Just spent 10 days in Kalbarri with our quad bikes chasing Tailor and Mulloway off the rocks and beaches north and south of the river. Been doing it very successfully for the past 30 years at this time of year, moon, tides etc Not sure why but this time the fish were strangely absent from all the usual locations. We came away with just a few good Tailor and very small Mulloway for our efforts. That was in spite of using fresh baits both morning and night. The word around town was that no one else was doing any better so where have all the fish gone? Anyone else had the same experience in Kalbarri recently or can explain why it's like that this year? We're heading back again next year but if this keeps up we'll need to look at other destinations to get our annual fishing fix. 

Hi All

Went out weekend before last to the back of rotto, to chase some yellowtail kings.

Have only caught one before, so thought I would target these during the ban, after a mate caught a few in the weeks previous.

When we arrived we threw the lures out for a quick troll, even though its early. You just never know I guess. We saw some birds working so went over for a look and cast some lures at them, only to have some little rat kings follow the lures. Didn't hook any but was good to see some anyway.

Went back in a bit closer to rotto and anchored up. Threw some burley in (old whiting heads) and also cut up some old mulies and put them into the scaling bag to start a slick.

Once the burley was in we put in a couple of soft plastics about half way to the bottom, and a whole mulie on another rod, again about half way down.

We were only there for about 5 mins, before first rod went off and belive it or not, it was a dhufish! About 47cm or so, and he was sent back for a swim. As the dhu was going down the other rod went off, to be a yellowtail of about 55cms.

After that, it was non stop action for about 3 hours catching kings from 55cm up to 80cm. It was a lot of fun of the light gear and jeez do they fight hard!

Little video attached if you want to waste 5 mins.   :)

https://youtu.be/6WEBQx-GnSQ

Well forget that then i never said anything 

just seen a couple of guys get busted at Port Kennedy boat ramp this morning at 600.
fisheries were waiting at ramp when we pulled in and checked our boat catch. we had 0 again.
we then pulled boat out of water and were talking to officer about seized boats and what happens to them when he said that he needed to check this boat that was coming out of water.
he then looked in the dingy and pulled three 700mm pinkies out of boat.
its these people that ruin it for the masses.

Hi Guys

First report for ages, Friday morning took my tinny - Qunitrex F390 - DF20 Suzuki - out for a scout around the peel inlet. First time in the little tinny. Marine life everywhere - crabs, dolphins, big schools of what appeared to be sand whighting, big schools of herring. Good to see a healthy marine ecosystem.

Went out throught the cut to the ocean - well lets just say, I didnt feel entirely comfortable in a 20hp 4m tinny in the swell and sea surge through the cut entrance - heaps of water moves through there!

Negotiating the the cut was like playing frogga with the bigger boats and the wake the make, fair to say the 8 knots limit was "optional" by some skippers. Picked my mate up from Bovard boat ramp and went tho " Z's " channel markers and flicked some softies around.

The next 45mins was awsome - in knee deep water just out of the tide surging water we got smashed by the biggest herring i have seen for decades. We where using 1-4kg out fits with Diawa BG 2500's with 8lb braid and 7ft grahite sticks - the power some of these herring where astonishing - we took 6 each in 45mins - that 12 fillets each - my kids kill for fresh herring and home made chips - all on about $4.50 worth of fuel. The tinny is pefect for this type of fishing/exploring - does 18knot WOT with 2 x 115kg boys and enough fishing gear to start another BCF ! - I carry 22ltr fuel tank so I have plenty of range. The new Fighter hull is ultra stable - so both can cast and drift with out issues.

Needless to say we will be back there for a quick session this Thursday. PS Next time I will get some photo's

Tight Lines - Tinny Fighter

Went Rotto way yesterday with TimVB and the Baron, plan was to have a shallow and deep sambo jig and then head to the Rotto pub for lunch. Great way to spend a work day!

Sambo jigging was quiet, hooked one or two in the shallows but got bricked on PE4, so headed deeper and nothing happening out wide.

On the way back in stopped for a quick KG fish, and it was on. KG's were thick and on the bite, chasing hooked fish to the surface, which I have not seen before. 18 kgs in an hour only limited by us running out of bait and the beer calling. Smallest was over 40cm, biggest 54 cm.

Pub was pretty good too!

From yesterday 

I did another solo this weekend after the missus and mates dropped me.  Launched at "sparrows" (05:00) and made way to a patch of ground south of Rotto where I had picked up kingies and sambos before.  After getting reefed on medium tackle I had no further action at this spot.  Moved to a new patch and started catching "rats and mice".  At one stage I picked up a small tuna which initially gave a bit of a tug and then came swimming staight to the boat, almost welcoming being taken out of the water.  It did not take long to realise why the tuna was keen to leave his watery home and join me on the boat.  As I landed the fish I looked up and noticed a fin rise out of the water as a mako approached the boat and turn on its side and give me a beady eye, as if to ask what I had done with its lunch.  Mr Sharkie made another two passes, each time giving me a good looking up and down.  It was not a minute after this episode that my scalie attached to a 4/0 Gamakatsu became afternoon tea to a surprised predator as it made off with a rapid speed. As I was fighting this fish something gulped my SP which was dangling over the side.....chaos!  Where was that extra pair of hands when you needed them?

The next moment the water erupted to my left and the mako, which had now taken my scalie after being disappointed with the tuna, made the first of three awe inspiring leaps.  I was like a little boy catching a fish for the first time and could'nt stop "wowing" the moment.  After a fight which lasted a couple of minutes I brought the mako to the side of the boat before cutting it off.  I was lucky that the 4/0 hooked had pinned him in the corner of the mouth as the 40lb trace would not have lasted 2 seconds if it had brushed across the rows of tuna crushers.

With trembling hands my attention went back to the rod with the SP and I reeled in a snapper which was duly released.

Another great day out on our local water which was topped by seeing three pods of whales passing within 300m of the boat, with one of the whales breaching fully out of the water.   

The YouTube clip of the mako fight can be viewed here:

https://youtu.be/fnB7QSfjUk0

Took some overnight refrigerated King George and Flathead that we caught in yesterday’s monthly competition down to the MAAC Juniors this morning to see if any of the kids were interested in learning how fillet it.  Too nice a kids’ day for filleting but I did the job and had to take this photo, as I am not sure you could have a better place to fillet your fish.

I know I keep “banging on” about it, but there really is something in the technique of the Minn Kota, burley and shred, moving frequently, targeting different species, light gear and good quality baits.  Our boat resulted in winners for the singles, doubles, juniors, visitor and most species (9) – Samson Fish, Flathead, King George, Sand Whiting, Tarwine, Leather Jacket, Skipjack Trevally, Herring and Snook.  That’s the 3rd month in a row that we have had the singles winners, or runner up.

My highlight though was Sarah’s fights with good quality fish.  She has fished most comps with us this year and has come on a long way for an 11-year-old.  She even got told by a boy at school that girls can’t fish this week.  Nah, yeah mate girls can fish.

 Hit Moore river last night with a mate in hope of pulling an all-nighter which went out the window as we encountered an unfishable amount of weed.

After only bagging a couple tailor we decided to sleep on it and try again in the morning, expecting the predicted SE's to blow the weed out making the beach fishable.

I woke before dawn and deployed the burley which consisted of some of Mick's mulie shred along with a block of old mulies. Not long after sunrise a small spinner hit the beach taken on a live grunter and hopes were lifted. 

With the pickers ravenous and calm conditions we decided live bait was the go and attempted to catch a few whiting which we succeeded in doing, sending the biggest back with a couple 5/0 circles in it only to have it scream off no more than 5 minutes later. I picked up the rod and handed it to my mate who hadn't caught a good fish before.

After peeling near on 200m and not looking like stopping anytime soon we called it for a decent shark but managed to gain line and eventually get it back into the surf where it was identified as a sambo. As I tailed it I noticed it had a mate in tow which we managed to get half an hour later. Both put up a cracking fight and went back unharmed.

A great end to a quick trip away, can't wait to get back up there soon.

Hutch

 Find it amazing no one has asked the question ?

At least having a go here won't cost anything.

For what it is worth Big Orange has somehow got my interest.

I would love to see Jameka win, and maybe it can, but a very open race to be sure.

With Randall’s early post about bagging out on crays, I was being hassled about getting out there and bringing some home (I am sure I am not alone as Randall seemed to post in a lot of forums – nice work).  With the weather finally playing the game this weekend, why not take the Daughter out for a run Saturday arvo to set the pots, and the MAAC Juniors the next morning to pull them and bait properly for a 2-3 day soak.  My pots have been drying out for 10 months so it was really about soaking them on Saturday.

It was a lovely afternoon with Sarah.  Conditions were perfect and allowed a lot of time to try and find some ground and then position the pot exactly where you wanted it amongst the structure.  I must say the Minn showed another very useful trait of the spot lock – use it to hold steady on the location and then watch the pot drop and settle on the bottom (visibility was “crystal” in about 6m).  I could see air coming out of them as they dropped so was not overly hopeful and it was really about getting them ready for future campaigns.

As I did last year, I have volunteered to take out some MAAC Juniors on Sunday mornings when conditions allow.  Because conditions were good this morning the plan was to pull and rebait the pots and take the kids for a fish on the way back.  After a fairly “long” launch at the ramp, I beached the Hornet at the MAAC and picked up four 10-12 year olds and we headed to the pots.  The highlight for the kids on the trip out was seeing baitfish breaking the surface and the schools of predators in the water column (herring smashing stuff).

The pots were certainly on their marks, and had not been subject to any early morning pullers.  The kids were excited as we set up to retrieve.  The first one comes up and there were feelers that the kids spotted as soon as it left the bottom.  Only a couple but then we could go through the exercise, of checking size, sexing it, checking for berries, tar spot or setose condition in females and taking the middle tail fin for keepers (one keeper, one throwback).  Re bait and set back.  Showing the kids how to read the sounder and plotter, when they could actually see the bottom was my highlight for the trip.  The next pot had 3, with 2 keepers.  Not a massive haul by any means but happy to get a few for the kids after a 16 hour soak of very dry pots.  I think the photo sums up what the kids thought about it.

Given the late start, due to extreme ramp issues, there was not a lot of time for fishing (this is my main problem with potting as it takes away the fishing time and there is not a lot of sport in pulling traps from the ocean, although finding the ground is a good challenge).  We called in on “Terry’s Pike Spot” on the way back and used the Fish Based Burley Block / Mulie Shred Block combination.  Within a minute the water was “boiling” with hungry herring and the kids could sight fish for them.  We only had about 10-15 minutes, and I didn’t have the proper rigs set, so we got half a dozen and had to come in – bit of a shame as the kids wanted to keep fishing.    

What a great day.  Nothing better than hopefully providing a good learning experience for the kids. 

Great day out with Langa, Bodie and Scano. Started with a few KG's and a kingie which should make for a nice dinner tonite (Jalapeno Kingsifh....yum).

Then we hit up a heap of bait in the 40's and landed a few nice sambos on PE3 jig, Langas the best.

In 40's we came across acres of salmon, over 20km from shore well north of Perth......numerous multiple hookups and a few 4 way hook-ups on horse salmon was fun, then we cracked out the whiting gear and Scano got blitzed on a good fish but I managed to land a smaller Salmon on 6lb and a 1500 size reel.....

Great day.

 Few nice  geordies  from yesterday. Would  have been a few  nice dhewys in there  too if it wasn't  for  the ban.

 I'm blessed to have a wonderful wife (bkklady) to be my lifetime partner. 

Had a quick trip to Carnarvon and did well with the wind.Sat out the Lady joyce for a few hours on sunset tuesday night.Landed some mulloway between 850 and 1200mm as well.There were 4 of us.No fish taken by sharks at all.I am aware they are a problem in other places 

Headed out this morning thinking id only get a squid in due to swell but could not resist the urge to have a look at conditions first.
Got to the GI/Carnac passage just before light so waited to be sure it was ok...and it was fine so out we headed.
Went to the usual haunts behind garden, sounder showing plenty but nothing on the chew so came back to north end of GI.
Managed to catch about a dozen good pinkies between the 3 of us, keeping our 6 to get through the next cpl months.
One of the fish was bitten in half on the way up and as the head came over the side a white launched out of the water to gunnel height, hit the side of the boat and bounced away. The 2 fellas on that side of the boat had brown shorts after that one!
Its a shame the gopro was set up on the other side, the footage would have been right down its gob otherwise.
All in all a great morning out

 G'day fellow Fishwrecked forumites :).

Now that the footy is over for another season and I can't annoy the crap out of the Frocker faithful and the cold pie toothless brigade, I guess I should post up a fishing report for a change!

Today was certainly a great day to be on the water up here in Gero, although the fish weren't really on the chew, there was a lot of baitfish in the water and a lot of whales - some of which were very inquisitive indeed as you will see below.

We left the marina around 06:00 this morning and headed south to try a few marks. Skipper Anthony was mainly fishing bait and caught a procession of red throats over the course of the day, plus 2 small Dhuis (both released) and 1 undersized Baldie (also released).

I only caught 1 fish at around 07:00am, but it was a nice one in the form of a Cobia that smashed my Zerek live shrimp on the retrieve half way up and headed straight back down giving me a torrid fight on the Stradic 6000FI matched to the T-Curve Lucanus Jig stick. I eventually managed to wear the Cobe down and decided to keep it for some fillets (haven't tried Cobia yet, but I believe they are ok on the chew). It later measured approx 1.10 metres on the brag mat and I would estimate a weight of around 12 or so kg.

Things were pretty quiet after that for me for the rest of the day. I tried my new Smash Crab on a paternoster rig to see what that might tempt, but only scored a scorpionfish.

The highlight of the day was when a whale and her calf decided to come and check out the boat, swimming directly under us about three times and surfacing very close to us.

As always, it's hard to get the best possible shots, but I managed these few to give you an idea of how close they were to us. A great thing to experience when they get that close and personal.

 Bought this little 2-5kg rod from a tackle shop down here(busso) a while ago for flathead, tailor,kgs etc. Lately been usin it as my soft plastic rod for slightly larger things.

Great rod, small fish are still good fun on it and the bigger ones make it a bit of a challenge. Got a 2500 ci4 on it, perfect all round combo in my opinion.

Headed out from Fremantle with a mate this afternoon/evening for a snapper bash.

Heaps of boats out there with plenty of snapper to go round. Beautiful calm seas.

Got our bag limit (with 3 of us onboard).

 Forecast was for a screaming Nor'easter, so I elected to stay close and inside. Out before sunrise, wind not too bad, travelled a short distance, and dropped the pick just as the wind really came up. Good fish showing--could'nt catch any livies as i was just getting smashed up, always a good sign, so i investigated with a jig and hooked up first drop. A solid, quality fish, hooks pulled  So back down and into a steady procession of little gold-spot trevally. They were only 48-50 cm, and happily smashing a 100gm Evergreen Caprice on the PE2 gear. When i'd had enough of them, and there didn't seem to be anything else interested, down went the bait and straight into a solid fish. 50lb overhead gear, and this was obviously no little trevally. When it came into sight, a nice mulloway--with the biggest shark I have ever had alongside this or any boat right behind him. I grabbed the 80lb leader, he swallowed the fish from behind as I was trying to lift it, with the result I ended up in a tug of war with the shark seemingly trying to climb into the boat, eyeball to eyeball. I remember thinking that bronzies just don't get this big--this bloke was as big as any tiger I have ever been close to, more like a bloody great white., huge across the head and deep through the body. Anyway, inevitable happened and I ended up with the head. Note to self--don't ever " can't be bothered" when it comes to getting the gopro on your head .

So, down with another bait, and another good fish within minutes--this one came up at Ningaloo-like speeds to avoid the bitey ( who I never saw again) and turns out to be a nice fat trout. A few more smash-ups and bite offs, and things went quiet. All over by 830. Couldn't go in as I'd had to launch at the upstream ramp, as my preferred one at the rivermouth was shut, and there was no way I could manage that ramp with the wind howling straight down the river. Moved around a bit until the wind dropped, and went in with nothing else worth mentioning.

After a slow winter on the jetty things are finally starting to pick up. Herring have made a come back in the past few weeks with plenty around to get a good feed or for bait. They are firing from around 4 pm on into the night, use lumo tube just before sunset and watch them boil behind the blob. Tailor are starting to come on but not thick yet, a few good specimens have been caught after dark on mulies. The slamon run doesn't seem to want to end this year with a few small schools getting around amongst the plyons out towards the end, use live bait to get them as they are a bit fussy on dead baits at the moment. For those chasing squid there have been some nice sized ones being caught up and down the jetty but you will have to put in a bit of work. The odd sampson fish has been spotted under the jetty if anyone wants to have their arms stretched. Tight lines everyone. 

Staff member Callum loves his fishing and with yesterday being one of his days off he capitalized. Callum launched his boat from Woodmans in the morning and the plans were to head out with some mates and get into the inshore pinkys again.

The boys fished outside of the banned area and did well on bagging out with baits and Abrolhos Bullwhip softplastics. After that the boys went squiding and even though the water wasn't that clean they still found the squid.

Callum and crew were using the New Abrolhos Inka squid jigs with both the Nude & Cloth jigs doing the damage. The boys ended up with a nice feed of squid just to finish off the morning session.

 Well yesterday arvo was my last trip out targeting the keep of metro pink snapper (outside the ban area). My mate Steve was keen to get into fish as his family (including kids) love pink snapper!

We ended up bagging out before sundown and headed in early which was nice. My tagging program starts now and there's still time to fish outside the ban area for metro pink snapper (just don't stop in the Sound on the way in)!!

It was an enjoyable night with good company - Cheers 

 Swans for me, bullies have been playing all week.must be tired I reakon.hope its a good game

 went out last tuesday for a quick fish before work with good success. Ended up catching 20 odd snapper in an hour. All fish 75-90cm.  Best perth fishing ive had and there was only 3 boats around to share it. Had similar fishing Saturday but about 15 boats got in on it this time. 

Hopefully the weather forecast gets better this week. Monster swell coming for the weekend!

Finally getting around to putting up a report on last weekends Abrolhos trip. We went on a "charter" that my nephew was invited to, and all up there was eight of us out of a total of around twenty passengers. Four guys towed their trailcraft out and spent most of the time in the shallows, only returning to the big boat for the evenings, I'll definitely consider this for next time.

Conditions on the way out on Friday night were pretty uncomfortable, but nothing scary. I was a passenger on the way to Geraldton so I had managed a few cans of relaxation, and all was good. Anchor was dropped around 2.30am in some shelter, and I went for a quick nap. Up around 5.00 am and some boys already had a nice dhu on the back deck, so I dropped a line over the side and quickly had three pinks on board, all were nice fish but none were over 50cm, so back they went. Only later after I saw everyone else keeping "small" pinks did I realise that the minimum size up there is different to metro, so I could have kept them. Oh well....

Fishing over the next few days was pretty tough, not sure if it was affected by the full moon? Conditions weren't great, but they were still fishable. Fish were very sporadic, just a couple from a drift. The spots looked the goods, and the sounder was showing fish, but they weren't hungry. My personal tally was well below average, just one of those trips I guess. Over the whole trip I guess there would have been half a dozen "good" dhus landed, and a few more "acceptable." Lots of baldies, including the largest I have ever seen, some nice bluebone, a cracker spangled emperor, only a couple of trout and heaps of red throat. We came home with some fillets, but were in no danger of bagging out.

I was dissapointed that the decky thought it was beneath him to sort out bait, assist with rigs, put fish on ice, assist in filleting or generally do anything useful. He spent his time upstairs with the skipper, and the most useful thing he did was pop his head over the side and say "drop 'em down" when we were on a spot, and then a few minutes later would call out "lines up." Even had a go at my nephew who was washing down the blood off the deck (surely a deckie's job?) and asked him for some bait, "Mate, I don't do bait!" WTF??

Biggest dissapointment personally was to see guys catch a good fish early in the morning, and have the same fish still on the deck in a tub of "water" at the end of the day. When we filled our tub with ice we were told "Don't waste the ice or we will run out." On top of this, many punters were keeping clearly undersize fish that were perfectly healthy and could have gone back, very sad to see.

Good weekend away with some boys, forgot how special that place is. Fishing was tough, but that's fishing. Sorry no photos to put up, I don't want to incriminate anyone, and I didn't really catch much worth taking a photo of personally! I don't think I would go back out on that boat, will save my coin for a "real" charter or the next Monties trip.

Thanks for reading.

Browny.

 My cousin Jimmy (James Jordan) is getting right into targeting inshore pink snapper on jigs. The forecast wasn't looking so nice last night but thought what the heck I'm going and Jimmy was keen!

Hunting around things were quiet but I persisted and found fish near sundown. Short version we bagged out on pinkys and in between soaking a bait we flick Big John's nylon banana lead head jigs!

These New Big John jigs are great, locally made, durable glow paint, they catch fish and very well priced ie $7.95-$8.95. The 3/4 oz and 1oz is my preferred for drifting and on anchor!

 Last week was a busy week for me. I was guiding an Australia couple for their 5 days fishing adventures in Thailand.