just head out this morning (6am super low tide with no much water movement) to our new spot and caught my first ever legal size black bream :D (though it was bare min 25cm and abit)

had another big huge bites though lost them as i was helping a mate rebait >.>

hey everyone im just wondering if anybody has been up to wilbinga lately? im heading up tomorrow and wondering if the weed is around and what has been biting. cheers

Woke up this morning after a bit of a pissy night with no real intention of heading out but the weather looked sweet. Too good of an opportunity to miss so we headed out to see what we could find. First thing we fished some completely new ground that looked pretty sweet. Didn't take long to get an inquiry and it turned out to be a nice Coral Trout about 60cm but the hooks didn't stick. Found HEAPS of nervous fusiliers and had plenty of casts but no GTs. I'm very keen to head back there during an earlier stage of the tide when most of the reef is exposed and fish the edge of the drop off.

We pushed on to some other familiar ground close by where we've gotten destroyed before. First cast and I had a little swipe by a little GT but that was it for that spot as we didn't see any signs of life after that.

We moved onto another spot that we've fished before. We worked our way round to an area that's produced for us in the past and when we finally reached it one of my casts was right on the money with a GT ferociously nailing my craftbait GT realbait. This fish went on a MASSIVE run under very heavy drag through some snotty bomby infested ground and I thought I was done for. I frantically palmed the spool to try and put some extra pressure on and my spool was almost hot enough to fry an egg. Amazingly, I managed to stay connected and unscathed. He slowed, and I got a couple of turns on the handle before he went on another long run and I thought it was all over as he cruised through some water barely a couple of metres deep. Again, my line didn't find reef and I slowly started putting line back on my Stellas spool which had a scary amount of line missing. We got out into some deeper water and after another couple of short runs near the boat I got him in. I was really expecting quite a large fish as he fought much harder than alot of 30kg fish I've caught but I was quite surprised and he came out at 104cm fork length and around 25kg. He really fought WAY out of his weight class and took more line than any GT I've got ever.

After that we decided to have a few more casts before heading back home while it was still early. Finally broke the hoodoo, been ages since I nailed a decent GT off Dampier.

With some reports of a few nice tailor turning up in the northern metro area, Unclue Stu, Sherbs and I decided to head to one of Sherb's favourite spots.

Uncle Stu and I arrived on daybreak to find that Sherbs hadn't been able to sleep, and had already been there for a few hours.
With the wind dropping off quickly, we positioned ourselves on the local rock and started pinging mulies into the white water.

Stu was soon hooked into a nice tailor, which he was able to work through the white water and onto the rocks without too much trouble.

From then on it was a case of waiting for the school to come by to make a couple of quick hook ups.

While the tailor weren't thick Stu managed to score his bag limit and Sherbs and I picked up some nice sized tailor and a solid tarwhine between us.

Interestingly the seven tailor we bagged were all between 40 and 45 cm and of a similar thickness.

Considering how poor the weather has been lately, it was great to get out in some reasonable conditions with some mates and catch some nice fish.

It certainly made for a great way to kick-off fathers day.

went for a fish this mornin with me pop down at the wharf oposite aqua down at hillaries - caught this ripper.   didnt see or catch or see anybody catch anything other than blowies - wats goin on with these things - my pops over 70 years old and he reckons there never used to be blowies everywhere - is there a scientific explanation? - WAT DO YA RECKON ?

Started off promising, I'd been trolling no more than 50 m and I snagged a yearling heading out from the ramp. Played it in and keep chugging along - lo and behold my second lure got hit. Same things again. 2 yearlings and I'm barely 100m from the ramp, naturally I was pretty confident I'd get a couple of keepers.

But thats where the good luck ends. I trolled around for 2 or so hours and managed to lose 4 fish (rainbows around the 40 - 45cm mark) within 5m of the boat. And to add insult to injury the only other boat on the water was trolling the same bank as I was, probably about 500m behind me. I got a couple of hits on my lure but no hook-up and by the time their boat was in around the same area they got hit - bang, reeled in a solid brown that would have gone 50cm+, big hook jaw and all. Absolutely spewing that my lure didn't stay stuck.

Nothing worth photographing, and it gets bloody cold at night there still for anyone heading down for a fish - rug up!

Our recent trip up North we recorded the follwing sounder reaqdings and the Deckie caught his PB 12.5 KG red, as per the smiles

heya guys and gals

 finally got copy of the pics off my deckie (its ok spooled i wont tell em it was your slack arse!) to chuck up ya all to have a look at and read.... after finally installin my new Lowrance HDS7 unit in the tub i was soooo keen to get out and give it a blast! Spooled and i teamed up to hit a spot out from gero right in shallow just behind the breakers to have a session on the plastics and with that we headed out into a stiff sth ester... after muckin bout with a few settings and gettin used to the detail of the new unit we did 2 quick drifts over my trout lump for a couple of small hits before pushing on to the dhu spot....had done well using light baits here before but never tried plastic so today was more experimental than anything.... rigged up on the light gear and sounding over the ground showed some nice markings and it looked good for a drop.... the drift was a tad quick but after hittin the bottom and jiggin for all of 2mins i had a big hit on the rubber and it was show time! a great fight in the shallow water (12-15m) and a lovely pink of about 80cms glided up for a piccie and then into the esky for feed! rapt! spooled was next into action taking a hit whilst takin pics of the pink before racing back to the rod and coaxing his enquirer for a 2nd chance.... bang! hooked up solid! another great fight takin plenty of line of the light spin gear before a lovely 7kg dhu showed itself! unreal!! 10mins first drift and already 2 lovely fish for home! still on the same drift and just minutes after spooleds dhuie again my little gulp got hammered! and this time it reallllly went off... i had my fingers crossed for a good dhuie as id yet to crack one but alas after another great tussle and rippppper of a pink showed boat side.... not having any fish at home this one was also dispatched and on ice... resetting our drift it wasnt long and back into fish..... minus one problem  - couldnt stay connected.... spoooled took a mammoth hit that he had on for some 2-3mins before pullin the hook on wat performed for all the world as a real nice dhuie and i got absolutely dusted by either a sambo or pink on roids.... it quitened off with those couple lost and repeat drifts over the area could only get me another good hookup on another "felt like" dhuie before again pulling hooks! the wind continued to strenghten and we retreated back to the marina rapt at the 3 great fish on plastic we had managed.....

roll on the weekend and a average but better forecast had us heading out again loaded with rubber and this time joined by flagpole on his tub - a quick trip down and hiding out of the wind we soon found some great looking fish markings and proceded to set up a drift about 1.5k from our original destination. no more than 2mins passed and a yell from flagpole had him onto one! yeah fish are here cant be long...... fish everywhere on sounder....... drift drift jig jig nothing....... flagpole got his 4 whilst his deckie was over the side talkin to his mate who musta been diving? "ralph" was his name i think? but we couldnt pull a card! pete left us and still we tried... even the mid week hot spot showed potential but no takers!

and then... finallllly spooled hooked up to a cracker - YES! - and then busted off..... Kaaaaaaaaaaaarrrr%% FFFFUU3$$$ noooo.... dropping another outfit he had ready straight down and it went straight off!!!! another good one! and he pulled the hooks..... not our day.... well his atleast! time kept ticking and i perserved with the rubbers until i finally got my first hit of the day! DHUIE on plastic virginity gone! finally i was stoked!.... and about 1hr later i took a big hit and run that again was looking fantastic coming up thru the blue water! welcome aboard number 2! that was the last fish for us as again the wind came up and you cant complain about 2 nice dhuies on ice.....

2 trips for 5 fish nothing amazing but we where both stoked at the fish on lightgear and that the effort and exploring had paid off.....

cheers poddy n spooled

does any one have any reports from abrolhlos islands

am going on a 5 day charter on the 18th i know ill catch plenty of  baldies 

just after any reports??

Was just me and my Dad out on Sunday, as deckies dropped out.

Was not that confortable out from rockingham,, got rained on in the morning, and pretty lumpy.

Took a while for the fish to come about but once they did was a pretty reasonable day out. Got busted up a few times by big fish, which i would think were dhu's and big pinkys.

Did manage a few pinkys and some more nice plump KG's
My biggest pinky to Date, guessed at 7-8 KG's

Pretty quiet day really. Was blowing 15knots from the NE until about 12, which made it bloody hard to hit small pieces of ground.

Ended up pulling some undersize Dhus, BA, pinkys and filthy sweep. Surprise for the day was a nice 4kg SB Tuna that hit a 90gm Shout Lighten about 5 metres under the boat. Also about a 17kg sambo on the light jigging gear and same jig.

The jig definately caught the better fish today, wih bait accounting for just the undersize stuff. Found some good new ground that will fire eventually too. I'll try put a few pics up later.

Cheers

Brody.

What an awesome day out on the water! Fish wise it was quiet but as for the whales..... We spotted a group of 3 whales playing around in the distance so headed closer to take some photos, turned the motor off and just drifted a safe distance away enjoying their jumps and slaps and got a few good shots! 

They slowly made their way closer to check us out....

Getting very close! Ever wondered what a whale looks like on your sounder??? 

They rolled upside down under the boat!

A few waves and they headed off...... or did they!

Whilst drifting and watching the whales we'd spotted some nice looking ground showing a lot of fish so we left them and headed back to have a few drops.. they followed us but seemed to dissapear so down went the lines... no sooner had I hit the bottom and my baits were getting some action. I was poised for a hook up when suddenly out of the deep blue one of the whales came gliding right under the back of the boat and across my line, snagging it up and screaming line off against my drag! I backed my drag off straight away and hoped the line would slide off the whale but it wasn't going to happen and with 80m+ of line out I grabbed a knife and released old moby dick. He probably didn't even notice but I was pretty sad that I lost my favourite bottom rig :( Anyway, it was an awesome experience seeing the whale play around the boat, even if I lost 80m of my new braid... I got whaled!

decided to head out today and try some new spots.  mosman park was void of fish so i moved on to claremont yacht club.  

first cast i was on with a ~20cm bream, following casts hooked on similar size bream.  once in a while a decent sized whiting hooked up and gave a decent fight.

the main thing was for the first time fishing the river i managed to land more decent fish than blowies...HUZZAH!!!!

I went fishing this week out in 50 to 60 meters of water off bunno and had a ball the fis were in a frenzy we caught plenty of dhuies, blackass, pinkies, nanigi, and even a nice baldy. I noticed that it was the same time last year i had very similer action and on both occacions we released severall good sized fish after getting quata. i will upload some photos when i get my cam back but just thought id give some food for thought for keen deep fishers .here is one from last year

fishing from jurein wasnt that great in the tini weather was good though caught a few under size kg and these realy big black looking fish not to sure what they were could have been dory  spent the day there with out much luck then move further up north to leeman very good here drifting for huge squid not so good for fishin although there were plenty of herring and wrass around

Local monthly comp 22nd August 2009

I headed over to Tantabiddi today doing the solo mission and was greeted by glorious conditions and an empty boat ramp (bout bloody time).  As discussed on the site yesterday I really wanted a red emp and decided to head way south, a lot further than I'd ventured in the tinny before.  Getting down to the Milyering Center and the 45m mark I did some drifts with little luck and very little showing on the sounder, but knew there'd have to be something close by as the ground looked good. 

Didn't take long and I found some schooling fish, problem was sharks in the mid water and after loosing the first, I knew it wasn't going to be a casual pump and wind, but more a winch and hope.  My rule is generally 2 fish lost to sharks then its time to move as once they're in, your just sacrificing fish. 

After landing the first decent spangly I knew thats what the rest of the school was, but was still hoping there was the rogue red swimming through.  I caught my bag limit of spangos and kept some of the smaller fish as I think they are much better eating than the big mommas.  I released about 8 good 650mm fish, excellent fun in relatively shallow water thats for sure.

Realising I wasn't going to get anything else and a small hint of the south westerly starting to waft in I decided to troll back to some spots just north of S.passage.  Within 10 minutes of having the lines out I had the trademark hit but not hookup on the right black soft oscar short corner and knew it was a sail.  He continued to mow the lure and not having any luck he peeled off to the left pink grassy and smashed it and stayed connected for 10 seconds and then came back for a second attempt where he absolutely nailed it, a quick gun of the motor and booyah, it was on. He put on a great show and a quick 20 minutes later he was at the back of the boat for a few pics, probably the most well behaved sail I've caught and released at about 25kg.

After setting the spread and having a drink I set back into cruise mode awaiting the next action and that didn't take long either.  A huge explosion and bill out of the water and quick 5 second zip on the drag saw a relatively good sized black marlin miss the hook.  I wasn't too phased by this as I was still pretty spent from the first fish and assumed it wouldn't take long before encountering further action.  Over the next hour I witnessed two wahoo come in and snip my soft grassy, one taking the hook and the other taking the plastic.  (GRRR)  Something else also came up on the black oscar but I couldn't really make it out, an unknown.

Arriving at the next spot I was greeted by large soundings of fish and immediate action, unfortunately only trevally.  Moving to the other side of the rise I felt the typical suck down of a red and laid into him and got him off the bottom, YEEEES, only to endure the NOOOOO about 20 meters under the boat when the bloody hook bent to a 45 degree angle and off he swum.  Apart from knowing the fight the red has, there was a scale left on the hook with a touch of red skin - just to prove that I was right.  I was pretty devo after that and went around again, baited up beautifully, only to be sharked within seconds of touching the bottom.  I decided that it wasn't worth re-rigging there and headed off on the troll again to the goldband spot.

A completely uneventful trip (mind you I was trolling probably a touch too quick as I wanted to get there) and with a small front heading in from the south I positioned myself over the goldband spot and with a strong northerly current and 10 knot south wester I was held in perfect position.  With 3 drifts I landed my 3 goldband and left them biting as I had my bag limit and headed in.

All in all a great day and I enjoyed rubbing it in to the missus when I got back to the ramp and she checked my catch! :))

Cheers,

Adam

Heard rumor of a frequent fisher to Kalbarri cracking a nice mulloway about 10-12kg on sunday night in the river.

Now we just have to wait for the pics. hes been trying to get it for a while and finally cracked it. good job

Decided to head out on Saturday, the weather wasnt looking the best, but the winds were pretty good.

Up at 4.30am, and on the way to the ramp a little after 5.

Launched and on our way out by 5.45.
Little slowish out, being pitch black, rain about and a little more wind than expected but cruised out at about 25knots.

Headed 20 or so mile out in search of some KG's and dhus.

First stop, was where i got a big KG during the week, and this time didnt dissappoint, with this big fat KG on the first drop to Sean, not even on the bottom for 10 seconds!!! this boy took a whole californian squid!!

picked up a few more bits and pieces and a small dhu off this spot, but not much else, eventho the sounder was showing some good fish.

decided to move around a little and found some more ground... did a few laps looking at the sounder and said to the boys... some dhus down there.

Pulled up on the lump, said to the boy's 'drop now' and within 15 seconds two dhus hit the deck, both undersize but was a good sign. a good fish dropped just under the boat at the same time, which looked like a nice pinky.

went back for another look over the lump and went a bit further over and noticed a couple big fish on the bottom, said 'more dhus' drop and within 15 seconds again i was on to a better fish. dhu being 66cm and prob 4-5kgs. Was fishing quite light and gave an awesome fight. Very healthy looking male too. this one was for the esky!!

Next drift produced probably the biggest metro flattie i have seem, the pic isnt very good and doesnt do it justice, but would have been 65cm easy.

Another drift and another dhu came up.

Plenty of BIG skippy out there, atleast 1.5kgs+ I'd say and quite a few small black bums.

all in all good morning on the water, plenty of fish, few whales wanted to come say hello and do a bit of showing off. Back to the ramp just after midday

Bodie

Its been nearly 4 months since the arm op so it was time to hit up some deeper fish, not Harpuka deep, just Dhuie deep.

Where was everyone?  Two rocks at sunrise was empty; well we were the 2nd boat there…and upon return, we were the second last out.  Only saw the one boat out there aswell.

Anyway, it was a bit choppy early, but very doable – pity the fish weren’t!  A few release weight uses and a few humpies pushing north saw us through to midday.

A friend onboard had never seen whales from a boat before, so this made his day.  The wind had dropped to nothing and still no decent fish onboard.  Decided to head south to a spot that I found the last time out (over 5 months ago).

Drop, bang on – the result;

I was very happy.  The arm is OK today too.

A couple more drops resulted in a couple of gummies – time to head in.

Cheers Pete

with no site able too make up there minds and me playing alot of golf and getting beaten by my oldest lad twice went squiding sun avo hade a great arvo 24 squid 4 cutties all while the dockers had a win gota love listening footy/cricket on the radio and yes they were yom

Weather looked good so off over to Koks Island,decky for the day is Sebastion,a tourist from France.Tried to anchor a couple of time without much success with the tide turning and SE wind so gave up and did a few drifts while waiting for it to settle down.First fish up was mine and he asked "are they all that big?"And of course the answer was "No"
Next it was Seb's turn with another the same size as the first.Not too far from us another local boat got a nice estuary cod that was getting up near the limit by the look of it,watched them as they released it.
Gave it another go at anchoring with a win this time round.Seb got his second and third ones in quick succession while I was briefly hooked onto what felt like a nuke submarine only for the hooks to pull out.Straight down again and I got my third and Seb got a charlie court[released].Down we go again and I'm on,give two or three cranks and felt gears go crunch crunch munch and no go any more.Little problem of some 50-60 metres of 80lb braid out with a pinkie on and having to pull against the tide.Had a big handline there so started winding the line over the top of the line already there.Out with the knife to cut it off from the rod as keep getting tangled up in it.Found a glove]shrunken about 2 sizes ]and somehow managed to get some of my hand in it.After a few minutes I had my 4th and last on the deck.Seb had his within 3 minutes.

Upped anchor and dragged a cople of lures round without even a nudge so gave up and headed for home.Seb was having a ball watching whales breaching,turtles cruising etc and all the while complaining the day was too short.

Late news,a mate who Seb is staying with rang up to thank me again from him and said he was nearly going to sleep in the back of his ute the night before so he wouldn't forget to drop hom at my place in the morning.Keen is not the word,haven't seen anyone that bad[good] for a loooong time,Makes it all worth while and 8 nice pinkies to show for it as well.

a snapshot of Sundays fishing, now that my arms have recovered enough to maintain the keyboard.

Headed out Sunday with Tim with the plan to leave Point Peron at 7, and fang the 40 odd Nautical Miles West-ish to the Grey Band, Harpuka and other Biggus Arsus Codus grounds out in the 350m ++++ depths. Bit of a prowl around, move back to the red Snapper in 220/150m, may be a bit of time for a Dhu, then back to PP to hit a 3pm deadline.

About 1/4 the way, turned the GPS on to fine tune our direction, only to find it wouldn't talk to the antenna....BUGGER!

After a bit of a look (sea-anchor out and lines over of course ) headed back to PP to try & sort it or locate a handsfree for the day....hence all the phone calls boys. We managed to disturb a few beauty sleeps 

Finally, a spare GPS unit is located, dropped off and wired in ...NOHA, what can I say - legend

10.30 and we are back in the race.

2 hours later.........the water is soooooooo weird out that deep. Bizarre. Totally  

32oz sinker on, over the side and I'm watching my spool get emptier and emptier......and emptier! The drift was pretty strong so let more line out, then some more.... more still.... I reckon there was about 650 to 700m of braid out coz there was bugger all on the reel.

Nibble nibble, wind back up... ...wind some more.. ..then some more still.. ..all the while thinking "shit this is heavy, bloody hell it's hard work. Hope there's a fish on the end of this. feels heavy enough to be a fish... Oh God, it could just be the weight of that kick arse sinker and the drag of the current, shit, my arms are burning. Grunt,,,,There better be a fish on there.... if its only a sinker, I'll never hear then end of it. "

Finally......and thankfully.... only a baby one at 8kg.

How the hell these guys pull the 20 - 50kg ones up is beyond me

We had time for 3 more drops - another Grey Band and a monster flattie before having to fang it back for 3pm.

I'm that stiff and sore, not sure I'd go out there again..........................................well....ok..maybe.........and Mr Trevalla lives just a little bit further out

I have to hand it to the skipper, his sheer determination to go fishing ()  the limited equipment, and then to put us on the fish first drift. Top effort.

The pics are crap....(no comp enteries here )..are from a broken phone

Been looking for these guys in metro waters for a little while now,

Managed to get one yesterday in 36m of water. Have caught quite a few KG's before but none matched up to the plump size of this big boy.

He went 58cm!!!

Tried for soem more, but could not seem to find anymore.

Bodie

Headed out early with southcity104 (Tony) bound for the 90's. Ended up getting out there barely after sunset, found some fishy lumps and sent the gear down.

I started on the jigs. Drift was pretty slow, so no problems getting 150 or 120g jigs down there, but unfortunately the fish didnt really want to play.

Tony managed to pull up some blackarse and small swallowtail.

Had a few bites, but not too many hookups. I sent down a mulie on the driftbait setup and after a few small fish, I managed to hook up to something nice and big. A bit of line pulling and a lot of rod pulling and I managed to pull up this beauty

A PB pinkie at 6.3kg, so I was damn happy with this nice humphead

Not too quick on the bites, but after a while Tony managed to pull up a nice sized pinky

I was switching between jigging and bait and managed to get a new species on the jig, the ol slimey mackerel

Tony filleted the mackerel and it didnt take too long for another fish to pull on. It started fighting like another good pinkie, but as it came to the surface, we saw black and knew it wasnt another pinkie, but a nice dhuie just a little under 8kg. I didnt take any photos on my camera, so Tony might have to upload that pic.

After than and before midday, we had some nice fish in the esky, so headed in a little shallower to try a bit of jigging. Just managed to pull in a small swallowtail or two.

We did see several whale pods blowing air a couple of hundred meters, and got to see some pods breach out which was an awesome sight.

The weather was pretty good all day (some big swells rolled past though), but it was absolutely magic as we headed back early arvo. Couldnt ask for much better conditions. 

We didnt get a great number of bites, but we managed to land a few good fish. Great day out, PB pinkie, whale watching, magic conditions, back at the ramp early arvo and a nice feed of snapper and dhuie. Thats gotta be a good day out in anybodys books

Trip Report for Bugatti Reef 20-26 July 2009.

As Duncan has already mentioned we had a pretty chaotic week at Bugatti recently. At some points the weather was a little bit ugly but this had a negligible impact on the fishing as it was never bad enough that we couldn't pop and hardly a time that we weren't catching GT's. Other times the sun was shining and the water like a millpond. I'd say the fishing really fired for us and I was lucky enough to see numerous double hookups and a couple of triple hookups throughout the week. There were several fish caught throughout the week that were around the 36-38kg mark but unfortunately none over the 40kg mark. What we lacked in size though we certainly made up for in numbers.

Day 1
On the fly in day we eagerly ate our lunch and rigged up for the afternoons fishing. I was fishing with Duncan and Dave on tight stick with guide Glanville. I decided to start off with a bright orange bigfoot 140... the fishing started off a little slow until the tide picked up and then I came up trumps with the first couple of GTs the first being around 28-30kg and the second just a 'petite' GT around 16kg and also missing a strike from a 30kg+ spaniard. Dave hit back shortly after with a nice 36kg model. Towards the end of the day Glanville found a nice spot in a sheltered area where the GTs were going ballistic on the fusiliers. Duncan and I had a double hookup on GTs but managed to drop both fish, next cast we had a mack tuna/spanish mackerel double and then the cast after that another GT double this time landing both fish, a pidgeon pair around 25kg each. It was late, so it was time to head back to the mothership with our total at 6 GTs for the afternoon.

Day 2
This was to be our slowest day for the trip. I fished with Brock and Mat on the dory with guide Rod. Brock landed a nice fish around 22kg early on in the day and then Mat nailed one about 20kg later on just before lunch. I had a 35kg+ fish come and inhale my blue bigfoot in a bommie infested bluehole that proceded to bust me off without taking an inch of drag. After lunch things got even quieter and our total for the day remained at only 2 GTs by the time we made it back to Odyssey. I think the most any other boat got that day was 4 GTs.

Day 3
On the third day we headed south to our second anchorage for the trip. I fished with Duncan and Brock on the Contender with guide Tim. We fished some blue holes on the way but it was pretty quiet with only a couple of half hearted strikes. I managed the first fish of the day around 20kg when Duncan pointed out a small school of fusiliers. We left the blue holes and caught up with Rod, Aaron and Ross who had been getting some good fish off a nice ledge. The afternoon was pretty hectic with us getting a number of fish off this ledge, myself 2 fish to 35kg, Brock 2 fish to 30kg while meanwhile Duncan was having a prick of a day not being able to stay connected to any GTs before nailing his only fish of 25kg or thereabouts towards the end of the day. One highlight was when I hooked up to a 20kg GT and dropped the fish and then proceeded to upgrade to a 35kg model only seconds later ;D
While we fished our way to the mothership at our new anchorage we stopped off at one of the resident trout boats to see who was in town. As we approached we saw around 8 GTs to 50kg+ swimming below the boat. First popper in the water had some interest but it was just a curious strike and they weren't actually feeding. It was such an awesome sight! As it got late the tide slowed and so did the fishing so we headed back to the mothership. We ended up with 6 GTs for the day and Rod's dory managed 17 GTs with only 2 guests, Ross at 63 years young with 9 GTs under his belt for the days fishing. He then proceeded to catch GTs off the back of the mothership when we got back, what a champion! Guide Rod also hooked a 40kg doggie which proceeded to pop the belly swivel on the dogtooth 80 stickbait.

Day 4
On Day 4 we woke to clear skies and flat water. I fished with Brock and Dave on tight stick with Glanville. The morning started slow as we fished some prime looking ledges loaded with bait but the GTs just weren't feeding. I switched from a stickbait to a popper and nailed the first fish of the day around 10-15kg. I then proceeded to have an absolute prick of a morning dropping about 8 GTs til lunch time. Just before lunch we fished a spot the guides call the Stables and first pass Brock and I had a double hookup, on the same cast Dave also had a 50kg+ fish hit his dogtooth stickbait on the 50lb gear! Thank god it wasn't a triple. Brock landed his fish and I dropped yet another GT. Good thing Brock and Dave kept the scoreboard ticking and I think the total was about 7 GTs at lunchtime.
After lunch we moved out to some different ground and the fishing picked up considerably, I maintained the hoodoo while Glanville teased me landing a GT in a mere two casts. Eventually I broke the morning hoodoo nailing a nice fish around 28-30kg... finally I got the ball rolling. We moved out to some shoals away from the main reef structure that rise from about 50-60m to about 10m. When we approched I asked Glanville where he wanted me to cast while he laughed and said, "Where the fish are!". First cast and fusiliers showered everywhere, I flipped the bail over and before I even managed one turn of the handle my popper dissapeared in a white foamy explosion. What proceeded was the most hectic session I've ever encountered on GTs with nearly every single cast managing a least a strike. Dave snapped his 50lb Catalina rod and then proceeded to still land the fish. We had several double hookups and finished the afternoon with a triple hookup and all 3 GTs being landed. Total for the day was 24 GTs from no less than atleast 40 hookups, myself with 12, Brock 8, Dave 3 and Glanville with 1. Rod and the other boys on his dory also fared well with 14 GTs for the day.

Day 5
Day 5 started as good as the last day ended. I fished with Brock on the dory with Rod. It was glassy calm and the fishing was hot. I nailed a nice fish early and then proceeded to drop the next couple of fish while Brock also landed a nice GT. Shortly after I had an extremely aggressive strike from a GT that was clearly of the black variety, fortunately I stayed connected and landed the fish, around 25-28kg. We moved onto the ledge where we did well on the third day and it wasn't long before Brock got his second. Shortly after I got my third and proceeded to snap my Komodo Dragon. An awesome effort from guide Rod and Brock ensured this fish didn't get away. Afterwards I encouraged Rod to fish as there was only two guests on board and he proceeded to nail a nice GT in short time. After lunch the weather started to turn sour and with 6 GTs in the boat before lunch we decided to head back to the mothership and was back there by 2.30pm.

Day 6
The sixth day was overcast and quite rough. I fished with Duncan and Mat on the dory with Rod again. The weather made fishing a little difficult but we managed OK. Duncan and I persisted with the weather while Mat drank beer all day :D. Duncan got the first run on the board with a beauty around 36kg and then I backed it up shortly after with another fish around the same size. Tyler on Eds dory fishing close by also got a nice fish around 36-38kg. 3 GTs over 35kg from 3 bites.
We moved into the blue holes and I dropped an average GT while the boys on Eds dory had a GT/Chinaman double. Duncan got a nice GT and then missed horse of a fish that climbed all over his popper. Would have been interesting to see the outcome, we put it for 40kg+. Late in the day I plucked a nice GT from a fishy looking ledge right under Eds nose :D It was getting late so we headed back to the mothership. As this was our last evening on the Odyssey we drank til the wee hours of the morning to celebrate the trip.

Day 7
Bleary eyed and hung over neither of us could be bothered to fish for a couple of hours before we flew out so we spent a lazy morning packing up our gear before the floatplane arrived to take us back to Hamilton.

Lures
One interesting observation Duncan and myself discussed was that on the cloudy days when the water was a bit choppy anything that swam sub-surface ruled supreme. Orion bigfoots in the smaller sizes and the new XTX swimbait from Patriot Designs worked particularly well. On the clearer days with flat water just about anything worked but I had my success with small-medium bloopers. Poppers like the Patriot Design Master Bomb 155 and Craftbait GT2 worked exceptionally well and can be cast all day with little effort.

Gday all,

Recently arrived back from 4 weeks in Exmouth. Had a belter of a time with a heap of fish caught. Heap of Spangoes, Heap of Trout, Bluebone, Chinaman, queenies, lil GTs, big eyes, brassies, goldens, shark macs, spaniards, longtail, rankins etc etc..

Will be back there soon...

Heres a few pics from the trip

Cheers,

Sam

Good Spang

6kg Tusky on 5'' Snapback

Mini G's and Queenies in plague proportions on the flats

Nice trout 700 long

Skulldragged Rankin...plenty of Noahs on the westside!

These boys go bloody hard...ended up with 5 or 6 chinaman for the trip

More blue on plastic...

more trout

again and again...

non stop Spang action

Had a ball on these 1m+ queenies with trevs and sharky's aswell on stickbaits...18lb this one was

Solid Coronation

Lil Big Eye on a bullchop

18kg Longtail on 7'' Jerk Shad

4.5kg bluey on the straight hook

<whinge>
Why is there no damn bait shop anywhere near woodys thats open in the morning? In fact you don't even pass one when you leave the freeway on the way down from Perth.

Why did my rod snap in the boat on the way to the ramp?

Why did this damn owner hook ping on our only good lineburner of the day?
</whinge>

Ok, that out of the way, what a nice day on the water? Almost no chop, plenty of tasty squid to take home and a fun go at some kind of serious line burner. It had over 90yds of line out on a 3kg drag at one stage. Poor Matt's PE2 Xyoga. I wonder what it was, probably a sambo.

Its why you go isn't it?

Well... after 8 flights I've made it there and back - and what a trip! Bugatti seriously is an amazing place.

We had a couple of days of mediocre weather but on the whole it was very good and we caught loads of GTs. Our best day was on the 4th day when we had glassy calm seas and sunny skies. Glanville, myself, Brock and Dave ventured out on 'Tight Stick' to some shoals some distance from the main reef structure that rise from about 60m to 10m. They were absolutely loaded with bait and we were hoping we might be able to score a nice Dogtooth on popper but HORDES of GTs ravaged our poppers all day. We managed to pull something like 17 GTs off those shoals finishing the day on a triple hookup and a final tally of 24 GTs for the day (from ATLEAST 40 hookups).

Other memorable moments include my black GT which I was stoked about, snapping my Komodo Dragon... grrr.. and watching a 50kg+ fish whack a dogtooth 80 stickbait on 50lb gear at a place affectionately known as the 'Stables'. My biggest fish for the trip was around 36kg with several around the 36-38kg mark landed by other clients. I managed to land a total of 23 GTs for the week :) Some of the by-catch included big Spaniards, shark mackerel, chinaman, longtail and mack tuna.

Stay tuned for the full report!