Hi Crew. Currently caravanning around the country for 12 months with the Mrs and we're camped at Cosy Corner near Albany this week. Wet a line this arvo and caught a couple of Hezzas and Whiting which was a bit of fun. Will try and do some more posts as we travel around the country.

Been trying to get out on the water a bit more lately. 

Had a good time with Terry and Bob pulling pots this season, and although we didn’t do spectacularly it was fairly solid with each cray costing $4.92 (including fuel, bait and ramp fees, but excluding labour).  Terry and Bob’s pots came out on 20 December, but I decided to keep mine out there in the shallows to hunt some reds and scout some likely spots for next season – I’m still a bit of a rookie.  Generally only pulled them when the weather was good, and added another 20 odd crays to the season bag.

Headed out one day when I probably shouldn’t have.  The SW wind was much stronger than forecast, and made for quite an uncomfortable time.  Pulled the pots for a few but made the mistake of just chucking one over on the reef because the sea conditions were so nasty.  Had the rods on board that day so came in a bit closer for a fish on some of my snapper ground (have always caught my best pinkies in nasty conditions) so decided to give it a quick go while I was out there.  What do you know, the floating mullet fillet and burley had barely hit the water when the baitrunner started screaming.  You could tell it was a nice pinkie by the runs and shakes and after a good fight the 78cm model was landed.  Not sure of the weight but probably 6.5-7kg as it was a fat one, and a nice mid-summer fish from the shallows.

The next trip out, that bloody pot that was just chucked over was stuck.  Nothing I could really do as I used the boat and tried to pull it from every angle without success, and in the end had to give up.  No choice but to contact some diver mates and arrange for a trip to get it off.  I was very fortunate that Leigh agreed to come out and free it, and he wanted to have a dive to hunt for some crays at the same time – happy to oblige and provide the boat.

The release went smoothly as Leigh just pulled on the floats when it was free.  It was reported to be wedged between three boulders rope down so couldn’t have been retrieved without the help of a diver, and even though it had been out there a fair while there was still had a size cray in it.  I spent the next 45 minutes watching the bubbles and keeping the boat close which was quite relaxing and I did notice that Leigh spent quite a bit of time on the few marks I had sounded up for the pots.  When he surfaced, the catch bag looked healthy but was dominated by an absolute beast.  3.5kg and one of the biggest crays I have seen.

Leigh is a keen tailor fisherman so we decided to head out again to the inshore reefs and try our luck when conditions allowed again.  At the ramp for 4.30am, and a slow trip out so there was enough light to see the reef structure and get in close to it.  The highlight of the trip out, although I didn’t see it, was a big mackerel leaping high out of the water just outside the marina.  Another highlight was my eldest boy, who has never really fished with me, agreeing to come along and have a go.

The fish were there and we landed half a dozen in about 20 minutes before 5.30am, including one for the young fella.  Then, in an instant, they were gone but you can’t complain about the “mayhem” in the first light period.  We released the fish, other than the two that were too damaged and cooked up that night - the photo is not the biggest one we got, but was still a nice fish.  We spent the next hour or so checking out some more likely ground for future trips. 

I’m still amazed by the quality of inshore fishing on our doorstep.  It’s nice that you don’t have to go very far to land some quality specimens.

Opening night at Harvey Dam

Decided to trek down to Harvey Dam last night after work to a spot we got incredible numbers at last year. Safe to say I will never be going back there on opening day again. First of all it was packed, drove around the whole south side of the dam that was accessible via 4x4 and apart from a few little 50m spots basically the whole dam was pegged out. Talking to a few blokes from Bunbury we knew down there they go there Tuesday night and it there were already quite a few people there then. Apart from that with the large number of people bought in the trash with people cutting up in their 4x4s in the mud right close to the dam.

The dam this year was extremely low. The water level was a good 30-40m below where it was last year and there was a lot more mud around the edges this year than previous, and to make things worse the wind was in a totally different direction as what it was saying on "Windy" The wind eased at around 8:00pm which was good however the moon was that bright when we were walking we were casting pretty big / dark shadows which didn't help.

Anyway went to the spot we have been going to over previous seasons (Not on opening night) and the whole bank was taken, luckily we packed kayaks and as the laws have eased we were able to kayak over the other side of the dam where it is not accessible with a car and we had a pretty big stretch of the bank to our selves. A few other people had the same idea we did. Marron started appearing around 8:30pm but there were about an 8th the amount of marron that we have been seeing over previous seasons and there were no real massive ones around, the ones that we did catch were only just the 90mm. We ended up with 7 marron between the 2 of us and I decided to call it quits at around 10:00pm. Talking to a few others in the area that seem like regulars they were very surprised with the lack of numbers as was I.

All in all was a good night to get out, however I wont be going back on opening night again. I will try head down before the season closes to see if it was just the moon and see how I go.

Cheers

 Report stark bay, west end Rottnest Island 

Hey guys

 Haven't really posted much on this forum l'm 17 and do a lot of fishing around the Bunbury area. The one fish that has been on top of my bucket list has been the mulloway it's been about 4 years of chasing these fish to of finally had success. Last Monday arvo l decided to head down after work to a gutter l like to fish for tailor and with a strong sou wester blowing and plenty of weed getting washed around l had a good feeling after 30 minutes l was about to pack it up with the weed just getting to much but finally on my last bait l had good run after 4-5 long runs l finally managed to bring it in unfortunately l was by myself so l had to land this fish myself and l knew my hooks weren't strong enough to drag this fish up on to the beach so it was a desperate run into the water to grab this fish my first grab was straight into the gills which wasn't a smart idea. This is one fish l will never forget. Weighed in at 17kg and measured in at 1200mm 

Ethan

 21 deg around the 200's

Have just been looking at the sea temps on the BOM website, 22 -23 degrees off perth and 24 degrees off jurien - has anybody seen or hooked a Spaniard, yellowfin, Dolly or marlin etc looks like it might be shaping up for a good season, my boats nearly ready and I wanna get out there and pull some lures!

First free dive of the abalone season,each year they’re getting deeper or I’m getting shallower but still a good return  

Went to visit the better half’s friend on the weekend and got chatting with her husband and drooling over his 6.5m Coastrunner with self-deploy Minn Kota and awesome fishing deck.  Over a few chooks, we planned a first light tailor run to see if we could find any around the inshore reefs.

Got to the ramp about 4.40am in darkness with a 10kn southerly blowing.  The swell was forecast about 2m so we fished a close reef first up where you didn’t need to see the waves.  No luck there so when the light allowed we headed further out.  Used the Minn to hold us in a spot very close to the breaking reef, deployed the burley and soon had bait fish around the boat.  The swell was building so we knew we didn’t have long to fish safely.

At about 5.50am we got the first decent hit and after a good fight had a nice tailor in the net.  This was a quality fish and it was excellent to land the target species. 

5 minutes later we had another one, although not quite as big as the first it was still a good fish.  Then the waves started to break a bit close to the boat so it was time to move on.

Headed to an adjacent weed bank, got the burley out and had our bag of nice big herring in about half an hour.  Back at the ramp around 7am for what was an enjoyable couple of hours before work.  Definitely one to do again while the ban is on.

 Haven't seen any sign of them for a couple of years, where are they? 

Nice family day out last long weekend from Palm Beach ramp. Was not an early departure (0730am), but still managed to park in the normal bays instead of the overflow ( I guess the snapper hunters were already returning form the sunrise catch)

Took heaps of time cruising out to spot X, and as per usual someone else on it- so decided to sound around a bit further afield. found a pro pot and the ground looked promising. Nothing big showing on the Lowrance Elite TI9, but needed to set up as when I take the Wife and 2 kids 7 and 10 out I am Skipper/Deckhand/Chief Steward and bait boy (and sometimes guidance counsellor and MMA referee!)

I guess it was about 7 minutes before miss 7 was "feeling sick", and that rod went back in the launcher. By now I had 3 lines in the water and the Wife and other child were looking a bit green also.

A bit of excitement came on the backup rod/reel, an old Okuma 20 O/head on an even older Ugly Stik. It's got level wind and some braid on it, but you wouldn't make it your go-to outfit (note-it's the Wifes setup and has not seen too much recent action) . To make the odds even further away from our favour, the leader on it was a bit naff (Lesson number 1 for the day- always renew leader and retie swivels etc!)

So, as I was saying, I have the you beaut Daiwa Dogfight 6500 and the brand new Saltiga 4500 expedition out the one side and the busted arse Okuma/Ugly stik buckles over instead. Wife is "asked" to pick up rod and fight fish. Fish appears to be winning (read: is winning, and stealing line at a fair rate of knots) Wife starts to win after I push the drag lever up to the stop, but wife loses a bit of confidence when rod has more pressure on it. Rod gets handed to me hurriiedly. I do one pump and wind and POP. fish gone-leader parted. My best guess by the fight had is a small/medium Dhu (bummer)

Wife looks at me to say "it s not my fault" and the 4500 Saltiga outfit buckles over as pointed out by Miss 10. Now this outfit is actually for slow jigging, so you may know these are really "bendy" rods and it may look like it is a bigger fish than it is to the untrained/inexperienced eye. Wife says "You get it". I say "You get it" and I get it out of the rod holder and pass it to her. Now this rod/reel combo is just beautiful to use- light and balanced and easy to tire a medium size fish. Wife is winning the fight, but here comes lesson #2- "Always pre-set your drags" at home correctly. fish makes a run for the rocks. Wife hands me back the rod and now its up to me. I tighten the drag marginally, and pump/wind the fish and get colour. Now it's "Get the net please" babe, which is code for "get it NOW~!~"   and luckily the fold up net I purchased is not too hard to retrieve from the side pocket and unfold, and Miranda manages to scoop the Queen Snapper as per photo 1 up nicely. Kids come alive and we are now cooking with gas! Fish dispatched onto salt ice slurry and high fives all around.

I turn to get some pre-made rigs and re-set to go back over to try to retrieve the Dhu. Once set up, I steam back up and sound over the lump again. cannot see much action. The action onboard is turning more "When can we go". sum total of 30 minutes fishing I guess.

It's starting to look like a Mutiny is on the cards...Not sure how to avert it just yet. As many (even I) can attest, the sea-sickness is killer once it sets in, so I promise "one more drift, then we can go in behind Carnac island for some whiting"  (all lies, but hey you have to try I guess!)

Drifted the spot again, one wrasse only. Youngest is on the passenger seat prone, wife is on the rear lounge with oldest child giving daggers.

So, decision is made- Wind up sea anchor and retrieve lines. Hammer down and all the way back to Palm beach from north of GI. Unloaded family and they went on to have a nice beach day and lunch on the foreshore.

I went back out- and I am GLAD I did.

This time I went south after going under the causeway. To spot Y, which has produced some Breaksea for me before. Tried and tried various drifts, long drifts and short drifts to no avail. By now I had eaten lunch and the "bite time" was well and truly gone. I was beginning to lose a bit of interest, when I got broken off on the big rod. I thought it was just the bottom (to be fair I wasn't really watching) but the sounder was lit up! 4500 expedition buckled over and yeeha! now this is a fish! only in ~8meters of water too. this fish was pulling drag and I could tell it was VERY sizeable. It had several nerve-wracking runs before I managed to get it to "colour". now I was really nervous because I saw it was a big Dhu and it started to head towards the sea anchor lines. a few nervous moments later I forgot the net and gill grasped it aboard. WOW, it was heavy and as they do it cut my bare had a little when it thrashed.

Adrenaline pumped, I let out a WOOHOO that I reckon people on the beach could have heard. It's been such a long time between drinks for a larger model Dhu for me. elated to say the least.

Time to roll lines, and steam back (not before messaging the Wife to bring the car and trailer back to pick me up) 

A happy day, some fish for the family and a memorable fish~ my motto- Never give up! The fish was nearly 900mm and ~11.5kgs. I think I may invest in some proper scales as it was weighed on bathroom scales and I do believe it was a few KG at least heavier.

The last picture is from the same area 3 days later. I believe I hooked the big one again, but pulled hooks on it. The double header again happened way away from the bite times from Tides4fishing (weird?) and I released both fish to grow some more (they both swam away strongly as it is so shallow, and the Pink was caught in the no-take zone)

This fishing stuff is addictive!

Tight lines :)     

Can anyone tell me if there are any snapper biting atm offshore from mindarie, was thinking about a snapper fish this Wednesday arvo, I’m not after your spots just wanting to know if it’s worth a go.
Cheers in advance

anyone in coral bay or heading there lock up everything just seen and heard today a heap of caravans have been targeted taking bbq, fridges and anything thats not locked up 

 With the stars aligning last week I was able to get up to Gods County and get amongst it!

The weather was looking good for fishing Sunday through to Wednesday so we went up for the first time for me at this time of the year.  

Camp was quiet, flys were way better than earlier and night and day temps were perfect.

Sunday resulted in 2 x nice Baldy's , 1 huge Rankin , 1 x Estuary Cod , 1 x ok Spangly and a couple of Flags.

Monday was a good day although the wind blew up from the North and we had to punch back into it.

 3 x good Rankin , double header of good Spangly's , 1 x nice Red and a couple more Flags. All over in about 1 hour . A fish a drop with a bit of a rest half way to regroup. Dolphins escort for about 5 min on the way in really topped off a great morning.

Tuesday was average - fished different ground as eyes were on us from crew not getting much and we didnt either bugga..

Wednesday we went on the hunt for new turf and we found it! got onto a patch of Reds but after the third the sharks moved in and worked us over. We moved slowly and not far enough but kept on finding ground that we wanted to try as was loaded.

At one point after deploying the drifty the pricks were up and going for that without a bait in the water! So we kept moving on. I think I marked around 12- 15 new spots working our way back to where we normally fish. We did add another couple of Cod and a couple of nice Cobia(not like scotto's) to the esky plus more.

Whales , turtles and sea snakes going off everywhere , bit of surface bait bubbling but no spanish , just one sharkie on the Wednesday.

All up was a great break and cant wait to do it again.

Esky shot from the Monday and we had started working on the fish but thought better get a pic of whats left. Cheers 

 Just thought Iwould put it in this forum aswell

For a number of reasons, I haven’t been fishing or reporting for a while.  Young Luke hassled me to finally go out on Sunday, and we left Hillarys at 11am to fish the wind change about 5 miles out (<5kn at 11am).

The bite was good and we had a nice bag by 12.30pm, when the SW wind really started to pick up. 

We also released a medium sambo, big leatherjacket, quite a few undersized pinkies, and a huge eagle ray.  A quick inshore stop to try for KGs on the way back yielded the herring.  All filleted up within a few hours of being caught.

Great conditions for the dingy before the wind, and quite a nice result for a 3-hour mission. 

 Anyone got any advise for land base fish in jurien this time of year? Thank you 

Mate landed this 52cm KG on soft plastic, managed to capture the strike on the sounder. 

Gday guys, haven't been out since May and thinking of heading out from two rocks early sunday morning, we usually hit up the 30's - 40's depths anybody been getting any fish out there lately cheers for any reports

 Hi fishwreckers.

I am currently travelling norh through Newman, and having problems with the house electrical system in my motorhome.

On Monday I expect to have to order a few components from Perth, and as I will be in Port Hedland Wednesday/Thursday, I am seeking somewhere I can have a small packege (3 to 4 kg) delivered to.

Are there any Fiswreckers able o help me, or suggest somewhere suitable.

Not sure of which courier until Monday - any better options?

hanks in advance

Ross

 Just back from the annual. Spent 3 1/2 weks, not as long as I'd like, but all I could manage. Things were pretty slow the first week, only managed 3 sails,  nothing happening with the inside demersals, caught a few mackerel and wahoo, and a nice  Mahi. marlin weren't playing the game, either-our first excursion outside  had one little black all over a lure, just couldn't hook up  properly, had another pass by , then saw zero for the rest of the trip. 

Things got better, sails turned up in numbers at times, had one short afternoon session that saw 6 from 9, and four the next afternoon.

Lost a monster Wahoo near the boat. It had to be 2m long and 40kg, taken by a big bronzie just out of reach of the leader. Sharks were as bad as usual.

We did some bottom bashing this year,first time up there since about 1990. Crew were keen, pressure was on, so i relented and thought I'd cure them of it after hauling up from 85m with a 2lb lead and a redthroat a few times. Unfortunately, conditions were perfect, I found fish, and they bloody loved it. You can see I'm grumpy about catching the red.

They weren't grumpy about Rankins ("but we can catch them inside, I protest"), or goldband.

We went back out a few days later, bagged out on Goldband and close to it on others, so I decided to go wider looking for a Ruby. Found a little one, and a few even smaller, returned.

Then got a Greyband--thanks to Alan James for the ID, thought it was a bass groper.

Had no trouble catching fresh gardies off the beach to keep us supplied with sail bait.

Plenty of robbos there, too, caught 2 or three every session. Along with a few big spangleds, they were all released.

Had all the usual brilliant Milky Ways, lots of good sunsets. It looks we are good for a year or two yet, as the appeal works it's way through the courts. Fingers crossed. I have acres of footage, including some drone, to edit, so I might have a video up by tthe end of next week.

Got the all clear from my surgeon re my reattached bicep tendon last week so I didn’t waste time getting back on the water for the first time in 17 weeks. Did the Auskick thing and then hit the water by 11, tested out the new VHF with VJ6LQ and we settled on a bank only a mile south of the marina as it already pretty lumpy and uncomfortable.

My 4 year old has finally taken an interest in fishing after my pop gave her a bright pink Ugly Stick and she christened it in style with a monster gardy (pic doesn't do it justice) and was steadily out fishing her brothers much to their dismay and dad's pride. The herring were very thin but the kids would have landed 6 huge southern gardies that to the eye were around the 30-35cm mark along with another half dozen decent size ones and I had a tear in my eye returning them to the water due to the ban but definitely good signs for the stocks.

 Hi all

Back from the latest trip North to Gnaraloo. Here is my quick report.

Track: In pretty good condition up to the Gnaraloo gates. Shire are doing a lot of work up there particularly between Quobba and Bluff turn off. Track from the homestead to the bay was rough a usual. The tires are there to pull if you are so inclined.

We stayed at the homestead again and found Paul and Coleen in good spirits. The Telstra phone is out of commission and the pay phone near the office is working well. 

Beach: The softest we have ever seen it. Everyone struggled to launch and retrieve as the beach was so soft. We always moore the boat which takes away that problem. Take plenty of tracks with you as CALM where there clean up any left lying on the beach.

People: There was a major increase in the number of people up ther this year. Marketing and Chris Hemsworth i guess. Lots of families and a good number of boats which was good to see. Not many headed out due to the difficult retrieval conditions and family. 

The weather was excellent for a change and we fished comfortably every day. We always chase certain species and found good numbers of Spanish Mackerel in the 30's and 40's. We like to drift bait stingers with a mulie, herring or scallie attached. At stages, there was schools of them around. We found good numbers of reds, rankin and robinson seabream. Unfortunately, the sharks found us this year and we lost a lot of fish and gear to them. The sharks seem to be much more brazen then ever before taking fish right at the boat and being aggressive by hitting our baited rigs on the drop. The jig was working well which always accounts for different species such as trout, amber jacks, rankin, cobia and golden tevally. The hardest thing was to keep them away from the Mackies. We got out to the 100 plus ground which fished particularly well for goldband. Just a long way to go. 

Boat: We hire the boat out of Murchison form Paul who has taken the business over from Laurie. The boat has been improved with a new sounder, clears and anchor winch. No leaks at all in the hull and the trailer is rock solid. We have hired for many years and this is the best the boat has been presented. 

We had no problems reaching our 20kg bag limit of reds, rankin, snapper, Seabream, Goldband (Correct rig and bait a must) and trout. Happy to catch and release many more Spanich Mackerel and Cobia for the week. Tomato Cod where also quite popular this year. No tuna at all and the water temp was ony around 22 deg which is low compared to previous years.

We are booked again for 2020 so looking forward to heading up there once again which will be our 14th year. Big thanks to Shark Man and the Italian Stallion for the great week and company. 

Enjoy a few pics. 

 Doing our bit for Marron conservation in Harvey on the weekend.

Nice suprise pulling a big girl out.

Calling it at 46cm.

Biggest I've seen in person. 

 Hi all, Got up to Shell Beach for the first week of the school holidays. Another great getaway as a family, and everyone getting the run around by nice sized Pinks. Had some more great weather for the 7 days, the mornings were a little fresh but by around 10:30/11 am the wind would drop away, making for gentleman hours fishing which suited me fine. I picked up the fish of the trip with a Pink that went 5.27kg but my young fella had me worried on the last day when he got a buck that was just shy of mine coming in at 5.18kg. Got a visit by Fisheries on the 2nd last day which would of been better at the start as I didn't realise that the wings don't count to our 5 kg possession limit. Lucky we had eaten a few while up there but unfortunately had thrown away a few aswell. Anyway here's a few pics.

 It's been a while since I've uploaded anything. It's been a awesome dry season so far we got started early with camping because we just had our first son. If anyone ever comes up this way and wants any advise or get pointed in the right direction feel free to private msg me. 

Spanish mack caught of willy lump while my wife was 6 months pregnant 

The dog and I sorting out the catch all with 5km of the boat ramp. 2 blue one, one chinaman

Cygnet bay king tide tour

The dog and I again with a half day bag out, released heaps of Mack's that day.

Pender bay the last 2 snaps my favourite new spot on the whole peninsula.

The last pic 2 very proud parents with there 4 day old boy Jake Meeuwissen 

Epic session had on dhuies.

 Nice bench shot of some good eating specimans

 Hi fishos.

I have been following Fishwrecked Forum for a couple of years, in preparation for my trip over here, and have been here for a little while now and doing final preparations for north West Coast fishing.

Have a  4 metre tinny and 25 hp so will be restricted to close offshore areas.

I would like comments (good and bad) on what marine radio I should consider fitting to ensure safe trips.

We will most likley go as far as Denham initially, and then progress north till it gets too hot.

We have no time constraints, and would appreciate suggestions of where we should not miss.

Thanks in anticipation.

Ross Pankhurst

another year has unfortuantely come and gone. Weather was spot on and the fishing slow to begin but hotted up once the full moon got further away.

we fished north, south and everywhere in between. we stuck the plan that I tell evryone and that is 2/3 drifts and no action, move on! so I kept farming our spots and the fish came. did not lose a fish nor see a shark. only rigs lost were 2 or 3 of tangles that I couldnt be stuffed sorting out!

pic # shows the boat uniform. funny thing is hadnt seen a red until day 3 and within 5 mins of it coming out, we had a red on board!no commentary required, israel falaou emailed the crew to tell them what would happen to them 

highlights included;

- 6+ 8-10kg rankins,

- an 8kg red (last day)

- catching our bag of 15 fish in about 45 mins on a new spot (last day), sounder shot depicts this (pic #6 is some of bag)

- using just 35l of fuel to catch the bag in pic # 1

- the food and company, wow we, Greek Barra's kebabs are up there with any I've had at midnight and Harry the chefs battered wings are close to the best I've had

we also dropped the go pro down ona  boated rig into anywhere from 60 to 75m of water and the footage is unbelievable. i now have a real understanding of what I am reading on the sounder.

 sorry should also have added there was a huge (at least footy oval size) scholl of sardines or similar south of south passge that also had the thrill of jumping in and swimming with along with lots of others. supposedly lots of bities arund this school but didnt see any or get any on the go pro footage.