hey nice day on water last thursday ... kingys,,,,dhus,,,,sambos,,,,

looking forward to next time ... any one confirm mackies south west side of rotto???

I sighted a really large turtle out west of Rotto about a month or so ago, just wondering has anyone else seen them before?

Had a mate round for study and decided to take him home via boat and have a few casts along the way. Stoped  hoping to find a few bream in which i need help, after two casts consisting of bouncing a mud coloured vault across the bottom hooked up, suspecting a flatties, this was the case at around 40cm.

Decided to move in search of bream, headed round to near scotch boatshed again using a slow deep retrieve with the vibe for around 20mins with no results, dropped off my mate and decided to have a crack back around where the first flattie was caught in hope of landing a few more, almost straight away was on again landing another 4 lizards, all between 30-40cm except one going just over 50cm.

Quietened down so i decided on one more cast to land a monster flounder, first flounder on lure and flatties on vibes can’t really be less than happy.

Cheers

Went down to dawsville at about 3pm and wasnt catching much so i asked the tackle shop owner whats being caught in the cut and he told me that 40+cm skippy are being caught constantly, so i changed my rig and had a go and within 5 minutes i had one on, bloody thing went straight for the rocks and got itself stuck so i gave it some slack and it came out and it measured 30cm. casted out again and within a minute i was on again, and it felt massive id say it was fighting about three times as hard as the 30cm! saw a big flash of light go under the rocks and it was stuck =( waited about 5 minutes letting out line to see if it would come out but the actual line was snagged around a rock. end of the day we only got 1 30cm tarwhine and a 30cm skippy. didnt get any pics.

I've been looking high N low for the monster size toman in Thailand. The last time I ever  landed a real monster size toman( above 10KG) , that was 1 year ago.

It was that 11.5KG monster toman 1 year ago that make my addiction to toman (Giant Snakehead) so deep , a habit hard to kicks till today.

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

Ever since then, I've  been searching high N low in Thailand for the monster toman (10KG N above) in the wild. Unlike those pond  type toman, where you can feed them to 10KG. The monster  wild toman , pound by pound fights the strongest N more aggressive than any other freshwater fishes .

Driving great distant from 200KM to 500KM  within 1 day in search of your dream catch, is not surprise to some hardcore anglers toman lovers like myself.

That day,  I managed to get another close.... close.... encounter with this monster toman of 10KG N above. I came face to face with this monster toman. Just when I was about to land it, it make another dashed underneath the boat and got away.....Yes, right infront of my eyes.... Sigh !!!!

Damn.... the feeling of losing the big fish make me lose sleep for 2 nights..

"So close yet so far"-  The how I feel  that day. By BKKGUY

Watch the whole actions at below youtube  clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VmRZx2fXmY

Hi guys,

Heading up to Jurien Bay for a week on Sunday, hoping to get the cray pots in for the week, I know we can't set the pots till Monday but was wondering if it's worth dropping crab nets in the bay anywhere to get a feed of crabs and the other question is has there been any reports of any mackies being caught off Jurien?

Cheers

Paul

A few schools of sbt's at the club marine fad today.

Time to whip out the bream gear

Does any body know if anything around coventrys reef or sister that are biting ... heading out tommorrow morning ...

Monster Mama !!! Netherland angler very first MAMA toman in Thailand !!!

Dream fullfilled and Job well done !!!

Nowadays I've more and more anglers are looking at wild fishing instead of pond fishing trips.

Get out of their comfort zone of ponds fishing and look back to the traditional way of wild fishing.

The truely fishing experience of a lifetime.

Once you've tasted wild fishing , you will NEVER look back to pond fishing.

It will become part of your life N addictions for life...:)

"It's not that I'm better in fishing, it's just that I fish longer than others" -By BKKGUY 

Explosive actions vid clip.....

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

Highlights photos....

Man N the nature fishing ground- The best place for any anglers.

A whoppy MAMA toman..... his first MAMA in Thailand.

Fishing was okay…not spectacular and pretty species poor. If it was just a couple of weeks earlier, it may have been better. I only had a total of 16 hours of fishing time (not including boat travel time) so I guess the results was not too bad. There may have been better chances for Little Tunny from shore and more of a Haddock bite on the boat. It was a transition time so the Cod was winding down and the Pollock has not arrived in good number yet. But the Tautog were there and they were hungry even though I didn’t have any green crabs for bait.

Oct 10, 2011 – Yankee Fleet full day, Gloucester

Boat rental rod: 7', 30-50 class conventional rod stiff enough to fish a 20oz weight, a rusty and jerky 4/0 Penn Senator filled with 50lb mono and frozen clam bait, fished on dropper loop with a 5/0 circle hook about 12" from the sinker

We fished the Stellwegan Bank about 20 miles offshore in 220 to 265 feet of water! That's a long way to crank on a jerky 4/0 Penn Senator!

**Fishing 50lb mono and a stiff rod in 200+ feet of water sucks. Bite detection is basically nil for a newbie to fishing this deep and this heavy! :evil:

Tusk…locally called cusk (Brosme brosme) Species #202



Also caught a Picked Dogfish which the deckhand shook off before I can take a picture :(

New fishing friend who is a proton accelerator senior technician at Mevion



Oct 11, 2011 – Woods Hole Stone Pier

Two rigs:

Rig #1: 7', 30-50lb rated, 1-3oz casting range, 3-piece travel boat rod from TFO, Shimano Cardiff 301 with 50lb Sufix braid, 6 feet of 40lb rub leader tied as dropper loop, 6" of 40lb hook leader to a #8 baitholder hook and a 3oz bank sinker. I fished this rig on bottom or near the stone pier with live sandworms.

Rig #2: 9', 10-25lb rated, 3/4-2.5oz casting range, 4-piece travel spinning rod from TFO, Pflueger Solara 4035 with 30lb Sufix braid, 4 feet of 15lb mono leader tied to a 1oz Kastmaster.

Bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix) A little 2lb snapper blue during a blitz on a 1oz Kastmaster!!!

**Casting to baitfish flying out of the water was way cool!!!



Little Tunny aka False Albacore (Euthynnus alletteratus) I actually saw a small blitz out of casting range…apparently we were a couple of days too late…one casualty of the action…



Switched to live sandworms

Scup (Stenotomus chrysops) Caught a number of small ones…they were out of season



Cunner (Tautogolabrus adspersus) Species #203…caught too many of these



Tautog (Tautoga onitis) Species #204…my top shore fishing target and I caught at least 8 of them!

**People say tautog bites are hard to detect...not so for me. They actually clamp down on bait pretty hard. People also say tautog's bony mouths are hard to hook...but I would say all the bites I suspected as a tautog hit I had hooked and landed all of them. I was using a #8 baitholder hook...while most people suggest using larger #2 to 1/0 hooks when fishing green crabs. Maybe the larger hooks are harder for the fish to take in...and the way the crabs are rigged on the hooks meant the hooks are pointed outward and sideways, making hooking the tautog much harder. If you want tautogs, you need to fish way tight to rocks!!!





Stone Pier



Oct 22, 2011 - Yankee Fleet full day, Gloucester

We fished Stellwegan Bank again between 220 to 270 feet of water!

Boat rental rod: 7', 30-50 class conventional rod stiff enough to fish a 20oz weight,

My own Daiwa Saltist BG40 filled with 65lb Sufix briad with about 200 feet of 40lb Berkley Big Game mono

Frozen clam bait, fished on dropper loop with a 5/0 circle hook about 12" from the sinker.

**Switching the boat rental jerky, slow 4/0 Penn Senator with 50lb mono to a smooth, 6.4:1 Saltist with 40lb mono and even a little bit of braid fished made a big difference. It took much less time cranking up the rig to change out bait, and the lighter mono + the little bit of braid fished allowed for much better bite detection! If you ever decide to do this, I would recommend even fishing only a 50 feet mono top shot and run braid the rest of it (to please the captain and mates...because tangles are often guaranteed when dogfish are around). If I had used my Saltist on the first trip on Oct 10, maybe I would have caught a few more fish!

**I also learned that keeping the rig on bottom at ALL times increase the number of bites. This is pretty intuitive really, but the captains and mates told everyone to drop the rig to the bottom and then take 4-5 cranks up. I did this on the first trip and the first drift of the second trip. Yeah...the sinker would bounce on bottom occasionally, but it is NOT on bottom! Most of the bites came on bottom for me...and after a while, I decided to ignore what the captain and mates suggested...and made sure my sinker is always on bottom AND NOT BOUNCING! Somehow, I get more bites by doing this. The boat would rock and roll...but I used my rod to adjust to the change in height...point it down as the boat rolled up, and pulling it up at an angle to the side as the boat lowers. This let me keep the sinker on bottom but I still had a tight line to detect even the quickest bite...which got me way more bites and a few more fish than the first trip!

Picked Dogfish (Squalus acanthias) Species #205…these guys get annoying after a while! They twist and circle after getting hook and often tangle up multiple lines. At one point we had a whole school of them under the boat and we had the whole boat in tangles…took an hour to sort that out!



Atlantic Cod (Gadus morhua) Species #206…my top deep water target! Finally got three on my second boat trip! Two were short…and the only keeper I got was not gaffed in time because the deckhands were too busy untangling line! :(

One inch short!



Two inches short…



And some parts of Boston, Gloucester and Woods Hole through my eyes…

Oct 9, 2011 - Boston

After a bit of luggage delay scare I was finally dropped off the luggage at South Station for temporary storage. It was about 12pm when I started my Boston half-day tour.

Museum of Fine Arts





Old South Church tower



Boston Public Library



Now the start of the Freedom Trail

Park Street Church



Massachusetts State House



Museum of African-American History



Beacon Hill neighbourhood



Paul Revere Burial



Franklin at Old City Hall



Old State House



Faneuil Hall



Quincy Market



Lobster roll and clam chowder



Exchange of the keys



Traffic Tunnel Administration Building and a commemoration of Boston’s mayor



Tudor Wharf (Boston Harbour)



USS Constitution



Bunker Hill Monument



William Prescott



294 steep steps up Bunker Hill Monument…



…to an original cannon and the view that troops saw





Totally tired after walking the Freedom Trail in 3 hours



Other pictures…

Oct 10, 2011 - Gloucester

Gloucester Harbour morning



Gloucester Harbour evening



Low tide



Oct 12 – 21, 2011 – Woods Hole Optical Microscopy Course

Everyday started at 8:30am and most days ended at 11pm at the earliest…with one day we were in the lab working on a problem set until 3:30am. It was an intense course…but as you will see in the pictures, we also had a lot of fun drinking and otherwise.

Beer central



Party time!







Free afternoon at Martha’s Vineyard

Vineyard’s Haven, Martha’s Vineyard



Biking around Martha’s Vineyard



Beach, Martha’s Vineyard…looks soooo fishy!!!



Lobster dinner



My crew



My roommate Andrew’s birthday and his “Facebook Wall” we drew for him…because he hates getting birthday wishes on Facebook LOL



Totally overworked and partied out





Just some Woods Hole scenery







Eel Pond



Gallery by the drawbridge



It was a great trip! I learned a lot at the microscopy course, I met a bunch of great fellow students, instructors and commercial reps that offers me a great network and I even managed to catch some fish!

I’ll be visiting MA in the future again…there are still some fish that needs to be caught!!!

April 11, 2011

My mom’s elder sister had a hip replacement surgery last October. I really wanted to visit my aunt and see how she was doing. We went to her house late morning and went out for dim sum with my aunt and uncle. There were some complications with her surgery and the surgeon made her replaced hip about an inch longer than her other hip. My aunt now walks with a limp and they are looking to seek some compensation from the hospital. But it was good to see she was keeping positive and still the same happy person she was.



After dim sum, my uncle and I helped her get some gardening supplies from Home Hardware while her husband went to work. When we got back to her house, she said I should try fishing in the pond behind her house. My cousins grew up fishing in the pond and I heard many stories from them about the big bluegills and bass in the pond. My cousin has pulled a 10lb bass from this little pond.

I didn’t find any monster bass, but the quantity was mind blowing. For the first few casts, I had a bass hooked or landed every cast! They were averaging about 1lb each so they were nothing really special. Then I saw a couple of Mayan cichlids cruising around with the bass. I switched over to worms and a bobber and it wasn’t long before I caught the Mayan cichlid. Yay! New species on a day I wasn’t expecting to fish.

9” Mexican mojarra (Cichlasoma urophthalmus) aka Mayan cichlid



I also caught a bunch of bluegills. I have never seen such a beautiful bluegill with orange fins.



On the way home, we drove by a canal and I just had to check it out for potential. Then I spotted a pod of grass carp under a tree. These fish were anywhere from 15-20lbs! I was wondering why they were only in this area. As a gust of wind blew the berries off the trees, the fish would come up to eat the berries. I quickly grabbed my gear and set up a reel with 30lb braid and tied on an 8lb fluoro leader with a #14 hook. I grabbed one of the berry and tossed it out. There wasn’t enough weight to cast it far enough. My uncle tried to climb the tree and help me drop the line in. :lol: I love my uncle. He’s such a big kid!



I also tried putting on a tiny Thrill Shy Bite float hoping to get the line out far enough. These were had amazing eyesight and I guess they can see the fluoro leader. There were a couple of fish that came up rising to my berry baited hook but the fish would turn away at the last second. :?

As we were losing daylight, we had to go home. Oh well…next time.

April 12, 2011

My uncle arranged a morning for me to fish and in the afternoon of shopping at the outlet malls. I was really looking to hunt some cobra snakeheads in the canals!

The morning started off very slow as I checked out a nearby pond for snakeheads. The water was really deep and I didn’t spot any snakehead. While fishing a Jointed Shad Rap, I lost a largemouth bass.

When we worked our way to the other side of the pond where it connected to the canal, I spotted a snakehead and made a cast to it with a weedless frog. The fish took a brief interest but I guess it saw me and went deep. :(

I fished the area some more with different lures but came up empty. On the way back to the car, I spotted a Florida gar and casted repeatedly to it with small spinners and a small Yo-Zuri Pins Minnow. I had the gar grab the Pins Minnow gingerly and the fish lost interest after. This was all before 9am.

While my uncle went to grab some breakfast, there was a canal beside the Dunkin’ Donuts. I took a look and saw a 6lb cobra snakehead right by shore. I quickly rigged up and made a cast to it with the weedless frog, but the fish saw me once again and lost interest!

I switched over to a spinnerbait to cover more water from a distance away. While casting for snakeheads, I caught a 1.5lb Florida largemouth bass. I guess it’s a new subspecies to add to the list :?



Throughout the morning, I spotted about 6-7 snakeheads. I had a couple of fish follow my lure but they lost interest as soon as they saw me. It was really challenging getting these fish to bite! I even went as far as getting on my knees to fish for them. However, the canals have steep banks and we were always high up on the bank so the fish could always see you. I guess it was also more difficult since the water level looked rather low and the canals were only 3-4 feet deep at the deepest spots. I’m going to do some research from now until the next time. One day I’ll get those little buggers! :D

In the afternoon, we shopped at Sawgrass Outlet. I saw a nice leather jacket for $130 but with my small size, it was hard to find something that fits. I did come home with two UnderArmor shirts for $12 each. I have never seen them that cheap in Canada. :D

That evening, I had dinner at the restaurant where my uncle works as a chef. He arranged a menu for us with lobsters, roast duck, and other dishes. If you visit Fort Lauderdale and Miami area and you are interested in Chinese food beyond the typical chop suey, I can definitely recommend my uncle’s restaurant to you.

Here’s my family in South Florida minus my uncle who was in the kitchen.



April 13, 2011

This was my last day in Florida. I was really hoping to add one last species to the list. I had hoped to fish for pompano and Spanish mackerel off the piers but the water was flat as a mirror and pompano likes it rough. So instead, my uncle took me to Hillsboro for a shot at some snappers.

Well, we never had a chance for any snappers since the little reef fish were chewing all our shrimp within minutes of our bait hitting water. :(

Instead, I went fishing for reef fish instead. You gotta make lemonade sometimes :lol: It wasn’t a bad change of plans at all. Using #16 hook, 1oz weight and 8lb test, I managed to catch a few new species! :D

Still have to identify this damselfish…but it’s a new species for sure.



6” French grunt (Haemulon flavolineatum)



6” sergeant-major (Abudefduf saxatilis)



4” dusky damselfish (Stegastes adustus)



7” slippery dick (Halichoeres bivittatus)



3” Caribbean sharpnose-puffer (Canthigaster rostrata)



If the sergeant-majors were not so ravenous, I could have caught a few more species. There were also a number of very colour parrotfish and angelfish in the area. It was literally like fishing in an aquarium!

I tried fishing with a live grunt for some of the big barracuda that we could see. A couple of them looked about 3-4 feet in length. However, they must be line wary after being caught over and over again. I did have a small barracuda chased my lure and a couple of pesky needlefish chase but not hit.

By 2pm, it was really too hot to fish so we called it a day. I did take a couple of pictures of the lighthouse and the boardwalk.





I had an early dinner with my uncle’s family and play with Bosco one last time before flying home.

It was a very good trip overall with an educational and productive conference and a great vacation of fishing with Kazu and visiting family. In total, I added 23 new species on this trip. There were some major targets I would really love to catch including red snapper, triggerfish, goliath grouper, pompano, Spanish mackerel and kingfish. I guess I just had to take another trip to Florida in the future to get those done :lol:

April 8, 2011

Sometimes, it is just not your day…but then something comes along and everything changes. Today was just such a day.

I had been watching Captain Ben Chancey on YouTube for a few years. His ChewOnThis Saltwater fishing show inspired me to book a charter with him to fish for goliath grouper. Unfortunately, the conditions were not right for the day and we went inshore fishing instead. We did give the goliath grouper a solid try but the tide was just not right.

We started the morning at 9am sharp and it was a short ride until we were trying to make bait. The first cast net attempt yielded a keeper size Spanish mackerel in the net. It would make good grouper bait for sure. We were after greenback herring and coulnd’t find any. In fact, we spent about 1 hours looking for bait on this tough day.  We tried any channel markers, beach areas and even bridge supports. At the end, we only had a few herring in the well. The tide was at peak low and there was no current so the bait was hard to find. Ben saw that I was getting really antsy to fish so he said we could try some bridge areas for goliath grouper even though the tide was bad. On the first drop at one of the best spots, we had a solid take but by the time the reel was engaged and the line was reeled in tight, the fish dropped the bait with the slightest resistance. :(

We fished around the same bridge support covering all sides and didn’t get a hit. We tried some more around several other support structures and found no biters. After about 1 hour of trying, Ben suggested that we try fishing on the flats to wait for the tide to swing.

He set us up with a 3” white twister tail and instructed us to fish along the edges of the grass beds where hungry fish were waiting. It didn’t take long for Kazu to hook up to a little spotted seatrout. Unfortunately, the fish got off close to the boat. I followed suit with a sand weakfish and it was a new species.

8” sand weakfish (Cynoscion arenarius)



A couple of spotted seatrout later, I hooked into another new species! This was one I have been looking for revenge.

12” Ladyfish (Elops saurus)



More spotted seatrout later, I hooked into a little jack crevalle. Finally confirmed catch! At this size, it makes perfect bait for the little goliaths

13” crevalle jack (Caranx hippos)



After I’ve caught about a dozen spotted seatrout to 12” and Kazu losing a few of them, Ben said the tide was starting to change. We made some more bait by the bridge and it was much easier now. I was basically controlling the boat while Ben cast his cast his cast net. Kazu was busy transferring bait into the livewell. It was a teamwork to fill the wells but we got it done within 20 minutes.

Ben said there was a reef 2-3 miles off the beach that no one knows and we should try there. On the way, he spotted some cownose ray that would make perfect goliath grouper bait. We had one snagged (that’s how Ben catches them for bait) but it came off shortly after it was hooked. :(

We anchored on the reef and started freelining the greenback herring. On a heavy spinning rod, Ben tossed out the head of the Spanish mackerel and it was hit within 5 minutes. I took the rod out of the rod holder and had a real drag running on the line. We were not sure what it was, but it made some fast runs and eventually it went into some structures and was stuck. I was tugging and tugging trying to get it off the structure to no avail. Finally, Ben said to leave the rod in the holder and if the fish decided to come out, we’ll be ready for it.

While I was struggling to pull the fish out of the structure, Kazu hooked up and he was playing a decent fish on a medium-light spinning rod with 20lb braid. The fish eventually went into the reef and snapped him off. A little later, Kazu hooked up again and with a lot of tugging, pulling and reeling, and some help from Ben, a decent gag grouper was landed. Kazu didn’t count that fish since he didn’t fight the fish all on his own.

While we were soaking more bait and busting off more fish, Ben took out the goliath grouper rod and put the jack crevalle on bottom. Not too long later, I heard the clicker on the rod went and took the rod since I was closest. There was a decent fish on the line and everyone was thinking goliath grouper the entire time since it was pulling like no tomorrow. We finally had the fish came up and it was a little discouraging to see a 12lb gag grouper on the other end. Yeah, it was a big grouper, but we were really hoping for a goliath. :? I did smile for the picture since it was still the biggest non-goliath grouper that Ben had put into the boat this year.



I had another good fish on the light rod and it was another arm tiring fight with a smaller gag grouper. It was only 4-5lbs so we released it without a picture. I also managed to lose a Spanish mackerel which will haunt me for a while (this was the second one I lost after losing one in Georgia in 2009).

For a brief few seconds, the fish that was in the structure came out and I fought it some more. However, it quickly found structure again and this time Ben broke off the fish.  Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

Eventually, we ran out of goliath grouper bait :( That was it got the goliath fishing. Our day was also running to a close with an hour left. Ben suggested that we check out some mangrove areas to see if anyone was home. We made some more bait and took off to the mangroves.

As Ben tossed out a few herring to chum the areas, a few of them were engulfed with good explosions. It looked like there were some fish in the area. While Ben helped Kazu and I tossed out a couple of herring close to the mangroves. After a minute or so, we would need to cast them into the mangroves again when the bait ran out into deeper water. It was on one of these casts while Ben was casting for Kazu that I lobbed my herring tight into the mangrove roots. I saw my bait ran out of the mangrove in a hurry and felt it came alive…then it got engulfed! There was a good fish pulling on the other end and it was a battle to keep the fish out of the mangrove. At one point, the fish ran into the roots and I had to keep the rod tip in the water to keep the line angle low. Ben really coached me well and we were able to keep the fish on the line and out of the snags.



Close to the boat, the fish jumped a few times and I thought I was going to lose it. It never felt so good to grabbed the fish with both my hands and lifted it into the boat. It was the second largest snook this year for Ben…just a hair smaller than the biggest fish of the year. Ben said this fish was about 33” long (initially I heard incorrectly and thought it was 23". Ben saw the picture again and he said it is easily 33"! Woohoo on monster snook!)



33” common snook (Centropomus undecimalis)



We fished the same shoreline some more and it was a little while later that Kazu hooked a very nice spotted seatrout. As I was lifting the fish into the boat (we had no net or boga grip in the boat), the hook just tore out. It was at least 20”+. Kazu didn’t mind, but I have to live with the guilt of losing it. :( Sorry Kazu.

Finally, it was 5pm and it was time to return to the dock. Ben lives on the water and all he had to do was to put his boat into the boat elevator and it was all done. At the dock, Ben kept us fishing by showing us how to fish on his dock for the snook. Kazu was freelining a herring for a while. I saw some mangrove snappers around the dock so I tossed out a small herring to try for them. It was frustrating catching these snappers since their smaller mouths were too small to swallow the herring and the circle hook. Ben gave me a smaller octopus hook and I put on a chunk of herring. With some persistence and patience, I finally hooked a mangrove snapper and landed one onto my list :D

9” grey snapper (Lutjanus griseus) aka mangrove snapper



Before we left, I took a picture with Ben. Ben was as genuine as he was on TV. When I save up money again, I’m going to do a proper goliath grouper trip with Ben :D



At 6pm, we were on the road again. This time, I’ll be staying with my uncle at Coral Springs while Kazu has a few days to fish around Fort Lauderdale. :D

April 9, 2011

It was a long day previous so I slept in until 8am. My cousin had a piano recital in the morning and piano lesson in the afternoon, or my uncle and I had most of the day together. Following a late breakfast, my uncle took me to the Everglades. He lives just behind the Sawgrass Parkway and his neighbourhood was just across the highway from the Everglades.

I was really disappointed with myself for not obtaining a freshwater license earlier. I didn’t have my license so this was only a scouting trip. As luck would have it, there was a pair of cobra snakehead in shallow water. It looked like they were in the middle of courtship. A little bit further, I saw a couple of Florida gar. Behind the water control gate, there were bowfin swimming around. All three fish mentioned were my prime freshwater targets. Of course, I don’t have my license.

So my uncle said we’ll go to BassProShops to get my license. On the way, we stopped at a great aquarium supply store. There was three nice display tanks. One was filled with some local saltwater inshore species, one was filled with African cichlids and the last one had three big moral eels, a small blacktip shark and a small lemon shark. It was cool just watching them hang out.

At BSP in Fort Lauderdale, we grabbed a couple of hot dogs for lunch before stepping in. I got my license, grabbed a few terminal tackle for my cousin to use and a dozen nightcralwers.  We got home just in time as my cousin got home.

My cousin Bosco is turning 11. My uncle and Bosco had tried to fish the Everglades before but didn’t catch anything. It was my mission to get them started catching some fish.

We went back to the spot I scouted out earlier. Unfortunately, the cobra snakeheads had left :( Oh well, at least it’ll let me concentrate on my cousin. :lol: I rigged him up with a small bobber, a splitshot and a #8 hook. It was a little strange that he didn’t get bit quickly. We had to move around a little until we found some willing fish. My cousin, being new to fishing, was rather slow on the draw and missed a number of hits. Finally, one fish took the hook deep and he pulled up a bluegill.

Like anyone new to fishing, he dropped the poor fish a few times before we could get his picture taken :lol:



It was really a scratch bite even for sunfish. We moved to a spot where I saw the bowfin earlier. Unfortunately for me, someone had already caught and kept the two bowfin :(  Again, it gave me time to concentrate on my cousin. While I was showing my cousin how to work the rig around the flood gate structure, watch for the bite and set the hook, I landed a new species myself.

8” spotted sunfish (Lepomis punctatus).



My cousin caught one after me.



My cousin caught a couple more sunfish that I thought were green sunfish. I should have taken a picture of them but they were both deep hooked so I just cut the line to let them go. After a while, I put on a weedless frog to fish the area while my uncle and Bosco fished other areas. We fished until just before sunset and left before the alligators got one of us :lol: There were some 5-6 feet gators in the water where we were fishing.

April 6, 2011

After four straight days of meetings, I was exhausted. The fish were calling to me and I skipped the last day of seminars. Kazu and I checked out early at 5am and made the 2 hours drive to Clearwater. It was a tough drive with a tired body…but the fishing excitement kept my mind fully awake :lol:

We arrived at 8am and had an hour to make bait. This time, the pinfish were on the chew and I had 10 pinfish in the livewell ready as grouper bait. While making bait, a large ladyfish hit one of my sabiki hook and I had it on the line for two jumps before the fish broke the 8lb line. I have never caught a ladyfish so I was a little disappointed a new species was lost…but it was a fun little fight though.

The party boats fish 20-30 miles offshore at Clearwater for grunts, triggerfish and groupers. It was another 2 hours boat ride which I trolled the entire time with a tuna feather. I was still 0 for 2 on the troll :(

Finally we were out on the live bottom. I set up Kazu with the UglyStik and Jigmaster with 30lb mainline, 150lb swivel, 2’ of 60lb Big Game mono and a 5/0 hook. I was using a Diawa Saltist 40H and the TFO teaser rod. On the first drop, Kazu and I both brought in a 1lb white grunt. This was a species I think I’ve caught in the past as a kid in the Caribbean. I could finally confirm this catch :D They are good eats so I put mine on the stringer while Kazu released his fish.

1lb white grunt (Haemulon plumierii)



The next fish Kazu reeled up was a red grouper. I was a little jealous since it would have been a new species for me…but I made Kazu jealous by landing a 2lb gag grouper on the next drop :lol:

2lb gag grouper (Mycteroperca microlepis)



A few more grunts later, I finally caught my target species! :D

2lb red grouper (Epinephelus morio)



We were only fishing with pieces of Humbolt squid. I switched over to the boat’s 60lb class rental rods and dropped some live pinfish on bottom.  The nicer sized groupers started to show themselves and these were my best gag and red groupers that day. Other did a couple of keeper red grouper (20” minimum) but gag grouper season remained closed until November.





The 5 hours of fishing came and went but both Kazu and I were full satisfied to have caught our target fish today. Some days you get lucky :D

The Tampa area is pretty nice. I wouldn’t mind living here.



Back at the dock, the deckhands started cleaning the catch. Why they don’t clean the catches on the way back is beyond me. It was common to all Florida party boats that deckhands clean the catches at the dock. While we waited for our turn, I took a couple wildlife shots. These avian scavengers were waiting for discards.





Some stringers had over 20 white grunts (there is no limit and no size limit). After waiting for an hour, Kazu and I decided to give away our 3 white grunts to someone who was fishing next to us. We were hoping to have the fish for dinner but we had a 2.5 hours drive ahead of us to Cape Coral. We were losing daylight and we coulnd’t wait any long.

At 9am, we finally rolled into our hotel for the next two days. I gave our charter captain a call and Captain Chancey said we would need to push our charter day from Thursday to Friday. The conditions were not ideal due to a recent storm on Tuesday and water was very murky. It threw our plans into a little turmoil but we were also paying some hefty cash for the charter. In the end, we decided to charter on the Friday and made alternate fishing plans for the next day.

That night, I had two pinfish leftover from grouper fishing. Our hotel backed into one of the many canals in Cape Coral and I was my full intention to fish for snook and tarpon in those canals in the mornings and evenings. I soaked the live pinfish for 2 hours while waiting for laundry with only one tentative bite. The water was much shallow than I had thought and there were little activity. There were three boys fishing with shrimp and they caught a couple of catfish. It was a little disappointing for sure.

April 7, 2011

This morning, we slept in until 8:30am. We had no idea what to do as there were so many options in the area. We found a bait shop nearby and probed for some information. This guy was the biggest hippie I’ve ever seen :lol: However, he gave us a couple of good spots to fish on Sanibel Island. With a full belly after breakfast and 3 dozen live shrimp, we made our way to Sanibel for the day. Little did we know the fee to use the bridge was $6! I guess you gotta pay to play :?

We found another bait shop on Sanibel where Kazu could get his saltwater license (party boat fishing included the license). The guys at the shop was real nice and gave some pretty good information, so we started at the beach where there was a chance for pompano and Spanish mackerel. Parking at the beach was $2/hour…average by Florida standard but another unexpected cost for tourists :(

We fished at the lighthouse area for about and hour. Kazu was tossing a spoon for Spanish mackerel and bluefish while I was trying to get some cruising cownose ray to eat my shrimp. I guess they were so concentrated on the spawn that food was not on their mind :lol: After an hour, Kazu and I decided to move to the pier to see if we can find some better fishing.

We were told that the pier has sheepheads and this was one of my premier targets to catch on this trip. As we were setting up, one of the people on the pier landed a sheepshead and I had my hopes up. :D I rigged up with 30lb braid, a Carolina rig with a ¾oz egg sinker and 30lb fluoro leader. I was told that they are notorious bait thieves and you needed to pull them out of the pilings quickly. They love oysters and the areas where they are found are fully of snags and sharp oyster shells.

I fished next to one piling and quickly realized how quickly a sheepshead and steal the bait without so much as a twitch on the rod tip. I was taught to hook the live shrimp on the horn; but after losing half a dozen shrimps quickly, I had to change my shrimp hooking technique to keep the shrimps on the line longer. With my new method, I lost one shrimp before I had a solid hookup on the second shrimp. The fish did tried to pull into the piling but it was no match for my rod :lol: I was so happy to see the striped body of a sheepshead. This fish was an inch short of the legal minimum :(

11” sheepshead (Archosargus probatocephalus)



After I caught my sheepshead, it was time to switch targets. People were catching the odd jack crevalle. I think I’ve caught jack crevalle before…but without a picture it was hard to call it a confirmed catch. I tossed my live shrimp off the tee of the pier and hoped to find them in the deeper water. Somehow, I couldn’t shake the sheepshead off my line and I caught three more in quick succession. I was told that these fish were hard to catch?

The man beside me was fishing close to the pier and caught two jack crevalles on back-to-back casts. Before I had my line in, the fish had moved off and I was searching again. On one cast, I got tapped hard and thought it might be a good fish. The fish had lots of headshakes and soon I realized why.

9” gulf flounder (Paralichthys albigutta)



The bite was fairly steady and I was catching other fish in between sheepsheads.

This 7” pigfish was a prime grouper bait. I gave it to someone because I left my big rods in the car.



I take pictures of my catches often. Sometimes, even though I’ve caught a species before, I take a picture to record the number of species caught during a fishing session. This time, I managed to record a new species that would have been missed. This is a gulf kingcroaker. I thought it was a southern kingcroaker which I’ve caught before…but since it lacked the dark blotches, it was a different species and a new species :D

10” gulf kingcroaker (Menticirrhus littoralis)



Here’s a 10” southern kingcroaker I caught later in the evening showing the difference in colouration and body proportions.



Then I caught a little drag burner and another new species. This was turning out to be a productive day

14” hardhead sea catfish (Ariopsis felis)



At around 4pm, our parking fees ran out and Kazu went to put in more money. He also returned with one of my big rods so now I can soak some baitfish.  Some time during the afternoon, I was offered some live greenback herring and extra live shrimps when one of the anglers were leaving. I couldn’t resist the offer and took the bonus baits. Now that I had the big rod, I sent out one of the herring to soak. About an hour later, I had a little rip on the rod and tightened on the line to find a little tug. It was a 14” spotted seatrout! It was a new pb :D



A lady who had been fishing next to me was making bait. We chatted quite a bit about fishing and found out she was a fish nerd and a species hunter just like me. When she was using her sabiki to make bait, I asked to see if I can catch a greenback herring to add to my list. It took about 10 seconds to add another new species :lol:

7” threadfin shad (Dorosoma petenense) aka greenback herring



Closer to sunset, I had a good rip on the big rod again. By the time I put the reel into gear, the fish dropped the bait. My greenback herring came back with teeth marks all over, no doubt a shark took it. So close!

After the shark rip, I took a good hit on the live shrimp on the surf rod. It was a good fight and I thought maybe the shark came back for the shrimp. I was giving everyone a show and the crowd started to build. It ended up being a gafftopsail sea catfish! It wasn’t even all that big but these guys are strong!

16” gaffsailtop sea catfish (Bagre marinus)





We were losing daylight fast. With that last catch, I put my rod down to take a sunset shot.



I lingered at the pier for another 10 minutes while Kazu returned to the car at 8pm. Kazu fished artificial  lures all day and had a few hits but no hookups. I urged and urged Kazu to fish live shrimps to add a few new species but he was dead set on fishing artificial. :?

We went for a quick dinner and went to bed early since a very demanding day was ahead of us.

Hi guys on FishWrecked!

It's been a while since I've check out reports here. Living halfway around the world and in the other hemisphere meant I have little to contribute in terms of "local" reports. However, I thought it would be fun to share some of the fishing on our continent. I hope you'll like it :)

Hopefully one day I can return to Perth to find some pink snapper and dhufish. I would also love to go to Exmouth area to fish for goldspotted trevally, golden trevally and GT's!

Thanks again for all your help while I was in Perth. :)

Anyways...here goes the reports.

March 31, 2011

Sometimes, the best plan comes crashing down. Originally, my morning flight allowed an entire day to fish the jetties in Port Canaveral. However, the weather had other thoughts and we ended up flying in a line of thunderstorm in front of a cold front. Up and down the eastern seaboard. It was a very rough ride with many succumbing to motion sickness and people praying for their lives. Luckily, we landed safely in Orlando, albeit 2 hours late. But I’ll take better late than never.

About an hour later, I arrived at La Quintas Inn on International Drive under ominous conditions.



With lightning and thunder all around, the fishing plans for the day was cancelled. Oh well, I guess I’ll spend some time at BassProShops. The large aquarium had tarpons, whipers, redfish, gars and of course giant largemouth bass and HUGE bluegills.





Couldn’t resist this picture :lol:



5 hours later and $200 less, I walked out of BPS with a collection of saltwater trolling goodies and some Sufix 832 braid on the two conventional reel. I was ready for some kingfish and bonita!

My friend Kazu, who flew down from Vancouver, arrived later that night at 11:30pm. After I picked him up from the airport, we grabbed a quick bite and retired for the night. We have an early fishing schedule the next day.

April 1, 2011

I woke up to the watch alarm and the morning wake up call seconds apart. At 5am, it was still fully dark. As the cold front moved through overnight, the air had a crisp but cool feel. Kazu had a long day of traveling previous and he was too tired to fish today, so I was traveling solo toward Port Canaveral for a full day of fishing on the party boat, the Orlando Princess.

As the sun rose at Port Canaveral, I missed a few street signs with the sun directly in my eyes. I arrived at the dock with a few minutes to remaining before the boat left. Luckily, my stern spot was placed on hold thanks to an advance reservation :D. The regulars were making bait with sabiki. The premier bait, pinfish, were slow to bite and it was scratch bait making. I didn’t have time to make any bait before the boat was on the way.

This is April in Florida. Kingfish and false tunny are starting to filter into the area. I rigged up a 4” tuna feather on the 40lb class rod and trolled for 1.5 hours to no avail. When we were closer to our fishing marks, the trolling rig was switched out for an 8oz egg sinker, a 150lb swivel, 2 feet of 60lb mono and a 3/0 circle hook. With the first drop of this “chicken rig”, my TFO 7’ teaser rod bent at the tip. I took up the slack, reeled tight and a fish was on the other end. Although the black seabass season was closed due to overfishing, this was the first of countless black seabass from 7” to 4lbs that I landed and had to throw back.



A little later, I made an 8” tomtate and it was destined for bait.



I dropped the tomtate on the 60lb class rental rods and had the tomtate somehow worked itself off the 5/0 circle hook unbeknownst to me. Who knew how long I had been soaking without a bait…but I reeled up disappointingly to an empty hook 45 minutes later when we moved to a new spot.

While we were moving, I rigged up a sabiki rig on the spinning rod. As soon as we arrived, instead of making bait, I dropped a dead sardine to see if I could capitalize on any snapper or grouper on the first go. A few more black seabass later, I decided to make some bait. Others were already catching some keeper flounder, one nice gag grouper and a mutton snapper on pinfish. I am seriously missing out.

I dropped the sabiki and it was quickly grabbed. Two round scad (aka cigar minnows) came up. These are also prime bait for red snapper…but it is also a new species on the list.

6” Round Scad (Decapterus punctatus)



A few minutes later, my round scad was wasted on another black seabass :roll:

I made bait again. This time it was a pinfish and a small black seabass. Instead of using a bell sinker on the bottom of the sabiki rig, I clipped on a 2oz jigging spoon and got a bonus throwback fish :lol:

As the pinfish went swimming on bottom, there was some commotion on the other side of the boat. One of the deckhand landed a 30lb cobia! That was the one and only cobia landed on the day. It would have been so nice to see some more of them.

My pinfish was robbed again by black seabass, while the pinfish a lady was soaking 10 feet from me landed a keeper size American red snapper. Who said fishing doesn’t require luck? Same rig, same bait, but the boat swung off a slightly different angle and one person lands a nice fish while the other wallowed in mediocrity :roll:

A little later, the man beside me, who actually taught me lots of new things this day, was freelining a pinfish and brought a small kingfish into the boat. He was fishing at the stern corner spot and he had all the versatility to fish different methods. I was fishing next to a number of people and had to worry about line tangles and drift directions. Corner spots are usually given to regulars though…it is almost impossible to get them. :roll:

At the 4th spot for the day, I saw a 3’ remora eating pieces of discarded bait behind the boat. I tried for 30 minutes freelining pieces of squid or dead sardines to it. It would come up time and time again to bump my bait but never taking it. As life would have it, the lady 10 feet from me was reeling in to change bait when the remora attacked her bait :roll: Some days, when it just isn’t you day, there is nothing you can do. :(

As quickly as it began, the 5 hours on the water was over. We were fishing 20-30 miles offshore and the return ride was 2 hours. Instead of trolling my way home, I decided to take a long nap for the drive back to the hotel.

We arrived back at port by 5pm. After a day of fishing, I failed to catch my prime targets (American red snapper, grey triggerfish, Atlantic sharpnose shark) and was a little bummed. Instead of heading back to the hotel, I decided to fish Jetty Park to see if I could add sheepshead to my list…but I was just asking for more punishment. :roll:

It was $10 to park and fish at the pier and $7 for shrimp and clams for bait. I had only 3 hours max to fish the area but I knew I would regret it deeply if fishing this area wasn’t even attempted. The inlet was really muddy and the current was strong after the storm. Fish were not active but the juvenile turtles were everywhere!



Fishing with a splitshot rig and #8 hook, I was getting a barrage of short bites and stolen bait. An hour of frustration later, I put on a #14 hook and finally hooked the thief. It was a small goby that I had yet to identify. It is a new species for sure though.



I switched to a Carolina rig to see if there are any redfish or black drum around. Closer to sun set, I had a good tap and found a smaller species of croaker.

7” striped drum (Umbrina broussonnetii)



That was it for the evening. I ended the day without any of my targets met…but was happy with 3 new species by accident. :D

April 2-5, 2011

These were my conference days where I was up at AACR from 8am – 8pm basically solid all 4 days. It was the first conference where I did not even fish in the morning or evenings. There was a lot of professional advancement seminars I wanted to attend and most of them very extremely helpful. I guess that’s why I didn’t mind not fishing at all. My friend Kazu did fish solid days in the freshwater and added a few new species through the 4 days.

Orange County Convention Center was very well suited for sure a large meeting.

This pond at the convention center had some giant bluegills! No time to fish though…







The nearby Peabody Hotel also hosted some sessions and it was a world class hotel.





Even in the midst of such busy conference schedule, I took time to have dinner with my cousin and his family. My cousin is establishing his own dental clinic in Orlando and it was great to see him doing very well.

We went to a seafood restaurant near my hotel for some crawfish one night. MMM….

In the last 6 months i have been getting 48 cm blackies and just couldnt crack the 50cm mark. Well today after berley up infront i had a pair of bream in  less than a meter of water. It was like shooting fish in a barrel. The bream swam up to it and the fight was on.  Just about lost it a few times but got her in. Took a few snaps and measured it and it went 51cm from tip to tail! This is my PB bream! Finally!!!!!!!!!

Released her and she swam off very stong. Thanks to Lisa for taking the great shots!!!!!!!!

Happy as!!

Biggest Black bream i have caught 51cm by Marc Russo (Australia), on Flickr 

IMG_8045 by Marc Russo (Australia), on Flickr

I had the pleasure of fishing in New Caledonia with Le Poisson Banane in October. Before I get started though, a little recap from my last trip. Last time I fished in New Caledonia a number of different factors made for an incredibly difficult trip. The number of GT's caught throughout the week between three anglers could almost be counted on one hand, we had bad weather, GPS problems and had to cut the trip a day short due to fuel constraints as we'd used so much trying to simply find some fish that were biting. When I asked Rudy what was the worst trip they'd ever done he looked at me hesitantly and said, "....maybe this one?".... oh well, a great time was still had. You would almost think that it's enough to put you off a certain destination but it had the opposite effect, it just fueled my desire to return even more and fish New Caledonia the way New Caledonia should be experienced with LPB.

So return I did. A little later than I had originally anticipated though! I was however a little dissapointed to find out a week prior that Tak, Brandon and Konishi-San's trip, which was supposed to be the same week as ours had been canceled due to mechanical problems on the Antares. I was looking forward to meeting Tak and Brandon and seeing Konishi-San again whom I'd meet the month prior at the Montebello Islands here in Western Australia but it was not to be. Joining me on this trip was a good mate from Karratha and member of this forum Karl Nelson and long time fishing partner Glenn Hall.

Gear Used:

Rods: Carpenter Monster Hunter MH80H & 79XH, Carpenter Coral Viper CV79/40, Ripple Fisher GT78PF, Ripple Fisher Oceanic 86, Smith WRC 77-HIIB Rocket, Hots Tide Lez 78XXXH
Reels: Shimano Stella SW18000HG, Daiwa Saltiga Dogfight 6500, Shimano Stella 10000SW
Line: Varivas Avani GT PE8 & PE10
Leader System: PR Knot, Varivas Shock Leader 170lb & 200lb

Day One:
The first morning we woke to fantastic weather, it was warm, humid and there was a very light breeze causing only a small ripple on what was a dead flat ocean with zero swell. We headed south from Koumac and began fishing a beautiful island inside the lagoon that had an exposed fringing reef that dropped off to around 10m. The ground was incredibly familiar to the areas I fish back home and it was a nice experience. As we made a slow drift along the edge we didn't raise much interest apart from a few small school mackerel so we headed south to a nice looking shoal. Rudy spotted a school of nervous fusiliers so we all cast, anxious to capture the first GT of the trip. It was pandemonium, my pencil got monstered instantaneously on touchdown but the fish failed to find hooks and Glenns stickbait had a real nice follow by a good sized fish but no strike. The GT's went quiet, despite the presence of the fusilier school still easily visible so we changed location. We had a few more strikes but still failed to get a solid hookup and then things went quiet. I switched to a Sea Frog 110 light in the hopes that the smaller lure would entice the GT's more and entice it did. It wasn't long before a decent fish inhaled the offering and a nice solid hookup. A nice fight ensued but unfortunately I pulled the hooks boat side. Lunchtime passed and still no GT's had hit the deck, despite a consistent amount of action. We decided to move from the lagoon to the outside of the reef but by this time the wind had changed to a westerly and completely shut down the fishing. But boy was it calm, on the outside there was barely a wave breaking on the reef. We persisted and it was mid afternoon by the time I finally hooked a solid fish. This time it didn't get off and a nice fish around 30kg made it's way onto the deck... finally! It was pretty close to start heading back in and we made our way closer to Koumac. Karl proceeded to land a mini GT and I felt quite content having landed the biggest fish of the day. Rudy made the call for final 10 casts. I think it was probably on about Glenns 8th cast and bam! He came up solid. This fish was foul hooked, and just about broke Glenn... not an ideal first GT for the trip... but after a very tough slug up came a nice GT around 35kg... damn, pipped at the post. This evening back at Koumac I noticed the wind pick up considerably, unusual for NC according to Rudy, and I tried not to think about the following day, beer aided with this.

Day Two:
Well, what else can I say, we woke up to Hell. On. Earth. The anemometer at the marina read a consistent 30 knots and the gusts would have been at least 40 knots. Spray jackets on, and onwards we pushed. "Only lagoon today", was Rudy's call - we were happy to oblige. The only fortunate thing about today was that the GT's were a lot more active, and with a few solid fish on the deck before 9am it almost made the horrendous wind bearable. We had a consistent array of GT's to around 25kg throughout the day which was quite enjoyable and then Glenn hooked a considerably better fish off a stunning island. After a really nice fight Glenn boated a rather respectable fish which Rudy called for 38kg. Shortly after, we fished a really nice looking shoal which Rudy said always produces so we were all eager to get our lures in. 3 casts all just about synchronised made their way into the water, Karl hooked up first and then Glenn proceeded to crank his popper in at 100kph to avoid a tangle upon which a nice GT smashed his popper in spectacular fashion. Double hookup! I continued to work mine and had an average GT come up and smash it but missed the hookup, nearly 3 rods bending! After the two fish were both landed and some pics taken things went quiet so we moved on and fished some isolated bommies just inside the outer reef. It was here that I saw the biggest coral trout I've ever seen in my life come up on Karls popper and we landed another couple of average GT's... Extremely tired from fishing in terrible weather all day we made the call to run home early, "Wind direction very bad", according to Rudy, which made for a very wet trip home.

Day Three:
Day three Rudy decided to head north. With a very strong southerly, marginally less than the day prior, it was actually a very nice dry ride in the Edgewater with a following sea. We fished some very rough reefs inside the lagoon for marginal interest before heading for some calmer, protected water close to Malabou. We proceeded to fish some ground that to me, didn't look like your typical GT ground. It was very calm, mangrove-lined islands with no obvious signs that you would normally suspect to find GT’s. We began by casting toward the island and then Rudy directed us to cast in the opposite direction. It was very difficult to see in the overcast conditions but there was actually a shallow reef. My 230g bigfoot touched down, one sweep and BAM! Surface explosion and fish on.  It was a nice relief to be able to fight a fish in nice calm conditions which almost seemed a little foreign by this point. A nice fish around the 28-30kg came up and it was good to land a nice fish in trying conditions. We then made the call to do some light tackle fishing while the GT’s were quiet. Glenn proceeded to knock over a number of fish including small trout and spangled emperor before we broke for lunch. We then got back into the GT fishing and fished against some cliffs that were part of the mainland. It was directly exposed to the horrendous south east wind and the water was choppy as hell. It proved surprisingly productive and it wasn’t long before Glenn knocked over an average fish that belted his pencil close to the boat in an awesome display. Shortly after, my bigfoot was annihilated by a better than average fish but pulled the hooks during an impressive run. We persisted a little longer for not many results before deciding to make the very long journey back to Koumac, directly into the 30kt+ south easterly.

Day Four:
Headed south again, this time further than we did on Day One. A good decision since the mornings are calmer and it’s nice to come home with the wind as it increases throughout the day. We began by fishing a shoal inside the lagoon but this proved not very fruitful. We decided to see what hell looked like on the outside and were very surprised to see that it was a lot more fishable than the lagoon... this was an exciting sign. The question didn’t even need to be asked where we would spend the remainder of the day. It’s worth noting that it was still some of the most difficult water I’ve ever had to pop in. We spent the rest of the morning and afternoon popping the outside of the reef, my memory of this part of the trip is a little sketchy but it was a tough slog, the weather made popping even more exhausting than it usually is and the GT’s had a lock jaw. We did get a few average GT’s, and I landed a personal best Coral Trout on popper and a Malabar Groper around 30kg which was fun. In fact, I was the Malabar Groper king, as I had caught about 5 at this point of trip to Karl & Glenns 0. Not an achievement that you particularly want!

Day Five:
I woke up on Day 5, whole body aching, and hesitantly dragged myself out of bed... head throbbing from too many Number Ones the night prior. I braced myself to look out the window, expecting to see palm trees bent sideways as per the previous 3 days but my heart almost skipped a beat when I saw the trees barely moving. Headache just about vanished instantly and the adrenalin made the aches and pains in my body disappear... yessss! Quick shower and then woke up the other boys to share the good news. When Rudy arrived his first comment was priceless... “The weather gods have answered your prayers”. We headed straight to the outer reef directly adjacent to Koumac and began fishing North, picking up exactly where we left off from Day Four. My memory from this day is a little sketchy also, I guess that’s what happens when you catch so many fish and it’s almost like a brain overload. The total tally for the day was 24 GT’s, exactly equal to my previous best day with Nomad at Bugatti reef... although it’s worth noting that the average size of the NC fish was considerably larger. A couple of remarkable things occurred this day, the first being that the two last GT’s of the entire trip were the two biggest at 55kg and 42kg respectively. Talk about leaving it to the last minute. The other being that after Rudy commented that it was a great opportunity to film GT strikes due to the consistent activity, I pulled my camera out to try get a strike for the first time this trip. I filmed Glenn for about three casts then stopped and filmed Karl and it was his very first cast when he hooked the 55kg monster. I will make a video clip, when I get around to it. For anyone who is interested, the fight time was 10min 30sec. Also another interesting fact, LPB record is 25 GT’s.

A HUGE shoutout to LPB. As always they put in an impeccable effort to put us onto good fish and although on some days 80% of the ground was unfishable we still fished ground that was highly productive and never fished the same spots twice, always travelling to new ground every day. Thanks to Karl and Glenn for the laughs and making this the best GT trip I’ve been on   8)

Tried a few of the wrecks behind rotto and the north patch! (shitty weather) Let me just say sharks are almost on every single won. Lost a good 10 alltogether to the sharks all on different wrecks. Moved on soon as we got sharked. Came into the 40's hot spot! boated 28 between 2 of us with no sharks in sight 

Unless you like blowing money on jigs, or use wire traces theres is no point going out there really!!!

North patch was the worst by far. Hook up 5 seconds later "gone"

The Moore river bar at guiderton has broken. There's not a big head of water behind it so it may not last too long.  

Went out to ocean reef rock wall tonight, ocean side of the far rock wall from the boat ramp there, got down about 6pm, the boys were useing whole mulies, i had baby ones, half an hour in and pull up the most baby flathead i have ever seen, , chucked him back, mates kyle and jaxi managed 5 baby port jacksons between them, decided to have a go inside the bay, plenty of action on the surface all night but nothing taking the bait, ended up with 2 size crabs from the nets, unfortunatly no photos as i left my phone at home, was at the same spot 2 nights ago and got 4 tailor and a pike

What can I say !!!

Wild fishing at its best form ..................

Wait till you fish wild sebarau upstream with me then you know what is fun N happening !!! :)

The journey upstream !!! The natural fishing ground !!! Whole day non stop actions !!!

 All make the upstream wild fishing trip an exciting and adventures trip for the anglers in Thailand .

Do practise catch N release whenever you can.

We've our fun , let the fish live to fight  another day !!!

"He conquers who endures."  ~Persius

Enjoys the explosive non actions - PART 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrZEIQ5dHug

Fast running stream flows actions- PART 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkB2snPCfqY 

Highlights photos of the day....

Upstream scenery....

Me and the mother nature.....
Best moment of my life....;)

Prized 2.13 KG sebarau (jungle perch)

Another biggies > 2KG landed on my rapala lure.... ;)

Can't fish for Demersals so had a crack at the little ones and came up with these.

The Kgs were great. Just outside the sound we found these.

All on fresh squid tentacles.Not many squid around?????????????

Good feed

So can anyone confirm the rumors of mackies being caught already? PM me if its on the quiet haha

Hey guys,

Just got back from Kalbarri was supposed to be there for the whole weekend but had such a good night we decided to come home early.

The first morning was spent spinning for Tailor at my usual haunts but things were quiet and decided to call it quits and catch up on lost sleep from the night of driving.

Friday night was spent soaking baits for Mulloway after at least 20 lost rigs to huge sharks the first mulloway came in around 6ish kgs. After a couple more shark bust offs the second one comes in around 3-4kgs.

The night was coming to an end and my bro all sad on not catching anything  his rod finally buckles over, after a short time later he lands a nice mulloway around 13-14kgs.

We all decide to call it quits have a sleep and get up nice an early for a morning session.

With only darda and myself getting up i decide to pinch my bros 7ft saltwater and 4000 sol to bait cast for some tailor while my big rod had a nice tailor fillet soaking. First cast on the light outfit and i find myself chasing another mulloway down the beach trying to keep it away from all the little bommies. After a good 10 mins he was beat and i had my second mulloway for the trip guessing it was around 12kgs.

With Darda now complaining about still not catching a mulloway his rod finally buckles over and he ends ups landing one around 8kgs.

Couple more sharks bust offs and we were done. We were all stoked with the night/morning we decided to leave on a high and headed back to Perth.

I released my 2 Mulloways and the other boys decided to keep there's being there first and wanting to get the jewels.

Hope ya like the pics.

Kris

I managed to get out for a fish today from Mindaries. With strong easterlies we were limited to stay in close and try for some Squid until midday. Unfortunately the squid just didn't want to play the game.

With time running out and the wind dropping a bit , we decided to try for some sand whiting. Headed out to around 18m, found some sand and two hours later came back in with a nice feed. The biggest going 32cm.

Also caught 10 or more very small flatties but no big ones for the esky. Besides a couple N/W blowies nothing else was landed.

On a side note, i couldn't find my release weight and went to buy a new one. I was really disappointed in the quality on offer in the stores. They were large but without much weight. (some sort of alloy mixed with lead ? ) Also the hook was just galvanized wire like they had used an old coat hanger.

So i went to my workshop and tried out a couple of shapes with my lead moulds and came up with this one. Didn't get to try it out yet but will let you guys know how it went as soon as i get a chance to use it.

Cheers Grant..

hey guys im thinking about going for a fish tomorrow just wondering what rigs and bait you find most effective to catch small metro sharks and rays any sugestions on good spots would be appreciated.

Hi all, I'm new to the site so thought I'd make a report.

Went to Hillaries north rock wall this evening, went down by myself because I bought a whole heap of new gear and was itching to christen it but to my disappointment I couldn't catch a bloody thing! I didn't even get one bite nor nibble, with two rods out I would have thought I was doubling my chances but nope. Was just throwing out some pillys incase anyone's interested.

I'm dead keen to pop the cherry of my new Snyder glass rod and alvey reel so if anyone wants to point me in the right direction for a tailor or two, I would much appreciate. Hopefully I can post a few exciting reports for you guys in the future!! :)

 Wade and I headed north of Perth today for a bit of arm stretching and boy did we get it, First drop of the day resulting in two Kings which just about set the scene for the rest of the day with countless numbers of all Seriolas. It was pretty exciting seeing 30+kg ambers attacking smaller models with many fish taking jigs all the way to the surface, Anyways thanks for an awesome day again mate.

Headed out to rotto early today for a jig with 2 mates their first sambo jigging. Headed out to a few spots with no luck and moved on and my mate(Dave) hooked up to what looked to be a good sambo out a nice bend in the pe5 jig gear...During the fight the other mate(dean) hooked up to what looked like a sambo until it spat the jig. after a decent fight with the sambo Dave strated to see colour coming up with somthing else following it up most probly a shark. anyways beat the shark up to reveal 2 sambos caught on 1 jig that had 2 assist hooks  on it the bigger one went close to 15kg and the other to 8kg.Dave was very pleased to catch his first sambo on jig. dean later caught a decent black ass that was released of course on a flutter jig meant for sambos. it was a good day even though I didnt catch anything and was happy to convert 2 mates to jigging. cheers

thought id go for a flick with the old man and the neighbour, headed down to at about 6 o clock. took a while for the tailor to start biting, but once they started they stayed for a while. ended up keeping 5 with the biggest at 40 and smallest about 35, not bad from around fremantle way :)