The Mindarie Fishwrecked 2006 Invitational was held last Sunday and was a great day out. Thanks goes out to skippers Andy Mac, Stiff Ripples,  and Shag and also to the anglers that participated. We all managed to get into a few fish each and the cold beers at the end of the day was sweetened by good company.
The trophies went to Sherbert for the mystery prize of his monster Flathead, Luke for the biggest fish being a 10kg dhufish and the points system going to Andy Mac for most variety/size.
I'm sure that now that the first has been held and the teething issues are out of the way we can have more in the new year and hopefully not have to worry about Chrissie parties interrupting others wishing to join.
Thanks again guys and heres to the next one being bigger and better! 
Cheers,
Adam

Poida is up at Steep point, the report at the end of Day 2 is 5 spaniards, 2 shark macks, fair few tuna, lots of noah bust offs, a monster wobbie off the wild side and another 7 days to go!

Should be a few good pics coming soon by the sounds of things. :)

NOVEMBER 18th COMPETITION RESULTS - KALBARRI OFFSHORE & ANGLING CLUB

A very quiet comp this month with most of the regular anglers out of town for the weekend. The 6 river adults got crowded out by 9 juniors, while the beach section was healthy with 8 anglers and Santa Barbara was the only boat out.

Our sponsor this month was Kalbarri Auto Electrics, thanks to Owen and Linda.

They will sort out your auto electrical problems in your car or boat and stock a range of marine radios, aerials etc.

Cheryl Eley showed us a very respectable .982gram live bream in the river section but was not good enough to beat Di Stewart who had 2 bream and a nice river estuary cod of 1.77kgs to win the section. Martin Stewart was the only junior to weighed a fish, a .360gram specimen winning him the voucher.

Tony Smith showed us a skippy from the beach; Don Owen three tailor and new member Karen Harteg had 2 nice mulloway. Daniel Tarasek did it again however bringing in a soapy mulloway of 4.9kgs amongst his 8 fish of 5 species to win. Daniel also recorded the first and biggest whiting of the year, a 140gram fish!

Santa Barbara with Paul Maindok, Peter Dooley and Lui Palmara was the only boat out and recorded some success except for Peter Dooley’s blank day. Paul had 2 fish but soundly beaten by Lui’s 4 fish which included his shark and baldchin groper shown above to win the over 7.5m boat section.

Di Stewart picked up the ANZAC Meritorious award of a $50.00 voucher for her estuary cod and Lui Palamara won the Mystery Fish voucher. Paul Maindok won the restaurant voucher and out of towner, Ray Gillette, won the scratchie draw. Mug of the month went to Lui Palamara. Lui was aboard Santa Barbara and running a bit late coming into the river mouth was desperate to get a weigh-in tag in time or face disqualification decided to dive off the boat, swim ashore and run up to the pub to claim his weigh in tag, getting there just in time.

Next comp is the Kalbarri Electrical Services Ultra Light over the Australia Day long weekend.

The Wagoe away day weekend last weekend was a great success with many club members booking accommodation for the Friday and Saturday nights. Fishing started on the Friday night along the beach in a very social manner. A few fish were caught, mainly tailor and mulloway but the fish of the weekend went to Karen Harteg who single headedly landed a 22.8kg mulloway from between the reef edges. Well-done Karen!

[img_assist|fid=78092|thumb=0|alt=KOAC - Karen's Mulloway]
[img_assist|fid=78089|thumb=0|alt=KOAC - Karen’s 22.8kg mulloway]

The Saturday night was enjoyed by all with a lamb on the spit and a few coldies round the fire on a windless night for a change!

Laurie Malton

G'day
I've been lurking for a while and finally got out for a fish with some postable results.
Last Friday week took the ferry over to rotto for some reef bashing. Ended up at a hole in Stricklands which was full of 1kg tailor. Had 20 strikes, landed 7 and released 5 in 45 minutes. There were some much bigger fish there but I couldn't land them. I never use wire and was bitten off once so maybe next time I will go the wire.

After cleaning dinner I thought I would bring out the whiting gear and try for a KG. second cast a thick 45cm KG swallowed my hook. Thought I would call it a day and head to the pub to wait for the 7.15pm boat back to C-shed.

Great day and and an excellent dinner aftwerwards.

[img_assist|fid=77416|thumb=1|alt=Stricklands Hole]

[img_assist|fid=77419|thumb=1|alt=Stricklands Tailor]

[img_assist|fid=77422|thumb=1|alt=Stricklands KG]

cheers
Andrew

Port Jackson Shark - Heterodontus portusjacksoni

I've only ever caught the small ones, last night I landed a 3 foot PJ ( released )can any one tell me if they are protected or not.

[img_assist|fid=77390|thumb=1|alt=Port Jackson Shark]

TT

Fished oceanreef marina again last night. burlyd up big time just out of the entrance to see whatd turn up, the swell was too big to fish the outside wall. At about 12 am hooked up to somthing decent that didnt feel like a stingray or a 'proper' fish which kept diving into the rocks. Turned out to be a wobbegong easily 1.5-6m long. Couldnt get it out of the water. I was fishing by myself and didnt have a gaff, and ive heard if you grab them by the tail in the water they can spin right round and bite your hand. with that in mind i tried to drag it onto a rock at which point 'tink' line gets bitten through. Hooked him on a live yellow tail. Also got a bucket of yellow tail, A few snook and some mini tailor - which went back. Lots of idiots down there.

Went for a fish with Tapout today after favourable weather forecasts. Got to West End and decided to troll out wide with zippo result. Got wide and bottom bounced for a while as there were no schools on the sounder. First drop resulted in Tapout loosing 100m of braid snapping near the top. Back and around we went with the same thing happening to me. Not a good start. I had just enough braid left on to reach the bottom but had to feed out more line to stay there, another hookup and wham, remaining braid line gone. By this stage we'd taken a few showers and managed to land one 3kg skippy and drop a few, was a pretty average start to the day.
Should have stayed in close and then gone wide, sigh!

In closer we managed to get into a few blackass, fox fish, bakers, wrasse etc. Tapout also got a nice 48cm pinky and released a just undersize dhuie. I pulled up a fair few solid sea sweep and a dhuie which went 55cm to save what was a very frustrating day.

I didnt take any photos as I didn't think the fish that we got were very worthy. I had been thinking all day that I must have broken a fish god curse by almost blanking out 3 trips in a row. It was only for a very unlucky dhufish that swallowed my plastic grub on my top hook whilst I wasnt paying any attention that saved my day. Oh well, got a feed atleast, just not very productive again, guess thats fishing thou!

Cheers,
Adam

Also, the FADS are deployed and the tuna schools have arrived, well, atleast one good size school from what I've heard but unsure if they were blues or yellow.

Things are warming up...has anyone come across any flathead in the Swan River flats lately? Must be about time...man i love chucking a fly or light spin gear around for those little guys. Dunno why, they are not exactly sportfish!! Must be the stealth aspect. Anyone ever caught one of those dusky flathead monsters they get over east? thats on my top ten list of things to do...

Did a shipload of miles today looking for the fish, travelled to spots where there are usually fish, headed west, south, north, around and back and nearly bloody everywhere out from Mindarie. Andy Mac must have told them all to go on holidays until he gets back or something. Bouttimes boat managed a 15kg sambo, ours 2 undersize dhuies, 1 harlequin and a heap of sgt bakers. Lots of bites all day but only 2 serious enquiries, very disappointing to say the least. Certainly caught some sun rays thou, the sunnies won't be coming off for some time! :(

Cheers,
Adam

Headed out of Hillaries 5-00am this morning in a mates boat, beautiful Comodore 6.7m fibreglass boat but badly in need of a new sounder (Sorry Pete, but its the truth). It was a bit choppy early on but we persevered (spelling) and by 10 am were on our way back in again. Result for the day, I had two bites and got two fish guess what they were?

Pete got three bites and landed three fish, his were Baldy, Baldy, Dhuie in rapid succession. One of the baldies was on a really old shimano rod and reel combo that may have a shot at the crapy combo competition. I got some decent footage of all the captures bar one and will cut together a bit of a movie later on. New camera worked a treat, but the way the sun was and how we were drifting made for a lot of shadows, plus the boat was fairly rocking and rolling for all the captures, so not happy overly with the footage but the camera itself worked a treat.

Pics to follow after I have had a swim and a spa and several Carlton Premium Drys.

Went for a fish with Gully this morning and decided that it was definately not worth heading to two rocks, so we chose to go from Hillaries instead. With the wind blowing all of a 30 knots from the east, video proves this, we went squiding around little island. I picked up a couple of thumpers and ended up with 3 as a tally but the wind died off around 9 so we headed wide. We found some awesome ground which was pretty fishy, first drop was a 55cm queen snapper that gave a fair old fight to the surface. 2nd time around was a 41cm pinkie that smashed my green lumo grub, I released him as he looked pretty small.

[img_assist|fid=67782|thumb=1|alt=Pink and Green grub eater]
Things went pretty quiet for a while until Gully boated a nice 58cm dhuie. The wind then swung to the south west pretty strong and we anchored up for a while. No suprise that I caught a stingray straight up and then a dusky morwong which decided it wanted to release into my hand with his spikes, not fun. Gully managed to get a small black ass and as the wind freshened we called it quits. Not a bad day on the water except for the gale force winds, managed a nice feed all the same.
[img_assist|fid=67785|thumb=1|alt=Gully's Dhuie]
At this rate I would expect the Mindarie Night Fishing Invitational to be cancelled tomorrow night. If that south wester is anywhere near as strong tomorrow as it was today then I think that it would be unsafe and very uncomfortable out there.

Cheers,
Adam

Went for a fish with Tapout yesterday to one of the inclose spots as the wind was blowing pretty strong. We didn't have a hell of a lot of success, first fish of the day was a pink snapper that was a couple of centimeters undersize, but one of the fattest little buggers I've ever seen. We went through a heap of reefies and seargent bakers until I hooked into a little rat sambo which we tagged number 62496 and measured to be 44cm fork length. The next fish was a bigger rat sambo which we tagged number 62495, measured 58cm fork length and was released in good health. After Tapouts 7th Port Jackson in a row we decided to move to the otherside of the lump where fortunes changed.

I got two eels in a row followed by a scorpion cod and 2 reef bustoffs which saw an end to my arvo fishing. Tapout held in there for another 15 minutes and saw a school of 4-5 yellow tail kings about a meter long buzz the back of the boat. 5 minutes later he was into one of them on 6kg and it took about 30 seconds of it heading towards the horizon before it busted him off. Argh well, not a bad arvo to be on the water, would have been nice if the fish played ball thou. Guess thats fishing thou. :)

Deefa, Honsu etc, how was it out there today? Looked good from shore. Did you get into any Ambo's?

[img_assist|fid=18095|thumb=0|alt=Kalbarri Offshore]
October 5th & 12th Kids Whiting Comp

Every October School Holidays, the Kalbarri Offshore and Angling Club, hosts a whiting competition for kids on each Thursday of the holidays. It has grown to become a highlight for regular visitors and continues to grow in size each year. With thanks to our major sponsor this year, Australian National Sportsfishing Association, we were able to give out some great prizes. We had 174 excited kids signing up the first Thursday, 58 more kids than last year, all ready to fish the beach from the Chinamans to the first jetty.

[img_assist|fid=63355|thumb=0|alt=Crowd at the Weigh In - Whiting Comp]
The crowd at the weigh-in

[img_assist|fid=63359|thumb=0|alt=Some of the 174 kids and parents on the beach]
Some of the 174 kids and parents on the beach

Rules of the comp allow any fish to be caught, kept in a bucket and brought to the weigh-in live, weighed and then released. The Volunteer Sea Search and Rescue, Police, and Ashley Van Viersen loaned their 4WD bikes and gave kids a lift to the weigh station saving them the long walk over the sand.

There were 16 prizes each day including 12 rods and reels each day for species, smallest, biggest, most, most unusual etc. Two sections were competed for, under 8s and 9 to 14 years. The quality and diversity of the species caught showed that the river is in good condition. A lot of whiting came to the weigh station on the first Thursday with Maison Deveson in the under 8’s catching the most and biggest. Darcy Sexton had the biggest bream, a 284gram specimen. In the 9-14 age group Kate Davies had the most and biggest whiting, while Ashleigh Keeler landed the only mulloway of 138 grams. Nicholas Edgar won with his biggest tarwhine and Robert Higgins had a 67-gram tailor.

[img_assist|fid=63362|thumb=0|alt=Darcy Sexton biggest bream, 284gram specimen.]
[img_assist|fid=63369|thumb=0|alt=Maison Deveson and whiting]

Each day we finished off with a lunchtime sausage sizzle and prize giving. A big thank you to Freda, Angie and Shane Krakouer for doing the sausage sizzle. Murchison Boat Hire offered a one-day free hire of their 4.3m dinghy as a raffle prize. Kalbarri Surf Shop, Kalbarri Sports and Dive, Kalbarri Entertainment Centre, Rainbow Jungle, The Seahorse Sanctuary, Marina Home & Leisure, Kalbarri Natural Spring Water and The Kalbarri Pharmacy all donated prizes.

The second Thursday saw another record number of kids, 158 kids line up along the beach waiting for the 9am start. Within minutes the blowies began to arrive. It was a blowie day with multitudes being brought in, but sprinkled amongst them were good fish such as a 92 gram Tarwhine for Steven Pekaar, 136-gram blowie for Jamie Ogilvy, an 84 gram whiting for Fraser Allen all in the 9-14 age group

Surprise for the day was Ben Stelfox who brought in a 428-gram tailor, which was legal size! And just a little later on Laura Gifford also brought one in weighing 252 grams. The under 8’s continued the run of good fish with Jesse Cooper catching 7 tarwhine and Makaira Heaney a most unusual small estuary cod.
[img_assist|fid=63365|thumb=0|alt=Junior Tailor]
[img_assist|fid=63372|thumb=0|alt=Laura Gifford and tailor]
We would like to thank ANSA as our major sponsor, Kalbarri Surf Shop, Kalbarri Sports and Dive, Kalbarri Entertainment Centre, Rainbow Jungle, The Seahorse Sanctuary, Marina Home & Leisure, The Kalbarri Pharmacy Kalbarri Natural Spring Water and Murchison Boat Hire as without them we could not run such a fun comp for the kids.

About 600 fish were caught over the two days in four hours! Species recorded were as follows: blowies, whiting, tailor, black bream, silver bream, gobbleguts, crabs, yellow-eye mullet, estuary cod and bony herring, a total of 10 species.

[img_assist|fid=63375|thumb=0|alt=Junior competition lineup - Kalbarri]

A big thanks to all the helpers on the day, without your help this great event for the kids could not happen.

Laurie Malton
[img_assist|fid=63378|thumb=0|alt=Murchison Boat Hire - Logo]

Fishing Report 28th Sept 2006 - Courtesy of Scott Forbes - EGFC

Although it has been a little bit windy in the mornings lately, we are still being blessed with calm afternoons and the fishing action hasn’t let us down either.

Billfish numbers are starting to pick up with more reports of sailfish and marlin from Tantabiddi waters. Bluewater Tackleworld’s Matt Gates had Dave Butfield out during the week doing some filming for Dave’s T.V program “Hooked” which is shown on the Aurora station for those with Satelite/Foxtel TV. Matt managed successfully to guide Dave on to a 70kg Striped Marlin which put up a spectacular display for the television cameras. The stripey was teased up with the use of lures and then fed back a garfish rigged up on an Owner 9/0circle hook. The circle hook located in the corner of the jaw of the marlin as they are designed to do, enabling a successful release. Dave also managed to land his biggest ever giant trevally and thoroughly enjoyed his fishing and stay in Exmouth at the Potshot Hotel. These shows are planned to air as early as October, which is a fast turn around for film crews.

Dale Gibson from Margaret River who is up enjoying a holiday/honeymoon with his wife Jenny has been having a good run fishing the protected waters of the gulf. Dale has picked up cobia, spanish mackerel and big queenfish all on lures. Dale went out with local young gun Rhys Clatworthy and the pair had a ball sightfishing throwing soft plastic and minnow lures to all manner of species spotted feeding on the numerous baitfish schools present in the gulf at the moment.

Low tide in the mornings has been productive for those fishing the shoreline in lighthouse bay. Big spangled emperor and bluebone have fallen victim to those willing to get up early and use fresh bait. A lightly weighted rig of a running sinker is our suggestion for this. If you ever need any hints, advice, or the latest fishing and weather reports please call in and see us, at 3 Maley Street.

Some huge squid are still being caught in the gulf also. The shallow waters both north and south of the marina are holding big numbers of the tasty cephalopods. It can be a matter of locating the patches of squid which is best done by slow trolling the prawn style jigs over the weedy areas but once you find the patches of squid it is easy to obtain more than enough for a sensational feed.

Look out for information next week from the Exmouth Game Fishing Club about the upcoming Circle Hook competition.

[img_assist|fid=59699|thumb=0|alt=Exmouth Trev]

Sunday Times fishing news...

METROPOLITAN
Beach action is spasmodic for bread and butter species such as herring, one of few highlights some decent tailor caught by shore anglers north of Yanchep. Woodman Point produced herring and the odd tailor. Evening high tides have been best for herring along Mangles Bay and Palm Beach, the Powerhouse also worth a try for these species. Squid towards Garden and Carnac Islands and in Mangles Bay have been plentiful.
Some excellent size king george were pulled from the area between Garden Island and the Five Fathom Bank, big pink snapper coming from behind the Five Fathom with the occasional jewie in that region. The Barges, well out the back of Rottnest in 100-110m of water continue to turn up numbers of pink snapper and skippy.
The Swan has surprised some with quality sand whiting taking soft plastics. Bream are still well upstream, some decent fish among schools, and black bream were also spotted in the Matilda Bay area but were reluctant biters. Schools of whiting are around Matilda Bay around full tide, with the boat ramp seeming to be the hot spot.

BUSSELTON
Lovers of blue swimmer crabs could do worse than head to Geographe Bay for a feed of these tasty creatures, and squid are also plentiful. Greg of Ocean to Outback reckons success on samson fish encountered towards the end of the jetty is due to the presence of the squid. Skippy to 1kg were a frequent catch from the Jetty and the Four Mile and king george whiting fishing was rewarding.
In better conditions jewfish were taken off the Eight Mile.
Tailor to 3kg made for fine fishing action along the Dunsborough coast and from the west coast, Moses Rock one hot spot.

ALBANY
Cheynes Beach and Bluff Creek make the better spots to try your luck for salmon, Normans, Little Beach and Two Peoples Bay other places to have a go. Salmon trout are prolific in the river systems and the Kalgan and King Rivers are working well for bream with the odd big mulloway about as well. Bream have picked up right along that coast, nearly all rivers from Walpole to Bremer performing well for both lure users and bait fishers.
Deep sea angling has been difficult although smaller craft working closer to protected waters at the likes of Gull Rock and local islands are finding some good king george, deeper spots best and best fish 42-45cm. Bag limit catches are not uncommon but you need to move around.

Courtesy of Scott Forbes - EGFC

Andrew Burton and his wife Natasha made a quick trip to Exmouth from their home town of Newman and experienced an unforgettable day aboard Terry Maxwell’s charter boat Osso Blue. Andrew was lucky enough to be on the end of the rod when they hooked up to a giant Spanish mackerel. The big mackerel which took a Halco Laser Pro 190DD in the pink multi colour was taken on 24kg line and could have been a potential world record had it been brought in and weighed straight away. As it turned out the mackerel later weighed in at 42kg, just shy of the world mark but easily beating the current Australian record, however as Andrew isn’t a current member of a game fishing club, he is not eligible to claim the Australian record. The existing record was 38.75kg from back in 1978. Andrew and Natasha will be joining up to the Exmouth Game Fishing Club before their next trip out fishing. The mackerel wasn’t the only good catch for the day as the boat managed to find some nice red emperor, spangled emperor and rankin cod to ensure that everybody took home some nice fish at the end of the day.

Tantabiddi reef has been productive for those trolling deep diving lures. Both the coral and coronation trout as well as Spanish mackerel are being caught by anglers working the 15-20m contour line with the 8m deep diving lures. Most of the mackerel being taken have averaged 13kg however there has been the odd 20kg+ plus specimen mixed in as well.

Dorothy Kostera who has been enjoying the past 6 months whilst staying at the Lighthouse Caravan park was the envy of everybody at the park last week when she brought back a beautiful 15 and ½ pd Bluebone which she caught across the road from the caravan park in lighthouse bay on 30lb line on her secret bait which she isn’t willing to divulge to anybody.

Queenfish have been making early morning raids on the hardyhead schools at Trisel Access. For an hour or so at the top of the tide each morning the queenfish which have been averaging 4-5kg in size are being taken by anglers throwing around small poppers and soft plastics in a size which imitates the hardyheads which is naturally what the queenfish are chasing.

SEPTEMBER 23rd COMPETITION RESULTS

A cancellation of the boat section due to big swells and southerly winds was a disappointment and with the Grand Final next Saturday no one would fish so we had the river and beach sections only. A good turn out again for the river section and the land-based guys did well despite the big swell.

This month we had 8 senior and 7 juniors compete in the river. The juniors did well with Steven Eley, James & Luke Dooley and Amy Stewart each landing live bream to be returned but Dylan Ivey easily won with his two live bream. Amy Stewart’s bream was a good size at 654 grams.
[img_assist|fid=55974|thumb=0|alt=Amy Stewart’s 654g fish]

[img_assist|fid=55981|thumb=0|alt=Dylan Ivey with one of his winning bream]

[img_assist|fid=55978|thumb=0|alt=Garry Ivey with his .912g live bream.]

In the senior section, Sue Malton and Di Stewart each had one fish while Brett Bain had two. Cheryl brought three live bream to the weigh-in catching them all in the last hour, Laurie Malton had three as well but not good enough to beat Garry Ivey’s three with one of them a very respectable 912 grams to win. Most river anglers were plagued by undersize mulloway.

[img_assist|fid=55991|thumb=0|alt=James, Luke and Dylan show off their fish]

Daniel and Simon Tarasek, Tristan Neuman and Bill Tolson fished the beach section, but only Daniel and Simon managed to land a fish. They were good snapper as well; a 3.3kg fish for Daniel and Simon’s went 2.95kgs.

[img_assist|fid=55994|thumb=0|alt=Daniel and Simon Tarasek - Snapper]

The Mystery Fish voucher from The Kalbarri Pizza & Pasta went to Daniel for his snapper. The restaurant voucher was won by Tristan Neumann and Garry Ivey won the scratchie draw. Laurie who spent time rigging his rod, casting out and then realising that he had forgotten to feed the line under his bail arm, won mug of the day. Not to forget the Hot Bite guys who forgot to engage the front hubs while 4WD up river and getting bogged and wondering why they were not moving!

Next comp is on 21st October.

Exmouth Fishing Report #33 - 5th Sept ‘06 - Courtesy of Scott Forbes - EGFC

The town is finally beginning to quieten down after a very busy tourist season. Despite the large amount of anglers, there are still plenty of fish in the sea! Dean Dorman from Roley Stone caught a mixed bag of fish, including his first billfish from Aaron Rampling’s boat called “Sugar Daddy.” The boys enjoyed fresh seafood for dinner with tuna, calamari, red emperor and prawns from Kailis during their week off from work.

Three guys from Bunbury, Rob, Danno and Jai pictured this issue had weeks of enjoyment during August fishing out off Tantabiddi. The trio were fishing for mackerel in 25meters of water near south passage. They hooked up to a small mackerel about 12kg. As they were bringing it in slowly the mackerel jumped high in the air about 20m from the stern. To the boys amazement a marlin with the “head the size of a 44gallon drum” (according to Rob) jumped out after the mackerel and nailed it in mid air. The boys freespooled the reel and hooked up to the big fish that instantly began trekking west. After half an hour, the hooks pulled and all that was returned was the head of the small mackerel and the original lure. However, the boys managed to hook and land many other billfish for their stay including this black marlin with its rigid pectoral fins.

Fishing from the shore has been productive, especially along town beach. During the middle of the day schools of whiting can be seen with a good pair of polarised sunglasses on. The Fathers Day fishing clinic on the Town beach was well organised with targets for kids to cast at and rods and reels for them to use. The Exmouth Game Fishing Club cooked up a free sausage sizzle for those involved and hopefully next year there will be many more participants. Look out next week for the photo of the biggest fish caught on the day.

Dave Buttfield from the television series “Hooked” on Foxtel is filming this week in Exmouth. Look out for the series which airs on the Aurora channel on Saturdays.

Another sailfish tagged off Dampier last week by angler Craig Rieck had been previously tagged by angler Trevor Turner onboard the boat Reel Teaser at the Rowley Shoals on August 18th 2005. We are still waiting for information on the fish that was tagged in Exmouth.

[img_assist|fid=52066|thumb=1|alt=Bigger Marlin]

Bloody blowy and cold today. Budi and I decided some breaming are in order as the foul weather can turn them on. First stop was a rockwall which Ive been getting bream for the last few weeks.
Wind blowing the wrong direction and low water level makes fishing very quiet. The next move to MacCallum Park was a better option giving us shelter from the blasting chilly wind. Needless to say we got into some good fish and lost similar numbers to the heavy structure.

My first one after been blown away twice......
[img_assist|fid=48606|thumb=0|alt=Hon-Su's bream1]

The effectiveness of light gauge circle hooks.......2/0 Mustad demon circle.
[img_assist|fid=48613|thumb=0|alt=circle hooks for bream]

Budi first legal one after a couple of false starts with 10cm fish.....
Then proceeded to either pull the hooks or blown away.....
[img_assist|fid=48629|thumb=0|alt=Budi's bream2]

Biggest of the day.......
[img_assist|fid=48610|thumb=0|alt=Hon-Su's bream2]

Fished the outgoing tide after lunch and decided to get on the jetty to fish hard under the jetty.......blown away a few more times again then finally managed to land this baby........ I think you'll know which jetty this is....

[img_assist|fid=48626|thumb=0|alt=Hon-Su's bream3]

Fishing Report #32 - August 31st 2006 - Courtesy of Scott Forbes - EGFC

Gail Meredith and her boyfriend Marijan are up on holidays from Perth and have been having a great time fishing from shore around Exmouth. Gail got the surprise of her life when she hooked onto a huge barracuda from the beach at Bundegi. The big barracuda which Gail and Marijan estimated to be close to 20kg was released after a couple of quick photos. Whilst Gail certainly caught the biggest fish of their holiday Marijan definitely caught the best eating fish in the form of a couple of whopper spangled emperor which he caught off the shore in Lighthouse bay.

Baitfish have been copping a hammering around the Muiron Islands with just about every form of pelagic getting into the action. Big Longtail tuna, Spanish mackerel, shark mackerel and cobia have all been caught by anglers throwing poppers into the fleeing baitfish on the surface.

Queenfish are starting to make an appearance for anglers fishing off the beaches on the west coast. Mildura wreck Rd and Trisel access have been the better spots to fish. There have been plenty of gold spot trevally around the 4kg mark along the west coast. Kevin’s son Lyall Cotterell outfished his father last week catching plenty of spanglies, trevally and queenfish. All fish were caught from the shore and the majority released, with only a few making the pan each night for a fresh feed.

The marina is certainly turning in to a marine haven with all sorts of species cruising in to the expanded waters. At times you can clearly see tusk fish, bream, squid and baitfish from the rockwalls and pathways. Inquisitive dolphins often come through around dusk and the odd groper and shark have also been spotted.

A couple of Exmouth crew headed up to Dampier last week to chase the loads of billfish that have been tagged. Despite not many being located, there was an interesting capture of a black marlin estimated at 2kg. The feisty little critter was gently tagged and released, while others nearby were caught that were estimated at around 4kg.

One marlin tagged recently in Dampier had a tag in it already and the fish had been previously caught off Exmouth. We are awaiting further information from the Billfish Foundation regarding this fish and will keep you informed.

[img_assist|fid=48508|thumb=0|alt=Gatesy with a Junior]

tonite i went to the narrows. didnt catch nething, then decided to go to palm beach jetty...caught a few a herring (decent size) and about 20 squid all perfect bait size...had live squid out for mulloway had a few runs..and hook onto a big ray that decided to plant itself to the ground. neone looking for another person to fish out on the boat with them... :D ive got alot of fresh squid bait :D

Well here goes the full report.

Rory and Adam from my Exmouth adventures joined me on the good ship "Macattack" for a Perth metro sortie, the first since getting back from Exmouth. Rory (being almost related....when are you going to marry my niece????) had been on the boat many times before but this was Adam's first voyage. The guys met at my place at 5-45am and we headed for Mindarie Marina for 6-00am.

Upon arriving at the ramp there was only one other boat in the water and another setting up so it was easy as pie putting in. Rory made the mistake of wearing thongs so I made him launch the boat for me so I kept dry and warm (Jeez the temp was freezing). Thankfully there wasn't anybody waiting to put in as Rory took ages to get the boat in the water...practice makes perfect.

Finally we launched and the old girkl fired up first time (phew) and we headed out through a pretty big swell. I considered hitting some ground inside Staggies (Pamela Shoal) which has produced a number of dhuies for me at this time of year, but the wind was much lighter than I expected so we headed wider for a shot at some bigger specimens.

Mr Gallash knows my rule and still cringes when you ask him what he had to send back to the fish gods, but he also knows that good Karma comes to those that obey my rule. Well Adam had to face this issue himself. I asked the boys whether they wanted to hit the whiting grounds first but the were brave enough to say no. So I pointed the boat to a few spots I hadn't fished for over a year. These spots were flat coral that my father-in-law and I had hit a nice patch of smallish dhuies several years ago. We set up the drift, got it wrong by 20m or so but came across some more good ground,low and behold Adam loads up first and boats a nice 53cm Dhuie. You know what came next!!!

[img_assist|fid=46443|thumb=1|alt=Adam's first Pinky|caption=Lovely Pinky for Adam. A B2Lumo did the trick again.]

We moved a bit wider to hit some lesser fished spots and picked up a nice KG for Rory and a lovely Pinky for Adam. It was by now 10am and I hadn't raised a scale. I was using a Berkley Power Grub that John Abott from Complete Angler in Joondalup had slipped into my bag when I had bought the bait the day before. He was ardament that this would produce for me so being the kind of guy who likes to experiment (see my last FWA article) I couldn't resist. I put the power grub on the top dropper loop and my "Super Snell" on the bottom. I loaded up with a cocktail of whole squid and whole mulie as usual and first drop on the new spot saw me nail a 50cm Dhuie on the power grub. After a couple of attempts we got him back down to grow some more and I loaded up again this time with a couple of Seargent Bakers on the Power Grub. Notably both times the fish had ignored the fresh bait and hit the soft plastic.

[img_assist|fid=46439|thumb=1|alt=Adam's KG 02/09/06|caption=Beautiful KG, took a squid/mulie cocktail bait on a B2Lumo squid.]

We fished several more spots which produced a nice pinky for Adam (Karma coming back after the first release). A couple more fish then I loaded up on a massive fish.......whoops no fish but reef. Wouldn't you know it the power grub had hooked up again and this time it wasn't moving. The line snapped above the Grub so I quickly changed over to another set-up. Having just come back from Exmouth I had noticed the success they were having on the charter boats with small circle hooks. I had picked up a box from Complete Angler and decided to give them a whirl. Time to change to some Cuttlefish as bait at the same time.

We were now on about our 15th lump for the day and I sent down my offering. A big slice of cuttlefish on the snell and a small slice of cuttlefish on the circle hook. Straight away I loaded up with a constant pressure from my rod (rather than the heave ho with normal hooks) this fish hit the afterburners and powered away immediately. I controlled the spool with my thumb (careful not to over play the drag) and kept the fish under control. The first 10m are the toughest with a Dhuie and once I had his head turned the fight took on the tell tale signs of a big dhuie. Whilst I haven't seen the footage yet, all the way through the video I was saying "I'm not going to call it yet....I'm not going to call it yet" over and over again. I knew damn well what it was, but I didn't want to look like an idiot calling it for the mother of all dhuies only to see a big ray or shark hit the surface a few minutes later.

When I finally got colour there was no denying the dhuie call. Fish coming up in tight circles and away from the boat, white underbelly, has to be a dhuie. But you never know exectly how big they are until they break the surface, and this one was no exception. A beautifully conditioned fish of just under 12kgs was a nice way to get back into metro fishing.

[img_assist|fid=46052|thumb=1|alt=Dhuie 02/09/06|caption=Nice Dhuie caught this afternoon on a bit of cuttlefish on a 5/0 Gamatsu Octopus Circle hook.]

[img_assist|fid=46462|thumb=1|alt=Dhuie 12kg 02/09/06|caption=Apart from the small circle hook doing the damage, the other notable feature of this capture was the huge rusted Hook with about 40cm of heavy mono hanging out of its mouth. Someone was unlucky a month or so back.]

Then to follow that up with a lovely 4kg snapper from amother lump topped it off for me. Meanwhile Adam had chipped in with a horse of a snapper that gave his heavy gear a fair work out.

[img_assist|fid=46448|thumb=1|alt=Adam's best Pinkie 02/09/06|caption=This was a horse of a fish and Adam did well to get it alongside the boat, it had been hooked in the mouth then dropped and rehooked in the flank, a great capture to stay connected on a 6kg plus fish.]

We got back to the ramp with an esky full of fish (2 KG's, 2 Dhuies, 3 big snapper and a blackarse) everything else was released including 3 smaller Dhuies and a few odds and sods.

A great day on the water and proof that quality table fish can still be caught in metro waters. You just have to follow my 5 golden rules:

1- Appease the fish gods by releasing your first fish on board for every new angler.
2- Keep moving and hit 15 to 20 spots every trip. (spread the load)
3- Travel between spots a different way each time (only way to pick up new ground)
4 - stop and fish any likely looking spots as you are travelling between known spots.
5 - keep experimenting with your rigs (those Berkley power grubs were excellent this last trip).

Stay safe out there and tight lines.

Exmouth Game Fishing Report - #31 - 24th August, 06. Courtesy of Scott Forbes.

Keen fly fisherman Ryan Mumford who is over on holiday from Merimbula in Victoria had a great day out at the islands during the week. Ryan who is more used to throwing flies at smaller species like bream and estuary perch back home got a huge buzz out of fishing for species like queenfish, cobia and trevally all of which Ryan managed to catch on the fly gear. Ryan is pictured this week with a good size queenfish caught on the Fly rod.

We are still receiving an amazing amount of reports of small black marlin being caught out behind Tantabiddi and the Muiron islands. Anglers fishing in boats as small as 4m have been encountering the marlin in depths ranging as shallow as 20m, although more consistent catches have been reported in 100m of water. Small skirted lures like the Williamson Ballyhoo and the Black Magic Maggot seem to be producing best results. Yellowfin Tuna and some big Spanish mackerel are also being encountered by those fishing Tantabiddi waters.

Blue lined emperors have kept anglers fishing the sheltered waters of the gulf happy with most returning back to the ramp with a good feed. The odd spangled emperor have been mixed in with the Blue lined emperors. Anglers must be aware of a mixed bag of 4 Norwest snapper species and also that the size limit on the spangled emperor is 41cm as opposed to the blue lined emperor which only have to be 32cm.If you are unsure if you have caught a spangled or blue lined as both species look very similar it is best to take the safe option and return anything under 41cm back into the water. It is worth keeping in mind there is a detailed Fisheries pamphlet available on the different Norwest snapper species.

Learmonth jetty has been painted black with squid ink over past week. During the high tide period the jetty has been firing with a large number of squid being caught each day. Bream, flathead and whiting have also been encountered off the jetty by those dangling a bit of fresh bait.

[img_assist|fid=45232|thumb=0|alt=Queenie - Ryan Mumford]

Fishing Report #30 - 17th Aug 2006 - Courtesy of Scott Forbes

Gavin “Chook” Daniels weighed in a genuine 30kg Spaniard during week. The big mack was taken in 16m of water at Tantabiddi out of a 4.2m dinghy. It took a 7m deep diving Halco Laser Pro and despite using 80lb braid still gave “Chook” and his deckie Rick plenty of grief when it came to the boat. Gavin and his catch are pictured this week with the scales proving the fishing story.

Richard Black who has just moved into town from Broome and is working at the hatchery for Kailis was fishing in Exmouth for his first time during the week out from Tantabiddi in his 12ft tinny. He got the surprise of his life when a 80kg black marlin decided to take a liking to the skipping gar Richard was trolling out the back. A nearby boat took some photos for Richard, who was extremely grateful, however he forgot to get their details so if that was you please drop in to Bluewater Tackleworld Exmouth and we will pass on your details to Richard who is keen to get hold of some photos.

Red emperor have been the main target for bottom fisherman and there has been some good catches from unusually shallow water. Big reds have been reported from as shallow as 20m right out to 100m of water ranging from out near the Muiron islands to right inside the Gulf. According to reports the boxed calamari is the best bait for the reds.

Squid have been prolific in both the gulf and inside the reef at Tantabiddi. If you’re chasing a feed of squid it is most important to fish the rising tide period, especially the top of the tide.

Judging by the amount of long shank hooks we are selling lately it is quite clear that the yellowfin whiting must be running along the gulf beaches at the moment. Segments of prawns seem to work best and a light outfit with a light sinker gently lobbed in to the water around the high tide should get good results.

[img_assist|fid=41733|thumb=0|alt=30kg Mackie]

AUGUST 19th COMPETITION RESULTS

The swell was down but a NNW wind picking up during the day made it a bit difficult for the boaties this month but the land-based guys were happy and a small tidal movement all day did not help the river anglers.

Plenty of river anglers fished with a whopping 11 juniors this month. Only three of the juniors managed to land a fish however. Steven Eley had two bream but was unlucky that one died before weigh-in reducing his point score. Amy Stewart had a respectable live bream of 580grams but Martin won with his 728gram live bream to win the junior river section. Di Stewart and Cheryl Eley each had one live bream while Gary Ivey three fish which put him in the lead for a short time until Leah Skinner opened her esky to reveal a 3.25kg mulloway and one live bream winning by a good margin. All the bream are tagged and returned to the river.

[img_assist|fid=41525|thumb=0|alt=Leah Mulloway]
Leah Skinner’s 3.25kg winning mulloway

Brett Bain changed his style and went for a beach fish landing 4 tailor from Wittacarra while Don Owen had 7 fish. Tristan Neumann showed 4 respectable fish but Daniels bag of 5 fish which included a massive 19.9kg amberjack won him the beach section as well as the Anzac Meritorious award of a $50.00 voucher for the big amberjack from the rocks. Thanks to the Kalbarri RSL for the vouchers each month.

The Kalbarri RSL Anzac Meritorious award went to Daniel for this big amberjack.
[img_assist|fid=41528|thumb=0|alt=Daniel Ambo]

Jamie Waite with Faye Sutherland and Ralph Bulndell were out early headed north and picked up some nice fish. Faye was onto a snapper first drop with her new rod and reel and went on to have the time of her life out fishing the two guys onboard “Alliance”. “Bulawayo Buoy” was not far behind with Laurie and Sue Malton aboard and when they spotted birds working a bait school in very clear water, dropped the lures behind the boat promptly picking up a couple of blowies! Persisting with the lures Sue came up tight with an 8.35kg mackerel on 3kg line! Kind of unheard of at this time of year? Within minutes she was on again but dropped it. It was then Laurie’s turn and he soon found himself out gunned on 3kg tackle and eventually bust off after 20 minutes.

Mark Flanagan’s catch of nice snapper
[img_assist|fid=41531|thumb=0|alt=Mark's Snapper]

While “The Master Baiter” with Paul Loffler, Matt Tenant and Mark Flanagan aboard were out deep landing snapper, Faye was onto more fish including a 7.9kg amberjack that was good enough to win her the under 7.5m boat section and Sue and Laurie were catching under size dhuie when the mulie under a small balloon out the back of “Bulawayo Buoy” exploded as it was ripped under water which turning out to be an 8.5kg yellow-fin tuna on 6kg line for Laurie.

[img_assist|fid=41534|thumb=0|alt=Lauries Outa Season Gamefish]
Sue and Laurie’s out of season game fish

The over 7.5m boats “Santa Barbara” with Paul Maindok, Peter Dooley and new club member Lui Palmara and “Top Deck” with Steve Wiseman and the committee from A.N.S.A. all caught fish but Lou Palmara had the best bag of snapper to win his section.

Lui Palmara with two of his three winning fish
[img_assist|fid=41537|thumb=0|alt=Lui Snapper]

The Mystery Fish voucher from The Gilgai Tavern went to Laurie Malton. The restaurant voucher from The Jetty Seafood Shack went to Daniel Tarasek. Steve Wiseman won the scratchie draw and donated it back, thanks Steve and no mug of the month story was submitted.

Thanks to Trevor and Donna from the Kalbarri Beach Resort for their sponsorship.

Next comp is on 23rd September.

Fishing Report 10th August 2006 - Courtesy of Scott Forbes - EGFC

You can tell we are nearing the end of our winter months as the temperatures slowly start to rise and the days are getting longer. The glorious weather we have been enjoying of late is continuing and the fishing action still remains excellent.

Walter Pike fishing aboard the vessel “Black Poole Belle” had a surprising capture in the form of a black spot tuskfish or bluebone as they are commonly known. The bluebone which weighed in at 16lb was caught out from Point Murat on a strip of Charlie court for bait, put up an impressive fight for Walter and later provided a great feed. Walter is pictured this week with his prize catch.

Ian Wilks from the Marmion Angling and Aquatic Club is up from Perth doing a week of game fishing and has struck a good variety of fish during his stay. One of the many highlights for Ian has been the capture of a 40kg black marlin on 8kg line. Wahoo, dolphin fish, and sailfish have all made appearances for Ian who has been trolling predominately skirted lures.

Those anglers fishing from the shore have been finding it a little tough and tantalising around Trisel access as the herds of bait schools tease the anglers close to shore. The predatory fish that usually come in close to eat the live baits have been scarce. Walking to various fishing spots at present anywhere in Exmouth is amazing as you are greeted with wonderful wildflowers along the tracks. The weather has been superb and as I have said before, catching a fish is purely a bonus.

With all the recent glassy calm afternoons lately Exmouth Gulf has been turning on some good fishing. Neil Richardson was fishing in only 3m of water chasing a feed of squid when a 93cm cobia took the floating mulie bait Neil had out whilst drifting along. Longtail tuna and shark mackerel have been seen busting up on the surface in the Gulf. Watching for diving birds or baitfish spraying is a good indication of the tuna and mackerel feeding. Garfish have been in plague proportions on both the West Coast and in the Gulf. Whether you’re after the gardies for bait or for a feed now is the time to chase them.

[img_assist|fid=40683|thumb=0|alt=Walter Pike - Black Spot Tuskfish]

Went to maylands today, fished for a few hours with pretty dismal results. Only a couple small bream. Not exactly the best first fish back after my trip but meh, was better than being inside!

How'd everyone else go?

Is is worth the trouble to head out to the back of Rotto. Looking to head out there on Thursday if the weather looks good. Looking to fish in the deaper water for snapper and jews. Anyone heard of any fish being caught. Anyone intersted in heading out there on the day let me know. I may have a spot or two on the boat if anyone is interested. There are two boats going at the moment.

Thanks

[img_assist|fid=30451|thumb=1|alt=sore cods]