Reports
Ningaloo 2017--pic heavy, more pics added
Submitted by ranmar850 on Mon, 2017-07-31 11:48Just back from the annual trip. Spent a month at Winderabandi point. The first 2 weeks were in the company of my chief fishing accomplice, my wife, who then went back to work , to be replaced by my youngest son. We also had a keen pick up passenger from the camp next door a few times, young Jason, who will likely now suffer from an expensive addiction for the rest of his life. Seeing a Black come tailwalking at you from close quarters will do that . The trip was a bit different to previous years, as we are constantly evolving our fishing methods. We ventured wider, trolling, for the first time, and were instantly rewarded with a pair of marlin, a little black and a larger striped. This was with my wife and we were driving my son insane posting all these pics. We had four in the first five days out there , then they went quiet.
The first week was almost non-stop wind, strong SE-S. We went out regardless, just trolled lures for mackerel heading into it, something we normally rarely do,until we had one in the bag, then trolled home out a bit wider with the wind behind. Raised wahoo, mahi, and a sail, but got none to the boat. The second week was much better, had a few beautiful days, and good fish. Big wahoo were about--the first was sharked, the ones boated all went 138-. . Mahi were more plentiful, ate a lot. Mackerel weren't thick, or big, sharks got most. Big Rankins and Coronation were certainly about--probably close to our PB's. All of the really big Rankins go back down on the release weight--big breeders who aren't as good to eat as the sub jobs, keep the breeding stock protected. Had a small blue (?) grab a trolled gar meant for a sail, which was released , and another black took a ballooned gar meant for a sail off the anchored boat, nearly jumped aboard, and released itself under the boat after a good fight. Those little marlin go hard, harder than a sail, pound for pound, IMO. Sails were very patchy, coming and going. You'd give up trolling after several fruitless days, then there they were again. Sharks were just as bad as usual, or worse--we had another sail taken, this time on the last day, by a massive whaler, had to be a Bull, who firstly bit it in half, then came in boat side to take the remains, and even hit the prop, idling in gear, to stall the motor. All on video , to follow. Fought another XOS whaler on 80lb gear for over an hour, who had taken a trolled fish and hooked on the lure. Finally broke off 3 metres from the rod tip-- I had harnessed up for the first time, and it makes all the difference.
Throw in some beautiful sunsets, and good company, and you have something you just can't replicate.
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Bluewater Metro Fishing Report 28/07/2017
Submitted by Bluewater on Fri, 2017-07-28 16:48Bluewater Tackle World
Fishing Report Friday 28th of July 2017
Apart from the shore based snapper action that has been going off for the last week, there was a nice mulloway caught from Hillarys. On Wednesday morning, good customer Josh Pretorius who was fishing for herring in the morning with a Halco Twisty and 10lb braid hooked and landed a beauty. Measuring 1m on the dot, Josh landed the fish by hand without a gaff, which was more than a little tricky he reckons. There have been solid reports of mulloway landed on our Northern beaches and a few lucky anglers have got them in the Swan as well. As the rains continue to hammer us this winter we may see more and more good fish landed around the river mouths as they follow the bait getting flushed out of the systems
Mindarie customers have also reportedly landed several sambos in excess of 15kg off the beaches in the area. This is the time of year sambos are drawn into the marinas by baitfish, making land based sambo a viable target if you put in the research, time and effort. However, hooking one of these freight trains is one thing, stopping them is another.
Reports of chopper tailor are coming through regularly around The Narrows with good schools holding under the lights most evenings and making it a good target for some light top water fishing action. This could be an option in the upcoming weather we are facing, however there are plenty other spots in the Swan to try especially if there is any light attracting baitfish. Around Bayswater there are some good bream being pulled in from the deeper snags and bridges, with most fish falling to baits. As the ban on river prawns over East continues, many anglers are using fillets of bony herring or thin slices of mulies to get into the fish. If you can get your bait where you want it without the use of a sinker, do it and watch your braid carefully as it sinks. Bream will often hit unweighted baits on the drop and you will notice you braid move slightly and then you strike.
A healthy chopper tailor from the Swan
Northern Beaches have been producing a good number of tailor of late, with an abundance of schools being situated around Yanchep and even further North towards Moore River. Targeting tailor on lures has been extremely popular this winter, with it being relatively windy so far its best to be using a heavy weighted chrome slice or a heavy stickbait such as the Jackson Kaiken to punch through the breeze. If you do get out in a break from the bad weather, plastics have been fishing very well!
Some of us have been lucky enough to escape the weather and head North in search of sunshine and screaming drags. Customer Sam went to Karratha and fished off Dampier in amongst the archipelago for 5 nights and he reckons the fishing was absolutely amazing!
Customer Sam with some great catches from Dampier
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Denham Sharkbay Dirkhartog Report
Submitted by Meeuwissen on Fri, 2017-07-28 13:35Earlier in the year I told my best mate that I would love to do a trip to DHI and Shark Bay.
So when he gave me call only a few months later to ask if I wanted to come to shark bay with some of his mates I was going to do everything in my power to go, even put a new job on hold.
So after I get off the phone the first thing was to convince the wife but she could see how excited I was and encouraged me to go. So with that sorted it was time to do some shopping for the trip so I PM-ed Big John to see which jigs he recommended and put the order in.
I got my mate to buy me the 1500 pg ocea jigger in Perth as they wouldn't take my order over the phone got the %20 off which put the reel still in the most expensive category I've paid but why not ey.
Order some more 7/0 circles , 80 lb leader and was pretty much ready to go.
Every couple of days my mate and I would speak to each other during the build up to the trip about what we might catch, how good the weather was looking and whether to take 1 or 2 boats.
It got to the point where I just wanted to go into a time capsule and get out to the moment where I would drop a jig onto a school of fish in 45 metres and have a double fold on my new combo. You could say the anticipation was high.
With 2.5 weeks still to go and my flights booked to Perth I through myself into researching for the trip and printing out all the relevant information to the trip.
Watching every video on YouTube on Denham sharkbay and the island itself.
The main things I would focus on were the depth that people were fishing in, the types of rigs and jigs and weights but also thanks to living in Broome the importance of tides.
This kept me busy for a while until I had done all I could do was wait. It even effected my sleep towards the end.
I had booked my flight to land in Perth a week before the drive up so I could source all the bait. I caught plenty of herring, salmon and trout in the Fremantle harbour. I bought old squid head from sea lanes for $5 bucks a kilo in cryovac bags. We also paid $20 a kilo for whole king prawns which make a fantastic whole bait just ask anyone in broome
The night before everything was packed and it was decided to bring one boat which the owner had done all the servicing and maintenance that needed to be done.
The drive up we had 2 cars and we had a great run up with no dramas and the Prado towing had great fuel economy 14.5L/100km
When we were all getting very excited, especially about how flat the bay was looking.
We cooked a feed and my mate and I went down to the local jetty to get some fresh bait. He ended up getting 5 squid quite quickly. We spoke to a couple of locals at the boat ramp who weren't giving much away, except if I was a cop with the amount of questions I was asking. We quickly worked out we were going to have to do it on our own.
Having no marks except for the bent pin I knew the first day was going to be a ‘scouting for spots’ day.
When we got back to the house we had to decide if we were going to Turtle Bay or Steep Point first. With the weather looking exceptional we decided to go to Turtle Bay, even speaking about doing an overnighter but it was quickly ruled out.
Off to bed we were not sure how much anyone slept because you could say we were close to peaking.
The next day the alarms were meant to go off at 6am but I woke up at 6.31 am checked my phone and it said it was blowing 0km/ph. I thought my phone was broken so I ran around the house waking everyone up.
The gear was packed fuelled up, bought ice and got ready to hit the ramp. We were gliding along the bay towards Levian Shoal. We could have gone full throttle but wanted to be sensible with the amount of oil and fuel we burned so we sat at 30 knots easily. The crossing is easy the only way you could get caught out if you had a decent draught and it was low tide.
High tide was going to be at 5pm so I had a good feeling from the turn of the low at 12pm the fishing would fire up so in the mean time we scouted new spots and did some trolling.
We trolled for about 20 minutes and the sounder lit up straight away so we started marking spots and quickly got impatient, set our drift and started bottom bouncing. A couple of Chinaman cod came up and we realised it wasn’t gonna be that easy...
The photos will do the rest of the talking...
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Bluewater Metro Fishing Report 21/07/2017
Submitted by Bluewater on Fri, 2017-07-21 15:43
Fishing Report
Fishing Report Friday 21st of July 2017
As the new moon approaches, not only will we be totally safe from werewolves, everything is lining up to send snapper wild. If you’re a land-based snapper angler, you’ll no doubt be loving the weather we’ve been having of late, but for the rest of us softies, it’s been a bit damp and chilly. So far, the forecast for the weekend offers a glimmer of hope for a short window from midday Saturday to around 10pm. It should be noted that there is still a decent swell, so finding a location protected by a landmass is a good idea. Also, keep a close eye on the forecast as we approach Saturday, because it’s liable to change quickly (probably while writing this report). If things do pan out as planned, all indications are that you’ll have a great time on big snapper.
Quality and quantity. This would adequately describe the pink snapper fishery along our coastline. There have been some absolute crackers caught over the past week and some crews have had non-stop action in sessions lasting a couple of hours in as little as 5-10m of water. The wind, rain and swell has certainly stirred things up and got them biting in a big way. These areas are easily accessible in small boats on the right days, but watch the weather, tides and swell closely and pick a safe time to fish. A heap of berley and simple snelled rigs baited with a whole mulie or half a blue mac is a great way to go (avoid any sinkers). Soft plastics such as the Zman Scented Jerk Shadz are also very effective slowly worked through the berley trail. It definitely pays to use both baits and plastics, even if you have the rod with the plastic on it sitting in the rod holder when occupied elsewhere. Some days the movement of a well worked plastic will trigger a bite over even the freshest bait. To no staff members surprise Laith was at it again this week and, along with his brother Clayton, they landed more good pinks.
Laith....again
And a good one for Clayton
The average weather of late has made it very tempting to stay warm and dry on the couch at home but it has also fired up some great fishing for those prepared to brave the elements. Our bait freezers have been hammered this week by the landbased crews chasing pinks, buying the likes of blue mac, sanmar, scalies and yellowtail and by the reports flooding in, many have been successful. No warm ‘cuppa’ while sitting next to the heater will get an angler warmed up like the adrenalin from their first or even their 100th land based snapper.
Customer Mitch with a cracking land based pink
Kingfish and sambos are also providing lots of action around the inshore reefs. Solid metre plus fish are being landed both on baits and plastics. Both species can also be tempted to take a stickbait or popper and nothing gets the heart racing like a big surface strike from one of these beasts.
Dhufish are thick and some absolute horses have been caught to the north of Perth recently. Two Rocks, Wedge and Jurien have been fishing particularly well with lots of solid fish being found in the deeper water and have been responding very well to slow pitch metal jigs. Fresh baits such as sergeant baker fillets are also usually too tempting for the big fish to resist and will quite often see you hook up. Either that or the Lunds squid that is finally back in stock. In general demersal fishing has been great lately with a few nice storms stirring up the water and making the fish hungry and aggressive towards jigs and plastics. Staff member Trent fished NW of Mindarie last week finding some great fish in the 30m mark.
Thumping squid are being jigged up in Cockburn Sound and around Garden Island. These are great areas to get out in the average boating conditions with lots of sheltered water and weed banks not too far from the ramps. Fremantle is also fishing well around Fisherman’s Boat Harbour. South Mole is a top spot for those who are land based but big jigs and egi rods capable of casting a fair distance are helpful when battling SW winds.
Herring, big tailor and the odd salmon are being caught from local beaches. Fremantle up to Scarborough has had good reports of solid greenbacks. Sending out a mulie on ganged hooks on a big beach rod will see results, but being mobile is an effective way of finding big fish now. Metal slugs or heavy sinking stick baits on a lighter setup allows you to cover lots of area putting you in with a good chance of more fish. Zman plastics have been Morley Manager Karl’s lure of choice recently as he chases tailor and the odd salmon, stalking the beach and casting into likely spots for the bigger fish.
Lots of small bream are being caught on baits in the Swan River but for those chasing the big guys the snaggy areas upstream are the way to go. Kayak fishermen throwing hard bodied divers at the snags not accessible from shore are seeing the most success. Imitation crabs such as the Cranka Crab are tempting bream around structure in the Canning River. Canning Bridge, Mt Henry Bridge and South of Perth Yacht Club are fishing very well. East Perth is also a good area to fish now, sticking close to and fishing hard up against structure and very slowly working a plastic is deadly.
Morley customer Troy just enjoyed a holiday in Exmouth spanning two week. As well as catching lots of bottom fish Troy was lucky enough and stoked with landing his first marlin. Chasing marlin was something he was never really interested in but now fully comprehends how people dedicate so much time and money to it after his baptism into billfish fishing.
Troy hooked up to his billy
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last night netting before the closure
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2017-07-19 20:40tonight being the last Wednesday I could head out before the closure I was going rain hail or shine! Lucky for us we found a nice sheltered bay and the rain holding off was a bonus. Net went out at 4.30pm and heading home by 7pm... all in all was a good night
my share all bagged up, the net pays for its self relatively quickly...
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Pinks from tonight
Submitted by Scotte on Sun, 2017-07-16 22:08On the sounder
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A good one from last weekend
Submitted by Scotte on Sun, 2017-07-16 09:07Pup was keen for a lick
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Bluewater Metro Fishing Report 14/07/2017
Submitted by Bluewater on Sat, 2017-07-15 16:06
Sharks galore! While the whites and tigers have been featuring heavily in the media as they gorge themselves on floating whale blubber, there have been plenty of other species in the metro area. If shark fishing is your thing, a berley of tuna shred just about anywhere off the coast at the moment will bring in the men in grey suits. Many berleying up in the hopes of winter pinks have hooked on to, usually briefly, the likes of bronzies, silkies and black tips. Shore-based should be productive as well in the right conditions with good reports coming from locations such a Floreat Drain and even a few off North Mole before it was closed as a result of the whale carcass.
As you would expect this time of year snapper have fallen to anglers fishing from the usual land based haunts. This year however has been exceptional. Huge fish have been captured by seasoned experts and novices alike in good numbers. If, like many, a land based snapper is on your bucket list now is the time to give it your best shot.
Ocean Reef, Mindarie and Two Rocks marinas have been producing good numbers of herring and skippy. Mindarie and Two Rocks have been most productive on the inside, whilst at Ocean Reef, the southern outside wall has been best. In all locations a decent amount of berley is needed for the best results. For the anglers braving the weather there has been a few good sized snapper caught at the mouth of Mindarie Marina and from beaches around Two Rocks and also Lancelin.
When the weather has allowed, boaties have been getting stuck into their fair share of demersals. Customers out of Mindarie and Two Rocks have been coming across schooling dhuies which have meant baits, plastics and jigs have not even hit the bottom before they are onto good fish. Plenty of customers and staff alike have been relieved that we finally have Lunds Californian Squid in stock again and by the reports the baldies and King George have been loving it as well.
Carrie is all smiles with a dhu and a baldie
Staff member Trent with a dhu
Staff member Laith was out again this week and crew member Ashley got stuck into some big pinks, one going 78cm on 4kg line, which was a fantastic effort. They also all did well on some very big calamari on Parmelia Bank before their evening raid on the snapper.
Myaree Customer Ash with a couple of good pinks from a snapper bash
There are still some pelagics around. The southern bluefin tuna have been a reliable target along 5 Fathom. Look for bait on your sounder and start trolling or look for birds and start casting. Small metals such as Arma Anchovies and Iron Candy 21g are ideal. This has also been the case for small yellowfin tuna off Mindarie in 40m.
The swell looks like it may be up a fair bit this coming week but when that changes and the exposed reef along our coastline becomes safe to fish again, lure fishing is going to be great. Reef breaks causing white water and/or holding bait are going to be hot areas. This time of year is prime time for big winter tailor, yellowtail kings, sambos, the remaining salmon that are still here and even the chance of bonito and southern bluefin tuna. If this is not working, it shouldn’t be too hard to acquire a few herring as livies and troll them past the bommies.
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Morning Sunrises with a couple of fish
Submitted by snuffs on Fri, 2017-07-14 19:10Been some superb sunrises lately. Some pics of my past three early morning runs.
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Quick run out this morning
Submitted by Marineboy on Fri, 2017-07-14 14:43went 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.
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Kalbarri Trip
Submitted by TF in DZ on Fri, 2017-07-14 08:28Hi 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.
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Exmouth April report (very late)
Submitted by GGs on Wed, 2017-07-12 20:21So 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.
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Bogans back in barri
Submitted by Callum24 on Tue, 2017-07-11 19:13The 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
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Mid West Dinghy Fish
Submitted by Chinbald on Mon, 2017-07-10 20:06Headed 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.
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Busso pinks
Submitted by choc on Mon, 2017-07-10 17:04Hi 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.
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Good run out very wide
Submitted by Jackalchub on Mon, 2017-07-10 07:57After 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.
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Memorable Mackie
Submitted by Fisheagle on Sun, 2017-07-09 11:59The 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
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A week in Albany during winter
Submitted by Wannafish on Fri, 2017-07-07 21:27Gday 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!
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Bluewater Metro Fishing Report 07/07/2017
Submitted by Bluewater on Fri, 2017-07-07 16:18
Fishing Report
When the wind, rain and swell came so did the snapper. Plenty of reports of success this week from the land based crews fishing the beaches and rock walls alike. Anglers having most success have been taking advantage of the often-staggering numbers of herring and using them as live bait.
The snapper reports from the boaties have been hit and miss, but when the snapper have been ‘on’, fish having been coming on board in quick succession. As long as the barometer is not dropping the fish have seemed hungry and aggressive, taking anything from unweighted baits to plastics in the berley trail. Most fish have come from 5-20m of water up and down the coast with the three-mile off HiIlarys being a hotspot for the boys at Morley. Joondalup staff member Dan and mates, Nick and Scotty, also fished the back edge of the Five Fathom behind Garden and got into a few at dusk on Tuesday. The by-catch at the moment is sensational as well with monster sambos, dhus, breaksea cod, some huge skippy and yellowtail kings. There have also been plenty of small sharks around. Just remember if you going to keep one for a feed to dress and bleed it as best as possible to keep up its eating quality. Further offshore the demersals have continued to fire with a lot of big dhufish being caught up and down the metro coast.
Staff member Dan and mate Nick with some respectable fish
Cephalopods abound. Staff member Hon-su went for a land based squid sesh during the week in rare wind free and sunny break in the weather. He fished from Coogee to North Mole and managed to land 7 squid and 11 cuttlefish. He also recons he dropped a monster cuttlefish at North Mole……….photos or it didn’t happen mate! In all fairness now is the time of year when huge cuttlefish start appearing seemingly everywhere. It’s often the case that a soft plastic you drop on a ‘dhuie’ lump will come up with a v shaped slice bitten out of it or in some cases you even hook and land one of the monsters. Those anchored up for snapper will also often get a squid, a cuttly or even an occy latch on to their baits that end up being part of the bag. By boat or by land plenty of anglers are managing a tasty bag of southern calamari and more and more reports suggest that part of that bag is also being made up of arrow squid, especially in deeper waters in the Cockburn Sound. Matching squid jig colours to the conditions have been the key to success so if you are unsure of what jig to choose make sure you pop into your nearest Bluewater for advice.
An average size squid from Hon-su’s mission
Staff member Pete also got into the squid this week
There are plenty of tuna around at the moment with southern blues running rampant south of Rotto and yellowfin popping up from the 30 metre mark and deeper and being more concentrated the further north you go. Trolling lures, and casting metals and stickbaits has been the undoing of both species.
Bream fishing has been a little patchy but the anglers putting the time in are getting rewarded with some good fish and the odd soapie sized mulloway has been landed by the guys fishing the deeper stretches trying to find the bigger bream. If it’s bigger mulloway you are after this weekend is going to put you in with a serious chance. We are coming into the full moon and recent rains should result in king prawn movement in the river as they are flushed downstream. You just need to get out there!
Staff member Curtis with a Soapie on a Halco Madeye Paddleprawn
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Bluewater Metro Fishing Report 30/06/2017
Submitted by Bluewater on Fri, 2017-06-30 15:27
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
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Quick little Sunday fish
Submitted by BigV on Fri, 2017-06-30 11:31Hey 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
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Hillaries Sunday 25/06
Submitted by Diggedy on Tue, 2017-06-27 22:58Well 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.
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Ningaloo gamefishing campout 2017
Submitted by Jayden20 on Tue, 2017-06-27 07:07Heres 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
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Bluewater Metro Fishing Report 23/06/2017
Submitted by Bluewater on Fri, 2017-06-23 14:10
Fishing Report
Things are lining up this coming Sunday as the new moon will make it the ultimate time to soak a big bait for land based fishos chasing pinkies and/or mulloway after this blow. If you can get a day off next week the snapper will be going nuts on the inshore reefs.
With the onset of the first winter rains now is a good time to fish the river. Try the lower reaches around the bridges. A Myaree customer fishing the lower end of the Swan River has been getting into good numbers of salmon trout and has spotted a few larger fish ones but they are smart resident loners. For those keen on chasing big bream or who are keen to put a big bait for mulloway, Guildford is the area to be. Big bait schools likely to be bony herring have been reported to be moving from Bassendean up to Fish Market Reserve making it a prime area to get stuck into the bigger fish. Along with the food source there are lots of snags and some deep holes around those areas which make it perfect to target bream and mulloway.
Evan with a great bream caught on a strip of bony herring
Demersal fishing is firing at the moment and staff member Trent got out last Friday to scout some ground off Mindarie. A successful mission resulting in a mixed bag of King George, breaksea cod and a baldchin. For those chasing dhufish there is an abundance of small fish about in close, some going size. For pinks, Hillarys and Five Fathom Bank are fishing particularly well but reports are coming in of good catches as far up as Two Rocks. Berley made up of pellets, fish oil and shredded mulies will not only get the pinkies on the bite but will excite and bring the skippy and herring to you. In turn this brings big sambos and yellowtail kings into the equation making for some super exciting inshore reef fishing.
Espo’s Baldie and Trent's Breaksea from a good day out
For those who brave the weather, the present weather front should also see snapper coming from North Mole, Mindarie, Hillarys, Two Rocks & the beaches in between. Big baits & big sinkers! The pinkies will be in close scavenging in the runoff from the moles and rock groynes on crabs, small fish and anything else worth eating. Big skippy have also been landed to 50cm+ at night around the moles at Freo.
A large school of salmon made an appearance at Kwinana beach during the week and our herring run continues. Herring are around in great numbers again with plenty being caught from the shore and marina rock walls. Berley up and use either a float with green lumo tube as a lure or ox heart as bait. Anglers are easily getting their twelve-fish bag limit. Early morning high tides have been producing some nice winter tailor. Try stick baits and paddletail soft plastics for some seriously fun fishing.
The extended stretch of calm weather has seen plenty of ‘squiddy’ opportunities locally. Big squid are in huge numbers around Pamelia Bank and are a worthwhile target in the sheltered waters for those fishing from smaller boats. Hayabusa Rambu jigs are a great choice as they are proving irresistible to the bigger squid at the moment. Orange and pink based colours are doing most of the damage. It is a must to take some squid jigs with you when fishing the inshore reefs, as there are reports of big squid in the 10 -15m mark coming from those fishing for pinkies. Fresh squid can make great bait or some excellent squid rings!
Morley customer Han is just back from an amazing fishing trip to Exmouth. Han and his friends were looking to cross off as many different species as possible from their bucket list during the trip and managed to land a staggering 43 species of fish!
A beautifully marked red emp caught by Han
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Super Deep!
Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 2017-06-22 14:53With 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
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3 Mile Skippy - Big Schools
Submitted by Mick C on Mon, 2017-06-19 22:07A 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.
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Early morning gold
Submitted by Fisheagle on Mon, 2017-06-19 20:45It 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
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Hillarys Tuna
Submitted by TF in DZ on Mon, 2017-06-19 16:38New 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
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Blue Groper
Submitted by Guardy on Fri, 2017-06-16 21:28Went 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.
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Yeagerup
Submitted by ChrisG on Fri, 2017-06-16 19:42anyone caught much at yeagers at the moment?
Worth having a crack this weekend?
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