Lost a couple more. They go hard. My biggest metro tailor so far

Me hooked up! by Marc Russo (Australia), on Flickr I took today off work and went to Penguin island. Landed this really nice tailor by Marc Russo (Australia), on Flickr Very sharp teeth by Marc Russo (Australia), on Flickr

I was lucky enough to get an invite with Rob(the supervisor) today. Unfortunately he got called into work so it was a 9.45am start for us. Left Mindarie marina and looking at the gps i thought wed try a small patch about 8mile out. Finding the school we got one to stay on the wheel and the other drop. Rob with placcy and i with metal, Rob came up chumps with a cracker snap that went mental in the water and then again once he landed it on the boat. Measured 95cm, weight im not sure but he may have weighed it at home. Great way to christen that new stella, thanks for a good little sesh mate enjoy your feed:)

pic was from my blackberry, sorry

Gday all Just looking for some advice, reccommendations on what sounder to get. Was gonna get a combo but the budget doesnt reall streatch that far

and have a realiable GPS any way. Just to let you know i was looking at the lowrance HDS 7 so want a sounder similar to those specs. The two brands I'm focusing on atm is lowrance and furuno

Cheers for any help

WOOHOO :D

I've been looking through forums in fishwrecked and thought i should join :)

not that pro with fishing but I headed to fremantle tonight to try for some squid 

it was pretty windy tonight and there were a few fobs but... 

yippeee!!!

xo 

 I’ve been getting up to Jurien a bit lately and I got up with a few mates on the weekend with a good looking forecast we had planned on getting out Sunday and Monday although a bit of engine trouble prevented us getting back out there on Monday. It was a good thing the fish were on the bite on Sunday. The first drop of the day resulted in all four of us hooking up to bauldies, a snapper and a dhu to top it off. We ended up with around 10 dhues 6 bauldies and a snapper for the day when we headed back to be cleaned up before the footy.

Fishing Jurien for the next four days anybody want to give away the coordinates to their favourite spots, lol I had to try .Any body lucky enough to have fished here in the last few days ?

Thanks Vince

Gday all

Went to Harvey again this morning.

No trout for me but the father in law got himself a nice rainbow.

I managed 3 small, well maybe tiny redfin. But another species off the list for me.

Rainbow was 42cm. Not a bad first trout for him.

Lots of fish rising again. Had 2 nice rainbows follow my lure all the way to the bank a couple times aswell.

Another great morning at a bloody bewdiful spot.

Cheers

Dan

Hey,

We headed out from two rocks yesturday at 6 am for a day of fishing. It was a Great day out on the water especially after 11 am it really flattend off for the rest of the day and the fish were really on the bite. We caught 5 blackass 1 on soft plastic the rest on bait 4 were released, 3 baldchin groppers only 1 was sized, 1 Queen snapper which was also realsed and 2 dhuies. The monster dhuie in the photo was around 18 kg and caught on a soft plastic and it put up a hell of a fight and it was realsed successfully. It was the best day out we have ever had and soft plastics are the way to go once you know how to uses them.

Cheers,

Rob

Sorry if you are over me and Harvey dam but i am having a ball down there at the momment and this Is really my first trout season that I have  got out and given it a real go.

We headed of down there again this morning at 4am and got the line wet at about 6 am , man it was cold even though we were just fishing from the bank at this stage, my hands had gone blue from the cold .

At about 8 it had warmed up so we could once again feel our hands we moved round to the back of the dam and fond a nice spot with lots of trees in the water , turned out to be a great sppot , I caught a nice male rainbow of about 38cm which we sent back into the water and then one of my sons got onto a nice rainbow , estimated to be about the 30+ cm , unfortunately it did some nice aerobatics and threw the hook , i had the same thing happen about five mins later, all went better about 20 mins later when I landed a nice rainbow that went just over 2.4lb and 43cm long .

was another great day down there ,cant wait till next time .

As promised here is the report on our trip to Wildman Lake Lodge, Alaska    (http://www.wildmanlodge.com/index.php )   which is located close to the mainland beginning of the Aleutian chain.   The nearest road is 500 miles away and the way you get around is either by bush plane with large balloon tyres or by floatplane.

I chose this lodge as it was the only one offering dedicated wildlife viewing (for my wife) whilst I was able to fish – most of the others apart from one on Kodiak either had wildlife viewing and nothing else or just fishing and they expected my wife Jen could tag along and might?? see a bear of two. 

As this holiday was a 60th birthday present to ourselves this lodge was by far and away the best option.

Now I know these lodges aren’t cheap but as this was a once in a lifetime trip we figured we had to stretch the budget – bluntly we should have stretched it further and stayed for the whole week – it was truly that special. Let me put it this way – if I get the slimmest of possibilities to get back there wild horses won’t keep me from getting there.

Our light plane transport landed on the dirt strip and pulled up literally on the lawn outside the lodge accommodation where we were greeted by all the staff.  I was lucky, as the only fisherman in the group that week I had an exclusive guide Peter who immediately asked whether I wanted to go fishing after lunch – you bet I did.

The lodge actually overlooks Ocean River which is spring fed and crystal clear all year around.  Now before heading to Alaska I had learned (poorly or soooo poorly ) how to fly fish and the guide offered his personal top of the line gear for my exclusive use. 

Walking mere metres from the lodge to the “minefield” – an area of shallow gravel bars which run for perhaps 300 yards downstream - I was greeted with the most unbelievable sight, literally hundreds of coloured up spawning sockeye as far as the eye could see. 

Peter attached a “lawyer” fly – a purple egg sucking leech and instructed me to drop it immediately behind ‘that’spawning salmon which was not exactly difficult given there were hundreds in view. The weighted fly drifted all of two feet before it was engulfed by a dolly varden and my first fish on a fly was on – a good fight ensured but it was soon unhooked and released.

  Next cast a large male sockeye angrily slashed at the fly as it drifted through it’s terror and another hook up and a much harder fight with smashed knuckles from the fly reel again stinging like hell.  And so it went on all afternoon, crappy cast or not (and there was plenty of terrible casting by me) fish after fish came to hand to be released.

The next day was the same – we jet boated to several places including a tributary containing massive rainbows only to be chased away by a grizzly and two cubs after only one good fish – you do not mess with mumma  bears as they are extremely danagerous.

My tally on day two was (we lost count) somewhere in the order of 46 fish, sockeye, a lone silver, dollies and char as well as the single large rainbow – I lost at least double that as in the afternoon we had made it more sporting changing to a two weight light tippet dry fly set up – now that really is exciting – casting to tiny rises only to hook up on really large fish as well as the occasional small one.

Third day started wet and after meeting the remainder of the wildlife viewing group my guide and I walked miles along the black sands Bering Sea noting huge bear tracks and wolf prints bigger that my hand.   We collected numerous net float glass balls last used by Japanese trawlers back in the fifties yet still surfacing and floating ashore 60 years later.

As part of the activities at the lodge I got a trip over the smoking caldera of Mt Aniakchak which was clearly visible from the main lodge – we passed  over the caldera twice just to ensure everyone aboard the 1957 Beaver didn’t miss getting a good view

Great trip, great accommodation, food, guiding and fishing (catching) – worth every cent and when compared with exclusive barra fishing in the Territory  - apart from the airfares quite comparable – add it to your bucket list – it is a must

More big tailor this morning with Rig and Sherbz. Arriving at about 5.30am again this morning to give it all a go. was quiet for about 10 mins until it just turne to chaos again!

A good half an hour session this morning with everyone hooking up onto tailor ranging between the 50 - 60cm.

I caught 6, Rig got about 6 also, and the TAILOR MASTER MR SHERBERT got 1!....although he did give his rod to another person to wind in and they kept his other fish haha!

All in all it was a great morning and some awesome action to go with it!

Pictured tailor is 58cm

Popped the cherry.One of eight caught on a epic session in the Kimberley.

During our recent trip we arranged to fish for King Salmon in the legendary Russian River / Kenai River, trouble is we arrived a day late and the King Salmon season had closed and, as an alternative, we went fishing** for perhaps the best eating salmon of the lot Sockeye or Red Salmon.

Our guide got us up early – 4am – on a miserably wet day and we put the boat in at Soldotna and motored up the Kenai to fish a gravel bar (you are not permitted to target Sockeye from a boat) arriving at first light.  As we pulled up a majestic bald eagle flew from the bar and we were quickly rigged up with fly rods and shown how to “fish”.

Well in truth it wasn’t actually fishing at all – it was more like flailing the water to a froth with a set distance of line out .........the lure wasn’t a lure or fly for that matter, it was a 4/0 chemically sharpened mustad snapper hook with the smallest bit of wool tied into the eye.  You were not allowed to fish a bare hook and hence the attachment of a tiny piece of wool, colour didn’t matter.

Well how does this catch fish you might ask – I did – well it seems all sea run sockeyes when they enter the river system simply swim upstream with their mouth open ........the object of the game is to get any part of you line caught in the gape of their mouth and as they current sweeps your line down and the fish travels upstream the hook is naturally pulled through the gape of the mouth and as the hook passes through you hook them.

Those who cast more often catch more fish – no skill involved just bloody perseverance, and in freezing wet weather you need plenty, but it is hardly what I call fishing it is snagging.

Yes I caught some great fish, standing in the water (and convention calls for ALL fishermen to position themselves the same distance from the bank so you don’t spook the salmon out too far out into the river) either way the water is clear enough for you to watch literally hundreds of salmon to swim past you every hour – hooking or rather snagging  them is a mere formality, if you hook one in the tail and boy do they fight when you do you must release them as that is considered illegal and unsporting but, seriously is snagging them in the mouth any different.

Yes the fight they put up was great, bruised knuckles from wildly spinning fly reel handles attests to that but, in reality I walked away somewhat disappointed – this wasn’t the fishing I expected – oh yes and on the small gravel bar it was combat fishing to the extreme, two other boats and another 10 anglers turned up and we finished up fishing (snagging) shoulder to shoulder it one of the most remote areas in the world ..........thank goodness I had a fishing trip booked to Wildman Lake Lodge later during holiday – that report and photos follow shortly.

During our trip to Alaska I had arranged an all day Halibut (giant flat fish) trip out of the halibut capital supposedly of the world.  Sounds romantic, indeed from the scarp overlooking Homer spit it looks really attractive – the reality is that it is a very ugly, grey, fishing town.

Waking early and looking over the ocean out of the hotel room window I was greeted with a fine day, gentle breeze and, by WA standards, a light chop on the ocean.   As a charter I was one of a group of ten who were to be fishing out of a 40 foot charter vessel.  Trouble was only five miles out the skipper put it to the vote (with full refund) as he considered it “a little rough” – hell the conditions by our standards were superb but with a 5/5 split the skipper turned around.

With only that day available due to ongoing plans the moment we hit port I shot across to some of the half day charter operators and was successful  in securing a spot for the afternoon but that meant not being able to target the really large halibut out wide – we would be limited to – chickens – less than 50lb fish closer in

The tackle provided was typical charter style except for the actual rigs made up of thick Dacron traces tied directly to 10/0 circles and large kilo leads for bottom bouncing

The idea is that you deliberately bang the lead on the bottom hard and often and this stirs up the sand / mud and the noise attracts the halibut.

Well it works a treat, the afternoon proved even better than the morning with a total glass off and the only sea movement being huge up-wellings caused by the strong currents and large bottom obstructions.

Fish were easy to hook and you are only allowed two fish (kept) and the moment you elect to keep two you are required to stop fishing – you cannot fish on catch and release as you might kill another fish and exceed your limit (which is to be changed next year to one fish per person as they consider the stocks “endangered” – from what I saw and experienced that seems unlikely but with only a half day fish and a clearly good skipper perhaps I was lucky.  It is however interesting to see the approach  taken here being matched across the world.

Here are a couple photos from the day, the boat bagged out easily and I gave my two fish to a retired local.  Yes they fight and fight hard, the larger ones are actually harpooned and killed before coming aboard as they are considered too dangerous with huge hooks flailing around a charter boat that is understandable but not very sporting.  Still an experience – next time (I hope there is a next time ) I will get to target one of the barn door sized versions ..........and yes they are superb to eat, sweet firm and very like snapper in texture – yum

Had a nice little bream session in the swan tonight for about an hour and a half. 

8 Bream caught.  2 biggest were 40cm and 39cm, which is a new pb for me :)

the rest of them were around the 32 - 37cm.

most fish released...kept one each for the pan :)

Another nice morning of fishing today :)  definately wasn't as active as on tuesday but some real thumpers around! Would have been on the bite for about 10 mins today....5 of which me and Jeffree lost 2 lures and Jeff got busted off on a very big tailor!

Lots of action but we got our couple of fish over the 55cm.

Also got my PB today with a 64cm Tailor!

Had a great tailor session yesterday morning north of metro.  Been going up a few times a week to try to hit the big schools and it finally paid off.

Arriving there about 5.30am gave us enough time to get everything ready and start flicking around the lures.  Just as it started to get light it really turned on for about half an hour with just about every cast getting a hook up!

All tailor were a good size between the 50 - 60cm mark, biggest being 58cm i think.  We kept a couple each but released most of the ones we could land.  All in all was a great mornings fishing which ended at about 6.30am...enough time to get back for work :)

New Caledonia: Round 2

Following our failed trip in February courtesy of Cyclone Atu, it was with great relief that I received an email from Rudy a few days prior to our departure confirming that our August trip was a goer! We had waited months to have another crack at some GTs.

For two of us expecting new family members soon (mine due only three days after my return) this was going to be the last trip for a while. Together with our newest group member Rob, we would spend a week aboard Le Poisson Banane’s Antares.

It wasn’t long before tragedy struck. As we arrived in Sydney airport from Perth, my mobile rang and Kasey informed Ricky and I that he was still stuck on the Nomad Odyssey due to bad weather! Somehow we managed to fight our urge to leave him behind (after all he'd already caught some GTs right?) and agreed to lose one day’s fishing to wait for him to get to Noumea.

The next four days fishing was hard work. Despite a promising start the fishing got progressively harder during the course of the week and the GTs had a case of lock-jaw. David tried his best to put us on the fish, but they just weren’t cooperating. That’s fishing I guess. We all took it in turns to remind Kasey that Monday, the day we had spent waiting for him to arrive, would probably have been the best day of the trip 

Despite the slow fishing, we all still enjoyed ourselves, and there were plenty of memorable moments to keep us all entertained. I can only imagine what it this place is like when it is firing! Kasey, Ricky and Rob, it was a pleasure fishing with you guys.

Some of our photos

Le Poisson Banane's Antares at the Koumac marina.

An assortment of Carpenter's & Ripplefisher's were the weapons of choice

One of my first GTs for the trip, only a little fella.

One of Rob's GTs

Boy, the coral trout in New Caledonia sure are big and angry!

One of Ricky's GTs. Gotta hand it to this guy, despite a shoulder injury that's been annoying him for the last 9 months, he fishes like he's possessed!

Kasey loaded up.

David our skipper & guide. Always professional, even after spending an hour and a half fixing the broken onboard toilet! Kasey, Rocky and Rob were quick to point the finger in my direction.... thanks ALOT guys ::)

David accepts a fishing challenge from Kasey at the back of the boat.

This unfortunate grouper decided to grab my Fullscale popper after a GT had spat it out.

Caught on a soft plastic, I still can’t believe this monster didn’t inhale the whole lot and bite through the mono trace! Rob initially announced to us that he had hooked a “sea shit”, (aka some poor small reef fish) but it wasn’t long before something decided the “sea shit” was lunch and Rob’s rod buckled over. We initially called it for a shark but a few minutes later this monster mackerel came aboard. Shame a small shark managed to take a chunk out of it a few metres from the boat.

GT inhales a Yambal GT harrier stickbait

Can't wait for next time!

 Hi Guys,

While in the Northern Territory I wanted to get after some good Barramundi and some of the other spp. like Saratoga. I have been a little reluctant to fish the tidal stretches of the rivers mainly because I have no boat but more so because the upstream clearer non tidal stretches must be far more pleasant to fish. Sure the fish might not be as big but sometimes its not all about size:)

So I had a plan when the guy who has kindly put me up in Darwin suggests his secret spot in Kakadu. Sounds good and Graham even kindly offers to drop me and my bike out there which is good as it means I can easily carry enough supplies to keep me going for two weeks no problem.

So we headed out a few weeks ago, me with some bags bulging with tins of baked beans, noodles, snickers and a heap of new lures that I suspect might tempt some fish. Graham with a few bits to camp for a night before heading back to Darwin for work.

Well as soon as we found  a spot and saw the river I knew it was going to be a very interesting two weeks. grabbing my rod and attaching a small rubber shad within 5 casts a small Barra graced the bank, followed a few casts later by one of his mates. I then tried a small rubber crayfish (that twitchemup had kindly given me) and bang! on the drop a Saratoga nails it..hmm interesting indeed! three fish so a cup of tea was in order before having a wander up stream.

The rest of the afternoon passed with four species nailling the crap out of my lures. Barra, Saratoga,tarpon and Sooty Grunter. The river is shallow with a golden sand bed and every so often a pool will be found that more often than not is full of fish. Personal fishing as you see the follow, the take, the fight and then the fish swim back to it's spot. By the end of the afternoon I ended up landing around 24 fish and losing countless others. The last one was the heftiest. A nice Barra that tried to eat my spinner bait 5 times before finally getting it on the 6th cast. past the shallows are deeper strecthed where bigger fish lurk

On the way up I nearly stood on this crocodile

In the shallows many of the Barra were small but still very entertaining thanks to their cartwheels and tail walks

So the next morning Graham went back to Darwin and I started exploring and fishing hard. Its a long story which I can't really complete here but over the next 10 days I didn't see a single other person and caught probably around 250 fish of the above mentioned spp. and also some good Archer Fish. Most came to surface lure which made for some heart stopping takes. Plenty of great jumping antics from the barra and Saratoga and hard fights from the Sooties.

A barra that wanted the heddon baby torpedo

Hard fighting Sooty grunter on the surface lure

The Saratoga were big and strong. great fights with jumps and acrobatics. Hard bony mouths tho so often they would throw the hooks right at the bank

One of the better Barra on the surface lure

The Archer fish were something to behold and fought hard for their size. I remember reading them when I was a tiddler in one of my nature books..shit a fish that shoots insects out of a tree! wow and here they were nailing my surface lures! great

The Saratoga had some serious chompers so you must feel sorry for any frog that ventures into the river...or for that matter a r2s tango prop. most of the paint had been removed after 3 days.

battered and bruised after just three days. Sometimes the fish were really keen. One day from up in a tree i watched a 4kg Saratoga and a 4kg Barra both homing in on the lure from different directions. needless to say they both missed but it was pretty good viewing. At one spot I found a shoal of Barra..all around 40-60cm...they became frenzied after a few casts so I removed the hooks from the baby torpedo and had 13 strikes in 16 casts. some took the lure so hard and fast they even took line from the clutch.

Nice shot of a Saratoga in the shallow water

I had plenty of run ins with crocs...some a bit too close for comfort. One come up and try to smash the rubber frog. I had been casting for a few minutes in one spot so must have pissed him off. It was quite a strike with plenty of white water. Luckily i could get the lure out of the way. After that had three more follow froggy to with in 4 metres of the bank. 

This was the lure that the crocs didn't like!

food stash for two weeks. I had to eat my through some before I could move on the bicycle.

Lure stash. most didn't get used but you never never know when you might need one..better to be prepared!!

A highly overloaded bicycle! because of all the buffalo hoof prints and the fact I had hurt my leg I pushed 50km down stream. after that the road got better and the bike lighter so I could ride again

Pushing to a new fishing spot

river at dusk before a big croc came out to thrash the fish all night..and scare the shit out of me!

After 700+nights my tent zip eventually broke. great luck to be next to a kakadu swamp. that was day three so for the nest 11 days the mozzies had a field day! luckily graham had left me some spray that helped a bit. I still struggled to sleep..and here I was contemplating the merits of mosquitoes! I came to the conclusion that they are w**"£Rers:)

The fish were pretty keen for a feed!:)

I nearly forgot the high speed ox eye tarpon. Plenty to put on a jumping show. a real delightful fish to catch

Fished out and exhausted after a long push downstream..march flies were sorting me out here!

there was great wildlife. lots of birds and also saw pigs, buff and horses, snakes, goannas, turtles, crocs, loads of fruit bats and heaps of interesting insects

Nice

stinking feral pigs

casting lures

Good Barra that couldn't resist the surface fizzer

I hated these ants in India and now I hate them even more! they haven't got much going for them apart from having green bums but i don't even know if thats a good thing!

After exploring around 40km of river and walking over 12okm in the first ten days I decided to start moving. On the way I met a doctor from Darwin who invited me to join him in his tinny. It was nice to have company after ten days of solitude. At least I didn't have to talk to myself quite so much and he had cold beers!!

The DR

A good barra that we decided to throw on the coals for lunch

waiting for the fire to burn down

barra cooked to perfection

crocs came for a look when we were in the tinny.

Saying goodbye to DR Keith. Luckily my bike was lighter now having eaten most of my food in the previous 12 days. After a 10km push I could cycle for remaining few hundred kms back to darwin. Somehow with my shot leg I made it back in record time. I feel very priviledged to have got to fish this pristine place. The water tasted sweet and everything about the place was perfect. (apart from the mozzies) I hope one day I get to go back. Hope you guys enjoyed. There are many more photos on my site,

all the best, Scott

www.worldbiker.blogspot.com

It's always difficult drafting a fishing report knowing that there will be several months until another adventure.

Fortunately, the memories & photos fill the void whilst working & there's always time with your mates to share the stories over a few beers.

2011 marked the third adventure to Christmas Island for me. I consider C.I a special place, not just because of the quality of fishing, but also the opportunity to catch up with Mark Rochfort aka Rocky of Shorefire Charters (www.shorefire.com.au), relax, leave the rat race behind & also have a great time with a mate or two. This year, being the 3rd year, also marked the amount of time I've lived in W.A.

I've been fortunate to fish a variety of destinations over the last few years & Christmas Island has always appealed to me. It's important to note, the quality of fishing also demands experience, ability & fitness. Experience really is a two way street; the angler & the charter operator. Rocky has it all covered. He has decades of local knowledge & experience & take my word, experience & local knowledge is fundamental when you want to catch something unbelievable. You wouldn't want to hand over your hard earned if the skipper knew more about trout fishing rather than dog tooth jigging or GT popping. Rocky is a great bloke & it's always a pleasure to be guided by him. I also keep returning because I have comfort that Rocky will deliver a great time.

Heavy tackle surface luring & medium to heavy jigging isn't for the faint hearted. For me & plenty of mates, this form of fishing really gets the blood pumping.

Chris (chrisp) accompanied me this year. I always thoroughly enjoy fishing with Chris, whether that be dhuie jigging or beach fishing, we always have a good time, especially over a few brews. We had planned this trip 12 months in advance & I know Chris put the sleep sedatives through their paces in the weeks leading up to take off.

This was Chris's first heavy surface luring expedition & I knew as soon as he punched out his first cast, I was against some serious competition. I did take a moment to laugh when Chris hooked his first G... the word "Damn!" still makes me laugh. As much as everyone explained how brutal this form of fishing was going to be, it still doesn't really prepare you enough. You just need to experience it first hand & if you love it, you'll continue to do it. It isn't for everyone however.

The fishing we experienced this trip was simply sensational. We spent 90% of the time casting surface lures, the rest, trolling from spot a to b & jigging. Unfortunately the weather didn't allow us to venture to the hot jigging spots, but hey, that's fishing - you can't always get what you want! The surface fishing kept us entertained anyway!

GT's were aggressive, YFT were in numbers, red bass, jobfish, blue finned trevs & some big unidentified monsters were encountered on surface lures. At times, we saw multiple species attacking our lures. The competition was fierce & exciting. I recall birds hovering centimeters above my stickbait & GT's carving them up. If the GT's didn't connect, red bass were quick on their case. It was just awesome.

I always find that on every trip, there's always a memorable fish that really makes the trip one to remember. First year was the masses of barrel YFT, second year was my big GT & this year, for Chris, a sail fish on popper at 6am (yes, 6am), & for me, another solid GT & YFT.
Chris's sail fish crunched a popper 5 meters from the boat & started to do the aerial display 10 meters away. I took on the 'wicket keeper' stance on the casting deck hoping it wouldn't jump aboard! Lucky! The fish was very dark & had longtoms sticking out of its mouth. What a fish & an experience for Chris!

Moments later, Chris's popper was boofed by another solid fish. The boil in the water was massive & Rocky & I stood stunned to see a massive triangle head bobbing above the waterline. Chris's lucky streak was momentarily withdrawn with a tip wrap which didn't allow him to set the hooks. This tuna (YFT or doggie) was big, let me tell you. Unlucky!

This was only day 2! The day before Chris landed his first GT (and a solid G to boot), which also set the bench mark for the trip. Back to back GT's dished out some pain to Chris, but we kept wanting more.

On the very limited jigging front, I hooked what I thought was a solid tuna. After a grueling 15 minute tug of war in 200m of water, I landed a beaut GT. I also got stuck into several quality GT's on surface lures throughout the week. In 2 days, I had landed 12 solid GT's & lost a few more to hooks being pulled. We also put in an effort for an afternoon YFT sesh & I was rewarded with a beaut YFT on popper which smashed the lure 2 meters from the boat. This fish stripped some serious line under serious drag pressure & luckily didn't take anyones ears off as it zipped from the front of the boat to the back within a millisecond. I think my reel will need some shimano attention now.

More memorable moments include Chris scoring a new nickname for the trip, being "buster pancakes". Buster; for busting 2 stella's. Pancakes; for cooking up a homemade batch of pancakes & maple syrup for dinner one night. (We had enough of tuna at one point).  We also enjoyed a night with Rocky & his family eating beer battered wahoo & a spread of dishes, chocolate cake & beer & bourbon. The local chinese was delish & the umpteen beers we consumed on the balcony overlooking the cove was tranquility.

I'm sure the pictures will deliver a better story, so hope you enjoy.

11 & a half months & I'll be back.
Daz.

 It's starting to warm upagain and the rains easing, and i know the flathead are starting to invade the river, but have they got as far as canning bridge yet?

 Tuesday i was lucky enough to take a day off work, and head up to Jurien Bay for a day out with Craig White on Seasport Charters. We left home just on 5am and arrived in JBay around 7.30 where myself and Carmel met up with my ol'mate Graeme, Scott Coghlan and his mate Ash, we were introduced to Whitey and first mate Blair, loaded up the yaks and gear and away we went. It was a glorius morning, and we were greeted by dead flat waters as the 50' ex cray boat powered off into the waters of the bay. 

 Got out this morning and started out at the Cott Groyne, thought the winds were going to be pretty low but they were pushing hard into the groyne along with some good swell, so didn't hang around long as I only brought the bream gear down with some plastics. Headed down to the moles to see what was happening there, unfortunately it was pretty quiet, berleyed really hard and only managed on chopper tailor on plastic. Didnt see any other fish caught either at both north and south moles. Guess its one of those days where the tides and weather weren't the best.

The wild !!! The excitment !!! And the high expectation !!!

Hunting for massive monster MAMA toman in Thailand , need great amount of fishing skills & local knowledges.

I bought along 8 different types of toman lures & frogs, in the end rubber ribbit  lure still work best.

What lure to use,  largely has to depend on what kind of terrains you're fishing and the situations during the  'hot MAMA pursuits' :)

That require  great amount of wild fishing experience.

Woke up in the wee morning, drove  400KM to my MAMA destination is no joke.

Only avid toman lovers / anglers can apply for my job. haha !!!

Important: Do practise catch & release whenever you can while fishing in the wild especially when come to MAMA toman.
Without the mother toman by baby toman side, all baby toman fry will die eventually or been eaten up by other fishes.

Enjoys the exciting vid clip I done for my monster Snakehead adventure trip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-yI9Igt76A

 
18 Ibs weight on my original 30Ibs boga grip, almost 9KG massive MAMA toman... ;)

Put together a group of guys for a trip out with Whitey on Sunday 28 August, for some plastic and jig action.

Me and a couple of the guys went up on the Friday night to fish my boat on the Saturday. We did ok, but didn't have any marks so wasted a lot of time sounding around. Ended up with 8 species for the day, all on jig. Fish included a good baldie, whaler shark, dhuie etc.

After a nice feed of fresh baldie and cuttlefish and a few too many beers on the Saturday night, we met up with the rest of the guys on the Sunday morning.

The swell on both days was running around the 3.5 metre mark, bu the wind was pretty kind, so conditions were not too bad.

We tried for some snapper at the first couple of drops and got a couple (mostly on plastic), but the action was not that hot so we moved on.

Third spot we hit up was holding a massive school of sambos. While there were no horses, everyone on the boat got stuck into them. I'm not sure how many the boat landed as a whole, but I'm guessing around 30+, with me hauling up 10 including one double header (all jigged). Notable mention to Uluabuster who I think took the big fish on lightest outfit award (14lb leader or something?).

By this stage it was around 9am, and time to chase the dhuies. The bite was very hot when we got to the dhuie ground, with just about everyone hooking up on the first drift. A few great fish came aboard. We jigged 21 of them keeping our limit, with all others released well. Was impressed to see Whitey take the boat back to pick up a smaller dhu that didnt stay down after a go with the release weight, and and have a second crack at it to make sure it stayed down - good operator. With our dhuie limit caught before 10am, we went out deeper chasing some snapper and others.

When we got to the deeper spots I upped the jigs to a 240gr lumo model, and pretty soon came up hard to a solid fish. After a pretty tough fight, up came (much to my disappointment), the biggest NW blowie I've ever seen. The pic doesnt do it justice, but for a scale of reference, the jig hanging out of its mouth is around 15cm long.

All in all was a great day, with plenty of good fish caught. We are booked to go again on 2 October, and I can't wait to get back into it!

Dan

A follow on from Twichemup's report from the islands this week. Magic day on the water with plenty of fish boated and released. Ended up with several trout, dhu and baldies for the day with a PB 5kg trout to bp0685 and a PB 10kg due to Ringy35 and myself. Thanks to Lloyd for letting us tag along and fish his drops. We will def be out that way again. All fish caught on plastics including a huge squid about 2-3kg. Enjoy the pics.

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5kg trout

Nice dhu released

Another

Another

10kg Dhu PB

My PB 10kg Dhu

Tough conditions

 August in Exmouth saw very mild wind free days, making boating great.  Early in the month boys caught a nice sized marlin as well as landing bluies, rankin and emperor out deeper.  Other crew reported good day with mixed bags of emperor,  and spanglies.  Boys had fun yesterday until sharks moved in and made life tricky.  Good sized schools of whiting are now running down the gulf, with 30cm sized schools caught.  Mackeral have been thick with hirers of our 6m came back by lunch after landing 3 mackies all weighing between 20-30kg.  Blue manner crabs are still plentiful, with tinnies down the bottom of the gulf doing well

Headed out early yesterday morning for a great day on the water with the lads. 30 miles off Mandurah!!! Long way but worth it.

Catch of the day was this 19.5kg Dhuy caught by felllow forum member mw87. He has been trying to crack a size Dhuy for a while now and finally caught a Thumper!! Well done Mark! It took you a while but that's ok we understand you are from the other side of the country. You folk usually take a little longer to catch on!!! 

The two Goldens had got me excited. And i boasted that the next good fish would be mine. We once again drifted over where Ira had pulled the goldens, and once again he hooked up. Damn that flick stick was killing it and had me considering tying one on myself.
Ira gave this fish no le-way. After landing 2 goldens it seemed as if he was treating this one with distain. If he knew what was actually on the line he may have fought the fish differently.....With the net ready up it came a YELLOW FIN BREAM. We couldn’t belive it. And once it was in the net there was a few high fives.
This was just the icing on the cake, and i gazed upon the first yellow fin i had seen in the flesh. This was one healthy fish with chunky broad shoulder and a girth like no black bream i had seen of it size. We had finally found bream and i once again dreaming of my own YFB over 40cm.

As the Bream had neared the boat i noticed 2 talior swimimg along side it. It was the first decent sized tailor we had seen all trip.
I dove into my lure box looking for one lure and one lure only the Sebile Magic Swimmer 110mm Fast Sinking . This lure has an action like no other it slithers and slides, darting from side to side with every rod movement. Even as it sinks it swims down like a dying bait fish. I can see this being my got to lure next salmon season especially as it casts like a bullet.
I had been dying to test out this lure all since i first revived them but the worst salmon season we have had in decades had them lying dormant. This lure has an action like no other it slithers and slides, darting from side to side with every rod movement. Even as it sinks it swims down like a dying bait fish. I can see this being my got to lure next salmon season especially as it casts like a bullet. But now there time had come.
First cast, let it sink crank it back with twitches.....yep im on....damn got off...on again....dropped it. Wind in recast. Crank it on. Yep im on. This time it stayed connected. I had opted for my heavier outfit incase the tailor were the monster that often haunt the flats. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be though you would still be happy with a tailor this size in perth.

After another tailor of the same size we decided to head back to where we started still in search of that monster bream I once again cast the crab right up against the shore. Two long slow lifts of the rod tip and I came up soild. Good fish. This fish peeled off across the flat then reversed course just as quick. “BIG SILVER” I shouted. (If your lucky Ira might tell the story of “big silver” but ill leave that one for him).
The tell tale bright flash and familiar shape of a bream whizzed past the boat.
My heart began to race. I had finally done it. I had finally hooked a bream over 40cm. It was as if the fish sensed my excitement and just to spite me ran straight into the rocks. I applied pressure to the spool managed to turn the fish back around. It felt like ages but after a few more tense moments up surface a 46cm.....................Pink snapper.........NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

I couldn’t believe it. This fish was so silver and had looked exactly like a yellowfin bream only moments ago. Even Ira had thought it was a bream and he isn’t fooled easily. Needless to say i was gutted. All trip i had dreamed of catching my first bream over 40cm but it wasn’t to be. Still it was nice snapper and wont be a fight i will soon forget. The adrenaline hit while i was fighting that fish reminded me of my first Mulloway. But that’s another story for another day.

Even though the weather hadnt been the best it was still a great trip.

The new lures