Hi all

Just got back from a week in Walpole with the family and thought I would post a small report unfortunately didn't take any photos.

Spent first few days chasing flathead on plastic's and ended up with 6 fish the all around 38cm, it was tough finding the fish with each spot taking multiple casts before finally getting the fish to show interest. Caught the odd herring, one bream and a salmon about 60cm long which was good fun on ligh gear before it finally busted me off.

After the first few slow days using plastics I decided I would try and target some yellowfin whiting on bait after a bit of local information from a guy at the Walpole boat ramp, he mentioned that they were showing up on the flats near the mouth of the Nornulup inlet. He was fishing on the boat ramp jetty using a small slice and getting alot of herring, that isn't really my thing but I thought I would mention it incase anyone else was interested. I headed out to the mouth of the inlet and did try fishing the flats with know real sucess it was about 10am so trying to catch whiting in shallow water with the sun almost over head probably required more stealth than I was capable of at the time so I decided to give skippy rock a look. 

Caught some keyring sized skippy at skippy rock and overall was a little dissapointed with the days effort, decided to make a move and as I passed the small jetty near skippy rock noticed some shows on the sounder so decided to give it a go a see what they were. After anchoring and setting up I casted my double hooked whiting paternoster in the general direction baited with some coral prawn and had immediate interest. Winded it in and ended up with a double header of king george whiting not monsters but at this stage of the day I was pretty chuffed. The next hour or so was a really good session on king george catching 30 or 40 fish and ending up keeping 8 legal fish between 28cm and 32cm like i said not massive fish but the made a greed feed for the family. 

Headed back the next day with the hope of getting my 2 year old onto his first king george and the same spot produced for both him and my wife, they had fun but its hard work with a young child on the boat so we pulled in at a small beach right near the mouth of the inlet. If you haven't been to Walpole and in particular the mouth of the Nornalup inlet then I think you are really missing out this particular spot is only really accessible by boat and there is 4WD track to get to the beach on the opposite side of the mouth but we had this little protected beach all to ourselves and it really was an amazing setting.

I walked along the hedland side of the inlet mouth and noticed thick schools of juvenille snapper right in the channel only meters from the waters edge which was amazing to see, I also watched a boat coming in from sea and  for those who know that stretch of water the mouth is almost closed. The channel out usually runs along the rocks on the hedland side however at the moment the way out veers away from the rocks by 150m or so if you are going down over christmas it would pay to be careful and maybe follow someone who knows the way out. Its doable but it is quite shallow, while I was there I saw a small commercial boat do it and he seemed to be getting stuck a bit.

I have been going to Walpole for nearly ten years and I have had some great bream sessions on plastics and some trips were just non stop fishing action the last couple of times were a little slow and plastics don't seem to be the go, I didn't really fish far up the Frankland River this time around but in the past i haven't had to get action. I was just wondering if anyone else who go's to Walpole has noticed the action drop off over the last 5 years or so or is it just me. I did catch a blowie for the first time while at the mouth of the inlet and was also wondering if anyone else has caught them, I hope this is note a sign of things to come.

Overall we had a great time and really enjoyed the time spent in the two inlets.

Cheers 

As with most travelling anglers, I've got one of those internal 'bucket lists' that I keep adding trips to faster than I can complete them. Whilst the list keeps growing, there are a few trips that have been right up the top of that list for a while now. The kind of destination that you dream about long before you get there, and Ashmore Reef was one such destination.

Ashmore is an extremely remote reef system near the border between the waters of Australia and Papua New Guinea. In short, it's a real prick to get to (in total 8 flights and some sea voyaging for me). But as is often the case, these hard to get to places are renown for great fishing – and so as soon as I read the report about the first trip which Nomad did to Ashmore some time ago, I decided it was somewhere I needed to go!

A couple of years went by before I locked the trip in - but over a number of beers in London one night my mate Tim Howe agreed to join me on the mission, and the trip got booked.

After my fourth (and Tim's fifth) flight of the trip thus far, we finally caught our first glance of the mothership Odyssey which was to be our home for the next week.

As we sat around on Horn Island waiting to board, it is safe to say the anticipation was pretty damn high.

As anyone who has read my previous reports may know, I have a reputation of getting atrocious weather on almost every trip I attend. 20-30 knots seems to be par for the course. So it was with some skepticism (and relief) that the Nomad guides assured us we were in for some glamour weather on our trip, which thankfully proved to be the case. After a quick beer, the tackle prep began, and we steamed out overnight to where the games would commence.

I had two main goals for this trip – beat my PB dog (which sits at 50 odd kg) and bag a Napoleon Wrasse on the casting gear. On day 1 of the trip, we set off to try and accomplish the first of those challenges. We were to start the day by jigging some steep drop-offs in quite deep water, and from the get go things looked promising. Plenty of bait on the sounder, and some large marks down there too – so our hopes were high. We lined up for our first drift, and straight away it was on. Triple hookup on BIG fish, at least two of which were doggies. As we looked at each other we knew that there was no chance all three of these beasts would get landed – and as we watched the line rapidly peel off our spools under sunset drag, it became a matter of who would lose their's first.

Unfortunately we didn't have to wait long to find out. Quite simply we got our asses handed to us. We had one fish reef us, another get sharked, and a third one get lost to line digging into the spool under immense drag – all within seconds of the fight beginning. I'd like to say that this was an isolated incident – but truth be told, this was to be the status quo every time we dropped a jig in deep water for the rest of the trip. We spent a good chunk of the morning doing everything we could to get one of these monsters to the top, hoping that by sheer luck we would get past the sharks or keep the dogs away from the reef long enough to land one – but it just wasn't to be the case. I lost count of how many hookups we had, but after a while it became time to pack it up and do something else. Strong though the lure of landing a monster doggie is, it is something that's easy to get disillusioned with, as in the pursuit of it you find yourself in countless situations where you can do absolutely nothing to beat the sharks or the reef other than hope you 'get lucky' and finally get one up.

 We saw massive Yellowfin bustups all around which may have been a contributing to the shark factor. Every cast into those messes of tuna and bait resulted in an immediate hookup of a large tuna, followed by an equally immediate pack mauling of that tuna by hordes of oceanic whitetips. We swiftly realized that any lure you put into those bustups would never be seen again, and decided to move on.

As we skulked off to lick our wounds (with jig bags and lure rolls worryingly depleted for being one day into the trip) we decided to head off for a cast on the reef and leave the deeper water alone for a bit. Thankfully this was the right call!

What followed was a consistent (if not wide open) bite on GTs, coral trout and the other usual suspects. A number of nice Geets landed, so a fun finish to what had so far been a painful day. The Amberjack lures getting a lot of love in that afternoon session – the Dreadnought and the Spitfire in particular.

During our stint on Odyssey, we also fished every night off the mothership. There were fish landed every night, but two sessions stood out. The session on night one, was made possible by the fact that we anchored out at a very deep mark near a dropoff that we'd fished earlier in the day. I have to say, that I never thought I'd experience fishing like that off a mothership at anchor! During a session that would have lasted around 90 minutes, we had over a dozen hookups on F*CKING BIG dogs. The difference here versus the day, is that astonishingly the sharks were far better at night. The result was no different though. Drag 'done up with a crescent' and two thumbs on spool using PE8 would do nothing to stop these monsters.

There was one occasion that I thought I was in with a real shot as I hooked the fish quite close to the top whilst retrieving my jig, but it still smashed me. A run of at least 150m without slowing at all – ending in a collision with a reef. Reels too hot to touch and broken dreams were the order of the night, but there was something pretty surreal about getting dominated by an XOS dog and then being able to go and pull a beer from the keg on the mothership whilst you were re-rigging. A night I won't forget.

Day 2, and the plan for our tender was to hit Boot Reef first up for a cast. Second cast in and BAM – great strike from a GT on my rod. Mid fight, and it happened. The bastard sharks turned up again. It isn't often that you have a size GT sharked – but the greysuits were on form. Couple casts later and I hooked up another rat GT, same result, so we decided to move on.

After persevering through some bycatch on the casting gear we went back out to the deeper marks for a jig, but had exactly the same results as day one. Reefings from dogs on the jig, sharkings on the tuna while casting, really a lose lose scenario for all bar the tackle manufacturers.

We decided to move away from the more usual jig/pop targets, and focus more on inside edges and channels chasing the Napoleon Wrasse I wanted so badly. After releasing a few odds and sods (the usual trout etc) my FCL Labo CSP got swiped off the surface by something very large that was very keen to get back into the reef. The thing hit in under 5m of water near the edge of a large dropoff. As we were targeting wrasse, I'd been warned to run 'no mercy' drag, and so I had my Stella cranked up to less than a turn off locked down. After a lot of back and forth (and a marginally avoided unintentional swim) I finally managed to get him away into the deeper water. The victory was mine! But the fish had other ideas, and summoned the strength for one last surge for the reef which no amount of spool grabbing could prevent. He found his hole, and gained both his freedom and my lure. Our guide reaffirming our suspicions – that I'd been 'wrassed' by a sized specimen fish. Devastated is putting it lightly!

So we carried on working the reef edge (as I continued to slowly die inside) with the hope of another shot at our prey. We were casting into every likely looking bit of structure – hitting the channels – when Tim (also working an FCL Labo stickbait but this time in the form of a TBO) got tight. Having seen what just happened to me, he was giving it no quarter in a locked drag tug of war that got the fish away from the reef and kept it there. As we pulled back into deeper water, the battle was won (for real this time) and Tim had opened his Wrasse account. A cracking fish.

After we ran out of reef edge to try we went out to try and hit another point that our guide Jimmy had fished before. At first things were slow, but as the current began to push up the bite switched on, and we encountered an awesome bustup of fish smashing bait in shallow water. This bustup included all kinds of fish including GTs, red bass, and (a new species for both Tim and I) the Maori Sea Perch - with Tim landing this awesome specimen.

Day 3

Today was our last session out at Boot, and the plan was a full day of casting. Jigging kit was left behind, and we headed straight for the spot where we'd found the Geets the previous morning. As luck would have it, they were just as easy to find this day. Lots of sharks around again but I landed my GT of the trip at this spot, with Englishman Alex losing another very nice fish (and a Carpenter with it) right at the boat.

The biggest GT I landed at this spot got followed by sharks on the way in, but he was too big for them to charge in without caution, and he ended up swimming around just under the boat for a full ten minutes after he was released – regaining his strength, for his run back to the reef. I've never seen this happen before, but he was at most 30cm under the surface of the water this whole time, whilst the sharks circled a little farther away.  This was a really hot session for a while with almost a fish a cast of GTs, as well as some very big and angry dogs which (on a number of days) followed our lures right up to the boat, but could not be tempted to commit.

After this we went to give the 'wrasse spot' another go, but no luck, so we popped inside a huge blue hole and had a very hot light tackle session on Jobfish, Maori Sea Perch, Red Bass and Coral Trout on stickbaits. The Sea Perch was a first for me – and had me all but defeated (by burying me in a hole) until by luck slackening the line had him come out again while I still had some semblance of a leader left.

Our time for the day was up so we retired to the boat and after another great meal, commenced the nightly mothership jigging ritual. Little did we know, this was to be the second of our noteworthy mothership sessions. In what the captain described as 'the best mothership fishing he'd seen in his time at Nomad' we hooked dog after dog after dog. Most of these however were of a much more manageable size (around the 5-12kg range) and we were fighting them on increasingly lighter gear. Towards the end we had double and triple hookups going, fighting them on super light gear. I had a number of them up on a Temple Reef Mytho LJ510 rod running PE2 line on a tiny Wiki Jigging 900 reel. Seriously awesome fun running around the boat, dunking your rod deep into the water trying to keep line away from the boat and generally having a good laugh. No trophy fish landed of course, but everyone including the crew got in on the action. We must have landed well over 20 rat doggies in this session – certainly one to remember.

The fourth day was a quieter one for us. We started fishing around Ashmore but nothing much was happening in the morning. The wind was forecast to pick up, so we had to leave Ashmore and head into the hard line. Once we got to the reef, things started looking way better. Unbelievable amounts of bait around, but lots of sharks again. We landed loads of small to medium GTs, plus a few makkies (Spanish and Shark Mack) as well as plenty of the usual bycatch in particular Red Bass.

Day five was a much more prolific day. We started out on the jig and whilst it took us a good while to find the ground – when we did things fired up and became (in terms of fish actually landed rather than hooked and lost) our best day on the jig. Included in this jigging action was a double hookup of a doggie and grouper to Alex and Tim – as well as plenty of Spaniards on the jig to keep us entertained. I was testing out some prototype Cerulean jigs that proved to be very productive and one of them (in 150gr) hooked up one hell of a dog, which unfortunately won its freedom after I thought I'd finally turned its head.

After half a day of jigging it was time for a cast, and straight away we knew it was going to be a good session. The average size of fish was small, but it was non-stop action on Spanish macks, random reef dwellers and around 35 GTs landed. No real trophy fish there, but a great deal of fun.

On our way back to the boat we came across a tiny sand cay in the middle of nowhere, so we stopped in for a look. I decided to spend a bit of time on the camera while Tim & Alex got in some casts from the shore. Plenty of GTs around! A couple of missed opportunities and a few follows, but none landed unfortunately. Would have been nice to get some landbased Geets that's for sure, and the spot was incredible.

For our final day – we decided once again to leave the jigs at home, and focus on the cast. The main aim was to get me my Napoleon. To cut a long story short, it was a failure. We spent half the day casting at likely structure and whilst a massive hole did open up behind my lure in around 4 metres of water (which our guide called for a wrasse) in the first hour of fishing, the rest of the time was very uneventful aside from a little cod on PE3.

It was shaping up to be a dud of a final day, until we stumbled across one of the GT spawning aggregations (or mobile bommies) we'd heard so much about. Then things changed drastically for the better!

After we'd pulled a few of the fish up we knew the average size was small, so I decided it would be a good idea to drop down to my PE3 gear and flick a lure out. What ensued was one incredibly fun session, with Tim and I having multiple battles against large numbers of Geets and Macks, all on the lightest casting kit we had on board. Despite loads of wince-worthy rod angles being performed as GTs dived around under the boats, plenty of deck dancing and boat maneuvering ensured that we each got fish up – and the Yamaga Blanks Blue Snipers we were using (77/3 and 81/2) didn't miss a beat, with Tim taking out the PE3 battle. Surely one of my favourite rod series of all time.

After a couple of hours of great fun the bite dried up and I thought the trip was done, but we had time for one more spot. We found a likely looking shoal and flicked our lures, and I immediately hooked up to something that unequivocally kicked my ass. Straight back to his hole in the reef and my lure was gone. OK – there were some serious fish down there, time to break out the heavier rod. It didn't take long until I was on again – this fish had some serious power from the get go – I could tell it was a reef dweller, but couldn't pick the species – going too hard for a red bass – maybe a donkey trout, who knows, but what I didn't expect (and was delighted to see) was another 'first' for me in the form of a Chinaman. I'd actually remarked to Tim a couple of days earlier whilst looking at a photo of one in the dining room on Odyssey that one of those had been on my list for some time, so it was great to tick one off on the last cast on the last day.

With the fish released, it was time for our last steam back to the mothership. Beers were cracked, stories were told, and the long voyage back to reality began. Counting down to the next one….

A year ago, I found out that my cousin was getting married in December 2016. I wanted to attend the wedding in Hong Kong, and at the same time use this excuse to travel in southeast Asia some more. My sister and I decided on Indonesia and Cambodia after looking at several options.

We spent a week in Indonesia splitting the time between Komodo National Park and Bali. Komodo was definitely my favourite of the entire trip.

This is the first part of our trip. I'm in the midst of sorting pictures for the second part of the trip.

Here's the link to the series of blog posts starting with Day 1. I encourage you to visit the blog to read about the adventures and see additional photos. I've changed my blog layout a bit. So the Blog Archive is on the right side panel now. You can find the links to the rest of the days there.

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2016/11/2016-asia-komodo-day-1.html

Let's start with some scenery and wildlife pictures first.

Komodo National Park

































Panorama

Palau Padar



Komodo Sunset



Palau Sebayur



YouTube video of Manta Ray

https://youtu.be/RJvloh4cnrc

Bali











Panaroma

Tegalalang rice terraces



Mount Batur



~~~

Now onto the fishes...

Komodo National Park is surrounded by the most biodiverse marine ecosystem on Earth. Needless to say, the fishing was fantastic! I fished an hour here and two hours there over 4 days in Komodo can caught 48 species!

I was expecting the fishing to be great as well in Bali, but it was very disappointing. After fishing a total of 7 hours, I only caught 3 new species and maybe 6 fish in total.

Here are the Komodo new species...

Golden Damselfish (Amblyglyphidodon aureus) - Species #635



Small-toothed Whiptail (Pentapodus caninus) - Species #636



Cheeklined Wrasse (Oxycheilinus digramma) - Species #637



Chocolate Hind (Cephalopholis boenak) - Species #638



Moon Wrasse (Thalassoma lunare) - Species #639



Orange-lined Triggerfish (Balistapus undulatus) - Species #640



Bluespotted Hind (Cephalopholis cyanostigma) - Species #641



Longfin Emperor (Lethrinus erythropterus) - Species #642



Halfmoon Triggerfish (Sufflamen chrysopterum) - Species #643



Yellow-tipped Threadfin Bream (Nemipterus nematopus) - Species #644



Lattice Monocle Bream (Scolopsis taenioptera) - Species #645



Giant Prawn-goby (Amblyeleotris fontanesii) - Species #646



Fork-tailed Threadfin Bream (Nemipterus furcosus) - Species #647



Orbiculate Cardinalfish (Sphaeramia orbicularis) - Species #648



Juvenile Mullet - Species #649



Damselfish species - Species #650



Milkspotted Puffer (Chelonodon patoca) - Species #651



Silver Moony (Monodactylus argenteus) - Species #652



Yellowmargined Triggerfish (Pseudobalistes flavimarginatus) - Species #653



Zenarchopteridae species - Species #654



Pennant Coralfish (Heniochus acuminatus) - Species #655



White-shouldered Whiptail (Pentapodus bifasciatus) - Species #656



Redbreast Wrasse (Cheilinus fasciatus) - Species #657



Spottail Coris (Coris caudimacula) - Species #658



Wahoo (Acanthocybium solandri) - Species #659!





Saw-jawed Monocle Bream (Scolopsis ciliata) - Species #660



Cardinal species - Species #661



Spotted-gill Cardinalfish (Ostorhinchus chrysopomus) - Species #662



Spotted Hawkfish (Cirrhitichthys aprinus) - Species #663



Damselfish species - Species #664



Tail-spot Wrasse (Halichoeres melanurus) - Species #665



Bowtie Damselfish (Neoglyphidodon melas) - Species #666



Floral Wrasse (Cheilinus chlorourus) - Species #667



Sixbar Wrasse (Thalassoma hardwicke) - Species #668



Yellowstripe Monocle Bream (Scolopsis aurata) - Species #669



Streamlined Spinefoot (Siganus argenteus) - Species #670



Green Wrasse (Halichoeres solorensis) - Species #671



Black Blotch Emperor (Lethrinus semicinctus) - Species #672



Two-spot Red Snapper (Lutjanus bohar) - Species #673





Yellowspotted Trevally (Carangoides fulvoguttatus) - Species #674





Leopard Coralgrouper (Plectropomus leopardus) - Species #675





Grey Large-eye Bream (Gymnocranius griseus) - Species #676



Southeast Asian Blackstripe Dottyback (Pseudochromis perspicillatus) - Species #677



Honeycomb Grouper (Epinephelus merra) - Species #678



Red-toothed Triggerfish (Odonus niger) - Species #679



Ornate Emperor (Lethrinus ornatus) - Species #680



Darkfin Hind (Cephalopholis urodeta) - Species #681



Redbar Sandperch (Parapercis bimacula) - Species #682



Speckled Sandperch (Parapercis hexophtalma) - Species #683



Here are the Bali new species...

Oceanic Puffer (Lagocephalus lagocephalus) - Species #684



Common Bluestripe Snapper (Lutjanus kasmira) - Species #685



Onespot Demoiselle (Chrysiptera unimaculata) - Species #686

Brother and I decided to dust the nets off last Wednesday and catch up over a few beers while soaking our nets. Plenty of mullet around and saw some decent sized prawns about so well worth kicking for them if that's your thing.

Herring are still firing quite well on the lumo tube just before sunset, no need to walk too far to get them about half way out is the go. Remember the herring quite often fire the best on the windy side ( Dunsborough side ) when it is blowing a southerly or from the SW, a bit difficult but rewarding. After dark the herring are on the chew out towards the end of the jetty use a bit of yellowtail for bait. Squid are not super thick but there are some good sized ones around for those willing to put in a bit of effort, right on the bend where the weed begins after the first shelter seems to be firing the best for them.  There is the usual sambo action first thing in the morning for the young fella's wanting to have a bit of fun, use live squid if you can get one. The tailor are not playing the game at the moment on the jetty. Unfortunatly the blowfish have made their way onto the sandbar so fishing for whiting is a bit difficult.

Tight lines.

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