About a month ago I purchased a fly rod each for my brother and I. I've wanted one for a quite a while but didnt think I would get much use out of it and thought it was a bit out of my league. Anyway I ended up buying the 8wt beginner/rookie combos and we spent that night rigging them up and watching the instructional DVD. Next day went down to the park with cotton-buds tied on and started casting and both came away thinking it wasnt hard as we had originally thought.

One day after work i headed down to the Palm Beach boat ramp in Rockingham as i new there was a nice weed bank 15m out all the way up the beach, perfect stalking ground for some flatties. I was pretty chuffed that I was actually getting the fly out into the big blue let alone all the way out to the weed bank and after 5mins of casting I had a bit of weight on the end of the line and brought in my first flathead on fly! I ended up with 4 flathead and 2 flounder for that one hour session and i was totally hooked onto this style of fishing! 

I went down every couple days catching a couple flathead here and there, even managed to jagg a 10kg eagle ray that was cruising the flats. He came in rediculously easy so i thought i'd give him a bit of slack line to run woth for a bit of fun and it took off like a rocket. I had only just got him onto the reel when the leader snapped, pretty lucky realy!

After a couple weeks I finally got the courage to take the rod out onto the main jetty after it was too dark to fish from the beach. The amount of tiny flathead in the lights of the jetty is amazing, everytime ive been there i at least get a couple, usually within the first couple of casts. Walk out a bit further out and schools of tiny snook are cruising the shaddows waiting for literally anything to swim by in the light. First night i walked out there I caught about 10 snook, another species ticked off the list. Took my brother out last week for the first time and he got stuck into the flathead and snook and also managed to catch a couple hardyhead(?) baitfish that were actually eating the fly. He also enticed one of the many big sea mullet down there to take his fly but failed to set the hook!

Hopefully knock some more species off the list this summer, including herring, tailor, and hoepfully a Giant Herring. 

If anyone wants to tee up a session wth the fly gear, whether it be down at Rockingham or Penguin Island, or at the Swan River chasing some bigger flathead i'll be happy to join, hopefully learn a thing or two!

All photos taken with phone camera, sorry! 

Cheers,

Beau

I was lucky enough to spend 4 days down at Channel Point out from Darwin last week. The weather was awesome and favourable tides so we were able to get out and into it each day.

The Barra were a bit slow but managed this fella off South Perron on a 'little lucifer' blue & orange

That was one of only 2 Barra for the trip, dropped several others but they were all around the same size.

Had some very good sessions with the Berkley Gulps. Big Black Jews, the best went 1110mm and plenty of tasty Goldies were great fun on a little 2-4kg Dropshot and 6inch placcies.

Had that little Plefluger hummin!

MMM Goldies for dinner

Awesome part of the world!

Headed to the Swan today with the kids, after I read about all the tailor action there .... and guess what .... kids had real fun cruising, and thriled with few undersized tailor, and one keeper.

Loads of fun when you watch the kids excited with such strong fights

Went out around the Redcliff area today just to soak a few prawns. Only landed 4 Bream around 20cm (not worthy of photos) over about 2hrs. I did hook a true monster though that promptly ripped 20m or so of line off the reel & buried itself deep in a fallen tree. It splashed at the surface for a few seconds while I tried to drag it back out & it was easily the biggest Bream I have ever seen. Tried leaving the line slack for a few minutes to but it didn't swim back out so I ended up busting it off. Was very dissapointed not to land that fish but I guess that's what happens when your right in the middle of snag central.

Me and hunterdive took Friday off for a morning session on the Swan.  Decided to focus our efforts from Pt Walter back to Freo in a tailor and flatty hunt.

Fished a few spots around Pt Walter to start with for one small flathead around 30cm then we started hitting a few spots downstream.  Ended up having an epic session in one of the bays which I can't remember the name of... fished it for maybe 1.5 hours and landed two tailor (plus a few lost), six flounder on plastics and about a dozen flatties on plastics too.  The flathead weren't big, the largest went to 35cm and was pipped by a whopper flounder which measured 38cm.

It was a good day all round.

Hi all, just thought I'd share a report. Went down to wet a line at a beach down Mandurah way Wednesday night, sensational night down there with no wind and low swell. Was initially just targetting herring and tailor. Not much interest from anything except 15-20cm and whiting and tarwhine. Tarwhine went back, but I held onto a few whiting to use on the surf rod.

After a few whiting were munched by crabs, ended up with this little bronzie of 110cm  which I initially thought was a ray from the massive runs it was taking. It's my first shark apart from Port Jacksons so I'm pretty chuffed, and they aren't bad eating at this size either I hear. 

Filleting/skinning took an hour and a half and multiple knife sharpens - any tips for doing this?

PS was fishing solo and only had my phone so excuse the poor photo!

Mike

Headed to rotto this morning

Pulled all 3 pots of mine and the mrs's, one was stuck on the reef, was a C*** to get off but the boat ended up pulling her off! Think it was the limited wieght that i had in it, so im getting rid of the placcies and just going to focus all on woodies/slats from next week (will pick up two more). Think it was more my lack of experience in placing the pot as well with limited weight.

Got 4 keepers and around 10 burried/tar spots. All the keepers came from the one pot wierd. didnt see one white,

There was bait everywhere east of rotto boiling like no tomorrow, saw the odd small tuna splash as well. (around 6 am) while driving there, headed to west end to troll to the south side for nothing.

headed in around 10 30 short day on the water

photos added. the small cray was legist size measured 82mm, and two jumbos in there as well!!!

at least im getting a few!~

Couldn't find any whites, didn't get around to trolling for tuna, but then they didn't just jump in the boat either.

All Alfred and I got for our efforts were these.

PS: measured the small one, he was just 85mm.

Had a flick off the disabled platform not expecting too much  and was convenient in that I could keep an eye on the car.

Got there just before the top of the tide and  had nonstop action  with chopper tailor. Most were undersize  but kept 3 size ones at 30.

When the Tailor run ended  the  Herring  came in  and made most of the tailor look small. Only caught fat herring this size  in albany, hopey  and esperance. Fishing shutdown around 12am.

Both choppers and hezzas smashed the whitebait. Mum is happy with a bit of a feed.

Next stop Carnarvon on the way home to karratha.

 Anyone done a trip to quobba lately? Has it fired up yet?

 Scooted off to rotto after knocking off at 12

Firstly The douche that has either stolen, or ran over one of my pots, FLURO PINK FLOATS, not lengtsh of rope hanging everywhere (i cable tie to make sure) F*** you!

and secondly the douche that stole the weights out of my other plastic pot F**** you to!

enough of that.....3 pots were pulled between me and the mrs, resulting in 14 crays, 12 were burried or tar spot. Only two keepers. no whites at all.

Frustrating arvo to a degree with my first season of cray potting and these shenagigans have already gone down......

bring on the whites i say!!

brett

 has anyone had any luck squidding sor or metro? landbased? if so what conditions should be looking for and where is the good spot?  cheers luke

With Steve231 & Johnny down for the SW drinks on the Saturday an ever evolving plan was in place to head out on Sunday in my tub with Seaquest & show them some fish. Gentleman hours kick off with a hangover clause in place but we got out no worries, of course with the current ban in place it was a jig / no bait day however after seeing the sounder on some spots I am sure they are keen to get back down after the ban!

Doaks putting a bend in the Maria Steady at the first seriola spot, we ended up getting plagued by YTK's with no brutish Sambo's (thought I had one solid bugger but it was an average size specimen & I am therefore crowned weak as piss)

Johnny loading up

Big schools of bait were being hammered by elusive tormenting SBT's, we chased them briefly for no return & decided to head back for more jigging punishment when in true fashion they came to us. Doaks then turned up the heat with his Jackson Pintail hooking into many of these however for Steve & I the torment remained as they didn't want our offerings. (Went in to the local tackle store today & got a nice castable diver for the bream stick, can't wait!)

Steve putting his back into it

Countless numbers of these buggers hit the deck so won't bore with the photos, Steve with his fish & holding the standout jig of the day it may cost you a few beers to know it's name.

See you after the 15th Johnny & Steve! 

Had word today there a good few  shed shells sitting around. Mostly in close. Still not many to be seen but won't be long.East north east and little swell will move them.

Gday all,

Well unfortunately had to come back from Coral Bay, Really did not want to as its such an unreal place. So heres my run down on the trip.

We left perth at 6pm friday arvo for the trip straight through to coral bay. 12hrs 45min later we were in Coral bay. We could not check into our house until 2pm so the only thing to do was get a feed from the bakery, put a few beers in the boat and head out for a fish. unsure of where to fish and the wind already blowing its arse off( set in for the week) we headied soiuth just past the south passage. anchored up around a few bombys and burleyed up. Nothing spectacular heap of undersize splanglys and cods and a few reef fish. It killed the time anyway.

Day 2 we got up early and was greeted by a 15+knots of SE so we thought we'd go check it out anyway, we were pretty keen to get out there. headed out the north passage threw the lures in as there was a bit of bird action. headed out to a spot about 3-4km past the passage and picked up a couple of tuna on the way. thats a start. ended up picking up a heap of small red throats, blue lined emperors and charlie courts, with a couple of sized fish for dinner. Mate in his boat also picked up a 4.7kg coranation trout.

Day 3 staight out the north passage again and out to the same spot, condition about the same as yesterday. found a school of fish on the sounder soo set the drift up and got some good sized red throats, a couple of travelly and the charlie courts. still no action on the lures, I really wanted a mackie.

Day 4 we decided to head out and snorkle around the coral and have a look then home to have a few beers, couple rounds of poker and head down to happy hour.

Day 5 Hung over

Day 6 we went out on Sea Force Charters. we were all keen as mustard to get out there amongst it. winds were still pretty shit house but out we went through a bit of swell at the south passage to about the 80m mark. fish were showing up all over the sounder but werent taking much. we still ended up with a few though, spanglys, tomatoe cods, honey cone cods, sand snapper, robinson sea bream, amberjacks, one undersized red emporer, pinkys, gold band snapper and a couple of big trevelly. Although rough as guts out there it was still a great day out on the charter. Thanks to Dane and Sam on Seaforce. So the only thing left to do was head in and have a few beers cos we knew the winds were to bad to even think about wetting the boats tomorrow. down the pub we headed to improve our fishing stories.

Day 7 hungover and time to pack the boats up and clean the house(shit what did we do last night). one last snorkle in bills bay.

Day 8 up at 430am and on the road by 5. home back in perth by 6pm

All in all was a great trip even though the winds didnt let us play as mucha s we liked, Fishing, poker, beers and good times.

Perfect cant wait to get back up there again.  

With the swell still pumping yesterday near the West End of Rotto, North side was about the only option.

Highlight was a green back turtle resting under a ledge in 15m.  Only 2 crays for the dive was a little disappointing.

Oh well, our recon (fallback) dive last week would be used for our second dive as the SWer was pumping 20+ already.

Who needs to go deep! 5-7m produced the goods.

The rough trip back to the ramp was worth it and fresh baked cray for dinner was sensational.

Cheers Pete

the tailor in gero seem to be very hungry at the moment

caught these guys in record time started fishing around 5 got a fish on every cast left just after 6 after catching well over 30 fish between the 3 of us. they were still biting on every cast when we left.

my 4 year old got his first tailor he caught 4 then said he was too tired and dads rod was too heavyit was 3 times as long as him i guess.

theres a nice whiting in the pic too if you can pic him out bigger than some of the tailor.

some mates picked up 4 mulloway 6 - 8 kg later on in the evening as well so a prety good night for a fish.

you gotta love it when  the fishing is this easy.

dan

.

Went down to the local beach early today and after a quiet start, the tailor went on a mad spree. Between 4 guys fishing there were at least 20 fish landed all around the 1 - 1.5 kilo mark, all in around 20 minutes and then they were gone. I landed 4 myself, keeping 2 for lunch, enough to feed me and the missus for lunch (which also means she gives me a pass to get up at sparrow fart again next time!) Also caught an average sized tarwhine and a decent juvie salmon. Great way to spend a Sunday morning!

Hey fellas just curious if anyone's been out to the key biscayne wreck lately, and if they have had any luck with sambos, ambers or any ytks?

Hi People

Has anyone seen or heard of anyone catching crays down in the mandurah area I've had the pots out since the 15 and haven't even had anything sniff the bait a couple of diver friends are saying they haven't seen any cast off shells or any sign of them in on the shallow reefs south of the cut. Has the hot water flush of earlyier this year driven them into the deep waterand that is were they are going to molt. Has anyone north of the swan caught any in pots.

Well..... well..... well.... it been quite a while since I' last seen a Monster Size MAMA Toman  9KG.

The last person I seen  landed  it was by Kaiser-  Mark Richards of S'pore  2 mths back...

This time round is was my Netherland customer turns.

Today  is his big day in which he has broken his personal best record of all time.

- A whoppy 20Ibs (9KG) Monster MAMA Toman.

The fights was awesome !!! The atmosphere was high !!! The stake was high !!!

We almost lost the big mama due to the carelessness of the  boatman.

Luckily everything end up well.....:)

Well done Sebastiaan !!! This is the 2nd toman trip he has fished with me for the wild toman.

Sebastiaan  has learnt fast and pickup fast from me N I'm happy for him.

We'll be going for our 3rd trip again soon that's after my 7 & 1/2  DAYS marathon wild toman trip with my another customer from French.....I'll  berather  busy fishing for monster toman for the next 8 DAYS........

In the meantime, enjoys the highlights photos of that Monster Catch that day..;)

" My Countless Of Wild Fishing Experience !!! My Own Fishing Tactics !!! My Countless of Great Fishing Spots !!! This is 'WHY ' While Others Failed To Achieve In This Field & I Happen to Success N Be Good On It.... You'll Learn The Basic N Advance Fishing Skills On ' How', 'What' N 'Why' From Me Regarding The Giant Snakehead aka Toman "- That's BKKGUY for you !!!!

Explosive actions pack video clip.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc575If1cFs

Highlights of the BIG MAMA catch of that day....

A whoppy 20 Ibs ( 9KG) Monster size MAMA toman aka Giant Snakehead.

Heading out from Hillarys on Sunday, plans are to head to FADs, but weather doesn't look too good! So, may still go out for DB wrecks or something .... any signs of tuna, ytk, sambos around?

Any help will be much appreciated

Cheers

Hesh

Headed out for the day at rotto, to chuck the pots in, and a fish.

Trolled west end for 3 hours, 3 strikes, two hooks ups one that only lasted about 10 seconds,when was bitten through at the ritcher wind on leader.Spewing lost my favourite hard bodied lure Hmmm. THe other a nice couple runs, but then lines went slak and ya know the rest. Headed into some bays for some bread and butter stuff to replenish my cray bait for sunday. You win some you loose some, awsome fun watchnin the humpbacks dance around the ocean north of rotto.

Finished off with a couple quietys at the arms, catching nothing still surely beats a day at work!
 

brett

Me and my missus (channy) went on a 2 week holiday, first at horrocks beach then back down to moore river for the second. First time up at Horrocks we didnt know what to expect. Mixed weather on the way up there, but was greeted by beautiful weather when we arrived. The water was great, and the sun was out.

We settled in and headed down to the river mouth, fished the beach that afternoon and we both got our pb Tailor (pic 2 and 3). Got some good hook ups but failed to pull anything else in other then some small other fish (herring/wrasse). Both happy with our Tailors, we hoped to get into some bigger ones in the coming week (which unfortunately never happened).

Day 2 greated us with more great weather, i caught 2 of these (pic 4) but cant figure out exactly what they are? i thought maybe coral trout or a cod? caught a few Tarwhine but no luck with the Tailor. We fished from the jetty on night 3, i picked up a small tailor and some pike but nothing else. We kept getting huge bites and big runs but couldnt figure out what it was. We thought maybe a Mulloway or Stingray. After line break after line break i figured it was getting pointless when we finally saw a massive ray go under the jetty (pic 5) it hung around for awhile but we gave up as we only had 20lb line on.

The rest of the week got worse with bad weather and no luck with the fish. We ended up catching nothing for the rest of the week. We packed our bags and headed down to Moore river for the last week before heading back to Perth. The river mouth was open into the ocean for the first time ive been there. However the weather was mixed again (some days were so damn windy), with only a few days good for fishing. We headed down river on the boat and managed acouple of bream on lures with yellowtail grunter being everywhere! luckily we had no trouble with blowies.

Toman is consider one of the  most  cunning and  smartest fish in asia.

Thus making it one of the source after Prized Fish  for most  Asian Anglers.

I always tell many of my coming toman  anglers that :

" They make hookup the toman (Giant Snakehead ) during a wild fishing trip but they may not be able to land the fish".

You may ask  why????

Below the reasons :
Toman by nature instinct will dive for the nearest weeds and underwater  structures when hooked.

You need to be ultra fast speed to strike hard N reel in the line.

Set your reel's drag high to prevent the toman for making the initial dive under for under structures.

MAMA toman

Going after the MAMA fry toman, it not easy as some anglers may think.

For those MAMA that have been hooked up before N released back again, usually this  group of MAMA toman are very wary whatever lures that thrown at them.

Sometimes, they'll abandon their baby and watch over their toman fry from afar.

For this kind of scenario, don't cast at the fry anymore but cast direct at the MAMA instead when she came up to breath or splash water to attract her fry toman to come to her.

What lures to use ??? How far the distant to cast your lure ??? What speed to crank ???  When to change lure ???.

That's come down to individual  fishing knowledge N skills.

There are much more to learn before ones will be successful in Giant Snakehead fishing.

Although I've fished toman more than any normal  anglers due  to my love for toman fishing.

I'm constantly  acquire  new skills N  new knowledge's myself whenever I fish in the wild.

There is no easy way to learn how to fish this prized fish of asia then to go out there and fish your heart  out...;)

"Fishing Is My Passion In Life "  By BKKGUY

It took me almost 20mins before I successfully landed this beauty MAMA-

Enjoys the video clip.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okN8x2yMxoQ

Hightlight photos for the trip.....

A whoppy 6KG MAMA toman...

My style !!! My toman posture !!!!

Went flicking some hardbodys around some of the flats in the lower swan today just after lunch with mixed success. In just over an hour I picked up 4 just legal Flatties that went back, one 52cm that made it into the esky for my dinner tonight & spooked several other good size fish including one monster that I nearly stood on & must have been close to 70cm. The first two came from Bicton Baths on silver/black Rack Walker cast around the inside of the jetty. The next two came from Jojo's on a pink Stretch 5+ & the big one came from Claremont Jetty on a chrome/blue Laser Pro 45. I only bothered with photos of the bigger one.

Thought i'd post this up just out of interest. Dave caught one of my tagged Dhus this morning after we put the pots in, on a KG rig. Only a baby, I tagged it on the 31/3/11 at 400m and was 430mm today. Interesting growth rate compared to the recapture I had last month, that Dhu had grown 7cm in 7 months, and the fish is of similar size.

Headed up to Wilbinga Saturday hoping to test out the recently acquired Pathfinder and maybe wet a line.

As others have reported it's pretty weedy up there at the moment. No chance of pulling anything in but seaweed.

Pathfinder went alright though :)