Headed out frid for a fish at Yamaha fad and then a troll around for billies.

Upon approaching the fad i saw a fair few dollies free jumping, and with no other boat there except for a big game boat heading over the fad was empty, rigged up with a cut mulie and drifted past dropping a few pieces into the water, was only a matter of seconds for the first hit, jumping out the water they were everywhere, unfortuantly not big fish, but i kept 1 for a feed and released a heap to about 80cm, alot of fun on the light gear, left them biting and set up for a troll out deep to the 500m mark, very warm water out there upto 27.1 c heaps of tuna schools, did have one hit on a big pakula lumo skirt on 24kg with took line for abour 2 to 3 seconds, didnt see anything but that was it, heading back to freo at 6pm doing 35knots all the way back in, very pleasant day on the water.

no pics due to being on my own

Hey guys.

Me and my uncle went out from Mindarie the other day. We went to 30m first getting wrass, sargant baker, alot of small flathead, one was 3 inches, and i thought it would be an idea him being small to grab him with my hands, as i was releasing him, he got me. And wow, i didnt think they hurt that much. First 5 minutes was insane pain. then it calmed down. Wanted to try the belly rub trick but i dropped him back in.

Anyway, we drifted around 30 to 36 meters then i suggested we went into 26 but just no whiting, last 3 times we have been out we have no got one. One this that was weird is we where drifting a sand patch around 26m and my line took off, i pulled up a 2.5kg Black Ass? Was released but was weird to catch. We then went into 3 mile with 6-7m of water over the reef, one drop my line took off straight away spooling like mad, the spool was tight aswell.....i have never felt anything pull like that, then it snapped off? Any ideas? Also does the 3 mile reef ever hold anything but wrass? Is it worth doing alot of drifting there or throwing in some burley?
Boat was telling us the water was 27 degrees. The reason for no whiting? They have moved south to cooler water?

I guess the main thing in all of this is. Use a rag you idiot like your uncle said when you grab a Flathead!

With the good weather on the weekend, me, like many others, decided to head out and drag a few lures around.

Launched from Woodies around 615 and was busy there, but still got out in around 15 minutes (so with the Rotto swim on, could have been worse).

Was taking a mate from Kenya out for his first off shore trip in Perth, so was hoping to be able to turn on the fish. We were heading to an area which has been productive for us before out near the southern barges on the way to the Club Marine FAD. When we were almost there, I saw some birds hitting the water and told the boys to set the spread.

We were trolling a spread of 4 skirts with a mix of Williamson Dorados and Richter Jelly Babes, along with a newly improvised home made teaser. As we got closer and I could see the fish busting up we knew it was on.

First pass we had a triple hookup, one fish dropped but two solid stripeys to the boat. This then set the scene for the day, there were schools everywhere out there, and we would never have to try more than 15 mins before getting back on the fish, with double and triple hookups being common (kept trying for the quad, but never got there, probably just as well with 3 anglers on the boat). We were getting a mix of good sized stripeys, a couple of good sized SBTs and quite a lot of rat SBTs.

At one point I was resetting the spread and something grabbed the lure before it was even in position. Saw the fish leap straight out of the water, and I knew I had hooked my first metro dolly. After a few more acrobatics and a bit of manhandling, we managed to get the fish on board for a quick pic before releasing.

Over the course of probably 2 hours trolling we boated around 15-18 tuna and the dolly, before we decided to head in to Majorie bay at rotto for a swim and beer to cool off. Could have caught stacks more out there but the cold water was calling us.

After the swim, spent a couple of hours trolling the makkie lures off cathedral rocks and the back of the FFB on the way home, but no takers.

All fish except for 2 tuna for my Kenyan buddy were released well.

 Dan

Hi all, an epic weekend on tha Marlin in Jurien Bay.

From the stats Ive heard they are as follows;

36 Marlin Raised

20 hooked

11 captures

Blues and Blacks were captured ranging from 40kg - 120kg

Depth range 60 - 200m

Average Temp 26.4C

I'd been watching Seabreeze all week hoping that the weather on Friday was going to stay as good as it was looking.  By Wednesday things were still looking sweet so I put a post in the Fishing Buddies section and hooked up a trip for the day with southcity104.  The plan was simple - hit the FADs early, then go deep hunting hapuka. I couldn't argue with that.

Friday morning came around too quickly and at 3.30am the alarm went off.  By 4.10am I was at Tony's place and we were on the water by 4.30am.  That's the earliest I've been up for a long time let me tell you.

The weather wasn't too bad but the easterly was blowing a bit and gave us a bit of chop on the way out but we knew things were going to calm down in the arvo so we weren't too fussed.  We were the first boat to get out to the Freo Sailing Club FAD and soon had two skirts rigged up for a run past.  The first run nothing happened, and the sun was a bit too low to be able to see if anything was hanging below so we turned around and did another run.  On that second run the skirts had just got past the FAD when Tony's Accurate started singing and looking back to see what was happening we saw a good sized mahi mahi cartwheeling across the surface.  Woohoo - off to a great start.  I killed the engine and brought in the other lure while Tony brought in our first fish for the day.  Once the fish was photographed and dispatched we went back and did a few drifts past dropping down placcies and a few different hardbodies but nothing was interested.

We decided to move on and started heading out to a couple of deep water spots.  We put the big skirts out the back while we scooted out and picked up a small stripey but nothing else for our troubles.  Hitting the deep was interesting for me as I've never done it before.  This sort of fishing is Star Trek fishing, it's the next frontier hey.  The rigs are made up of king-size 16/0 circle hooks, 200lb leader, massive three-way swivels and lead weighing more than a small child.  We did a number of drops from 250m to 500m but today wasn't going to be the day for this sort of fishing.  For the first few drops there was action on Tony's new Furuno but they weren't interested in what we were sending down.  When we got to the deeper water the sounder started playing up and we couldn't use it any more so we took a punt that we were on the right spots and dropped baits down.  End result - green eyed sharks.

After a while it was time to head back to the 'shallows' and we ended up at the Derwent.  A couple of old boys were there who said they'd pulled a few nice nannys and a 1.4m mulloway off the wreck, but there was no action on their boat while we were there.  Anyway it didn't take long before the electric reel went off which I made the mistake of grabbing and subsequently ended up having a 25-minute dispute with a 5-6ft whaler.  Eventually I got him up to the side so Tony could cut him off... it was good fun but hard yakka on such a hot day.  We dropped some jigs for a while which resulted in me getting an SBT on a fast retrieve to the surface.  After seeing a couple of tuna schools off in the distance we thought we'd start cubing some mulies to see if we could entice the tuna over to the boat, or at least closer to the boat.  What ended up happening was two 5-6ft whalers came in and just started loafing around the boat eating the fish cubes as they went down.  The sea had glassed off a bit by now so it was wild watching these fantastic creatures chillin out around us.  I put the camera under the water and got some good pics and footage of them doing their thing.

We decided it was time to head back to the ramp via the FSC FAD again.  As we got close to the FAD we put a spread of skirts out and started to drive by, but when we got to the FAD both of us looked down to see a dollie lazily swimming along, not at all fussed by the boat.  So we killed the motor, pulled in the skirts, and threw out a handful of cubed mulies that were sitting on the baitboard.  At the same time Tony grabbed his fly rod and sent a fly into the water.  Before we knew it we had half a dozen dollies schooled up around the back of the boat eating the mulie cubes.  Tony then hooked up and after a fun fight with a full aerial display, left the fish in the water while I threw out a jig head with a chunk of fish on it.  Two seconds later I was on with my fish splashing across the surface.  After some photos we started burleying up again but by this time the mutton birds had figured out what was going on and were nailing every piece of fish in the water... and then followed a procession of boats coming in to try their luck so we packed up and headed in.  We scored another small stripey on the way in just to top things off.

It was a ripper day on the water, a bit slow going with the fish but we still got onto some good ones but also experienced some of mother nature's finest...

Lucky Tim, Joel and I headed out Friday in search of a few table fish for dinner and with nice conditions forecast (bout bloody time) we hit the back of the Muirons.  The 35 miles from Bundegi to the back of the Islands was the most brown water I've seen and quoting lucky, 'I've seen barra creeks cleaner than that.'  We actually found some blue water out wide but as the mission was to get some fillets we gave the trolling a miss.  The fish were completely off the bite in the depths so we decided to move in close and fish the shallows.  Without going into too much detail we ended up with 7 good spanglies, 1 red and 1 rankin with Tim losing what I suspect was a cracker of a red in 22m of water bending out an 8/0 gamma.  Turned out to be a pretty good day even though we missed the trout and big reds we were chasing.  Tim's got a few photos I'm sure he'll put up soon.

We also headed out on Saturday with a few visitors to town and wanted to get a billie, what can I say but we were trolling in some of the greenest snottiest water I've fished in.  We headed out to 250m and didn't raise a fish, moved into the shallows to troll for a mackie and didn't turn a reel.  The final decision was to head out to get a goldband and found that in a 20 knot south wester, the northerly current was still stronger than a 40 oz sinker (unbelievable).  Whilst having a drop we had a free swimming junior sail come up to the boat and just tease us for a few minutes and just cruise along whilst we were setting a few attractants (all to no avail).  We ended up not even turning a reel all day (did drop a few good goldies by trying to keep the boat over the spot) but it was good to get out there and see what was going on.   Other notable is, Tantabiddi ramp is a real mess at the moment for bigger boats - we got lucky getting it off on Sat morning but one local boat got stuck there for 2.5 hours on Friday waiting for the tide to come in.  The sand is super soft as its all been dumped with the last cyclone and just walking on it sees your feet disappear, so make sure you retrieve on the high or expect trouble at the moment and there's still no bog mats.  I would expect it would be dredged before the big comps come up, but if you're up before then, just be careful.

Cheers,

Adam

this is what i managed for swanfish.

yep. thats right, sfa. just could not land a bloody bream! lost a thumper early on saturday and lost a thumper this morning too, same spot.

how did the rest of the FW crew go?

hey hey

headed out from mindarie today at 5am with workmate to try and get him onto his first size dhu.

after a bit of a dodgy start involving a cray pot on the lead line , we headed out to the bank.       at any sign of birds , we'd set the skirts out , but wasn't to be.

a northerly current seemed to have quietened things down and i'd had no touches on artificials in the first hour while dave had got a few nibbles on bait. we tried the pots , but found it hard going.

after sounding around on our way out , we found some promising looking ground.  first drop and soon enough  , dave had a good take , and up came his first dhu. 60cm and the first score posted.     with that , i relented and sent down a driftbait. had a couple of bites before hooking another dhu that went 70cm. 

happy enough with that , we pushed out wider into the 90's but the dodgy drift made it a pain to position the boat , so back in to a previous mark that held good dhu's

i put down a tiki shad on the light plastic and waited for it to reach bottom when i heard dave shout " woah  what the #$^& fish is that" . i looked round to see a decent meter long dolly buzz the boat all lit up electric blue fins and gold body. we threw in a coulpe of mulies as i wound up the plastic. the dolly smashed the bait and i saw it turn in the direction of my plastic , and the rod loaded up.   cool . lots of big runs and jumps and a bit of hasty boat positioning had it up and into the net after a few mins. went 6kg. did want to return it but it was worse for wear in boat.  it seemed tired when netted but went spas when we tried to do the photo. shame.

dunno why it was there , but a lot of coral spunk everywhere. wondered if it might have been cruising the lines???

dave then got a good hookup and got his fish up , only to say (again) what the hell is this? only a nice 4kg baldie , the cheeky beggar. (been after one for ages myself).

put the plastic down once more and got a hell of a hook up but after a few mins , it spat it , only to have another go for a few more mins , then it'd finally decided this bait wasn't worth the bother.   bugger!

One dhufish, one billfish, details to follow.

Now with Pete D's Video: Marlin Time

That was posted from the beach where we retrieved, and then the phone battery died and I had no charger. I've since had a sleep and am half way through a hot coffee, so feeling a little more human.

Pete, Brad and I packed the car Thursday for a Friday nite departure.

I had a hideous Friday arvo class; Surveying for Engineering Students. The teacher insists on trousers, long-sleeved shirts, a brimmed hat and closed-toe footwear and we were outside roasting from 1pm onwards. Just wondering the whole time if the weekend was ever coming! *BING* clock strikes 5 and I scurry out of there, then to Pete's on my scooter. Boat hitched, we pile in for a fairly uneventful drive to Jurien.

After a few hours* sleep at the Cervantes Beach, we launch on the low tide and head North to a few spots for a quick bottom fish. We have fish on the sounder, but they're not really very interested, the tide only turned a few hours back. Pete moves us onto another lump, and dodging the craypost, I manage to coerce a 73cm dhufish onboard - 7Seas Hooker in lumo/white with holo doing the damage. A few drifts later and we pick up a blackarse and Brad brings up a big goatfish.

Enough of this bottom fishing crap anyway, how about some dollies? We head out to the FADs, 1st one is pretty much empty, so we push off to the middle one and find out its gone ... again! Poor Whitey and co from Jurien Seasports. They replaced the two missing FADs and the middle one went missing again, in just three days! Heading North again to the last FAD, we find a huge currentline. The water there was now up to 27.3°C. We run the gear out and in about 5min get one big smash. Teasers in, other lines cleared, and its on. Good news is the fish hit a rod with harness lugs, bad news is that its one rigged with braid. The lure was a Richter Soft Oscar in 46-46 (pink). The fish went deep a few times, we moved off it to fix out line angles, we really struggled to keep down-current of it, a few times it was keeping pace with the boat at 15kn. Stupid harness clip busted on me, beginning to see what all the fuss is about the blak magic equalisers is. We think its a Blue, the dorsal retracted. Pete popped in for some pics, Brad and I got it onto the marlin board for some snaps, then we swam it off.

Enough of billfish for the day, we pushed off to the last FAD. It took awhile, but we eventually saw a few dollies, and some good sized fish. It was late in the day and presumably they had been harassed all day because they just weren't interested. Having seen this before, I broke out the flyrod for my first sw fly session. Casting in the wind was hideous, but Pete put the boat close to where the fish were, and I managed to get enough line out without tangling on bollards etc to get a fish on. There were some big bulls in the water, but not for me today, I just got a baby, but hey at least its a fish on fly.

Just enough time to punch into the Southerly and a high-tide retrieve @ Cervantes!

I can't wait to do it again, although next time its either going to be bills and dhufish, or bills and dollies, but not all three! We're all off to unpack the boat and wash it @ 10am.

Ta Pete and Brad for a top trip!

Edit: Whitey mentioned 9 raised, 4-5 hooked and 2-3 boated yesterday up there!

* alarm clocks FTW

A large shark has been located in Warnbro Sound about 7.30 this morning, the Westpac chopper is circling and sounding the siren.

Not sure of the species but keep an eye out if you’re planning to fish in the area

I remember putting up a post about 6 months ago of an unbelievable experience i had out in the sound, when i witnessed a ball of 6-10kg snapper swimming on the surface while fishing out on the sound. Well i think i topped it today, when a mate and i were heading back to the ramp at about 12.30 after a squid/fish session ...

We left the coathanger and was heading back to Palm Beach boat ramp and i was watching my speedo as it has been playing up recently. We were probably within a kilometer to the boat ramp when i looked up and noticed a huge splash about 120m in front of the ski, at first i thought it was gulls bombing into the water, as there were about 10 hovering above the splashing, then saw another splash but didnt notice any birds diving, so then called it for dolphins. As we got about 70m away i was amazed to see a school of tuna coming in from all angles at realy high speeds, cutting the surface with there torpedo bodies and stiff tails. Im going to call them for 6-8kg fish, from what ive seen from grooveepants posts. Thats when the panic began, we had two rods on the ski, a 1-3kg shimano jewel with 10lb line and 15lb leader, and a 2-4kg shimano catana with 8lb line and no leader. I grabbed the jewel as it had a leader, and tied on a 25g halco twisty, and lobbed it where the splashing had been 20secs earlier. I reemed in the lure as i watched all the birds start to fly west, towards where the mussel processing pontoon is, then the tuna started busting up again, 200m from where the were 30secs earlier!!! By the time we got over there the bust-up had gone and the birds were flying around in all directions. At this point my hands were shaking as i couldnt believe what i had just seen! We trolled the twisty back to the ramp without any success as we scoured the sound with our eyes, just waiting for that bust-up again!!

I know I was one of the first to doubt Matt McKrills' post when he said he hooked a tuna from ASI groyne a couple weeks ago, but after what ive seen today i just have to take his word! I know alot of members will be heading out over the weekend, maybe consider throwing out some junior tornados or laser pros on your way out through the sound!!

G'day crew...

Following is a report from a dive trip yesterday to the southern group of the abrolhos... Mind Blowing is the word ill start with and i had a goal of nailing my first spanish on the spear!

Up at 440 for a 530 start from the ramp. With the local flooding of the greenough it was a good excuse to head wide and we did in style. The forecast 12-15knot nth east wind was non existant and the run over was into a slight swell and glassy ocean...

Along today where good mates and regular dive buddys Rob , Dale & Todd. For dale & toddy today would be there first trip to the islands. They where pumped!

First stop was at Mid Reef - Approx 50k west of gero - A lump that rises from 45m upto 8 in spots. It does cop a fair hammering but being in the vacinity we decided to check it out. Slowing down to sound onto the reef we where greeted with words everyone that dives/freedives loves to hear! "How Fu*king deep are we , I can see the bottom!"

My response - 27m...... Holy Shhhhhh^t... This was gonna be good! Gearing up and anchoring on a edge on the west side dale was first into the water and popped straight back up screaming there was a big school of solid spanish straight under him! YOU ARE JOKING! First drop and the man nails his first WA spanish of about 8kg.... Schools of shark macks and broadbar continued to harass schools of bait and the dive was pretty sweet... Other spanish where spotted but none landed so we moved off closer again to the islands proper.

Next drop saw a tad greener water and not alot spotted beside a small dhu and the usual trout n baldies - all a touch small to shaft but well over size. This area saw dale break his pb with a drop into 28.8m of water - dive time 1:43secs... WOW

Another move back to clearer waters and again viz was astounding clearly seeing the bottom in 30 odd metres. Big spanish buzzed us but proved ellusive - solid baldies mooched on the bottom ontop of the dropoff in 18m - big spangleds made a quick entry exit style raid and it was just a pleasure to be in the water!

Moving abit deeper over the drop and i was privelaged with something i wont forget! Spying a dhu of maybe 5-6kg down deep i dropped into 17m , the bottom shelving away and still probably 8-10m below me. Leveling off i spy the small dhu - shootable but not quiet wat i was after.... Then i saw them - out of range and slowly swimming away a pair of dhus. 1 male 1 female.... The male was everybit of 15kg and the female would have given my pb of 11-12kg a serious nudge! These where stellar fish!

I wanted one veeeeery badly but after a few more drops and stretcing my limits for only one more sighting i gave up the chase and left them to do there thing. In a way it was probably a good thing they are still there and i feel privelaged to have seen such fish in there home.

Back on board and another move into shallow water for some filming and burly gathering we moved in close to the southern groups eastern side... Buff bream where shot for burly and some lovely underwater video filmed. The water i might add was about 27.5degrees!

Now it was mackie time and Wreck Point was the course we plotted... Wreck Point is the most southern tip of the island group. And for those that have not seen it , its a wild place - Somewhere that anything could pop up and often does. Marlin Yellowfin Wahoo absolutely anything... As we approached i couldnt help but think of the poor skipper who had the unfortunate end a few yrs back thanks to a monster GWS. Nerves tingled...

Idling down we approached a drop off from 11m into 50m over a distance of maybe 75-100m... We could clearly see the sand bottom in 35m. Trout and parrot fish idled away in the depths but clearly where out of reach. And then it all started to happen...

Out of no where a big school of spanish just appeared! This is it! My time - i breathed up and dropped... So many spanish i almost didnt get to shoot... My mind racing just trying to take it all in! Dove on them how ive been told - looking away and swimming on a angle to get there interest and it worked a treat - i lined up with my new RA carbon 1400 - took a moment to compose and fired.... In seconds my gun was gone and my float line racing thru my hands - i was on! Todd had also managed to hit one... YES....

Hitting the surface the mack had already ripped my float line clear and was off... My 11l float bobbing away i raced to catch up... Slowly and tentatively i pulled the line in letting it run and not putting too much pressure on - Robbie came to help spot for sharks and to place a 2nd shot as mine looked high. Then just as the mack was in sight - the spear just fell out.... Devo was an understatement... Then to make it worse robbie dropped into the school who where still buzzing about after the activity and nailed himself a good fish. Landed without a drama and highfives exchanged.. Still deep down i was dissapointed to injure and loose a great fish. 

2mins later breathing up again and another school come in - this time dale and todd are spotting me - willing me to crack to the ice! I dropped to 17m in the crystal water and leveled off... i closed my eyes and tried to act none threatning - what felt like eternity but was only seconds went by , i opened my eyes and there right in front of me not even 7ft from my gun was a good mack... in fact there where probably 30 but i lined up on the closest... mid body just behind the anal fin and fired.... The shot looked perfect and the fish screamed off - My only concern was i had strung it being so close and having the double rubbers rigged up.... One awesome run and i had it again - slack line.... i wont repeat what i said... 2 fish now id lost!

Things went quiet for maybe 10mins of so - burlying and strumming rubbers....

Rob and i had drifted with the gentle current maybe 50m behind the boat..... Then we spotted one - Rob gave me the this is it look and i dropped.... I remeber levelling off again - almost in a trans like state totally relaxed.... i looked up - mackies everywhere in front of me... i looked left straight into the current - HOLY CR!P - a WALL of spanish - words wont describe but ppl that have seen it will know what im saying.. 100+ fish surrounded me... This was mind blowing! Again i aimed up and fired - this time i had to land one....

Fight on - up and down - felt like forever but was probs only 3-4mins and i had my fish just out of reach - i dropped and tailed it - then into its gills! YES ive got him , look up WTF bronzie right on my nose - that'd be right i finally land one only for a shark to pinch it - It was short tho as the shark bolted at the sight of rob and i had to swim my prize back to the boat. Continually admiring such a fantastic fish - Albeit only a small speciman of 10-11kg... During the swim back the school of spanish where everywhere underneath me.... Rob followed me back to the boat and high fives and hand shakes exchanged! The other boys yahooing ontop - they'd also shot good fish....

That left 1 each left to shoot for both rob and i.... Back in the blue and again they appeared - Repeated process and i had my 2nd spanish YEEEEAH... It was going off but by this time a couple of bronzies and started to pop up - suprising it took so long really... I was to spot rob and hopefully get some footage on camera but it wasnt to be... We drifted and didnt a mack... 1 lone YTK of possibly 15kg came for a look but was let pass. Then the boys shot a trevally for burly... A switch was flicked - The trevor spooled dales reel gun in seconds and then tore off - right below rob and i as we made our way back to the boat. A bronzie moved in and took the fishes tail - Suddenly there where bronzies everywhere - WOW.... Camera rolling as 12-15sharks devoured the big trev in seconds and then proceeded to zip up and down in and out of viz all around us - it was going off! Awesome to watch..... One even decided on grabbing my float and having a munch almost pulling the gun out of my hand in the process!

Back on board stories where swapped and general bullsh*t flowed atho this time majority of it true lol.... We upanchored and headed off to bag some reefies but that part of the story just dosnt compare - some thumper trout where speared and a couple of reasonable baldies before stumps where drawn and a course home plotted. A couple of beers enjoyed to celebrate the best day ive ever experianced under the water.... it dosnt get any better!

Apologies for no pics as i had my camera on video mode all day - the other fellas will send me some pics thru soon enough but i just couldnt wait to report on this massive trip!

Hope i haven't bored you all too much with the rambling....

Cheers poddy

So i went to my favourite metro rockwall for an all nighter 3 nights ago. I arrived at around 4:30pm and set a balloon out with a 40cm tailor i caught the night before. i had 2 other mates with me who also had a balloon out each. within 20 minutes i had my first run, my brother was holding the rod and he set the hook straight away but no hook up. we bought the balloon back in and there was a distinctive bite mark on the shoulder of the tailor, missing the 10/0 mustards bu less than a centimetre.

afterwards i set out my balloon again with a similar size tailor and waited for about 3 hours without a single run, at this time i decided to bring my balloon back in, as did my two mates. to my suprise, my bait was gone and all that was left was the tailor head, and my mate had a baby hammerhead (dead) on the end of his line, who was probably too small to set the drag off.

i decided to give my balloon a rest while i fished for some bait, i ended up with 2 sized tailor and a 40cm snook. after a few hours around 1:00am i set my balloon out again with a 30cm tailor, and within 10 minutes i had a run. i picked my rod up and set the hooks, and thought to myself "S*&t it got away again, so i bought my balloon back in again, but about 20m out i felt some head shakes and knew i was still on, so i told my brother to get the gaff and we landed a 1.1m blacktip.

after the first shark, i set my balloon out again with the snook. and within 10 minutes again another run, this time when i set the hook i knew it was a lot larger than the previous shark. it started peeling my 50lbs braid off my tekota800 and it slowley stopped as i tightened the drag, however at this point i saw a boat comming from the left and just knew i was gunna have trouble. my brother and i, along with other fishermen at the rockwall were waving and shouting at the boat, but to our dissapointment, it drove straight through my line and snapped it instantly.

soo, after a all nighter all i had to show for it was a little blacktip, which i made fish and chips with the following day.

damn boats!

 .

Gday all,↲Im thinking about heading upto jurien bay for a fish this weekend and was wondering if anyone has had any luck with the mackies out there lately? And if so what depths have u been finding them in? Its been a few years now since ive managed to boat a spaniard, So i cant wait to hear that drag screaming again as it grabs the lure and makes a run for it!  ↲Cheers

 hey guys, i just got back from a mad diving trip in south africa, diving with tiger and bull sharks (no cages) and i refuse to believe that they have more sharks than us. U know with all the mozambiqueans coming hunting em for the shark fin soup trade.

I reon if anyone can answer my question its going to be you guys so....... what im asking is where do u loose the most fish to sharks around perth?

got told yesterday by pro fisherman big spaniards at the 3 mile

 after getting my samurai kindly given to me by frogleys and the fishing shop i deciced to go to floreat to try it out with some bluebait.                                                     i went saturday and sunday i got 7 whiting and 1 flathead all up . 

hey guys went to woodmans point boat ramp today caught this eagle ray witch gave a great fight first run went for over 300m then came in about 50 metres then took off again before i turned its head got it about 50 metres off the jetty then it goesfor another 50metre run , then comes 5 metres of jetty and ran again for 20metres before landing it fight wass about 15minutes also lost something huge that spooled my saltist 30 on full lock up

Nothing beat fishing in the wild. Billy & Gary has a date with me for a once a life time  fishing trip in one of the exotic fishing ground for wild sebarau in Thailand. The distant from bkk to the fishing destination is about 350KM ( 3hrs drive). Both were excited about the wild fishing trip with me. After all, this is their very first time fishing in a wild environment in Thailand. Along the way to our fishing destination, I've  to feed them as many info as possible to get them familiar about wild fishing scene.

The wild fishing trip itself is already challenging. The experience of the trip is an adventure we keep for memories.

Trying something new and get out of comfort zone is what true fishing is all about. Like in NIKE Sport logo: "Let Do It ".

For sebarau fishing , any catch above 1kg on light tackle is already a good fights. Our dear Dr. Billy here was lucky enough to hit on a 2KG sebarau on top water lure. The joys of seeing him hitting a jackpot sebarau fish of that size in the wild, it hard to describe. I was on the same boat as him, I'm happy for him too.

Off topic abit, my personal target for sebarau will be 4KG. Not at this dam but somewhere even further. Just waiting for the right time , a phone call from my boatman and I off to a IGFA record under class line. Wish me luck !!

We landed a total of 19 sebarau on top water lure that day. Be it sunny or heavy downpour of rains in mid day. These guys  still stand put and fish all the way under the rains.

This will be fishing trip Billy and Gary will not forget.

Great Company !!! Great Fishing !!!

Enjoys the music vid clip I done for them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVZLg0GyQcY

Billy and his 4 Ibs sebarau.

Gary and his catch !!!

Hardcore anglers... fish all the way under the rains... ;)

We headed out on Thursday from Gracetown with a crew from Rio Tinto.  The forecast was a bit dodgy but they were keen to have a crack and the weather turned out fine anyway!  Fish were steady all day.  All up they caught:

• 8 dhuies - 2 more than 13 kilos and 2 released
• 4 sharks
• 1 sambo
• 1 big yellow tail kingy - about 17 kilo - which took some time to pull in
• 6 queen snapper - released 5
• 1 nannygai
• 1 harlequin
• 1 breaksea cod
• 1 wirra
• 1 swallow tail nannygai

Everyone had a great day and went home with fish and a smile!

This dhuie went 13kg

17kg yellow tail kingy - sure took some pulling in

And a couple more nice dhuies!

Cheers

Dean

Well what can I say, today was one of those days that we will never forget. 

Headed out from Woodies at 5am, the wind howling even though BOM said it would be sweet up till 2pm. Weren't really going to go that far out as the Southerly was soaking us before we even got to GI but decided that we'd waiting 3 weeks for a break in the weather and today was our day to go and get some more Tuna.

Got to our Tuna spot but decided to anchor and see if we could get something off the bottom whilst the sun was coming up. Had no luck, one bitey and a lot of pickers. Now the 5.6 Quinnie was bobbing up and down like a cork and it wasn't long till Peter was burleying over the side (repeatedly). I could tell he wanted to go back in but as anyone who has been out with me knows, once your out, your out.

At about 8am I decided it was time to put Peter out of his misery and start going for a troll. We got smashed straight away by a couple of nice sized Tuna. We ended up catching another 3 and then Peters rod went down, we figured it was another Tuna but I looked out and could see this Marlins head out of the water going crazy trying to throw the lure. I screamed out to Pete that he had a Marlin but he didn't believe me at first until I pointed out the object sticking out of the water. We couldn't believe our eyes, this bloody Marlin had taken a small Lazer Pro that we have been using each week for Tuna and we weren't equipped at all to deal with this thing.

I pulled all the lines in and got the teasers out of the water and ordered Peter to not lose this fish as it was a once in a life timer, especially considering we were situated beteen Rotto and 5 Fathom Bank. I'd been harping on about the bloody wind and all I need was one perfect day and we'd be out chasing Dollies and Marlin, but obvioulsy this was a pipe dream and now all of a sudden we had thing thing on the end of a line and hadn't even planned for it.

Anyway to cut a long story short, I rushed to get my camera to take some pics, couldn't decide if I should take photos or video so chose video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ7pZw2iQQk . I appologise for the crappy quality and ufortunately when I zoomed in to get the head action out of the water it just pixelated. But not a bad metro marlin in 34m of water with gear set up for catching small Bluefin Tuna. 

Once we got it up to the side of the boat we ummed and ahhhed about if we should keep it but at the end of the day this thing was magnificent and we couldn't bring ourselves to ending its life and chose to let it go. The paniced photos I took also weren't the best so appologies there too. 

Anyhoo, after releasing the Marlin we sent out the larger lures and skirts and pulled out a barrage of teasers but only raised one more nice sized Tuna.  Then we turned out attention to catching one more pelagic to make it a "Grand Slam" of pelagics for the boat. Drove over to Parker Point and started trolling and on the first drive hooked up on a Shark Mackeral. What a way to end off a truley exceptional day. 

The wind had picked up by now and it was a very wet and bumpy trip back in but even though we were both drenched, the shit weather couldn't wipe the grins off our faces. 

Just goes to show you never know what you'll hook up on when fishing and this is the buzz of it. Also shows that even when you are dry reaching over the side of the boat, the day can get better :)

I brought Harold (American angler) to have 1 DAY fun  of sebarau fishing(jungle perch) in Thailand. This is the very first time Harold visits Thailand. He has never fish in this part of asia before.

He own a fishing boat back in USA and guided some of the great offshore sport fishing himself back home.

He has always wanted to try the freshwater fishing in Thailand. It will be great to introduce two of the prized freshwater fishes of asia - The Toman & Sebarau.

As this period is not the toman month yet, we'll have to settle for some sebarau fun fishing at one of the distant dam.

After a few tips from me  here and there, Harold is ready to rock and rolls on him own.... ;)!!!!

Given his limited experience in freshwater fishing in this part of Thailand. A fast learning angler like himself, very fast he transform to be a sebarau killer and landed 15 pieces of sebarau in 1 DAY. The prized fish of the day is this 2KG sebarau landed on topwater lure. Not bad at all. :)

The fights and beautiful scenery are enough to get him all excited to visit asia again. Hopefully he will bring more of his big game fishing buddies to fish in Thaiand.

The fights and beautiful scenery are enough to get him all excited.

Enjoys the photos and vid clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQJ7xBsgOfQ

Harold great catch of the day.
A 2 KG sebarau caught on lure in the wild... ;)

The long awaited Walpole trip finally came on sunday as 6 mates and i headed down.
After a 6 hour drive and only getting lost once we arrived at Rest point Caravan Park.
Arriving at 4pm we set up the tents and went for a fish. We had a dinghy and 4 kayaks customised for fishing readily available.
The wind was up so we stayed in the channel between the Nornalup and Walpole inlets. Casting my new Zipbaits tiny khamsin i soon hooked up to first fish of the trip a little Salmon Trout - small but mighty.

Continued flicky my khamsin and picked up another little salmon until i hooked up to a nice little flatty in the shallows was approx 35cm and released.
I changed lure to concentrate on the snags for bream and put on a Sebile Crankster in the gold/black colour. I soon twitched it out of a healthy looking snag and picked up my first bream on a hardbody went about 23cm but still a first. I went on to pick up another couple of smallish bream before we headed in.

On the second day we found trolling proved effective trolling khamsins and hardz - we picked up several small salmon and bream with a mate getting the biggest bream of the trip at 31cm. One other mate picked upa little pinky that nailed a lure nearly as big as its self.

We made a trip into the nornalup and did some trolling on the flats near the ocean mouth were small salmon were prevelant and i also hooked a nice 43cm Flathead which cooked up nicely that night on a zipbaits Khamsin that i won at bream expo day. We also trolled up and double hook up of bream and pinkies and a solid skippy was also lost.

Later in the afternoon we went out infront of restpoint t have a troll and a bream in the yaks and fishing was slow as the boys headed in i stuck it out and found a good stretch of bank for trolling and picked up 17 bream on a khamsin in carmen red. 7 of which would have been size with the biggest 31cm and got great underwater release footage on that bream and many others which i will post later.

The next morning we headed out to the Frankland and launched just upstream from the Nornalup bridge.
Rocking up to the little jetty we noticed lots of bream and got some brilliant underwater footage of them.
We set of heading downstream and i picked up a smallish bream on the crankster while my mates got nothing

after a solid 1.5 hrs we headed back having not given up i shot across from the jetty to some snags hoping to pick up my first surface bream on a Berkley Scumdog.
First snag and first cast i saw a mushroom of water from the tail kick of a bream and a moment later another mushroom occurred and my lure disappeared under the surface of the water and i was on and landed my first poppered bream. Stoked as i was i gave it another 10 mins before we headed of and got one follow.

As soon as we got back to camp i headed out itching to try some more snags with my scumdog.
The fishing was hot with every second snag producing a follow i landed about 5 bream biggest was 27cm and had another 10 follows/ series of hits with no hook up.
One memorable hook up including the bream hitting it 5 times finally hooking up on the 6th.

On the last night me and a mate thought we'd give bait a crack seen as tho it was windy and not good yakking weather.
We hook some 25 cm bream casting out from the jetty. One of which put a big bow in my line and took me under the jetty alltho it looked like the bait was still sitting 30 metres out from the jetty.
We then cottoned on to the fact we could dropp stright down and get better results
So with a simplistic rig of just asmall circle hook we sent down some unweighted river prawns. This porved to be exciting fishing with visual hook ups and mad bustoffs.
With bait low i changed to a sinking stick bait a subdog. The plentiful Bait fish were attraced to the lure and had soon accidently jagged one and it proved to be a very useful live bait, catching high 20 cm bream.

All in all a solid trip no big bream but a bit of local knowledge and a bit of luck may prove useful next time.

Cheers Duffman

So I have had my Loomis Sharkey around 9 months now, and I was starting to wonder what this rod is made for. Even the exmouth sharks never REALLY tested it. Tonight it finally got a workout.

After getting an ass kicking from a big ray on sat night I was telling everyone at work I was goin back tonight for revenge. Went down about 8 after the rain had cleared and found my usual spot empty, which was great since it really only leaves room for a couple of people to fish the gap in the reef. With very little wind, conditions were good and the first cast sailed a good 90m out I reckon. Rigged up a nice fresh tailor head and start sliding it down to my sinker.

After this the next hour or so was quiet till I start seeing some herring in the water not far out, quickly pull out the bait rod and use a small pieve of tailor to catch a herring. Reel in the heavy gear and by now the wind has dropped off to nothing and the next cast flies a good 110m out, Im finally getting the hang of casting this broom stick and 8oz grapnels! Rig up the live herring on a single 9/0 gama occy and start sliding it out, by now I think the tide has just turned and the bait moves out fairly quickly.  

Again the waiting game begins and I have a chat to a nice old bloke that walks past the spot often. maybe 45 mins later I hear that amazing sound zzzz.zzzzzzzz.ZZZZZZZZZ quickly grab the rod and knowing how much reef is in the area I dont wait, thumb the spool n BANG BANG BANG, 3 quick strikes to set the hook, tighten the grag down to around 8kg and hold on. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ this thing just keeps running, at first I call it for a shark, must have been the tail or the wings hitting the leader cuz it felt like some decent shakes. 30 seconds later the rest of my mono dissapear as my PR not goes through the guides and the braid backing gets its first use in a while.

When I lost my ray on sat night I was convinced I had over tightened my drag too early, so I stayed patient and sat on around 8kg as at least another 80 or so metres of line dissapeared, by now my spool had emptied a bit so perhaps the drag had increased slightly. By how much I have no idea. Slowly but surely the fish started to slow down. At this point I grabbed my phone and called my bro to see if he was keen to come down and help land it/take some pics. Luckily he obliged.

So after about 40mins and climbing across some rocks I had him 30m out. This is where it got tough.... doing the typical ray move he was covering himself in sand and just sitting.... by now my arms are almost giving up so I repeatedly try every move i know to get him out of the sand and through the shore break. At some stages thumbing the spool and putting all my weight into him, other times giving some slack line then once he moved giving it stick, and my go to move of reducing pressure, running 40m down the beach then trying to hammer him from there, this last one never works I dont know why I keep doin it lol...

Anyway, another 20 mins or so and he was right in the shore break, working with the waves I get him as far in as possible, back the drag off a bit and give my brother the rod, run down to the shore and use the leader to get him another 2m up the sand. Pliers in hand I lift the front of him and feel around for the mouth. The hook is pretty deep down the throat so decided I had to cut the steel trace at the mouth. I hav heard stories of south africans putting half their arm down a rays throat to remove a hook but I dotn have that kinda experience, so it was cut off. A few happy snapps courtesy of my bro then I reached under, grabbed the jaw plate (knowing from the lenth of my slide trace that the hook was a good 10cm further down) and pulled the fish back into the shore break to watch him swim away.

Awesome night, and good to get my PB ray in a spot where they have been giving me hidings since I first went tailor fishing as a little kid.

Cheers,
Adam
 

 Started our annual metro mack campaign just before xmas( keen aye!) 2 or 3 trips lost in the mists of time ,no macks

then bingo, over the last 2 weeks a couple turned up for us ,so we tryed today to get a metro mack 

and were successful

vid on utube ,just stick in search box( spanish mackerel in perth )

its a bit whited out ,camera settings wasnt right ,all fixed now,enjoy

Well it was my 50th on Tuesday and with the weather gods blessing Greg (my next door neighbour) and I set out for a day's fishing out from Mindarie. The sun was bearly rising as we headed out of the marina and out to the back of staggies where we planned to troll for spaniards for a while.

Well nobody told the spaniards that it was my birthday so after several false strikes due to weed, we gave it away and headed west.

The weather was still looking good and a light south easterly meant the drifts were going to be right along the ledges I fish, so we started to feel a little lucky.

With Greg onboard we reminisced about a few large fish he had caught from my boat many years ago and so in his honour we headed for that very spot, which incidently was where my daughter caught her 11kg PB Dhuie only a few weeks ago.

First drift and we had a double hook up. My fish was making a good account of itself whilst Gregs was proving a little easier to handle. Despite this mine was first to the boat and at 9kgs it was a great birthday present for sure.

Gregs on the other hand was a respectable 55cm and pre-regulation changes would have been in the esky without hesitation. But with the current rules it was a case of (do we head home now at 6-00am or do we enjoy the day on the water?

Given that I have started tagging for Westag it was an easy decision and we decided to put a tag in the fish and keep fishing.

We landed a few sargeant bakers, which were immediately converted to strip baits. These worked a treat and we ended up landing, tagging and releasing 5 more dhuies and a blackarse. The way two of them were released however is the subject of a "Dumb and Dumber 2" the sequel screenplay.

Firstly when I was releasing a nice 59cm dhuie, as I gave the heave ho to release the fish at depth, the clip swivel gave way and I released the release weight as well... (Doh!).

I quickly fashioned a home made release weight using a crushed barb hook, a length of 100lb mono a big sinker and a crimped on swivel. Rough but it would do the job.

The last Dhuie of the day was the 58cm one pictured below.

(I know it looks less than that in the pic but that's on an angle and when straight I can assure you it was 58cm). Anyway given that the fish was in excellent condition, having been slowly retrieved from 40m and given a deco stop at about 5m from the surface, I decided to use the boga grips to hold the lively fish while we released it. As Greg grabbed the rod and I hooked the fish with the release weight and manouvered it over the gunnels, the fish gave an almighty jump and somehow wrenched the bogas out of my hands.(I blame the arthritis at 50yrs of age). So over the side goes the fish conected to the release weight and my bogas. Since the reel was already in freespool, down it went. And as I cried out Greg automatically thumbed the spool to stop the fish, but as we all know thats how the release weight is released, so now we have a super strong 58cm, dhuie with tag number 76960 in it's side and my bogas in its mouth slowly swimming under the boat.

I raced over to the other side of the boat and grabbed the net but couldn't quite reach her as she slowly but surely swam deeper and deeper.

So if anyone catches a Dhuie with that tag in her side, tell her "I want my bogas back!!!"

The tag sheet now has some interesting comments for that particular tag....

(On a serious note, it doesn't look good for that fish, as I doubt it will be able to release itself from the bogas and they aren't going to rust out all that fast. So a sobering side of the equation is to always remember to tie the little wrist strap over your wrist when handling fish to be released..... I know I certainly won't be making the same mistake again.)

That being said, nothing could deter from the fact that we had a great day on the water and it was a magnificent way to celebrate 50 years on the planet. We ended the day with a few drinks at the Reeltime bar with family and friends.  Oh and Spurs won away in the Champions League.... what a 50th to remember!

 Gday crew

Thought id throw abit of a report together while i got the chance so here goes....

Last block off saw SamC & friend head north to do some spearing with me and a mate dale. Forecast looked unreal so the decision to head north the Port Gregory was made boat was packed and off we went early tuesday morning of last week... Arrived launched the boat and headed for ArchDecon Ledge.... 

Met with disgusting green water and a awesome 3m of viz! Cut costs and anchored up - jumped in and it was horrible. After trying in vain to find a fish worth shooting - well bump into a fish worth shooting. Ended up gettin buzzed by a agitated 8-9ft bronzie. This shark wasnt much fun and in the dirty water and with it darting about very very quickly we decided best to leave. We cut our losses and heading in behind the reef to find a touch better viz. Dale had managed to shoot his first dhu at 64cms - being a NSW diver he was pretty stoked and to find it hiding inside a cave in mud was a good effort in 15m.

The reef was slightly better but nothing special... Monster tailor where spotted along with parrotys and small groper... Sam even managed a thumper Tarwhine.

We then proceded to get stung from heel to toe literally by the most unreal bluebottle swarm ever! Words cannot describe how bad it was but it prevented dale from swimming to the boat - he waited on the reef for us to come around and pick him up. It was insane. A literal CARPET of the pricks....

Tried for some crays quickly - managed a few from the millions of kakkers and saw a 10ft tiger in 3ft of water before cuttin cost and headin in spirits shot to bits! The decision was made going by the current conditions that we would return to gero and try from there!

Next day seen the damn sthrly in early but we pushed on and found some okish water - hazy 10m viz and the odd fish... SamC managed a pair of nice baldies early - His mate Kasey got a nice trout and a groper - Dale managed the same and i managed to pick up a thumper 6.5kg baldie and small dhu to end the day! At least the boys shot some nice fish in the end. Highlight for me tho was being surrounded by a school of small sharks on a mission at one stage in 15m. It was phenominal 50plus sharks from 2ft - 6ft long. Had to check and triple check they wernt cobia!

Since the boys left ive managed a few local dives aswell 

The crays are slowly picking up and a few fish in shallow also.... Managed a great late arvi session with Spooled last week with 12crays 2 small dhuies 1 nice trout and a Yellowspotted Boarfish! A first for myself and the fillets look unreal!

Also had a well known fishwrecked identity (photo posted in latest images) who asked to remain annymous call thru town and manage to crack open his dhuie account on the straight hook!

Dove yesterday aswell and struggled in a howling northerly current! Ended up picking up 2 trout 1 big baldie 1 bluebar parrot and i scored again picking up a 10kg cobia! Not very common in town but seen from time to time... The fish did cost me a $100 sharft for my riffe euro but happy regardless!

Enjoy the couple of pics! Till next time

Cheers Poddy

Decided to do an all nighter at the Ammo Dump jetty on Monday night, which consequently resulted in me sleepng for 18 hours after aha. But nonetheless, its always worth it when if your fishing. Got to Ammo Dump around 7.30 Monday night, and got straight into the scalies. Cleaned up with a bucket, while using the occasional one as live bait. Decided to go with a personal snapper rig of mine, with the addition of a 9' lumo jig, as it had worked previously. Every bait that was sent out resulted in some sort of run. To kick things off, a decent banjo shark was landed, 2 5ft black tips, and a solid North West Blowie (92cm), however it was no match for  a Shimano Saragosa 18000 on Tiralejo 1100S running 50lb braid. Around midnight, I decided to balloon out with some New Zealand mackies I purchased, as some guy was spooled 600m of 50lb braid earlier. However, yet again no luck with the balloon all night. Meanwhile, we collected a handful of crabs, keeping 11, with the smallest going 16cm and largest 19cm. At around 5am, the Saragosa went off, with the result, a tailor nailed on two 7/0 circles, so cut the tail off and sent it straight back out. Within 5 minutes the rod went screaming, just as the sun came up. No head shakes what so ever so I knew it was a ray, however I was surprised as the bait was situated a good 2.5m from the ground. Nonetheless, no matter how hard I cranked the drag the fish wouldn't stop, taking runs of 100m at a rate of knots. Half an hour later with a good 300m lost, I was starting to make some ground. Now, Honsu once told me about Eagle Rays jumping out of the water, but I never believed him aha, until now that is. Once it was around 150m away, it jumped about a dozen times almost a metre out of the water, and each time taking more line. So around an hour and a half later, I got it within 10m of the jetty, quickly guiding it towards the beach as I didn't want to gaf it, but almost got bust off trying to do this. I managed to turn its head getting it around 10m to the side of the jetty, and rather than pulling it, it actually swam towards the beach. With clear and silky smooth water, it was an absolute sight to see a ray about 1m below the surface swimming through the water. Eventually I got myself and the ray to the beach, where plenty of beach goers crowded around what I thought was a monster eagle ray (wing span well over 1.5m). Cut the line close to the hook as it would have been a lot quicker than removing it, and carefully guided it back in the water with my mate, while the old bugger was huffing and puffing. Helped it through the water and watched it swim away after a good fight and quick release. We stayed for another few hours and grabbed our bag limit of whiting. So all in all, not a bad night, would have prefferred something big and edible, but thats fishing :)

Only pic I got http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=820805276

Sorry about quality, only had mates crappy phone with us. Every time I don't bring a camera or my iPhone, I catch something worth a photo aha