First report for the year & the first spear for the year!

Rob and i where both coming off nightshift which made things alittle harder but with not a drop of swell and the promise of half decent conditions we bit the bullet and headed out about 730am straight after knocking off work. Along this time with us was Robs future son-in-law Timmy. Very keen surfer and dosnt mind spending time with a gun in his hand. 

Forecast was for fairly light sth-west winds which where pretty much spot on and made the trip fairly slow but not too bad but the grey overcast skys and intermittent rain showers didnt help the viz once in the drink! Arrived at about 845 and geared up. First in the drink was robbie and he came up stoked the water was clear as and fish everywhere! I jumped in armed with the camera in a attempt to get some nice shots - that lasted all of a min when a monster baldie came ghosting in from the gloom. Tim traded my riffe for the camera but it was too late the fish had continued on...

Went for abit of a swim and came across a nice groper of about 4kg so my first shot had me on the board and we where on our way.... Dropped the fish at the boat and swum over to find tim and rob on some beaut looking ground in about 10m and timmy just dealing with a superb baldchin of about 6kg! Great Fish....

Little bit of buffy burly and i spyed a nice spango off on the sand along with another big groper and a couple of small dhuies... Being a good swim from the boat tho rob made the call to head back abit closer so the fish where left be for next time.... Caught up with rob who was burlying a buff and had woken up every wobbie in a 10mile radius - had 7 swimming about at one stage all different colours and patterns quiet cool to see...

Timmy mean while had knocked off a big Blue Bar Parrot on his swim back to the boat and he had his 2 fish limit on the first dive!

I traded the gun for my camera again and was busy taking snaps when robbie called us over for some pics - he had nailed his first Blue Groper! Not very often seen up this way and he was pretty happy to chalk another off the list! Beautiful soft white fillets i might add when doing the cleaning later on! Cant wait to try it

Moved out into some deeper water which proved fruitless so headed back in to try find the area i saw the spangos before.... Stumbled across some ok looking ground nothing spekky but set about spearing a buff and getting some action happening... One small sambo of about 15kg came looking but was let continue on his business and then suddenly the spangleds appeared... Timmy was following with camera and i was flat out trying to burley these flighty fish in closer when rob gave us a warning yell! "OI LOOOKOUT"

Turned around to come face to face with a 10ft tiger 5ft away.... Dropped the burly and put my gun between us and the fish while tim did his best to climb on my sholders and rob came over to lend a hand.... Ate the buffy i dropped and came for a couple of tight circles really watching us before drifting off... AWESOME ENCOUNTER... Tim wasnt really in picture mode therefore only got the one snap - Video would have been unnnnreal. He retired back to the boat after that...

Traded gun for camera again incase he came back in and fired some shots off of some small dhuies , groper and trout - robbie missed a nice baldchin and we decided to move again to try find our 2 more fish....

Viz had begun depleting here in the deeper water which didnt help - fair amount of swimming for me only showed a couple of parrotfish but nothing worth shooting... Rob managed one small groper which left one fish to shoot.... We caught up and where discussing one more move or what to do when i looked down to find a ripper 6kg plus baldchin moochin in under me... SCORE

Quick breath up drop down and nailed my 2nd fish for the day and our bag of 6 was complete....

Home cleaned up and ready to do it all again next time the weather permits with some beautiful fillets for dinner!

Great day out

Cheers Poddy

Greeting to all. I would like to share my experience sailfish fishing in Kuala Rompin Malaysia. In this trip we manage to land nearly 20 sailfish in 2 days fishing. Kuala Rompin is deemed to be the sailfish fishing capital of Asia, it has one of the best fishing grounds in this region. Other than using live bait, surface popping also can attracted sailfish. Nestled on the south east coast of the Malaysian peninsular, Kuala Rompin is a unique area offering anglers of all experience and skill levels spectacular sailfish action. The sailfish are drawn to this part of the South China Sea as the warm currents offer them the ideal feeding grounds for the masses of baitfish within this area. Sailfish work in packs hunting these waters for bait schools and their aggressive feeding patterns offer anglers numerous sport fishing opportunities. The warm, calm waters off the coast of Kuala Rompin are ideal for anglers to target quantities of these billfish. 40kg sail Double hook up Birds flying over sailfish In action Ladies Angler Toying with bait Hook up More hook up Fishing boat Using sabiki/apollo rig to catch some livebait

Here's a few pics to go with the video I've posted in that section.

I'll do a seperate report when I can detailing the new rod.

The link to the videos section below

http://fishwrecked.com/forum/some-nice-lutjanids

Enjoy!!

What day !!! What a relaxing trip for me !!!

Whenever I'm not going for any fishing trips. I would take my car, go for a spins  and look for potential wild fishing spots for wild toman & sebarau around the countryside..

This particular fishing location , not far from bkk (250km -2.5hr drive) has many sebarau. For many fans of sebarau (jungle perch)anglers - This catch report will be a delight for you. :)

I landed some 20 sebarau fishes and missed a dozen more , all landed on my topwater lures. The said location has many seasweeds thus usage of those deep diver lures & spoon is out of the question.

Follow me to the adventure of wild fishing trip for sebarau (jungle perch) in Thailand.

Spent an enjoyable evening a Timms Thickett last nite,gentle breeze till dark then still till the northerly 7.30 thismorning.

Fishing wasnt as good as it could have been,Blowies are thick,never seen them as thick.Between my bro and I we removed around 120 of them.

I did get 3 nice Tailor 35,37 and 43 cm.Makes up for the 6 just undersize I put back into the cut last week.

Shame about the blowies,prevented us targeting whiting,well catching them.Was told the blowies are thick all the way up that beach.

Andrew

No kids, a Striper, not a stripper! Anyhow, Monday lead to MightyMouse, his FIL Con, pal Aaron and myself all heading up to Cervantes in convoy: The work truck and van, and the Carl's Seaswirl Striper 2601. Nice drive on the new road, most of the traffic going the other way after sucking up a week or so of the usual Jurien windy xmas holiday weather. Occasional local Andy gave us a few quick tips on the launch site, remembering to round the post and then loaned us a genny. We then took the boat down and set up camp, just in time for BBQ dinner. I'd like to make sure that you all know we ate meat AND vegetables on the trip, and not just fried onion either! We launched the boat and left it moored, with a fore and aft anchor because the tides really weren't going to be ideal the next day.

The next day, I woke to find that we didn't quite have enough water under the boat to float it out, but a combination of weight movement, rocking and the anchor winch got us over the edge of the dropoff. We had a quick breakky and waved bye to Con and headed out for some fish! Can't get away from the fish there! We headed North to the 30m mark and sounded out some ground and I think that Aaron, Carl and I had landed 5 dhufish in two drops! Aaron got his first legal dhu on plastic, and next couple of drifts I was busy getting a quick tour of the boat!

That turned up my 10kg specimen. He came up on a 7Seas Hooker, in a lumo/white/holo pattern.

Next Carl was getting some good whacks on his Pirate and this is the result! We guessed the fish at 10kg, but it came up in such good nick, we took a quick pic and then we released him. We might come visiting when he puts on another 10kg.

We were worried that we were just going to get dhufish all day, but we had a few of the usual suspects on jig also; Sambos, Sgt bakers, later some small pinks and finally a few Baldies.

The bite really tapered off in the arvo, so I had a dive, Aaron and Carl having a doze on the boat. Not much love there in 10-15m, crays are long gone and there were just a few small kackers. After that, I got my light outfit out. After dragging 450g jigs around in 300m, just 70g jigs in 30m of water was just like a holiday!

And the results;

We headed back in, cleaned the catch and the boat, and then time for another fry-up! Day 2 we went back out to the 30m mark, Aaron picked up a nice dhufish on bait, and then we pushed out to the FADs. There were a lot of fish out there on the Southern Fad, but the bit was a little slow. We caught one fish going 820mm on a 5". We tried a few more spots on the way back in to Jurien, just managed a few small pinks and a large sambos. Con drove the truck up and we retrieved at the ramp, no sweat! I ran into Whitey at the wharf, we had a little chat about what they had been onto all day - including a forum member bagging a +20kg YTK! All in all, a top trip thanks to MightyMouse for organising it and ta to Andy for the genny and a few tips on that launch!

 G'Day all,

Took the boy (6 year old) and my dad out for a fish two weeks ago from Bouvard Marina. It was Kai's first time out on the ocean so was hoping I could get him into something decent to give him the "bug". Turns out the little smart arse out fished both me and his grandad for the fourth time in a row. He hooked and caught this 51cm Dhuie. Mission completed. I didn't hear the end of it for two weeks (dad don't tell me how to fish, dad I know what i'm doing i just caught a Dhuey and you didn't, dad I'm the best fisherman blah blah blah) so thought it was about time I put him back in his (tackle) box!! 

So me and my Dad went out yesterday (without Kai). Conditions were awesome!! Once again launched from Bouvard Marina. Was twitching soft plastics most of the day with a baited rod in all the time, when the set bottom bouncer started bouncing around with something decent attached. Had fresh occy and a strip bait on a paternosta. Coulda sworn it'd woulda eaten the strip but ended up with the occy. The subsequent Dhuie ended up being 65cm and 5.5kg. Couldn't wait to show the boy and when I did, mine was uglier than his and he caught the prettiest tastiest fish....blah blah blah. 

But in all seriousness was so glad his introduction to ocean fishing went off well and can't wait for future fishing adventures.

For the 4th year running we spent Xmas and the New year in Walpole. Coal Mine beach has a new launch facility so if you have a larger boat like we do this is the place to go with no crowd.

Had all week there and picked up heaps of bream at skippy rock near the mouth. This is the large hole at the bottom of the large rock face near the mouth of the system.

Had a few days out wide in 65 meters of water. We found good ground not far from the mouth and picked up Pinkies, Queenies, Black arse, Harlequin with the biggist teeth you have ever seen, Nanigi and other bits and piecies. No problems with getting good size fish and releasing the smaller ones.

We landed 4 of the biggest leather jackets I have ever seen 80 + cm and we released them all to fight another day.

We love Walpole and will book again same time next year.

Hi all

Took my diving buddy fishing today and he scored his first dhuie....measured 57cm so we're guessing it weighed a couple of kilos, but he was stoked. I scored a nice size queen snapper, so I was stoked, too.

Left the Dawesville ramp at 6am and covered alot of ground before we got back at 4pm....all 114kms, thanks to the trip meter in the Furuno FCV620. The ocean got better as the day went on, and we ventured out as far as the 50m drop off. 

Fished a few spots on the way in but found plenty of pickers but no biters.....did pick up a nice skippy at one spot, though.

Back to reality in the morning as the job calls....no work no pay, no pay no fuel, no fuel no fishing. It's a cruel cycle!!

regards
rusty...

had a solo session last week out of dampier. it was blowing its ring out but i was desperate for a fish so snuck out to one of the islands just to have a crack at it. got to a very well protected bay which had a few bombies and reefs around in only about 2-3m of water. i chucked 2 smaller lures out and hoped for the best...

nothing happened for the first five minutes but then things went mad. first in the boat was an undersize trout which was encouraging and unexpected. i got another 2 undersize trout on the first troll up the bay. when i got to the top and just started to turn back i hit a school of queenies. i sort of lost count but i reckon i boated at least 12 in the next half hour or so. 6 came from double hookups which are entertaining when by yourself.

i only wanted to keep 1 but the smaller of the ones in the photo inhaled a treble and didn't release well so i scooped him back in and gave him to the neighbour. i stopped trolling for a while and chucked a popper out but after about 10 minutes there was no joy so i drove away from the queenies and chucked the lures out again.

got about another 5 or so trout on the next run back down the bay...all undersize. then i got a barracuda. then i got a 60cm trout. then about another 5 undersize ones (around 40cm). then another trout which was just over 50cm. then hooked into what i think was a solid mackie which went on a great run and was on the way back when he either reefed me or bit through.

with that it was time to pack it in and head back to the ramp. was back home with a clean boat by 11:00am after having had some of the best fishing fun ever. only fished for about an hour and a half in total.

who says you need to go wide to have a good time???

p.s. also caught a new pb for smallest fish on a lure with the last photo...not sure what it is though.

Hey guys! Myself, fellow Fishwrecked member Ron (daboogyxen) and my other friend Joel are currently on holiday in Bangkok and we heard that there was a local pond which was fairly pricey but worth the money. As a result we organised to head to Bungsamran Fishing Park (near the bangkok city area) on the 2nd and as you can see from the pictures it was well worth the journey!

Once we checked in for a 12hr stint and booked our bungalow we took a look at the lake and the surface was continuously boiling with large mekong catfish and siamese carp - a trend which continued for the entire duration of our trip! It took a while for us to get a hookup but we had a really hardworking guide who would basically do all the hard work for us if required i.e. baiting, casting, retrieving and once the fish got worked up we had regular hits until we checked out. The rigs we used were really simple - big float, berley cage with a fairly small sized Gamakatsu hook attached. The best part was the hook was never baited! Before each cast we would pack the berley cage with something called 'lam' (essentially berley) and made a sphere slightly larger than a tennis ball. Once we basically bombed the ball into the lake it would create a berley cloud which would attract the fish and somehow in all that confusion the hook would end up inside the fishes mouth! Not surprisingly we did have our fair share of foul hooked fish that usually ended up being lost.

In summary we caught about 16 fish in total from about 35-40 hookups with a few of them double hookups. All of our fish were mekong catfish (Ron did lose one very large siamese carp) averaging around 18-22kg although we did land two 'babies' at around 10kg. The largest reported catfish in the lake was around the 100kg mark so you can roughly extrapolate the size! Also in the lake were red tail catfish, one large arapaima (approx 450lbs) and giant freshwater stingray. It did cost a fair bit for a day trip at around 3500baht all up (just over 100 AUD) but I would recommend any Fishwrecked member to check it out if they are ever in bangkok and have a spare 12hrs :)

Cheers

Headed out from a very busy two rocks ramp today for a bit of bottom bouncing and tuna chasing.conditions weren't too bad and got even better as the morning got on,we found our first tuna school with bird action fairly quick and i managed a hook up on a little stripey amongst the blues on a plastic before they sounded down and dissapeared. so next we headed out and did some bait fishing with sonny first up hooking up to a nice bronzie which took awhile to bring to the boat on light gear and took us even longer to get the damn thing on board.next drift produced a good baldie to sonny which broke his pb from last week so he was stoked but after that things went quite so we spent the rest of the morning chasing the blues.

I took a couple of old mates from my PNG days out today. The day started off with a few whiting

Then we headed out a bit to look for some table fish to get a feed and also so I could start tagging a few fish for research.

First was a nce size BB for Durmo

And a matching set for K9.

After that it shut down for a while until K9 managed a nice dhuie

We mucked about chasing whiting again after that and K9 surprised us all with this whopper of a Gurnard. Beautiful fish, so we let her go.

Whilst I didn't keep a fish, I was kept busy with tagging and releasing several dhuies and blackarse. All in all a great day on the water with some good mates. Beats sitting behind the computer for sure.

The ramp was chockers 27 boats in front off us .So was not a quick launch .Still conditions were ok.Headed out to the 40m and picked up soom nice tuna ,Jesse doing well on the soft plastic in orange he got five.Then we got into some bottom fish little slow on the dhuies but baldies were going off.back at the ramp for 1:30. finished with  a tuna 5 good sized baldies 1 dhuie 6kg,and a couple of good fox fish .in all a good day ,and fresh fish for dinner.

hey hey

got to the ramp at 5 30 this morning for a quick launch and headed west with the intention of fishing far side of d bank

motored out and found some likely looking new spot's on the way. i fished jigs at first and mate fished bait just to cover all bases.

picked up a few BB's , small dhuey's and such before mate caught a 5kg dhu on bait. it had swallowed the hook deep so was into the esky.

i had a moments weakness and put down a skinned occy arm on driftbait . scored a half decent dhuey which was in good condition , so set off on her way back down.

continued out , fishing spots on the way to 85m , for numerous small bits and bobs including baldie and sgt baitkers.

saw a loads of birds and fish busting up so threw out a skirt on the way past for a little sbt.

out to 80meters and found some great looking ground and fish sign everywhere but little on the bite. mate got a nice red snapper that went 52cm on jig.

not a great deal happening so made our way back inwards , and found another likely spot.

jigs were dropped and mate picked up a cuttlefish. dehooked and released , but it only made it 10 foot down when something big came and took it. not sure what it was but we put down 2 jigs and a bait . line destroyed. frayed up to buggery. very pointy headed whatever it was. initial thought was it looked like a big tuna but couldn't of been as bite offs and not much of

an initial run , tho may not have realised it was hooked.

not too bad a day really. back in for 2pm

Team Gates headed out from Dawesville at 7am and went out to the same ground where last week, I scored my first dhuie. The winds were light but the sea was all of 1m, as was the advertised swell of 1m.

Didn't see too many other boats out where we went, but the ramp carpark was overflowing!

Had a quick drift over a couple of spots but nothing doing, so we headed out a bit further and straight away I boated a dhuie about 40cm and successfully released it. We were  seeing 'red' on the sounder and getting bites but nothing appeared too hungry but we ended up with 2 good sized blackarse and a plump sandy.....which looked a bit out of place with a 5/0 in it's mouth!!

Arrived back at the ramp around 1.30pm to see the fisheries throwing crabs back into the water. Over on one of the boats that had been retrieved was another fisheries officer with the book out! We then saw another bucket load of crabs being put back into the water so we're guessing they had a few too many. Don't know about the size, though.

The other interesting thing that happened was as we were slowly approaching the ramp, the boat in front of us was nearing the jetty, when all of a sudden he's grabbed a big handful of reverse, swung around and driven off......that's when we spotted the fisheries on the jetty returning crabs to the water.

One can only wonder at what made this guy behave in this manner 

Let's hope the weather is ok for tomorrow as I'm keen to get out there again before I have to head back to work on Wednesday or Thursday.

Hope you all had a good day on the water.

regards
rusty...

Hello All, After christmas at our place we headed off to Walpole on Monday and came back yesterday.  Fished every day either in the Nornalup Inlet or outside near saddle Island.

On Tuesday morning it was a bit blowy but we ended up in the lee of newdegate Island and fished baits for a while without much success so we shifted to the southern edge of the inlet and hooked into some bream, KGW's and yellowfin whiting.  Janes uncle also hooked an eel-esque thing it was silver about the width of my finger and perhaps two feet long.  It had a scissor like jaw, and had completely swallowed the hook so we cut the line and let it go.  Unfortunately no camera that day so no pics, any suggestions as to what it may have been? Janes uncle has fished there for more than 20 years and had never seen one before.

Wed morning it was over to the franklin side of the estuary for some more bream and Yellowfin Whiting.  Ended up straight out from Coalmine beach over a patch of ground where we could see huge schools of bream. We probably landed more than 20 bream, but only a few past 30cm.

Thursday and Friday morning looked pretty good on the weather front, so Janes cousin and I took the Stacer 4.5 outside to Saddle Island. Several drifts resulted in me being seasick, but I persisted and Simon ended out getting a 65cm Queen Snapper, then I hooked a 3ft shark, got it to the boat where it bit off my line.  More seasickness which came in waves and then went and finally I landed a 60cm Queen Snapper. I called it quits and we headed back in.

Friday morning was even more promising with light winds and I had got some travelcalm original so I was really looking forward to it.  After a few more drifts around the Needles I landed an 80cm Queenie and Simon got a 60cm one.  After this, we shifted spots to try to get a dhuie or something else.  We shifted to the eastern side of Saddle Island and set up a drift near where Hlokk and I got some Harlequins/Juvie Pinkies the year before.  One drift and I got a 40cm Pinkie which went back, and a bust off from something else which seemed decent.

We had seen a boat anchored up close to the island who seemed to be catching only small pinkies, and as our drift would take us down to them we had a chat as we went by and they had only got undersize pinkies, so we told them about our queen snapper spot, and they pulled anchor and headed over to try their luck.  Just goes to show not everyone is a pinger or has bad intentions when talking to other people on the water.

Went to the walpole pub for NYE and got shitfaced on Coopers Pale Ale, and had a good look at the fishing chalkboard and someone got a new walpole record for black bream on 30/12/10 at 2.5kg, just short of the state record of 2.719kg.  Top effort, but we didnt see anything like that in the inlet.  I reckon it was pulled out from snags up one of the rivers.

Hungover as a dog and also car sick from sitting in the back because we gave Janes Grandad a lift back to Perth yesterday.  Only comming good now.

Heres a pic or two from the lookout, the giant tingle tree and friday morning shenanigans.

Headed out late this morning for some play in cockburn sound. Casted the wash for some great tailor, all going around 50cm then out for some sand whiting, plenty there but the size was down then headed back onto the we banks for some xxl squid. home before the breeze. Nice short session with a good mixed bag!

Went out to Rotto to retrieve my cray pots yesterday (after them sitting there for a month without being pulled) and have a couple of dives to try get a feed of crays. The pots had been sitting there a while as hadn't had the chance to get out to pull them. The first surprise was that they were actually where I had left them ropes covered in slime suggesting they hadnt been pulled either. 1 pot had 1 cray - even more surprising. First dive in 25m we spotted about 10 berried or tar spot with no keepers.

When we hit the surface I decided to motor out to a spot we had marked a couple months back during the ban to see how it looked. We needed to pass some time and this spot was only 10 minutes from our dive. The sounder lit up like a xmas tree so back round to the top of the drift down goes the caprice kid within 20 seconds bang nice fight and a 5kg dhui hits the surface. Back to the top of the drift same again except this time a 10kg Dhui. All done in less than 15 minutes. 2 Dhuis in the esky. My first Dhui on jig and i'm now a convert. I have toyed with them before but never been convinced - now there is no going back. Was in 35m of water.

Back to our second dive in 17m and bagged a few nice reds for the esky. Breeze was just starting to build as we made our way back to Freo, back to the ramp by 2pm then I was sitting at work by 3pm.  A great way to spend the day and a nice feed to top it all off.

Hey guys, i've been a member for a fair while but have never made a post, so have made a start with some photos from yesterday's trip and a couple from the other week. headed out with a mate late morning yesterday rotto bound and found ourselves some nice ground which had us bag out pretty quickly. first drift produced a nice queen snapper for myself and nice baldy for my mate who was stoked to finally get his first sized one.

Second drift over the ground saw sonny on to his second nice baldy which put up a solid fight on light gear and another larger queeny for myself that was dropped near the boat.

Next drops produce amixture on different fish along with another queen snapper which were all released when a finally got what a was chasing with a dhuie of about 9kg

(the one more drift) saw us both hooked up to much larger dhuies which resulted in a leader rub through up near the boat for me and a good old reefing for sonny who was using much lighter gear, bagged out we decided to target some ytk's instead but after 40mins of berley my normally productive spot weren't producing so we decided to head in while the wind was still light.  The shots below are from our last trip out to Rotto, all on plastics.  

What an awesome Day.

Palnned to fish with my neighbour who taught me everything i know around ten years ago.  He still only uses mono and the only lure he has ever bought  is a squid jig. Although his combos only cost slightly more than a good quality spool of braid  he is known as one of the best fisherman in my area.

The presented the perfect opportunity to put my lures to the test. I would use my Madeye Lures        5 Inch double drift. While he would drift down unweighted mullies.

Lures Vs bait: New techniques Vs Old Scholl tech

Who would win.

We arrived at our first spot before sun up and a berley trail was dispersed.  And baits and lures were sent down. I tied on a supe glow double drift  (these babies glower brighter than any other plastic i have used) hoping this would attract the fish in the low light. The first run on bait had us jumping to our feet as line peeled off the large peflerger. I hadn’t  had a touch and began to worry i would be down 0-1.

I needn’t have worried as it displayed all the signs of a “flying carpet”. Sure enough we soon had an eagle ray boat side. No points there.

My mate tied on a new rig and another 10min later his reel screamed again. “This ones a dhuey decent size too”. You can pick a dhu fish run as they have shorter smaller runs than a snapper and not quite as strong head shakes. With the fight nearly over disaster........the hooks pulled (very rare as dhu normally engulf the bait/lure) “&*^&*^&*”  “great one you have spoked the fish now” I teased. I had dodged a bullet there.

My turn now. With the sun coming up i changed to a pink double drift. Good choice. 3 cast a few knocks then “yep im on” i could feel the tell tale head shakes though the braid/graphite combo of a little pinky. “I thought it was going to be small but not this small” i said. Even small snapper put up a good account for themself.

[IMG]http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz355/madeyelures/IMG_0695.jpg[/IMG]

A few minutes latter the bait rod SCREAMED OFF. And i mean screamed. Straight to the top and we knew we had a shark. The shark made light work  of the 25lb combo my mate was using. “turn its head its heading for the anchor” “Im trying”  my mate replied. No good PING.

“thats 2 fish you have lost now i teased” “Ill show you how its done” As i sent out my spare ombo with an unweighted mullie i remembered all the times we had fished together and i was the one loosing fish.

I didn’t take long before my Team Daiwa Saltwater 10-17lb Daiwa Seagate 3500 30lb braid combo was humming like it never had. “Its headed for the anchor turn it” My mate teased. If he couldn’t turn it how could I. Sure enough i began to feel the line touching the anchor. Luckily it turned and screamed off into open water taking 100m of line with it. A long fight began that seemed to take for ever although it was probably only 10-15min. I finally had a 2m hammerhead boat side. I was keen to get it on board for a photo but we both knew how ballistic these things go in a boat.

In fact only a few months ago a friend brough a slightly smaller bronzie onto his boat with hope of s feed. In his haste to dispatch the shark he lost control of his knife and in a freak accident the shark flicked it into his wife leg. They raced to the  hospital and she recived 9 stiches.

We cut the line and discussed how many hammerheads we had landed using only mono. In only the last 2 weeks we had landed 2 and lost 2  with a similar record in years past. For some reason you often lip hook them??? Dont ever keep one though as i have heard they have lost of ammonia plus they are a sight to behold as they swim on the surface on a hot day.

Damn the score was now 0-1 and it was my fault. Oh well i had a ball fighting it. Things had quietened down because of the shark and we discussed moving. Decided to give it another 10min. Im glad we did. As i jigged my lure back to the boat using a standard yoyo technique i felt a good hit and set the hooks.  About time.  After a short tussle i had a just sized black arse on board. Althoiugh it was it was legal we took a few picks and sent him back. 1 all

By now my mate also had a paranoster out but was getting harassed by pickers. I kept using the same technique and felt the rod load up. I attempted to set the hooks......no good....Wait im on.......No not again. ........Yep.... what the hell is going on. I held the lure mid water and felt the pulsating of a squid. I loosned the drag. Set the rod in its holder and set out a squid jig on a hand line that i always keep nearby. By now the squid realising my plastic couldn’t bhe eaten had let go. But has the squid jig sank i saw a dark blob come up from the depth and nail the jig. Its amazing how many squid we get out deep when chasing snaps. This guy was a nice size and we now had fresh baot on board. “Im calling that”  “but you didn’t land it on your plastic” “too bad” 2-1 Lures.

With things abit quiet and pickers smashing my mate bait i tied on a smaller 3ich double drift in pilchard colour to see what was down there. After losing 1 plastic to it getting chewed i was pretty sure it was wrasse down there.  They can be a pest but they are still good fun and they hit lures. The next lure hit its mark and a wrasse was onboard for a few photos. No points here though.

I changed back to a 5ich super glow plastic and changed up my retrieve. I began to “jiggle” the lure back to the boat. This involves keeping it on the bottom and giving the rod tiny fast jigs. This gets the tail wriggling like a octopus tentacle. A few Mins went by and my mate had fianly got past the pickers and with his heavy gear landed a 35cm skippy. Although it wasn’t as big as we often get out there it had broad sholders. Before i could get the camera out. My mate had necked it and thrown it in the esky (fresh skipy is very underated). “I wanted to get a photo” “well you still can” as you can tell he is as old school as they come. “not with it looking like that”. Oh well. The score was now tied at 2 all

I had been a while since i had a hit but i persisted with the same technique.  Something took a liking to it as it sat on the bottom wiggling its tail. “that looks a bit better” my mate pipped as the fish took some drag. “yeah but theres not much weight”. I had no idea what this was and by the time it was near the boat i had called it for every fish that lives in the ocean.

To my amazement i had cracked another fish on plastic........A whopping 48cm King George whiting. Only a few min earlier we were questioning if it had been worth getting up at 3.45 but with the monster Geordie on board it was all worth it.   

[IMG]http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz355/madeyelures/IMG_0702.jpg[/IMG]

With the score at 3-2 Things quietened off again so we pulled stumps and moved to another spot.  Fish on the sounder

“Are you sure we wont be to close to that cray rope” “na ill make sure ill put the boat in a good spot. Plus thats where the fish are”. I overestimated anchor skill and we ended up right onto of the pot.

 I was right about the fish though and my rod was soon buckled over with the tell tale head shakes of a snapper. I called it for legal as it was putting up a very good account for itself. As we caught the first glimpse of colour we were both in awe of haow beautifull they look. Its blue dots light up in the water as pink hues glistened n the sunlight. A we watched it get closer to the boat 2 dark shapes rose from the depths  before darting back down as they spied the boat. “we got Samson”. With the snapper on board it was clearly undersized and only went 46cm. A few happy snapps and back it went.

Less than a minuete latter my mates rod got hit but the fish missed the hooks. I sent out my floater with a fresh squid wing. It wasn’t long before my reel was once again screaming. I was under gunned as the Samson headed straight for the cray rope and i felt the line beginning to fay. “Crap its in the cray rope” Luck was on my side as the fish turned and headed for deep water. With no obstclaes i began to win the fight. Once again 2 samsons followed their mate up. “quick grab this” I handed the rod over and droped down my plastic. As my neighbour boated my fisrt fish one of the followers turned spied the lure and engulfed it. My plastic rod is lighter again and i didn’t stand a chance. Dejvu strait for the cray rope. This time i wasn’t so lucky. Ping.

By now my mates floater had screamed off and he was on as well. Once again the fish headed for the cray rope “**&*^ i  told you we were too close to the rope look its wrapped it self. I was now retying another leader and plastic. I poked me head over and could see the Samson 8m down wrapped in the rope. “it might come out” i said knowing full well the fight was over. I continued to tie my rig. “its out” “what no way” i said as i peered my head back over the side to see the fish in clear water. “that would be right i lose a dhuy to hooks getting pulled (which never happens) but manage to untangle this Samson”.

Even on heavy gear sambos go hard but with the fish now in open water it wasn’t long before it was boat side. By now i had my new rig ready and droped pilchard coloured lure right in frount of one of the followers nose. Gulp. I locked  up the drag but i still couldn’t keep it away from the ropes and within seconds my braid was flapping in the breeze. In all the excitement i hadn’t had time to get a photo and as we didn’t want to risk them going belly up my neighbour had measured my first one at 81cm and sent it back and necked the other at 75cm respectably.

I know this site is mainly catch and reaslse how ever Samson taste beautifull as long as they are under 90cm and cooked fresh. Samsons grow fast and arnt under threat like many demersals. I promise you this fish wasn’t wasted and we both enjoyed fresh deep fried Samson tonight.

Bait was now in the lead 3-4. And the school of sambos now went quiet. This allowed the baits to sink deeper and the undersized snappers came in thick and fast.  More fish were falling to bait at about a ratio of 4-1 however i belive this is because of the size of the fish and the fact i was using 5inch plastics. The wind had swung around and the cray rope was no longer an issue.

I was again to what i though was an undersize snapper.  “I got colour.....silver.......Crap look at these sambos”. 2 new fish larger than before at an estermaited 1.5m charged up and smashed into my fish. As  my fish neared the boat the Samson headed back down.  With my fish near the boat i could see it wasn’t a skippy like i thought, but a small dhu fish. To say i ws stoked was an understatement. “Im counting that even though its only 47cm.” “fair enough thats a good effort on a jig” replied my mate. Back to 4 all

Another fish on plastic cracked. I had caught them on lucanus style jig but never a plastic. With a big grin we quickly took a few photos (crap low battery) and put the fish on the release weight.

[IMG]http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz355/madeyelures/IMG_0714.jpg[/IMG]

Now if you don’t like sad stories scroll down to the next paragraph.

As i watched the dhu fish plumet back to the ocean floor. The 2 samsons returned. I watch as they charged my little dhu and smashed it knocking it off the release weight. The Samson charged again and we can only assume one of them devoured the little dhu fish. I flet a little guilty however thats nature.

I once again sent the plastic down and soon felt the tell tale suck of another dhu fish. “crap i got another one”. I had a decsecion to make. Crank it back to the boat and risk barotruamer or wind slow and rish the samsons returning. I decided to crank it in. Luickly it was smaller than the  first and with my mate hooked up to a snapper the samsons were kept distracted. No time for a photo. Realese weight was tied on and down went the dhu fish. This time it made it to the bottom safe and sound.

By now we were down to our last mullie. “Last bait you know what that means” chirped my mate. “i have never had luck on  the last bait” i said. My neighbour then began to recite the many times he had caught fish on his last few baits.

You wouldn’t belive it. After waiting about 2 min his line peeled off. This time the head shakes were larger and i laughed to myself knowing this was a sized pinky on the line. Sure enough it went 57cm. I reached for the camera. NOOOOOOOOOOO i had left it on after that little dhuy and now the battery was dead.

With all the good luck we had all day i couldn’t complain. And to top things off we were greeted with flat sea for the return trip home.

In the end the score was 4 good fish on lures to 5 good fish on bait. However the score no longer mattered. We had both just experienced a great day that wont soon be topped

Hi all,

I caught today my first good Dhui. After checking the forecast yesterday it didn't look like a great day for fishing. So we thought we just head out to check the pots. There were empty like usual... The weather turned out to be pretty good so we decided to head out further to see if we can hook in some Demersals.

We drifted over a few spots without much success. I think it was at the third spot where my mate hooked in a nice blue bone. That was about 55cm and 3-4kg. That started our Season of nicely. On the next spot then we put down some squid bait and it didn't take long for my mate to hook into something bigger. And after a few minutes of fight we spotted some colour. A couple of minutes later our first Dhui was on board. The size for this was about 70cm and 9kg That got us all very excited , my mate and his dad where still busy with the Dhui when my rod ( and that was my first bite of the day as well ) went off. I could feel straight away that this was something a little bit bigger. The fight was harder than I expected and after about 10 to 15 minutes my first big Dhui was on board as well. It weight 14.3kg and was 95cm long.  

I was stoked!!!

We managed to get 2 more baits down but no takers. Then the wind started picking up and we had to make our way back. As we came to 3 mile reef we stopped for a last try to drop some baits. No takers again . But then the sounder started to show heaps of Fish everywhere from top to bottom. A look over the side and we saw a huge school of bait fish. That looked pretty awesome. As I saw it later in the news that must have been the one which was at Trig and Scarb earlier today.

Hope everyone else had a good day too!

Cheers Seb

Took the forums advice and hit up the Gemini today. Managed to grab a decent sambo on squid quite a distance off the side of the wreck. Not much else around though.

Also managed to pick up a couple blokes about 4 mile off Quinns Beach after we first saw the bow of their boat sticking out of the water. They were drifting with their esky about 500m away, been in the water around 40 minutes they thought. Apparently the stern on the old glass boat let go and dropped the motor off completely, swamping the hull in seconds. They managed to dive for the epirb and activate it, and the rest remains in the hull I assume. I have marked the spot and will go have a dive on it when I am back from Albany and Busso in the New Year.

Do insurance companies try to recover a fully sunk hull normally? Will be a good cray spot next season I think. Best part is no one else has the co ords.

 Well im finally gonna sit down and right up a report for everyone on my 6 days of diving starting last monday (week before chrissy)

Left the ramp fairly early sunday morning with a very stiff nth east wind and no swell - decided not to head too far so just stayed local... visibility was average in the morning and got better as the day went on. a howling north current meant not a greaat deal spotted - small baldies small pinkies the odd baby dhu and small trout. Changed spots a few times and managed to bag a nice trout of about 4.5kgs mid afternoon and spotted a nice spaniard but proved too elusive.

Tuesdays forecast was look very nice - a late departure as i was going solo and flagpole was heading out so i decided to dive in his vacinity just to be safe - had a greeat dive - nailing a nice trout first drop of 6kgs. So much fish life around it WAS funny.... 2 monster sambos well over 30kgs came for a look , 2 western blue groper ( not often seen this far north) TROUT GALORE chasing bait along with dhuies and skippy. Some big parrots about aswell.... Tried a few different locations looking for that big dhu but ended up bagging a nice groper and calling it a day very satisfied...

Wednesday - Phone call to my regular dive buddy had him VERY keen to get out after being abit iffy to start with.... up nice and early and it was one of the flattest most beaut mornings ive been out on off gero... millpond conditions.... again fish everywhere! rob got some good video of me shooting another 6kg trout and we got some grreat footage hand feeding a sambo also... very friendly.... caught up with flagpole again and changed locations. proved a wise move shafting a lovely 8kg dhu and seeing a couple of others a tad smaller.... Rob didnt have the greatest of day having gun problems and also not feeling the best but he did shoot a very nice 7kg blue bar parrot and i added another small dhu to make our 4 fish limit.... another fantastic day....

Thursday - still bugger all swell but the winds where abit stronger today - the current had died right off which didnt help but today i dove the some local freedive legends. Antony and his dad Nigel Sercombe.....Tried many different places but struggled to consistently find anything worth shooting... I got a pb dive when i shot a 6.5kg trout in 16.5m altho i did need ants help to extract after 3 up and down attempts. end of the day showed a nice trout each a small groper to nigel a average yellowtail king to ant and a small parrot to myself.....

Friday i dove with ant again - today we decided on chasing macks hard again even tho yesterdays efforts drew a blank on the spanish front....

ant had a small 7kg fish before i was in the drink! it did have a friend with it (15kg ish) but it departed pretty quickly when 12ft of tiger came in all lit up like christmas looking for a feed... i stood guard while ant despatched his fish but the tiger stayed well away and didnt bother us.... it was one of a number of tiger encounters for the day..... Ant got some decent footage of myself nailing a 6kg baldie out of 13m also before we moved on to some other ground.... Again a wise move with ant nailing a lovely 7kg dhu and a small trout.... 1 more move showed some great looking ground and i dropped down to nail a twin of the mornings groper! stoked......

Christmas = a restttttt haha

Boxing Day = work

Today ant and i got one more dive in before he headed back to perth..... forecast was all buggered up but still very divable.... burlyed very hard to see 1 tiny spanish some small tuna and a small school mack before we went off after our bottom fish.... ant got a nice groper and 4kg dhu and i shot a nice 5kg groper and 6kg dhu to finish it off.....

Weather was variable but lack of swell helped considerably! Some quality fish taken for the table and a very satisfied group of spearos....

cheers poddy

Hey all,

After seeing yesterday's forecast saying it was going to stay windy and then deciding not to go. Leah and i headed for a swim down at the beach and saw some flat ocean. Got me thinking today may do the same, woke up at 5am windy so went back to bed. Decided to head out at 11 for a jig as it was starting to slow down and thought there may be a window of nice conditions. Left the ramp at 11 and headed norwest, found 2 lumps in around 35m about 12 mile out. Did two drifts and nothing so pushed on...my mark to fish was still another 7mile away so i thought i may look around a few pots. Found a group of 3 and nothing but on the 3rd pot i did a figure 8 and found some good ground about 12metres away, stopped the boat and jig went down.....hits the bottom well what i thought was the bottom but it pulled...lost it then a couple of tugs later bang! Was somthing hefty and got me thinking sambo as it had the stradic screaming. 10mins later a pb dhuie pops up still kicking and had me hooting for a while. Bottomed out my 7kg scales but will weigh it before i clean it on my big scales

So drove out 40mins fished 40mins and drove back in 40mins.... Sweet lil 2 hour sesh and beat the major crowds as the ramps carpark was still chockos with trailers.

Stoked..

ps sorry bout the pics it was on self timer

  hi all had a quick trip with the family today out for a troll ,

 we hit the 30m mark and trolled from south to north and got 1 spanish mac {10kgish}ok size fish ,but we lose a heap the kids just could not get them in fast enough,Alex had one fish on for about 8 mins and when it got near the boat a billy was wacking it and then the sharks started on it ,we got the head and the lure back thank god

 after losing so many to sharks it was time to go home ,i think we lose 6 on lures and i lost about 12 skipping gars all choped in half

 was a good fue hours fishing

 sorry no pics the kids wherent to good with the camera

   jeff

I just came back from 3 DAYS of wild fishing trip with an Italian couple to the dam (400km) drive away. Simon STRICTLY emphasis to me "NO PONDS FISHING" (take away Pilot 111) for him, only want to relax fishing in the wild dam with his wife. The hunting game & true fishing as a real fisherman. He has  NEVER fish a snakehead before in his life but always  amaze at the sudden attack on topwater lures and speed of this unique freshwater fish.

Simon was so happy & falls in love with the nature wild fishing with me that  he is planning another return trip to fish with me again in the month of May 2011. Next round, he is going to plan a even longer fishing trip-5-6 DAYS in the wild with me to 2 different places in Thailand .

Simon thanks you note to me:

" John thanks for this unique experience of fishing. magnificent scenery, a place where you are in contact with nature and with the people who live it every day. For me it 's important to have fished with a true lover of the true professional fishing: one made of the constant search for prey."

I'm always happy to see serious 'willing to learn ' angler migrate from  pond fishing to the challenging wild kind of fishing. Although you don't get as much bite rates &  hookups as compare to the well stocked  pond fishing but at least you get to enjoy the beautiful scenery and 'true fishing' what the mother nature offer to us.
Enjoys the beautiful & attractive scenery  of wild fishing in natural habitual surrounding.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni9eTGhM5Tc

[img]http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa221/888max/DSC07940.jpg  [/img]

fished my special spot again 2day only with soft plastics and was a bloody thumper of a day, first drop for both me and my mate ended in a huge line burning run and then bot got brilled in the pylons, I then put on a megabass metalX lure witch a mork mate of mine imported over from japan and gave me one, and I hooked a nice sambo which again drilled me in the pylons.

I then switched back to SPs and fished close to the structure, hooked up again and landed a nice little bream about 35 cm, I caught another 2 little ones arround the same size, then hooked a bid tailor that went 40cm.

contuinued to catch tailor and herring untill they bugged off and then targeted bream again.

hooked into a very nice fish and after lots of nice runs and manouvering him through the pylons, a BIG bream surfaced. He went just over 45cm..... and a good 1 1/2 - 2 kilos.

contuinued to catch some more nice bream arround the 30 cm mark.

hooked into another massive fish which when landed, again went over 40cm, about 43cm. and a good kilo.

had a awsome day with huge bream, none of the 8 i caught, went under 30cm!!!, If only It was the swan river WABT today!!!

over all, my mate got 5 flathead, 1 small bream and a herring,

and I mannaged 8 bream (2 Big blue lips), a nice tailor, multiple herring and unfortunetally lost that big fish and that Sambo which took my special Megabass lure!!!

will have to take you there somtime Marco...

cheers,

Tom

Merry Christmas to everyone

In upholding the family tradition of doing a spot of crabbing on Christmas day, Team Gates launched the tinny from the Dawesville ramp around 10.30am and headed across the estuary to find some shelter from the easterly winds. 

From 6 pulls of our 3 dropnets, we scored 2 sized crabs! Besides 1 being 1mm undersize, everything else was at least 10mm undersize. Even a spot of snorkeling didn't add to our catch....not that we saw too many, but the ones we saw were quite small. The encouraging aspect is that we'll have something to look forward to in the coming weeks/month as these undersize ones grow bigger.

The sun was shining, the water was nice for a dip and the family was all together...what more could you ask for.

I'm guessing the kid on the tube being towed round and around and around behind his dad's boat was having a great time on his Chrissy present!!

Have a great day

regards
rusty...