Caught this fella at Trigg while teaching the misses how to cast metals and poppers for an upcoming Kalbarri trip. He went 50cm, was caught on a green and gold waxwing he was the fattest Tailor i've seen actually thought it was a Salmon on the first jump. We were having a great day until some arrogant person started to cast over my misses, which caused her to stress out and caused me to use some rather descriptive language. Everybody has the right to learn somewhere. I'll leave it at this if that was you this afternoon then you know my face and you have been warned next time there will be action taken. you have been warned. Sorry to everybody else to leave it on a bad note. 

 Hi guys. We are planning a over night stop over in Carnarvon on our way through to Coral Bay and was just wondering if it would be worth having a fish at the one mile jetty. Anything decent get caught there these days. Have not fished it got years now but used to do ok on it. Thanks in advance for any advice

Before I headed north for a week long trip to Kalbarri, Coral Bay and Exmouth my mate (a fellow fisherman) said to me to treat it like a holiday and that any fish I caught would be a bonus. Well, this report proves him dead wrong!

On Anzac Day I left Perth at 8pm with Integrity coach lines. I arrived at the Ajana turnoff to Kalbarri at 1.40 am and was picked up by the lady from the backpackers in town. Met my girlfriend who was already up with her family and slept that night at Murchison Caravan Park.

On my only day in Kalbarri, we took my girlfriend’s younger brothers fishing, lots of small fish whiting, tailor, everybody was waiting for us to catch fresh fish for dinner but of course when you expect you don’t get, so we had to do a run past one of the fish and chips shops in town. There was a 45 mins wait so I asked if I could buy cold produce of them and walked away with extra whiting fillets and frozen king prawn. Was a great feed in the end and ended up feeding 10 people in total.

Next morning we left to Coral Bay at 10 am and arrived at 4 pm and checked into the backpackers. There wasn’t much hanging around though as we threw our bags down and grabbed the towels and snorkels and headed straight to the sanctuary with a bit of bread in the pocket to see if the  elusive snapper were still there. The photos show it all. This was my 4th trip to coral bay but my girlfriend’s first so she was pretty excited.

Then it was time for fishing. Just before sunset we checked out Maud’s Landing. Before the trip I had been doing a lot of research on Fishwrecked so I had a feeling there might be some baby GT’s around. As we walk onto the beach I could see someone removing something from a fish’s mouth, and sure enough it was about a kilo GT with caught with a metal slice. The whole trip I didn’t purchase one bit of bait. Not because I couldn’t afford it but because  I thought it would be a nice challenge. So we walked away with a decent size dart fish and a GT which we released.

Back to the backpackers for beers and pool. I would recommend staying there as it great value. We had a shared 4 person dorm and it was 30 dollars each per night. The backpackers had a large, well-equipped kitchen with plenty of fridge space, its own bar, which was decently priced, a pool, ping pong table and 2 pool tables. I’ve stayed at a lot of backpackers internationally and I highly rate this one.

Next day we fished to the right of the boat ramp on the cliffs. It was high tide and the squid were plentiful. We caught 8 in about 20 mins, meaning fresh bait and squid salad for dinner. Good start to the first full day in Coral Bay. I cut up some bait and you just cant beat fresh bait! in return i caught my first Spango and another decent GT :)

We returned to Maud’s that night and scored some more GT’s, including a double header.

Monday morning, as planned, we checked out of the backpackers at 9am and drove up to Exmouth. We stopped in at Bluewater Tackle Exmouth to restock tackle and got the hot local tips from a friendly bloke working there. We headed north to the SS Mildura wreck at around midday, the first spot he recommended. Fished with a metal slice, but no luck as the tide wasn’t right. 

We drove down to Cape Range National Park and got a campsite at Kurrajong for the night. After a quick dip at Turquoise Bay we hit Pilgramannu for a night of fishing. THis was one of the most amazing landbased experiences I have had. 40kg GT free jumping after grabbing my live mullet. Landed four spangled emperor ranging from 45-60cm, as well as a 2 metre shark after a strenuous but fun battle and numerous bust offs. Cooked up spango that night, and we didn’t even need lemon on it, it was perfect just on its own cooked on a gas stove.

We returned to Pilgramannu the next day for a snorkel and spotted a small shark, queenies, and a remora, which swam underneath us all the way back to shore. A number of turtles popped up but quickly disappeared as we got closer. Hooked a couple of reef sharks, but gave up after I lost four rigs.

Back in Coral Bay the next day we did some four wheel driving, albeit in an AWD Subaru Outback! We pushed the car to its limits and came across a good spot along the coast. After a disappointing snorkel in poor visibility we stuck around and eventually spotted a school a baby reef sharks, counting at least 10 of them. They were feeding on the mullet in high tide. Had a flick using a 7 inch gulp, hooking heaps of long tom. One of the plastics got snagged...or so I thought! Ended up catching long tom with a metal slice, and used that to catch a couple of the reef sharks, one of which had already digested my rig with the gulp attached to it.

That night we returned to Maud’s around sunset. The bloke next to us had caught a cobia, so we knew there would be plenty of sharks about. My girlfriend didn’t listen to my advice NOT to wind in and to wait for the fish to come. Nek minnut...

...she lands a bone fish! 

Otherwise, plenty of GT’s around as usual, and hooked a couple of monster sharks that were about. After numerous bust offs again, we headed home to our tent at Bayview.

The next day we were on board the Mahi Mahi III fishing charter with Captain Bernie and Mick the deckie. I am not a fan of winches and mono so immediately requested a rod, which we shared for the day. On the way out we did some trolling and hooked an undersize Wahoo before hitting the first spot. We were fishing up on the bow, away from the others using their winches down the back. We had a fantastic day on the water, and the boat bagged out by 12.30pm! Started off well catching a Robinson Sea Brim, but the pink snapper were out in force. Double headers were happening thick and fast, and we walked away with 6 out of the 13 pinkies we landed. Also got a Slim Dusky and other people on board got a couple of Goldies. The only disappointment of the day was the 80cm Job Fish that got away, when it slipped out of the gaff that was in the Captain’s hand, who laughed it off -  ‘fish for the future mate’. But no way it would have survived that barratrauma.

Returning to shore at 2pm we hit the filleting station with a six pack and watched the rewards of a hard day’s fishing. We cooked up a massive fillet of the Robbo that night, which again needed nothing to enhance the flavour. They are beautiful eating. We hit the Coral Bay Hotel hard that night, and bought Captain Bernie a Jim Beam to say thanks for a fantastic day out.

On our final day in Coral Bay, I left the missus sleeping off her hangover, while I cured mine with more fishing before sunrise. I caught and released 20 GTs fishing again off the rocks at the boat ramp. 

Later, we decided to check out another spot along the 4WD coastal track we heard about on the charter boat, a sandbar that goes about 2k out to sea and the water not going past the waist. On the drive I mentioned to my girlfriend that all I wanted to catch was a queenfish and my fishing wishlist for the trip would be complete. After a fair walk out to the sand spit, I used a metal slice and spotted a stingray, joking to my girlfriend that I was gonna catch one for her. Instead I caught a decent Spango and buried it in the sand, having no ice with us. I set out on the sand bar and wandered out fairly far, just casting out with a metal slice. Before I knew it, there was surge after surge of Queenies, schools of at least 25 swimming about. I landed my first Queenie soon after, and hooked up countless times. Again the sharks were out in force, and at once point a 2m bull shark (or a bronzie maybe) which was was eyeing off queenies, soon had me in its sights as I stood in waist deep water. With a couple of queenies and the spango we headed back.

Our final night was again an eventful one. We hit the filleting station for the final time and decided to give the queenies to a fellow traveller who was about. The lucky recipient of the queenie fillets was a German backpacker who was sitting naked in her van when we asked if she would like some fish. 

We set off home for the 12 hour drive home to Perth at 4.30am, waking up half the campsite as we sorted out our frozen fillets in the esky with plenty of ice. As soon as we returned home we weighed up our hard work for the week - 7 kg of fillets.

 hey guys   taking the mrs out for a fish today   somewere  bwtween canning bridge and mount henry bridge just wondering if anyone has any tips on  some  nice spots   we can cast a line  would be muchy appriciated, and as for bait  i was thinking of going and getting some mullet and using cubes of that????? cheers guyss  any info is good info :)

After some awesome fishing with Ken last week for Steelhead I knew I had to get down there one more time before they went back to the lake. After trying to score a day off all week I didn't think it was going to happen. I begged, blackmailed and finally bribed my way to a day off on Thursday at the last minute. There had been some rain on Wednesday night with lots more forecast for Friday, so this was gonna be the last chance to get into them, before the rain drove them back.

With an early start I was in the car and on my way towards Toronto by 4:15am. Arrived at the stream about 5:45 and it was clear straight away things were different. A week before there had been fish everywhere, now I was struggling to spot any. I made a few drifts past some logs with no action. I started the walk downstream towards the pool we had most success with the previous week. Only saw 2 fish on the way, neither of which had any interest in taking a bait. I was hoping to hell there were still fish in the deeper pool downstream.

Arrived at the pool and thank god there were fish! Took about half an hour to get one to hit though, much more cautious than they had been previously. Quick couple of pics and it was back in the drink.

It was about 7am by now so I sent a msg to Ken letting him know I scored a day off and there were still some fish here. With that news he and Michael were on their way. I had another hit but missed it before Michael arrived and then not long after my second hookup for the morning. Some nice net work by Michael and fish number 2 was on the shore. Much better than the previous week where I had about 20 hits and only landed 2 fish.

Things got really quiet for a while and we were thinking of moving spots just as Ken arrived. He quickly showed us how it is done and had a good fish hooked up in a tight little pool full of snags. The pressure got to me and I rushed the net job a bit, resulting in a lost fish. Sh111t, sorry Ken!

Things were quiet again so I climbed around getting some photos from the other side of the pool just as Ken hooked up again. After a good fight this fish found its way around a god and bust itself off.

Not long after it was time to get going so I didn't catch traffic on the way home. We think we have traffic problems in Perth but its nothing compared to Toronto grid lock. Ken stayed fishing for a while longer and hopefully got into some more fish, as I was still feeling bad about screwing up the net job.

Ken has been an absolute legend, he knows his stuff as well as anyone I have come across and has put time and effort into getting me onto fish here. Much appreciated mate and hopefully I can return the favour in Perth one day! We had a bunch of rain again yesterday so I reckon the fish will have all returned to the lake by now. What an amazing experience though getting into the famous Ontario Steelhead!

Cheers

We have been going down albany for the last 3 weeks going after salmon for the first time, lets just say im now hooked and absoultely love it!

heres a couple photos, we just got back for a day down cheynes, going by there 5m swell forcast we weren't really expecting much, only ended up being a max of 1 meter where we fish, nice and glassy aswell even in the strong wind, very good area to fish.

We got about 15 salmon and got 2 tuna, heaps of bonito and chucked a balloon out but without getting a hit. Seen the biggest ray ive ever seen, out came the 24kg outfit and lets go! he took a run and let it go and wouldnt take it again, ohwell

The salmon have either been effected by the moon and/or storm because last week they were thick as flies

heres a couple photos

hope you enjoyed, now i think it's time to leave them till next year, but we will see!

out of the 100's we've caught we only keept about 6 salmon and then couple bonito for bait

was fishing at hillarys this morning just next to the aqua car park round the back.not much to report but i did catch my first small tailor.Caught it about 8AM on a mullie on size 5/0 triple ganged hooks about ten metres out with a weighted pulley rig on the bottom.hope this maybe helps anyone who is interested in fishing the area.cheers

hey everyone,

im new to the site and a mad keen fisho, i moved over here a few weeks ago and had no idea what i was doing as i have grown up fishing the murray for yellow belly and cod but thanks to this site and the members i went for a fish today and had i cracker of a time so i thought i would do my bit and put up a little report.

i went down around guildford today and had a cracker day ending up with about 30 bream, mostly around the 20-22 mark but i did manage 6 legal size with the best being 31cm, i also dropped a very nice bream on the surfae about 2 foot from the bank (guesstamation around the 40cm mark, shattered :/ All were caught on prawns and mullet just walking the bank casting into snags with a size 0 sinker. over half the fish and most of the keepers were caugh in one patch of sticks (including the 31 and the dropped fish) this is about the 6th time ive been out and the first time ive really done any good. All in all i had an awesome day and i owe it to the members and the forums, hope i can put a few more reports out and do my bit to help newbies like myself.

Cheers. 

went for a drive down to the ramp last Sunday arvo spied 3 young blokes at the cleaning table so I thought I would wander over for a look they had 3 lovely duhies ,did you blokes get those on 5 fathom I asked the replies were cagey didn't blame them thou a bit more chit chat and 1 said nah not on the 5 fathom on some ground about 40ks past the 5 fathom next fish to come out of the esky was the biggest KGW I have ever seen I nearly fainted it would have been 2kgs at least and looked like a small shark , crickey you blokes did have a good day I said they all laughed and I wandered of green with envy more determined than ever to get my first legal duhie before I turn 60

Anyone been to Willbinga since the storms??

I was thinking of heading up tomorrow night, for the weekend.

Would it be worth it, would it be full of weed or would I simply be off my rocker if I went??

Be honest guys, would it be worth the trip??

Went down to Hillaries last night in hopes of a snapper but again was fairly quiet. Got a couple of PJ's & a ray but that was about. I'd had enough of it by 3am so moved down to a reef a little bit north of Trigg to throw some metal around. I didn't have high hopes but figured it woud warm me up a little so put in a decent effort anyway. Ended up with 4 tailor by first light, all in the 45-50cm range. Not huge but at least some reward for braving the elements. Headed down to Trigg itself about 7am to have a crack but there was heaps of sand being washed out & suspended in the water. Tailor don't like that in my experience so I only put in a dozen or so casts & headed for home. No great captures & no pics but hopefully a little info for those keen enough to be heading out in the next day or two.

Day 1 double header gold bands threw lures for trevally and queenys no reday 2 just threw lures for queenys and trees on light gear was windy so headed in eaearly

day 3 windy in the morning trolled to ruby ground got one in 60m dropped him got another in 200 landed him. Few Ruby's and cod

day 4 straight out to ruby ground struggled with only a squire snapper thing till ten tried about 10 marks finally moved back to the one I fished day before filleted the snapper used him as bait turned him into 6 Ruby's and a cod jigged a ruby aswell also dropped a ruby on jig half way up wasnt happy done by 1130-1200 trolled home for 5 minutes picked up a marlin went home. The mark I wanted to fish had. The wetliner sitting on it so didn't get a chance to fish it this yeyear 

day5 restdayspinning for spangles queenys trees and jacks off the bebeach 

day 6 few reds at one spot lost some good ones to sharks :( moved double header rosys and gold band and picked up a wahoo on the way home 

Just enjoyed three weeks at Monkey Mia

Started windy so spent time on the beach with the kids:

But when there wasn't any wind caught some great fish:

But the fishing stops for special occasions:

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

Lest we forget.

Great holiday.

Every fishing family should experience it.

 Hi Guys,

Its been a while since I left Australia and also since i've been on fishwrecked but as promised here's a report of my trip to India. 

It started back in November 2012 and has certainly been a great adventure with not only some great fish caught but also some amazing places visited and some interesting people and occurances along the way.

I bought a small van after arriving which was an experience in itself but persistence paid off. It gave us the chance to travel with the sea kayaks and also meant carting our huge amonut of gear around was a a little easier than by motorbike.

I based m self over on the rugged west coast. Its an anglers paradise with many uuntouched spots particularly for the adventuorous fisher. during the stay a few friends joined me and we had some super catches. To be fair the weather other the season wasn't always perfect, with plenty of windy days putting a stop to boat fishing but overall we didin't do too badly and had plenty of Barra, mangrove jacks, cod, flathead, finger mark and a few other species.

One highlight was finally getting stuck into a couple of decent Gts. Its the first time over there that anyone has had some propper success with the heavy popping so its great to find some untouched popping grounds There seems to be some pretty good potential judging by the results from a few sessions and i look forward to trying some more in the future.

There some of the highlights in the photos below and lots more on my blog at www.worldbiker.blogspot.com

and there will be some more posts there in the coming weeks.

All the best, Scott

www.worldbiker.blogspot.com

Hey guys, just a quick report of sundays deep drop with Tony (Southcity104).

After a few 'electrical issues' to start the day we met up with Dougie (Wangler) and crew on the way out before heading waaay behind rotto.

It was pretty slow going with the dreaded Greeneyes making there presence known but after a few uneventful drifts all hell broke loose with both Tony and myself locked into battle with some ripper Blue Eye.

The results - Mine

Tonys

Not long after the boys were locked into battle with something mega and after what seemed an eternity this appeared on the surface

We're thinking it was a Seven Gill Shark but not 100% sure, either way it was safely returned to the depths

After a few more uneventful drifts and an encounter with a 'pinger' we called it a day.

Cheers Tony for the day out

 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!