Hi all

Headed up to Darwin on Friday 13th (no, I'm not superstitious...I think) arriving at 1.30pm and we spent the afternoon hanging out in 30'C heat....a far cry from the 6'C when we arrived at Perth airport. We had great weather all week, mins of 16C and max around 30C every day.

You can see the new wharf from the family's balcony and it gave me a chance to try out my new 150 - 500mm telephoto lens.....also made for a great night time photo.

On Saturday we headed out early from Buffalo Creek to the Vernon Islands with my brother-in-law, his nephew and his mate. It was a magic sunrise and the water was a glass off. All reports suggested the tides were right for some fishing action and I got on the board early with a couple of nice golden snapper....the others chimed in, too.

Then the brother-in-law's nephew's rod screamed in agony and hopes were high for the prized black jewfish...but alas, ecstasy turned to anguish when a 4m lemon shark emerged from the depths, so it was cut free. We moved a few times as the tide turned and managed a few more assorted fish before heading home. There was a queue of boats waiting to retreive, when we got back to the ramp in the creek.

Bummed around on Sunday and did some sightseeing around the marina at Bayview...watched the lock in action, too.

Visited Crocosaurus Cove on Monday and checked out the crocs, the barra and other fish in the aquarium and took a leisurely stroll thru the reptile house...well worth a visit, and so handy as it's in the centre of town. In the afternoon, I got 9 holes in at Garden Park with my sister.

Woke up early Tuesday morning with a serious stomach bug...don't know where it came from because we all ate the same thing on Monday night, but whatever it was, it flattened me for a couple of days. Missed out on a crabbing & fishing trip on Tuesday....the boys caught some nice bream and mud crabs. Also missed out on our planned day trip to Litchfield National Park on Wednesday...too scared to venture too far from the bathroom....IMODIUM is the answer! Mrs gates reacted badly to the midgies and came out with blistered welts on her legs and arms, so that put a dampener on things, too.

Was feeling better by Thursday so I stepped up to go out fishing again. Learnt a valuable lesson about not launching the boat with your phone in your pocket....yep, slipped on the ramp and went head first into the water...also had my compact digital camera in there, too. Got a new phone from the local phone shop and I'm looking into buying another camera.

The fishing was a bit slow up the East Arm....caught a few small jewies (mulloway) and a nice schoolie about 70cms....also had fun catching a few catfish and feeding them to the sea eagles that were camped in the nearby trees....sorry, no pics.

Took it easy on Friday and checked out my brother-in-law's favourite fishing tackle shop....you could do some serious damage to your credit card in there....or any tackle shop for that matter.

The US and Australian Air Force were playing with their toys and we had a pretty good view as they flew close to us in Bayview.

A quick 9 holes on Saturday morning, a bite to eat for lunch and then it was off to the airport...arriving back in Perth at 4.45pm.

Already planning another trip up that way as we didn't get to try our hand at barra fishing.

regards
rusty...

A picture tell a thousand words and what about video clip ???? I will use my youtube clip to present my fishing adventure to my viewers... The fun way of fishing snakehead in the wild ....

"I won't be rich in doing what I do for a living but will be rich in life N inside my heart, That's the way I want to live for the rest of my lives" By BKKGUY

Enjoys guys........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5g70MMYHno

Highlights catches of the day.....

 Cant quite remember the exact details on why the decky (wife), wasn't keen but anyhow I found myself alone powering out the slightly gnarly south passage on a recent trip to coral bay. The wind wasn't bad and was supposed to get better so I decided I was going to fang out to the 80 metre contour and drag some skirts around to hopefully connect myself to my first billie.

So out I went, life jacket on, dead man switch connected, flares and epirb in easy reach (the passage exit made me poop a little) and tried not to hit any whales while heading out to the chosen spot which was only about 10 mile straight out. Once out there I threw in the richter witchdoctor knockoff, a williamson sail catcher I think it was and a larger skirt and commenced the troll, wishing I brought beer already.

Took maybe 20 minutes for the smaller skirt/saragosa 14000 setup to start bounching around in the holder, peered back and it looked like little tuna or something were savaging the lure just little splashes and what not. Then I saw the shoulder of something large come sideways through the wash which sent the pulse rate through the roof and sure enough a few seconds later the rod buckled over and something went off on a fairly slow but steady run.

It was at that point I started wondering If it was a good idea going for a solo fish as I had to fumble around looking for the gimble belt, wind in the other line/teaser in then put the motor in gear and get ready to possibly chase some line back. Luckily the fish appeared off in the distance and started jumping around also letting me ID it as a sail and not some 500lb monster so I knocked the motor back into neutral and settled into the fight. Didn't take too long maybe 10 minutes to get it near the boat but then it started circling the boat for quite a while ,not finished yet. I was quite happy that the boat is sort of open style and was able to follow it round and round till I decided it was done. It was time to grab the bloody thing, all I could find was a hand towel for a glove so I just grabbed the bill and hoped it didn't lunge and spear me in the face or somehow embed the hook in me. It was fair tired so it let me hold it vertical and still, while I struggled to muster the finger strength to work the pliers without droppping them over. Hook came out alright so I grabbed the camera to get the money shot which was supposed to be a self video of me and the fish, but I discovered later on that the camera had already been rolling so when I pressed the shutter button it turned off not on. SPEW. Any way I wasn't exactly going to be able to swim the fish with the boat in gear so I just dropped it back in the water. Luckily it self righted in about 3 seconds and made its own way off looking quite healthy.

Time for a rest so off went the annoying smoky engine and I bobbed around in the ocean for while rejoicing but wishing once again I had brought some beer. I was proper stuffed because I never had time to remove the thick jacket which was under the lifejacket I was wearing and the sun had heated up a fair bit. Some large looking whaler sharks came up for a look with a few remoras which dettached and came to suss out one of my skirts I had dangling on the surface.

After a rest and some water the motivation returned and out went the spread again. I doubled back around to run over the same spot and within 10 minutes the 'gosa went off again. This time the fish took off at speed with the rod in the holder leaving me to wind in the other line. The lines crossed with the braid cutting through the 15kg mono/ tyrnos 20/ larger marlin skirt, so I lost that. As I grabbed the fish rod the hook pulled so I lost the fish too. Bugger.

OK round 3. The lure of they day was tied onto the 15kg tyrnos setup and sent back alone with the teaser. I cant remember how  long I had to wait but sure enought the rod starts bouncing around and I brace for anouther hookup. This one took a while maybe a minute or two. I give the fish credit it really wanted to eat that lure and eventually the hook found home and the fight was on again. Being on mono this time it felt like a big elastic band which took a bit of getting used to but after an unknown while it was boatside ready for a de-hooking. This time the leader was wrapped around the bill which complicated things a little and it took a fair amount of effort to pull out and unrwrap. I can still remember the feeling of the hook just starting to penetrate my hand momentarily before falling away and allowing me to drop the fish back in the drink. This time it wasn't looking that flash and was swimming along on it's side one the surface. I got back to the controls and started to follow it with the boat but luckily before I got there it got its bearings and swam away.

At this point I decided to call it a day. Even with the water starting to look like it may glass off and only being about noon I figured I wanted to end it on a high note, and started the steam back to the ramp dodging all the whales again. For me coming in the south passage always seemed sketchier than going out so I went the north (for the first time) And was back before one O-clock I think. Never been happier to bring back zero fish, and finally got to have a drink or ten. Sorry about the massive spiel and crap photos.

By mr_meks at 2012-07-24

By mr_meks at 2012-07-24

The first one just before release.

By mr_meks at 2012-07-24

The greysuits coming for a look.

By mr_meks at 2012-07-24

By mr_meks at 2012-07-24

By mr_meks at 2012-07-24

 I’ve been trying to jam as much fishing into this uni break as possible and last Thursday and Friday were looking like another opportunity. Once again my mate who is over from the east came along and also my Grandy, After watching me pull a meter plus dhu last time my mate was pretty keen to catch his first sized dhu. Plan was to fish Thurs then head into rotto for the night and have a quick fish the next day as we had to be back at mid-day. We hit the ramp at 8 and lines were in just after 9 and it didn’t take long for my pirate to get hit, Lost a bit of string on PE2 and was pretty confident to call it the first dhu of the day and not long after a nice 7kg dhu hit the deck,

The fishing was a tad slow and i wanted to head out to a deeper spot i found a few weeks back so with the last few drops approaching my mate lifted his game and finally hooked up to a solid fish, It fought harder than most big dhus ive seen so there was a chance at a sambo but after a few mins my mates new PB dhu at 95cm hit the deck and he was stocked.

We then headed out and it didn’t take long for the pinks to come to the party with a few around 70cm joining the esky.

My grandad then managed the first Radient cod ive seen and after a quick clean up we headed into rotto for the night.

A very lazy 8am wake up and a few eggs later we were back in amongst it and i was keen to put a few new spots into the GPS. After a bit of sounding the lines were dropped my grandad hooked up to the first fish of the day which turned out to be a monster baldy that went 65cm.

A bit more sounding and fishing for little result till again my grandad hooks up to a much larger fish that took literally all he had to give and he was stocked with his Pb dhu at 90cm.

A quick clean and we headed back to the ramp in pretty good conditions.

Went down to Quindalup for a weekender, 13-15 July, at a friends beach house. You cant beat free accom 

Saturday morning, the weather didn't look the best but that stretch of bay is pretty well protected so we figured we'd have a quick go at catching our dinner. Plus I'd just bought a couple of new squid jigs and was keen to get them wet. We figured a two pronged approach would be a safer bet to get a feed, so we dropped half a dozen crab nets over the side of the tinnie then left them to go chasing the slimey-squirters.

Word of advice, prolly best not to experiment with a knot you've never tied before when attaching your new jig! So I waved good bye to the first of my new jigs after 10mins of fruitless fishing and got the boys to drop me back at the beach to run back to the house and get the other one (who knows why i didn't bring them both but it was a short walk anyway). Meanwhile the lads picked up a couple of the girlfriends from the beach (for luck) and went back out to check the nets. The nets had been in the water maybe 25mins? but the blue mannas had wasted no time in having a go at picking at the spleen. Every net had 2-3, and on average one of those were size, so the first pull had us a crab each. It wouldn't be dinner but certainly a tasty snack, and it was enough to keep the motivation going in the drizzle.

I hopped back in the tinnie with new jig #2 securely tied and we went for round 2 with the squid, this time with results. Didn't take long before we were getting ourselves covered in the dark sludge that they shoot at you with deadly accuracy. Laughs all round as we took it in turns to get inky muck on our clothes and faces, pulling them out of the water. Dinner was served.

We did a couple more pulls of the nets with some more squidding in between until we were satisfied that everyone would be well fed for dinner. Returned the house, warmed up in front of the fire, then enjoyed a huge feed of calamari and chilli crab for dinner.

What a great weekend, need more just like it 

Well the weather had changed a little with north winds ,and north tide made for a quick drift and a full on job holding on the ground .Had a couple of members come for the ride Mat T and ToT both from the site.Jody and Jesse and myself made up the five .The plan was to get out to the 80-90m line but that changed once we got out ten mile ,as the wind was around 15knots and i made the call to stay inside direction and try some dhu ground .I have just fitted the new furuno 587 to the boat so was keen to try it out.The first spot and a recarture and three small dhuies,all released.we moved from patch to patch with fish of some sort coming from most ground .Found some new stuff with the sounder so will try that next time out .Was a bit of a job holding over the ground but it did ease of after lunch .We ended up getting our bag 2x dhuies,4 baldies 1x breaksea,1x snapper,1x foxfish 1xblacktip shark released,1xcarpet shark released,10-15 sargent baker and other small fish.Also  (two recaptures and two tagged fish returned.)one of the tagged fish we caught last sunday was in top condition see if we get him next week.Anyway top day and good company enjoy the pics.

So i thought write up on our episode in the Rottnest trench. After a slow day working in the 300 to 400's we returned to the North wall to finish up and hopefully boat a cod for one of the crew who yet to land one. On the drop Jamie had a big hit on jig but for no hook up, Soon after Joel hooked up to decent fish but was soon sharked and bitten off followed by me hooking up. My fish tore line off the electric and it was soon clear it was no cod or trevalla, more a fish with stamina and pace. We guessed it was probably a shark but the beauty of the deep drop is that you never really know what you could get connected to. Starting at 300meters on the line counter we soon were at 700 meters with 300 meters remaining.

As the fish steadily headed west and us steadily tiring we decided to change tactics. We put the boat in gear and drove west, getting ahead of the fish and began lowering the line angle to attempt to get the fishes head up and begin plaining it to shallower water. The tactic gradually worked with us gaining 20 to 30 meters maybe every cycle.

As the hours passed with a few phone calls on the sat phone to our wives that we were going to be late (again) The spool on the myiah epoch began to fill and we guessed we only had 200 to 300 meter to go... At this point we all were pretty flogged and sore having fought the fish out of a long bent butt which was pretty uncomftable and burst blisters raw on the tips of the fingers from thumbing the spool and on the insides winding.

We then found the plaining technique was improved by moving into slow circles. The circles got tighter and the fishes ascent speed improved. At the two and a half hour mark we had the fish within site, a large long silver shape well below the boat. Every now and then we would get a clearer glimpse which had us all guessing and as you know we have all been there- "it a baldy, no a queenie, a dhuie" and ends up being a sambo!

Occasionally we could see a long bill like shape which had our hope soaring thinking it was abouut to be our first metro swordfish. Anyways it wasnt to be with us realizing it was a tail hooked Thresher shark. Some what disappointing but great achievement!

Up close it was a strange looking fish with an eye the size of your hand and pearlesant glow to its skin. For such a sizable shark its mouth was tiny, indicating its feeding habits. The teeth were needle like and about 5 -7 mm.

As ive said before the shark was in poor condition but still alive on release. Sharks are tough critters and id hope it revived on it way back to the abyss.

Anyways i cant stand crap marketing and self promoters but i will give credit the saltiga boat braid, wind-on dave's wind on leader, miyah epoch reels and my rigs for all its unforgiving punishment.

Anyways see you back out there.

A follow on from my previous report but i thought i share a quick vid i put together from our trip to Warroora last week.  

 After watching the weather for weeks the call was made to pack the gear and set off north, after last year’s trip to Warra station we decided to head there again although just take the dinghy this year. We didn’t do any fishing inside the reef last year so i was fairly keen to try and crack a few Spanglies. We thought we would try and escape the school holiday crowds and stay down the south end and after a bit of driving around we found a spot and set up.

Day 1

After unpacking the boat we eagerly got the boat on the sand and started prospecting the foreign ground. It was after 11 before we got wet so we decided to stick around the reefs and try pull some spango’s for a feed. We headed north and found some skittish bait and quickly had some lures in the mix, the long toms were on and off within seconds of the lures hitting the water and we knew pretty quickly our lure collection was going to feel the full brunt of what Warra has to offer. New lures on and we finally landed a tom, Oliver quickly lost his second lure before i had my lure back in the mix and this time hooked up solid to a deeper fish that turned out to be the first spango of the trip.

Things went quite and we started heading home along the reef chucking lures on any likely looking ground, After getting dusted a few more times and a few thousand Chinaman later Oliver hooked up solid to his first spango for the trip.

We decided to call it a day and head back to fillet up.

Day 2

The weather was looking the goods and we temped the idea of heading offshore, However, after the first cast no more than 50m from launching came up solid and the deep idea quickly went out the window. My PB spango was quickly onboard for a pic and sent back.

We decided to make it a release day and the gods were on our side as over the next few hours we caught over 20 spangos up to 70cm and many more lost. The trevs were also on the chew with goldens and goldspot coming to the party.

After the breeze swung we pulled the dinghy and went on foot. We walked a solid click from camp where we found some nice shallow bombies and my popper was followed all the way to the beach where i stopped quite literally millimetres from the sand when a monster snapper came out of the water and nailed the popper, My new PB was bumped up and was happy to see him swim off.

Day 3

We spent the first hour flicking the same ground from the day before without a single result, once the easterly had backed off we putted out deeper scoping the sounder, I found some likely looking ground and the pirates and jigs were diploid. Plenty of hits and small fish but not what we were after. The sea breeze starting puffing and we called it a day, sad and slightly disappointed after the previous days highs.

Day 4

A front came through and we decided to head into coral bay for some supplies and a shower.

Day 5

The forecast was looking reasonable but not special, however, the long range forecast was looking even more dampening so we decided it would be our last opportunity to get outside the reef. We got to the 30m line and chucked the trollers out and no more than 10mins in the diver went off in a pretty big way, Oliver grabbed the rod as I cleared the lines and helped subdue possibly the biggest fish in the dingho. A few blistering runs later the fish went deep and finally some line started coming back in our favour. Mack, tuna, Trev, shark, all were thrown around until finally Oliver’s and the dinghy’s first YFT was boat side. A quick net job and we had sashimi for the trip.

With high fives and smiles going around we continued heading out till I finally found some nice looking ground holding good fish. Lines down and a double hook up and bust off proceeded. Heaver lines down and again double hook up, Oliver on PE 5 had no troubles skull dragging his first Rankin on board,

 I re-rigged for what felt like the 1000th time and sent the baits down. Again it didn’t take long to hook up. I put some hurt on and finally got one away from the coral. Up popped another nice Rankin. 

We decided we had plenty for a feed and to have one last drop on jig. Oliver was getting some good hits when he hooked up to a ridiculously big fish, We were both originally calling a grey suit but the tail kicks didn’t look all the shark like, It pulled more string than any sambo id seen and after the fish was brought up all 50m we were surprised to see the biggest golden trev either of us had ever seen. A few pics and he swam back down to the depths.

We called it a day and headed in.

Day 4

The SE’er was up for the next few days so we were stuck around the shallows. Once again the snapper didn’t disappoint and even my Rents managed some, we had no troubles hooking them on all matter of lures.

The rest of the day was spent in the water snorkelling around where we found some epic underwater life including coral, all matter of fish including a big trout that had my finger twitching and heaps of turtles.

The last few days were spent doing much the same as day 4 due to the persisting Easterlies. One thing i really wanted to catch was my first northern squid so the last afternoon was spent casting a jig around. It only took two casts and i was on, I quickly came in and we put the boat back on the trailer to pack for our return. 

Oliver and i snuck a few quick casts in off the shore and after bit of a wander i hooked another squid and started bringing it in when Oliver spotted the rest of the school in close pursuit of his jig, He quickly hooked up and landed his first northern squid also. We pretty quickly had a good feed after the school wouldn’t leave our jigs alone. We cleaned the squid and put the rods away for the drive home the next day.

Overall the fishing was red hot and it was even better hearing Perth had copped some weather, I’m already looking forward to heading there again next year and making it an annual pilgrimage.

Thanks for reading Miles

My mate Dale and I decided last weekend was the time to chase a few of the stripey eyes in the north metro.

As you can see, the conditions were pretty terrible.

The plan was to drop a few jigs on a spot that had previously produced my PB dhuie. Unfortunately, this was not to be the day for that spot, with only a double hookup of undersized pups and some random junk fish.

So off we went in search of new ground. After finding a couple of likely looking lumps in around 50m, we quickly boated a few little sambos on various jigs and gave a new combo a bit of a test. Some fun was had, but the esky was still empty, which at almost 11am was not a good sign.

So we decided to head a bit further afield, but in similar depth. I saw a pretty solid looking show on the sounder on the way to the contour which we were planning to hit, so thought we'd give it one drift, and this was the result. Double header of dhuies on a Caprice and JM jig respectively.

A second drift pulled another double header with another dhuie and an emperor of some description (like a spango, though pretty dark in colour). We released the smaller dhuies and with the emperor and my mate Dale's dhu pictured above in the esky we decided to head to some deeper ground to get away from the dhuies and try for some snapper.

First drift on a likely looking lump and I snagged up, losing a brand new Lamble. Ouch. While I was re-rigging, Dale jigged a nice pinky, double ouch.

After a re-rig I dropped the jig, and pretty quickly hooked on to something solid. It was fighting like a dhu, but given the size of the thing and the fact that we were in 95m of water it had me guessing till the last 20m or so what it was, and then up pops this solid dhu. I was pretty stoked, my second biggest on jig yet.

All in all a pretty damned good day on the water, which was made all the better with a great bbq and more than a few beers later that night.

Dan

Great trip heres some pics.

Took the GF and her old man out from Freo on saturday. Started the day off with some shallow water sambo's, pinks and a few KG's east of rotto

Call was then to get some dhues so headed out to 45-50m and was straight onto a 7kg model for the old boy.

Spent a fair bit of time playing decky re-rigging, baiting up and a bit of coaching for the GF. Finally got a chance to drop a line myself so fed down a drfit bait rig with a whole squid caught the night before and after a decent tussle on PE-3 up came this puppy! :)

Couldnt get away from the dhues then with another 7 caught and released before we found a nice black bum and a few pinks to round out the day.

A few weeks back we made a push and did our first Abrolhos trip. Headed up friday night and headed to the islands Saturday morning arriving in time for breakfast. Conditions were not bad the first morning with 15knot east winds. we headed out and soon found some ground to fish, baldies, snapper, dhuies and coral trout.

Things shut down after a good fishing sesh so we headed back to our anchorage and had some lunch. Jesse and I swam ashore and went for a wander around the point. We went for a swim and noticed some big baldies on a small coral bombie, so back and got  Kev and the spear guns and went to get a few fish.

Didnt take long to get 4 good baldies around 4kg. Well the daylight was fading so we set up for a nice fish dinner and some chit chat before setting the beds for a good nights sleep. We woke to nice conditions, wind light from the east, headed out and set the lures. Didn't take long and a nice mac was in the box. We anchored up and geared up for a dive on an edge 12-45m on entering the water a large mac around 20kg swam through. Jesse was too slow and missed his chance.

No good fish on this dive so a move to the area we fished the day before. We dived a lump 32m. Lot more good size fish, got some more baldies and a nice trout. Back on the boat and a few more hours fishing and it was time to head back to Gero. We had a good trip back sitting on 27knots all the way. Was a big weekend with us getting home around 10:30 Sunday night. Quick clean up and to bed for work the next day. We will be heading back for another trip very so

Headed out Saturday for a fish of 2 Rocks what a great day ,weather was good for a change .Seems the sambos are out in force with some good size fish on most spots Jody nailing   a 25-30 kg fish .and lots of fish up to 8-10 kg. The big dhuies were in hiding with only small fish up to 8kg .15 dhuies for the day .Also had KG ,breaksea,baldies,harliquin,sargent baker,around thirty fish caught for the day .Meet a few fw members at the ramp.A little slow for a period with no fish but the end result was all good. bring on next weekend.

Thought id throw up a quick post about yesterdays dive. Not a great deal to tell.

Got a new kid on the block now in Lucky Tim , stoked to have him n haylz in town and a new dive buddy. Although it felt heaps "safer" diving those warmer exxie water with ya bro!

Anyways Tim and I left Gero about 1100 - Gentlemans house and too many of Matso's Ginger beers the night before. Water temp in close 17.5C WTFFFF

Water was fairly clean and about halfway to our destination we got a number of txts and missed calls to inform of yesterdays horrible fatal attack. Not something anyone wants to hear about , especially just before going for a spear!

Got to our area and sounded around , felt fairly calm and collected considering and viz was a hazy 10-12m. Not a massive amount of action about. Big school of skippy and the usual buffs.

I clean missed a nice spangled at one stage and timbo missed a nice trout also. Great start!

Took some nice footage of pup dhuies and trout in a wiked big swim thru and had a seal keep company for 10-15mins just near the boat.

Think im going to call for an alias change here to UnLucky Tim as we finally saw what we'd come for although the shoutting of his name to draw his attention to what lie beneath probably wasnt the best of things to do considering we've watched the footage from last week a few times and then the poor surfers incident happening aswell.

Sorted that minor glitch out (sorry mate!) and tim dove on the thumping dhuie! Not sure if it was a little bit of time out of the water or something else but the size of the fish fooled him a little and his shot was from a touch far away for full penetration. The dhu took off hopefully not too hurt - it wasnt hit in a vital spot and only took flesh but i suppose we will never know! fingers crossed. I est it 10-12kg easily and the largest shallow dhu ive seen in shallow for along time~!

Moved spots only once as it was just a quick trip and didnt want to bum around all arvo , i managed a nice 4.5kg baldie and UnLucky got a beaut trout. Fairly content we headed home.

The water was freezing even in my normally warm riffe suit and the wind chill was horrendous but conditions other then that where nice. Hoping to get over to the islands in my coming few swings off and dive some nice clean water and chase a yellowfin or wahoo that are making apperance all over the place. Can only hope!

Thanks guys poddy

This trip materialised last minute when I was thinking of going Jurien Bay with Whitey but ended up hooking up with Hlokk and going to Abrolhos. Apparently there was a spot due to someone pulling out last minute and hence I got it. Thanks to Hlokk for inviting me along. I had heaps of fun, popped a few cherries and beat some of my own PB's, not to mention meeting a few fishing legends!

Lost only 6 jigs due unstoppables, bust-offs by razor gangs and one which was snagged.

No monsters were taken but we had a great variety that came onboard.

I am not much of a word-smith and so will let the pictures do the talking.

We started the day by trolling towards Abrolhos and Chris opened the account early with a spaniards on Halco Laser Pro. There were times when multiple hook-ups took place with spaniards and sharky caught.

My first coral trout after climbing out from the bunk, half awake. This fish was taken on an Ofmer jig 150g.

Foul hooked coral trout on Duel Tamentai 150g

Another one of the many trouts taken on jig.

Good old Gorilla jig did the trick on this trout.

This trout was taken on a knife jig worked fast to entice a spaniard. I saw the sounder lit up in mid-water so I change my demersal jig for a knife jig to catch the spaniard but it was intercepted by this coral trout at mid-water.

Matt's impressive trout

This spangle emperor gave a good account of itself. I thought I hooked something three times as big! New found respect for this species.

As you can see, it was a clean hook-up

Jono's dhuey

Sean's dad with a stickbaited yellowfin tuna.

Sambo....

Pinky on Metal Flicker

Matt's coral trout on Smith Jack knife ?

Another trout...

Another one of my trout at the end of first day before we moored at the island for the night. It was taken in relatively shallow water -12m on a Saltiga Sacrifice Stick.

Matty's impressive double header on Smith Jack Knife

Moses perch ? on Zest jig

Not too sure what this is about ??!!!

Snapper on the same jig again!!

Amberjack on the same jig again!!

Dhuey!

Jono's estuary cod that ended up on the table.

Fillet packed, labelled, vacuum sealed and ready to go

Yum....fish wings on the barbie..

Matty's jigged leather jacket. It was huge!

One of Sean's many surface lured fish. On one particular morning session, he caught and release more than a dozen spaniards & shark mackerals on stickbaits. Unfortunately, he didn't take any photos. Shimano Ocea Stickbaits come to life in Sean's hands.

My juvenile dhuey on Fanky

My PB snapper @ 6.9kg on the digital scale. This fish was taken amongst 2 baiters on either side of me. Apparently my 180g jig hit bottom faster than their baited rig and this snapper slammed it on first crank of my reel handle. It cracked my 2.2kg pinky caught at Carrums Down in Melbourne.

Check out the hump on the head!

My first sharky taken on Rapala Sub-Walk retrofitted with singles. 

Rapala's one fish wonder X-Rap Sub-Walk. It only took one sharky to puncture the stickbait. Notice the battle scars and water seepage into the lure's body cavity.

Check out those colours

 My other sharky on a 60g stickbait. 

This picture tells a very sad tale. A spaniard estimated to be 15-20kg by others on the boat who saw it at boat side took a lot of line at serious drag. It finally won its freedom when this pre-made Halco wire with snap gave way. My main line was only 30lb!!!  I was so gutted not because I lost my Duo Press Bait Saira Sinking stickbait with it but because that could have easily been the biggest spaniard caught for the trip, not to mention my PB! NO MORE HALCO WIRE SNAP for me for sure !

This hammer head was seen circling the boat when we were at 300m. So someone toss a big chunk of fish with a hook in it and caught him.

We were at 18m and spaniards, sharkies and tuna were seen spearing out of water hitting bait schools. Everyone was plugging away trying to land one on stickbait. I decided to have a change and rig up a long jig and do mackeral jigging (ie. fast stroke with fast cranks) and this mack got fooled. The mackeral must have smashed the jig so hard that it bent it.

This amberjack gave me some serious grief because I forgot to tighten my drag before dropping the jig over! It took a 150g Ofmer jig with home-tied Mustad Hoodlum assist hooks. 

My double-header Amberjack, taken on 150g Daiwa jig. Craig - the skipper told us that was a new spot to him and a school of fish was seen suspended in mid-water. So it turned out there was a seriola's gathering going on that morning.......

Sambo taken on the same jig, same spot, same outfit on the 2nd drift. Unfortunately, the kingies weren't out to play. :( Otherwise a seriola grand slam is on the card.

A sharky took a swipe at my Smith L-Dorado timber stickbait and miss. Look at the damage done to the lure and assist cord.

Damage done to my twister octopus used to dress up my assist hooks.

Arguably the biggest fish caught for the trip. Jono's estuary cod taken on bait.

Just got back from shark bay had a couple of days good fishing before it started to BLOW

Day 1

Launched from Denham and headed for the Dampier reef , Trolled and bottom bounced the reef for a couple of hours for some shark macks, lots of Trevally and some just sized red throats,  not alot happening so went down the ocean side of Dirk Hartog

looking for some new ground to try out, and found a cracking spot, 5 guys on the boat and we bagged out on pinkies in the first  2 drops  , then  we got good size rankin , estuary  and tomato cod. Then followed the boats first Red Emperor and Cobia .The

wind was getting up so we headed for  home trolling all the way up to Turtle  Bay for only a blowie and another shark mackerel.

Day 2

Had a late start to the day as the weather was forecast to improve in the afternoon , once again headed up to the top end of Hartog and started to look for similar ground, different story today with only a couple of  size pinkies and blackies and lots of undersize fish landed, with darkness approaching we decided to give some of the ground around Dampier Reef a crack at night,. By 10 pm we had bagged out our limit for the day on pinkies, blackies, a mulla, estuary cod ,rankin cod and spangled emperors that you could put a saddle on and ride away into the darkness. The dark hours were broken up by sea snakes coming around for a look see and a monster tiger.

At 10 we decided to clear the deck and head for denham , conditions were good with an expected 1.5 - 2 hour run back to denham, less than 5 minutes into the trip home with the boat traveling at 33 knots there was an almighty bang , shit we had hit something and hit it hard. It was all hands on deck all compartments were opened and checked to see if we were taking on water, engine up and check the prop and leg for damage. No visible damage so we started to plan for beaching the boat on turtle bay if we started taking on water. Looked at the brand spanking new plotter to plot a course to turtle bay , Zip, Nada no satelites found  dead in the water between Dorre and Dirk Hartog.After just spotting a big tiger there were some nervous faces on board.

When my mate  had the new plotter installed he decided to lave all the original navman cables in case he had any difficulty with the new system, and the navman was on the boat and up and running in a couple of minutes and heading for home after reaching denham we checked the boat and found no damage , we figure that we hit a turtle or something but it scared the shit out of 5 grown men.

The next couple of days were bad but  we ventured out to the island and got some red throat and pinkies ,blackies but no sign of macks anywhere

We did not have a  big problem with being sharked as every spot we fished we tied a couple of fish frames to one of the heavy rods  dropped the over and it kept the sharks from most of our fish.The new sounder will be back with the dealer on monday looking for some answers.

I did not see any macks landed all week but heard that some were being caught in the shipping channel for the salt mine, over all we got some great fish but nearly filled our daks too.

Cheers Vince.

a few tailore from the last few weeks

 Got this one in the sound this morning on 10lb gear 

Measured up at 78 and weighed in at 6.5 :), makes up for the cold i guess haha

The winter fishing has been excellent over the past few days with plenty of bread and butter fish being caught as well as squid. Mulloway and the odd pinky are being landed in the shallow water before the bend with runs being early in the evening. Chopper tailor around 20-25cm are being caught on the second half of the jetty in the deeper water. The herring are around in good numbers along most of the length of the jetty. I have been having a heap of fun over the past few days catching them on small Gillies whitebait metal diving lures. Good sized squid can be caught all along the second half of the jetty after dark, my mate caught 6 within 2 hours during tonight's session. Skippy can be found near the pylons along the entire length. If you are planing on heading out make sure you take a heap of warm clothes since it is freezing cold at the moment especially at night, I could breath frost on the end of the jetty last night, it was very cold.
 

After spending many hours building the boat it is now time to give it its first fishing trip and how excited i was. now Another year is over and i have been back for 6 weeks and i thought i better put some pick up of the holiday as i have been busy organising to build a house display homes how awesome every weekend hope you enjoy some of my photos

brekky at cervanties and a photo of mthe boat on the cruiser it all towed gr8 on the new trailer i finished 1 week b4

fishing started off slow the first week the weather wasnt bad just hard to find fish

as we begin

i get the first first

trent gets a bigger one

then trent gets a 9 kg red and all i could manage was a 8 kg red all trip unfortunatly i didnt get a photo of my red on the boat

so towards the end of the trip i said i would love a coral trout i have never caught one less than 5 mins later guess what a chris with a 9 kg on the left and hayden with a  7 kg on the right and i didnt get one surprise

 I finally got the girls onto rod and reels and away from the deck winches nothing to break them into it just 120m water and they did well double headers of goldband, rosy jobfish and cleaned up that day

c

what a way to finish the da 5.30 25nm out and sitting on 28 knots on the way in it was dark by the time we reached the south passage but worth the day out

Even mum and dad and finally got a sized red emporer on a rod and reel so as another year goes by time to start to look forward to next year it was harder to find fish this year and with so many poeple following and pinging us we had to go alot further away from coral bay but it was worth it in the end and to see all the family get into good fish this year made the trip so much better i have some underwater photos so will post them up soon but for now seeya out there.

Hi All

Has anyone fished the upper swan, around Guildford lately? I’m looking at doing a SP Bream session this weekend and would like to know if anyone has had any recent results?

Cheers

Jarrod

 hi guys n gals

after seeing the post of the write up in the west etc most have probably seen i thought id throw a quick report up on the day and the encounter for your    

?pleasure? and just so that everyone gets the exact story! we all know how the media can wriggle words! the article in the todays west was fairly decent tho besides the fact it said we contemplated spearing it??? not once did we think that

anyways here goes

Dave had come from perth to dive with the dropping swell and clear water we expected. I had taken the saturday off annual leave for that "extra" day of fun!

Thursday we headed north approx a mile from the exact spot we had our encounter. similar depth of water and pretty average viz but we managed some good fish. Got lucky and got onto a fairly solid common trout of 76cms and 6.8kgs which is a good fish for inshore waters. We burlyed hard for dhuies and not once did it feel sharky nor did i get that feeling more divers would get when we arnt alone.

Friday i headed south - beautiful day but a north tide kept the fish quiet. viz varied from very good to pretty average. bought home some nice trout baldies and a 6kg dhu between 3 of us.

Saturday - The Day...... Now ill tell all id bought my GoPro Hero 2 for to make filming abit easier - hands free to hold a gun etc etc. If id had my contour this day it could have been a tad different. Ive got into the hang now of turning the GoPro on for every dive and id been getting some nice stuff...

We left the ramp and headed north.. Magic condition and arrived at some hour i cant exactly remember around 9ish?? Not wanting to hit our spots from thursday we headed further north to sound ground. approx 7-800m off the beach and in 11m of water we stumbled upon some interesting looking stuff.

Dave kitted up and did a quick jump in to suss the spot hanging off the back. Looked good so we set the pick

Viz was magic - i est 12-15m horizontally in the early morning sun? The bottom was alive with fish and it felt so right , so good and i thought we where going to be in for a cracker....

Not 2mins in and a large trout stared up at richo and i so we decided to film the dive and take the shot. Richo and i breathed up and dropped. It was a good fish - maybe 65-70cm and then a rather large baldie mooched in. Then a dhuie! Richo held back on the shot to see if something else would rock up. We surfaced and just layzed for few moments. Another massive baldie mooched in... Then another dhu - not massive but i wanted to film it and check out the cave from which it had come.

I informed richo of my doings and commenced my breathup as i turned on my camera. Richo is facing north west and im opposite ina trance like state. focusing on the bottom - relaxed... Breath in , Breath out.

Drawing my final breath and milliseconds from decent i heard a shrill scream of my name. Something ill never forget and immediately i knew it wasnt a "Normal" bronzie or tiger that had mooched in. Everything from here is nuts.

I spun on a dime to see a site ill NEVER EVER forget as long as i live. A Head over a metre across , Massive black left eye , that frown looking jaw - It was fucking MASSIVE! I swung my 120 riffe euro around and the shark was that close ive got marks where the sharks skin rubbed varnish off half way along. I est it was 1-1.5m from my face.

Massive surface disturbance and the shark went south. Immediately i swum towards richo as the shark turned on its own length and came at richo. This is where the shark appeared to get aggitated and chucked her pecks down. It glided under richo as you see in the wests pic - came up to guns lenght and then turned and came straight at me again. Another poke for her trouble and she seemed to settle a little and glided out to maybe 6-7m distance. It seemed she had cruised in to suss us out. When we spotted her our heart rates would have sky rocketed accordingly and this is why i think she behaved abit more erratic at those moments.

Now side by side and headed towards the boat she glided to our east. I think she knew we where retreating here and as we approached the boat she turned and came straight at us again...... My god the girth was unreal!

She cut us off and this is where i gave her a cracking smack just infront of the gills. She didnt like this and took off to the edge of viz.

Richo was in like a shot while i stayed put and wasnt taking my eye off or turning my back on it til she was out of view....

Handing richo my gun ive never climbed in fully kitted fins and all so quick!

That was it - we never saw her again!

The day my perspective on diving and the things that live in the water changed forever!

It wont change me going diving and i am thankful that i can sit here and type this report!

The footage i cant release until a later date due media this n that....

Ive just watched GWNs quick rap and i want to clarify that i DID contact fisheries Geraldton and they told me i had to contact CALM and shark watch. The lady there took my number and was going to contact them immediately and i was to expect a phone call very soon.... 

im still waiting!

Hope you all enjoy the footage!

Poddy 

MAMA toman aka Giant Snakehead of Thailand, the fishing season is here. I've my own team of boatmen and contacts, who ..... one the first sightings of the toman fry, will report to me at once... By still, the successful landing of the MAMA toman lie on each angler fishing skills. A good knowledge about the behavior of mama toman is very important. The mama once been caught and released before, will not be so easy to catch again. Thus choosing the correct lure, is the key to successful landing your prized mama toman in the wild. Every anglers want to fish the easy fry (so called virgin toman fry)..Meaning to say, there is 1 pair (both mama N papa toman) guarding the fry.

 Usually the papa toman will make the first move to attack any intruder which swim near the baby fry. If the papa toman has been caught by someone. The mama toman will be unwilling to bite so easy. We need to constantly pestering the baby fry to make the mama toman provoked then she will attack your lure. I'll demonstrate how it is done in my " Hot Pursuit of MAMA toman" youtube clip. Do enjoys the photos and topwater actions video clip.

Thanks for reading my catch report.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6BCCZFQK-o

Some of the highlights photos...

G'day fishwreckers,

Went for a holiday to Coolgardie- the rumours are true- no fish there. Packed up the car 6 total people and one keen fisherman off we went 4hrs to Esperance. The weather forecasts were pretty bad lots of rain and swell plus wind. Fishing minutes were at a premium with this crowd, one quick trip to the jetty and id resigned myself to another empty bag unlikely to get another chance. Went for a drive the next day sightseeing and we found a likely spot given the conditions(!). I unpacked the 12' telescopic, tied on my khawai lure from a past holiday and hooked up a couple of these bad boys all within 30min before the crowd wanted to move on. Wish I had longer!

These blokes made there way to the table for the 6 of us- turns out theres a lot of fish to be had from just the two.

How big/heavy do you reckon they are?

I look forward to returning to Esperance!

Cheers and thanks for reading

Took a mate (Chad) out today to show him how to get Herring and Gardies from the shallow water of Mindaries. With some nice weather and very clear water we got the burley going, but after 30min it was not looking good.

Chad then hooked a nice fish as we were thinking of making a move out deeper. I was surprised to see a very nice Skippy come onto the boat. 44cm . Ive caught them there before but not quite that big .

The next 40min they came in and out of our burley trail and we had a great time on the light gear . Bagged out pretty quick and decided to call it a day and head home early for once.

I filleted up all the Skippy and shared them out with most being cooked within an hour . Also tried some raw and found it very nice indeed. I got a bit of footage as well so check it out. The water was so clear we could see the fish zipping around and hitting our baits.

 http://youtu.be/OnQOlXar3EE

 Cheers Grant ..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg-mYPmBg9k

hey guys

he's a short vid that was made showing the last trip i was on at the mackies.  Best fishing experience ive had!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg-mYPmBg9k

Hi Guys

I'm driving from Perth to Exmouth at the start of the school holidays coming this weekend and was wondering if anyone iwas interested in sharing the driving/expense?  I'm a very serious fisherman and have all my own gear including boat, softbait and fly rod equipment (fished Exmouth once before but just for 2 days).  I also intend to rent a boat, I have a skippers ticket and would be interested in having someone share the cost, either a serious angler or I might consider someone who wants to give fishing a go.  If you're going to be there during the school holiday feel free to give me a call and we can meet up.  You can reach me on my mobile 0414473467 but once I arrive there it would be best to e-mail b_newmark@hotmail.com.  Even if you can't make it but have some up to date fishing reports please let me know what going on.  Thanks

*

My wife and i headed out off Mindarie around 1pm sunday as the wind was dropping off, great afternoon on the water and we managed 5 snapper 2 of them at 65cms and three under size,my wife got a just sized dhu released of course.