Michael and I, along with my buddy Matt and his family, spent the weekend on a lake up north searching for the elusive Burbot (Lota lota). We were given some very good information, but it seems the timing was still a little off, or our location was a little off, or conditions was a little off.

Michael and I camped overnight on the ice. Even with the heater on full (3000 BTU), it was still a bit cold in the wee hours of the morning. Burbot fishing is best after dark so we were trying to maximize our opportunities, plus we were too thrifty to spend extra money on the hotel room :lol:

I was lucky enough to lost one and caught one. Otherwise, burbot fishing was slow to dead. The whitefish were also largely absent aside from one that came unbuttoned at the hole for Michael, and one that Matt landed.

There is a lot of narrative, as well as a couple of burbot cleaning tips on my blog. Otherwise here are some pictures.

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2014/03/zero-dark-burbot.html

~~~

Here are some more fishing pictures from my icefishing season. It started off very slow but progressively got better.

I'll be brief here. For the full story, you can read about it on my blog.

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2014/02/slow-start-to-season-but-heating-up-now.html

Compared this slow icefishing season with my trip to Florida, it was day and night. I caught some fish, but couldn't get out often enough...and when I do get out fishing, it always seems to be the slow day...

I did run into a massive school of Cisco one day. I love the chrome side and iridescent purple back. They remind me of Ladyfish a lot. Just as aggressive and they form big schools as well.



I made a new friend who was from France and he had never experienced icefishing. So we went out one Saturday and he caught his first fish icefishing. It is not the biggest pike in the world, but at least we got a rod bent.





In February, my luck finally turned and I got into a couple of great days. Most of the Lake Trout were small...but the action was fast and furious and the trout tasted great.



Most of them were around this size.



Some had brilliant reddish fins!

Hi guys,

Went out for a snapper sesh with good mate Dean (Dirt) on Friday night, we anchored up on one of our spots out between Garden and Carnac Islands, would like to say we killed it with the pinks but wasn't to be! Just a bloody big Wobby (released) and a big Tailor.

But the surprise catch by Dean was a Spangled Emperor that measured 42cm after a few photos we released it, we were a bit gob smacked that we brought a Spanglie to the boat in the Sound, will have to get him to post the pics.

How things are changing!

Paul

Mate - Nic and I were chasing Tuna that were smashing bait fish at Stragglers Reef. I tossed a Halco Twisty into the school of Tuna and set the hook on a positive take. After a short fight and anticipation of my first Tuna, I was surprised to find a 66cm Pinkie with the treble firmly hooked in it's mouth. I did not expect to find a Pinkie hunting amongst the Tuna.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm1Nq6jKaUo

Wild snakehead fishing is my hobby.

Snakehead fishing is addictive and challenging sport especially to catch them in the wild.

During my pastime when I'm not at works (my works also related about fishing), I will drive to one of
my favorite snakehead spot to enjoy a  day of snakehead fishing by myself.

Just a simple catch report to showcase my recent giant snakehead (mama toman) catches.

Enjoys the exciting youtube clip.

Thanks to GoPro, it really helped me to capture most of the fishing actions during the trip.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7AiBLps5ak

Angler: IGFA World Record Snakehead 2013 Holder - Bkkguy John
Reel: Daiwa Ryoga 1016H
Rod: Major Craft 12-25Ibs- 7 foot rod.
Main line: Surfix 832- 8X braided- PE5
Lure: Rapala CD 14 Magnum
Hooks: Decoy hooks- SY21(1/O)
Fishing ground: Wild fishing spot Thailand.
Target fish: Giant snakehead (Toman)

 
Photos highlights of my snakehead catch....

Awesome !!!! Awesome !!! simply Awesome !!!

A beautiful mama toman.....

Hi all,

First time posting after being on the site a while.

Location: Applecross Jetty

Bait/Lures: River prawn and 2.5cm Zman grub

Gear: El cheapo Kmart specials

Rig: running sinker down to small red octopus hook

Target species: Bream, Flathead, Whiting

Arrived at Applecross Jetty to bleak and cold wintery day. Broke up and threw an old loaf of bread around to start the interest going. Soon had my first fish a trumpeter, nothing special but a start. A couple more trumpeter followed along with a few blowies and a Tarwine. I had the big rod with me so snuck a hook through the back of one of the trumpeter and lobbed it out. No real interest on the live bait although it twitched around a bit. Nothing much else happened so I decided to call it a morning. Packed up and headed back towards the car. I had some soft Zman grubs so decided to give it a go. Punched a couple of casts in shallow hoping for a flathead. Three or four casts in rolling a slow retrieve along the bottom something smashed the soft plastic, I thought it was a flathead but to my surprise a nice bream fought all the way in. I measured it and it came in at size and with it being a nice clean fish decided to keep it.

Sometimes one fish makes the day but I think the day makes the day. Rarely do I get the chance to wet a line so just getting out is reward in itself.

cheers and thanks for reading

 Managed to get a few Crays yesterday and today down at Cowaramup Bay. 4 yesterday and 4 today, sizes are pretty good too.

Can gauge the size of them off the first one, which was about 5mm over size.

 Hi guys,

Just asking if anyone is having success with any squid and the smaller fair, just looking for a bit of fun and maybe a feed.

I'm also landbased,

Andrew

Headed out for a day trip with Freedive Fiji on Saturday after hearing about the report of massive YFT being caught over the last few weeks on the coral coast. Within the first hour of trolling we were onto a beast, the first run was just incredible. We were extremely lucky to land it as it was foul hooked behind the head. It took 3 of us an hour each to boat, we were basically pulling the fish in sideways being foul hooked, so lucky the hook held. It was a massive team effort to land it. I was the last on the rod for those typical tuna circles at the boat, few tense moments. I definately didnt want to be the one to mess it up after such a brutal battle. Was stoked to be involved in the capture.

The day wasnt to end there, once we located this massive bait ball it was on for the rest of the afternoon. We ended up with the days tally going 1 YFT around 70kg, 3 YFT around 15-20kg, 2 YFT 5kg mark, 9 solid mahi mahi. Including a mahi on stickbait. Not bad going given we battled one fish for 3hrs.

If anyone is over in Fiji anytime in the near future and looking for an extra number on a trip hit us up with a pm. Im here until Jan next year. Pretty keen to get out for a Kadavu/Ono trip real soon.

G'day guys,

Headed south on the weekend with good intent to chase some salmon however the wind was up all weekend so decided to hit the rivers for some trout. I started Saturday arvo heading to my favourite brook to chase some big trout. the river is super tight with really big fish that spook easy. ended up with a couple of redfin, a rainbow and a nice brown taken on a SP. also lost a good size brown after it took to the air and spat my squidgy pro critter. the fish were really turned on with multiple trout chasing my lure and spooking a few while walking the river.
sunday me and my brother hit some other rivers with the trout being really aggressive. in 2 separate rivers we caught 3-4 trout each in a couple of hours. I also lost 3 trout and 1 monster redfin that was taking drag before busting me off under the log I was standing on. all of my trout were caught on soft plastics and my redfin were on small hard bodies. all my brothers fish were on hard bodies. all in all we had an awesome weekend on the fresh water with many trout spotted and many trout hooked with a few large guys landed and some big browns spooked. I cant wait to go back!

Also got 4 hits that did not hook up, a small sharkie mac (which we suspect were the non hookups) , two small YFT on jig which will make great sashimi, plus about 12 stripies, mostly on PE2 jig in one hot little session when we hit a big school. fun!

Last weekend went down to quinns beach to catch bait off of the most northerly rock groin there at about 5:30pm. Last summer i got heaps of herring and whiting by throwing out pollard to start then two baitchasers with a bit of prawn on each behind a full berley cage and more often than not get double headers but this time nothing only a couple of little whiting and heaps of blowies. As the sun set i switched to mulies as last year got plenty of tailor there and by then a few guys had come down also using mulies - nothing - just one small pike we were even using little light sticks.

Yesterday went off the end of Mindarie marina wall at 5:00pm to get out of this bloody wind. Threw heaps of pollard in with berley cage baitchasers etc - nothing all afternoon. Decided to let the rig just sink to the bottom and got lots of little pink snapper about 15cm long returned them all of course so i guess thats a good sign for the future. No herring and got 1 little yellowtail. About 7 of us then fishing with mulies as the sun set and nothing. Where are the herring and tailor? 

went up for the weekend to my usual spot at cervantes

ended up with a ray, 16 tailor and 3 herring

overall was a good trip, plenty of cold beers & a good feed of tailor and herring off our northern coastline!

Fly fishing for arapaima.....that is what every fly fisherman dream....

It not easy to catch them in the wild due to over fishing or netting at Amazon river.

Thailand has become a second best choice for anglers when come to arapaima fishing paradise.

Though it is still a fishing pond and not wild but to catch his beauty fish in pond is not that easy as what it look.

There are many fishing pond resorts in Thailand which offer fishing arapaima using baits which can be easy.

To catch the arapaima on lure itelf is already a challenge... to catch & land it on fly rod that's every fly fisherman's dream.

Afterall, arapaima is one of the biggest freshwater fish in the world.

Here is one of those  many memorable fishing trips I guided last week.

Enjoy the exciting and actions pack youtube clip I done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os-EUX2-aIA

Highlights photos of the day !!!

Redtail Catfish on fly rod...

Super bending from fly rod .....

Holding bay for arapaima before release again.

 Dose anyone have a luck with Albany salmon yet

We thinking to go this weekend to salmon hole.

 Just finish the comp didn't have the best run of luck with break downs and other stuff but ended up with 16 raised 12 hooked and 5 tagged but the good news is a total of 303 fish taged and 1200 raised so bring on Gamex joyfully have a better run of luck

Finally did my first trip to the Montes. Weather was insane with glass offs everyday. We stayed around the middle of the group and did most of our fishing out from the western channel. The first two days were a bit quiet with the neap tides but got really good when the tide started to move. We headed out to Tryall Rocks on the second day and did not even raise a scale! Was good to go out that way for a look though and we had a dive on the inside of the rocks witch was fantastic.

The main target was GTs and we had found a few smaller ones on the backs of the reef so the aim was to hit those areas a bit harder when the tides started to move a bit. For the last two days we got plenty good GTs and a bit of by-catch with queenies, other trevs, coral trout, spangos, and macks. The bottom fishing was a waste of time with every good fish sharked.

Some of the GTs were massive and we couldn't stop them on pe10, either they ran us through the reef or the Owner trebles straightened out. Next year its on again cant wait.

Fishwreckers I wanted to share some of the trophies I managed to land in a 2 week holiday in feb ths year,
I fished out of Bangkok for a week and then went a couple of hours south to Hua Hin for 10 days, the fishing exceeded my expectations which for me is rare these days. Though I must say it was a weird experience being in Bangkok with my Wife and young boys (doh).
Had a day at Bungsamran lake for Mekong giant catfish, f%^&k me I stayed right till the end (6pm) fishing on pure adrenaline beer and Thai redbull caught 25 plus catfish totalling over a Ton for the day, I seriously could hardly walk leaving the lake , the only comparison I could suggest would be like catching 30 kg sambos and fighting them horizontally all day, Please experience this lake once in your life.
Other days were spent with bkky guy (John) who rocks! he turns up on time, nice car, put me onto 40 barra to 8 or 9 kg on poppers and various other lures then "popped" into a lake on the way home were I finally got a bloody snakehead, these things are vicious and after landing quite few and being completely smashed a few times John made me leave because I had almost finished his lure box...John takes his time taking quality photos of your catches which makes a big difference to other guides (he also sorted out a esky full of cold beer too -of course!)
Had a day at Hua hin fishing lodge (snore) sorta fun I suppose.
Jurassic park, wow well set up beautifull fishing gear bite alarms and all the pommy shit, stunning location, got some good big Siamese and indian carp on hair rigs, plus a few big redtail catfish and other little randoms - good day.
Had 2 days at Greenfields, well first day was good few big Siamese carp (pull like bastards) alligator gar surprise catch), big pacu (plague proportions solid fight) 12kg barra foul hooked in the cheek on a piece of bread! even the owner got a photo of that one said they hadn't been caught in ages. 2nd day greenfields, - firt 30 min f$%^k me 70kg Arapaima on a whole sea mackerel. wicked fight and experience. lots of other carp, pacu,random catfish things and big redtail catfish (also fight like dirty bastards) then just on dark -massive run huge splashes and unstoppable run, bit of patience - slowly slowly the guides are yelling, 90kg Arapaima!. Must be my biggest fish except sharks.
Anyway Thailand rocks I wish I was chasing more fish and less tail on previous trips!,
Tried a few other fishing lakes that were very average, if your going feel free to PM me for any advice I can offer.
Had a few weeks in the Philippines shooting fish - wicked sport hunting/fishing oh yeah.
Roll on next year im going back.

The giant mammoth freshwater stingray, also known as the freshwater whip ray, is found in several rivers in Southeast Asia and northern Australia.

Ever since the River Monster discovery show by Jeremy John Wade, many anglers around the word have been flocking to thailand to attempt to fish this river monster of Thailand.

Due to overwhelming demand from many anglers, we have included giant freshwater stingray in our fishing trip.

Here the awesome giant stingray catch we landed recently.

2 monster stingray- 80KG & 150KG Giant Freshwater stingray Big catch in 1 Single Day !!!

There is no way , any single angler can tame or fights this monster by himself.

In any stingray trip, at least 2 or 3 anglers is needed so we can bring this monster ray to the surface.

Enjoys the 2 parts series 'actions pack' youtube channel.

Giant Freshwater Stingray 80KG  Bkk Fishing Tour Thailand Part 1/2.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ05HiL5LA0

Giant Freshwater Stingray 150KG  Bkk Fishing Tour Thailand Part 2/2

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

The highlight photos of the day !!!!

The agony fights........

The monster 150KG catch of the day !!!

 managed a good coupe of tailor spinnin round the reefs today me and joereef landed bout 7 missed hook ups and lost about10 and kept 3 for mulla slab(the ones that couldnt go back due to swallowing the lure) the pick of the lures were halco scorpian in pink and yellow and bull chop stick seen in the pic 45-55cm

Spent the weekend dinghy-fishing the stretch of water between the river mouth to a few kilometres upriver.  We trolled a range of lures which have scored tailor and small salmon in the past, without success.  Seaweed, washed in through The Cut, didn't help trolling much... and we fouled the prop several times in drifting weed almost a metre thick in a few places.

We were most impressed with the clarity of the water... and large schools of baitfish.  At night, the water was alive.  We released five or six dozen small yellowfin whiting and a dozen or so tiny bream. Lots of action for very little result.  We didn't really see a single impressive fish caught all weekend.  Maybe they're just too well-fed!~

Ended up with one very large herring* and three KGs, all on bait. 

* Caught well upriver. Reminiscent of the kind / size of herring we used to catch off Grant Street fifty years ago. It took a whole prawn... .

Hi Guys

After a few years of reading the forum i thought it was about time i posted something. I am heading over to Rotto for my first landbased fishing trip with the better half in early May. I was wondering if any of you have had any sucsess and if you would have any tips?  Would be much appreciated?

Regards

Greg

hey guys me and my girl are going to kalbarri and just trying to get some advice on how the beach fishing has been thanks guys

Hey Fisho's how are you all? I heard a rumour that a few Spaniards were caught off the four mile down in Busselton at the weekend? Can anyone confirm this is true? and what method was used, trolling or live baits?

 Hi fellas, just wondering if anyone's had any luck diving for king prawns down at blackwall reach recently? 

Or anywhere else in the swan.

Cheers

 Hi all, just wondering if there are a few crabs getting caught in the swan at the moment? Thinking about gearing up for a crack this weekend

Well the time had come for the next Abrolhos trip, it’s been a while. Jesse and I had been getting stuff loaded for days before the planned date. When all had arrived and loaded I then realised how much stuff we were taking. Soon Steve and crew rolled up and it was time to hit the road. 5 hours later and we were on the ramp ready to launch.  Lyndon was on the water and fast asleep, ready for an early start. 4:00 am and the alarm goes off. all hands on deck and we are on our way.

Once out the marina and down with the throttle, mmmmmm we weren’t going anywhere fast as the poor boat was grossly over loaded. It was a slow trip across but once there all was forgotten, with memories of past trips and fish everywhere came into our heads. We had permission to use one of the jetties for mooring on which was great as we could offload most of the gear and only put on what was needed each day.

Day 1, started off in the shallows 1-4m casting bull chops around the coral outcrops, we were getting hit by trout near every cast, only small but great fun on the light gear. After a few hours we went out for a bottom bash, sorry that was sending me to sleep so back to the jetty for some lunch. After a quick bite to eat, we went for a ride in the dingy. great fun but hell felt so small after sitting in the other boat. still gets you into some shallow ground you would not normally get into. Jesse and I did a little free diving in a couple of holes with no joy. first day no fish in the bag

Day 2 Up early for a run to wreck point for a trolling sesh .Wasn’t long and the reel was alive with a nice Mac, after a few missed fish we were onto a good solid fish with Jody on the strike. Could this be our first YFT? we will never know as the hooks let go with metres to go...Still a good start to the morning. next Jesse was on and this time we got our first YFT head as the sharks got the rest. this went on for the next hour or so with YFT, sharks and lost fish. We decided to have a go at bottom fishing as its not too often you get outside the main reef without the wind be there .well the dhuies were going off with double headers and single hook-ups for the next hour. A fun morning and a couple of firsts. After lunch we were back in the dingy buzzing around the shallows flicking lures . nothing big but still fun . We did an arvo dive on the dhuie hole but no one was home . George did hook up to a monster shark ,and I bet he is still feeling it 3 days later .

Day 3 We head out for a little more trolling picking up a another nice tuna on light gear, then it was back to the shallows for some free diving, we got a couple of nice trout and a baldie and missed some set shots . had a visit from the grey coats they didn’t seem to be bothered that we were there .The weather forecast had changed so we packed up and headed back to Gero .nice ride back at 24-26knots. not a lot of fish but who cares . The rods will be staying home next time. Long way to go bottom fish ,as we do most weekends . I think free diving and couple of tank dives will be on the next trip . And that is only weeks away.

Hi guys,Just wondering anyone fished the area over the long weekend and had any luck??

I hopefully will get there over the next couple of days!

cheers dan.

Left Hillarys at 5:00 in perfect flat conditions and shot out to the HYC FAD which by the way is about 1km SW of the navionics mark. Just as we got there the  bloody wind started but it was OK for my 18.5 footer. Usually there are dollies jumping around the FAD and we get heaps of them but sunday nothing. Those bloody birds must have been doing breath - hold training over the last year because last year im sure they couldnt dive as deep as they were on sunday to take your mulie. Little bastards are even more ballsy too they come right up to the boat even after youve belted them on the head with your rod tip.  After about 5 drifts of nothing I put a heap of pollard out and my brother casted into the trail and bang he was on. It grabbed the mulie and went straight down deep and hard and took out a shitload of line from  his 3 kg outfit. After about 10 mins up came a nice yellowtail kingfish not a monster it was 72cm it was on his bucket list to catch and Ive never seen one before so that was great. We were pumped after that kept doing drifts but nothing happened after. I noticed the swell had started picking up but the wave distances were still safe. We put out the big pushers and started south over the trench. About an hour into it the swells changed they were closer together and getting steep faces on them I had to keep turning west into them as they were too steep to take on sideways. Was starting to get a little concerned so decided to do a quick radio signal check to VJ6LQ - bloody radio had died on the way out at some point. Every now and then an extra steep swell would appear and the wind would whip the top off so we thought Hmm time to go home. Pretty disappointed because its the only time this summer weve been able to get out there anyway fingers crossed for some better weather over the next month. Water temp was 21 -22 degrees dont recall even seeing 23 degrees, no birds, bust ups and only the occasional flying fish.   

 I did a solo trip to FFB on Saturday after all three my regular crew were unavailable.  Launched from Woodman Point at 05:30 and witnessed another wonderful sunrise.  The morning started well with a number of fish being boated after which all went quiet.  I looked around and noticed a Tiger Shark circling the boat and realised why the fish had disappeared.  Suddenly my 10-15kg rod loaded with a mullie on a 8/0 Gamakatsu circle hook, 60lb floro trace and 40 lb braid started protesting and the reel began loosing line at a rapid rate.  Once I locked up the drag I realised that there was something substantial on the other end and after a 30 minute fight eventually sighted the Tiger attached to the other end.  A further 30 minutes later and I had the fish at the leader when my rod decided that it had received enough abuse and broke in half.  The bites picked up afterwards again as the shark left my swim to go and sulk elsewhere.  

Funny how the "Jaws" music starts playing in the mind when alone out there with a reasonable man eater in the proximity.

I have already tackled up and will touch one of these creatures of the deep before our government wipes them out.

http://youtu.be/ABzLNQagxDw

Finally got to use all my new deep drop gear....Furuno FCV-295, running the SS264 50khz and 200khz thru-hull transducers.

Had heard many stories of guys putting in days of sounding before getting onto fish, and I was prepared for that. I really wanted either a Grey-band or Ruby, so headed for 250 metres off Jurien last Thursday. First ground that looked promising only had Green eyes, so we shifted a mile or so north and found another ridge that looked OK. Pulled a couple of Pink Snapper, then I was on. That's the fish in the first pic. We had the club scales with us, and the Grey-band pulled them down to 26.53kg. We also picked up a couple of smaller ones, the catch for the day is the second pic.

Next couple of days was spent hunting the usual demersals, and we ended up with the normal fare...Dhufish, Baldchin and Breaksea Cod. Nothing really spectacular.

Sunday we decided to have another crack at the deep stuff. Picked up a few Pinkies, then we were on....both rods went off. Mine was baited with a whole butterflied Blue Mackerel on one hook and a chunk of Sergeant Baker on the other. My mates rod had squid on both hooks. Since my brother hadn't caught a big Grey-Band, I handed the rod to him to land it. After a while, what popped up had us astounded. The one on my rod was 33.58kg, and the other we didn't weigh, but was probably around 20kg. These are the last of the pics below. The big fish took the Sergeant Baker.

I've checked today and the State Record is 28kg, but our Club rules say it must be hooked and landed by the same person, so it can't count for our Club record....the 26.53kg will have to do. Similarly, we won't be putting the fish in for a State record either....I should have thought of that before handing the rod over.

Interestingly, the 33kg fish had lots of worms in the flesh, and the 26kg had some. The smaller fish were all fine, including the one around 20kg. Has anyone else seen these? I also cooked a bit as a trial, thinking if it's like Sambos then it would go mushy, but quite the opposite, it was quite tough...tasty enough, but tough...perhaps I overcooked it.

So I'm thinking we lucked onto a decent spot first try. Still to get my Ruby....next time I'm in Jurien I reckon.