Anyone had any luck on the busso jetty lately?

Thinking of traversing the old girl this weekend,

any reports would be appreciated 

thanks

The curse continues! Picked up by my mate around 5am Sunday morning for an overnighter down to Yallingup to chase some Salmon. He had his young bloke in tow, hoping for him to land his first Salmon. Mcbreakfast in Bunbury, then straight to Injidup beach. Met up with my mates workmates in the carpark, to the usual chorus of "shoulda been here yesterday! 3 Schools chased and a few landed, plenty of hook ups and they were XXL models" etc etc. 5 Hours scanning the beach for zero signs. Few lures/slices/mulies thrown around without any action. In the afternoon we tried around Bunker bay, not much success. Some very small herring & sand whiting (released) and one exciting hook up on a ray, exhilirating run & aerial display! Busted off after about 45 seconds (felt like 5 minutes). Tried Injidup again in the evening (had a cracking tailor session there last time just on sunset and got my PB 55cm) but no luck, weed had moved in and it was just about unfishable. Mates young bloke got a decent Tarwhine, nothing else of note.

Back to the caravan park, couple of beers and a few rounds of cards, then off for an early night so we could have another go. The next morning saw us back at the carpark above Injidup, scanning for any action. Weed had seriously moved in overnight, so we made a call to head back round to the Dunsborough side of things. Tried Meelup (very fishy with herring & baitfish, but little action), and Castle Rock (zero action at all. Unbelievable!) without success. Finally saw some Salmon (first for the trip) busting up and getting airborne way out from Castle rock. Well out of casting range, but funnily enough two boats drove past and didn't even notice them! Quick stop for a pie at Dunsborough, then back home around 3.30pm.

I've now had several Salmon specific trips down to Injidup over the years, and have yet to see a Salmon there, let alone hook one up. Beginning to think the place is cursed, or worse still, I am! Funnily enough I have caught odd salmon at Meelup in January without even really trying. Anyway, was good to get away for a couple of days, good company and amazing conditions. On the bright side, I now have a tackle box well stocked with lures & slices, because the only tackle lost was a set of hooks to the stingray.

Hope you all had better results than me, thanks for reading.

BD.

headed out from woodies this morning strait to the glassy ffb and found some good looking ground. strait up landed a 51cm snapper, just size. next drop and was on big time, after a very good fight up came my PB snapper 90cm. already had our limit within 10 minutes. few minutes later and my dad was on and landed another pinkie 74cm which was released. also ended up with a breaksea cod and a sambo. (also my first). all fish were caught within 30 minutes of anchoring and then shut down after that so headed back to the ramp. was a very nice morning out.

cheers.

Some pics and video of our last trip. The big Nanny was a great but the Whale Shark was pretty special. Around a dozen fish in all with half a dozen reds or so most of which were pretty decent size. some spangleds and an average Mackerel. Once we cleared the lines I managed to touch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irhBI_NWI3k

Hi guys.

Went out yesteray with the young fella,awesome weather and got some nice squid.

Quick drift with some fresh squid tentacles as bait and got a couple of fat whiting.

Great couple of hours on the water. 

Finally had a break in the weather where we could all go out, so we headed out off two rocks Sunday morning to some of our usual marks.

My mate Weisy had been fishing with me 30+ times and not got a dhu over 5 kg even when we had quad hookups of fish over 8kg. He was becoming increasingly frustrated. We set out just after sun up to find the seas craploa, 15+ knots easterlies but with the ever reliable seabreeze telling us it was only 8 but going to die right down we decided to push on.

Fished for a couple of hours with no luck so went searching for new ground. Found some average ground but thought we would give it a go. 2 min into the drift we had some nice big blobs appear on the Furuno. Then off went two of the rods. 1 dhu landed 6kg other was busted off.

Went around for another drift and found those same fish on the sounder. Then bang triple hook up of Dhu's. 3kg, 7kg and 11kg. One was looking worse for ware so he went straight back down on the release weight.  Great sight with 3 Dhu on the boat. Weisy pulled in a horse of 11kg and wasnt until we took the photos we noticed steves old bait he got busted off on the last drift in Weisys fish. A whole herring. See pics. Weisy new PB 11kg. It was the same old story of "if only" for Steve but he still had a nice 7kg speccy which was returned to the depths in hope of another lager one. Here are some pics of both.

We had a few more drifts over it again before raising 4 more all around 4-6kg. but still only had the one in the esky.

Tried a different location in shallower to try for some baldies with no luck. i was flicking around a little paddle tail only to have a 8-10kg Mackie follow it right up to the boat but not eat it. Frustrating to say the least especially when we had no lures on board.

Went out deeper again as it glassed off around 12pm and tried a old faithful spot and 10min later bang Weisy was on again. 12kg. PB x 2 for the day. He was over dhu but this was crazy.

After a few more drifts and only one Black arse and two dhus in the esky we decided to call it stumps for the day and head in while the weather was nice.

Over all 11 dhu landed (1 undersize), 1 sambo, 1 skippy, 1 black bum and 2 PB's beaten it was a great day on the water. Bait landed all fish. I fished jigs and placcys all day for ................ all. thanks to Steve Hart (tackle hq) for fitting me up with my new jigging combo. I will be in this week for a refund and a new bait bashing outfit.

Thanks for reading. 

Hi guys, just a quick report from my fishing trip yesterday at Augusta in my tinnie. Fishing in 15m of water with a mate using bait and I using a white ZMAN 7in plastic. One minute into fishing had a strike and after a good fight a 14.5kg Dhuie floated up (my mate hadn't even baited his hooks yet. We got the fish on board and I flicked the plastic back in and started to place the fish in the esky when the rod went off again, after another short fight a 8kg Dhuie surfaced. Not bad with only 10 minutes of fishing. We fished for another hour and ended up with 2 Nannies, sweep and a good sized bronzie. Back at the boatramp in under two hours from when we left. Sorry about the long story but thought I would share our great morning. Cheers

5 of us went fishing on saturday night out to hunt the illusive mulloway. There have been many hours spent trying and trying as is the case for most people who are in the hunt for the big one! Got onto a beach about 45 minutes north of perth at around 4:30, set up with a little fire and 5 rods in the water. After a few hours of catching not much besides a few small shovel noses and port jacksons my mates rod started peeling line. After a good 20 minute fight with some tell tale head shakes the big silver beast sparkled in the waves and after a frantic 5 minutes of getting it on the beach the celbrations started with hugs, high fives and yahhooss flying everywhere! Nothing else was caught after but stoked i could be apart of the action!

measured 1230mm

weight 17.5kgs

Just a quick report, headed to albany early saturday morning with the misses for some salmon.

Started fishing around 4am(excited aha) we fished for about a hour before amber stopped fishing and i continued to fish till 6 that night. solid effort casting 4oz lures around all day haha, the old stella got a workout with over 60 salmon caught saturday with a really awesome session around 3pm when everyone else had gone home, salmon after salmon, What a day. I got about 15 salmon in the morning before anyone else even caught a fish, its funny how quick you get surrounded when your catching fish lol

It was good to see Amber hook her first fish from the shore, made her piss haha

i really like the bend in my daiwa tournament rod, really good rod love it

hooked a tuna far out and after a quick fight it went ping.. spewing bring it back in to see my bimini had wore through, heaps of bonito around and cudas.

There was a asian family of around 15 people down fishing next to me, later on saturday they decided they would ask me for tips, ended up having all of them surrounding me taking photos of everything, my rod, my lures, my stella, taking photos of my fluro line, even videoing me on how to tie a simple double uni for braid to mono lol, couldnt believe it, every single one of them had to take their own photos lol, how many photos do you need of my stella and rod? haha

we only kept one fish that was going to be shark bait as a shark attacked my salmon mid fight so it couldnt go back anyways.

Woke up sunday morning at 4:40 and going down to the rocks, 20mins later the asian family shows up with all new rods, lures, line and even fluro line hahaha i should start up a shop :P anyway it was good seeing them actually catch fish, they really appreciated me showing them and it was good to see them finally catching salmon

we ended up catching a couple to bring home for a feed and off we went at 9:30 for the drive home, perfect weekend!

oh the main lures were ritcher plugs(lost my 2 good ones) and a twisty that has some killer battlescars

enjoy.

Here I thought we're getting to the tail end of the steelhead run (which we really are)...and here I thought with less fish, and fish that had already seen it all it would get tougher and tougher (which it was)...

After getting into some good steelhead action last Saturday and on Thursday, I woke up today just to see a super nice day. I was supposed to go to work...but heck...I run my own experiments...I set my own hours...and to be honest, my work can wait until tomorrow.

It was already 10:30am by the time I got to streamside. People often say steelheads don't like the sun (keep believing in that), and people often say when the water is super low and clear, you have to downsize (yeah, keep believing in that too)...

Well, to be honest again, most of the pools I fished today were just that - very little fish, and those that are around are avoiding my rig at all cost...and they would have none of it...

On my way from pool to pool, I met the guy whom I waded right through his little pool on Saturday. I was a bit embarrassed to see him again (since I feel so bad about messing up his pool, and then proceeding to go back and hit a number of fish from there after he left...I truly was sorry though). But we got chatting and found out he met Michael on Wednesday and signed up on our local forum. We exchanged names (his name is Thomas) and I told him I'm taking a hike and he's welcome to join me later...

I went all the way to the spot where we had some good success the couple of trips before...and nothing was hitting. All the fish there were super spooky - they were all swimming away from my float rig.

So there was little choice but to fish the Suicide pool.

This is why I called it the Suicide Pool. Try to land a fish here! You can see the pool is BLACK with steelhead!





On my first drift there...BAM! But of course I had to turn on the GoPro to film the action...and fish ran right into the lower tree. I had 3 seconds of video captured. :roll:

Okay...put that cursed camera away...

Went back after rebaiting...two drifts...minus the GoPro...and Thomas did a great net job for me. Got that fish at 12:15.



Hm...maybe just luck, right? Took a little time to revive the fish...and filmed it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPMajBHpQEs

Then I sort out the line again, rebaited, and position myself on the log again...a few drifts later...minus the GoPro...at 12:23.



Okay...this has got to be coincidence...again, revived the fish, rebaited, got back on the log...one drift...minus the GoPro...at 12:36.



By this point, I feel bad Thomas had been net boy the whole time while the fish above the Suicide Pool has been ignoring him. So I put my rod down and let him have a shot at the Suicide Pool.

It took a while to get a hit for Thomas. I was wondering why they were not cooperating for him. Then I noticed it...he rig was not set up right. You can actually see fish swimming away his rig. It's always the little details. We took off some split shots, shortened the leader and made sure the split shot on the fluorocarbon leader is as small as possible. After we adjusted everything...it took two drifts...I can't even lie about stuff like this...at 13:25.



Okay...things are going great. Let's take out the GoPro again...

Well...just watch the video. It's a pretty long video...so to save you time if you're in a hurry, focus on these segments...

2:00-2:20 - pay attention to the float

5:35-6:35 - pay attention to the float and commentary after

11:30-14:40 - pay attention to the rod tip and commentary after

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn543vuH_oY

No, it's can't be the camera, right? I'm pissed...missed a hit, had a fish jumped off, and then one broke me off...put that damn camera away...

I went back without the camera...first drift...KO'd it in a minute...same size fish as the one that ran down to the tree and broke me off...got it at 13:39...I kid you not...add up the time and you'll see...

Interesting perspective...



It was this big...



Can't be the camera...took it out and try to film another bobber-down-hook-up-land-a-fish sequence...not a touch for another 15 minutes until the damn camera ran out of battery...or memory...I really can care less...

I snagged one of the cedar branch and snapped off, so it gave me time to put the camera away, grab a drink, and the retie...

This time it took a while longer...but still...14:25...



Stupid camera...I gotta visit a witch doctor or something...

Then it got real quiet for a long while. These fish can be funny sometimes. They will go on a little tear, then completely shut down...but if you have time and patience to wait, they may just come on again...

Well, Thomas didn't have the time to wait. So he called it a day at 15:30. Not longer had he left shouting range...15:35...they turned back on for no particular reason...

This time I had to net the fish in this impossible pool on my own.



I tried to revive the fish but it was having a tough time...so I put it into a little side channel right against a branch where there was a nice eddy for it to rest.

Went back to fishing and two drifts later, I had a fish snapped me off in the log. Okay...retie, rebait...two drifts later...15:51



This one had trouble reviving too...so it went to the resting area too...

Can you see the two of them?



Went back to the log, new bait...BAM! BIG FISH!!! It was a big dark male but full of piss and vinegar. I had him controlled for most of the fight but then he decided on one last kick and right under the log he went. I had to protect my rod since the rod tip was dragged under the log as well...so all I could do was to open the bail to free my rod tip...and the hook dropped out.

Well, at least I saved my rod and my rig. Put on a new bait...a few drifts...BAM...16:03



Then it got quiet again. Nothing going at the Suicide Pool at all! It was complete lock down.

So I went to fish the pool immediate upstream. Just at the tail of that pool where it enters into the Suicide Pool, the fallen log also had a ball of root that was submerged. I could see the head of a steelhead poking out. The rest of the fish didn't want anything to do with me...so I figure the hiding fish probably felt a little more secure and maybe hungry. Thomas had missed a fish there earlier in the same spot.

The first drift to that fish...it came out and slammed the bait! at 17:24.



Then nothing at the upper pool again. Lots of wary fish that swam away from my rig...so I've rested the Suicide Pool for about 30 minutes...let's just check it out...

Couple of drifts...I was holding my bait in the current letting it flutter in the flow in a sexy way...and a suspended fish came up and nailed it! At 18:10...



Okay...I really had to go soon...I was supposed to meet up with my buddies at 7pm to watch the Leafs game at the bar...just a couple more drifts...at 18:27, my biggest fish of the day hit. This guy was MAD!!! But I managed to pull him back from the log jam TWICE...and he was a handful at the net...



Okay...I have a 30min wade back, a 30min drive back...and I'm supposed to meet my buddies at 7pm...not going to happen LOL.

I arrived at the bar at 8:45pm after a shower and a 40min drive to Mississauga...and I was mighty late...but damn...11 STEELHEAD LANDED, 4 BROKE OFF...and I didn't even count the subtle hits I got here and there...

Plus, the Leafs beat the Bruins 4-2, had a pound of wings, good times with buddies...BEST DAY EVER!!!

Anyone want to buy a GoPro? I got one for sale.  :roll:

  has anyone been on the hamlin beach access track recently? if so, what condition is the track in?  thanks.

Well every year we make our way to Broome to catch up with friends and catch a few fish. Went out With Absolute Fishing Charters again, after enjoying my last day out with them. This year again they didn't disappoint. This year they have there new 20m boat the Contessa C, which must be one of the best set up charter boats around. Anyway what a day we had. I have never seen so many species caught in one fishing trip, which included.. Saddle tail, nanagai, Estury cod, finger mark (goldies), Red Emperor,coral trout, mackies,tuna, wahoo and a rainbow runner. Had to laugh at the deckies, they didn't stop all day. I caught myself a nice Red emperor, which im enjoying for tea tonight! Here is a few photos from my trip out.

Hi everyone,

I’m Ryan and I joined the forums here at Fishwrecked a few months ago; I’ve done a lot of reading in the meantime but this is my first time posting.  

I used to do a bit of fishing as a kid but I hadn’t done any for years. That’s changed in recent months after I bought a little 1-3kg Pfleuger Asaro combo which has been great at catching some flathead, bream and some small chopper tailor in the Swan. With that experience behind me I was ready to move up to something bigger so last week I bought myself a 12” Timber Wolf beach rod. I thought it was a good deal for a full carbon rod that was fairly stiff and quick at $114 but I’ve been eager to put it to the test. I had to opportunity to do so this morning, fishing with my Dad at Pinnaroo Point.

We got there just before sunrise which was at 6:50. Conditions were good with a mild southerly breeze, a rising tide and only two other fishermen in sight half a kilometre up the seaweed-free beach. I had my new rod paired with my ~13 year old D.A.M VSI 650 reel spooled with 30lb braid.  It was overkill for our target species of tailor but I plan to use the set up to target larger fish like Snapper and Mulloway in the future. I also wasn’t sure fishing in the morning would prove successful because I’d always heard tailor were usually only active around sunset. My Dad was using a 9” Shimano Classix Shorespin rod and size 4000 Sedona reel combo. We were both fishing using Scaly Mackel for bait.

My bait wasn’t getting much attention but after around half an hour my Dad landed a 43cm tailor. After another hour after some cunning fish had managed to dispossess my bait from my hooks a number of times, we were close to running out of bait and I thought all I’d get out of the trip was some fresh sea air. But then I felt a tug on my line and reacted instinctively to set the hook.  On the 30lb braid I was far from sure I had succeeded but wound in and found I had 33cm tailor on the end my line. Brilliant! The first legal sized tailor I’ve caught in years. Dad then hooked up to another the same size as mine minutes later and we decided to call it, that was a little before 9. Nice morning’s fishing and although the bites weren’t exactly thick and fast I was glad to learn that tailor don’t mind a feed in the morning.

Overall, I was pretty satisfied with the rod but I think I may need to look into getting a smaller reel for this sort of fishing. In the meantime I guess I’d better figure out the best way to cook up some tailor. Suggestions welcome.

Group of us (9) went to ledge point a couple of weekends ago and did ok on the Saturday.  Bit windy and seas were more murky than rough.  Drift was slow actually.  Fished in 25-30m and relatively "lumpless" ground.

We headed out in a nor-westerly direction from Ledge about 8km (the skippers were using their plotters on some locations they have been on before).  Found a group of professional pots so thought we would fish in that vicinity (Ping if you like - lol).  No body else out there.

These were collectively caught after about 4 hour session on the water.  My contribution was 2 bluebones. 

MY

Hammer the steel while it's hot, right?

I sent an invite to Adam to fish on Saturday but he got called into work. So we planned to get out on a midweek day. Everything fell into place quickly and I was hoping to show Adam some good Ontario fishing. He was also excited to learn how to river fish and float fish for the first time. There is not a lot of freshwater opportunities in Perth...and Adam has barely fished freshwater before. Sharing unique fishing experience is what I love to do a lot. :D

Things were looking promising today when I hooked and broke off a fish on the first few drifts, but number of fish were actually quite sparse and they were not very willing.

Still, this fish moved out of its holding spot just to slam a drifting crawler!





Michael was with us for a bit until 12pm today. He went exploring at a pool on the tail of this area and landed a nice 4lb fish. I didn't have a pic on my camera though. Adam hooked a fish but the hook dropped out after a short fight. We banged this pool for a while but not much was going on...so we moved on.

Just a bit downstream was a nice little pool, but all we could mustered up was a white sucker on my line. After they are done spawning, they will hit every drifted crawler in no time.



We fished a few more pools finding really tough fishing. Then we came upon a little nice undercut at a steep shoreline where Andrea hooked 3 fish on Saturday. I upgraded my 8-wt fly rod and reel a month ago and I was really hoping to test it out. We were fishing with nightcrawlers all morning and maybe it was a different pattern shown to the fish...a nice buck fancied an Estaz Egg and gave a good fight before breaking my 4lb fluoro tippet. I tied on a new Estag Egg and swung a few more times before a fresh spunky hen broke my 8-wt's cherry!

First steelhead on the fly! You can see the Estaz Egg attached to the roof of the fish's mouth.



That's all the spot gave up...so we made a longer trek down. On the way, we passed by some small holding spots...so we spread out to work them. My spot had a shaded log jam with a decent current washing into the log. There was a fish sitting behind a rock and I was drifting for that fish when a flash came out of the wood work and stole the worm. This fish was just hot! It ran immediately upstream, then shot downstream right into the fallen tree before I could even react. Somehow, my 4lb leader stayed intact and the fish sat in the slack water under the tree. I got into the water and freed my line briefly before the fish wrapped me around another branch. I freed it once more and somehow managed to pull the fish out. Nice 3lb fish but unfortunately it was deeply hooked and bleeding...so it was destined for Adam's dinner. Perfect clean eater!



Adam arrived after I bled the fish out. I told him there could still be a couple of fish under the log. He made a number of drifts before the float went down and he was briefly connected with a silver fish. Too bad it didn't stay on.

We finally arrived at the spot where I want to hit.

I approached the head of that pool creeping on my knees. When Adam arrived, I told him to do the same as well. The fish were less spooked this way, and we hooked a few, dropped a few, broke off a few, and landed a few this way. Michael had to go by this point so he missed out on the action. The fish that wanted our nightcrawlers were all really fresh, silver fish. They were just hot and every one of them fought like demons and all of them took us into log jams. Luckily, Adam managed to get a couple of them out of the jams. But still, we broke off or dropped too many fish here.

Adam and I saw this hen shot sideways like a missile out of the log to grab the nightcrawler...it was quite a sight!



We almost lost this one to a log jam but managed to untangled the line off the branches.



At the very end of that pool, a big tree had fallen. Water was washing over that log and under the log was a nice deep cut. Behind the log was a deep pool. At the end of the deep pool was another tree leaning close to the water. Between the log at the head, and the tree at then end, it was only a distance of about 15 feet. This little 15' x 15' x 5' deep pool was black with over 50 steelhead!

It was an impossible spot to fish and land the fish though. I was calling Adam over to look at it and said "It would just be suicide hooking a fish here"...but the temptation was just much too great. On the second drift, my float was slammed down hard. "SUICIDE!!!" I yelled :lol:.

I set the hook, the fish sat there for a second before realizing it was hooked, then it jumped clear out of the water and Adam got a good look. He grabbed the net and said "I'm just going over that log and be ready with the net."

Little did he know the fish charged toward the log trying to go under it, but somehow I managed to stop it before it went under. The fish made a turn toward Adam and directly swam into Adam's waiting net.

We KO'd this fish within 10 seconds in this impossible spot. Crazy!!!  :shock: That was the fastest fight I had with a steelhead of decent size.

 

After that fish, we hooked a couple more but dropped both. It was getting toward 1:30pm and we gotta bail. The fish, by this time, was exceedingly wary anyways and we called it a day.

I may try to hit them one more time before the run is over...they are just too much fun!

After a horrible trip last year when weather and fish didn't cooperate, another trip was planned with my son and my cousin.  Being a school teacher, and having a kid in high school, we could only travel during school holidays along with the other million tourists.

I bought a new set of wheels last year and tested the 3L turbo diesel with the boat.  Return was good at between 12 - 13L/100Km.  Our plan was to cruise up in our own time stopping regularly for breaks.

Jurien is always a winner for the first stop.

Not exactly 5 star dining at Overlander Roadhouse, but pretty damn close.

Night time at the Edegee "Hilton". 80Km south of Carnarvon.  We had enough and didn't want to chance the animals in the dark.

Our home for the next week at Lighthouse Caravan Park.  Emus were really tame and greeted us every morning.

The mission was to set up the campsite into some form of functionality and go fishing.  5.00pm came and we were just finished.  Bugger it, quick drive to Bundegi to see what was hanging around North West Reef. Bundegi was the spot where my cousin's boat was smashed trying to retrieve in horrible conditions.  Result was a hole through the glass the size of a fist.  We were very apprehensive with the launch although the seas were calm.

North West Reef was really cranking, with white water and current swirls everywhere.  8 minutes into our trolling and the TLD 20 exploded into action.  An estimated 20Kg mac rocketed out of the water 3 times before searing runs towards the bottom (very uncharacteristic).  A 7 foot bronzie had taken our mac and at boatside noticed it had our Crazy Deep deep in its mouth.  We tried to cut as much of the wire as possible during release.

Tantabiddi seemed to produce the most consistant catches especially at the 100m line.  Tuna bust ups were common and great fun to catch on 30g twistys giving us some fresh bait.

My son scored the first fish from the 100.

Plenty of double hook ups mainly with Goldband Jobfish.  Rotated through the fishing as it was too tiring to fish all the time.

Sharks occasionally will spoil your fun.

The weather was awesome and we would often go snorkling inside the reef after fishing to relax.

The highlight of the trip was swimming with a whale shark.  A big thank you to one of the local boats who let us dive on his shark after his clients were out of the water.  One thing to cross off my bucket list.

Mackeral action was cold as we tried everywhere. 

A trip to the Muiron Islands with much anticipation resulted in no fish boated for the whole day.  All spots were loaded but nothing biting.  Sharks were a problem as usual and at one spot all we caught were remoras.

More investigation at the 100 line got good fish.

We tried shallow water night fishing at Tantabiddi for some success.

Some more creatures from the deep.

The week was absolutely full on but fun to say the least.  We met great neighbours at the Caravan Park and enjoyed each others company.

This above pic says it all.

Great to catch up with forum members Meersey and Wannafish.

After a long 17 hour drive straight through to Perth, we had enough time to contemplate and plan for our return next year.

Thank you all for reading.

Is there anything being cought off the rocks at BP in Bunbury at the moment?

I thought it was time I added a report....

Straight after work on Friday the boat and car got packed, and at 6:15pm we hit the road for a family camping trip to Exmouth, staying at the Ningaloo C'van park in the middle of town, instead of the normal trip to Ningaloo.  With a 4 and 6 yr old it was going to be a long drive.  At 2:30am we pulled into Galena Bridge for a few hrs sleep before we hit the road again...

Arriving in Exmouth around 1pm we set up our site for the next 8 nights.

The next couple of days were blowing a strong southerly wind, but it was Neap tides, so we put the boat in at the Bay of Rest and went for a spear in about 1.5m, with clear water and some big sea snakes

When the wind stopped we launched at the marina and speared at the islands on the other side of the gulf - the kids were over the boat by now, but still enjoying it when out there.  I heard a strange noise when I started the boat 17Nm from the marina, so I didnt turn it off again, even though I found some nice bommies.  When back at camp I rebuilt the started motor (turned out to be loose mounting bolts, but I rebuilt it for peace of mind...)

The next day we drove along the beach to Learmonth Jetty, flicking lures at small GT's and giving the girls a chance to bring in a fish and play instead of being stuck on the boat. The rocks out front of Kailis provided great fun on the light gear.  We also went for a drive up a track to the top of the range from the west side near Sandy Bay

With the weather looking great we headed to Tandabitti to mix it with the big boats.  Having never fished there before, we trolled for a bit, then found a lump a few miles south of the passage in 38m, and pulled up some great fish in amoungst the sharks.  We had a big hammerhead come up the the back of the boat, and I broke my Penn 850ss trying to get fish up too fast to beat the sharks.

And that was about the end if it - time to hit the road and head home.  Overall it was a fantastic trip, especially to be able to do it with the family -  I am very lucky to have a partner who is keen to come out in the boat, catch good fish, and do a huge variety of different things (we even drove to Coral Bay for the day, and came back along the coast).  Most days we werent on the water until 10 or 11, giving the kids a swim in the pool before we headed out, and were back by 4 or 4:30 so they could swim in the pool again before sunset.  We had a great meal and pizza at Pinnochios restaurant, and had Gelatti there most nights once the kids had gone to sleep.  Now I just ned to upgrade my Penn 850 (any suggestions), and get ready for a boys trip to Dampier in July school holidays...

Thanks for reading... 

Drew

Too tired to write a full report after working a 12 hour shift at the steel factory. Yesterday was trout opener and we finally had access to some headwater areas where the steelheads were spawning. We mainly fished the pool for some hungry post-spawn steelhead. Most of the females were post-spawn already. Hopefully they'll be around for another 2 weeks. I'm contemplating taking a weekday off for another go at it. Yesterday, we waited for 1 hour for parking at 5am...people were already fishing by 12am and the lot was full by 2am as I was told.

Ken - 8 steelheads (lost a bunch to log jams and hooks coming out on jumps)

Andrea - 5 steelheads (not sure how many lost)

Michael - at least 4 steelheads (we fished apart for most of the day)

Matt - at least 6 steelheads, 3 white sucker (we fished apart for most of the day)

I fished with Andrea for most of the day. We did split apart to explore little slots, runs and holes throughout the day. He was lucky that every time he was hooked up, I happened to come looking for him (whenever he was gone for a while, I suspected he's hooked up, haha). I landed a couple of decent fish without any cameraman so I just quickly unhooked and released them.

I have a couple of videos of hook ups...but one fish ran into the log jam and busted me off...the other fish head shook on the surface and the hook came out. Again, every time I start filming, I lost fish...so I stop using the cursed GoPro. I may post the videos later...pretty sweet to watch me drift and see the float goes down...and the subsequent short run.

Just got to the first unoccupied pool, saw a fish resting in front of a rock...5 drifts later...BAM!



Then I lost one fish after another 30 minutes. We moved and after another hour, I hooked this one and handed the rod to Andrea.



As the water warmed up, the day got brighter and the sun came out, the fish turned on.



















My suspicion was right...we hooked and landed the same fish a couple of hours apart! Look at the spot pattern on these two fish, and the scar pattern. It's the exact same fish.

I hooked it first and handed the rod for Andrea to fight it...we gave it a good release



Then Andrea hooked it again later somewhere downstream from where I first hooked it...



Hungry fish...they LOVED nightcrawlers! It's still swimming out there somewhere.

Anyone know some good spots for mulloway fishing in the Swan river or around cottesloe/freo?

Weed from Jindalee to Wilbinga and the beach is soft north of the Alkimos.

Hey all went out on sat expecting a lot smoother ocean than happened very lumpy plodded to the spot 60m got this baldy second drop after the squall came through they were on the chew bigtime got baldy dhu,good b ass and a queenie glassy ride home

Picked up this nice mackie while up in Kalbarri.

Also did well on pinkies in close on soft plastics,awesome fun.

Thanks again to the guys up there who helped me with some great info on the area,you know who you are.

Went out yesterday, my son caught this nice 43cm snapper on whiting gear, We also got some just size but released them, we had a great arvo on the water, 3 hour snapper sesh and seing seths face topped it off. Cheers adam.

 and lastly the last week. plenty more photos just cant be bothered uploading anymore ...this has taken 2 hours with all the resizing!

 Continued.....more to come enjoy.

 caught this monster in feb in swan was 205cm. havnt been out since march, just wondering if they still about 

Well it is all over, that’s the worst part of planning holidays, so much planning and research and then all over in a few weeks…

First of all I would like to thank CCC and Michael (Former Chivers Marine employee) for inspiring me to go and do a Derby/Kimberley trip.
Well we (3 of us the missus and I and Richard) set off from Jurien on Tuesday the 11th of April at approx 8am, but this was not a great start for Richard who left from Perth at 5am and had trouble with he’s Nissan Navara Ute running like a hairy goat…
I told him that was normal for a Nissan… LOL

With a short stop in Gero for a cuppa at the mother in laws and a fuel top up we headed off north and drove and drove and finally pulled up in the Car park opposite the Fortescue Roadhouse at approx 11:30pm for a sleep.
With the missus and I sleeping in the front cab and Richard out on the deck in he’s swag, we were only in bed for 15 minutes when all hell broke out on the back deck, we thought it was the start of a UFC wrestling match, Only to find out that Richard was just about asleep and a bloody cat jumped into the boat and landed right on top of him… LOL
Now for a man of he’s age and being Long time married the thought of being jumped by a bit of stray pussy, Not only near gave him a heart attack, it scared the crap out of him, it all ended with the cat leaving the boat with one of the best discus throws I have ever seen, would have scored 10 from the Judges..
Up early the next morning and off again and drove and drove again, this time stopping in a 24hr park approx 130kms short of Derby.. So far so good with no issues with boat, trailer or car.
Second night in the boat we all slept good as now the initial excitement was turning into reality.
Day 3 seen a leisurely drive into Derby where we booked into the Caravan Park and set about repacking the boat and getting the last few supplies from town, that night after a long shower we headed to the Spinifex hotel for a few drinks and one of the best pub meals I have ever had (would do the drive again just for another meal)
Day 4 Seen us launch the Boat into the muddy waters down at the wharf

Low Tide at the Boat Ramp

We headed for a point just left of rip reef (Approx 75kms) before we changed course and headed for waterfall beach where we anchored up in the deeper water and set about unloading the dingy and fitting the outboard.

OH What a View

After spending several hours looking around the old camp and swimming in the water holes around the waterfall, high tide was near so we set off for Hells Gates, as we approached it was still moving quite fast so we decided to get into the lee of the island and throw a few lures until the top of the high tide.

Once through we headed for a lovely camp beach and spent our first night on the water..

Breakfast Setting.

Prickly Critters

Camp in Cone Bay

Entrance to X n X's, Old hippie Camp

How great is the Weather, Kimberley Glass again

Cone Bay Barra Farm

One of a few Fish we caught along the way

On the Move again

Unusual Rock erosion and a great beach where we had a nice swim, daily temps around 37 deg.

Doing it Tough at breakfast time again... Bacon and Eggs

Yet another Waterfall. Thank goodness for all the flowing water this time of year.

One of quite a few sharks released, even the little ones will smash your lures.

Next 4 photos are of Whirlpool Passage, at a near slack tide, would not like to be in the middle of that in the Spring tides.. Would be just a little Scary me thinks.. lol

Another old fishing camp, Outboard or Dingy anyone??

The Impressive Croc Creek, only seen one croc here and that was at night when it tried to sneak up on us, lol

Sunburnt Dragonfly

Squatters Arms, Phil and Marion are legends up here.

Even had a dip in their pool, SWEET

Crapper with the best View in Australia but not much privacy.

Calm Days at the Horizontal Water Falls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EoZtCWYQCs

Look who we bumped into at Silicone Beach, Tried to swap boats to no avail..

This was one of the last stops before we headed back to Derby.

All in all it was a fantastic trip and the only hassle we had was that we stripped a rubber bush out on the Ally Prop that I brought just for this trip, this all happened while scooting through the Horizontal Falls... Lucky they were quite..
Hope you enjoy the report and hope there is not too many photos..

 Squid everywhere off rockingham on the southern flats. Bagged 30 in under an hour, early evening. Mostly on brown and blue jigs. Some big ones for this time of year. One had a 30 cm hood!!

Also heaps of herring around.