Hi folks,

After seeing Wedge in perfect condition earlier this week decided to cruise up on Friday arvo for a bit of a fish hoping to catch a tailor for tea and get into some schoolies. I hit a spot about 7k north of the island that I had previously fished at and caught my one and only mulla almost 12 months ago to the day.

Unfortunately while the conditions were ideal, the weed was quite bad and made fishing hard work. The fish were on the bite however due to the weed I missed out. In fact, the only bite I felt all night was a solid tug on a scaly that took the fish and drag however failed to hook up. A shack owner stopped for a chat and he had caught a solitary tailor that night a few hundred metres away that he said went about 60cm. Whatever was chomping went through a whole bag of scalys without me getting a look in! In hindsight, I should have changed from circle hooks to gangs straight away but I guess that's another lesson in the book.

Wedge is one of those spots that you question whether the fish are there because the water is so shallow - but having a local tell me that I was in one of the best spots around certainly helps get my confidence up. It is certainly a beautiful spot.

For those heading up there for a beach fish - the beach south of the shacks has some nice gutters at the moment and looked this morning like they had a little less weed in them.

Also heard that a caravan park is being built there and that camping will eventually only be allowed within the caravan park grounds. Thats a real shame. Its sad to say only a matter of time before this special place is ruined by 'progress'.

Buschy

Went out from Mindarie tuesday and managed to pick up a nice Baldie in the 60m mark. Was a pretty nice day out on the water. Lamby managed a nice tuna on our way back in as well.

Hi everyone been looking at this site for sometime and thought it was time to join. I live in Brisbane and specialise in Red Emperor off the SE QLD reefs. I just came back from a two week fishing trip off Fraser Island and thought I would share some pics. Being that Fraser is a very large sand island it takes a lot of effort to drag a boat up there and launch from the beach gutters. After a 10 minute barge ride to the bottom of the island from the mainland it's another 3 plus hours of driving up the beach to where we can launch the boats. You can either camp or stay in a holiday house situated not far from the beach in among the bush and sand tracks. We opted for the house this year and took my mates 6.0 seafarer victory which had only been finished weeks prior to going. This was a better option then taking my 3.5 tonne 7.5m plate boat which is hard yakka getting up there as we found in the past. We fished some new areas this year and was rewarded with some qaulity fish. The best Red went 17.02kg and a cracking fish. I had a 10/0 big gun hook go through my calf muscle one morning which still had a cobia attached to the other ganged hook. Wasn't a good feeling and all attempts to get it out failed so we headed a couple hours back in. The ambos on the island wouldn't touch it so 7 hours later we made it back to medical help and had it removed. No pain no gain they say lol. We had a great trip with some real qaulity fish caught to make this trip one we won't forget in a hurry. Enjoy the pics.

Regards

Greg

HI guys, does anyone know if its now is a good time to catch spaniards of wagoe, is it too early? heading up on saturday, would appreciate some advice.

Hi guys,

Just spooled one of my reels with 50lb super braid. Will be using the reel for land based game fishing,  so need to connect a mono leader of around 50lb or so.

I use a bimini on the braid and albright on the mono.

Seems alright, but anyone got better options for this??

Hi all,

I've got a pretty beefy report to follow with lots of updates on the stretch of coast between Guilderton and Hill River. If you're not here for the read...I didn't catch much other than the normal bread and butter.

Indian Ocean Drive

Monday lunch time I took the new road up to Cervantes. It certainly does shave a fair bit off of the trek north however with roadworks still going on (particularly just before Lancelin and Cervantes) you can expect delays of up to 10-15 minutes overall. While the drive was a pleasure, I can't help but feel a little saddened by this stretch of bitumen. There is tarmac right into Wedge and Grey - which for me will take the mystique and adventure out of going to these special spots and open them up to commercialisation and tourism. Hopefully these fragile communities will not be ruined as a result of this road. As expected, there was also a high level of roadkill. I counted half a dozen dead roos and countless other 'things' on the side of the road. I can't help but wonder what the impact is on the nature reserves that the road cuts through. I guess it's up to to regulars at Wedge and Grey and the residents of Cervantes, Jurien, Green Head and Leeman to decide whether the road is a good or bad thing. Only time will tell.

Cervantes

On the back of a recent post by user shaw_catch, I planned on fishing Thirsty Point or the back beach at Cervantes, so on arrival got the car on the sand. The water was in reasonably good nick but a bit shallow - which was expected on that stretch. I decided to flick a few baits off the service jetty while I decided where to spend the night. A couple of locals were fishing on the jetty and one bloke had a few minutes earlier caught a squid. There was plenty of ink from others on the jetty too so there have obviously been a few around in recent weeks. The water was much clearer than my last visit with user Simmo Ryan, however on burleying up I could see no sign of any baitfish. A few casts confirmed that the jetty was quiet.

One of the resident giant flappers was cruising around - and unbelievably a sambo was literally sat on it's back mirroring it's every move! The sambos are a regular feature at Cervantes around this time of year. I was flicking a brand new Yozuri squid jig around when the sambo decided to have a taste and I was lucky enough to pull it out of it's mouth before losing the jig forever. Very next cast, I lost it on the reef.  

Time to move on. I opted to head up to Hill River and decided I would spend the night there too.

Hill River

I arrived to a moderate but fishable SSW breeze and slightly cloudy conditions. It looked good for a fish so I setup and got the burley cooking. First few casts I had some nibbles on the small rod and pulled in a sand whiting. Then something a bit better - a herring. With a receding tide I didn't expect much but on sundown I landed a small flathead about 34cm. While at that size it's good to let them go, the boss had asked my to bring flathead and squid home so in the bucket it went.

Around 10:15pm the herring suddenly came on the bite and I had a frenzied half an hour or so where I landed half a dozen and dropped plenty more. They are great fun to catch in the surf on light tackle.

The evening session I sat on big baits until around 2am including ballooning a live herring when the wind swung around to the east. At one stage there was a big tug on the line which took a small amount of drag - but as the birds was moving around I put it down to a gull flying into my line. A hour or so later I retrieved the balloon to see that something had indeed chomped half the herring but left the rest behind.

Up at 5:45am hoping to get into the choppers that deceived me a couple of weeks ago. Only problem was they weren't on the bite. I had fished this same spot four times previously and on every occasion had bought home a tailor and sure enough around 6:30am I had a good hit and starting bringing in what felt like a good fish. Halfway in he shook the hooks and sure enough that was the only tailor of the morning. The morning session did result in a juvenile flathead and a few more herring.

After two hours sitting under a balloon I dragged in my live herring, still kicking. Not a touch. Packed up and took a few photos then had a nice surprise when a seal cruised by about 15m from shore.

Of note, Hill River is usually good for some gardies and mullet - but not this time. It will be the last time I fish Hill River for a while. The place has been hammered in the last few months and seems to have shut right down. No signs of the trademark bigger runs that I have looked forward to in the past.

Cervantes (again)

Decided to stop for a quick cast at Cervantes. The winds were howling forcing me to fish the south end of the jetty but they quickly swung around and I was able to flick a few on the NW corner. Same result, however, with no sign of any bread and butter fish, despite clouding the water with plenty of burley.

Of real interest, an eel (or possibly a large sea snake?) came cruising by the jetty on the bottom. Was absolutely stoked to see this....a first for me!

I flicked a couple of lures for fun, but mainly because I did not want to go home when the weather was so perfect! Was slow retrieving a Halco frenzy when out from under the jetty Mr Sambo popped out to have a look. Time for some fun. I rigged up the big rod and dropped a dead herring out about 5m from the jetty, keeping an eye on it to make sure the big flapper didn't engulf it.

After about ten minutes, the sambo popped back out for a bit of a look. A gently lifted the bait to get the attention of the sambo, but succeeded only in spooking it. To my amazement, the sudden erratic movement must of excited another sambo that was hiding under the jetty - this thing shot out and literally engulfed the herring.

There was probably a 10 second lull when I could feel the weight of the fish but it was just lazing under my feet. Then all of a sudden it realised it was hooked a BANG! Took off for the open sea. The big Oz Flex rod instantly bent at right angles and the ratchet was screaming on my reel. It's pretty heavy duting eggbeater - a Fin Nor OF95 which puts out about 26kg of drag locked down! Despite being locked down, the sambo was taking line at will and I can completely understand why these fish are so highly rated as a sports fish. The sambo probably took about 50m of line, then turned and did a big circle around the jetty, with me being towed from one side to the other completely at the will of this fish. Something had to give and that something was the 80lb braid. The fish ducked under jetty and on contact the braid ended what was probably the second most exciting couple of minutes of my life.

For those wandering about THE most exciting couple of minutes of my life, my son will be three months this friday.

There was a fella fishing with me who was travelling from Darwin. It sounded like he was just fishing his way down the coast but he also got into one of the sambos on a soft plastic. On 30lb braid that lasted all of 2 seconds however the most impressive thing was the sheer size of the splash and surface affect the fish made.

These things were big. It's hard to estimate but I'd say 15kg easy, pushing 20kg. I'm sure I'm not the first to lose my tackle to them either....the funny thing is the last time I saw a sambo at Cervantes jetty was my very first trip there almost 12 months ago!

Anyhow...it was 12:30pm and as I had to be back in Perth by lunchtime I needed to get moving...but not without making a few stops along the way!

Kangaroo Point

I popped in for a quick look. Heaps of weed on the beach, but the water was pretty clear other than the usual weedbeds everywhere. A nice spot and probably not a bad place to put a squid out under a balloon.

Hangover Bay / 11 Mile Beach

Really interesting reef just offshore and withing casting distance however lots of weed around both on the beach and in the water. There were some fairly clear areas of water though so you could fish here however it's all pretty shallow. Would love to cast poppers / richters over the reef as I reckon this would produce some tailor. There is also a channel between the reef that would be a nice spot to soak a bait.

Grey

Bitumen to the community, then 4x4 access only. Didn't really go far but checked out the water at the main launching spot. A fair bit of weed in the water still at the moment.

Wedge Island

Bitumen to the community, then 4x4 access only. I went and checked out a few of my favourite spots and am actually heading back on Friday night for a fish. The water looks fantastic - not much weed around at all except for in the usual places..."Stinky Point" I call it (not sure what the real name is) about 6k north of Wedge Island the weed was piled up as always but other than that it was pretty clean. Not much there in the way of gutters or beach formation.

Seabird

Again just a quick stop to look at the water. Probably comparable to Lancelin - some nice deep water around which I'm sure would consistently fish quite well.

Guilderton

Wow. How awesome is Moore River? Flicked lures for about 15 minutes with no luck but without a doubt there will be heaps of fish there. It looks like magnificent bream country. River is currently closed but on a big swell the waves would wash over the bank.

Off home after that, with one last stop at Drovers to pick up some squid tubes. Was a great little trip and nice to check out some different spots along the way.

The one thing that jumps out is the lack of bread and butter fish. Hill River is usually good for a mullet or gardie. No sign of them. Cervantes ALWAYS produces something. So where are they? Is it seasonal? Water temps? Are they holed up in deeper water?

Cheers,

Buschy

Pictures are:

Hill River gutter formation

Juvenile flathead

Angry blue tongue

Shack / tinnies at Grey

Wedge Island

Moore River mouth

Dinner salt n pepper squid, flathead fillets & chips (first time I had cooked squid and I got it SPOT ON in terms of taste and texture...but probably a hotter pan to sear it more next time)

Just recently come back from a trip up to Carnarvon.

Long story short we didnt get to troll for spaniards and bottom fish the deep due to the insanely windy conditions.

Were lucky to save face with an extremely fun time fighting an abundance of Mulloway in the 10 - 15kg range at the 1 mile jetty.

Sorry about the phone camera quality.

Didnt catch any from the jetty itself... (we definetely tried) just the usual tailor, shark mackeral, bream etc from the planks.

All were caught anchored up around the end of the jetty.

Thanks to the guys at the tackle shack for getting us onto our first mulloway.

Ended up landing 4 or so each. lol good times.

Hi guys just a few pics from a quick arvo session we did yesterday-

The first 2 pics are of MRSTWITCHEMUP's Stripped Toona we trolled up on 120mm Shallow Diving Yo Zuri Crystal Minnows only 500 meters from our local harbour. We nailed 4 Stripped Tuna within an hour all just out side the harbour rockwall and at one point we had a double hook up which was geat fun on light gear.

The Third pic is off another plastic jigged Dhu my mate caught later in the session, which was one of 3 for the day all the Dhu's and Tuna were released to catch again another day.

Cheers Lloyd

Hi guys heading up to wagoe and kalbarri anyone know whats biting up there at the moment?

Headed out from Port Bouvard Marina at 4pm and headed out to one of my spots around White Hills. This arvo was my last chance to get out for the next week so i snuck out for a couple of hours on sunset to get my fix. The forecasts through buoyweather and seabreeze weren't as I was expecting but still fishable. Had the wife (Renae) with me and she was surprisingly quite calm. Only fished for about an hour before choosing safety over fish. The 4.5 metre Dirty Oar was gettin thrown around a bit. However did have a nice tussle with this Tuna. I think it's a Big Eye but not 100% sure. The Sashimi 2 hours after I caught it was bloody good though!!

hey i was just wondering if there are any good sized taylor around the warnbro area, or are there any mullas around or is it still to weedy

does anyone know what's on the bite around margaret river/conto's area? i'm going there next week cheers

Thought I'd share a picture of this 31cm bream caught in the Swan this morning.

Heading to Yardie Creek Exmouth in 3 weeks, will be fishing around the beaches, require some info on what i will catch and what to take. Want to use poppers and get as many different species as possible

Went far a quick morning fish today up Dampier Creek, managed to get my first barra at 54cm just undersize but it was great just to catch one. We got a few of the usual bycatch of Cod and Catfish which kept us busy for our quick session. Now to get my first legal!!

I feel like these pics are so second-class putting them up after having a look through Daz' photos of Christmas Island...

One thing you won't find on the Monties as opposed to Christmas Island is greenery.  The islands must take an absolute flogging from mother nature - the shrubs are low, most rocks exposed to any sort of swell are pockmarked and so sharp that to fall on them would be messy.  Where the tidal currents rip through as the water pours out from between the islands, exposed rocks and outcrops are worn away.  But all that raw nature still takes your breath away, it's awesome.

We didn't spend much time on the islands, we had a look at some of the remains from the nuclear testing but other than that the remaining time was to flick lures around while we waited for tea to be cooked and the boat prepared for tucker time.

How's the tide.

How's the serenity

The best way to enjoy the serenity is always to immerse yourself in it, so we made the most of it most nights after a few refreshing drinks it was time for a swim

Other than the main species shown in Part 1 we did get onto a lot of other fish:

The two highlight fish of the trip were:

This thumping cod that took me an age to bring up.  Unfortunately the second pic doesn't give a true indication of how big it was.  It was a thumper, in my realm of cod catching anyway.  We estimated it at being around 30-35kg.  After we took a couple of quick shots he went back in and we swum him for quite a while.  We attached about six 24oz sinkers onto the largest release weight and sent him back down.  He didn't come back up, that we saw anyway, so hopefully it pulled through okay.

But the last fish of the trip was definately the best.  It was Wednesday evening, we were on our way home and it was just going dark, and one of the TLDs started screaming.  Unfortunately (for me) it was Jared's turn on the rods so he picked it up, let the fish run a bit, and then sank the hooks.  Fifteen minutes later he brought up this beaut little black, his first billfish and the only one for the trip to make it back to the boat.  It was an awesome way to finish the trip.

Karma caught up with him for taking my fish (I was the next on the rods - but after we got that one we pulled them up and that was it for the trip) and as soon as the sun went down and he lost the horizon he began telling the dolphins about what he'd eaten for tea.  Hurl time. (Revenge is sweet when you're the one putting up the report!)

And so that brought the end to an epic five days in the Monties with Bluejuice.

We thought it couldn't get any better but of course it did - we found the Planet Burger Bar for tea the following night, man those burgers cranked! (See below) And then we managed to bump into Adam (thanks to his FW shirt) as he was flying to Perth to head off to the Cook Islands.

Great trip all round and we're all hoping we can give it another go again soon!

Decided to take the missus out for a break from the kids this morning. Bought her a Pink Shimano Lipstix and an Okuma Femme Fatale and she was keen to get it wet. Got out to our destination and wasted no time in gettin some soft plastics twitchin around. A few taps straight up saw us bringing in tail-less lures. We persisted in flickin and didn't have to wait too long for the sounder to pick up a decent school under our drift. With hopes high we tried our best to entice a hit then both of us got hits, both thinking we were snagging weed. We were on at the same time. Unfortunately wifey's run was short lived. After a 10 minute fight on my 6'6" Ugly Stick and a lot of excitement on both our parts, we landed a 5Kg 77cm Snapper. My first size Snapper. Handbrake had her fun with a nice sweep which kept her happy and more importantly interested! It was our first time out "deep" together so was doing my best to keep her interested. After a friendly visit from fisheries we called it a day at 10. Handbrake is slowly getting the bug and I'm sure a nice Dhuey or Pinky should do the trick.

Another exciting trip to CI has concluded. The last year had escaped me too quickly & I felt as though I was there only a month ago.

As with any exotic sport fishing trip, you usually spend countless hours preparing your gear for brutal punishment. Ensuring you have adequate terminal tackle & sufficient lures is also just as important. There simply isn’t any room for sub standard tackle, poor knots & ill technique. It’s a matter of going hard or going home & having the appropriate equipment to do the task is fundamental.

The waters of Christmas Island offer exceptional diversity, from throwing poppers to GT’s to jigging Ruby Snapper meters away. You just need to look at the island to get a sense of what it looks like underwater.

Mark from Shorefire Charters is a true local with decades of local knowledge & experience, but most importantly, he is a down to earth bloke that is a pleasure to be spending time with. His wife makes sensational food & they really are great people.

Unfortunately, every fishing trip will be affected by a number of variables which can include poor weather & abnormal water temperatures. Water temp registered a mid 28 to 29 degrees which is extremely high in September. These high temperatures obviously affect plenty of temperate fish species & Yellow Fin tuna was the most obvious for us. Last year the YFT action was chaotic, however, this year, the schools remained quite deep which simply meant to fish jigs rather than throw surface offerings.

In a nutshell, we experienced high water temps, plenty of northerly winds, daily squally weather, high swells & at times, pond like conditions. It was a matter of dealing with what was being thrown at us & being diverse in our fishing approach. If poppers didn’t attract attention, we’d throw a stick bait & if darting jigs didn’t work, we used a sliding jig.

The trip was memorable, with plenty of quality fish being landed. Being bricked was a common occurrence on the jigging scene – 6 Andaman’s were lost within 2 hours on day 3.

We raised good GT’s, YFT, Wahoo, Red Bass, Jobbies, Blue fin Trevs, Mahi Mahi & many others, whilst jigging, we encountered, Jobbies, Black Trevs, Coro Trout, Tomato Cod, YFT, Sail Fish, Oblique banded Snapper & dogs.

My most exciting experiences of this trip included a sail fish that took an Andaman, only to be fought to the boat until it threw the hook, followed by, losing what was a good dog 10 meters under the boat. The dog was hooked mid water, stripped line to get to the underwater cliff face, then worked back to the boat only to have 1 last surge & snap the leader. The leader had been shredded by structure & the dog laid belly up under the boat & sank down instead of floating up! Bummer.

Trip 3, 2011, has already been booked & if last year is anything to go by, time will fly.

Oh, and I just received an email from Rocky letting me know he went out on a solo effort this morning & landed a 60+kg YFT. Amazing!

A few pics are below.

Daz.

Hi All

Heading up to Greenough and Geraldton next weekend. Anyone know how the fishing is up there? (beach fishing)

Would love to know, also do you know if there is any charters up there worthwhile for a day trip?

Cheers guys 

Alex

Following on from JohnF's report earlier in the week, here are the photos from the awesome day in Jurien on the weekend. Easily the best day fishing I've ever had, getting a baldy and pb dhu of 5kg certainly made my day! Gave the PE4 Xzoga and Stella 1000SW a good workout, only 2 demersals caught on jigs all day (possibly due to the lack of drift), John got a baldy and I got my first fish on a jig (only a goatfish but a start).

My brother Pete had the most pb's as has done most of his fishing up north; pb dhu, pinky, sambo and a double header sambo on bait, which was something I never thought I'd see!

A total of 6 baldy's from 440 to 490, 5 dhu's including a 5kg, 7.5kg, 10kg and 12kg and 3 decent pinkies (and one bb and a small sambo that were in too bad shape to send back down).

Thanks again to Whitey and Matt for a great day on the water.

Cheers.

Probably been posted already and if it hasn't, I expect it will be another 10 times as it hits the emails (like the Fitzroy *cough* barra)

The action took place 2 days ago in the North Atlantic Coast and at about 170 miles off the coast in the direction of New Foundland At the time the main goal of the trip was again to spot giant atlantic tuna and to do some video... In particular, at the time they do hunting herring school wich are plentifull in August there. If you plan to do this hunt the luck is the master of the game, because these great pelagics do moving all the time along the North America coast and swimming from 100 to 150 miles per day! The weather is the second parameter, because the sea must be calm if you intend to see the "herring run" and to luckily spot tuna. Great mako and white sharks do often take part to the quarry, this is the third unforseeable parameter.. After 3 days boating in the best weather conditions, we finally could spot on the surface a predation action: a lot of birds, two whales.Tuna were probably there hunting in a school. Each time this kind of action can last several minutes or less, then the tuna school vanishes to the depths.

I jumped from the boat among the "slaughter". Hundred and hundred birds were hunting the herrings The water temperatur was there at about 19 C degree and pretty much colder in the depth. The water was green, dirty and the visi fair at about 2 meter range . I did diving equiped with a wood speargun : the shaft with a special spear tip wich can penetrate the thick tuna skin and do not rip the meat when it get pulled. I dove at about 50feet depth where the visi was better and I could observe a couple of time massive tunas swimming fast and moving sometimes like rockets to the surface while hunting fiercely... . I have been freediving for years several times among these fishes: it's each time the same incredible and amazing "rodeo".

They do coming from nowhere and eating all the fish to the last... then they take off in a split of minutes. As usually you never find a middle size tuna because in this kind of school wich is only made of massive fish: the school was made there only of 600 to about 900lb tuna... I did several dives from 40 to 70 ft depth but I could not spot any tuna again. Probably several hundred tuna were hunting herrings, did they move away? At the time I was thinking " aiming and shooting a giant tuna is paradoxicaly pretty hard: the target is wide, but the fish is moving fast at about 10 feet per second in changing its path all the time..." a silvery and black blue huge shape swam suddenly in front of me then under my fins... I aimed the tuna in front of the head at about 6 feet range and shot. The shaft hit the fish in the middle of the body! The tuna vanished in a spilt of second in taking the bungee to the depth. I grabbed it and got towed as if I should be a buoy. The power of this fish is unthinkable. I speared in summer 2009 in the Strait of Gibraltar an about 1,000lb tuna and the fight lasted about 3 hours. I have been towed without a break by this huge speared fish on about 15 miles and lost it at night. After about thirty seconds a short break,I could get back to the surface, then the tuna took off again. The fight lasted about an hour.

I suddenly felt less resistance while trying to pull the line, in vain because the fish was to heavy and I could not check it. The tuna stayed motionless at about 120ft depth and I got exhausted. The fish was dead. It has been gaffed by the captain and attached at the bow then landed on the deck with a crane. The fish could be checked: the spear tip worked perfectly, got jammed under the skin. The shaft hit first probably the spineThe shaft hit first probably the spine Fish has not been weighted. The length was 124"/ 3m17 and girth 88"/ 2m23!! The weigth estimated between 1,200 and 1,250lbs. .

Gear used for the catch: -An home-made 69" teakwood tuna gun (St. Alexander style) equiped with a (3/8) 72'' long spear Riffe and a home-made slip tip (harpoon dart style) -The spear is connected to the gun with a 3 mm stainless steel plastic-coated cable. Swivels, snaps, sleeves... are about 600lb resistant. -Five 20 mm elastic bands. . -The float line is a 75' Riffe bungie (550lb nylon line core) and the float system is T Botha board (I improved in some details) + an inflatable Riffe buoy connected to the board by a North Water Wedge SpectrX Throw Bag (used in Kayaking . Probably the greatest fish ever taken by a spearo!

Philippe Virgili

Hey folks,

Spent most of last week up in Leeman and a large chunk of it trying to hunt some decent fish. For those that don't like to read - the beaches were in poor condition generally due to weed and not much was on the bite anywhere last week.

Day 1 - went for an evening bash at Coolimba jetty just after sundown. Was surprised to find no baitfish on the bite at all. Stayed a few hours for one bite, a nice little wobbegong that would have been around 5-7kg. He was released courtesy of a badly timed gaff shot. :-)

Day 2 - dawn session on the Leeman jetty produced nothing. No squid. No bait fish. Not even a blowie bite. Water was dirty and full and weed. Scoped out the coast from Leeman through to Arrowsmith looking for a nice spot to spend the evening session. Entire coast was chockers with weed (Gum Tree, Knobby, Palm Springs) - the exception was Illawong which must have a been a bit sheltered. Popped up to Denison / Dongara and the beaches immediately north had some fantastic deep gutters and were relatively weed free. Went back to Illawong in the evening only to find gale force winds coming in off the coast with rain too. Gave up about an hour after dark as the weather got too much for me. In hindsight should have gone further north.

Day 3 - decided to head south in search of a beach worth fishing. Checked out Little Anchorage, Ti Tree Bay, etc. All were full of weed both on the beach and in the water. Ended up at Sandy Cape just north of Jurien and while there was a bit of weed around, the sheltered bay looked worth a crack. Burleyed up but again no sign of any bait fish at all. Cruised down to Jurien and threw a line at the marina. Again no sign of any bait fish and with some big winds picking up and rain on the move I packed up. Went for an evening fish off the cliffs near Taylor Bay. Didn't expect much due to the murkey / weedy water. A big stingray took a whole mullet on sundown and decided to pack up after that. Landed successfully and of course released to flap another day. At least I got to stretch the arms and test out the gear.

Day 4 - dawn session at Hill River. I felt more confident that the fish would be on the bite with it being 24hr + after the new moon and the Almanac promising me a 'black' day. First couple of casts I felt a couple of definate chopper bites but it shut down soon after without me getting a fish on the beach. Again no signs of baitfish. Spent the night session at home with the family. Bought fish and chips instead. :-)

Weather was poor and that hindered fishing with cold westerly winds, huge swells and rain to boot. But there was something else in the air last week as fish were definately off the bite. A nice little break nonetheless and our first family trip. Will head back in summer when the baitfish return....probably en route to Wagoe.... :-)

Countryside there is beautiful at the moment - wildflowers just starting to pop there heads out and green, green, green. Probably went a month of so early.

Roberta - did cruise around the caravan park looking for you but not sure if you were there?

Cheers,

Buschy

After coming back from a recent fishing trip i was pushed for time as we were heading out for dinner. So what did i do with my two pinkies - I FROZE THEM WHOLE - NOT EVEN GUTTED

Is this gonna cause a problem when i pull them out to eat them next weekend?

I went out behind the 3 mile today fishing 8-20m and it was really quiet.  I anchored and burlyied and only got a few wrasse, how did everyone else go or was i fishing the wrong spots

rig

heres some pics of carp

Me and hunterdive (Jared) just got back from five days fishing on Bluejuice Charters' maiden season out to the Montebello Islands.  It was pretty surreal being out there as it was the first liveaboard charter that either of us had done... I think liveaboards are a bit like the holy grail of fishing charters - everyone wants to do one at least once in their life - so when you finally find yourself doing one, you've got to get your head around it.  Anyway that's what it was like for us.

We flew up to Exxy on the Friday afternoon and to our surprise it was actually cooler there than it was in Perth.  The easterly was cranking across the runway and while we knew that the weather was looking pretty good for our trip we couldn't help but feel a bit nervous, especially having seen the winds up when iFish were out there a couple of weeks previous.  So we jumped on the shuttle bus and got dropped off at the marina where we met Gary the skipper.  We were stoked to find out that there were only going to be four of us heading out to the islands, and me and Jared made up two of that four! What a score.

The plan for the rest of the day was pretty simple - settle in, start tinkering with our gear, help Gary stock up as the supplies were delivered (if we wanted to) then off to the Potshot Hotel for tea, grab some drinks for the trip and then head back to the boat where we'd set off somewhere around 11.30pm.  Everything went according to plan and at 11.30 we were woken up as the boat began the trip across to the islands.  We all stayed asleep for most of the journey albeit it was broken by the odd heavy bump as Bluewater hit a larger wave or the dull throb of the diesels regularly broke through the sleep haze too.  Ear plugs helped with this though and they have a fair supply of them onboard for this reason.

We woke up at about 7am and wandered upstairs to see where we were and found we were about level with Barrow Island, two skirts were skipping along about the back of the boat connected up to a Tiagra 30 and the TLD 25, and there was a range of breakfast cereal on the table along with bread, a toaster and a few spreads.  By the time we finished breakfast and had a yarn it was time to start fishing - and the fun started.

I think the best way to summarise how things worked is to do a quick itinerary and then let the pictures do the talking.  Given it was over five days I've found it a bit hard to pull all the relevant pictures together in order so to kick it off here's how it worked for us:

• Day 1 - morning: trolled, bottom bounced / jigged a few spots in 50-70m getting onto big spangleds, a mix of trevs, a few macks on the drop; afternoon: trolled Tryall Rocks, what a gnarly fishing spot that is.  Mack heaven. We got so many macks there it wasn't funny.
• Day 2 - morning: bacon and egg breakfast, more Tryall Rocks trolling double and triple hookups the norm; afternoon: fished in 50-70m for a mix of chinamen, reds, bludger trevally and a 35kg+ estuary cod.
• Day 3 - morning: hit the road at 5am to fish the change of tide - found more giant spangleds, big crimson seapearch, red emps and rankins; afternoon: tried to find something with a bill, managed to get one sailfish interested but he ended up leaving.  Evening: jumped onto one of the islands in the evening, so beautiful.  Got a few small trout, no shortage of angry charlie courts.  Saw a few nice sized noahs around in the shallows too.
• Day 4 - one of the best days fishing Jared and I have ever had. Period.  Trolled for sails in the morning, hooked a few shark macks and while pulling it in had a sailfish buzz it right at the back of the boat.  Saw it size on with its sail up, all its colours lit up. Could have jumped off the marlinboard and nailed it I reckon, it was that close.  It disappeared pretty quickly but then when the next sharkie got caught and was retrieved we had a wahoo buzz it in the same way - side on all lit up.  Spectacular visuals.  We eventually ended up at Tryall Rocks trying to find the king of all macks. While we didn't get it, the action there was unbelievable.  I'm hoping to do an article on it for FW-Reeltime so I can include some vid but suffice to say I've never seen so many macks pulled in during one session and we had them going on poppers and stickbaits it was that crazy.  Incredible topwater action. Ended up in 30m fishing with softies and got some great trout, red bass, trevs and some impossibles.
• Day 5 - morning: the wind had picked up quite a bit overnight so we tried a couple of sheltered spots but had a fair amount of trouble fishing them - the wind was whipping one way and the current the other.  We ended up starting a lazy trip home late in the morning.  We stopped off at a few spots for some bits and pieces, had skirts out the whole way and got onto some tuna including a yellowfin, hooked up but lost two sails and then just as the sun went down one of the TLD's went off and Jared was on and he landed his first, and the only billfish for the trip, a nice little black.  Got back to the marina at about 11pm that night.
• Day 6 - we hung Exxy for the day - washed and cleaned most of our gear, went into town for lunch, met one of the FW Exmouth locals, deepwater, at the bottleshop (nice to meet you mate).

That's enough typing for now.  The pics are divided up into different themes.

THE FUN FISH

There were no shortage of the fun fish up there. Every couple of spots you'd drop onto a school of trevs and the fun would begin:

My first GT, not the way I expected to get it but I'll take it anyway.  The Lemax SlimMax / Wahoo combo worked a treat.

This one came up on bait and gave old Kev a bit of a workout

This is a PB golden for sure, didn't get a size or weight unfortunately but it certainly didn't relent all the way up through 60m.  Awesome fun.  Got him using the Ajiking Samson-Z, a perfect reel for this sort of fishing.

A nice little bludger from shallow water

THE RED FISH

Then there were the fish that everyone wants, those that are table quality - and some fun along the way.

Some lovely red emperor hit the deck

Some nice crimson seapearch

And trout (stay tuned for about three more pics for the future of this tasty number)

THE BOAT AND CREW

The Bluewater is a pretty comfortable boat, especially when there's only 4-5 people fishing!  It's got everything you need - a small lounge area, shower, bunks downstairs cater for up to ten people and then there are a few other spots where you can sleep if you'd prefer to be outside.  Gary (skipper) is a funny bloke who doesn't mind a good joke or story and cooks up a pretty good feed.  We had everything from lasagne to steak and even had a roast one night.  Of course there was always fish and / or squid when we could get them.

Nice tucker

Great crew (we had a local bloke called Ben who was an absolute legend) who don't mind going the extra yards including a quick cray hunt one night (to no avail - but how's the serenity anyway...)

And do their thing well with the fish

THE MACKS

These things were everywhere.

They'd nail plastics

And jigs (nice sized tooth mark and a fair bend in the end from the hit)

The sharkies were just a pain

But the spaniards were great fun

Unless the sharks got them first

That's enough for me for one night, I'll put up Part 2 in the next night or two which shows some of the incredible beauty of the place as well as a few more fish pics of other species we got onto.  You've got to get up there if you can, what a place.  I can now see why the Pilbara Pirates love it so much.  It's one of those spots that is raw beauty - like most places that far north I guess... it's a harsh environment but still in that you get incredible beauty.

Have just been looking through some photos for a decent profile pic, and came across the photos of the best pinky I've caught to date. I caught it while chasing YTK's on the 3 mile during last year's demersal closure. Easily the best fish I've ever caught, took some great runs and gave the stinkin penn 750 a good workout. After a few quick photos it was back in the water and gone in a flash. In the effort to get him back in the water as quickly as possible I forgot to measure it, though I reckon it was at least 750mm, possibly 800.

Tim.

Professional fisherman catching snapper on the gravel patch in cockburn sound sights a 5-6m White culling the snapper as he fishes.

BE CAREFUL YAK FISHOS.

Sorry for the delay but here are the pics to go with the report i did on tuesday.

2 x 6kg groper

1 x 8kg dhu

1 nice trout

= a friggin good feed of fish for 4hrs diving

plenty more spotted for next time. will be taking the camera under when this area gets revisited

Hi all..... Just throwing together a quick report from todays sesh

Left the ramp about 730am after fuel and fluid stops and met a stiff sth east out offshore - tad different from the nth easter forecast. Tried some new ground today so after a bumpy 1hr or so in the boat and half freezing we got to our intended area and sounded around. Bottom looked really good with some nice ledges and sand holes so a quick gear up - some old cray heads smashed for burley and into the drink. Rob was in first and had shot at and lost a small YTK before i had even thrown the mask on! Fairly dissapointed as he hadnt shot one before and wanted something for a curry. Once both of us where in the drink we covered abit of ground revealing some reallly nice looking stuff. First drop i did was onto a baldie of about 3-4kg but took a chance and left it be hoping for something bigger... That decision payed off 3mins later when on the my next drop i fell quietly onto a ripper baldie - took the shot from above and angled and it was game over for him... A good starter and a pb baldie for me at just over 6kgs... Bit more swimming revealed a few more smaller but still well shootable baldies and a just legal trout we passed on. Time for a move but things where looking up! Vis was really good seeing the fish life and bottom comfortably in 12-13m.

Next move and rob was again in first - i tossed some burley and 3 hooter baldies came flying in to say gday! How conveniant... Jumped in and spotted rob from above as he ghosted down and took a perfect shot on one of the trio only to see the shaft fall out! Watching from above the fish never went too far and after a short chase i dropped down and had my 2nd for the day.... A tad bigger then the first and 2 ripper fish in the esky before 8am!

Bit more searching around here and it was a great dive! Big baldies everywhere (left for next time) a nice parrot was spotted and a good dhu that decided one look was enough and slinked off into the distance.... The highlight for me came when i was laying on the bottom in about 10m seeing if i could arouse anythings curiosity when i got the feeling i was being watched... Slowly turned around to come face to face with a magnificent blue groper of about 15kg! I had never seen one til now and boy what a beautiful fish they are!

Continued on and a last change of spots took us to a ledge that again looked good from above... The sounder showed fish and jumping in showed it wasnt lieing... Another big baldie and parrot dawdled past (musta known they where safe!) before i hear robs gun go off and swim oer to assist... Up he come empty handed having shot at and missed a decent parrot... That in turn arroused the interest of 3 beaut dhuies! Breath up - relax - tuck over and game on.... few short kicks and in range - dead.... Lovely 8kg dhuie stoned... Rob was abit peeved id pinched his fish whilst reloading but he went down and clean missed again on another nice dhuie! Not his day unfortunently... Finally after dispatching the dhu and returning to robbie i spot him slide down under a big overhang - extend his gun and fire... He attempted to pull it from the cave but not budging so we traded spots whilst he caught his breath and i was able to extract a beaut 700mm trout for him.... 4 fish limit and wat a bag we had!

Home before lunch time!

have got a couple of pics but im off to sleep ready for night shift! throw something up later... hope you enjoyed the read

poddy