Hi all,

Just got back to Singapore from over a week of land-based fishing in Exmouth. Didn't get what I was after (GT), but the fishing was great so no complaints. Travelled alone but met great company along the way from all over the world. Everyone has been extremely friendly and helpful and you bet I will be back there again to burn another hole in my pocket.

Had to drive from Exmouth to Perth, catch a flight back to Singapore and go straight to work, so am a bit knackered now. Gonna take some zzzzzs and will get a more detailed report out in a bit with some pics.

What size pics should I upload? You guys prefer few high quality pics or many low rez pics?

OK SO I'M WRITING THE REPORT PROPER NOW

My camera ran flat a couple of days so no pics of some outstanding fishing. I must have dropped the camera at least a dozen times so luckily i had it strapped to a bungee. Lost my $40 pliers like four times - managed to miraculously find it again sometimes hours later - taped a glow stick so I wouldn't lose it for good. And it was particularly difficult trying to land snapping fish and staying balanced on the rocks while watching the waves at the same time, so thanks to the guys on this forum who warned me about doing Quobba solo.

I was told that this is the quiet season and the fishing is better in the summer, but I liked it nice and quiet and would not consider going back to Exmouth during the busy season. At one site in the Reserve, there was only one spot available during one of the weekend nights - can't imagine the peak season. Most of the caravan parks were pretty empty so I could decide at the spur of the moment if I wanted to just show up for the night. Also, it was really windy a couple of days, so that gave my feet time to heal. They got pretty badly cut up and sore from abrasion - a lot of walking, and my hands were cut up from handling all the prickly fish. Of the 8 days spent fishing, 2 days came up scratch.

So I did not get any REALLY REALLY big fish, but I got plenty of game on light tackle. I would have done a lot better on bait, but this was primarily a luring trip, baiting only for shark - though I did get a few on poppers on 16-20lbs tackle, which was an absolute ball.

Some of the species I managed to get:

Coral trout - various types some kept changing colour
Trevally - various types and sizes but unfortunately no GT
Baldchin garoupa
Various types of wrasse and reef fish
Spangled or Longnose - i can't really tell the diff
Queenfish - big and small
Barracuda - freak sizes
Squid, octo and cuttlefish
Bream - freeflow
A million flies of the biting and non-biting variety, all extremely irritating especially when mixed with coffee

I'm sure I have not mentioned some of the rest.

In addition, I managed to see maybe bonefish (could be whiting on steroids), permit, bait balls, nesting turtles, various weird birds, kangaree, bunch of different reptiles and the whole dune community,
I did see LARGE GTs but they would not take lures though I'm certain they would have taken bait. I also saw large fish swim past but refrained from tossing out lures as some places it would be impossible to land the fish without causing it damage or putting myself at risk of falling in. I found releasing and reviving large sharks especially challenging on my own at night, so cut off the really big ones once they were close enough even though I use circle hooks, it was a lot of work.

Numerous bust offs, especially on large hard-bodied minnows. I ended up using 80lbs bite guard even on the light rig as i was loosing too many lures. 2nd day out I lost 7 poppers alone. Went back into town to burn another hole in my pocket. Lost various other lures the next couple of days, but ended the trip with over a kilo of GT poppers still intact. With the sharks I started out with 40lbs cable, but they only last 40 seconds, went up to 80 and they last maybe 80 seconds, finally settled on 200lbs doubled over and fused together making it 400lbs - didn't lose any more sharks.

Not forgetting to mention thanks to some very specific people.

Brian and Jenny at Bluewater
Rusty and company at Exmouth tackle for the wind report
All the wonderful people traveling through Australia

Tim and Dave for pulling me out of the sand and for showing me how to drive a van the aussie way. Also for directing me into the sand pit in the first place!!! Thanks for sharing the spot (came with a confidentiality clause) - but if you walk up from the Gulf and back down the west side, you'll find it - spent 2 days fishing that spot and got my best fishing there. Will look up you friend Allen when I need a 4wd next time round.

The attached pics are just some that I managed to capture on the camera. There isn't a way to describe watching the sunset on your left and the moon rising on your right, then having a turtle crawl right past you.

Had a wonderful time and this would be one trip I would do on my own again.

Haven't been out since Friday and the gills were starting to dry out - but they wen't the only thing.

Dived one of my regular spots and its really wearing very thin, only managed a few on that dive. Matt seemed fine in the water and we spotted a few PJs, cuttlefish, cobbler but not much else. It was one of those days when you're seemigly drier in the water than out, it was very windy up top.

Next we went out and to a bit of reef a little further north-west, and I noticed the pro string had gone. Dammit, those crays really must be legging it! We carried on to the out edge of the marine park and dived the last of the structure there.

The structure of the last dive was very low, only a couple of metres high, but we found plenty of crays along the sandy edge. Its so much more relaxing than the shallow dives that are all nooks and caves I must say.

Headed to Karratha last week for work, and managed to get a days fishing in while i was up there

Conditions were not perfect to say the least, with the wind pushing along, but still easily fishable.

Started early in the morning, only to be stopped by an extremely low tide, and couldnt get out of the ramp at dampier due to there being no water!!!

So waited an hour for the tide to come in and finally managed to launch.

Headed out about 15 miles and played with some mac tuna (i think they are) for a while.
6-7kg tuna go hard on 8lb gear :)

Hooked up to a Tuna on 8lb gear!

Sometimes happens on light gear!

Another nice Toona!

And another

Quite a few cobia around too with a couple double headers coming up. They went hard on 30lb!!

and another

Mr Charlie had a hard day!!

Managed some trout too, this one went 58cm

Also a nice Mangrove jack which was a surprise.

All in all a good day on the water, but dam hot!!!!

Bodie

Managed to get out for a quick bread and butter fish on Saturday and the herring were thick as around the Sound.

We started off doing a drift for squid and while we were doing this I like to drop the odd bit of berley in the water to see if there are any herring around. Sure enough before long the water out the back of the boat was bubbling so we anchored up, increased the flow of bread and oil and started flicking out unweighted baits. It wasn't long before we had 20-odd fish in the esky.

I don't know what the life-cycle of a herring is like but these fish looked young and fresh. They were mostly medium size, say 170-200mm, and looked incredibly healthy. The silver colour in the bottom half of their body looked so vibrant and bright, it was quite noticable.

Anyway while we were fishing there a couple of squid came up in the burley trail so jigs were quickly dispatched and it didn't take long before we could add some calamari to the menu.

We then shot out to some of the reefs around Mewstones / Stragglers and did some recon as I'd really like to try for some tailor out there one day, then shot out a few hundred metres and drifted the sand / weed patches for whiting. It didn't take long before the SlimMax buckled over and up came a juvi dhu. We did a few more drifts but it was only wrasse and small flatties that came to the surface.

All in all it was a nice day, we had a bit of time up our sleeves so we stopped off for a swim at Garden Island and then shot back to the ramp.

Found myself back up at Cervantes yesterday afternoon to have another crack at it. After last weekend's efforts it deserved another look.

The Good - Plenty of bread and butter fish and they kept on biting well into dark. In amongst the blowies and trumpeter were plenty of gardies (some monsters too), the odd herring, lots of skippy (almost all undersize) and the occasional snook. While it was pretty quiet on the tailor front for all fishing the jetty, one fella did bring in a cracking fish that would have been about 45-48cm. His reaction 'meh' - that's pretty standard for here. There was only one other tailor last night and a solitary squid. I also met another of the locals and had fun chasing the gardies with him - a great fella and prepared to share some local nouse. Have picked up some great info in my two trips up that way.

The Bad - I had the big OzFlex rod out with live herring or gardies from about 6pm to 1am. I was casting a pillie on a smaller rod - no weight / slow retrieve - and worked that much territory it's not funny. Nothing...not even a sniff. This morning I went back after a few hours sleep and immediately hooked into a big gardie on the little rod. Slapped it on the big rig as a livey and let it swim - hoping for a morning tailor or even a shark. Hell....I just wanted to hear the ratchet go (I'm yet to land a fish on the SU7177 OzFlex rod and Fin Nor 95 reel combo). After about 20 minutes...finally....something has taken it for a run. I picked up the rod and had a feel - yup, something was running with my monster gardie. Looked out at my float....and a bloody SHAG had got hold of it....

The Ugly - I don't want to make this into a stereotypical attack on any particular ethnicity....but there is one culture that often seems to think it is perfectly OK to keep everything and anything you catch. Probably upwards of 15-20 undersize skippy in their bucket - and it's funny as soon as you try to talk to them about it their ability to speak english goes out the door. That's not the ugly bit though....it was the lady in the group who pulled in a 55-60cm Snook - easily the fish of the night. All I could do was smile and say 'well done' - but frustrating for those of us that do the right thing. Oh - I also picked up a bottle and plastic bag they decided to leave on the jetty.....

The Good II - another wrap on those gardies. They are just a fantastic size and their are plenty of them. If your fishing the area for tailor Cervantes jetty would make a great spot to catch you bait in the afternoon before heading out. The photo does not really do them justice - but some of these things are hanging over a dinner plate and fat too. Big tailor love the gardies (apparantly....) - although I'm just as happy to bring them home, fillet them a fry them in garlic butter....yummy!

The wife and I are heading to Jurien on 18/19 Dec - there are a couple of beach spots either side of Cervantes that apparantly really produce for tailor. I think I'll see if I can get the 4x4 bogged again after spending a day catching bait....and target tailor / mulla off the beach next time. Hill River is currently the leading candidate for an evening fish - and depending on how that goes the jetty at Jurien Bay is only 500m from the chalet.

Does anyone here fish the area and have any good advice about spots / baits / techniques that they would be willing to share?

Cheers,

Rob

Sandra and I headed out this morning with one species on target - KG. After offering assistance to an old chap in a tinny at the ramp, we headed out and were at our designated spot by around 07:30am.



We dropped the pic and burlied up and were immediately into the action, with me pulling in a decent KG on my first and second drops.



Off to a great start.



Drop 4, saw number 3 on board with Sandra (for once) lagging behind with a few nibbles, but nothing to show for it.



Soon the pesky wrasse and other reef species moved in, so we decided to try another spot, which prooved fruitless, except for an enormous 5cm leatherjacket caught by your's truly



We headed back close to our original spot and immediately hit pay dirt, well, at least Sandra did with SEVEN in a row!  :blink: 3 whilst I was talking to Dave(y)! The girl was on fire!



I topped up with another 2, but again the pickers moved in, so we decided to call it a day.



All up, 12 nice KG between us. Sorry for the LB shots, but I forgot to take the camera.











EDIT: footnote - yes, done by Sandra again 

We were squiding today inbetween crabbing along parmila Bank (yes, we were on the right side of the ban line). I'd never tried crabbing on the west side of the channel, prob wont again either with only one crab coming up in 20ft of water.

But we did get 7 squid inbetween, a couple of crackers in there too. Various depth 8 to 20 ft. Seabreeze came in early and my English guest was getting a bit green in the gills so we came in early.

just a heads up. had a stella session on flatties, bream and tailor this arvo. final count - 10 flatties, 6 Blackies and 1 Tailor. only one flatty out of the 17 fish was size though. got em on the flats around the bridge on a baby vib 35. ill post up a coupla crappy pics later when i find the cable for my phone.

18.1kg mulloway caught by peterb on mon night in the swan - keep in mind petes w@#ker and his fat

I was in the Freshwater Bay area tonight to try for some flatties and tailor if they showed.

30 mins later a couple of guys turned up and pulled in a couple of squid on tiny jigs.
Well they rigged the squid on and cast it out.  After they pulled in a flattie on some light gear, some other guy there screams out and runs over to the rod where the drag is being shredded and the rod about to fall in the water.  Luckily he grabbed it and passed it to its owner.

It kept ripping drag of, probably about 10 times in the 15mins fight.

Final stats:
Weight: >12kg(max capacity of device)
Length: 1.1m (pictured next to a 12ft big boss rod)

This just makes me feel disheartened at the fact that the largest fish I've caught is 42cm...booo.
Well at least its the largest fish I've seen being caught.

Many thanks to Soupster for a top day on the water yesterday.   Ryse, myself and the good wife had the privilege of being invited out.  We didn’t catch anything though – someone forgot the fishing gear!

We launched from the Naval Base at about 9-15am.  A quiet push off by the tugs and the twin mega diesels kicked in.  Soon we were on a leisurely cruise for a few hours around the sound.

We toured the entire ship and had a great lunch served up on the flight deck – hmm, ate too much.

Highlight of the day was watching and ‘feeling’ the port and starboard 50 cal’s firing off a few hundred rounds each , whilst having four jets blast past us.  I was gutted when I got home though  - bloody video camera had played up and not recorded the action - arrrghhh.

We got to see the operations room (no cameras allowed) and where Soupster sits to keep us all safe.  A very dark, cool big room with lots of buttons and machines that go beep and bing.

A man overboard exercise was conducted with a shark sharp shooter on hand.  Then the fire team put on a show with twin hoses and a simulated hatch entry.

Another highlight was watching the 5 inch gun load simulated shells from below the gun – pretty amazing mechanical/hydraulic stuff going on down there.   It can load and fire a shell every 3 seconds.

Here are a few pics;

Rib showing off and then loading;

The helm;

Below the 5 inch gun;

Ryan and Scott with 5 inch Powder shell;

Me with the business end (37kg);

And a casing;

Looking for big squid;

Jets coming in;

Aim;

Let it rip sailor;

Reload;

A bit of a clean up:

Fire Team;

Missus and self with 5 incher;

Cheers Pete

Got out for my first fish in Melbourne with member Streaker Boy.  We kicked the day off early meeting at the ramp at 4am and had a pretty smooth and dark ride out to the spot.  When we got there we set up the bait and had to wait a little while before we finally saw some action.  As it started to get light the action started to happen and in the space of a couple of hours we had six fish to the boat and missed quite a few other runs and dropped a couople of fish. 

Once the sun got up in the sky, even though it was overcast, the bite slowed down and we only picked up one more snapper and a few garfish.  We ended up with 7 fish for the day with one released to comply with the 3 fish per person per day.  Frustratingly for Streaker he did not get to blood the new outfit which he has been hanging out to get a fish on

I had a great time and what an introduction to Melbourne fishing.  Streaker did a great job of putting us onto some good fish and share his knowledge (lots of it) of the local fishing scene.  Good stuff all round.

Thanks mate!

A couple of pics..... 

Took the Kiwi and Tom for a fish Saturday. Tom loves his fishing and very keen with the Pup talking up the big ones. The pressure was on to find Tom a fish. Over to a couple of rocks that normally produce some nice fish. Toms is the first down with a bait. boat had hardly stopped. He is on a nice little snapper for his first point Sampson fish. well done. things are looking good. Next hour 0 not a thing. Tom may have scared them off with his yells of joy over the fist one. Moved over to another area that normally produces some great golden’s. Tom and Pup drop together Pup doesn’t like being second in the water. Bang double hook up. Tom’s new combo is getting a good work out but getting low on line with the first run of a good fish. The Pup has his under control so we move the boat around to help Tom on his light gear. With a little help from dad Toms first golden comes to the surface, the look on his face was priceless. One buggard little boy but with his biggest fish ever he was happy. We played with the golden’s for a while then headed over for some fish for the dinner table. All landed some nice snapper except (Pup not happy). Enough for dinner time for home. The cooks meet us at the ramp loaded up with food and drinks time for a swim on the island. The cook’s kids have a ball. Tom and Pup off fishing again too much energy. Time for home winds up a bit. slow trip to keep the cooks happy drag a couple of lures. Pups on a nice Queeny he is happy a fish in the boat at last. Kiwi cook had not caught a fish from a boat before so with some instruction from Pup she is on strike. Not far from the ramp and nothing. About to call lines in when yells and screams from the back, Kiwi cooks on. After some interesting rod work another nice Queeny. Time for home, great day out for all. 

Hi all,

My first post but I have been scouring the forums for a while now. Great board.

Went to Cervantes for the first time on Saturday afternoon to target mulloway and shark. Went horribly wrong as I managed to get myself bogged until after dark - with no way to see the water I had no idea what was around.

Picked a spot on the beach in the bay immediately north of the jetty. Other than getting busted off by a big ray, all was quiet until about midnight when the herring found my burley trail. They were there every cast and some of them a fantastic size.

I didn't get a run on that night and headed over to the jetty in the morning. Again, once the fish found the burley trail it was a fish every cast. Some of the gardies were very fat and mostly bigger than a dinner plate - so they provided plenty of entertainment for the morning sess.

There was a sambo under the jetty that kept stealing whatever I hooked into - which while frustrating after a while, was entertaining to say the least! I threw out a still kicking gardy on the big rig - he had a good sniff and knocked the bait about a bit but never took it. Plenty of sting rays cruising around the jetty too.

Lots of the usual suspects - gardies, herring, skippy, trumpeter. I got my bag of herring and gardies so not unhappy with the trip.

Folks up the beach closer to the point were pulling in the odd tailor - good size too but they just were not prolific like they have been north of Perth in the last few weeks.

Next time I head back I think I will stock up on bait at the jetty in the arvo, keep them alive and throw them out at night on a 1.5 - 2m trace with float attached stay out of the snags. There are definately plenty of big fish around and I'm sure it will continue to improve as the SST increases.

A long way to go for a feed of herring and gardies - but I'm having a love affair with the stretch of coast from Wedge to Jurien at the moment so it's worth it just for the scenery. Next time I'm confident I will return with something much better!

Cheers,

Bushy

Sam's first experience Sambo jigging was last season, during our transition from QLD to WA. Unfortunately, her first experience wasn't too pleasant. The sharks were consistently taking fish & I didn't bring my own gear so Sam had to struggle using a 6 foot glass jig rod & old heavily used Spheros.

On Friday, I suggested to Sam that we should head out with Craig (Saltwater Charters) due to recent quality catches in the previous weeks. Sam's first response was excitement followed by... Oh, I haven't done much exercise lately.

I spoke with Craig on Friday afternoon & he indicated that he had a small group booked on Sunday. Our initial plans were to head out on Saturday, but prior commitments prevented us. The weather on Sunday looked fairly ordinary & this was certainly confirmed this morning on our trip out.

The seas were quite sloppy & the wind was howling. Fortunately, being ex. boat owners, both of us don't suffer from seasickness - it really takes something quite wild to make us feel uncomfortable. Although, there were plenty of people in our group that suffered most of the trip. We arrived watching most of them gorge their mouths with junk food. Obviously, a recipe for seasickness.

After the lengthy trip out to the grounds, I handed her one of the outfits & told her to prepare. She rejected the offer & forced me to take the first drop - just to give her an indication of what pain she is about to endure. First fish I landed was mid 30's - a very good start to the day.

Sam slipped on some gloves & I secured a gimbal belt around her waist. She dropped the 470g jig & waited for it to reach the bottom. The wind was quite strong all day which resulted in our jigs being fairly far from the boat by the time they reached the ocean floor. Moments later, Sam flicked the bail arm over & began a 'leisurely' mechanical style jigging technique. It didn’t take her long to hook up & we both started listening to some high pitch squealing from the saltiga.

I was asked to ’back the drag off’ a few moments later, only because she didn’t want to go for a swim.

We soon realized that a long battle was at hand. Every pump & wind resulted in a burst of energy from the Sambo. We took 2 meters - it would take 4.

After 10 minutes of ’so called, agony’, Sam insisted I take over for a moment so she could relax her little muscles. I took control of the fight & started to get the Sambo towards the surface. Back to Sam it went & she proceeded to pump & wind for another 10 minutes. Sam continued to ask ’what does red, blue & green mean’. I replied mentioning how many meters she had to go. Finally, the fish bellied to the surface. Everyone on the boat cheered in excitement. It was simply a ’HUGE’ Sambo.

Craig & the deckie scrambled to lift it in the boat. We all agreed 50kg. An experience for Sam she would never forget.

I kept explaining to Sam just how many die hard jiggers try for the 50kg club each year, & she soon appreciated her achievement.

A few photos later, the release weight was used to send her on her way.

The fish measured 5’3” (160cm) (exact length of the Valley Hill jig rod).

We continued the day catching fish after fish. Sam spent most of her time ensuring the fish were cared for when they were on the deck. Later in the day, we had a team effort catch - Sam jigging for the hook up & leaving me with the tiring process of fighting the fish.

It was a simply an amazing day & Sam can’t wait to get out there again. I, on the other hand, am still hyper jealous that will need to listen to this story for the rest of my lift.

Jigging with the ‘better half’… She got fish of the day without a doubt.

Got to love fishing shows

just come back from 11 days in walpole for a school camp called Venture, just thought that i would post a couple of pic's.

thanks for your time.

Sherbs and I decided it was time to give a late night fishing session a go in the hope that we might find some nice sized mulloway.

The plan was that we would arrive at the spot at about 10 pm and fish for a few hours, then crawl into Sherbs van for a quick kip, before getting up just before daylight to prepare for the expected arrival of the tailor.

We headed out to one of our better spots in Sherbs van, which was loaded to the gunnels with enough stuff to last us for a month - and arrived to find that the wind had dropped right off and the conditions were looking pretty nice.

After starting of a burley trail in a likely looking spot on the beach we hurriedly threw out baits out with great anticipation - only to have our excitment turn to great disappointment when our lines were quickly covered in kilos of seaweed.

This was definately not what we had hoped for.

Sherbs decided he would investigate the nearby rocky area to see if the water in front of it was a bit clearer and a few exploratory casts later he gave me the tumbs up that our fishing adventure was still on.

We were soon joined by a young Nepalese lad, who told us he had been in Australia for a few years, but had never been to the beach before and never watched anyone fish before either.

He was really happy to sit on the rocks nearby and watch us in action,particularly when Sherbs landed a Snook/Pike and I then landed a small shovelnose shark.

Sherbs, being the generous chap he is, then suggested the young guy have a try at fishing and he handed him his bigger outfit after casting out a rig baited with some of the Snook.

Sherbs had warned the young bloke not to wind in his line until he was sure he had a fish on as he was worrioed the young bloke would continue to get snagged up on the rocks near the waterline.

The young bloke must have taken him very seriously, because we looked up to see him with a very concerned look on his face as the rod was bending double and the drag on the reel was screaming.
"I think I have a fish, should I wind," the concerned young Nepalese lad asked Sherbs. "YES", Sherbs replied.

With a lot of help from Sherbs the young bloke managed to bring a quite sizeable stingray to the beach, only to have it snap the line just as we were moving into grab it. The young bloke was devastated, but personally I think Sherbs and I were pretty happy that we didn't have to wrestle with a big stingray in the shallows at midnight.

Excited by his adventure, the young bloke soon bade us farewell and headed off to tell his mates of his massive fishing capture.

The battle with the ray had also rejuvinated Sherbs and I, and we decided to keep on fishing for awhile longer.

We continued to get a few hits and a few hook ups which resulted in another shovelnose for Sherbs and an Eagle ray and a pretty sizeable Port jackson shark for myself - along with a few more snook.
These were definately not the type of fish we were after, but they did manage to keep us awake long enough for us to decide that it wasn't going to be worthwhile hitting the sack as it was only an hour to sunrise.

Not long afterwards, Vince (Uncut Trigger), arrived at the location and soon joined us on the rocks as we waited the early morning arrival of the tailor.

And sure enough, a very short period after sun-up the first tailor bites came and we were all soon onto good fish. Sherbs was the star with a few very nice tailor, while Vince and I also landed some real solid tailor. They were all very good quality tailor and of a quite good length, with the biggest well over the 45 cm mark.

But as can be the case with tailor, they soon went off the bite, and that was the last we saw of them.

The other anglers who began turning up after that had unfortunately missed the boat, and had to then focus on catching the many herring that had turned up.

Vince headed off around 6am to do some chores and Sherbs and I decided to keep on for awhile in the hope that the tailor might come back. Sherbs kept himself busy catching a few nice herring, while I just kept trying to keep my eyes open.

Eventually after close to 10 hours standing and sitting on that rock we decided we had better hit the road before we fell asleep on our feet - and maybe fell into the water.

While we didn't catch the mulloway we had hoped for, it was a great evening and a lot of fun, especially watching the look of joy and excitement on the young Nepalese guy's face.

Sorry, I don't have any pics at the moment as I was bit suss about taking my digital slr out on the rocks in the dark, though Sherbs did snap a few pics with his phone camera that we might be able to load on at some stage.

All the best, Colin

No pics today but got six crays all in close.
Of mindarie with uncle Kev.seen a 6kg dhuie nice fit fish.Will head out tommorow will give a report and some pics

I've landed a few sambos here and there in the last few months, but with reports of the sambos starting to fire offshore, when Craig at Saltwaters said he was heading out, I jumped at the chance.

Forecast was to be 12-15kn if seabreeze was to be believed, but the conditions were awesome, and hardly any wind at all. Could hardly ask for better weather.

Got to the spot, grabbed my lighter combo (certate 4000 and a smith AMJ) and chucked a jig down. A few pumps from the bottom and bang, it was on. A few other people got good hits and dropped them, only to do two pumps and be on again. It didnt take much longer than about 2 minutes for 6-7 people to all be hooked up.

Not a bad little fish to start the day off. Easily as big as my previous PB at 25kg. Strangely the fish didnt fight much until I got him up halfway, and then he kept running and dogging it out.

After that it was just on fire. Barely 10-20m of jigging and you were pretty much guaranteed on, but usually only a few pumps of the rod. Often a dropped fish would only take a few more pumps to be hooked up again.

[IMG]http://fishwrecked.com/files/images/sambo5(2).preview.jpg[/IMG]

You can see that the fish were pretty good condition, nice big fatsos. All about 30kg on average. Unfortunately my spin jigging reel was out of action, but made do with my overhead combo for the day.

A couple of fish were lost to sharks (or a shark) but only a few, so not too bad considering quite a few fish were caught. At one point had a white chomp down on a sambo snack and hang around the back of the boat for a few photos.

Landed lots of good fish, about 8 or so. Most were around the 30kg mark, with only one smaller at around 15-20kg. Biggest went probably at 35-40kg (estimated) for a new PB.

[IMG]http://fishwrecked.com/files/images/sambo3(2).preview.jpg[/IMG]

Craig put us on the fish drift after drift and great lunch supplied as well. Definately worth heading out with Saltwater if you're thinking of Sambo Jigging.  Great day on the water. Lots of great fish. Lots of people catching their first sambos (and getting hooked themselves, on jigging). Definately the best sambo jigging day I've had by far. Cant wait for the next one.

Got 7 beauties this afternoon. Largest 18cm across the carapace. Took the old man and the snorkelling gear, set our pots and since it was so hot we went for a dive.  I got a large female one and lost a flipper in the process.  Couldnt find the flipper even with dads help. We tested the other one and it had slightly negative buoyancy and I think it just went down into the weeds and hid itself.  So if anyone finds a Mocean greeny/grey and black flipper around woodman pt let me know.  Anyway on the way back to the boat (50mt) with one flipper I cleaned up another 4 decent size blues.  Only a few of our crabs came from pots but we had them too far out to begin with.

Was a magic calm afternoon with awesome visability, At one point in 6 mts I could see a crab in the weed on the bottom.  7 great crabs for dinner after twighlight sailing tomorrow, Im Stoked!

Myself and a few lads and girl friends from work headed off on Saturday morning for a lazy 3.5 hour drive to Sandy Cape (just 14km north of Jurien).  It is 2wd into the camping area, but 4wd is required for beach launching.

I was last at the Cape way back in 2000.  Back then we stayed in our friends shack which we had been doing for 15+ years – great times. The shacks were pulled down in 2002, and the site converted into a camping area.  Fortunately, the million dollar views still exist.

Not a lot of fishing was done – it was an escape from work (which has been very busy at stages) and a chance to relax.

The camp site;

Sunrise;

My mate bought his two pups along; who had an awesome time and were knackered by the end of each day (as we were).

Sight fishing Mutts;

Perfect Portrait Model;

On Monday morning we 4WD’d south along the beach for about 4km and parked up with an island about 300m offshore.   We paddled and swam out and had a great interaction with about 20 seals (all females).  It was an awesome experience and I’ll have to take the underwater video next time.

Seal close to the beach;

We flicked slices around the island’s fringing reef and caught numerous bull herring with typically 1 in 6 landed as they jumped vigorously.  I also tangled with a 1kg plus skippy, which required me to jump into the water to free the fish and line from a shallow bombie tangle.  The line snapped just as I grabbed the skippy’s tail…..so I got my lure back aswell.

Plenty of crays seen whilst snorkelling, but typical of the area, all were cackers.

Sunset fishing;

My mate Rick, with his first ever pike;  classic fish flick shot!  

A few bull herring and a lone 40cm tailor were also caught.

Spot the fish pic;

Cheers Pete

gidday all with the nice weather went out kg fishin with a mate yesterday we got some nice ones too, bit patchy but picked up u few

Went for a day trip down to the Blackwood on Sunday with Stoinka.

We had been planning a trip for ages and the weather looked good. 

 Was hoping for some warmer weather during the week but one has to head out when the opportunity arises......

Rained Saturday and reports of late indicate not many bream around.

Headed down stream from Alexandra Bridge and scouted for fish. Fished hard but not one fish was interested in our offering......

So decided to head upstream from the Bridge.

Not long after we found some fish. Only this one to the boat but considering there was no wind and clear skies it was a perfect day regardless.

The lure of the day was the Lucky Craft 48DD. Suspending lures seemed to bring a few fish out for a look but Stoinka lost a nice fish on an Or-gee.

Cheers for the day Stoinka, nothing better than throwing lures with mates and conjouring our next adventure and looking forward to the 'pole' 

Well after commiting to huggy to take him and 2 mates out jigging the morning had arrived and we were all pumped and ready to go.

Got the the Hillaries boat ramp to find it suprisingly empty, launched at around 5:30 and started the hour long journey to the southern barges off rotto in search of a few sambos.

First spot had a few fish on it and first one up was a good fish around 18kg, a tag went in and was measured and released.

Then a heap of smaller rats came thru. Again we tagged them and released them.

among huggys super catch.

We then decided to head the the northern grounds around 12 mile away, finding huge schools of dolphins around and both mills and blue juice already on the mark jigging up a few fish, with a couple of weired people on one of the boats yelling out once when we were hooked up "go mako" LOL, suspect a couple of fishwrecked members on the boat .

The fish were more on the go here and a bit bigger, first drop resulted with a 4 way hook up.

picked up a nice leather on the jig on a bozo, plan was to get a decent fish on one for the comp

after the leather jacket was thrown on ice, it was back into it and finally a good sambo, the biggest of the day for us, going 1200mm forck lenth and estimated high 20's

On a note, we had to use the release weight on a couple of our fish, theres nothing worse than seeing one float off, then we spotted a fish floating that was thrown over from one of the 2 charters in the area, so over we went and picked it up and used the 80oz release weight to get it down, not once did we see either charters use a weight, this fish was a bruiser too, hopefully it survived.

All in all a good day hunting and finding , getting a few new spots and getting onto some good fish and christening some shimano bling.

Certainly looking forward to the next jig.

I had the chance to head for a couple dives with Frank out of Woodman Point on Saturday. We had a reasonable day, finishing with 6 keepers. There didn't seem to be too many around, and there were plenty small nooks and crannys for the jumbos to slip into, but I guess that is why they are jumbos. Got a couple very soft whites, one was just about halved by the loop, I was just glad it was a he in the end. Vis was up in the 10-12m range, with a bit of surge for the second dive.

Thanks for the dives Frank.

Woke up this morning at about 5:30am - the wind was light and the weather was great. My very awake and cheerful daughter (5) was only to happy to make me an espresso to wake up and help get the gear ready for some abalone fishing. She really is awesome on these early mornings. Only condition is that I have to save a couple of shells for her collection, which of course I always do!

My mate, Matt O, drove through the gates at about 6:15am - bit later than usual - but for once I don't think he'd been on the grog the night before! Anyway we loaded all the gear into the back of my car and waved goodbye to the girls. By 6:23 we were out the front of Rudy's house and a couple of taps on the horn later and he was throwing his gear in the boot.

Down the freeway and in no time we were in the usual convoy of abalone fishers at Trigg looking for a parking space. We headed to our usual spot and donned the wetties and gloves. Walking down the street to the ocean it was clear that it was going to be a good day for it - the tide was really low and heaps more reef was exposed. We altered spots slightly due to these conditions and boy am I glad we did.

7:00am hit and we were in the water walking over the reef, of course with about fifty others fishers. The looked to be some good size ones but still only maybe 70mm - 80mm - wich really isn't that huge, but they have been getting harder to find as the weeks progress. Soon we jumped into the water and got right under the ledges and were onto some absolute corkers! Some were easily 100mm plus.

By 7:40am we were back at the car with our bag limit and smiles all round. This was the first time this season that we had all managed to bag out and they were pretty big by our standards!
Soon as we got home, the catch was emptied onto the grass and the tools were gathered for shucking. Matt O and I do the shucking as Rudy's a chef we get him to trim the gills ect and cook them up.

Abalone fresh from the reef

Its a bit of a pian to shuck them all but worth it in the end. We were really happy at the size and you can see in the pic below with the previous week's size compared. It really had us over the moon to stumble upon some really bigs ones as we have been putting in the effort all season (and it's so short!).

62mm next to a big one!

Once they were all shucked, and a couple of the good shells put aside for my daughter, we had a glass of OJ and packed them up. As we had a fair few this week we put a few in a bag for Matt O's uncle and also a few aside for Rudy's folks. The rest were put in the fridge for a lunch. We agreed to meet back at my place at 1:00pm - my father in law, The Boss as I call him, was pretty keen on an invite and had promised to throw in a kilo of king prawns so that was settled. The boys took off for a rest and I did a quick check that there were cold beers and wine in the fridge and had a bit of time out.

Before I knew it The Boss was tapping on the back door, cold beer already in hand. He passed me the bag of prawns and said he had to go and have a chat with his mate at the hardware store across the road. I put the prawns in a bowl and chopped up some nice fresh garlic and mixed it in with some olive oil. Bloody sensational.

A few minutes later the boys turned up and Rudy was rolling out his pro knives and the skills to match! We made easy work of the abalone prep with Matt O on the wash down, Rudy trimming them up and me on the hammer. In no time at all we had a big bowl of abalone strips ready for the pan. We all gathered aroung the bbq with beers, The Boss strolling in at a very convenient time!

Really quickly cooked is the only way to go.

There's nothing like standing around the bbq with your mates eating fresh seafood I rekon. Washed down with cold beers it's pretty hard to beat. Most of the time we won't make it to the table - we eat straight from the bbq. Hosin dipping sauce and mayo go well.

Seafood round the BBQ

A few were kept whole without being dusted in flour, these go straight on the bbq grill. Great way to do them - you really get that fresh taste.

A few whole abalone

Well a great arvo with the boys again and The Boss even took a few abs straight out of the pan over to his mate at the hardware store! The bloke's had a pretty rough time with a really sick boy - so the boys agreed it was well and truley in order to look after him.

Anyway - I love this time of year and recommend anyone who hasn't tried abalone fishing to give it a go. Now that the weathers heating up it's time for us to chase the crabs at night in the swan.... Can't Wait!!

Due to a little accident sambo jigging, I'm both phone and camera less so no pics for you!

Nice little dive out of Woodman Point today, a quick dip for the bag limit of abalone, and then one tank very nearly bagging out on crays. Saw a few setose, no berried and no real horses, but plenty of whites out there.

Vis was *shocking* just 3m at the worst of it, but perhaps that helps with the crays sometime?

Headed out for a dive this morning,conditions were good with viz to 10-12 m,we were in 10m 1 mile of Two Rocks,after logging on with sea rescue,we got our gear on and hit the water , the first thing we noticed was cray shells and i mean they were all over the place, a lot of crays were well back out of reach ,but we still bagged out with two thrown back .the crays were not on the real heavy ground they were out on the edge outside the main reef but they are still very soft with some pulling apart in our hands .I pulled one from under the sand with only his feelers visable.A great first dive for summer ,i think next weekend there will be even more once the shells harden a little they will come out from the holes and start moving around more .
Jesse relaxing after the dive

Todays crays

hey guys iv fished the metro area for a long time land base that is got lots off fish off the beach snapper king gorge gardy herring salmon flattys tailor but atm i carnt find anything out there whats happening i carnt be botherd heding north ov the river dont have my licence so can any one help me out what fish can i go chasing and were

cherz .