Every summer holiday and every other chance we get, I take my wife and daughters (and usually the inlaws) to our holiday house in Bunbury. It right on top of a big hill over looking the back beach and I've gotta say - one of my favourite little fishing spots. It's not what you can catch there but the enjoyment you can have doing it.

This is a little story of my daughter's first ever fish...

My mate Matto was with me this time so we sat up after dinner with a few beers in lounge, listening to the waves crash and rigging up some light whiting lines. A few paternosta rigs, a bit of red tube, 2kg line, gama longshanks and we were about set. Now, this is not serious fishing by any means but we enjoy it and the family can come along for a change. (I have a four month old also). After the lines are rigged and the tackle boxes are in order we polish of the last two beers and hit the sack.

By 5:30am my four and a half year old, Claudia, is gently patting me on the forehead saying "daddy, time for fishing"... How could you refuse?, what a little angel. I clamber out of bed only to find that my Claudia has already woken my mate up - by trying to practice fishing with one of the 12ft rods in his room! LOL. She's an absolute character! We quickly sling the tackle bags on our shoulders, slap some sunscreen on, and head out the door onto the dune path to the water.

At the top of the dunes, we are greated by a softly lapping sea and clear blue skies - couldn't be more perfect. My little daughter looks up at me and says "is this good weather for fishing daddy?". Really, you could catch sand whiting here anytime in summer without a problem, but I tell her "I rekon that you'll have a pretty good chance" so as not to get her hopes up - just in case.

We set up the rods into the holders in the sand and soak up the warm morning sun. Claudia is excitedly watching us cut up the little pieces of prawns and helps me throw some burley on the wash line. We notice heaps of little bites the moment the rigs hit the bottom. Beauty - the whiting are here. Then my phone rings and my wife says she and the baby and her mum are going to walk down to see Claudia catch a fish.

I tell Claudia to keep a close eye on the rod tips and she gets a bit of a buzz as she watches Matto pull in a little whiting. "In the bucket for breakfast!" she exclaims - eager to get her own fish. She can see her Mum and sister at the top of the dune now and wants to have a go so she can show them. Whilst I show Claudia how to hold the rod and wind the reel, the others come and join us on the beach.


Claudia takes to fishing like her dad, loves it from that first little bite! I let her lod the rod by herself and put her tiny finger on the line. "I can feel the fish dad!!" she yells, even though I'm right next to her.

I tell her to reel him in and she hurrys to retrieve the line onto the spool. I ask if she can still feel him and she can't even reply - she's that excited. As the little whiting hit the shore - my little daughter is so excited - I can remember that feeling. Something no Dad can deny is right up there with the best experiences in life. I fished some pretty exciting places - but this beats them all hands down!
[img]http://fishwrecked.com/files/images/Claudia's%20whiting_0.jpg[/img]

Whiting may be a small, easy to catch, bread and butter fish - but a crispy fried in butter - beautiful! We all washed these beautys down with freshly brewed coffee for breakfast. After all this, it was hard to believe it was only 9am and the day had only just begun! Maybe down thre busso jetty then....

With all the interest in this season's salmon run(s), I thought I post this article (and pics) that appeared in one of the local papers. 

I'll let the article and pics, speak for themselves.

All I'll say is, anyone that knows Salmon Holes, knows it IS a very dangerous place and a number of lives have been lost with numerous near misses.

Went down to risely road at the naval base this afternoon with family,

Caught 1 tailor (35cms) 1 Flounder, lots of herring, now awaiting the arrival of salmon

My work mate just called in.

Good school of Salmon at Middelton Beach(Albany)

His old man is trying to get a few,Jimmy is off to Albany to have a go.

Andrew

Last summer a couple of mates and I started a tradition that will last years to come I hope. Hunting the mighty swan river blues!

It all started when we headed down to the river for a bit of tailor fishing one evening. Nothing beats those balmy WA summer nights throwing around mulies for the choppers that cruise past with the rising tide. Beers and rods in hand, we sat waiting for the bite only to have nearly every mulie we cast being chomped by crabs. We adjusted our rigs so they were up off the bottom but there weren't any choppers around that night. So our attentions turned to the blues.

When we got home we sat around the outside table planning tommorow nights adventure, dropping a few nets to get these bloody crabs. After work the next day we picked up a few bags of spleen, packed up the car and headed for the spot at sunset. We brought the rods along again, just in case the choppers were about tonight. After two hours of pulling nets we had no crabs and every mulie that had been cast was chewed! This was starting to grate on us.

Back at the round table at home the boys and I figured that the only way we were gonna get these buggers was to get in the water and grab them! A few beers later and we had a plan for our first night snorkle.

It was actually pretty exciting the first time we decided to hit the murky depths of the swan, in hunt of the blue manna crabs that had eluded us for the last couple of days. That evening we packed up the car again, but this time with snorkling gear and torches, much to the dismay of my wife. (Who had watched a doco on bull sharks that day...LOL) We got to the spot at about 10:00pm and geared up by the water, all a little bit nervous of the unknown.

After swimming out a fair bit we spotted our first few carbs! You beauty! They were harder to grab underwater than we anticipated and we soon discovered that the mate on my right was a born crab hunter! We would swim along scanning the river bed and the moment a beady eyed crab raised his claws, SWIPE! my mate would be wrestling him into the catch bag much to my amusement. Before long we had a enough for a feed - only ten or eleven between the three of us should be heaps at this size! We scoured the river bed again for a few mussles to throw on the BBQ before we headed in.

We emptied our catch bags onto the pavement and measured our crabs - none undersize and most way over, all blues (males). We were really happy and there were a few high fives exchanged all round. It was almost midnight and the night was still warm and no one was tired, so back to my place for crabs it was.

One of the boys washed down the gear, the other got the beers and I put our crabs into a pot and turned on the grill for the mussels. The round table was much more animated tonight, with stories of the underwater fights and the giant crabs that didn't make it to the bag! Just as the mussles started to open ,the smell wafted over to the table and we all crowded around the barbie. The were fat ones and tasted brilliant with a squeeze of lemon and some salt and pepper, it was hard to wait until they were off the grill to grab them. Just then, my phone timer started beeping to say the crabs had been on the boil for nine minutes - time to pour out the water and replace with some iced water from a jug. Once cooled a bit they looked great.

We laid some newspaper on the round table and devoured most of them, all washed down with cold beers. The cuts on our arms still stung and it was after 1:30am but what a feed. Laughter and teasing and stories of the the murky swan river filled the warm night air. We loved every minute of it, from the chase to the meal. Something we would not soon forget.

My wife wasn't all that happy that I'd been out crab hunting and drinking beers with the boys until the early hours but when I invited her dad over for lunch and laid these on the table with a bottle of nice white - all was forgiven pretty quickly.

Anyway, sorry about the long story but I hope you enjoyed it.

Kasey and I took my tinny out off Hillarys today, in the morning.

The first dive, point KASEYZERO was a bit odd. Lots of really good looking ground just no bloody crays there. Eventually I bagged a few and was back on the boat with Kasey. Unfortunately I lost my gauge, but as I had been gauging them into my bag we just threw the smallest in my bag out and made sure everything was bigger than the smallest one!

The second dive was a little easier on both of us although Kasy found some great ledges where the crays just had nowhere to run. I on the other hand kept finding caves with crays in just irritating positions. I'm learning though. if they look hard, they probably are, so just keep swimming!

I saw some absolutely huge wobbegongs today, first proper sized ones since I got my dive ticket. One came out of his lair as I approached, so I circled over him and he was longer than I was with flippers! The other one was just resting in the mouth of a cave so I got out of his way.

Sorry I couldn't manage a paver shot, we instead went for a sidewalk shot!

went out off cockburn yesterday the weather was awsome and by lunch time we had a complete glass off.

fished the 40 and 50 with a few small dhuies which released well and multiple bust offs all in we had a great day and i managed to land this little beauty made my day.

cheers guys Dave 

ANY BODY SEEN OR CAUGHT ANY GOOD SIZE SAMLON AROUND METRO AREA YET?

Hi guys just wanted to know if anyone went out and if the did how they went since we were blessed with two great days for fishing.

i went out both day had a ball in the sound with pinkies all realeased the went out side the islands on sunday and got a few good dhuies will post pics when i can figure out resizing.

Well let us know and lets see some great pics.

Cheers Guys Dave

Well, another weekend has passed and it was another chance to get out of town and go fishing, our destination being the Blowholes, just north of Carnarvon. On arrival where we would be staying we noticed a friendly local that had decided to make an appearance.

Anyway we came to fish so that’s exactly what we did Saturday arvo down at the boat ramp, which is just a stretch of beach at around dusk. After a few runs and missed hook ups I finally stayed connected and landed a nice Spangled, it was my first descent size one at this spot estimated at 3-4kg, it turned out it was the first and last Spanglie of the weekend.

The wind was blowing 15-20 knots in a SE direction all weekend and for the most part, was overcast. In the morning conditions improved slightly after a bit of rain overnight and the call was made to head further north to a spot known as North 9 Mile. The swell was really pumping over the weekend so this restricted the areas we could fish.

With the current ripping across the shallow reef and baitfish evident I thought I had a good chance of catching something as I bombed out 50 or so casts with my trusty 850 and 8’ Ugly Stik. I was half way through a retrieve when my Richter Plug got swiped at but failed to hook up. The fish circled round and had another go, this time I was connected to something big, silver and heading for deeper water. Different species were running through my head as I tried to figure out what it could be while the fish made a few quick bursts trying to win its freedom, taking line from a tight drag with 30lb braid. I played the fish up on to the beach and got my first real look at what was to be my biggest ever Tailor estimated at around 4kg, pretty sure it was fatter. Yeeeowww!

The Richter Surface Plug is an awesome lure! It has a great action and clearly catches fish. It works best with a medium to fast retrieve and I would reccomend it to anybody.

Not much for the next half hour so we called it quits and headed back to camp. I will be certainly exploring more of this ground next time and I can’t wait to get back. We packed up and had a look up at the lighthouse before heading home.

Another great weekend in the desert.

Cheers

went out this mornin and the old boy got a pb pinkie  was 750mm long got plagued by sambos caught and released about 20 and kept 2 for the neighbours

went down to hilarries for a fish and to test out my new spinfisher 950. first casat with it, turned away for 2 minutes then had a run on it
i got to it then thought it was a small skippy by its fighting. i brough him in slowly then an allmighty tailcrack and he was taking drag like a bat out of hell. stopped him then brought him in till i saw colour......PINK
hit the surface........6 kilos of pure PINK. my dad then rshed down the rocks, grabbed the line, was about to grab his tail because i forgot my gaff and one last tailslap and he was back were he came from. i was spewing and i could have almost cried. ther was also a few yelowtail kingfish around and one was landed at 50cm and i almost hooked up to several that would have been close to 2kg-----on 2lb gear :P plenty of herring aswell but they werent the best size...good for bait though. im styill spewing about the pinkie but it happens

I went fossicing around for a lump I dived with a member of WA Diver a bit north west of Hillary's Marina. I couldn't find it on the sounder but there were a few pro pots around so I figured the ground was good enough and I piled in with Kasey.



1st Dive we managed 4 crays, the ground had few ledges and an obscene amount of big caves and swimthrus, in fact we saw a couple of forever-jammed cray pots in a nice ledge too. Vis was lousy, no more than 5m.



2nd dive we headed more directly west of the marina and further out, near one of the breaks. The surge really came up over the length of the dive and it was like being shot out of a barrel on a few of the swimthrus. Worse, or better picked over, ground for crays, only managed two between us on the dive. Not such a bad thing, the second dive was even more scenic than the first! I found a colony of little shrimp under a ledge, they were sort of bone coloured, with a few darker brown bands on their nippers.



Back at home, boat washed by 1:30pmish! Crays steamed and in the fridge for dinner!

not been reporting on fishing due to busy packing and fishing for the last weeks.

but still always taking whatever chance i have to get out of the house to wet a line or two.

these were done between 13/03 till 16/03. the last day i flew off back home.

was not able to hang around will the real salmons arrive so i guess some salmon trouts will just

have to do. plus seeing the tailor caugh in mid day with a stick bait.. hmm.. something new (for me)

as all my tailors were caught after sunset.  also manage my 1st leger size blackie went about 31-32cm. Squidding was totally new to be

esp it was from shore... but still manage to get a fed for one. and last skippy.... cunning litter fellows which i lost quite a few to the rocks...

oh well... thats it for reports of fishing from perth. my next report will be from singapore or malaysia (where ever i find time to throw in a line or two)

all fishing was done land base and other then the squid and tailor, all were caught on soft plastic. and without saying, too many herrings to remember that were caught while chasing these fishes.

Rang a mate on a salmon team down south for an update on the salmon run this arvo

Not good news I'm afraid,he was at Eagle Bay and hasn't seen a fish as yet.His father fishes from Windy Harbour and its much the same there as well with the exception of a few fish here and there trickling through but not in the size schools that normally run at this time of the year.

With the report of a spaniard being caught off Eagle Bay recently it may turn out to be a non event like the run about 10 years back where they only reached Augusta,hit the warm water,spawned and headed back east.We can only hope that isn't the case this year and that they are only running late

was speaking to a mate [dansouth] on the phone yesterday.a few of his mates ere jigging for sambos off cape naturlist last week .one of the lads had about a 15 kg sambo boat side when a marlin estermated to be a metre deep scoffed the sambo then took off .they chased it around for about 30 mins the marlin went deep and coughed up the sambo ....
was also told of a spaniard caught off eagle bay .must be a bit of warm water around.get those skirts out

went down to pinnaroo tonight after work for a bit of a fish with doug, tooks some mulies and bluebait hoping for some tailor and herring.

well with reports of tailor thinning out we thought lets see for ourselves, got down there and started fishing around 7 or so, had a odd good hit on the big rod, but on the smaller rod there was plenty of herring around, only small though, then as it got closer to dark we started getting a couple of decent hits, then at around 830, with beer in one hand and about to take a leak with something else in the other hand i turned around to see my xzoga going off, running back to it i set the hooks into a good fish, i could see it jumping and knew it was a good fish, my first thought was a salmon, but then in comes a nice tailor of 43cm, nice well done and doug has a laugh, luckily i didnt spill my beer, so back into it and a little while later get another tailor onto the beach prob around 36 or 37cm.

missed a few others, so there is definatley a few good tailor around, will post a pic up tomorrow from dougs camera when i get to work

went 2 cockburn sond on my 2.5 meter dingey 3.5hp but got out there had the big rods out there

had little rod out there 42cm flathead but on the big rods 2 fish got hooked crazy went 4 a crzey run and leader bitten though only using 40lb dont no if the leader was bitten or got caught on the reef but yeh if anybody thinks or nos wat they were would be a big help thankz

72cm, 4.4kg pink snapper on sunday, suffed up the gaff shot on a nice pinkie that brenz got to the side of the boat, few skippy, pike, tailor, octopus and rays and a tarwhine. 

The day started with a magical sunrise as we cruised past the West End of Rotto.

The ride out at 20 knots was a little lumpy but that died off about 5nm from the Yamy FAD.  Within 2 nm of the FAD the water was rough again!  We were the 2nd boat there with a third and 4th arriving within ten minutes.

Trolling was the go initially but only a couple of small tuna played the game. We drifted past with ‘just’ alive whiting (was a bit rough in the live bait tank) and again no takers.  Hmmm, no dollies here.

The wind had increased a few more knots,  so we set some bigger pushers and headed back for West End at 12 knots. More tuna and a big pod of working dolphins provided some have time entertainment.

The Halcos went out near West End in good conditions – clear water and not too much weed.  A big hit and run within 10 minutes got the heart pumping, alas, the hooks pulled in the first seconds after the initial run.  Next pass produced a surprise…well I was running a deep diver ..but at 8 knots.  Hit, hit, hit..I’m on.

Time for some sinker dragging.  It was about 3ish now and dead calm and very quiet on the bottom…even the pickers were guiet.  I set my rig and went to get some late lunch ready..bingo, off went my outfit.  Nice dhu onboard.

I had promised the good wife fresh dolly for dinner, but she would have to put up with dhu now.

Cheers Pete  

Fished Pinnaroo point last friday nite and again lastnite with some good results. friday nite caught quite a few herring , at one point landed 5 in 5mins..absolute feeding frenzy. and lastnite caught a few herring again and a cracker of a sand whiting..went 31cm and was thick as they come through the body..was caught 1m out from the shore. put up a good little fight on the bream gear. plenty of baitfish around in the shallows too. going to be fishing this spot quite alot now at night..anyone fish there regularly?

Sam

Headed out to the FAD's today with John (Auslobster).

Great conditions heading out, got out there pretty quick.

We both had skirts out, mine kept twitching, but thought it was waves, but then it took off. Not much of a fight, but pulled up my first dollie which i've been wanted to catch for over a year.

John chucked out a bluescode and hooked up first cast

Nice dollie

I tried out a jig and got onto a nice sized dollie

Also managed to get a few small blues (probably only 30-40cm or so)

Saw Ryan and Kasey out there, and drifted for a bit more. John got a couple more dollies. Pretty sure Kasey and Ryan got onto some fish.

We headed off to the next FAD, but there were no fish there so we headed back to the first.

Lots of tuna busting off the surface all the time, so we went and chased a few small ones. Unable to quite cast far enough with the fly gear on the dollies, so tried out on the tuna and managed to get my first fish on fly.

We headed back to the FAD, and hooked up to a few. I managed to loose mine on a jump but John got another.

Tried trolling a bit on the way back. Got a few of the tiny blues. Did get a really good hit that was definately a bigger fish, but came off just before i got to the rod holder.

Was a great day out, the weather was excellent, and I was very happy to get my first dollie. John managed to get quite a few fish and on different gear. Was a great day out 

*

Plenty of baitfish activity at the narrows today..Some decent splashes.

managed 2 small bream, both released.

both bream on river2sea baby vibe 35

had a bust off on a snapback grub, likely to be a decent sized bream.

also i was at garvey park last week and there was enourmous schools of baitfish up close to the bank.

Hope this is helpful to someone..

Hey guys

Went for a breamin session yesterday arvo. Had the most crazy session ive had in a while. I found a new area which is covered in really heavy structure (dead trees). I was aboslutley smoked 4 times in a row, in the exact same place. You would hook up and they would almost instantly have you buried or your leader would bust through. We managed to land about a dozen of the smaller ones up to 35cm, but also lost about the same amount to this heavy structure and some of this fish were absolute horses.

Anyway, heres some dodgy phone pics (forgot the digi cam), i got a little arty and took some different ones as well.

went to the narrows on saturday night with flaniges, OT and otoshi. we started flickin plastics and lures around wanting sum tailor. the first tailor showed up for otoshi a bit later in the night... LIVE BAIT..... it was legal size aswell....
the next tailor came to me on a 3" pearl watermelon bass minnow
the bites continued into the night and occasionally we would see tailor jumping near the pylons. otoshi hooked up several more times and got bitten off or spat hooks. flangies then got one a packet of squidges later.
no mulloway to report though unfortunately. james had his livie out from about 11pm till 9am. and it was released wel....probably to get eaten by a mulloway moments later.
the tide was very low in the morning and we saw several twistys and metal lures lost to the carpet (you know what i mean if you have been there)
an hour after setting out to claim some new lures the result was this:
2 ecogear SX40F in the 302 colour :)
2 halco 10g gold twistys
1 halco 10g slice
1 halco 30g hexagon
1 "SHARK" 30g twisty
1 halco 55g twisty
1 octa jig thing
2 saltwater flies
flangies took a picture of our collection but he hasnt put it up yet
cheers,
SOI (liam)

Well i went down to my fav spot in the river yesterday (sunday) and went for my Blackies with mulies and gangs and first cast got smashed hard by a 35cm snapper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and this is 12.30pm in the arvo!

Next cast BANG! Another snapper around 28cm! Veryy unusual for the middle of the day.

In total i got 4 snapper, biggest going 38cm (not far off legal)all released fine.

Lee landed 2 snapper

Also i castout my mulie and it got smashed, halfway while reeling it in the fish jumped, i thought "hang on, cant be a tailor" sure enough it was a 41cm tailor!!! Thats good even for beach standards!

I even released the tailor seeeing as though it was a champ for jumpin on my line ;)

Also landed about 4 blackies , biggest was 35cm, nothing special

Hers a couple pics....

Hey guys.. little report i suppose!

I went down to the narrows yesterday to see if i could get myself my first bream...

I was fishing opposite side to the city right in the middle under the bridge.

arrived at about half 3...flicking soft plastics.

at 4:30 after switching from berklee 3" shrimps to snap back plastics amber jigging grubs with nitro jig head. I started to feel like i was working the grub better, 3rd cast 2 seconds after the grub hit the water bang.! I was onto my first black bream.. 34cm.

2 or 3 minute fight. For the guys interested it was only 3-5 metres out.

I was using 4 pound berklee fireline and 10 pound berklee vanish flurocarbon leader.



First try at posting a pic also..Have one at the time of catch with rod etc but its on phone..I will try and put it onto pc.

Brad and I managed to sneak one last trip in today before I had back to the states with wife and bub....6 wks of cold weather and no fishing.  I was keen to have a good day on the water!  We started a bit late, and got out to 40m by about 8:30.  Wind was a bit stronger than Seabreeze predicted but we set to drifting anyway.

It started out bad for me.  Brad caught this beauty red snapper.

He followed it with another and then a 48cm dhuie that was safely released.  Meanwhile, I had caught one undersize pink snapper, and lost a big fish just as I was saying to Brad that I was due for a good fish!!!  AAARRGGGGHHHH!!!  I was spewin'!

It was just about time for us to head in and I told Brad that this was not a good way for me to leave fishing for 6wks...I just wanted one good fish.  So I drop down to the bottom, and feel a little tapping, I set the hook!!   and it's a tiny fish...I can feel his tiny little headshakes 40meters below me.  I begin to reel him up and tell Brad that I managed to catch a little bait thief.  I get him about 15m up from the bottom and.....WHAM!!!  My rod bends in half and the line starts singing off the reel.

half hour later....hauled this little beauty up from the depths.

a 4.5 foot Bronze Whaler shark.  It's the biggest shark I've ever caught and now the biggest fish that I've caught here in Oz.  To say I was pleased was an understatement!  I would have liked a big Dhuie even more, but that will have to wait til I come back.

Check me out doing my 'Shark Whisperer' impression!

I was amazingly lucky to catch it...I was using 15lb mono with a 40lb trace no wire.  He was hooked right in the corner of his mouth so he couldn't bite thru the line.

Do you reckon it's a Bronzie?  When I first saw it in the water I reckoned it was a black tip, bc...well....it had black tips on it's fins....but definitely had a clear bronze colour...not grey.  Do they interbreed?

So now I can go home to the US a happy man...but now I can't wait to come back and do more fishing as well!

Had a magic day up here in Exmouth today, forecast for under 10 knots all day and that it was.  Day couldn't have started off much better with an absolutely gorgeous dive charter bird holding the boat with a bit of chit chat, was thinking it was going to be gooood!  Heading out the channel the water was crystal clear, could see a couple of squid cruising about but had bigger things on the mind.

Soon as I was out the back I put the spread out, no teasers as I was doing the solo.  Within 5 minutes had a sailfish come up and chew the skirts on both sides without a hookup, was looking promising.  10 minutes later picked up a 2kg striped tuna and released him and soon after found a school of dolphinfish which provided some aerial entertainment.  After releasing a couple of these I headed deeper and saw some serious splashing going on, trying to figure out what it was I went in close to find 50 spinner dolphins having the time of their life.  After about 20 minutes of playing with them and jumping in for a swim I decided to get back into the action.  (Got some cool video of the dolphins, unreal fun)

After 2 hours of nothing on the surface I went and did a bit of bottom bouncing and got stiched up a few times, but with little movement it was rather frustrating.  Gave the lures another quick troll and found a small black marlin on the 80m line that zipped line for about 30 seconds then reared his head and gave me the bird whilst spitting the lure all in the one action.  Wasn't happy. :(

Had one last bottom bounce on the way in for some tea and picked up a nice moses perch, spangly and the little coronation in picture.  All in all a bloody good day that could have been unbelievable but in sensational conditions, I'm still more than happy.  The mojo is almost back!

Anyway, have to cut the report short, time to get the bbq cranking for a feed with the boys.

Cheers,

Adam