Pup was keen for a lick

Been some superb sunrises lately. Some pics of my past three early morning runs.

went to try and find the snapper out from hillarys this morning, was first car in the car park just before 6am which was a surprise. Headed down to our usual ground sent out some burley and nothing ! Hung in there till about 7.45am and still nothing so upped anchor and headed to late twenties. An hour and a half saw plenty of fish with 2 dhuies and 2 baldies as take homers, not huge fish but a great morning.

Hi All.

Had a mate tell me he was heading up to barri the week before the school holidays for a few days to hopefully get a surf or 2 in and I had a bit of time up my sleeve and not exactly smashing it in Perth so decided to have a bit of a mates trip away and take the boat up as have another mate up there and had fished a few times there and thought we might get a couple of good days fishing in.

Ended up fishing every day mostly between 30 and 50km north of town the weather was not super but winds were mostly NE or NE and even if howling sticking close to the cliffs gave us some protection and were able to motor along nicley the worst day was the first when it unexpectley turned SW and took 3hrs to get back in slop but was made up for with the several pods of whales we got to see doing there thing just awsome. The last day was the best wind wise and even got a bit of glass so went a bit deeper but could not get anything size apart from 1 baldy.

Did OK on the fish my local mate put us onto some good areas and I think I am starting to understand my new sounder a lot better to see what I am over even managed to hover over a likey looking spot and another mate had a good snapper onboard within almost a minute, have includes a couple of sounder (Elite 9Ti) pics below and still no expert but we pulled good fish off these spots any feedback on them good or bad is appreciated we fished mainly within 500m of the coast due to the wind in 10 to 20m and got a good asortment of pinks and baldies and one dhie which was my first size on the boat and even some good bycatch including a first flounder and my biggest flattie by a long shot.

Booked a house thru KAS at 48 Mortimer and can highly recommend it for a group of boys to go away even a family it had a great outside area and a fire pit which was a nice touch at the end of the day as well as a short walk to the pub (only night we went down for a couple was karaoke night thanks to the locals for the entertainment!), also if OK to say want to give a big up to Jane at the jetty outdoors supplies shop?? got my fuel from there and she looked after me with my bait and some tackle as well as an afterhours number if we came in late and needed fuel.

Lastly a big thanks to my local mate I am a plumber and he is a sparky so destined to clash but to know him is to like him and he fished with me every day except one when he went to Gero for the day for Chemo! without him don't think i would have ventured as far and got many fish a champion considering his health is not the best.

Thanks for reading sorry the pics are not nearly as good as some others post but was more keen to fish than take photos and conditions made it a bit tricky on the boat to stay still, hopefully better ones to come in the future.

Pulled the dhu and a baldy from here before bagging out our only time.

Got 2 snapper and 2 baldies as well as the flattie here.

So this report is very late... got back from exy and have been flat out at work ever since.

Went up with the old man and brother during April for a 2 weeks and managed to tick a few boxes so overall the trip was a success.

We decided that this trip we were going to have a good crack at deep drop so a trip into Compleat angler nedlands and 3 shimano forcemaster 9000s, 3 daiwa grandwaves and about 5km of braid and we were sorted.

The trip up was eventful after blowing a tyre on the boat trailer and then having to stop in Carnarvon for a few hours to have a rear car wheel replaced after sheering off 3 of the 5 studs and nearly losing it (long story...). Finally made it to Exmouth and itching to get fishing.

First day we decided to spend a few hours pulling skirts out deep while looking for potential ground for a deep drop. We found a bit of ground holding fish so down went 1 rod. Withing seconds the rod was loaded and tension was high because this was the first time any of us had been deep dropping. As soon as we saw red it was high fives all round and alot of shouting... our first ever drop and we managed a double of rubies. Next drop same story. They werent big rubies from the photos ive seen but they were rubies none the less. By this stage we were all on cloud nine and the monkey was off the back for the trip because we had already ticked one off the list and managed to get a few fillets for the freezer. We ended up with 6 and left them biting to try and find more ground. Didnt manage any more fish for the day but it was a day to remember.

Day 2 and the call was made to try repeat the previous day. Once again out went the spread and we started searching for ground. We had marked a few spots and the call was made to head back for a fish. We were about 300m from the mark and the old man calls out to bring the spread in, to which i replied "there may be a billy in the next 300m". Well about 10 seconds later the short corner went off, got dropped and then shotgun went off... this time it stayed connected. We designated rods at the start of the day to avoid confusion so my brother was up (mine was the short corner...). After what seemed like a lifetime but only 55 minutes later we had a little black marlin boatside. Ive been going up with the old man for 3 years targeting bills each time for nothing and this is was my brothers first trip and the prick nails one on the second day. Regardless, leadering a marlin was by far the biggest adrenalin rush i have ever had fishing (my hands are even shaking while writing this). We estimated it for about 45kg and it swam off nicely after swimming it boatside for a bit.

We then went to the intened spot for a deep drop but didnt manage to get anything besides what i think were snake mackerel. On the way home we put a couple of xrap 30s out hoping for a mackie behind the reef. We had just passed the south passage and off went one lure, but unlike a mackie run this just didnt stop. After dumping about 200m of line on 15kg gear, we gave chase and after about 20 minutes of to-and-fro i had landed my first yellowfin tuna going 18.2kg on the lie detector. This day is by far the greatest day fishing we have ever had, managing to land 2 bucket list fish.

The next few days the wind blew up so we spent a bit of time inside the reef loosing alot of stickbaits to angry spangos. We got across the the murions for a quick look one of these days but the sharks made short work of any fish.

A rest day was then called so a landbased fish was in order. The weed was pretty bad and the water in close was quite murky after the blow so this was unsuccessful.

The next few days were looking to come really good so we had another rest day to prepare for a trip over to long island.

The trip over was a bit lumpy but we were ever hopeful that the weather report would hold true and it would calm as the day went on... well this wasnt to be the case. We spend most of the day tucked in the cover of long island but still managed a few fish. The wind did eventually die off but not till late afternoon, making the run into the island very plesant. I still think this place is one of the most spectacular spots on earth.

The next day and the same story. The wind was up but we pushed through and managed to come home with spangos, red emps and some trout.

The following day it was back out tantas for a deep drop. This morning fast turned into a nightmare, doing a trailer bearing on the way to the ramp and spending 4 hours on dry land after a couple of trips to-and-from exmouth for parts. Finally got in the water around 12, however it turned out to be a very slow day with only 1 greyband coming onboard amongst a heap of small sharks and snake mackerel... damn those slimy things are a pain in the ass! On the way home we put the xraps out again and in the exact same spot near the south passage it went off again. This time we knew it was another yellowfin but i this one just wouldnt give up. Unfortunately it was a strong run-in tide and there was alot of weed around the passage entrance. Try as we did we couldnt get it out of the passage current and after a few runs through the weed banks the line gave way. Devastated! Continuing on we picked up a nice size spanish mack not long after to make up for the slow day and disapointment.

I was due to fly home the next day and after all the mechanical issues we had over the past week dad and brother made the call to get all bearings done on the trailer and head home.

In all it was an awesome trip, managed to get some nice fillets in the freezer, catch a few target species and spending a week up north fishing and drinking beer with the old man and brother when we all live away is great.

The last trip was bloody tuff big swell see the first pic i usally balloon them lower rocks. Anyway ballooning was a non event with swell stiring the inshore up but boats done well on pelagics, me and tangles toughed it out and got a few fish 

Tailor were a bit more active and got a good few between 55-65cm, when i kept one for mulla bait i seen the size of baitfish it spat up and switched to small metals, this resulted in alot more hookups.

Mullas highlight the misses catching a tagged mulla from the same gutter14 months back, tagging a heap of small fish and a nice feed.

I flat packed all my bait and shred at shorecatch to make the most of esky space feel free to contact me for custom bait packs for your trips. This is what i used for the mullas, all tailor on the lures.

Cured bonito fillet, mullet fillet, trevally fillet and squid

 Headed up Mid west with the family for the weekend, left the Reefy at home and fished out of a mates dinghy. Stacer 14 ft with a 40 Yamaha, was a good lesson in perserverance as was very quiet but the 6 odd bites we got all resulted in fish. Bit of swell Sat arvo. Was damn cold and shitty Nor easter on Sunday and I was very happy when we got our fourth fish by lunch as I was feeling pretty crook. Had the disappointment of loosing the big fish of a double header due to leader parting only to get the smaller of what felt like a serious dhu. Was great to get a good feed all in view of town and the Lobster Shack. 30 metres.

 Hi All

Went out for a fish on Saturday in the bay. Plenty of snapper around at the moment in close.

Ended up with three, all on the anchor on bait. Beautiful conditions a bit chilly in the morning though.

 After a few runs out wide for not much, we found some fish, managed to bag out in 2 drops and keep hunting ground which was also successful. Not huge fish, but plenty of fillets. Looking forward to getting out there again. 

The promise of fair conditions from Willyweather (pathological liar) prompted an early morning launch from Woodies with the west end of Rotto in mind. After a very lumpy one-hour trip and with a very grumpy wife we eventually made it to the calmer waters on the west side of Rotto.

We decided to do some drift fishing as the south easterly allowed us to remain in contact with a couple of reef structures for extended periods. Our plan was to start off in 12m and use the wind to push us to about 30m before moving closer to shore and repeating the same method on a different line. It was during our second drift that a humble mullie which was being towed behind the boat was gobbled up by a very hasty and hungry predator. As Gail sunk the hook, this sprinter peeled off about 100m of line within a couple of seconds and thoughts of loosing all the "not so cheap" YGK braid came to mind. My first call was tuna or shark as it remained high in the water column. Sambo, pinkie and YTK tend to look for opportunities to break you off in the bricks below and therefore they were scratched from the mental list of possible culprits. After the initial heart wrenching run, Gail turned the fish and it came in relatively easily until next to the boat, where it spent the last of it's energy trying to escape being captured by the Nikon. When the fish came within view I initially called it a shark, then a YTK and finally realised that it was a decent Spanish Mackerel. Trying to land it with the net proved impossible and I eventually grabbed it by the tail and brought it onto the boat.

Gail and I were both ecstatic and my hands were shaking like a school boy landing their first ever fish. I was also instantly forgiven for bringing her across the "treacherous seas". We quickly removed the hook which was fortunately pinned to the side of the mackie's mouth. As we were not fishing with wire trace Gail was very lucky to land this fish. We had two runs during our first drift with both traces bitten off and although initial thoughts were shark, it could well have been mackies. The fish was placed on the measuring tape and it proved a whopping 134cm. Now that may not seem large to the seasoned boat angler, but for somebody that has no mackie to their name - it is BIG. Incidentally - I have now officially put four anglers onto mackies without landing one myself. We took about 10 minutes trying to revive and release the fish, but unfortunately it's days were numbered. Our first mackie fillits turned out to be yummie!!

For the rest of the morning the only notable fish was a decent snapper which Gail landed before the sharks became too much of a menace.

Once again another fantastic day on our Metro waters!

YouTube video - https://youtu.be/ii0X5KSm2K8

Gday all,

here  are a few pics of the past week in Albany. I took the boat down even though the weather forecast wasn't the best... I only got out once in it (by myself), and that was only for a couple of hours in the inner harbour. No fish were landed... I also went for a squid at Whalers cove from the shore at sunset - for the same result... we will head back down there over summer for another go, as there is so much to explore in the whole south-coast area!

Bluewater Tackle World

Fishing Report Friday 30th June 2017

Feel like you missed out on some salmon action this year? Well it might not be too late! Staff member Rohan fished the middle of the day at the North Mole yesterday and saw small salmon schools coming past regularly on the incoming tide and a number of fish were landed. Other reports also suggest they were showing up at the usual land based haunts yesterday. It sounds like they are starting their run back south, so now is the time to get into a few.

Not all did well on the snapper this week, however Morley customer Tom took his cousin Jesse,who is relatively new to the sport , out to get amongst some fish. The first few hours were tough with not a lot of bites and no fish on the sounder, however persistence payed off. Hours passed as they moved spot to spot, continuous berleying and finally Jesse came tight on what  felt like a good fish by the solid head shakes and the screaming, heart wrenching runs. Minutes went by while Jesse fought the fish and Tom waited anxiously. Finally, after what seemed like forever up popped a horse of a pinkie(93cm). You can’t ask much more for your first metro pinkie, congratulations Jesse!

Jesse with his abolutely cracking pink!

We are in for a substantial blow according to the weekend weather forecast which will give keen anglers a chance to fish the rock walls. With predictions putting the swell up above 3 metres and the wind blowing around the 25-knot mark, it’s sure to create some disturbance beneath and draw the fish in closer. Perfect to target scavenging snapper, but be careful when doing so. The Freo Moles are also still producing plenty of skippy and herring are abundant if you need fresh bait.

There have been modest reports of tailor schools around Cottesloe, worth a try in the coming weeks. Once this weekend weather has passed the new gutters and holes along the coastline, brought about by the swell, should be the first place you fish. They harbour bait, which draws the predators in.  Reports of 70cm fish from Yanchep have also come from Mindarie customers who were using stickbaits and poppers.

Austin (The Mindarie work experience kid) with a cracking salmon and tailor on 4lb

If you are going to be targeting squid next week, it may prove tricky, but the right jig choice could mean you come up trumps in the dirty water. Staff members Dan and Laith fished some murky water this past week and got plenty of big squid on purple taped, red taped and jigs with dark contrasts in their patterns. (It also payed to re-drift any areas that produced a squid as it was a fair distance between productive patches). Theoretically these dark colours create a silhouette in dirty water and make the jig stand out. Sinking a jig right onto the bottom amongst the weed bed also resulted in three cuttlefish in three casts.

There are scores of dhuies in the shallows of mixed sizes. Most notably has to be the recent capture on Shikari Charters of a fish exceeding a meter and over 22kg. Skipper Al truly runs an exceptional charter right on our doorstep. Throw in a mix of breaksea cod, King George, the odd baldie and of course snapper and there is some serious fun to be had on our demersals not too far out. There have been also good reports of bluefin tuna this week with fish to 6kg landed on metals and stickbaits from behind Rotto down past Garden Island.  A bluefin of this size on light gear is undeniably exciting.

Customer James with a dhu he caught recently

 Hey Guys,

I haven't posted for a while- thought I'd chuck up a couple of pics from the last quick little trip out down south.

Weather window was good for Sunday only so spent the Friday/Saturday on the cans. The bite was awesome with non stop hook ups. Had to throw fish  back, always good to see them swim away.

Few big sambos caught and found a school of rat kings in 60 meters of water.! Got one up whole to the boat with a couple of bit offs and 1 halfa comin up- first time I've ever been sharked on the south coast- they were just hanging around the kingies I reckon.

Anyway back in by lunch with this lovely little bag.

Enjoy.

Vince

Well I hadn't been out in the boat for months and was even getting the dark thoughts of if I should keep the boat or not... ! I haven't even logged onto FW in ages as life got the better of me for a while.... Glad that's now over!

I managed to convince my old boy to leave Mandurah at 2:45am on Sunday to get to mine at 3:45am for our departure.

We made our way to hillaries and got there before 5am, with only one car in the car park and the outside temp reading a somber 8 degrees, we knew we'd be facing the cold that morning.

We got to our spot in 12-15mtrs before the first rays appeared over the east and had the burley flowing.

I baited up my new budget combo which is a sienna 4000 paired to a diawa Laguna and sent it down, paternoster style.

As the first rays made their way over the hills I felt the rod tip slowly load up, after the hook had set drag started peeling nicely and that sweet sound reminded me what I love about fishing.

After a couple of minutes a nice dhuie popped up measuring at 55cm, yeeew what a way to bleed in the new combo!

About 20 minutes after that my dads Stradic 8000 fi started screaming, I knew he was into a snapper and I enjoyed watching him battle with it for a few minutes while taking in the serenity. 

After that the skippy came to play and we had a ball for another couple of hours on them.

Was a great morning out despite the cold and relentless wind and having to re-tie every rig at least once, including an fg knot on my 1000 combo, yep one of those trips.

We each got a feed to take home and some memories to add to the collection with the man that started my fishing addicition.

 Heres a bunch of photos from our trip to ningaloo for the annual gamefishing campout! Between 6 guys and 2 boats we bagged a heap of different species and brough back our quota of fillets.

Heres some photos!

Cant wait to get back up there again next year! 

Tight lines all

With the forecast looking good early in the week I headed off to do more Super Deep recon work!
 

Good mate Pete D came out for a run as he was keen for a fish but more to the point his freezer was looking very bare!

The forecast wasn’t spot on and it was a stiff NE’er and what the heck we were committed. I did a fair bit of recon work (a bit quiet this time) and then hit up a spot that has produced a while ago and this time was no different!

The Furuno showed fish and Pete dropped first and got a double header of a Bass groper and a Hapuku. I did the next few drift and got 2 Bass also so we were bagged out!

I was testing out a new super deep flasher light (attracter) that we now stock and bait of choice was the Qualy squid!

Cheers Pete ….. it was good to catchup again 

A hastily arranged trip with zOOm to check out the 3 Mile yesterday arvo.  Skips were in abundance and the shred created a feeding frenzy at the boat.  Bagged out, and probably threw as many back over a couple of enjoyable hours.

The squid were taking the large mulies off the release clip, so we switched to jigs to catch a few. 

No big pinkies (hard to get the baits past the skips), and the Fisheries officers that checked us at Hillarys said that the pinkies had been scarce lately.

I rate skippy as a premium flesh bait, so made personal fillet packs for my future boat trips.  The frames will make Callum’s specialist beach shred for his “mulla missions”.  The squid has already been consumed by the family. 

Total use with no wastage, and a productive quick trip out. 

It had been a while since we had caught a decent snapper and the stock in the freezer was running low.  After consulting WillyWeather on Thursday we decided to lock Saturday in and started preparing the boat and fishing gear for the weekend.  Conditions on Sunday looked better, but a Northerly wind has disappointed us on more than a couple of occasions in the past.

We were up at sparrows on Saturday morning and already had the boat on the water as the first light of the new day made it announcement.  The trip across the Sound was painfully slow as the visibility in the early hours was limited.  By the time we got between the islands we were able to hasten our travels and were soon speeding towards one of my favourite snapper holes behind Garden Island.  The Raymarine however told us that there were no fish holding this bommie today and we spent another agonising 20 minutes before we found some activity.  With the pick dropped and the burley introduced to the swim we baited up our double snelled rigs with half frozen scalies and delicately casted our lines out in anticipation.  As the first welcome rays of sun met our cold faces, Gail’s Shimano started screaming as a hungry snapper gobbled up her bait.  She expertly subdued the fish and within minutes we were taking photographs of this fine specimen with the golden sun rays reflecting off the fish onto the sensor of the Nikon.

For the next 45 minutes everything went quiet even though the fishfinder echoed a fair amount of activity in the area.  The baited lines were laying reasonably high in the water which indicated that the current had picked up.  I placed a half ounce weight onto my baited rig which allowed the bait to present itself in the bottom third of the water column – the area where most of the activity was displayed on the sounder screen.  Within seconds of this rig change I was attached to the second snapper for the day.  I was convinced that I “had their number” only to be proven wrong as we did not land a further snapper for the morning.

After this bommie went quiet we decided to head out to the west side of Five Fathom Bank to look for blue water.  The water in-shore from Garden Island was relatively green in colour, probably caused by the large swell that has stirred up things during the earlier part of the week.  We eventually found some promising looking water in the 20s, but only managed to raise a shark before heading back to Cockburn Powerboat Club’s slipway to call it a day.

Another great day on our wonderful Perth Metro topped by a decent feed of fresh snapper. It doesn’t get much better than this!!!

YouTube video  

https://youtu.be/zuKIElFHPd8

 New to fishing the Hillarys area and with the nice arvo weather and reading some good info on here took my young bloke and a mate of his out yesterday to look at some ground around the back of the 3 mile sounding for future trips in close when time doesnt allow going out wide.

Anyway thought i would throw a couple of lures out the back and picked up a few tuna which the boys were stoked with lost a few more then thought i would have a couple of quick drifts before heading in, didnt get a bite at all really and then my boy who was flicking one of Big Johns smaller jigs around gets all excited and pulls up a tuna not bad on 6lb braid with a small sienna1000 reel, landed the fish then it did a couple of flips one snapped the line and the other threw the jig out over the side of the boat.

So a good day in the end hopefully got some good spots to check and a some fish.

TF 

Went out fishing to the 40's west of Garden Island with Ritchie Chantler and Pete D from Fishwreck. First drift Ritchie pulled up a 47cm Baldy. Pete followed up with a Dhuie that was just on size, he decided not to risk it shrinking and sent it back down. He then came up with a Blackarse. About a couple hours later and several moves Ritchie came up trumps once more with a beautiful 12Kg (approx) Blue Groper. I say approx as our scales were close to maxing out. Bloody weather played havoc with our trying to drift with the wind and current opposing at times. Consequently very little drift. All fish were caught on Oceanside Tackle and Marine Occy. Tried soft plastics and jigs but no go, Bugger. Cheers Ritchie for taking us out.

anyone caught much at yeagers at the moment? 

Worth having a crack this weekend?

 What a day !!! This day is one of those  luckiest day for any fisherman.

 Went for a little solo session down at the sound yesterday, after a quick dash to a known spot put one 3.5 white jig out behind the boat on a drift to bounce around and casted anouther 2.5 also in white and yellow up drift, got 7 in about 2 hours so not a crazy session but fairly happy as the family love them! They're out there, get into them!

Sounding around some interesting bottom just inside the FFB and came across what looked to be cave type structure on the sounder we dropped and immediately hooked these two models. Was surprised with the harlequin fish.

A mate and I headed down to Dunsborough for the long weekend for our fishing clubs field day.

We'd both fished from the shore plenty of times in that area but this would be our first time offshore.

Although it was tough going we managed to bag out everyday.

Even though there was a big swell, the lack of wind made for some great days on the water.

 weather looked too good to not go fishing today so had a quick solo run out from hillarys this morning. 15 mins run to a spot in 30mtrs and the sounder lit up, dropped a bait down and bang a 60cm Dhuie pops up, dhuies continued to come up and over the next 3 hours I caught 12 or 14 (lost count), battled through them until a 40cm black arse popped up and called it a day. Also nailed a big cuttle fish, must be a few around at the moment as I got a horse on a night fish last week.