Headed off to Lancelin Sunday morning to go fishing with Tonyb.

Went to check the pots, but unfortunately no crays.

The weather was unbelievable, completely flat all day, and pretty glassy through the morning. Was a breeze getting out

Headed out to a bank, and just tried some areas. Got a few bites. Tony hooked up to a good fish pulling a bit of string, but unfortunately the rig broke at the hook. One or two other hookups, but didnt get them to the surface.

At one point, we saw some baitfish on the surface (unfortunately not being harassed by bigger fish though). You could see how huge the school was on the sounder. At some points it was telling us that the water depth was only 12m due to how thick the school was

Tony got a nice queenie that pulled a bit of string.

I managed to get a small pinkie on a jig

Also, another jig eating denizen of the deep

Tony managed to get two baldies that were just oversize, and a skippy

On the way back, we decided to head past Key Biscayne. It was a fair few miles there, but due to conditions it didnt take long at all.

Had a bit of trouble finding the rig as it wasnt quite on the chartplotters location, but found it in the end. We both got some small sambos, and one or two random fish (cods or wrasse of some sort)

Getting back to the beach was nice and quick due to the great weather. Unfortunately the winch snapped while on the beach, but eventually got it sorted due to help from the anchor rope and another helpful person on the beach.

G'day All,

Headed down to Albany again hoping to get one of the large pinkys that i had seen on a few southern fishing forums.So on Saturday me and the brother in law set out our spot about 20mins drive from albany and headed out to the usual spots only 10mins from the ramp.First drop and the in law engaged the lever  and straight away yelled "im snagged" then "hang on im on".After battling to get the fish off the bottom we were calling it for a good queen snapper when a big pinky came into veiw.He was stoked with his first big pink at 85cm.

After that we moved around for the morning and i tried using some jigs.I caught plenty og different species but mostly crap /sargent baker wrasse and a coupe of big swallowtail.after that the fish seemed to go off the bite so on the way back in stopped over the weed banks fro a squid.Only got one but it was a stonker!

One other thing..The brother inlaw did manage to get a couple of pinky spines in his foot.At the time he didnt mention it so we carried on planning to head out on Sunday.Needless to say the next day hes foot was swollen and he was in a lot of pain.Off to Hospital and they put him on anti biotics.On monday it was still not improving so back to hospital for a local anesthetic and they cut his heal open and removed a couple of small pieces.Reckons it was the most painfull injury hes ever had.(This coming from someone who has broken his kneecap)Bloody nasty things,They must have a really powerfull bacteria in them.Has anyone else had similar stories?

cheers

chris

Took the HMAS tub out on Sunday for a quick two hour sesh which turned out to be wicked fun, and the weather made the trip very pleasant and we even managed to stay moderately dry. We left bathers beach at around 11:30 while a fluffy north wester was blowing but it was still very pleasant, we trolled out for around 30mins until we hit around 20m where we dropped anchor and started chucking mulies, unfortunately the breeze wasn’t ideal for a good burly trail but it was light enough for the burly to sink down and attract some of the bottom species. After 15mins of waiting the whiting really came on the bite and the size wasn’t bad with the average size being around 25cm, along with the whiting the pinkies really came on and they ended up being bit of a pain with the average size being no more than 20cm. However after this we didn’t get much of a chance to catch fish because the rays came on and two casts resulted in two rays which were good fun and were very entertaining with the boat being pulled around in circles, once it hit 1 we had orders to come in, and one of the funniest things I have seen happened. Ollie had his legs over the edge cooling off from the intense heat when he turns to me and looks out the back to see a fin coming flying towards the boat, all I can say is did his feet come in quick or what. haha we continued to trow out baits and mulies but he took off so we left minutes later, overall it was a very pleasant couple of hours and I cant wait to get back out there and test out some more drag.

Heres a little video ollie put together unfortunately we didn’t get the shark on film but we got some good footage of the rays. Enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnDJUNwtAVQ

Cheers Miles

headed to E shed today with SOI, chan, OT and otoshi

wasnt much but a few herring and slimies up until everyone exept SoI left

herring went crazy in the burley and we managed tons of em

then i had a nice fight with a real nice sized slimie and manged 3 after that

everyone was getting tons of herring and the odd few slimies so the slimes are definitely there

a small tarwhine was landed aswell as a bust off on a big tarwhine and an undersize pinky was caught 

no runs on the big rod too report

nice day out overall and not bad for my first time fishing there

Well Finally got out out today. I've been kicking myself all week after missing out last saturday having to watch the beautiful conditions through the coast cams from the safety of my desk due to Jacqui working and my other deckie too incohernt from a big friday night. Today i redeemed myself!

We woke to the thunder and lightening around 5 am not worrying much we stayed in bed expecting it to clear out, soon eight o'clock came with 4knot north easterlies and we were up packin the boat, had breakie and hit the ramp by 9am. Got a call from mum who was on her way to rotto to drive the bayseeker all excited and encouraging us to get out as the water was dead flat "like a lake" as she said, get with the times mum we're already backing down the ramp!

Trip out was awesome, dead flat, opened up the throttle, got to stretch the motors legs at WOT all the way out to the 3 mile with the customary quick stop at little island to get into the wetties.

Once we got out there, out went the lures. We started with a spread of a 5m+ 150 scorpian in the prop wash a crazy deep 190 laser pro and a pusher way out back incase of any tuna around as has been reported. Found 3 big bait schools with nothing harrassing them except us so we motored a little further from bait school to bait school trying water from 12m to 21m. The only things interested in the lures was the local vegetation which got pretty annoying with the pusher so that was switched to a 125 scorpian in close.

It happened after about half an hour of motoring, my holy grail, this years target and weeks and weeks of northern fishing trips each year and me always missing out, the fish always goin to jacqui (as usual) or other fishers and the fact that i just seem to be a big eye tuna magnet much to my frustration. Bzzzzzzzzzz bzzzz bzzzzzzz lines in!, keep up the slack, then it came straight for the boat, winch like crazy, then i saw it and it saw the boat bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz its a mackie! and off he went into the blue again.... still connected... panic.... it's too good this fish'll break me off it's too good..... i coaxed it in close again and i could see the bottom hook hooked in the corner of its mouth, lets hope it holds i thought then bzzzzzzzzz second run and bring him back to the boat, this bastard better tire soon was the next thought.... nup.... Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz right for the leg of the motor after about ten minutes he started dancing in circles under the boat and finally he was tiring, soon we had him spent on the surface. With me almost pleading for my gaff and Jacqui cursing the amount of sh#t i have stowed in the rails of the boat after a minute or so of watching the fish trying to get the energy to get his head down and power off down into the blue i finally had my gaff in hand, one hand, one chance i took my aim and stuck............. my line snapped  ........... i lift the gaff ....... and it was heavy! the relief! i had just gaffed him through the nose and onboard he came! Then 150 scorpian just casually fell out of its mouth at my feet, my first ever mackie after years of persistance! spending weeks at an island even named after the fish and i got my first off hillarys of all places! i was chuffed, ecstatic, buggered and stoked with all 118cm of my first ever mackie!

We kept up the trolling for a little while with no luck but honestly we weren't at all persistant i had what we'd come for and we wouldn't be able to stow another fish in the icebox, we couldn't even stow this one it was a half in half covered in wet towel job, anyway it was time to get wet!

After ten minutes of washing off all the blood i'd managed to get over myself and my wettie (really didn't wanna dive covered in fish blood) we rocked up to an old spot nearby. I had only dived this spot once before about two years ago and we had bagged out on crays..... well today we didn't! would have easily counted 50+ crays. nests were chockers but nothin but kacka's, I still managed to get bag limit but 3 got a second chance as the gauge was loose maybe 1/2 a mil under so we kept 3, dive was awesome tho spent most of the dive being followed by a massive ray about the size of a small car, every time he disappeared and we put our guard down a minute later there he'd be right under a fin sneaking up behind us for a looksee, tail raised as if to say eeeh? eeeh? watch out! we got steve irwin ehh? remember eeeeh?

Also saw a nice dhuie, managed to loop a black ass but he out smarted me wen it was time to get him from loop to catch bag, noticed the crays had very soft shells too. Anyway soon it was time to make it back to the boat as we had ten minutes to be back and notify sea rescue. The vis was beautiful today and we had high hopes, while out trolling thru the glassy water we were watching the bottom in 18m.

After that it was back to little island for lunch and to watch one of the little pups scaring the crap out of the snorkellers by popping up right behind them and launching himself through the air,then back to the ramp by 2pm.

The frustration all week of missing out last saturday thinking i'd missed my best opportunity for good weather this year on a day i'm not at work, well it just seemed to melt away as we pulled out of the heads this morning opened up that throttle and it just got better and better. I keep getting the image of that first glimpse of that mackie through the clear water today dam its gonna be hard to beat today now 8)

Thanks guys!

Regards

Dave

Hi all well what a great day on the water not many fish about tho . Do not know about anyone else but was very hard to find a fish today even a wrasse *LOL* so no fishy pic but thought we would share abit of our day & with everyone. Went out in tandem with Sandy sister and family started late around 8 am after they forgot the keys to there boat *LOL* . then on  the way out to the nintys to try out Russes new toy our boat just cuts out but started again this happened one more time before we decided not to go out to far( thinking it is dirty fuel) so we mainly only fished just over the five in about 30 mtrs to be on the safe side . It was so flat Sandy and her sister had a race in the boats ha ha as not much was happening on the fishing front except for a cuttle fish on our boat and a large squid and kg on theres.  Tried a few places and at 3 pm decided to call it a day and race back in they were in the lead till ha ha they got pulled over by fisherys ending in a $160.00 fine ( see pic for details)so we won by default but won never the less *LOL* But a bad day on the water is far better than doing work on land at home.

Here are some pics of the day

Went out todayand after vowing not to jig, thanks to shark problems last week, I couldn't resist after no luck trolling or bottom bouncing and looking at the sounder I had to drop a jig...

First up a small amberjack, followed by a small yellowtail king (my first jigging) and on my third drop a big hookup, followed by a dead weight.... As I got near the surface a big shark, about 10 foot, followed up a hald eaten amberjack.... (at this point I nearly shat my pants... big fish rocketing up very quick)...

Three drops 2 and a half fish.... Fourth drop first full amberjack, of a good size. Then my mate hooked on with PE3 and from there it was a fish a drop. Using PE6 I had to drop a jig using my PE2 spin outfit (Saltiga 70s with a Certate 3500HD). Immediately hooked up on a good fish straight away using a 160g mejiyume jig. A heap of line was taken during a long fight, but eventually a good amberjack was boated - great fun on light gear...

Great day where we got a heap of god amberjack, a yellowtail king and striped tuna all on jig. We also managed a few good size skippy.... Other than my half eaten fish and one lost jig sharks weren't a problem today...

Hopefully the pic's work out...  

Hi guys ! Well waking up at 5am  and hearing rain and thunder..i was quick to roll over and continue with my blanket show. Then after waking at 8am, i staggered out to the lounge room, to be greeted by the wife to be. She has the computer open on seabreeze telling me, the wind has dropped off, shes packed the boat, we're going fishing....whom am i to argue with her.

Got to the ramp at 0900 to find a three quarter full car park..and the sunday zig zag boat backing brigade in full swing. We get out the front of the Marina, to be welcomed by the flatest sea i have seen in a fair while. I could feel "The Wedding Fund" itching to be opened up to full throtle under my firm hand. So with out hesitation, i opened up  me 30hp suzi and steamed down to our secret fishing grounds off Scarbs.

Once to our spot, i killed the engine and it was game on!

 Well..well true to form once again, Claire drops her squid jig down and im sure landed on top of a frigging squids head, as she is hooked up before i have even got my line in the water. This has happened 3 times now, and its starting to wear a little thin. Is this arse..or just a good skipper???

Anyway after listening to her tell me how good she was,  at 1100 the wind picked up...and the whiting come on the bite bigtime! I have never come across them feeding so aggressivley since fishing for them. After an hour we had bagged out on some big whiting....so it was back to the squid.

Claire once again called that she was on. So i grabbed the landing net..slowly carressed, her squid into the net. Handed her the net and continued to clean the 36 bloody whiting i had left. Next thing i hear is..awww shittt...i turn around and Claire has just copped a facial from mr squiddy. He did a great job, and i couldnt help but laugh..after she bagged the shit out of me about 6 months ago, when i copped a good inking!

We headed back to the ramp at 1500 with  good feed of squid/ whiting in the esky and one slightly bruised ego!

Hi Guys

Just got a call from a mate that went down to Albany for the weekend chasing Salmon.

He went out to Cable Beach and got 30 good size Herring.There was a school of Salmon but too far out to reach.

Andrew

Hi Guys,

I've finally got my boat ready and i was wondering if anything has been happening in the cockburn sound lately.

Cheers

G'day all... newbie to fishwrecked, but no stranger to landbased fishing in perth. Decided to pop my posting cherry with a bit of info from a recent trip to mandurah a decent spot for your bread and butter species.

 Me and a convoy of mates recently made an overnight trip down to whitehills in search of some tailor and the hope of a passing mulloway. We were fishing with a decent south westerly wind so decent tailor were a real possibility with the choppy conditions. Ended up landing plenty of whiting and herring for the frypan before, a great tailor session at dusk. Caught alot of choppers with the biggest going 45cm. Wind was blowing till about 1:30am so baiting up a tailor fillet with a running sinker setup was inneffective for mulloway. At about 2:30am was lucky to bring in a very heavy dead weight. Calling it for a large clump of seaweed was suprised to see a large wobbegong shark hanging on to the bait. It went about the 1.7m mark. Successfully released her back, decided to stay till daylight and were once again greeted with chopper tailor in the morning. All in all it was a decent trip to mandurah will be doing it again soon.  

Cheers Rob

Was heaps of these around on Saturday, this little one stayed still long enough for a pic before we put him back

Any suggestions as to what type of Tuna

Hi guys wondering if anyone has noticed how bad the crabbing has slowed down in the peel inlet in the last couple of weeks?  Spent all day on the water sat for 15 crabs. We had 3 boats 20 nets, and spent inbetween pulls snorkeling. There was stuff all around....looks like its been raped!

*

Caught a Fiddler Ray last night at a local Jetty

any one eaten one ?

We kept our's to try, flesh looks good NO smell like a ray

O Yer, 1 pink snapper by a friend was released as it was only a baby one, couple of Yellow Tail and a Gobbleguts by Jasmine

TT ( karl )

Had a dive with Ozlobster down Mandurah way.



It was a bit surgy and not all that clear but still a good dive. 1syt locaction was a lot of ledges, but the second was full of crazy swimthrus and caves.



There was one more in that esky, but it was surrendered for the loan of the car. Still, thats plenty for dinner!







PS: thats quite a small esky

Went down freo traffic bridge last night with ziggy, scano and exmouthfisher and the snapper were biting hard!!! I caught 4 . All released well. Also caught yellow tail, butter fish, port jackson sharks etc.

I had a half yellow tail out that got smoked twice and snapped me off. Not sure what it was :(...

Here are a couple pics....

1st, sorry about not getting fotos as my phone is craping up again

2nd, just got back from e shed and just to inform anyone who is chasing gar fish for bait that that'll be the place to go as that place is just flooded with them and nothing else.

3rd, bluff bream? is there a fish with that name? not too sure about it but like normal, i was using the bream set up with 4lb main and 4lb lead and this fish took my bait which was for the gar fish. was not ready for it but manage to set the hook. great fun, had it on for about a min or so b4 it snap me under the platform. some guy next to me told me its a bluff bream and call it for about 1kg minimum. silver color was all i remember seeing as after taking the bait, it was down and only down.

any advice on what will the best bait for me to get them will be most welcome. as after the snap, i tried again but they seem really shy.

Finally found time to sit down and post a couple of pics from the last couple of weeks. Went out on sunday the 8th feb with a couple of mates and got a nice mixed bag. Included was 2 dhuies (biggest 17kg) a baldie, 2 king george, a pinkie, a BA and a harlequin. The dhuies came from what was decided would be the last drift of the day. Mate got the big one and now his head has grown considerably. On the same day got to try out my new saragosa on a sambo, it handled it no probs as did the strudwick I got off Neil. Went out again last wednesday and got 3 dhuies, 2 BA, 2 kgs and a queenie. Successfully released 3 smaller dhus and a few small BA. The 2 mates I took out this time were over the moon as they had broken their dhuie drought. We were having beers to celebrate at 8.30-9o'clock. Both days were really nice with wednesday being one of those days where it was glass. Hoping the wind is nice next week as have been invited to stay couple of day over a rotto.

GO BLUES

*

headed down to pinaroo last night with chan and liam with the hope to stretch our arms on some rays tehe

was tons of whiting around but hard to hook, the herring came on at dusk and the odd yakka so we had our baits

managed about 6 runs and landed 2 rays aswell as a little fiddler and a nice shovelnose but got smoked by something substantial on the last run of the night

all the fish were taken on my rod strangely but i shared it around with us taking turns in catching em

 wasnt a bad night but the sand that gets in everything is driving me insane

 might just stick to the stones for now 

gidday all well the conds were a lot better than expected glassy goin out , went for a spot of bottom bouncin with the wrassinator, nailed 5 dhues kept 3 released 2 in by lunch awesome day. one of the biggies for the day

the other day i got my PB tailor :D

at our secrete location a tad north of mandarie me and my dad caught 2 tailor one going 46cm and the other 52cm witch was my personal best

unfortunatly we had no camra when we caught them but im still pretty stoked about it being my personal best :)

Felt like going jigging, but unfortunately no one was out heading out for sambos, so Brenz and I decided to head out with bluejuice and jig anyways.

With alveys with heavy mono lining the starboard, we headed to the back with our PE2 and 3 jigging gear.
I dropped a shout jig down which promptly got smashed and pinged on the reef straight away. Must find a new source of these.

Rerigged up with a zest and not too long after landed my first demersal on a jig. Great eating size of 58cm and 3.2kg, and a great first demersal jig catch. First fish onboard too (if you dont count a norwester)

Managed to find a school of what we thought were sambos so we send down some bigger jigs on heavy gear. I hooked up to something that went on a big run before the line snapped. The leader was completely frayed and bitten off so likely a shark. Brenz hooked up to a sambo but dropped it. On the second drop, a massive hit, lots of drag, then bitten off by another shark. We went around and tried with some wire, but no bites this time.

Jigging

Everything seems to take jigs, even smaller fish like Sgt bakers, wrasse, scads, small swallowtail, and even this scorpion cod Brenz landed

Tried some octa jigs and octa/bait combos but didnt get any hits. 

Brenz got this good sized queenie on a driftbait

I really wanted to get a pink snapper as I havent caught one on any kind of jig, so after jigging a few more spots, this pinkie happily obliged . 73cm and 4.1kg and a fun fight on light line

Also managed to get a skippy on a jig

And a surprise catch, this bonito

Not too many fish landed on board for the boat, though a great 7 and 14kg dhuie were pulled up as well as another queen snapper, a blackarse, a swallowtail and another pinkie. Oh, and some eels :p

The jigs proved to be effective as I hooked up first and ended up catching the most fish, all on jigs on 20lb gear. Great fun

Went down to Golden Bay Monday evening, ended up a dead calm, glassy night.

Herring were going nuts on squid pieces, but weren't touching blue sardines or mulie. I fished for herring while my mate Brendan was on the lookout for tailor. The tailor run did come about half an hour after sundown, and he ended up landing 5, all over 32cm.

We were there for about 5 hours, ended up with a decent feed. I have to say it's one of the better nights I've had in a while haha

Mike

A big thankyou to Paul Maindok who is Kalbarri Electrical Services for his sponsorship and naming rights again this year.
Thanks also to The Kalbarri RSL who donate a $50.00 voucher each month that goes to the meritorious catch of the comp.
Some pretty ordinary weather presented itself for the boaties but the fish were biting so most did not notice. Only a few fish were weighed from the bottom, a big snapper from the landbased guys and lots of bream from the river.
On the first day Steve Wiseman was out early aboard his boat “Top Deck” with Lance Turner and son Dylan fishing as a junior.. Lance had the luck landing a good mackerel on 6kg line that went 9.8kgs and Dylan had one to the boat but the hooks pulled at the last moment. Very unlucky Dylan! Stan Sutherland was out with Alan and Sue Olive aboard Alan’s new 8m boat. Powered by twin 225hp outboards, that boat must fly! And so it proves that the bigger the boat the more fish you catch! Stan had a 3.5kg tuna on 2kg line. While Ron Neumann weighed an 8.1kg mackerel on 6kg line from Paul Maindok’s boat “Santa Barbara”. Laurie Malton with Sue and Jared aboard “Bulawayo Buoy” missed out on the action, being at the right place at the wrong time and later at the wrong place at the right time!

Stan with his tuna on 2kg line and biggest mackerel for the year so far Lance Turner.

Ron Neumann’s 6kg line class mackerel.

The river produced some very big bream and looks like everyone got one. The juniors were thick on the ground with Dylan Ivey, Beau ivey, Ryley Eley, James Dooley and Luke Dooley all weighing in.
The senior section all found bream with a lot of the bream bigger than normal and mostly kept alive to be returned.. Garry Ivey had 3 bream while Son lee had 4, Peter Duigan 2 and Brett Bain 4 bream with one of them going 1.085kgs.
No one landed a fish from the beach the first day but Karen Hartig was there but no luck.

Brett Bain with his 1.085kg specimen
The second day saw the junior catch rate drop with only Luke Dooly weighing in a mullet. The seniors brought in a lot more fish with Lee Ivey with 3, Gary Ivey, 1, Brett Bain 1, and Peter Duigan 4 of which a couple were tailor. This was a surprise for Peter who won his first ever river section prize! Rylee Eley maintained her lead from the first day winning the junior section.
Karen Hartig again fished the beach without lick but Nic Bramwell showed us how it is done with a big 7.8kg pink snapper and a dart, winning him the landbased section and the RSL meritorious prize of a $50.00 voucher donated by the Kalbarri RSL.

Nic Bramwell’s 7.8kg pinky

Lee with one of her bream and Lui and Brett release the tagged bream after the weigh in.

The second day out in the ocean was windier than ever, and the bigger boats faired well. Stan, Alan and Sue found the fish with Stan weighing 2 mackerel on 3kg line, Alan had a 7.8kgmackerel on 4kg line and Sue a commendable 4.05kg tuna on 3kg line.

Sue Olive with her 3kg line class tuna and Stan holds the Overall Trophy.
Ron Neumann again had a mackerel on 6kg line but was not big enough to beat Lance Turner who won the 6kg line class prize. Alan Olive took out the 4kg line class, Stan Sutherland the 3kg line class as well as the 2kg class and the overall. Well done Stan!
The bottom section was fished by Graeme Black and Lou Palmara aboard “Southwind” but only recording a few fish between them and Phil Hearps aboard “Gunna Doo” weighed a 2.1kg baldie but Graeme took out the prize with his 3 fish.
Amy Gardner and Phil Hearps won the scratchies raffle and Phil also picked up the Mystery fish for his baldie. Sue Olive won the restaurant draw and Nic Bramwell won the RSL Meritotious as well as Mug Of The Day with his broken down car that he was bragging about that was running so well for so long, and breaking his tow strap as well.
Every thing is flowing smoothly for the big Kalbarri Classic at the end of February and info packs and entry forms can be obtained from the Kalbarri Visitor Centre free call 1800 639 468.
Next local comp is on the 21st February followed by the Kalbarri Classic on the 27th Feb. to 1st March.

Laurie Malton

Got my flathead!!! heehee~ only two more type of fish and my list will be done for 2009 (salmon and KG). or i can get greedy and start adding more now.. nah...

Thanks to all who have given me advice on type of lures and location. will be trying for more from different location.

bigger one was caught on SP(pink) and the smaller one on prawnstar juinor, went at 38cm and 33cm.

time caught was between 5-6.30pm. location is pt walter sand bar (west side). and i have to add.. there are more and bigger ones there. just that i am too amerture to get them. btw, this time i was using a 4lb main, black swiver, 12lb lead line about 2ft lenght. 3" pink sp or the blue prawnstar jr.

Well what can I say, more Fish

Ocean was flat as a pan cake, I was waiting for the SE wind to come in, I think some one made a boo boo about the weather last night

It was a night of bait fish, they were every where, bucket loads of Yellow Tail jumping about the place.

First live out was a Herring, nothing touch it, change it for a live Yellow Tail, nothing touch that either, changed that for a size Tailor, nothing touch that either, strange probley to calm, going to give it another shot tonight.

We bag our self's 18 Yellow Tail, 1 Garfish, 8 Herring, 2 size Tailor

gear used, light lines with floats, gangs with mulies

was a good night for the family, at lest I got fish for dinner tonight and my sugar levels won't go up again LOL

Got a photo here to show you the Tailor were choppers, NO bigger than my hand most of them, my self and Scotty and his mate got a few size Tailor

TT ( karl )

Went for a dive lunch time today,to a while but we found a few crays at the end off the dive .The crays seem to be molting, as there was a heaps of shells around and the crays were soft. The water was nice with vis up to 8-10m found some great caves in the white water ,will be certain to give that reef another visit.plenmty of small fish swiming around.

Well after an extended summer break, I finally got the chance to get the boat out of dry dock for the first time in 2009.

Plan was to get a few fish to start building up a little bit of stock in my empty tuckerbox to cater for the next extended break from the water (either a cyclone or the fact that the boat is due for a service and I've got to tow it to Karratha to get it done) and maybe see if the odd red cray was still around.

A 6.45am launch saw James and I head down towards Anchor Island. First stop was to get a couple of small queenies for strip baits for my favourite leadhead bottom bashing technique.

After 3 casts for two queenies, we continued heading towards a little lump I have near Anchor. Two miles from the lump I came across some coral and a small show on the sounder. Two quick drifts producing nothing but juvenile blue lined emperors so we continued heading out.

500 metres further on we came across another patch of corally ground with some good fish shows so we pulled up for a drift. My first leadhead down was snaffled in quick time and the first trout for 09 soon graced the icebox, second leadhead was down there for a couple of minutes and then a better trout crashed the icebox party. Back around for another drift saw James add his first trout to the box and the day was off to a flyer.

We continued out and finally arrived at the lump. First floater lasted about 30 seconds before the whole scaly was clean bitten off. James then picked up a rat mack of about 90cm which he released. Meanwhile on the bottom he was two jigs dropped for two blitzkriegs, luckily we make out own jigs so the losses were not to painful.

My floater then went off and I thought I had a nice little mack on for a couple of minutes before it grew steroids and screamed off into the distance, I actually thought I had been sharked but I soldiered on. Twenty minutes later a nice 50lb mack ghosted into view, after the obligatory run around the anchor rope. He was promptly processed and added to the box, albeit cut in half minus the head and tail.

James then added a nice cobia before we called it quits and went for a dive.

Murky water still evident from the TC Dominic made it hard work but we picked up out bag of 4 reds. Spent a bit of time looking for some greens but we gave up after 30 minutes, the murky water making it that bit to hard.