Not sure who coined the term, but I heard it first from Till yesterday.

I did a solo session this morning and was shocked at the amount of bait out there today.  It was almost one continuous bait ball and with so much bait in the water, it didn't surprise me that the bite was not as hot as the day before.  I know they were there because I stopped to clear some weed and I noticed a mac swimming along side the lure all the way back to the boat!

I think some guys got into the act of drifting with live bait, but I am not sure how that worked.  Anyway I made the decision to peel off and head south away from the crowd and to also work a different depth and was rewarded with 5 hits all within a minute or two of setting the lure, but only converted 3. Had one bite off, one that did not connect. Was also a good feeling releasing one.

This is the lure that did all the damage.

Decent sized fish

another about the same size

Bloody hard to get action shots alone!

Quick report following an early morning session, day of work & then, a late arvo session.

First light saw Jamie join me on the Prowler. First time he's been on it & boy, is he a good decky.

The NE'ly was fairly stiff this morning. We were trolling by 6:45, and I was back at the ramp at 8:30. Then, off to work.

As was expected, we got stuck into a few spaniards. Straight forward to catch - I have seen comments from people saying they have proven difficult. The swarm of boats should be a dead giveaway to many.

The only strange thing I have seen lately, is the amount of people trolling behind someone that's trolling 200m in front of them. Don't wait for seconds because they won't be there.

Moving on, JohnF met me at the ramp late this afternoon. Again, the boat needed some action & despite John being involved in several metro Macks lately, he actually hasn't landed one himself.

I was keen to get him onto one, however, we found a couple of spotty mackerel instead. They really reminded me of my days in SEQ.

The sun set & we found ourselves further afield than planned. We persisted to move on & I soon pointed out some nice fish on the sounder. A healthy school appeared in the middle of the water column. Within 10 seconds, 1 outfit started singing. Continuing to drive, I was hoping for another strike - strike 2 came true.

We had hooked up solidly to 2 fish. I worked mine up within a few minutes & called it a big macky until I saw some yellow sickle fins. With John tied up on his fish, I somehow managed to place a quick gaff shot behind its head. John continued to battle his fish for another 10 minutes until it finally hit the surface. Another gaff shot secured tuna number 2.

They were good fish & we cheered for 10 minutes & took a few photos with the dodgy camera.

Excuse the photos fellas.

Daz.

We headed out to the Fads again last Sunday with high hopes of landing our first dollyies, as none of us had ever landed one. We were still flat after the two monsters we lost last week but as we arrived at the FAD it didn’t take long to have our first sighting, they were a bit picky but there were hundreds of them compared to the very few we saw last week, however the size was also a long way different. We were getting very frustrated with the hundreds of bloody mutton birds, as we had caught two birds before we had a hook up with the animal we were after. We finally got a bait down and a school smashed the baits and we had a triple hook up and we later lost all three to being busted off around the FAD. However it didn’t take long for another hook up and this time we got the other rods out before another fish could take it, we finally got the fish on board and we were getting the hang of these slippery little fish as we bagged out within an hour and left them biting in the perfect conditions.

Heres a few pics

 I headed out disarvo after uni with some mates to try and land a few of these metro macks, as we were yet to get one this season. We hit the water around 4:30 and we headed out behind the reef. It took around half an hour for the first strike, this fish was to be my first metro Mack.

It then took another hour for my mate to boat his first ever Mack, he was stoked and you can see it in his face hahah. 

went out tonight for a quick troll up toward mindarie , in the water for 4 and out at 6 30 in mates boat.  a little 17ft  chivers pursuit.  great little boat.

no macks but a couple of tuna to 7.5kg's in the one double hookup.  any idea what they are ??  didn't think they were sbt's , sorry for the at home pic.

 After our successful Marlin hunt in Jurien couple of weeks ago. Went for a troll south Rotto on sunday

No Marlin but a 18kg Wahoo will do.

Tough going today in Exxy with a stronger than forecast northerly blowing.  We ended up with a few small bits and pieces and lost a couple of good fish, got a few tuna and didn't see any marlin.  Gully had a similar day and lost a good dolly and also got a few bits and pieces.  Guess you all know who did well today though, bloody lucky bastard (well, his deckie)!  Stay tuned for a few pics I'm sure (reds and monster jack).

Unpredictable winds over the next week, but you gotta be in it to win it. :)

Took a mate out for a squid from woodman pt ramp around 11am. Headed over to Petrov bay and started a few drifts and had a great time boating 15 squid.  Well, I only boated 14, but Cuttlefish Cameron got 1 squid and about 4 tiny cuttlefish.  After the wind swung around the squidding dropped off and we went to the sand patch north of the island and had a crack for kgw.  First cast with a fresh squid tentacle and Andy Macs KGW rig on and got a double header with a 33 cm kgw and a wrasse,  Put the wrasse out as live bait and released the kgw to the esky.

Home by 6 and all cleaned by 7. Here are a few pics from the day, some great sizes about.

John's son, Rob, scored his first Mack this afternoon. Hotdogs (Chrisp), also landed a nice Mack shortly after.

Rob will grow up to be a good fisho, so it's a rewarding feeling having the young bloke tangle with a nice fish at an early age. John was probably more stoked than Rob.

 hey crew

today went back to my families 'old spot' next to bandiyup prison. place was pretty packed for so far up river. went there 2 weeks ago and caught 20 bream nothing over 23 cms today went back and caught 10 bream nothing over 25 (getting bigger) defiantly found the nursery with a few 12-20 cm's. 

anyway i heard some guys drag screaming but didnt think much of it only to find out he *supposedly* caught a 40 cm mulloway. but then again nothings surprising me this summer

my question. i bought a td zero a few months ago first cork grip today i decided to be lazy and use bait and now the cork stinks. how do you clean the cork (total noob sorry) hahaha

one pic of many bream caught

Yeah, bit out of date now, but better up than not.

Oracle invited Hlokk and myself out for a FADs run Thursday before last. I was keen to get out, it had been awhile since I had made it out to the FADs this season and the fish ought o be a decent size by now.

We set out in Oracle's Stabicraft at a pretty decent pace, just finding the occasional wave with a hole behind it. Conditions were pretty snotty with the Easterly still pumping, it was forecast to drop off, *fingers crossed*

Birds were up and circling on the way out, a few false alarms over diving birds, but as usual you really know when its on when you see it. A good bunch of birds bombing and a couple quick casts into the mix, Hlokk and I come up with some super-fat Stripy tuna.

We made it out to Hillarys, pretty much fish the first cast. Not sure who had the first hookup, but Matt had the first on-deck. Jason got a few hookups but no conversion, I lost both a fish and a shiny new toy on the damn fad when the fish went around the post, but I did manage a nice bull 800mm or so. They were hitting mostly plastics on Hillarys although I also got a couple on an 80mm vibe.

We did get to see about 3 dozen dollies, anything from 30cm to three feet, racing across the surface like baitfish, so clearly there was a bigger predator down there. We dropped some trolling gear down there, but it wasn't enough to get whatever hoo or stickface was scaring the dollies on. We dropped a mix of other gear out and trolled down to the next FAD. Just as we were leaving a US-registered boat trolled over, they hadn't had much action further South, but we were prepared to give it a go.

Next was Furuno. I think our best fish came off that fad, it took my IMA honey Trap 95S in sardine. It hit the meter mark, nearing my best for the season. We racked up a few more fish there, but as it shut down we pushed onto FSC.

At FSC, there was some guy in an old berty there, he was livebaiting, that and trying to scrape the paint off his boat on the fad at the same time. Everyone tells me that live hezzas are the bomb for dollies but this guy wasn't getting a thing, it had me kind or worried actually. Clearly they weren't interested in stickbaits, divers, or plastics, then Matt had the revolutionary idea of using cubes! Whoa, they went crazy - great timing too, it was just as the berty buggered off *grin*. I even got one while I was trying to line out to get out of Matt's way, a totally-desperate dolly snapped the cub as I skittered it across the surface. Whilst the bit was on, it was fun, but I sure don't miss those damn rats of the sea/air - mutton birds. They got so annoying we left for one last FAD.

We bagged a few more fish at All Marine Services, including nearly landing Matt's first on fly. We got it to leader a couple of times but it was pretty green (doh!), and 9' rods are just a pain boatside. On the way home we also had a terrible accident, and poor Jason copped a bit of a bump in the head, check that last photo! I sure hope it has worn off now!

A good day in all with everyone landing at least 6-8 fish, just a few coming home for dinners!

Certainly dolly is good on the tooth. I managed Cayman-style dolly, and a very naughty friend of mine made dolphinfish curry.

Thinking of heading out for a troll but can't be bothered with the punishment of heading to the FADS again. Like the idea of getting into some Macks but don't want to drive up to Mindarie. Anyone heard of them being caught out from Woodmans point around Garden Island, 5 fathom, Stragglers, South side of Rotto or the reefs on the western point of Rotto?

Do you ever get them in deep water (30-50m) or is it always in around 20m?

Cheers.

A few people had asked about squid around in the last few weeks and sizes, well I reckon they were ok!

On wed it was my intention to attend the rally, but I had a divemaster physics exam in the morning and some work lined up for the afternoon.  Anyway, I got 97.5% for my exam which I had been shitting myself about, and decided to flag work, the rally and go out for a squid as it has been a months.

Got the boat to the ramp about 2:20 pm and the wind was blowing fairly hard shifting from SE to S, and as the afternoon went on it went to SSW.  I headed just to the north west (150mts tops) of woodman pt and set up a drift. I only used three jigs, all yo-zuri aurie Q Aces I think, two brand new jigs caught squid within a minute of hitting the water.  Awesome!

Had a rod leaning against the side of the boat with the jig just in the water while I sorted out the other rod and had a squid streak straight up off the bottom in 20 ft of water to hit the jig nearly on the surface right beside the boat.  Immediately the squid went nuts with ink and blasted me and the boat to hell and back.  I have never gotten the boat dirtier than this trip, but I landed that squid!

End result: 11 squid in four drifts over 2 hours.  It was wet heading back upwind to reset the drift, but well worth it.  4 donkeys like the one in the photo.

Side Story: Got a voucher for BCF for my birthday and thought a few new squid jigs would be nice, so I went to the jig aisle, having a look, sales bloke comes past several times, finally I ask him 'hey, have you got any of the yo-zuri flashdancers?', reply 'I dunno mate, I cant read japanese either'.  Then told me he used a cheap jig brand and put Kiwi Boot Polish on it, as apparently it is made of prawns or something that makes it an attractant. 

Dunno about that, but the Yo zuris kick ass as always.

The weather in Thailand is getting weird. In the month of march  suppose to be hot , the temperature dropped to between 18-20 degree in bangkok for the past few days.The southern part of Thailand especially Surit Thani is flooded from the past weeks of rainings.

I had to put up my cold sweater while going for fishing trips. :(!!!

Looking at my rather tight fishing schedules, I managed to squeeze 1 DAY of toman wild fishing trip for my own leisure fishing.

Drove some 300KM in the wee morning (12.00AM) and be back late night at 10.00PM and then be ready for the next morning fishing trip at 5.00AM, is not everybody cup of tea. Only a crazy addicted toman angler like myself will do that... haha !!!

Despite the cold spells I managed to land a nice size 5KG toman (snakehead) and missed a few small takes on sebarau, haruan and little toman.

The biggest catch of the day is spending time for myself with the nature. Only me and the nature, away from city.

Understanding the nature, different tactic & presentating of lures in the wild fishing ground. Things like these, you need to experience it yourself. The more you fish in the wild,, the more experience & avid angler you'll become in the future.

Enjoys the slide photos clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oFtfqSmXBQ

Some of the photos highlights of the day... ;)

In actions !!!

Can you see the toman in the clear water... ;)

Just a quick report to say there's some thumper gardies out there at the moment! Had a big school of them around the boat and grabbed 20 for a feed. Big boys they were!
Also the squid are gettin bigger! Got 17 in 3 drifts and covered the boat and us in ink. Good times!
Had a quick snorkel too but only found 3 crabs.

Having read all the reports of macks caught in metro waters recently I decided it was time to get in on the action. Friday RDO, wife at work, kids at school and a willing deckie free on a Friday - the stars were well and truly lining up!  Packed the boat, picked up the deckie and by 8 we were on the water, mission metro macks was on! Headed straight to the back of 3 mile reef, put the lures and teaser out and started our trawl.

Trawled north for a while with no success, no sign of any bait schools or larger fish on the sounder, not a good sign. Decided to turn around and head south, again following the 20m contour. After a while we found what we were looking for - the sounder lit up with big bait balls and larger echos below them. Problem was the bait schools were deep and the predators even deeper. We trawled over them a number of times but no takers.

Started to have doubts about what was actually down there so decided to drift over the area and drop a jig, 100g Shout Stay in blue was the jig of choice. First tried a slow 'demersal' retrieve - nothing, then tried the crazy Sambo retrieve - nothing, then dropped it to bottom and cranked it back up as fast as I could. Quarter of the way up bang, I'm on! 2 seconds later I lost it - the leader came back minus the jig, sliced straight through. That's all the confirmation I needed - put the jigs away and send the lures back out along with a teaser.

Second pass one of our lines went off! I took up the fight while the deckie brought in the 2nd line and teaser. After a couple of good runs I got the fish close enought to get our first look at it -  a nice mack! A few minutes later I got it boat side and the deckie did a sterling job with the gaff. My first metro mack was in the boat!

Trawled the area for the next hour or so for nought, decided to move on a little further south but the bait schools disappeared and the weed didn't. Headed back to where we got the first mack and on first pass back one of the rods goes off again! This time it's the deckie's turn. A couple of good runs later we have the fish boat side and I do the honors with the gaff. High fives again as the deckie's first ever mack hits the deck!

Did a couple more passes but only picked up weed so satisifed with our efforts we called it a day.

The weed was really bad, but persistance paid off. Both fish fell to Halco Laser Pro 160 in chrome pink. We tried Laser Pro 190's in redhead, kingbrown and yellowfin but had no takers.

If anyone catches a mack with a Shout Stay still stuck between it's dentures I'd like it back please! :-)

Fun !!! Fun !!!! Fun !!!

Nothing beating fishing in the wild...- the saying goes... :)

Not only I share the same sentiment, there are many avid anglers like Fred Goh( Rapala rep ), Darren Shan (Kingfisher mag editor) and another SG avid angler Chong, we  all share the same likeness and common hobby to fish in the wild... :)

Myself , together with Rapala rep- Fred Goh, Kngfisher editor and magazine - Darren Shgan and invited guest Chong (from SG) , we had 2 FULL DAYS  of wild sebarau fishing in a distant nature dam off bangkok , some 300Km(3hrs) drive by transport.

Fishing in the wild is like going for an adventure fishing trip. You never know what you're going to get that day. More like wild hunting trip.... ;)

First DAY !!!
We landed a total of almost 50++ sebarau (jungle perch) + 3 toman fishes by Fred Goh. Man....... thiss is what I call good fishing trip... ;)

2nd DAY !!!
The 2nd day was also as exciting as the first day,  manage to land 20-30 pieces .....

What day !!!! What a trip to remember !!!  ;)

For those who want to read the whole story, you can buy this month March issue of Kingfisher magazine over the shelve and read all about the new exciting wild sebarau fishing trip. ;)

For those who can't wait.... you can have a glimpse of the whole trip inside my music youtube clip... ;)

Enjoys  !!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwmR1Fj9jKc

Here some of the photos highlights done by Kingfisher magazine editor - Darren Shan himself.

Just did 4 hours trolling along 3 mile for nought. Anybody else have any luck today. I think going from 12 - 4 may well have been the worst times to try.

Try again tomorrow..............

A few weeks ago i went down to the guildford bridge for a quick fish and i found huge mulloway scales on the ground. I also saw a shag eating a little soapie around 45cm just under the bridge. Good mulloway spot?

Seeing all the pelagic reports and as the weather was mint we went out to the fads last sunday with the hope of catching macks / tuna / dolly;s etc.

Stopped at rotto in the shallows to try get some live baits. Where were the herring? didn't get any! Did see a few 5-7kg sambo's cruising around and managed to land one. Were only fishing in 4-5m of water which was interesting because i've never seen them in the shallows.

Time to start making our way out wide. Trolled along the west end, not a touch, bugger. Stuff this - lets hit the fads.

Next stop - PGFC fad... but it was nowhere to be seen, must have drifted. oh well off to the next fad. Arrived, trolled around, tried all different lures, baits etc but it was quiet as. nothing there whatsoever. Bugger. time to move. Hit the next fad up and finally got stuck into some dollys. my mate adam pulled one up within about 5mins of arrival. that got all of us fired up. Everyone on board managed to hook up at some point and land a dolly. We manageg 6 all up, they were not huge....  all around the same size too - approx 80cm. the photo's dont do these fish justice. Their colours are absolutely incredible. Was really great seeing their blue silhouettes cruising through the water.

We headed back rotto way again trolling all through the west end with no avail so made our way back to fremantle. Whilst it was a shame not to get a mack or other pelagics we were stoked with the dollys. Cooked a few up Sun night and they sure taste great. the meat is sweet & juicy, doesn't taste like any other fish i've ever had. Was really good for sashimi too.

Here's a few photos (mostly poor quality from phones) & i'll upload some more pics later.

Cheers and best

I heard mulloway have been caught up to 13kg at the freo wharf, I might go down there tomorrow night or staurday night and ill tell u if i catch anything

AN extensive air and sea search is conutinuing south of Rottnest after an EPIRB distress beacon was activated earlier today.

A WA Police spokeswoman said the EPIRB was activated about 9am and the signal site had been located, but no vessels, debris or people had been found.

The EPIRB was activated about nine nautical miles west of Fremantle, the spokeswoman said.

"There are seven vessels searching as well as two aircraft . . . they are looking for the possibility of a person in the water," she said.

"But they are also looking that perhaps the EPIRB could have fallen off a boat because it is water activated."

Police have urged any boat operators who have been in the area today and are now missing an EPIRB to contact Water Police in Fremantle urgently.....

Given that they are all now "registered", did they try calling the owner ? Maybe that would be easier that flying around for hours? Just a thought

BUT hope all is well and hope no one is hurt or in real distress

Hey Everyone,

Me, my partner and my old man headed out Saturday morning and me, the other half and bro headed out today. Here are few photos of the catches... still alot of trout around.

Not anything overly big but still a feed

Both days produced a number of species the usual sambo or 2 and Pinkies. Hung around after bagging out on trout looking for something different, few small Dhuies, wrasse etc... but the trout where just being a pest.

Heres a little story

With the wind and swell, very very average this Saturday morning... heading 35 - 40kms out wasnt very comfortable. We knew the cranking NE'ly would eventually subside, when there wouldnt be much wind until it swung around to the SE/SW and settle in for the afternoon.

Then... What started off being a not so bad morning, Chilin, talking and catching fish and a couple of reasonable size hornets flying around the boat thinking I wonder where they came from cause I’m not a big fan of insects (especially spiders, all I can say is thank god never gave them wings... EEERRRRKKK!!) to them deciding we were alright to land on, so I killed one. Then another one, next thing they were everywhere and it was really freaking me out, we had never seen anything like it!! The boat was swarming in them! And by this stage I had more than one of the little mongrels on me and I was panicking. My old man was like they don’t hurt you, BUT I DONT CARE!!! I shook one off my hand with rod and reel in the other (6 month old 4000 Stella on a Tournament Master Diawa rod) pretty pricey combo, and squealing at the same time, to losing my balance as I put my hand back down onto the side of the boat to steady myself and totally missed, throwing my combo over the side and falling in over into the drink after it!!!! What a dumb s@#t!!! Lucky enough I managed to get my hand on the rod before it sunk to the bottom 25m down.

Getting back into the boat and laughing and my old man and partner just shaking their heads at me saying why are you jumping in to get away from them... but they were still everywhere in the boat, me standing there like a drowned rat. I heard a yell and I turned around and my partner decided he wanted to sit down on 2 and copped a stinger straight in the ASS!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!! Who's laughing now! With all 3 of us a thong in each hand, smacking and swiping, my old man is drinking a ice coffee and he says SHIT! OUCH! Looking into his drink there was this hornet and stung him straight on the top lip, lucky he didn’t swallow it!!!!

Lines were pulled in a flash and we were off and leaving them little suckers behind with some of them holding on for dear life before i gave them a swipe and said you’re not blooding hitch hiking back to shore with us, fly you bastards!

Bagafillets with a nice little trout

One of mine

Only some of them we squashed, probably not the best thing to do, cause i think it attracted more? Think i read something like that somewhere.

But it amazed us how they managed to find us, 40kms out!

Nice Dhuie

One of todays trout

Throw back fish, but puts up a good fight on light tackle

And... to top of the day, a nice 700mm Spanglie (dinner tonight)

Bring on Thursday, we are off to Onslow and across to the Macky Islands on Saturday! I cant wait!!!!!!

Cheers Crew

 Yesterday morning bright and early saw us depart the Gero Marina for a spear. Conditions where par - average for majority of the trip to our first spot some 55k out.... Meggsie was along today for her first fish in along time so as we slowed to down approaching the reef i threw a X-Rap on 8kg out for her and the boys and i geared for a dive.... It didnt take long before the rod took off and the little tyrnos was screaming... First call was for a Spanish but it died in the bum pretty quick and meggs soon had a 6kg sharkie along side - despatched pronto ready for burley. She did a fantastic job considering she has never used an overhead before!. We reset the lure and did a few passes over some bait schools on the dropoff for one more hit before we anchored and got wet.. The dropoff was 16m down into 35.. 

Dale and Ryan both hit the water and saw plenty of shark macks and the odd small spanish while i readied meggs for a bottom bash... After the initial mayhem and high hopes it was unually quiet here - no current and no pelagic activity. Meggs landed a good baldie and a large morwong which was released & the boys and i hadnt shot a thing... We burleyed pretty hard with the shark mack hoping to lure in something worthy and then a couple of big spangled emps appeared deep in the trail.... Dale took first drop and leveled off in 22m , fired and got a muzzle wrap - spangleds 1 divers 0.

I dove next and followed a good spango chewing on a monster chunk of fish frame down into 18m before a flash caught my eye above me and too a distance... It was a big trout who had come right up off the bottom for a feed... A tad too far to swim at depth i had a good look for a return dive when suddenly a head appeared right in front of me and turned broadside... Hello Mr Spanish! Aimed and fired - the fish quivered , spewed burley and looked for all money stoned! Until i put some pressure on my reel line which must have just pulled the shaft off his spine enough to bring it back.. It departed pronto! A good fight and a second shot later we where on the board with a 15kg spaniard... Megan in the meantime had managed a good 4kg trout which was released....Into the eski of course!

Not wanting to waste daylight we made the call to head off chasing new spots.... One of Dales mates had given us a tip off for big macks & reefies so the call was made to investigate! Bit of current here made diving hard but the dropoff from 8m into 40m looked unreal... SBT busted up everywhere , bait everywhere.... Spotted some good pink snapper that prefered a 1kilometre radius from my riffe then a closer look and the boys took a nice trout each but still no more macks...

Another move along the edge saw us find abit of a fish bowl effect in the reef edge... Anchored again and i was first in the water this time with a big handful of mulies.... Crushed them up and saw a big school of shark macks approach over the sand followed by a bigger school of big Spanish! Quick load of the double powerbands , dropped , leveled off and sent a good holding shot into the shoulder! Surfaced and cried out school of spanish and ive never seen Dale jump in so quick! Landed mine with a big school hanging around and the clearish water saw Dale pull up short on a 20kg plus fish.. Some good spanish where shot and seen and i managed to loose the last shaft on my riffe gun when a quick change in direction on what would have been my pb and 20kg odd spanish took my reel line past the flasher.... Hung up on the blades , pulled the whole rig under and busted off! I was spewing - lost a good fish , killed a good fish that was now wasted , lost another 100$ shaft and also lost about 50m of dyneema in the process....

Dale then managed a nice little 8kg cobia off a large ray. A fish he has chased for along time and almost lost when trying to iki... Shook the shaft free and got out of his grip , took off with dale screaming in hot pursuit , crew on the boat laughing , the fish dived and hit the bottom obviously abit hurt , dale holding only the shaft has a quick breath and dives... Never thought he would get it but managed to get close enough to stab the cobe again freehand and landed his fish!

Capped off the day shooting a couple of baldies and i was stoked to land a couple of flighty Spangled Emps in the shallows.. One is a new pb and went just on 6kgs!

The trip home was attrocious tho - 40odd mile of short sharp wind chop took 3 hrs.... The closer we got to the coast the wind direction went around to the sth west and turned it even more horrible! Was great to finally reach dry land..... 

That was our day out Far & Wide off Gero...

Cheers Poddy

We passed a whale shark on the way in yesterday just a couple of kays straight out from the river mouth. Was pretty cool

G'day went for drive along safety bay sat arvo about 5.30 and seen what looked like spanish mackerel jumping approx 100mtres in front of bp servo and looked pretty big so decided to go home get boat and have quick troll got to ramp could still see fish jumping so thought would have good chance got out to spot no sign of any fish chucked out lures but to much weed headed home aw well maybe tomoro. Left point peron sunday about 12.30 with a light sw headed for back ffb got to spot approx 25mtres and my deckie got this spaniad on a deep diver,tried for another half hour no hits headed for west end rotto heaps of bait fish around trolled for hour no hits so headed home anyway was a great day and the deckie was stoked. Cheers, Nick

The week it was ..started with the AIBT first.   Day one   started with fresh crew and a great attitude on day 1. 

    First day was a day of trawling...  First fish was Baz's Sailfish popped his cherry. Was a great little fish we switched up from a plastic to a bait.

    Day 2.  Very uneventful day but still raised 3 Billies.

    Day 3.  Was a long rough day , we went out wide and trying to play with the big boys no no avail.  We decided to head home about 1ish to beat the rush at the ramp . We raised a sail on the 37kg which i hooked and landed. We did the big turn around and set the spread and Cliff hooked up again on the same lure and the same rod. So that was 2 on the 37kg..

   Equals 1 on 15kg and 2 on 37kg which equals 1000 points.  for team deepwater.

Runner up Tag & Release Sailfish section.. Team deepwater.

                                                GAMEX

Going to cut this one a little short as only 1 fish weighed in.  and 4 tagged sharks.

   Most days were pretty reasonable conditions with some real crap moments in between..  raised about 11 billfish in the 6 days for 0 tags. not even 1 hook up. 

Day 4  we were out trawling the 400m mark when the 10kg went screaming out , it didnt jump so i got the little fella up to take charge. After 10minutes he had the monster subdued and it was a 13kg Wahoo. I rang the wife to let her know we would be weighing in a fish for a photo as it was our first fish for the boat to ever be weighed in.  Vicky ( Deepwater widow) rang back with the news i was hopeing for .. the state record was 12.4 kg so we were hoping it was gonna be bigger than that.

  Last day of fishing we were fishing in the passage and we picked up some snapper for tea and 2 of the sharks.

Presentation night was the night we were waiting for...  Alex collected the prize we were hoping he hadn't been beaten on the last day.  Alex took out the 10kg line class section winning a Shimano T-Curve rod and a Tyrnos 16 with some tackle and lures and 1000m of 10kg line and some vouchers.

Was a fantastic prize to add to his growing collection.

Big thanks to all my crew AIBT..Cliff and Baz thankyou very much and GAMEX a big thanks to My uncle Simmo and Alex my main man..

 Jeff

P.S  A BIG WELL DONE TO ALL THE WORTHY BOYS.VERY WORTHY WINNERS .        IT WAS GREAT TO CATCH UP WITH YOU AT BOTH TOURNAMENTS  THANKS A LOT GUYS.

Took out 12 guys which is more than we take with individual bookings but they hired the whole boat so free to bring up to 22.  12 lines in the water was very hectic. Bagged out on dhuies and released 2 by 10.30.  Also got 3 sharks, 2 nannygais, 2 nice pinkies, 2 cod and a fox fish.  Had people fishing off the bow.  Big Al from Harcourts organised a top crew for a great day out. 

I just returned from a 3 day popping trip to Ningaloo, we were spoiled with exceptional weather for the 3 days as well as ideal full moon tides.

Day 1-
On the first day I made my way down from Karratha roughly a 5 hour drive and arrived to light winds and beautiful sunny skies. We packed the boat and departed around lunch time. Shortly after we arrived at the first popping grounds. Fortunately there was a small swell so this made popping easy on the outer reef edge. It didn't take long for some action and Glenn had a feisty red bass boatside. Not long after I hooked another, a little bigger. We continued to pop the reef edge slowly making our way further north when Glenn hooked up again, this time a nice little GT. Glenn was next to hookup again this time another bass but it made it's way back to the reef in record time. Fortunately we managed to extract the abalone GT2 minus the bass. I hooked up this time and after a reasonable tussle turned out to be an average GT around 20kg. By this time the wind had picked up a little so we decided to make our way into the lagoon and find an anchorage before it got too dark.

Day 2-
We woke up early and continued popping along the same section of reef, it was difficult looking into the sun which meant we couldn't see the reef or any fish we raised. On about my 5th cast I hooked a small fish which I called for a mini GT but turned out to be a little Green Jobfish. We continued to pop for not much action so we headed wide to try some jigging. Found a nice lump that rose from 40m up to 20m. Sounder showed plenty of fish but surprisingly little interest besides a few Sweetlip Emperor. We decided to head back into the reef and continue popping. Within a few casts I had a Spaniard jump on, pesky little things at times. We came across a section of reef that was just loaded with bait, Glenn had a hookup and we called it for a small GT but turned out to be a beautiful Bluefin Trevally, one of the biggest I've seen. Shortly after I hooked a GT around the 20kg mark and got him to the boat rather green, as Glenn went to leader the fish he took off and pulled the hooks boatside. Soon after I hooked up again this time it was a much bigger fish, fortunately he didn't take off on a screaming run and I started to wonder if my initial estimate was wrong. We towed him to some deeper water, then he woke up and after a blistering run the line busted. Glenn hooked another bass after teasing it out from the shallower water and fortunately this one didn't have a chance to brick him. Glenn hooked up again and after a lovely fight we got a GT of about 25kg on board. We made the call to spend the afternoon steaming north to a new spot which took a couple of hours. When we arrived we spent the afternoon fishing the lagoon but it was reasonably quiet.

Day 3-
The next morning we began fishing the edge of an entirely different section of reef. The weather was sensational but the water was a lot dirtier than further south and we struggled to find some clean water. It turned out that it just wasn't to be our morning. I lost count of the number of missed hookups & pulled hooks but I don't think we landed a single fish along this section of reef. Glenn hooked yet another red bass although this time he didn't stop it getting to the reef and didn't get his popper back. We decided to make our way south back to the reef popped on Day 1 & 2 as it seemed far more productive. When we arrived at our spot it wasn't long before we had a hookup, unfortunately it was another one of those pesky mackerel and it managed to snip the leader and get away with my Craftbait GT3. Soon after I hooked up again but it was a extremely large red bass in some very gnarly terrain and it was all over before I managed a turn of the handle. We were now past midday and neither of us had boated a fish all day. Spirits were down.

What happened next I don't think either of us expected. We had one of the most intense sessions I've ever had, anywhere. We came across the same section we popped on day 2 that was loaded with bait and the fish were going ballistic. Probably every second cast had some kind of hit or hookup from a myriad of species including more bass, jobfish, bluefin trevally, brassy trevally & GT's. Most fish we didn't photograph unless it was an exceptional capture as we just wanted to get back into the action. Glenn had some of the worst luck I've seen. After getting busted off by a better than average GT he then pulled the hooks on two very respectable GT's after surviving the first blistering run and once we were in deep water. Eventually he managed to stay connected to a fish and boated a nice fat GT around 22kg. I changed to a Hammerhead C Cup and on the 2nd cast got absolutely monstered by a good size GT. After a nice fight we boated the fish and estimated around 40kg. I think I boated one more GT around the 18kg mark then we decided to call it a day and head back to the ramp as it was starting to get late.

Tackle and Lures Used-

Hammerhead Faube 77H
Ripple Fisher GT78PF
Carpenter SP78UHL
Carpenter CV79RF40
Fisherman GT Game T-RSH

Shimano Stella SW18000HG & Daiwa Saltiga Dogfight
Shimano Stella 10000SW

Varivas Avani GT PE8 & PE10

The best lures were medium poppers in the 120-150g range. Natural colours seemed to work the best, ones that had a light (white-silver) underside contrasted by a dark upper body. In particular the Craftbait GT2 and GT3 (150g) in Skipjack and Craftbait & Hammerhead in Yellowfin tuna colour. Blue and white orion Cono Cono's also worked exceptionally well. Most of the time bright coloured lures were used it yielded little or no interest at all. We also had minimal interest on Stickbaits but we didn't use them often as the bloopers were working very well.























































 

Headed out with some customers on Friday with Craig at Saltwater and had one of the best days on a metro charter that i have ever seen. 1st port of call was a run past rotto to troll for some mackies, about 20 minutes in one of the rods went off and after about 10minutes the first fish of the trip was landed,a nice 15-17kg mackie. We then headed out to one of the barges, i jigged away on the bow and scored some nice sambos and xos skippy to 4kg while down on the stern i see this rather large fish floating 20meters out on the surface.Most think its a sambo but i see a big paddletail pop out of the water.One of the boys had scored a 15kg+ mulla off the wreck.Then 3 minutes later another punter hooks up and scores another mulla of exactly the same size. I had always heard of the occaisonal mulla coming off the barges but was super stoked to see two off these awesome fish landed in less than two minutes.

We then put out the skirts and trolled out to the fremantle fad but the surface action was very quiet,not even the ever reliable southern blues were around.When we got there the spearos had been out and the dollies were very skittish and not really interesed .We then trolled out to the Derwent for a look but only a handfull of pan sized pinkies were on hand.None less we had enough fish for everone and headed back to freo witha a boat load of happy customers. It had been a while since ive headed out Craig but good to see the passion is still there for putting the punters onto some different fish and quality snacks as always.