Well unfortunately due to the weather and needing to be back at 2 we decided not to head out to the FAD's and instead hit the local reefs and then head out to try find some bottom dwelling species. The NE was fairly stiff and reinforced the reason we didn’t hit the FAD's. Got to Mewstone and started chucking lures with every cast resulting in a herring, until my mate then got bricked on 12lb to what we think was a huge tailor judging by the pace it took off. After we had enough herring for bait we headed out to the 40m mark where we eventually found a likely spot, did a few drifts and found we were getting smashed by small snapper which wouldn’t leave our baits alone, we moved a few times and found the same result. We then decided to head out a little deeper where we found a little lump of coral and first drop resulted in a nice Red snapper for my mate.

As I was taking the photo my rod went off and I thought I had hooked his brother until line started stripping, unfortunately it was just a sambo,

so with time getting on we decided to head back in, by this stage the wind had dropped and we could head in sitting on 30kn. I’ve still got a couple more weeks before uni starts again so hopefully I can head out to the FAD's and get into some nice yellow fish.

Cheers Miles

Went out from Hillarys yesterday at midday & headed NW. Plenty of surface activity with a few big chop ups. From what i could see they were southern blues & managed to bring one on board around the 5-6kg mark. Something i haven't seen before was a serious bait ball getting hammered by tuna & sharks in 8m of water!!! Couldn't latch on to any though.

Few size dhuies out there & managed a couple of cod. Might have been wirras but they had bands & spots. Only in 40m. Plenty of 30cm pinkies around.

Not bad for 4hrs on the water.

Now for a bitch! To the @#$%wit who came & pinged my spot while i was into a dhuie, i hope your GPS shits itself! There is nothing more annoying than people that do that. You put a lot of hard work into getting good ground not to give it away to twats like that. If i wasn't fighting a fish i wouldn't have been too polite!!

All in all though an enjoyable arvo on the water.

hi lads,

Just thought i should put up first post as a report.

Went out last nite in cockburn sound and got a few tailor good size there seems to be a few round atm.

Sorry no pics.

cheers carps

After reading about the lack of input into the site I thought I would post the last weekend story.

A bit boring for some but hey it was great and fantastic fishing.

Cant be bothered taking pictures when the fish is on the bite, but will try and get some from the visitors on saturday that was snap happy.

Saturday lazy time. left at 12noon from Dampier and thought the wind would be cool. It sort of was so didnt head as wide as intended. Nice reef from memory found the old fashion way (GPS tracker broke) and we were into it. End of the day in the Home Esky 2 Jacks (odd to find them that far off as we also got some juvies undersize), 4 nice NW snapper of various varieties, a nice cod, a Trigger fish (I had no idea whether it was edible or not and dont like killing fish, but something "triggered" my mind that it was good) and the 2 price Trout, caught less than 1 minute apart. Left behind a truck load of odds and sods, including a very decent size ramora that I thought was not a eating fish.

Sunday out again but even more lazy. Out 1pm and it was jack city. I dont understand why Jacks are so far off in numbers greater than flags and NW snapper but in view of the previous effort only brought home 2. If it was a comp would have upgraded at least 10. Again a ball and it just proves that you dont have to be deep ++ to get quality fish.

Mullows ---- it was not Courtney Heads. LOL

Neels

Dropped the tub in at Quindalup yesterday lunchtime and decided to have a look down at Bunkers for some Salmon. Was buzzed by two choppers at the ramp so thought the Pro's were looking which could be a good sign. Off we went, conditions weren't too bad just a moderate SE wind so it was good to get out of the house and get the tub out. We were 10 minutes out and spotted birds working , over goes Rogers favourite Yozi lure , bang straight onto a Bonito which was a bit of fun for him,  kept steaming down to Bunkers , good signs of bait fish on the sounder. Got closer to Bunkers, so over with the lures,  did a couple of passes around Rocky Point and then headed out to the Cape. Still nothing after an hour or so , wind was on the make so we decided to go right into Bunkers and catch a feed of Herring/Whiting and relax for a couple of hours. Got a good feed of sand whiting and some good sized Herring also which was good. Wind started to drop off a bit so we decided to head around the Cape and see if we could get a salmon or two! Over with the lures again, trolling for about 10 minutes and Rogers on again (Good sized Pike). Still sloppy as  around there so didnt expect too much. Trolled for another 15 minutes and then I got a hit on mine and this thing took off, peeling the line off pretty quick and then  spat it (not happy). That was a bummer losing that!Turned around and headed back to Bunkers again, ( Roger got another Bonito just inside the Cape) and that was it for the day, headed back to the ramp. Hopefully they will come on soon before I go back to work! Sorry about no photos , forgot to take the camera!    cheers  nev!

What are other people's thoughts on dragging my 22ft boat up to Shark Bay over easter? I'll get two days of fishing if I'm lucky, probably 15-20knot winds as reports indicate have been the norm up there, a day up and day back. IS IT WORTH IT? I have plenty of marks and know how to fish it even though I've never been there, and only have a 2wd vehicle so I figure decent LB fishing would be out of the question. Any opinions would be appreciated.

Had a nice night on the Lower Ord last Saturday. Spent some time collecting bait and waiting for the afternoon traffic to disappear. ;)

Eventually settled in to a favourite spot, just on dusk. After an hour of swatting mozzies with only one silver cobbler (shitehouse catfish) to show for the effort, the call was made to move around a bit to try and locate the fish.

5 minutes after re-positioning the boat, the first barra was hooked. Turned out to be a nice fish at 80+cm which was successfully released after a few pics.

30 minutes the second fish turned up. This would have to be one of the fattest barra I've encountered, it was almost goldfish like! Released this one into the icebox.

Finally, right on 9.00pm the fish of the night turned up. After a great tussle on 14lb braid a solid 90+cm fish graced the deck. Took a couple of quick pics and then released it with a big smile on the face. After that we let the remaining bait in the bucket go and headed for home dodging the odd tree branch and bugs flying over the river.

Saw a few crocs but only small, and they were happy doing their own things.

Unreal weather last night, so ended up out on the swan for a quick fish on the kayak... Must be all the fresh water mixing up the river after the storm because within a couple of hours i caught about 30 tailor and 5 black bream (all released)... choppa tailor were everywhere, smashing lures almost before they hit the water... Ended the night after i hooked this monster in shallow water, while trying for squid... I've never seen cuttlefish in the river before so was a bit shocked.... weighed about 2.2kg... time for some cuttlefish curry... mmm... or cuttlefish stuffed squid ...

Got a call from my old mate Neville asking me to go for a run out on his boat with him and his son John.
Got away at 0700 this morning and the aim was to fish some spots about 6nm NW of Koks island. On arrival found that the spots I'd taken from my gps didn't match the position on Nev's.so after a bit of searching we located them.All ready to fish and out come John with a BANANA---WTF!!!oh well too late to toss it now.

Do about 5-6 drifts right over the spots and not a bite with good fish showing on the sounder.

Moved in to proven fall back spots near Koks and the same thing,drift over spots showing big fish and not even a whiff of a bite.So on to the Koks patch.Result from 6 drifts over real good lumps showing fish was my charlie court[ released], Nev's double header of undersize black snapper [both released] and John's shark that he wanted to keep.

To really rub salt in to the BANANA myth with broke down in the leads coming in to the boat harbour.The Volvo diesel just died,plenty of fuel,motor turns over but no fire.So on the radio and call up sea rescue for a tow in.Bit embarrassing for the local sea rescue president calling up for a tow.

Boat safely back in the pen and will have a look at it tomorrow,not game to today after all the other failures.

Because we are moving to the NT, some friends suggested we listen to the guys on the ABC Radio station, with a program called "Tales from the Tinny" have listened to a few shows in the archives, they are bloody funny ! You can check them out at http://www.abc.net.au/darwin/tinny/?section=about

March 10, 2010



Had a great day out today!  We spent all morning fighting a truely big Marlin.  What a monster hookup.  We went out 40 miles today, and got straight to the bait hunting.  Not a moment after we had the lines all full lively small bonitas, did Rudy see one of our newly placed baits flying through the air.  He lowered the drag on the pole waiting for the bite, and then I hear the reel start whirring like a small electric motor.  He raised the break up and hooked the fish and we saw a huge splash behind the boat as the fish jumped out of the water.  Then about half a second later the fish jumped again next to the boat and then anohter half a second later and the fish jumped 100 yards IN FRONT of the boat.  He was moving so fast that he was still dragging off line towards the back of the boat as he was running forward.  I got the boat in gear and throttled up and the fight was on!  We chased him down only after he pulled off about 600 yards of line.  The customers took turns fighting him all morning, until everyone finally wore out, and then they handed if off to Rudy.  Rudy, like a kid in a candy store, starts reeling and pulling and about 20 minutes later we have the fish within 15 feet of the boat.  It is huge, at least 12 feet long, and was an awesome sight.  We made it all the way to the shock leader until the fish went crazy and the leader just couldn't take any more and gave out.  I have to admit, this is the first time I've had a leader break since I started using Yo Zuri Floro Carbon.  I'd say the fish jumped about 25 times though, so overall the leader did ok.  Not the happiest ending, but we got through all the fight.  This week has been amazing for fishing.  The last two weeks of February were a bit slow (really strange for this time of the year), so we were super excited the fish started biting again!  We hooked up with 5 sailfish yesterday, 4 monster big tunas the day before.  We had an inshore day this week with 35 fish and one with 25 fish.  It's been really great fishing and I'm looking forward to a super busy April through May.  Well, here's some pictures, sorry, no Marlin pictures, I was only 10 feet from getting him to the boat so I didn't think to take pictures.  Check out the big tuna though.  Great times here on the water in Quepos!



End Of February 2010



Ok, first I have to apologize, we have been 100% booked and I haven't had the energy to tap away at the keyboard after fishing/fueling/cleaning.  So here is a recap of the last part of February.  February was an awesome month, and with it came a lot of great times!  A few stick out.  One was this snook that we caught that might have been a world record if I had it weighed.  I promise, the only photoshop used on the fish was to shrink it down for the web.  That thing was huge!  At the dock after the trip, all the mates were holding it up to have their picture taken with it, and I can't wait to see the mount!  Another fun story was the 10 year old who reeled in this sailfish all by himself.  He was super attentive and listened to everything Rudy said.  The sailfish didn't come in easy either, but was jumping and doing everything it could to spit the hook or pop the leader.  But thanks to a little bit of Yo-Zuri Floro leader (pink of course), and a great listener on the reel, we won the battle and the picture got taken!  Offshore has been great with lots of double sails, usually one of the spinning rod per trip!  Inshore has been especially insane as well, with between 15-35 fish a day.  Inshore we averaged 4-8 Snook and 5-10 Roosters and at least one Dog Faced Snapper per day.  And as you can see from the photos, the fish here are HUGE!


February 11


Lots of sails out today!  I had a young couple out today and we really wore them out today with sails.  On a side note, we have gotten at least one double sailfish hookup and at least one spinning reel sailfish hookup per trip now for the last 7 trips!  Well, instead of me telling the story, I'll just show you some pictures and let you read the email I received after the trip!
Cant thank you enough for the best fishing trip we have ever been on!!!!!!!!!  I am going to email you all of our pics from the trip and will be happy to recommend you to anyone I hear that is headed that way.  We are seriously looking into moving down there, thanks again man!
Best Regards,
Capt. Ryan

February 5

Great day out, sailfish were everywhere!  I lost count but we got either 6 or 7 to the boat, with literally hundreds of sails jumping around and swimming by the boat.  And these weren't baby sails, they were monsters!  The best was a double with one on the spinning.  There is nothing more fun and challenging than reeling in a 125 pound billfish on a spinning reel spooled with 30 pound Mono!  So we hit the first sail, he was wanting to eat the teaser.  After a little bait and switch, we had the spinning reel screaming and the fight was on!  As the sail was getting close, we saw that it was bringing up another one so we hooked that one too on the Tigra 30.  It was some great fishing!  Here's some awesome pictures!  And yes they are enormous, and the pictures are of different fish!

February 3


Great day fishing.  I fished with these guys yesterday & today and the sails were thick.  We hooked 6 sails yesterday and 3 Dorado.   Some of those were on small spinning reels as well, and I think overall we probably spent more time reeling than trolling.  As a result of that some of the guys were a bit worn out today when we started out early!  So about 12 O'clock today, we had already boated 3 sails and 3 nice Dorado, and the guys decided they couldn't handle anymore action!  On a side note, it has been 4 days since a sail has come behind the boat and not gotten hooked.  Many times you hear people say we went 2 for 7 on sails.  Not on the Sterss Reeliever.  Every fish gets a hook, and then the battle is between the customer and the fish.  Even if we are reeling in another fish, fish beware ... as happened today ...  So we had hooked this sail on the spinning and once again it was almost to the boat.  Rudy was holding the leader on the sail and a Dorado just leisurely swims past.  Customers are shooting photos and I hear, " Hey look at that Dorado".  I couldn't let a fish come that close to the boat and get away!!!  So without a word to Rudy, who is trying to get ahold of the sailfish, I throw out a bait on the 30, run up the tower and throw the boat in gear.  Then I fly down the ladder and hook the fish while the boat is on Autopilot (figuratively, not literaly) and then run back up the tower and take it out of gear!  Poor Rudy was halfway in the water with the sail and was yelling, "Who's driving the boat!" and "What the heck are you doing?" but he figured it out when I got the hook!!!  Afterwards we had a good laugh though and he said I earned my third stripe(whatever that means)!  And then we took the pictures of the sail while the Dordo fight was on!  Today was all reeling and no breaks!  Another great day out in the beautiful and warm Quepos Costa Rica Blue Waters!


Where Did Rudy Come From?

I get alot of questions about where I got Rudy and how he knows so much about fish.  So I thought I would let the secret out of the bag and show you guys the photos of where I discovered him!  Apparently, he drifted out to sea at a young age and was raised by sailfish!  Neat story.  It may be true, but that's not really where these pictures came from.  Actually this was a tired sailfish after a battle with our spinning rod.  It wasn't sure if it could go on with life, and Rudy, loving fish and never having hurt a sailfish in his life, jumped out to give the fish swimming lessons and whisper in its ear!  :)  I would have backed the boat up to the fish, but that just wasn't fast enough for Rudy!  Ahh, I guess you can't hate him for his enthusiam!  I'm planning on going back sometime mid-February to check on him and see how old Rudy is making out!

I was at my spot on the weekend between Walpole and Margs. Schools of Salmon everywhere and they're
massive. Not only the size of the schools are large but the weight of the fish
is unbelievable. Our largest was 8.2kg and they averaged probably 6.5kg

Mostly caught on plastics with a few on Mulies. I just can't believe the size of them this year. Last year we were only getting 4 - 5 kilo fish maybe a 6 kilo if we were lucky. This year it's going off. Photo's to come

Cheers, Higgo

With the weather gods playing ball it was not a time to miss such an opportunity........

Not a breath of wind. Thats Barneyboy (Mark) at the helm.

Decided to stop at the tip of the cape as there was minimal swell and a large bommie with a big ledge...... unfortunatley Mark was using light gear and got bricked by a big dhuie on a snapback SP.......better luck next time mate.

We then went around the cape looking for fish.

We found plenty along the current line and proceeded to find the sambo's....

It was double hookup after hookup.......and great fun on light gear.

Thats a Oceanside jig master PE 2-3 rod and matched with a Certate 4000 (thanks Bones76).

About time as there were hundreds of the buggers around

Small SBT jigged on a shout lighten 70g

Mark in the action with a snapback SP.

We caught heaps of fish species including shallowtail, heaps of BA, wrasse and sambo's...............

I was predominantley chasing demersals on jig and only used either a caprice kid of shout lighten or shabba and no matter how slow I jigged couldn't get past the sambo's and they were even taking then on the bottom when stationary...but great fun on light gear.

Mark mostly threw snapback SP when not pirating my jig rods.....he he and caught all of the above species and more. And he got bricked twice by big dhuies on SP. Better upgrade Mark .

Fantastic day on the water. Plenty of fish in the boat.

And yes Harro and Brendan (Seaquest) that was us waving at you when you came past the Cape. 

hey there guys i decided to go out for a fish yesterday arvo/evening fish. the weather look to inviting not to go out so i loaded up the tinnie an off i went. I didnt know where to head so i headed out to the 5 fatham behind garden island. On me way out there, there was an abundance of bait breaking the surface  so i stopped off an casted in a floating bait with no luck so i trolled the rest of the way to the five hoping for something to hit my lure but with no luck.

I found a nice lump in 20 metres of water an anchored up an burleyed the shit out of the joint after half an hour i almost gave up but then it was on i caught 9 skippy which all went back bar one that i put under a balloon, in no less than five minutes of it being back in the water a 5 foot hammer head took it an boy was it fun to watch it jump out the water until i had it near the boat an it decided to jump in the boat an i almost jumped straight out i let it go an my bottom rig took off with a nice size jewie on the end yummmmm then as i got that aboard my rod took off again an i hit a school of pinkie's even better until the sharks moved it :(.

All in all i had a great day catching an resleasing fish i caught 9 skippy, 1 hammerhead, 4 blacktip reef sharks, 5 pinkies an 1 dhuie. But in doing the right thing i came home with 1 pinkie, 1 dhuie an 2 shark yummo was home in 3 hours from leaving home a bit of a longer fishing trip was good for a change so i might have to head back out there tonight.

Well, seeing as its the work boat and I don't want to take my DSLR out there, instead I take the old point and shoot cam and boy is it hard work getting the action shots.  Today's fish was one of the most acrobatic I've seen in ages, it took me 5 mins to get the camera out of the bag (hence missing the first lot of action) and I still managed to shoot off a heap of shots as he danced accross the ocean.  Anyway, here's a few pics of the morning out, all were different jump shots and on the way in the only wave we could get was from the tuna or the tug. :)

Cheers,

Adam

just got back from an hour down at floreat drain, still plenty of tailor around. Got a couple of decent ones approaching 40cm. Plenty of bites but kept losing them in the swell on the way in.

Had the big rod out but no luck this time round.

Hello to all the Fishwreck crew. Seems like a good site you guys have here. I have not seen any forum topics on the crayfish season so far, so I thought I would ask the question,

Are the crays still able to be found behind GI or Carnac, or are they much further out this season???

 Cheers

here we go i got the bug again after the little outing with Adam a few days ago in the gulf.  My son Alex and i went out the back of north west reef for a spot of bottom fish, was not good at all {15\18 knots} Alex was sick in the first 10 mins so i thought i would wander in to the back of the reef.  As we got close to the reef i put out 2 divers out for some macs, 2mins later it was screaming off, alex was straight up and on to the rod.  A few mins later he had his first Mactuna on board, a quick photo and he swam off.  As we looked up there was a bait ball getting pushed towards us ,alex was straight on the only rod with a casting lure on it {little bugger} first cast and he was on, an awesome queeny was launching it self out of the water, left and right and all around the boat.  He finally landed the monster, I'm so proud of my little man, he had a smile from ear to ear.  We went back to the ramp and were home by 11am, a good little session for a sunday morning.  
jeff
PS :Alex is so proud he has a queeny bigger than mine

hi guys

myself and a fellow fishwrecked user (joshyyyy b) went for a fish down at the new mount henry jetty this morning at 6:30am.

we had a good feeling about catching a few today after we caught 2 flatties there last week.

got absolutley nothing, tried hbs and soft plastics but nothing was working.

so we decided to go around to shelly bridge to try our luck. nothing. so many kayakers!

shelly bridge looks prime bream country, we are going to go back there on the high tide.

hopefully next weekend our luck will change!

Hey fellaz, just gonna tell you about last night at city beach.

i went out at 6pm, set up the tackle and casted out for a nice tailor.

20minutes later a nice tailor about 45cm hit with some power.

I also saw the bloke next to me catch a decent size tailor aswell.

There still around...

Went out for an early morning crack at the dollys. Up at 0510 for a 0545 departure, a bit of work after the monthly Rotary Raffles at the pub last night. Between 0630 and 0900 we couldn't stop catching them. It was awesome watching the fish screaming through the waves to get to our lures, with strike after strike. They were even fish hitting the lures that we were trying to clear out of the way after a hook up. After the 0900 the sun was too bright and fish went down. We had a crack for some wahoo with one strike but no hook up. The highlight of the day was probably the 200kg+ marlin that jumped out of the water about 100m behind the boat. He didn't like our lures today, but there is always next time......

I wanted to go scooping with some mates down at mandurah and i was think if there still around??

I was thinking of going and catching some squid.

Are there any around perth?

city beach - herring, yellow tail and whiting also a few port jacksons realeased and a massive sting ray realesed 5/6th march over night

KALBARRI SPORTS FISHING CLASSIC REPORT

26th February to 28th February

24th YEAR 2010

This was a “Classic” to remember! 36 boats ranging from dinghies to 8m boats and 24 river anglers, of which 9 were juniors, all competed for $10.000 worth of prizes over the Labour Day week end.

The three day event started with perfect conditions as a coastal trough formed on the Thursday evening. The glassed off conditions allowed the boats to disperse to their best and furthest spots at first light on the Friday morning, with the resulting great catches at the weigh-in at the Kalbarri Motor Hotel that afternoon.

The river anglers had a few fish but without the opportunity to fish into the night it was not a big weigh-in.

The boat sections in the under 6 metres, 6-7 metres and over 7 metres all found fish with a surprising large number of red emperor landed.

A great catch by Mitchell Westlund resulted in him winning the Skywest Top Gun Award of a free Kalbarri/Perth return air fare for his red emperor.

Darren Cooper and Gut Morris had reds as well

John McCarthy picked up Men’s Meritorious for the biggest red emperor, adding good points to his team, “Jakshitt”.

A lot of dhuies were landed with a few big ones scattered amongst them.

“Lets Go” team boat 6-7 metres had good dhuies among their catch with John Morgan and Danny Vanderthing scoring the bigger ones.

Guy Morris had a burster of a comp, landing the biggest dhuie on the second day weighing in at 11 odd kgs only to beat himself on the third day with a 12.16 kg monster.

A big thanks to the organisers who put a lot of their spare time into this the biggest organised event in Kalbarri each year and not possible without the support of our very generous sponsors. Please support them when you can.

The 6 junior boat anglers found lots of fish. Bryce Parker landing a personal best baldchin groper of 5.79kgs fishing aboard the over 7m boat “Lauren Rose”. Lauren Rose skipper and comp regular, Norm Godfrey, down from Karratha also landed good fish as well as this snapper.

Junior, Beau Ivey, fishing aboard “Hurricane” a 4.5m dinghy, did the hard yards but

Made good with the heaviest not game snapper of 7.03ks as well as the Rod Mitchell Meritorious award.

Heaviest cod went to Brian Beales for his 15.01kg estuary cod, while the heaviest samsonfish of 15.8kgs went to Darren Westlund.

The game section was heavily contested this year probably due to the limited number of category one fish permitted to be caught, thus anglers switching to game.

Day one saw the team “Bulawayo Buoy” take the lead in the 6-7m game category with 4 mackerel caught on 3kg line.


John Hoye, Laurie & Sue Malton with 3kg line caught mackerel and Jared Malton landing a 10.5kg mackerel on 3kg line to win him the Highest Point Scoring Mackerel as well as the Highest Point Scoring Game fish for his efforts.

Team “El Barco” over 7m boat with Sue Olive, Stan Sutherland and daughter Anna Sutherland had good fish as well. Anna Sutherland holds her 1.38kg tuna caught on 1kg line winning her Ladies Meritorious.

The second and third day team “Proplan” and “Couta Crazy” travelled a long way north and found the mackerel adding big points to the boat scores.

Team “Proplan” day two and three, Daryn Visagie, Deon Visagie, Dominic Levzzi, and Sean Potter with their catch of mackerel caught on 6kg line.

Bradyn Stander was the Champion Junior Game angler fishing aboard “Couta Crazy”


Champion Angler Game went to Colin Wimpress who had the most individual points.

Colin also won the Skywest Top Gun Award for game on the last day.

Highest Point Scoring Snapper went to Caron Stewart for a magnificent 8.00kg snapper caught on 4kg line.

Highest Point Scoring Tuna was landed by Adam Bangay with 225.83 points for his 13.55kg Yellow-fin on 6kg line.

Meritorious Bottom went to Dean Wilcocks for his 20.76kg cobia

Team “Bamba Zonke” did well especially as they had 3 novices aboard and landing tuna on 3 and 4kg line consistently and ending up 3rd overall Boat Game over 7m.

Team “PMY24” with Paul Loffler and Mark Flannagan landed good snapper

While regular anglers from Ajana aboard “You 4 Reel” were consistent

Skywest Top Gun day 2 went to Brett Bain for his 7 fish from the river and Skywest Top Gun day 3 was awarded to Colin Wimpress for his great catch of mackerel on 6kg line.

The second day saw the river anglers bring their catches in after a full nights fishing when most of the better fish were caught.

Brett Bain took out the Skywest Top Gun award for the river section, landing 7 fish to give him good points, but not good enough to beat Karen Hartig who had better fish as well as the biggest black bream of 980 grams

Meritorious River was won by Craig Wise

Ash Goddard and Kane DeGrauw show their fish.

Champion Junior River was Marlin Heaney with Ash Goddard runner up.

Junior River Meritorious went to Luke Dooley

The $150.00 voucher for Safest Boat Award went to “Reel Colour” for the third time for their innovative and practical safety gear/boat layout.

The Blind Mullet Award for the angler who does the most stupid thing over the comp went to Harvey Gatt aboard “Secret Spot”. When out 30km from Kalbarri realised that he had forgotten the bait, and then did it again on the second day!

The presentation dinner at the Golf and Bowling club with a sit down dinner served by local girls and boys from the school supervised by Olivia Nye and prepared by our local Pizza & Pasta restaurant owner John La Faro was fantastic. The prize giving was well presented by Cheryl Eley and a great video presentation by Jason Van Viersen rounded off the evening nicely. Overall it was a very successful competition, only possible with the support of all our great sponsors. We would like to thank them most sincerely. Please show them your appreciation by using them whenever you can.

Final results and runners up

Champion Angler Game:

Colin Wimpress 844.33 points

Runner up: Sue Olive 804.62

3rd Sean Potter 790.17

4th Deon Visagie 765.50

5th Laurie Malton 748.00

6th Don Stander 711.00

Champion Angler Bottom:

Dean Wilcocks 258.40 points

Runner up: Bruno Delucia 243.76

3rd John Morgan 180.88

4th Nik Bramwell 168.92

5th Paul Loffler 152.88

6th Darrell Baldock 151.36

Champion Boat Game over 7m:

Proplan 2904.5 points.

Runner up: El Barco 1961.00

3rd Bamba Zonke 1577.00

4th Top Deck 100.50

Champion Boat Game 6-7m:

Couta Crazy 2305.83 points

Runner up: Bulawayo Buoy 2077.83

3rd U4 Reel 1106.50

4th Reel Colour 247.00

5th On Strike 225.85

Champion Boat Game under 6m:

BW 282 366.75 points

Runner up: Painted Black 341.00

3rd Baggy Minnow 292.25

4th Pig Trough 160.00

Champion Boat Bottom over 7m:

Reel Addiction 157.96 points

Runner up PMY24 138.56

3rd Buckshot 118.63

4th Lauren Rose 107.14

5th Jakshitt 102.81

Champion Boat Bottom 6-7m:

Lets Go 131.43 points

Runner up: Play Pen 111.63

3rd: Red Raider 92.68

4th : Lilyvale 84.48

5th: Reel Colour 62.89

6th: Secret Spot 39.58

Champion Boat Bottom under 6m:

Painted Black 202.54 points

Runner up Hurricane 135.80

3rd: Wifeless 56.92

4th Pig Trough 52.72

5th Efishency 52.31

6th Baggy Minnow 20.32

Highest Point Scoring Game Fish: Jared Malton 350.33 points (10.5kg mackerel on 3kg line)

Champion Junior Game: Bradyn Stander 478.33 points

Champion Junior Bottom: Mitchell Westlund 139.36

Champion River Adult: Karen Hartig 102.88

Champion River Junior: Marlin Heaney 51.04

Ladies meritorious: Anna Sutherland (1.38kg tuna on 1kg line)

Men’s meritorious: John McCarthy ( 9.86kg red emperor)

Highest Point Scoring Mackerel: Jared Malton 350.33 points (10.5kg mackerel on 3kg line)

Highest Point Scoring Tuna: Adam Bangay 225.83 points (13.55kg tuna on 6kg line)

Highest Point Scoring Snapper: Caron Stewart 200 points (8kg snapper on 4kg line)

Meritorious Game: Laurie Malton (4.42kg tuna on 2kg line)

Heaviest not game snapper: Beau Ivey Junior 7.02kg

Heaviest Dhufish: Guy Morris 12.16kg

Heaviest Groper: Bryce Parker 5.79kg

Heaviest Cod: Brian Beales 15.01kg

Heaviest Samson Fish: Darryn Westlund 15.87kg

Meritorious Bottom: Dean Wilcocks (Cobia 20.76kgs)

Heaviest Whiting: Brett Bain 130 grams

Heaviest Bream: Karen Hartig 980 grams

Meritorious River: Craig Wise, Mulloway

Well, knocked off at 3, got the boat in the water not long after 3.30 with Deepwater.  Got about 500m out of the marina and there they were, tuna after school of tuna feeding on the masses of baitballs.  After seeing the action last Saturday we knew they weren't going to be far off.  First few casts had hookups to be sharked after a fair while.  Second lot of casts were with stickbaits which also got destroyed, we then went to plastics and got destroyed.  A few sharks moved in so we moved to another school (schools everywhere over a 5km radius that we checked) We ended up landing a few, hooking heaps, loosing a few and sitting back and watching the mayhem quite often just not casting in awe at the feeding frenzy on the baitballs.  Highlight was Jeffo hooking a tuna at the boat and 3 10ft tigers chasing it to a screaming reel (caught bits of it on vid cam) and a solid 1m ++++ queenie coming up to check out Jeff's lure in the middle of the tuna feast.  Here's a few pics, will edit up the video when I get some time. We caught and released all fish landed, awesome fun.

Cheers,

Adam

The plan was to head to the monte's for 3 days over the long weekend thats just been.

Watching the weather everyday to make sure we did not get caught out, and the Friday before the weather was looking awsome!

Packed Friday night ready for the early start from Dampier to head over to the Monte's. As none of us had been there before, we made sure we carried enough fuel and safety gear for anything that may happen.

Went over in a 25ft Blackwatch console and which held 400 ltras of fuel and we carried an additional 200 with us.

Fuel strapped in

Wanted to leave Dampier by first light, but we were a little slow moving in the morning and took a little more time getting the boat set.

Finally headed off by around 6.30am.

The weather out past the Dampier islands was pretty good, very little wind which made a good start to the trip. By half way over a South westerly had set in at about 10-12 knots, which made the short sharp chop a little rough and wet, but still managing to sit on 26-27 knots.
Made the islands in 2 hours 20 minutes which we thought was pretty good timing.

We were considering which of the 2 locations we had chosen as possible camping locations to stop at, and finally decided on 'chanpagne bay' as what looked on the charts, as a good sheltered bay, as we were expecting light southerlies for most of the long weekend.

As we had not been to the monte's before, we made our way through the islands slowly, getting our bearingson the place, and understanding the layout of the islands. By this time it had heated up and the temp guage was sitting at 35 degrees at 10am!

I got itchy feet and wanted to start fishing, even before we had dropped the gear off, so i rigged my light 12lb gear with a pink plastic and started to flick around some shallow water as we made our way past tramoulie island. 2 casts later and i got a big hit. After a 10 minute fight, i got my first Chinaman to the boat and netted and guessed at 6-7kg. Made for some good photos too.

we pushed off to our destination and droped our gear off and setup camp. Champagne bay made for a nice clam location to setup in.

After the camp was setup we went for a cruise around some of the islands with the intention of trawling a few lures and throwing a few plastics to see what was about.

We heaed to the east side of Tramoulie Island trawling a couple of gold bibs around in hope of finding some trout.

First hit on the lure, and result....bricked..... couldnt believe it, not sure what it was, possible GT i guess, but mate the 65lg gear look like 6lg gear. First lure down.

In the next hour i think i lost 6 lures to fish in the same shallow location, and some lost to sharks.
My bright orange and gold lures were dissappearing fast, but i finally managed to get a fish onboard, which was the biggest GT i have landed (Nothing in the likes of what Brad gets, but none the less a good fish)

After this we managed to land an assortment of mackerel, with Spannish, spotted, and sharkies coming aboard, but all a bit on the smaller side.

Moved over towards some shallow water in the hope of finding something different, we started to flick plastics around, and believe it or not huge blue bone were smashing them, but we couldnt get one board, but many sighted. A heap of different cods, perch, emperors were landed which was aheap of fun on the light gear.

Tide was running out, so made the decision to head back to camp before it got too low and being our first trip, was a very wise decision

Sat down that night to some fresh fish, a few cold beers and a great sunset to finish off the first day.

Next morning we rose to excellent conditions, light southerly maybe 2-4 knots and looking good... But we soon realised we had not left the boat in enough water, and she was belly up.

Luckily we had thought the night before wer might run out of water, so we positioned her on a nice shandy patch so no damage done.

After the tide came in a bit she flated and we made our way out. Again this time targeting species on the trawl, on poppers, and softies.

Again plagued by small mackies of all kinds, hitting lures contantly.

Managed to get some nice rankin on lures which was a first for us.

Found some nice rocks sticking out of the water, and with fast moving water thought we were in with a chance of finding some queenies and maybe some more GT's.

First cast first hookup on a gold twistie.

Nice little queenie came up.

Had a ball on these things, they fly around when they are in a feeding frenzie. Got to the stage where i could jig the twistie right on the side of the boat, and the queenies were jumping out of the water to get it. Pretty amazing sight.
Plenty of other fish landed on the same area. Trout of many kinds, perch, emperors, queenies, and more.

Decided to move on again and try a few more lures.

got a huuuuuuge strike, and i called it for the mother of all trout as i could feel long winded bumps and she was heavy.
Well lets just say, i got the shock of my life when this came up!! didnt see it until right on the boat.

Quick bit of fancy boat work and plier work saw the big girl get back un-harmed. Man those things have some beaks, woudlnt want to get too close!

Tide was getting low again, so time to head back to camp for more brews, more fish and another great sunset.
We had kept 1 queenie for bait, but just after we had cleaned our fish back at camp, a 8-10 foot hammer haed showed up. Well couldnt reassly resist, as he was hungy as!! and was only swimming in a foot or so of water! So out went the queenie (on rope, no hooks) and we watched this shark hoe it down...what a sight that was!!!

Rose the next morning for the last time, and the idea was to head out the west side for a look sea.

Instead of going outside the islands we went through, and being a rather high taide were pretty confident we would make it through with no real issues. The water was gushing in.

Made our way through and found a nice little rock just inside the reef to throw some plastics about. I knew we were in with a good chance of finsing some good sized spangles, and it didnt take long for them to show.

But it also didnt take long for the sharks to show either. When a fish was on, it was 5 seconds before the shark was on him!

Didnt want to give too many to the sharks, we managed to get 3 or 4 in with losing 2 to the sharks, so we called it quits.

We decided to take a tour of the islands and check out more of this amazing place. With great weather we saw many places we will visit and fish next time, and 3 days was just not long enough.

We definately be going back to visit the monte's again!!

Made it back to Damiper in 2.5 hours, but we did hit a 20-25knot NE wind 20 mile short, and wow that was rough!!! but still managed 25 knots holding on :)

ps: sorry si grammar is bad, was in a rush to type!

I have been hitting the three mile a lot recently.. mainly two rcoks, mindarie and ocean reef. heaps of birds out there attacking baitballs. everywhere ive been fishin there hase been a lot of bait on the sounder and on the surface. from two rocks i caught 1 under size dhuie, 1 sized dhuie, break seas, undersize baldies, and 1 seargent backer. Also got ontop of a school of undersize snapper which was good fun on light gear (All undersize fish released!!!). coming back from two rocks last week.. I saw some birds when i went to check it out mackrel where hammering the baitfish. i got busted off on 2 mackrel (no wire). 

went out from ocean reef on sunday... and couldnt stop getting break sea cods (makes me wonder why the bag limit is 2). I kept one big one and the rest went down on the release wieght. after drifting some wrass got a doubl header of undersize dhuies (only in 10m, fish where in great condition and released). I then drifted a big fillet of wrass on a set of gangs.. within 5 minuites i hooked into a hammerhead. kept drifting around and was greeted by a tiger shark which wasnt intrested in anything. on the way home the same thing as in two rocks.. baitfish just getting hammered, got a double hook up with nothin to show for :(

so far every trip to the three mile with a wrass fillet in the water has produced a dhuie (mostly undersize and all caught 10-17m deep)... next time a wrass comes onboard chuck it back down as a fillet!!!

please feel free to add your report of any inshore fishing.. there has been a lot of activity lately it would be intresting to see what everyone else is getting into..

gidday guys and girls just curious to know if anyones been geting onto any kingies lately or know of any captures ???..