the physical image of the fish that was immediately burnt into my brain. Beautiful isn’t the word, this fish was awe inspiring, and perhaps the most beautiful animal I had ever seen. The Arapaima monkey had been lifted from Clayton’s back. As an angler, fishing with a mate you are always happy for a mate to catch a good fish, but it can make you nervous, and I was. Would I catch my dream fish on this trip? Did one of these majestic fish have my name on it? I didn’t know and it was scary. Next cast for me and I was on again, it was a good fish, but I knew in my heart it wasn’t the majestic Arapaima, and it wasn’t. The fish that surfaced was golden in colour, but it was another catfish. A species I had kept in the past at home in Perth; Wallago leeri.

John quickly told me how lucky I was to have caught this fish, as it was a rare catch, I didn’t appreciate it at the time as I was now completely obsessed by catching my prized fish. John was doing his best to put me onto an Arapaima, teaching me every secret in the book. Another dozen or so casts, and more doubt was creeping into my mind all while still being hopeful. Next cast and BANG, my line peels off at a million miles an hour. I retrieved line, I lost line, the fish swam up the bank near some trees, I followed it, and my heart was now in my throat choking me. Finally we saw the fish, a moment I will never forget. One problem though, the owner of the pond was about 10 minutes away, so the fish couldn’t be put in a sling and brought onto dry land until he arrived. The next 10 minutes felt like an eternity, luckily John expertly placed the fish’s prehistoric head in a net and kept it calm. Finally the fish was landed, on dry land this thing was a beast; part dinosaur, part crocodile with some fish thrown into the mix. One of the happiest moments of my life, I felt like a lot of my angling and in particular fish keeping life had directed me to this point. I had done it. An estimated 75kg Arapaima had my name painted onto its side in beautiful gold’s and reds. I had seen many images of anglers taking photos of Arapaima in the water holding their prized catch, so when John suggested we did the same, I had my shirt off faster than a male stripper at a hens night!

We then moved to another shallower area of the pond to target more catfish as we had our Arapaima and the pond owner didn’t want us putting anymore through the stress of capture, completely understandable.  So we moved and instantly we had a double hook up of Arapaima! I will save you the details, but both Clayton and I both landed another dream fish. After trying all day for one we had decided to purposely not target them and we caught another two, but hey that’s fishing! And I’ll take it. What a day, I had caught every fish I had dreamed I’d catch in the predator pond plus a few more. What a start!

Day 2 – Wild Toman

We were up at 3am next morning to head to our first location for wild snakehead fishing. This was not the season for snakehead fishing, so I knew things were going to be tough. John had specifically chosen this location as our first fishing spot as the terrain was forgiving. The way that things were to work for wild fishing was there were two boats, with a Thai ‘boatman’ in each boat that would drive and maneuver us through the terrain. John would also be on a boat teaching us the specifics of Toman fishing. We were fishing with topwater lures the entire time. I started with John in the morning, and quickly learnt that the key was to get the lures as close to the vegetation as possible. No problem right? Well, not really, not in a rocky boat using lures you had never seen before. Like anything in life you quickly adapt. Mid morning I had my first wild Toman, a nice fish of 3kg.

I was over the moon, catching monstrous prehistoric fish in ponds is amazing, but hunting them off season in the wild is another experience entirely. That fish meant a lot to me, the sense of accomplishment was immense. At lunch time we stopped and met up with Clayton and the other boatman, unfortunately Clayton hadn’t landed a fish, despite countless strikes. So we swapped boats and away we went. The boatmen don’t speak any English so my afternoon was very quiet on the conversation front and on the fish front, with only a small Toman landed of about 30cm. We knocked off at 6pm and arrived back on dry land, Clayton had landed his first Toman! His face was priceless, we have done a lot of fishing together but I have never seen the expression he had on his face that night, pure elation. He had worked hard, very hard and he had his prize, well done mate.

Day 3 – Wild Toman

The night before we had gotten to our hotel at 1:30am and John had told us he would be picking us up at 3am! You have to be kidding me right? He is a hardcore angler; if that means no sleep it means no sleep. But we bargained with John and scored ourselves a nice sleep in, 4:30am! Another reasonable drive and we were at our next location. Apparently the fish are fewer but larger at this spot. I was absolutely drained, but pumped. Today I was with the boatman for the early session. I quickly noticed the terrain was much more unforgiving at this location; I put a few early casts into the vegetation.

I remembered Johns mantra from the day before which was “just keep casting”, valuable advice. A couple casts later and I was on, I was on in a big way. This Toman had reminded me of the RTC from day one, powerful and dirty, pulling me towards vegetation, then under the boat. The fish was landed and unfortunately I didn’t have John’s expert camera skills with me. Because of this, the pictures of my prized Toman were not the greatest, regardless I was happy. At lunch time I showed John the photos of my prized 5kg Toman, he was bitterly disappointed with the pictures we took of this great fish. Clayton had also landed a smaller fish that morning. A good start. The afternoon session was on and I quickly landed another nice fish of 2kg. The rest of the afternoon was made up of a few close misses, without any more fish being landed. I didn’t mind the scenery was beautiful, the company was great and I had already landed a few nice fish.

Toman fishing is hard work, lots of casts and heart breaking near misses. John’s early advice of “just keep casting” is the perfect advice. My biggest fish was caught on a bit of a dud cast into a pretty unlikely area. You need to cover all bases, the fishy looking areas and the not so fishy areas. Just keep casting!

Day 4 – Barramundi Ponds

Finally some rest, bed at 11pm the night before and up at 7:30am for a quick feed. We hit the ponds equipped with our spinning gear and a handful of poppers. The first pond we fished only resulted in a one missed strike. John was quickly onto the phone to the owner of the ponds, we were then allowed to change ponds to a “virgin” pond.

This is another massive advantage of having John with us, he knows all the owners of the ponds on a personal basis and is allowed certain privileges to him and his clients, having said that John doesn’t abuse these privileges and is very respectful to the fish and owners.  These fish had never seen a lure in their life and it showed. We landed over 30-40 fish in the 5-9kg range each all on poppers. Even when you didn’t hook a fish it was great as they would hit the poppers out of the water, the visuals were great. I won’t go into great detail about the Barra fishing as this report is lengthy enough already.  

A final note – the fishing in Thailand was everything I had dreamed of and much more. Not only did we fish hard, I think Clayton and I made a great mate in John. I truly believe that we would have had only a small fraction of the success without John. He can tell you what techniques work where and at what time and why that technique works. I learnt lessons in fishing techniques but also fishing ‘toughness’ as silly as that might sound to some. Lessons that I will take home with me and apply to fishing and also my personal life. This was a truly amazing experience that will stay with me for a lifetime. I have had the fortune of fishing in a number of countries in the last few years with many charter operators, and none come close to John. Not even close. He truly cares about your experience, an absolute champion fisherman and a top bloke, I can't say enough positive things about BKK guy, a champion amongst anglers.  Thank you.

 After 2 weeks off over Xmas and New year and the wind stuffing up my plans for fishing, fishing and more fishing. With the weekend weather looking good I was keen to say the least. A couple of phone calls later and both deckies had to work, oh well I wasn't missing out on a fish so went solo.

Got out to a couple of marks in the 40's to find the sounder light up. Dropped down a Daiwa Pirate jig while getting the bait outfit baited up. I didn't even get to bait up as the jig got hammered as soon as I flipped the bail arm over. Up came a 45cm pinkie, released on the weight probably didn't need the release weight but better safe than sorry. Dropped the jig down again and same thing happened, a little bit smaller than the first. A good start but nothing size yet. Finally got some bait on the other outfit and managed a 51cm Pinkie. 

Things went 

A bit quiet after this for quite a while. Not sure if the released fish spooked the school as they were still showing up on the sounder or whether the bite was on early in the day. Here is a sounder shot of a smaller school, the first school I came across went across the sounder screen for quite a while. Still learning with the 587 this shot has the white line on at I think about 5 or 10%.

 Sorry about the photo

quality taken on the phone. 

Seabreeze was in pretty early so made the decision to do a bit of reconnaissance out at 50m before it got worse. Found a few craypots so sounded around those for a bit and a few drifts but could only manage a couple of Sargent Bakers. Decided to call it quits at about 12:30 and started making my way home. Loving the 1kw tranny as on the way home at about 18 knots it still shows great bottom. In 39m spotted what looked like a small school of fish so throttled back and done a U turn. Went back over the ground and dropped my new favourite jig down and nailed a nice little Baldie, again not huge but still size.

So that finished the day off nicely. Catching my first legal size fish on a jig!

Thanks for reading

Chris.

Picked up this nice Pinky in 80 metres on Saturday, along with a nice eating size Dhufish, a few Breaksea Cod and a couple of reasonable Queen Snapper that we released. Great day out on Snuffs 255 Boston Whaler with JohnF. Got to say the ride in that Whaler steaming home at 24 knots in a pretty average seabreeze was awesome. Good company and a great day....thanks guys

 Cracking day out for little boats. 

Ended up with two dhus, big blackarse, baldie, 60cm flattie, fox fish, two gurnards, big red cray and an occy. 

Boom. 

The Assassin Land Based Fishing Club Monthly Lure Competition was held this morning between Yanchep Lagoon AND Two Rocks in nearly flat conditions.
11 Anglers attended but the fish were scarce , the morning Dolphin patrol probably played a part in shutting the fishing down.
Fish caught were mainly Herring with some Skippy and Wrasse thrown in.

Results were Dave (Ragbag) First Place
Matt (Falty matty) Second
Vince (Snapper) Third

Next Competition will be the monthly over nighter .Please remember to read your emails carefully :-)and to bring a camera to take photo's of you catch.

Tight Lines

Vince