Went for a brief mid morning fish yesterday. Appears to be a few baldies around. Back by lunch. Pic below.

So after not fishing with my two older boys who live in Gero for about 2 years i arranged to meet them at a location between Perth and geraldton for the long weekend. We all arrived frisay night and had a few drinks then up early today. ESE was cranking so we didn't launch the tinny till about 7 and stayed in close till it dropped below 15 kts. Ended up a ball burster of a day. We kept some large skippy, big fox fish, 2 pinkies, a blackarse and an 80 cm dhuie. We released a few sambos and a couple undersize dhus too.
All from a 13 ft tinny
Love spending time with my boys, now to do it all again tomorrow

Abe's 53 cm skippy

My 82cm dhu

Foxfish and pinky

Father son trip installment number 2. I was awake by 4 this morning, wind was light easterly so woke the lads and headed off at about 5am. On the first spot 10 minutes later on his first drop and middle son is into his first dhu, 65 cm in 6 mts water. He then followed it up with a 52cm that we released.
Both boys were using occy and getting plenty of bites while i was casting an abrolhos tackle plastic on a big johns jig head ine the direction we were drifting and working back to boat. I had a brief battle with a sambo but that was the only hit until i came up tight on an 87cm dhuie

Helped my brother out a couple of weekends ago on his holiday home, little did I know when I got there on Friday night he had also brought the boat.  So after a few drinks that night to plan what needed repairing it what quickly came about that we should go and do a quick fish straight out.  Left around 9am on Saturday morning to some ground he had marked on his GPS and he caught a rather large (90cm) Dhu.  We decided to go back as we wanted to do some work on the home ( - otherwise it would result in more fishing, more drinking and less working).  Sunday we decided to do a bit more work around the home rather than take the boat out again first thing, but after a bit of hinting (by me) he decided that we should go back to the same ground and try again.  We (I) then got this beauty, measured 110cm, did not get a weight.  Did get numerous bites but nothing that stuck.  Also surprisingly flattish ground.

We worked out that it was 3.5 hours fishing (line in water) in total for both days.  The remainder of the weekend was painting three rooms, redecking the back verandah, and installing some shade netting around the verandah.... and some, well lots, of drinking.

Just want to personally thank my brother, he is not on here, for a great weekend.  Happy to help out again next time he goes up.   To top it off I did not bring any fishing gear! so it was on borrowed equipment (does that still class as my catch)

Cheers

 Good simple guide I found online for towing oversize boats in WA. 

https://www.mainroads.wa.gov.au/Documents/Brochure_OB_Online_version.RCN-D17%5E23737090.PDF

 Just come back from work and put in a bit of time targeting Spanish mackeral after work hours.  The pearl farm is located 50km north of Broome and the mothership acts as a FAD holding lots of baitfish and close to the sailfish grounds.

We catch the storm garfish during our lunch break with a thrownet and a bit of bread then after work rig them up with gangs and wire or two treble stingers with a pink skirt unweighted, the later it gets the deeper the mackeral seem to sit.

The bait that seems to get smashed the quickest was live barracuda the mackeral froth them .

As we move into the dry season we should start seeing larger sizes.

The biggest caught was 134cm on the fork going to me then 127cm came in 2nd also caught by me then Anthony came in at 3rd at 122cm great way to gave a bit if banter and something to look forward to after work with the mackeral competion.

 21 mackeral were caught 14 of them by me. 

Everyone walked away with fresh fish and the chefs on board did a great job in cooking the mackeral many different ways with some meals being 11/10 look forward to next trip already defiantly greatful to have a job where I can do what I love . 

With Sundays forecast just gone looking good (despite maybe some rain) I thought it’s time to target offshore KG’s and re-stock the freezer as I was all out of KG fillets!

I hadn’t been out for a few months due to weather and work. Decided to hit my favourite spot off scarbs on the 3 mile, targeting a feed of skippy. Normally if there are bait fish around and you keep your eyes open there is a chance of tuna and YTK’s. Last year this time was great for everything and with the reports id read I was hopeful of a good feed. Well the easterlies were stronger than expected, creating quite sloppy conditions. The skippy never really turned up but managed 4 good ones up to 40cm and lost a few. Had some ytk’s scooting about the boat but they weren’t interested in what I had and buggered of pretty quickly!. Anyways after 3 hrs or so I decided to chug back to the marina and keep my eyes open for any surface activity. This often is very productive.
I got all the way back seeing nothing so was a bit dejected but decided to clean the boat up a bit before going in. Anyway, I had 2 rods rigged up with Mullies so decided to hurl them over and just drift with the sea breeze while cleaning. I wasn’t far from a bit of reef but would quickly blow away so had heaps of room.
So in 7-8m of very unexciting looking country, minor reef and sea grass mainly I started scrubbing away. 1 min later my bigger set up goes ballistic. I grab the rod and lean into what is clearly a good fish. Sambo I thought and gut stuck into it. Several screeching runs which was fantastic.
Not caring too much about losing it I started getting stuck into it and bringing it back to the boat when it suddenly occurred to me the other rod was out and if there’s one bloody sambo there are probably a few, so I glanced out the back of the boat to where my unweighted bait was almost dragging on the surface in the strong sou’wester. A couple of large dark shapes were whistling around but couldn’t really see them clearly. Good large fish tho. Shit I thought, as the that setup was only 4-8kg rod and 15lb braid and wouldn’t deal well with one of those cranky buggers in the rod holder…and of course the rod went off, big long run.
Heres the funny bit, I almost had the first fish to the boat such that I could see it near the bottom. Just a good dark fish, bit of flash. Sweet I thought. Its knackered ill chuck it in a rod holder and save my light rod from certain disaster. So I did this and stared playing the 2nd fish. It seemed much stronger but was hard to tell on the lighter gear. So 5 MINs later, I look down at the first fish as I was just getting control of the 2nd one and it rolled. I thought gee, that’s odd looking what the hell is it. So reached over and did a few winds on the reel. You can imagine my surprise as a 4kg (70cm) pinky slowly appeared out of the depths. Holy shit… mayhem. Grabbed the net, got it in the boat while still playing the 2nd fish. Couldn’t believe I had let it flop around for 5 mins while playing the other fish.
At this stage I was still reasonably sure the 2nd was a sambo after thinking that’s what I saw whistling around out the back, pec fins stuck out in my mind in the snap shot I saw but now wasn’t so sure!
After all of a sudden being a bit more gentle and nursed the 2nd fish to the boat and was again stoked to see a second much larger snapper (6.5kg 80cm) finally come to the boat after some scorching long runs. No head shakes….none. just long runs and aggressive fighting. Netted that and sat there and looked about drifting over open sand in 6-7m by now.
It was 12 noon on the dot, on the 38 degree day we had Thursday week ago. How’s that for bloody tinny. Some days it just all happens hey?

 Unfortunatly not my experience but pulled into Mindarie marina yesterday arvo and the guys pulling in behind us got a couple of nice Macks from behind 3 mile.

I asked if they were chasing signs like birds or bait balls and they said they were just trawling along. 

Just a heads up for those that like to burn a bit of fuel and have some fun.

Bluewater Tackle World

Friday 23rd of February 2018
  
What can’t you catch in metro waters at the moment? Jazz Charters hooked a marlin in 50m off the back of Rotto yesterday if you haven’t already heard, on the humble mulie no less. This event lends itself to the idea that any fish or at least a pelagic could be anywhere at any time, after all we all remember the broadbill swordfish showed up in the Sound only a couple of months ago. Are we crazy to be going anywhere on the boat without lures in the water?
 
This wasn’t the only marlin seen in metro waters this week either. The Bluewater Tackle World Marlin Cup was on last weekend and Perth Game Fishing Club had the following report on the tournament.
 
“While there were a few Marlin raised and hooked over the weekend only 1 fish stayed connected long enough to get a tag in. 
Congrats to Dave on Azura for his first metro marlin. He has seen and caught Marlin everywhere he has gone but a metro fish had eluded him until now.
There were also some very welcome by catches on the heavy gear with Mahi to around 8.5kg and YFT to around 20kg being caught.
Most anglers ended up very wide looking for activity with most good water being found way to the North or way out West in 1600m or so.
Thanks again to all our sponsors who supported the event and especially our major sponsor Bluewater Tackle World who support us at the club throughout the year.”


 
Staff member Brad (Top) and customer Paul (Below) with two lit up dollies from the Bluewater Tackle World Marlin Cup

Demersal fishing has been going off! With the glamour conditions from yesterday plenty of reports have been flooding in. From dhufish and baldies to nannygai and queen snapper, as well as Northen species such as red throat and spangled emperor. There really is a bounty out there.
 
Good customer Ben and crew had a ripper day landing these two dhuies in the 50m mark


A massive queen snapper for Joondalup customer Marc

On the pelagic front again customer Brodie found the macs in Jurien and stickbaited some kings off the surface that were feeding on the same bait. Locally there have been scores of yellowtail kings on the reefs that have been obliterating the bait in big pack attacks. On the edges of these reefs macs, both sharkies and spaniards, have been seen flying out of the water after any bait that scatters into deeper water.


 
Customer Brodie landed 5 macs and some solid kings in Jurien

Tailor and small sharks are still prevalent on most of the beaches but further North we have seen some big mulloway landed as well. Another notable beach capture was a respectable breaksea cod that was then safely released after a few quick snaps.

Mindarie customer with a 1.2m long mulloway caught on long life mulies

 
Mindarie customer Richard caught and released this breaksea cod of the beach this week


Staff member Troy always managed to nab a feed of calamari

 Went out targetting Tuna this morning - was on the water at first light and started trolling just after I got over the back of the FFB bank. Was a glassy day but I didn't see any schools, bust ups or birds working but still managed my limit of Tuna and let more go (only kept 2 - thats enough for me). I never needed to troll for long before getting another hook up. 

All Tuna were caught trolling randomly in around 30-40m and all around 60cm. I was using 2 rods, one with a small rapala diving minow and the other a richter jelly baby, all fish were caught on the rapala which suprised me. 

Was a perfect way to start the day - had a ball - and also had a quick jig and got a 60cm dhu. So was back at the ramp by 8am.  

Have filleted the tuna up and cut out the really deep red meat. The flesh looks nice and pink so will try some sashimi for lunch and will cook some for dinner to see how it compares.

Was my first real attempt for tuna / metro pelagics and I can't beleive I haven't tried it before. I look forward to another round especially if the fish is as good as everyone says it is !

Good day out on Saturday, pushed out into the 50's and bagged a couple of nice dhu's.

 Went 35km out of two rocks to the 40m line at around 7am. Things were very slow for the first couple of hours, heaps of reefies smashing my squid baits and got two undersize dhuies and a descent breaksea cod. Moved to a spot i caught a 15kg dhuie a few months ago and my brother got a beautiful baldie on soft plastic - went 62cm and right on 5kg - the biggest ive ever seen.  Did a few more drifts in that area but nothing happening so decided to go more shallow to 25 - 38m line. By now we had 17 birds at the back of the boat and really struggled to get my baits past them. At one point i caught 3 of the fu@#$rs at once, one tangled in the main line and 1 on each of my squid baits!  have never seen so many at once out there and they became frenzied as soon as i dropped my baits over diving right to to grab the squid. I was down to my last half squid,(went through 2kg's of squid), managed to get it past the birds and got a 49cm baldie. Got the little bronzy on a scalie then called it a day. Conditions were beautiful out there  thanks for reading! cheers dave 

Headed out early this morning hoping to find a dhuie to refill the freezer which is looking somewhat bare.  Whilst I got a nice 60cm model the drift was impossible to predict, strong currents from the north, ESE winds, which then died, then S which again died, then SW which brought the fish on the bite before it died to a whisper.   Drifting so slowly rays became a nuisance including what appeared to be a perfect albino, white on both sides and seeming to have a deformed tail with no barb.  Sorry no photo, it was a horse and I wasn't going to waste any more time on it. 

Still a day on the water in calm conditions was very enjoyable

 So, ive been to my usual crab spot down at Mandurah and over the past 2 years have come up with zero return for my efforts, Im a creature of habbit and keep going to the same spot because in the past have come up trumps at that spot. Scooping near Park Ridge boat ramp is my spot, 5-6 yrs ago would take 30-45 minute to get my lot, last year i think i didnt even see a crab, if i did it was undersize, been down a few times this year and same result, lucky to even see one. Whats happened? Any spots i should try? i dont rape and pillage, just take what i need for a feed and i need me a feed of crab, please help.......

Bluewater Tackle World
Friday 9th of February 2018
 
Pelagics are the talk of the town and with the 2018 Bluewater Tackle Marlin Cup happening in just over a week we are all hoping to see some of the first metro billfish for the season.

There are plenty of Spaniards all over the joint and staff member Geoff went out chasing them last weekend. All up they landed 3, plenty of good sized yellowtail kings and tuna, as well as a brace of demersals. Other mackie catches have continued to occur in the Sound, around Stragglers, Mindarie, however they are popping up everywhere and anywhere, so get out your deep divers, your shallow divers, your skirts, gardies, anything you can troll along drop offs where the Spaniards are waiting.


Customer Damo with his first ever mackie
 
Staff member Geoff’s haul from a very productive day

During the week young Sam made a trip out to the FADS again. They pulled up to the first FAD just after sunrise and saw bait everywhere, however there were no dollies to be seen this time. They managed three species of tuna during the morning on small soft plastics (pink and white colours being the stand outs) and Richter Jelly Babes, and had a ball doing so.

 
Southern bluefin, frigate and striped tuna made up Sam’s bag from his trip to the FADS

Demersal fishing is well and truly firing with many anglers coming in store to brag about their 10kg+ dhuies they’ve caught, mostly in 40m. With the majority saying they’ve caught the bigger fish on artificials! Having said that however it is never a bad idea to use both lures and bait when fishing offshore.
 
 
 Staff member Curtis with a dhu he caught down in Bunbury

Good customer Brody Laroux went on a solo mission to pull his pots and kept his bag out of the 24 crays that were in his first pot. He then, over the space of half an hour, landed 3 very good King George and bagged out on demersals as bycatch all on the whiting gear. Those who have met Brody around the traps will know he frequently pulls things like this when fishing.
 
 
 Brody’s haul from a solo mission

There are some decent sized squid being caught in the Cockburn Sound. The most effective colours of jigs in the Sound have been white glow and lime green. Staff member Troy also managed a brace of them off Hillarys during the week.

 
This squid couldn’t resist one of Troy’s Yamashitas

Herring have been showing up most days at the beaches just south of the Hillarys Marina. No need to get there first light as most of the action has been mid-morning. There have been plenty of tailor along Northern beaches this week with fish over 50cm coming regularly from the Two Rocks area. The odd mulloway and a constant stream of small sharks are being landed off the beaches as well. Even without any winter storms pinkies are being landed at moles in Freo, with a Mindarie customer landing 2 and losing 3 in a session.
 

If you have any information or photos that you would like to include in our weekly fishing report, please email customerservice@bluewater.net.au.  

Couple of gummies and a spinner from tonight on chunks of herring (available vac sealed from Shore Catch) 

 Headed up to lancelin on friday and saturday, to make the most of the weather.

Turned out to be a couple of good days, many fish caught and many released as well!

Friday was a bit slow/hard work but we got a couple of descent ones. Tuna everywherel, including striped tuna.

Mate got a couple of spaniards as well, seems to be a few around, still haven't got one yet though!

Couple of pics!

 Been a long Summer not been able to get out much with the winds and commitments but there were some great conditions all morning Saturday sitting on 30knots plus to get to various spots.

Picked up a great feed with a couple of Dhu's and released some aswell. Nice size black ass.

With a baldie and couple of sharks. Great feed that evening to feed 3 families and some left over for the freezer. 

Happy Days

 First Demersal bash for the year on Saturday . Quiet but persevered for nice bag, kills me releasing Blackarse when you know that there cactus, would be good if fisheries could put a bycatch into the limit for Read throats, Blackarse and the like.

 With new staff coming in from Perth to Broome i befriended one of the new teachers and i quickly worked out he could fish and its alway nice to have people on your boat who know what there doing so we launched out from Town beach after collecting a few livies with the option of going to Dampier creek if it got to rough as soon as we were heading out around the groyne i saw a barra chasing mullet on the edge of the current line so i motored around while Chris was throwing a hard body around. With the wind picking up i decided to anchor and put some livies out it didnt take long to get the first run but to my disapointment it was just a 60cm queenie. So moving on decided to have a look at the moorings in the bay for triple tail. It was blowing 23 knots westerly and swell was about 2.5 metres really got to test my new decky to see if he would be coming out on further trips. It took until the 3rd mooring to get as hit he dropped a cranka crab right ontop of the fish loaded up and there goes his $25 lure the 20lb leader had no chance.

So i suggested puting on a 3/0 circle hook and a small mullet re-drifted and on again well i had to hold the boat in reverse at about 3 knots with waves crashing over the back, The fish shook its head and the hooked pulled out so another livie goes on and another whack this time it was away from the structure and a high 40's triple was almost boat side then spat the hook. Had to try the last mooring because the fishing shutdown on that particular mooring, after 3 attempts on again and straight around the mooring rope. Tried to drive around and get it out then a big wave pushed us into the mooring and crushed the rod inbetween the boat and mooring with out tails between our legs headed into Dampier creek to restock on livies and shelter. Got a heap of gardies and found a spot ended up with 3 small sharks and small barra that Chris dropped boat side and few other runs that were dropped.

All in all a good night and will be going to the tackle shop to restock.

Watch this space for more snapped rods and eventually the bucketlist fish for 2018

plenty about, getting our 20 in two pulls the last 3 days... 3 day old neck chops put back in the freezer for next time...

 With work, weather and family all taking their toll on our fishing time it is great when the stars align and things just go your way.

Tuesday the 16th was one of those days. I had the day off and my buddy Darren was going to finish work a bit earlier than normal. The wind was forcast to blow a bit easterly and drop off in the arvo so plans were made and an arvo bash was sorted.

I made a quick trip up to see Mick at Shorecatch and got a bit of his majic mulie shred, the best pinkie attractant IMO that you can buy.

We launched at Mindarie with a pretty high tide and headed out to some new ground we have been exploring in the last few months. Just in the 28-30m range. 

The plan was to sound out some spots while waiting for the wind to drop and the sun to go down a bit. The sounding was difficult with very little to show up and the area we were checking has a very small difference in height as well as ground composition. Basically if you dont know that there is a possibility of something being there you would miss it. A great spot because everybody else misses it..Lol

We had about 1.5h before sun down so we set up a few drifts to see if there was some random bottom action before we anchored up and berleyed. Good move as Darren snagged up a 5.5kg Dhu and a few random small snapper were hooked and released.

With 1 Dhu in the esky and the wind dropping off we decided on our spot and launched the pick. The majic shred was bought out and a small but steady stream if chunks were sent drifting down. It didnt take long for a few of the smaller pinkies to pick up the scent and Darren the stink baiter soon had a size one to add to his Dhu.

As the sun got close to the horizon the shred was increased and pretty soon my Abrolohis paddle tail loaded up with a solid strike. It did a few good solid runs but just didnt have that pinkie head shake we all like to feel. The last 8-10m was just a weight so we had pretty well called it by the time a 7.9kg Dhu was visiable. Netted her aboard and had just removed the hook when my second rod, yes i stink bait also, did a bit of a twitch. As i took it out of the rod holder it loaded up and took off with enough head shakes for me to call a pinkie before the reel stopped unloading. A nice tussel later and a good 5.5kg pinkie was added to the bag.

The sun was just kissing the ocean as we pulled the anchor and headed back in leaving them on the bite.

IMG_0706 by Merv Hall, on Flickr

Hit the 50's out of Bunno on Saturday morning, wasn't pretty out there but we picked up a feed.

 Took the kids for a camp out down the beach, was surprised at a few of the catches, a big tailor to one of my sons and a huge flathead to my bro in law couple pics of the kids smiles tell there excitement 

Another  years annual pilgrimage up north has been and gone. We towed the tinny upto Winderabandi Point for a two week stay. We wanted to get back up there before the government gets its grubby hands on it.

Absolutely love this place, but the wind can be a bit tedious especially at this time of year (Boxing Day onwards). And so it was for the first 3 days. However Windi is well sheltered from the southerlies, so spent a few days resting,swimming, and towing the kids around in the ski biscuit. Managed to get out with the young fella on the 4th day. We had to stay inside the reef as it was still a bit windy. We managed a feed of Red throats and a nice Charlie Court for dinner but it was pretty quiet. I only got outside the reef for 1 day, trolled around for a couple of hours for zip, there wasn't even any birds working. Which was a bit of a shame. 

We got a few nice fish off the beach on our last few days. Must admit it was a bit of a fluke though. I had spotted and caught 2 Blue Salmon from a pretty big school right up against the rocks, so I called my wife over to have a cast at them. Her first cast sailed wide of the school, I was in the process of telling her about how far off she was when her rod doubled over and started losing a bit of drag, this was no Salmon. She carefully glided a nice size Spango up the beach!! Stoked. She ended up catching 3 Spangos to my 2. We went down there again on the top of the tide the next day and picked up a couple more and a few more Blue Salmon which cook up pretty good fresh. 

All in all was another great trip to paradise. I didn't do as much fishing as I normally would but still had a great time. Spending quality time with the family in an amazing place. Cheers for reading.

Chris.

All 

 Quiet night but managed a few fish. Shark bay squid, blue mack and XL mulies from Shore Catch doing the job.

Somehow got a ray and a herring both on the same hook, a first for me and mrs got her first little mully. Finished the morning off bagging out on big herring all around the 30cm mark.

 went down to Mandurah this morning got 18 crabs in 40 mins and 3 pulls of our line and the last 2 in the first 2 nets of the next only had about 6 undersize in total and 1 that was big but soft so went back all about 250m from the ramp. Peppered and plain crab for lunch.