Another year has come and gone and yes, all a very distant memory again! 

After last years record 3 tyre blowout trip up, both boats arrived safe and sound in just under 13 hours.

Night 1 proved interesting and resulted in two deckies not being very well for a cracking days of fishing on day 1. To the extent a few prayers were even said at the ramp to ask the fishing gods to be kind to us? It worked and we were rewarded with a good haul of decent goldbang, sharpies and rosie's from some old spots from many years back. 

Day 2 the weather did not plan out as proposed and myself being as crook as I have ever been on a boat. (Hang on, could it have been the Latin party at Bill's the night before?!) with a few sneakers (heavy easterley chop) literally landing in the boat. It did clear a little for the trip home. 

Day 3 the weather looked good again so we hit some more recent goldine shows for a great reult again.

Day 4 the weather looked all time so the call was to head way south for reds. Unfortunately despite goood shows, the fish didnt bite so we came back to the regular spots for a great mix of red, pearlies, red throat and a coral trout that blew everyone away. This all happened between 3-4 pm so we had worked hard for them. The red was 79cm and I'll pay just on 10kg. The trout was 82cm and as heavy as the red!! (the big fella is 6'4 to put in perspective). All caught on the sounder shot spot shown, an old spot that has produced big and consistent reds but nver a trout in that depth. The Seaforce crew said they had never seen anything like it pulled from CB.

The rest of the days were spent squidding with regular bag outs and some thumpers caught.

So in summary excellent weather, good times (we had 3 crews up there) cold drinks, sore heads at times but now the preparation starts for 2024!! A photo of the old pub for nostalgia reasons given it wont exist for much longer!!

 Gday fishos just thought i'd put up a quick report of saturdays trip out of two rocks. Launched 8am went out WNW direction to spots I have in 80 - 90m. Easterly wind was pumping out there ,not as light as predicted by BOM meteye which made fishing a bit harder . Got onto a few nice big breaksea cod and a couple of nice fat baldies in amongst the usual undersize pinky plague. Usually pick up dhueys in those spots but didnt even see an undersize dhuey all day bit wierd. Mate got a big queen snapper that fought like a train all the way to the top,  that was his first one and he was stoked ( i didnt mention that they not great  eating,  I didnt want to see the big smile suddenly drop off his face). The leeuwin current was really pumping out there and sounder was showing 23.5 degree water. Around midday I saw a large splash a long way off back of boat  about  300m away. Kept looking in that direction and we saw a big big marlin free jumping high out of the water. It was a big boy, even at that long distance away it looked BIG. Was surprising to see it in 90m, i thought they didnt come in that shallow, so you never know,  you could pick one up even in close  cheers

 Hey Fishwreckers,

Haven't posted for ages, works been hectic and to be honest lost the fishing bug for a bit. Anyway long story short finally got out a couple of weeks ago and managed a feed of Black arse and a Harlequin and got smoked by what a reckon was a good Dhu. 
Fast forward to this Wednesday got the Tinny in the water at 6am and anchored and burley in the water by 6:30am. Not much happening at the first spot, got 2 stonker Flounder so moved onto a bit more reefy area. Start the burley trail up again and before long the Skippy are eating everything. Get my eight in no time and take a couple of strips off one for some fresh strip baits. That worked wonders as I had a run on the baitrunner within 5 minutes. Nothing huge but a healthy 56cm Pink in the boat. Went a little quiet but had fun catching and releasing more Skippy. About half an hour later the reel screams again. This fish put up a good fight and after a few good runs a slightly bigger Pink is in the net boat side, going 60 cm. Done and dusted by 9:30. 
Definately reignited my fishing bug, already planning the next outing. 

 

 Meaning to do this for a while but here we go

7 day trip (total)

Day 0: Towed up to near denham

Day 1: Launched at 8am after some trouble loading the boat up (overloading), took 2 hours to get across because wanting to conserve fuel, took 3 fridges, swags gazebo, camping, fishing, and diving gear, 200l in jerrys, water etc.

Arrived at the beach roughly 10:30ish in the morning and having some technical difficulties (reverse not working) finally got unloaded and set up by 3. 

Took to ther cliffs for some bottom fishing, landed 1 small small (legal) pinkie that was quickly destined for dinner before the sharks moved in in force.

Day 2: swell was pumping, still windy but decided would punch out along to some ground that we had found in 80m, fishing in high wind high swell and high current without reverse was a seriuos problem but not to worry.

Found some good fish out deep and somewhat managed to outdo the drift.

Landed 2 decent pinkies (60ish) and 1 pearlie and 2 cod.

Not bad for day 1 of out wide fishing.

Day 3:

Mate Glen and I have had a few keepers during recent metro outings - links to YouTube vids below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9wePGnp-uM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj-pIHkZJJY

 Well...here comes my annual report for my fav 2 weeks of the year.Coral Bay 2023!!!!....this year was the family trip-4 x adults, 3 kids- so here goes...same story, i never take enough photos, but a cpl below...

Notes- my advice for CB every  FW post....listen to the chat at the fish cleaning ASAP- u learn soooo much. Nth or sth, deep of shallow.  We find every year is differnet and we like to find the best fishing for that particular 2 weeks we are there....chatter was sharks horendous Nth, pretty good Sth. Current roaring out widish. - off we go with a little knowledge that ended up running true...Also, my advice for the tables is don't expect full disclosure on info..we had a lot of people ask us too many direct questions...you can imagine the answers. Also remember we have been going for 15 years..took us 3-4 years of  just listening and not been nosey too much at the tables..just saying....also get out and try- if ur catching nothing, maybe look at your methods/bait/rigs. i understand people 'just want to know' but do the hard yards people...the best spots  you will ever have are you own...to the guys who repatedley asked us for a spot- THEN decided to follow us..shame on you u mob of flogs !!! [ OK, rant and whinging over, back to the good stuff ] .

Day 1- Set off 530am from Albany..highest priority is get a coffee into the Leader of the Opposition before we go too far- job done by 535am [ phew]. Meet up with the other family sth or Perth, roll into Nth Gero by 4pm-uneventful, just how i like it

Day 2- Weather looking good in CB sat arvo...made sure i had an iced coffee warmed up before i woke the boss this am..., on the rd early by 530am...non towing car went ahead, quick fresh supplies from Carnavon, we both roll into CB by 2pm..quickest unload u have ever seen at the house...out sth passgae by 330pm, fishing by 430pm- fish close spots 15k out. filter through the shit, 5 nice fish in an hr..take that...cleaned and done eating dinner at the pub by 7pm

Day 3- weather hollywood. Head to 80m's out sth passage...quite fussy with what we take home, so filter through all the Tom Cods, red throats, grassies etc...end up with 4 good reds, 5 big spangos and a big rankin..good start

Day 4,5,6,7- weather very average but looking mint on the long range..so keep it simple- snorkling, 4WDing, all round kids suff and chillaxing....loving the Bay lifestyle..Great to see a small town still do a great tribute on ANZAC Day. we like many got up for the dawn service to pay our respects to those who gave everything for us to enjoy this fab country we live in..

Day 8- go against my own advice [ what an idiot].. but i want to try our proven big red ground way nth..will ther be sharks?   YES...every big red hooked, taken in 5 seconds...moved around and perservered and ended up with an awesome bag incl one red @ 12.2kg, 1 x 10.4kg. plus 4 more 5-6 kg reds, 3 x rankins, 1 x nice robbo - . 10 x nice fish, but hard work... i think lets stay sth..weather looks as good as it gets for next  6 days...time for the family to come out.

Day 9/10/11- back sth. Fishing wasn't firing, but steady enough to pull in nice fish and get our limits each day. Kids came out. we stuck to our methods for  tageting Reds mainly with good sucess. Went deepish for a while to chase a few Goldband.

Days 12/13- time to stay shallow and target purely reds as out quoto's where pretty close  for all...filter through the rubbish, be patient and boy did it work...fishing all new ground, we easily found really good fish- A LOT closer than you would think to Sth Passage..not saying how close, but close enough. Got some great reds, a few massive cods, nice trout etc. etc.good quality with some big reds in amonst it...

Day 14- NO FISHING although weather is mint..one last snorkel with everybody at the top of nth passage, back to the house, pack up for an easy arvo at the pub.

Day 15- The customary 6am departure to swing past the Bakery..roll into Dongar mid arvo..raining cats and dogs from Kalbarri..Washing the boat beautifully.

Day 16- last early departure- roll into Albany mid arvo...Last 2 days pretty event free other than nursing home one of the boat tyres that was starting to poke out a few strands of wire...home safely.

Highlights- 100% the amount of big reds. 12.2kg was the best for not only this trip, but  C/Bay full stop across all my years. 4 more over 10kg [ FYI -all weighed to eliminate the extra 3 kgs for holiday mode lol ] . Plus all other ones largish too..Best  size in general  for a trip duration i've ever had. The Blitz Jigs from Rapid Fire Fishing  absolutley  killed the red emperors...especially the larger models.  Yes, u will lose a cpl to sharks- but i value good big reds over $100 worth of jigs   any day of the week :)  Weather was great. Coral Bay was back baby...my post last year stated the town seemed to be still reeling from staff etc with no backpackers Covid etc.. This year it felt 100% back to the normal Coral Bay of Old..well done to all the locals who did it tough and pushed through to this point...

Lowlights- same as every year and the same I post every year...the same people every day at the fish cleaning tables saying they got sharked at the same spot as the day before and there is no fish...???....Sharks where present, but not terrible...other than one day nth that was bad, we maybe lost 1-2 fish/day. One or 2 drops max on each spot tends to work good too. FYI- as always my adivce is how can you find new spots if you dont look for new spots..?  So many of our good fish came off new ground this year-especailly the in close stuff. Find a cpl of fish shows, drop., move, catch etc, repeat.  Work hard and you will get the rewards. 

Countdown is on to 2024 already..boys trip next year with a cpl of 'special' birthdays. to all the FW legends out there heading up to CB/EXY- have fun, be good and love life..how lucky are we to be able to visit this amazing place !

 Went out this morning got up at 4 and headed out to the 5 got anchored in 13m of water on a bit of broken ground. Had a curry chicken dinner that didn't get eaten as my burley took about 20 mins and I could just hear the rod knocking in the rod holder it was still abit dark to see the rod tips, was a nice healthy snapper at 44cm. Caught another 2 getting closer and closer to size was just unhooking a 48cm fish when one of the rods took off was going alot harder than the others so far was pretty stoked to see it in the water took a couple of goes to net was pretty stoked and the sun still wasn't up yet. Caught another 2 undersized fish and dropped a good run don't think I ever really had him hooked just took off like a steam train then nothing,  was about 7 oclock now started to think it might be over then my new rod started peeling off line fish went from one side of the boat to the other ended up seeing him at the back of the boat nice size snapper shaking his head and changing directions ended up netting him on the side of the boat that I started on. Put him on the brag mat went 77cm. Started to clean the boat down while I bled the fish cubed up afew more mulies as I was cleaning and bang another big run grabbed the rod but dropped the fish threw another bait on as I was still cleaning up ended up getting another 2 big runs that felt like big fish but they both got me in the reef. Boat was all cleaned up now and I wasn't going to tie anymore rigs so headed home was just after 7:30 what a great morning. 

Some good tunas around atm

Whent solo first day couldn't find a friend that was free to get out started trolling on my way out to find a dhu and my rod started screaming , any way 1 hour later I managed to land this thing whent 33.5kg absoloute barrel of a yellowfin had a friend come out and took a photo was to big to for a selfie,

Day 2 whent out first thing and both landed a 29.5 and a 27kg fish back home for breakfast 

Day 3 took 2 mates out and same thing double hook up within 2 minuets of trawling 20kg and a 26.5kg 

Managed 1 more about an hour later at 24kg then back home 

Lots of laughs and sore arms and backs , not at fads either if your wondering 

 Gday guys, im planning on being in shelter bay from this sunday to the following thursday taking 4WD in camping with boat moored out front. Just wondering if anybody been there recently and could maybe give a bit of a fishing report on how you went..Also how was the track in?  cheers for any report!

 Caught a couple nice dhus,baldie and a breaksea yesterday. Biggest dhu on the new tub so far. Metro waters in the 30s made it even sweeter

Hey guys , with the new demersal bans in place been hitting the beach regularly to try get some larger fish action.  if anyone does any land based fishing this way and has had success in getting some mulloway id be happy to trade you some offshore spots for some landbased mulloway spots, obviously the common ares i know already but im looking for more specifics on best gutters etc along the coast. send me a message or comment if youre interested.  

Unfortunately due to medical reason I am selling my business.

includes Fishing license valued at 60k

80 series beach launcher valued at 7-12k

2 employees

2 month hand over if needed.

2k worth of fishing

500* marks

lease agreement with Shinju boat hire 

5.80m maurtech centre console

offers from 67k

any more info email

or 0425659765

would like a quick sale can seperate the license if needed 

We had a great 2 weeks camping at Monkey Mia
Winds were favourable and we got out most days
6-8 keepers most days which is more than enough
Mostly Black snapper, biggest went 58 cm
Estuary cods most days which taste delicious
Got onto a spot with huge Gold spots
Both of these were over 1 m long - released them all, but Geez they pull some string at that size
The wife almost got spooled, I called it for a shark but was pleasantly surprised
My eldest son is 6 ft 4 and the shovel nose was close to 7 foot - he wanted a sark bigger then him

Great trip, family holiday

 Still have 2 pots out 1 in close 1 out abit deeper hadn't checked them for 11 days been abit lazy.  Went out today about 9 when wind dropped  nothing in pot in close but bait was demolished but got a good feed out of the deeper pot with my biggest cray so far aswell.

 Gday guys.

Figured i would throw up a little report on the last couple of weeks.

We managed another good year on the white run out from woodies. Easily getting our limits each day. The gentlemans hours launches were the go, with a nice couple of hours each day before lunch.

Definitely makes things alot more enjoyable.

Over christmas we spent a few days down in mandurah and figured i might aswell drop a pot in down there at the same time. Ended up with a nice feed of crays each morning, and a couple of handfuls of crabs to top it off.

A few sneaky feeds of King george inbetween have been welcome too. And make for a nice easy relaxed morning in the sound.

Also since the demersal ban finished we have got a couple of decent days out off perth.

The fishing has been good. Plenty of dhuies and baldies around. The only downside is that over the last few years we have started losing a few fish here and there to sharks. But the last few weeks we are averaging a couple sharked each trip which is frustrating. 

Overall its been a great way to finish the year though.

 Yesterday was my first day of holidays went out early with my son and checked the craypots only got 5 so moved pots around abit. Had grilled crays for dinner was lovely . Then went out this morning for a fish and got a nice dhue and a baldy nothing big but great for the plate.

After some delays, family eventually got off to Perth on Friday night for Christmas leaving me to bach it for the weekend before driving back down later this week.... Early start Saturday morning but nothing stupid, boats galore at the servo and on the roads with the forecast looking reasonable, however I left the boat at home for a landbased mission. 

Had a great morning off the beach with another horse Bluebone, a nice estuary cod and a couple of emperor.... Undersized bluebone were a bit of pain! I threw in the towel after the bluebone as I had to treck out close to 1.5km and didn't think I could carry much more. Home before 9am and the wind wasn't great in the end so glad I didn't opt to head out on the boat. 

Had another bash for an hour in the arvo and scored another good estuary cod.... Funnily enough, hadn't caught/eaten one until the weekend prior from the Marina and really rated it on the chew so very happy to snag a few more. Took it easy on Sunday and cruised down to Learmonth and cleaned up on the whiting. Super fun sight casting the bigger models on my daughters $20 kmart rod in ankle deep water 2m from the shore. 

Some decent fillets packed for the freezer to distribute to the Family over Christmas this weekend. 

 Headed out from Hillarys on Saturday looking for some southern blues. Found a patch of warmer water around 20 degrees C, north and slightly west of Rotto. Found it by the birds and there was bait there but no tuna. Maybe still a bit cold. You need to go really wide to the trench to find warmer water. Think we'll leave it until later before trying again.

Or system fucked . No matter what will not let me renew licence at all. Or apply for new licence.

 Was casting last night in one of my favourite metro tailor spots, finally felt some weight thinking it was a tailor

Pulled it in close and it was a flattie, very suprised that it hit a stickbait fast burned under the surface.

Not complaining, fish wraps were on the menu that night for me

Just wondering if anyone has had flatties hit lures whilst spinning in the ocean for tailor?

 Had a good few days down at pemby for the weekend. Stayed at a sweet little shack on a farm property in channybearup. Probably my pb rainbow in the pics but got another one to the edge that was a bit bigger but it wasn't landed. Bought a few yabs for dinner, so good. Good way to spend a birthday weekend. Thanks to bodgy for the heads up.

 Just chucking up a report for a trip out wide to the fads from earlier this year 

Left the ramp pre dawn, got out and caught some little fish etc. for bait.

Steamed out to the bank and kept hitting spots all morning with not many good fish to be seen.

Dad was on bait and I was jigging, outfished him all day and didnt fish any bait.

Jigged up some small dhu, breaksea, sargent baker, foxfish, skippy, small pinks etc.

Was forecasted to be nice in the morning and pick up to windy in the afternoon.

Made the call at 1ish to steam out to the fads and try our luck as the wind hadnt picked up yet

Trolled till probably 3ish at the fads with a couple small hits and no results,  so decided to drift the fads and try our luck casting.

Rocked up to the fads and there were mahi freejumping everywhere, all of decent size.

Slowly drifted up, me chucking stickbaits and dad floating down baits,

Once we drifted close enough, the mahi were everywhere underneath the boat and hitting lures like nothing ive ever seen before.

Endless mahi swimming around, and seeing several big mahi with their heads out of the water chasing down a stickbait on the surface was unreal.

Dad caught 1 little mahi on the bait (75cmish) before i handed him my pe4 setup with a stickbait. 

Kept 6 mahi all 110+ , as had a big dinner the next night and had many people to feed.

Released probably another 30 big mahi, left the fish biting at probably 5:30 to try and make it home without being too late.

Running away from the dying sun we made our steam back in 25kn winds, cold and wet, but absolutely blown away by the fishing that we had just witnessed.

We were back at the ramp by 8 and had plenty of stories to tell the friends the following day.

Cheers, Josh.

 Hey guys,

Just throwing up some pics from an abrolhos trip earlier this year.

2 nights at the island

(stayed on the island because of friends) (very lucky)

plenty of big  baldies and trout, no pelagics in sight

Fish of the trip would have been the cod on 10lb, caught on a little 2.5" zman grub, 8lb fluro holding strong.

Otherwise would have been a stickbait-caught baldie on pe3 gear that would have been well over 10kgs that ran me around several ledges, making me swim out to stop it, and finally untangled it, got it to the shore and leader snapped because of the reef.

Was mainly a diving trip with a bit of trolling- although nothing caught trolling besides an infinite number of baby trout.

Fishing was mainly done landbased with lures (except for the squid) on the island, caught some other fish but mainly small

Saw some monster tailor which i thought were sambos whilst walking the reef, seeing them through the waves was unreal as they were massive 90cm+ fish with a couple  probably exceeding 1m+

 Lost plenty of big cod, trout, kings, sambos, pinks, and baldies on the light gear but loads of fun.

Went through 4 50m spools of leader.

Fresh seafood every night, squid, fish crays etc.

Hopefully go back sometime soon

Cheers,

Josh

Recently relocated to Exmouth with the family for a sea change after many winter holidays to the area. With limited opportunities to get on the water due to some fuel issues on the boat at first and more recently due to wind, I have been restricted to the shore over the last few weeks. After trying my luck at a few land based spots where I have landed good spangoes and thrown lures for trevally and queenies previously, I was starting to think there were no fish left in the water!!

Figured it was best to start putting some kilometers in the legs to fish some new areas and fortunately, it is starting to turn up some fish. Had a quick hour bash around lunch time on Friday for a couple of spangoes and a bluebone with another good fish doing me in on the reef. A decent hike on Saturday with the daughter on the chest and a nice little gold spot for the effort, this time dropping a couple of fish due to too much pressure trying to keep them out of the reef.... Always learning and keen to keep exploring!

Mrs take on ceviche with corn chips after having some tasty tostadas at a local bar proved a hit a look a likely dinner over the summer months providing I can keep getting some fish!

 Hi all,

Earlier in the month before the ban kicked in I went out with fellow fishwrecker Silly (Euge) for a quick session off hillarys, plan was to leave at gentlemens hrs to get a feed of whiting and also have a crack at  some demersals before the season closure.

I haven’t been out fishing for probably 3 years or so, having 3x young kids has put a massive hand brake on my fishing / diving career and I was definitely out of practice having not wet a line in so long. The day started off pretty slow on the jigs and the N/W wind + decent swell wasn’t making things too fun. We landed an OK breaksea cod,  an undersized dhu, and a few other less desirable by-catches like bakers, wrasse etc, it was looking pretty grim but then the wind dropped and the sea calmed down completely to a mid morning glass off.  

We reset the drift and a big bait school popped up on the sounder, seconds I had a good hookup and wrangled a ~70cm pink to the surface. It was such a great feeling, having been so long without any action it sure got the heart pumping & I felt my fishing mojo return finally.  We then hit up the whiting grounds and got onto a fair few big sandies until the S/W kicked in and we were back in the queue at the ramp before midday.

Big thanks to Silly for taking us out and a +1 on those jigs he makes, they worked really well. 

cheers  

 Too early for a trip report as we're only 3 days into our week here. Full report will come once I get home.

Unfortunately it has been blowing like a bitch up here! Chased sailfish on Sunday and went 5-4-2 which sounds bad but only 2 fish were seriously hooked. The others took baits/lure as a switch when we already had a fish hooked.

Mooched around the island yesterday and caught a few fish. Chased sails again today but no dice. Will do the same tomorrow in good weather and then do some other stuff later in the week.

We've caught fish on all of the Mackdog gear and I'm very impressed with Eugene's stuff so check them out!

Time to finish my whisky and hope for a calmer day!

Cheers!

 Well my first call to fish watch last night. I love netting (pilbara cleaning as you catch) but this pissed me off because it was unmonitored and everything was spoiling in the mud and sun. Managed to save one of the largest female brown crabs id ever seen that was soft shell as it was barely hooked, but didn't feel like meeting the locals who had set it either. Lots of trevs, queenies,  mullet, sharks, couple of small female muddies well tangled and a 1m plus threddie. 500m near the ktown back beach boat ramp, I'm pretty tolerant of most things, but this felt like a real waste.

 Got onto a few good metro fish to finish up. Blue groper, couple baldies, Pb breaksea and a few big gummies. Mrs got smoked a couple times to. New boat has had some good luck last few sessions 

 Given it was the last day of the season I headed out at 0330 to target snapper just inside FFB.  First bite turned out to be a huge starfish, it fought well for a dead weight.  Next run had all the earmarks of  a good fish  but dropped it before getting to see what it was, nice surging head bangs made me believe it was what I was targeting so I had high hopes of getting a couple.  Was not to be, three eagle rays and a black rzy gave a good a count of themselves then the gummies turned up again including a pb male fish. Bagged out by 7 am so headed in just as others we launching.  Oh well will have to wait u till December to target pinkies again ......hopefully !

Hi the water early and caught this nice size eater early so spent a few hours prospecting for new ground and sinking a couple of tubes.

Theres been tuna or bonito busting up just outside the harbour for a few weeks now, not something I've seen much of down here.

Didnt catch any herring.