Things seem  a bit quiet in Kalbarri at the moment, water temps remain below 20c and whilst those sneaking out for a quick morning fish are usually managing a feed, I havent heard of anything outstanding coming in.

There are reports of the odd bag of Tailor from Wittecarra and a couple of Soapies from the river mouth.

Still plenty of whiting and a lot of ( mostly undersized) bream coming from the river.

I have managed a feed last couple of trips out in the Mako Cat, with a guest nailing a nice Baldie yeaterday up SandPatch way, and some really Nice NW Blowies!

I am only a noob here, but the water colour is still pretty green looking compared to how I recall it previously.

There are plenty of bait congregations to be seen on the sounder whilst scouting for ground, but nothing seems to be that interested in harassing it.

4 days ago there was a lot of surface action out off Red bluff in 30m but whilst it was a nice display of the local birdlife, and the odd surface bustup, an hour of trolling and casting tin at the action resulted in nothing.

Last week a run to Wagoe in the boat resulted in nothing more that a horde of ravenous Blowies.

Chatting to some local fishos, it seems there is a feed out there if you work hard enough, but it isnt easy.

So thats about it from me, just remember, I aint no local expert, this is just my observation.

Cheers

Yesterday I thought I'm gonna have a squid fish as I've run out in my freezer and I love my squid. This would be a solo mission to kick back and relax on a day off!

I launched with gentleman hours ie 12 noon and the plan was to squid the arvo until sundown if need be. The water wasn't that clean and I stuck with using the New Harimitsu glow colours which did the damage yesterday!

I ended up bagging out (15) with 10 of the squid being very BIG including a few larger ones than the one in picture. I had a few mates fishing on a boat chasing pink snapper on sundown and they said swing by on the way in Ryan and say G'day!

Gentleman hrs this morning had boat in by 10:30am. Found a good showing on some ground in 20m. Not big but a nice little feed and good to get a fish on the boat after a bit of a dry spell

The forecast wasn't looking so nice last night but thought what the heck I'm going. My cousin Jimmy came for another run and it's amazing how things change each trip out on the pinkys!

Fish wise it was really quiet but I persisted and moved around a lot, on sundown I found a few fish and as soon as the anchor was set and baits in we were on!

We bagged out with some good fish landed, my cousin got two first > his PB pinky which I weighed at 8.3kg and after we bagged out he said can I pinch one of those new Big Johns jigs and have a quick go ..... I said go for it!

Headed out for the monthly MAAC comp yesterday with Dean, Wal (Dean’s 72-year-old Dad) and Sarah (my 11-year-old Daughter) in fairly sloppy conditions (NE wind of 10kn+ against a SW swell of 2.5 to 3m).  I must say that I have always enjoyed fishing with Wal, and the banter between him and Dean, as his accumulated knowledge from a lifetime of quality sports fishing is gold.  I always learn something from Wal.

Same method, sound up the fish, spot lock, 5kg mulie shred block to the bottom, fish quality baits on good rigs and the fish kept coming.  The bite was not as “severe” as I have previously seen it, but by moving around we still managed a couple of nice pinkies (Wal’s was 7kg+ and mine was 4kg+), a lovely queen snapper (Wal’s), a big breaksea (mine at 1.918kg), plenty of sambos (Dean’s biggest at 21kg+, with some unstoppables), tarwine and skippy (Sarah got quite a few of these).  I didn’t take any photos of the fish (don’t know why really) so it “didn’t happen”.  I did get a shot of Sarah onto a big skippy and Dean’s sambo fight, with Wal looking on.  Breaksea Cod is premium so I took an “after event” photo of the fillets, as Jill demands I always bring these home.

We came in from out wider as the wind started to change westerly, and this was a good decision.  Time to target the inshore species, so we stopped at the back of the 3-Mile to sound up the sand whiting that hold there at this time of year.  They were thick, and we caught 30 odd within 20 minutes – an opportunity to stock up on pinkie baits.  We then came in close seeking tailor, snook, herring and gardies but conditions were crap, there was heaps of weed and the water was very dirty.  We came in early.

Wal had a good day, landing most fish he hooked.  It was a tribute to fishing skill that Wal won the monthly MAAC comp singles, and veterans, amongst seasoned competition.  A day to remember with a really good bloke, and crew.

Not metro-sexual, these were of the nasty female variety, a pod of 5 harassing us just north of Rotto today. Probably the best thing I have seen in my boat along with the 5m great white a few years ago.

We were not sure and thought they may have been false killers so were not totally terrified at the time, but on checking the video against photos on the web, it would appear they are female killer whales.

I only got a little bit of video, before I got the video, they were lingering right at the back of the boat only one or two meters way, then charging down the side of the boat then floating back under.....pretty cool, but scary at the same time.

Got a few fish too so was a great day.

https://youtu.be/lmnY6jL88K4

With the pinkys starting to fire up I went back out for a looky. On sundown I found a school of pinkys and as soon as the anchor was set and baits in the water ..... we were on!!

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Some time ago now I got chatting with Pierre from the Panafishing lodge about hosting a trip out at his lodge in Pedasi, which is around a 5 hour drive from Panama City. It’s a destination that’s always appealed to me for a variety of reasons – one of which being the fact that there are a lot of species that are regularly caught there that I’ve never even seen (let alone caught) before such as Cubera Snapper, Rooster Fish and Broomtail Grouper. But to add to that, it’s a really intriguing country and also somewhere that I could conceivably beat my PB Yellowfin Tuna. So it’s safe to say, I didn’t need much convincing.

We arrived in Panama City at various times during last weekend and after an exceptional steak and ‘a few quiet beers’, called it a night before Pierre’s driver collected us on Sunday morning. With a 5 hour drive ahead of us and loads of excitement all-round, the drive did (as you may expect) become a bit of a fiesta, but by the time we had depleted most of the road-side stores between Panama City and Pedasi of cervesa and shared many a fishing story, we arrived at the lodge in time to ready our kit and enjoy (one of many) delicious dinners prepared by the Panafishing team.

The lodge itself definitely met the high expectations we had after all the positive reviews we’d read, and with the hot weather the pool was certainly a welcome feature.

As we prepared our kit, we got chatting with Pierre about the week ahead including the expected weather. Unfortunately (as seems to be the norm for me!) the wind forecast was on the high side, with day 1 and day 5 of the trip looking to be the calmest days. With that in mind, we decided to spend the first day heading out wide in search of the big Yellowfin that Panama is known for.

After a bacon and egg fryup in the morning we began our steam out to find the fish, covering around 25 miles before we started to see the telltale signs of tuna activity. When we did find the fish however, it seemed that we were a bit late to the party. A number of other local boats were on the school using bait, and we didn’t have any luck with our lures as the fish had already become a bit skittish. So by 11am, we still hadn’t managed a strike. At this point we decided to leave this vast school, and head off in search of action elsewhere. Not long after, we found it. For the next few hours we encountered smaller schools of fish, but with a nice average size. The dolphins rather than the birds would give them away, and as long as you could place your cast near the dolphin school you were effectively guaranteed a Yellowfin. Without the other boats around, this became easy fishing!

I was first up, and the moment that the glorious slab of yellow exploded upon my Temple Reef Tuna 80 popper, I was reminded why I love topwater fishing so much. There’s just nothing else like it, and after a few months’ hiatus it was great to be back in the fray. It was about half way through that fight (when I was still feeling the effects of the last night’s festivities) that I was also reminded that these fish are no joke on a casting rod, and as I worked in the heat to try and pump the fish out of his circles deep under the boat I vowed to (at least attempt) to be less enthusiastic in my assault on Pierre’s bar that night.

 But, nice fish landed for the photo, and now it was Eric’s turn to get tight. Here he is getting taken to pain town on another great yellow.

Very shortly after my fish and then Eric’s were landed, I was on again. I saw this fish leap from the water as it grabbed my popper and I knew I was in for a lot more pain. This thing was a horse, and it reminded me of that from the very begging to the very end of the fight. A huge prick of a thing, that seriously had me sweating. After much huffing and puffing I had the thing to the first glimpses of colour, when it decided to make a spirited run to the back of the boat. Despite my best efforts to scramble down to the stern in pursuit, it had my braid on the leg of the outboard, and won its freedom (and a shiny piece of Temple Reef jewellery in the process).

A demoralising experience for sure to struggle so hard and then lose the fish, but that’s fishing! Erin and Eric were having a good run on the fish and so it was time to cast again, this time with a Blaze Burn 50 sinking stickbait tied on to try out. I had been provided with a number of samples of these some time back, and as soon as I saw them I knew they’d be a winner. I wasn’t wrong! First cast into the dolphin pod and I was on to another tuna, a very nice fish and bigger than the first but I suspect not (as is the case with all ‘one that got away’ stories) as big as the mule that took my lure. Was thoroughly impressed with these lures over the course of the trip, and super happy that we’ll have a big stock of them available on Adventure Angler any day now.

As the afternoon rolled on and the wind started to increase, we began making our way back in nearer to the shore to hit up some jigging marks. I had set myself four key targets for this trip – being cubera snapper, rooster fish, pompano, new PB yellowfin and broomtail grouper, and it was really nice to be able to tick one of these off on the first day. Whilst by no means a beast, I took a nice broomtail on my FCL Labo SLZ jig, followed by all round action for the three of us on rat sized AJs which was a fun way to finish the day.

When we got back to the beach in the evening, we learnt that the English team had spent the day on two very BIG yellows. Although taken on bait, they were some serious fish. The pics do not do them justice but they were weighed at 180 and 226lbs respectively after they were unable to be revived after fight times of 2 hours for the first and over 3 hours for the second! A tough slog on casting gear for sure, and this pic is the smaller of the two.

Day 2 and the wind was up, so the call was made to hit the inshore. This day was pretty quiet for all boats, and I spent most of the day fishing the light tackle. I had taken a PE2 jigging setup in the form of a Temple Reef Mytho and Wiki Jigging 900H reel, and had a good time catching a variety of species including Jacks, a lot of silk snapper and also another of my target species – the Pompano – which gave a great fight on this light gear.

Day 3, and there was a serious storm coming through. Lots of rain was forecast, and some wind along with it. Definitely the worst weather for the trip, but fortunately that seemed to match up with the best fishing. Whilst the other boats had a slow day that day, the bite was on for us from the off. Casting in torrential rain and lightning was exciting at times, but we were soon rewarded when I had a hit on my Blaze Burn which I was casting in relatively deep (35m) water over a section of structure that came up to about 25 metres. I was fishing with PE5 gear and the fish pulled a bit of string on the first run which got my hopes up, but it ended up being one of several sierra mackerel taken for the trip whilst casting. Thankfully my lure was returned effectively unscathed by the teeth, and I resumed casting. Shortly afterwards I was in for a very different fight. After a strong take I set the hooks into something with a good bit of weight, which although not giving that first run of a makkie did slog it out the whole way to the boat, I was really stoked to see red come up through the water as my first Cubera was ticked off the list. Not a huge one by any means, but it gave me some serious respect for the fish and made me realise what sort of heavy gear (or luck) you’d need to land a big one on the cast given their preference for staying near structure.

After a morning of casting in the rain, the weather finally cleared and it was time to go for a jig. I’m not sure if it was the rain that day or what, but the fish had really fired up. We ended up with a red hot session including at least 25 jacks, 11 rooster fish, 3 broomtails and some other odds and sods. Persistence had definitely paid off! Special mention has to go to Erin’s sea monster that he hooked on an FCL Labo jig on his heavy jig outfit. This thing slugged it out on the bottom for a good 5-10 minutes without either party being able to win an inch of line going with max power, before the line decided it had had enough and parted ways. The skipper called it for a 50kg+ cubera or a huge broomtail, but I guess we’ll never know. A devastating loss, but it’s fish like those that keep us coming back.

Day 4, we decided to get in another session on the tuna before the local fishing tournament started on Friday (day 5) to try and avoid the boat traffic. Our plan paid off, as we reached the marks and saw only one other local boat out there. The tuna fishing was good, and we were straight into the fish. All of us caught, with me landing 5 and losing another 2 for the day. Infuriatingly one of those two was again lost boatside when (presumably armed with advice from its mate from day 1) it legged it for the engines and popped me off under the boat after we’d already got it to colour. This time, it made away with my Blaze lure, which annoyingly was my only one in the 50LS size. Nevermind, we’d had a great session and now it was time to try inshore for more roosters or cubera. Unfortunately today was a bit of a reversal for us in that respect, as it was our turn to have a slow inshore session whilst the Dutch boat killed it landing a dozen roosters and a small cubera also. Inshore for us was quiet, aside from the damn needlefish which were in plague numbers around one of the islands and which relieved me of two more of my lures.

Day 5 rolled around unbelievably quickly, and it was time for our final session of the trip. As forecast the weather that day was great, and the skipper decided to take us to a spot far along the coast for a try at some big inshore species. Not long out from the ramp we were greeted by a pod of humpbacks, which we followed for quite a while as they cruised slowly along the coast. Amazing animals to see up close. We didn’t land loads of fish that day, but in terms of the number of strikes we got on the cast from some nice sized fish it was definitely one of the better days in that respect. Some places like this island (which is the fishiest looking place I’ve never caught a fish) didn’t produce, but as we got further along the coast and started casting on some of the deeper spots we had a range of good fish on the cast including more makkies, tuna, jacks and rooster fish.

At one point on which we’d just had a couple of nice strikes including a rooster on the cast for Erin, I got a really nice strike. But something about this fight was different, and we soon learnt why! I saw a big silver slab of roosterfish come charging towards the boat. It looked like a great fish, but then the reason it was charging towards us became apparent as it was pack mauled to pieces by a swarm of dirty whaler sharks of some description. We hadn’t seen a single shark or had one fish sharked all week, but the moment I hook my best rooster and likely my best fish of the trip, they appear out of nowhere to tear it to shreds and take my last Blaze with it. F#cking sharks!!! I’m pretty sure they heard me insulting the bastards from the lodge that day. Sadly misadventure became a bit of a theme for the day, with Erin pulling the hooks on a couple of good roosters on the cast also.

And so the trip drew to a close (far too quickly) and we began the long voyage back home. Whilst I hadn’t caught any trophy sized fish I had ticked all my boxes aside from my PB Yellow, and there was definitely scope to do that there. We saw loads of big fish amongst the schools, it would just be a matter of landing enough small ones so that eventually you hooked a beast. For someone who has primarily focussed on GT destinations, it was great to do something totally different and in the process get exposure to very different species and very different styles of fishing that what I’ve done in the past, and it’s definitely a trip which I’d repeat.

Dan

With the weather turning to shit soon I thought I might as well put in a good effort and go out for a pinky bash. First session was Sunday night with my cousin Jimmy (James Jordan) where we did well in getting our bag limit on baits!

That session was a buzz so I decided to go back out again yesterday but it was all about using artificials. My mate Brad Patman came along for this trip, Brad loves his softplastics and the buzz of getting pinkys on plastics is awesome!

We bagged out and all on plastics, our favourites were the New Abrolhos 7" Bullwhip minnow, Abrolhos 7" G- Rub and the New Smash Crab!

Two great sessions on the pinkys with good company, cheers boyz!

Managed to shoot out on Saturday with the family in the tub. Late start in the water just before 9:00 after having safety gear and skippers ticket checked at the ramp which was good to see. Straight to the squid patch and into them. Had a few good laughs with wife and kids coping a few direct hits from angry cephs as they came over the side. All done by 12:00 with a double bag. Had a good feed that night with a few more in the freezer for later, and packed a few solid bags up to hopefully convert to reds up at Coral Bay in a few weeks.

Hi guys! I've been busy with my thesis and haven't been around much here. But I was able to take a trip to Peru at the end of July to mid August. This report is a little late since there were fish that were very difficult to identify. There are still some fish we're not sure of.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this virtual trip to Peru! :)

This trip almost didn't happened TWICE! But I was glad to make the sacrifices to make it happen in the end. Full story on the blog. I spent roughly one week around Cusco and one week in the Peruvian Amazon close to Iquitos. Most of the fishing was done in the Amazon, but I was happy to catch at least one Andean species and two saltwater species. This visit to Peru also allowed me to check off another continent which I have fished. Now I just need Africa ;) and Antarctica :shock:!

The full blog starts here on Day 1 (I'm sure you can navigate through the other days on my blog):

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2016/07/2016-peru-day-1.html

Here are some selected photos. Lots more on my blog.

Cusco











Pisac







Ollantaytambo







Salkantay hike - Highest I've ever hiked so far (4600m)...while having a bout of food poisioning!















Machu Picchu







Peruvian Amazon

















Some interesting food

Guinea pig



Alpaca



Palm weevil larvae



Breaded Arapaima



~~~~~~

And finally, roughtly 50 species from fish from Peru caught on this trip.

Acrobrycon ipanquianus - Species #579



Serrasalmus rhombeus - Species #580 (Red eye and thick black margin on the tail ID this as S. rhombeus)



Pirapitinga (Piaractus brachypomus) - Species #581



Red Piranha (Pygocentrus nattereri) - Species #582



Bloch's Catfish (Pimelodus blochii) - Species #583



Sorubim maniradii - Species #584 (black stripe seems diffuse to me)



Cynodon gibbus - Species #585 (little cousin to the well known Payara. The Payara has much shorter anal fin)



Ageneiosus ucayalensis - Species #586



Triportheus angulatus - Species #587



Tetragonopterus argenteus - Species #588



Stethaprion crenatum - Species #589



Triportheus albus - Species #590



Flatwhiskered Catfish (Pinirampus pirinampu) - Sepcies #591



Trahira (Hoplias malabaricus) - Species #592



Spotted Pike-characin (Boulengerella maculata) - Species #593



Brycon melanopterus - Species #594



Mesonauta mirificus - Species #595 (updated)



Crenicichla semicincta - Species #596 (Green diagonal bands on the body is the ID key)



Leporinus moralesi - Species #597 (This species was determined base on range. L. moralesi is found in Peru)



Blue Whale Catfish (Cetopsis coecutiens) - Species #598



Pterodoras granulosus - Species #599



Cichla monoculus - Species #600!!!



Brycon cephalus - Species #601 (Still trying to determine if it really is B. cephalus)



Tucan Fish (Chalceus erythrurus) - Species #602



Spotfin Hatchetfish (Thoracocharax stellatus) - Species #603



Rhamdia quelen - Species #604 (updated)



Hypselecara temporalis - Species #605



Ageneiosus inermis - Species #606



Spotted sorubim (Pseudoplatystoma corruscans) - Species #607



Brachyplatystoma vaillantii - Species #608



Zamurito (Calophysus macropterus) - Species #609



Unknown - Species #610 (still being determined)



Ctenobrycon hauxwellianus - Species #611



Aequidens tetramerus - Species #612 (we think these are A. tetramerus...still checking)



Brachychalcinus sp. - Species #613 (some thinks it is B. copei, but I'm not so sure)



Bujurquina syspilus - Species #614



Mylossoma aureum - Species #615



Roeboides myersii - Species #616



Pimelodella cristata - Species #617 (I'm certain it is a Pimelodella, and P. cristata seems the closest)



Aimara (Hoplerythrinus unitaeniatus) - Species #618



Erythrinus erythrinus - Species #619



Bandtail Tetra (Moenkhausia dichroura) - Species #620



Glass tetra (Moenkhausia oligolepis) - Species #621



Moenkhausia chrysargyrea - Species #622 (updated)



Astyanax sp. - Species #623 (In the publication Ornamental Fishes of Peru, this was listed as an Astyanax sp., but no one seems to know which species it is)



Twospot Astyanax (Astyanax bimaculatus) - Species #624



Moenkhausia colletti - Species #625 (Still trying to verify this)



Pimelodella gracilis - Species #626 (There are so many similar Pimelodella species, still not sure which one)



Moenkhausia lepidura - Species #627



Giant Blenny (Scartichthys gigas) - Species #628



Chalapo Clinid (Labrisomus philippii) - Species #629



Updated:

Cichlasoma amazonarum - Species #630 - Technically, it was caught in the same pond as Aequidens teramerus, so really should be Species #613 and everything after gets pushed back a number. But I'm not going to edit that number here. This species was ID'd by 4 anal spines and several rows of scales on the posterior rays of the dorsal and anal fins.

Yesterdays forecast was looking do-able so off I went in search of more pink snapper. My cousin Jimmy (James) came out for another fish on my boat and well I found the fish and we came in with our 4. September onwards thing just get better and better so roll on!!

Cheers Ryan

Last week made a trip to Shorecatch to make some fish shred burley with Mick... found a window to test it out last Saturday on a solo trip at sunset from Hillaries at 5pm. Think swell and wind was higher than forecast. Not many boats out there that night.

Caught this dhu inshore in the front of 3 mile, got 2 more sized models (returned), 5 undersize pinks, sea bream and shark (wobbygong I think) on mullie with small ball sinker. Of interest caught a cray fish leg on my mullie rig.  Swell and wind got a bit scketchy and came back in at 9pm. So rough hard to get a photo of the dhu hanging from the rocket laucher with the scales... 8.5kgs and that poor effort was the best photo I could get without it flying  around. Missus rang up at 8pm and told me someone got stabbed there earlier in the day. 

Thanks Mick for helping out!

Cheers

Havnt been up the beach in about a month due to some pretty terrible conditions, so thought it was about time to bite the bullet and brave the cold. 

The arvo started slow with a couple of good tailor over sunset and with the weed getting worse I was almost ready to pack it in .

luckily my efforts were rewarded at around 7 with a hefty pinky.

 When your friends or fishing buddies are not available to go on a overseas fishing trip with you.

 Couple of fish on jigs from the weeken

 went out from Dawesville early saturday morning as this was the first time out for roughly three months in my boat to go dhuie hunting. last time out i found some new ground in the 30-40 mtr range which we did alright on. so i thought we would head there to start the day off. i brought along a new deckie who on his first drop landed a pinkie of 54cm then on his second drop another pinkie to 73cm. the new deckie also brought along a bacon and egg toastie for the skipper. the other regular deckies were soon put on notice that if they dont pull their weight they would soon be religated to standby deckies. after the two pinnkies the bite shut down so after shifting a couple of times to different spots with no luck i headed out a bit deep and to a spot that i havent fished for over a year. on our first drop there were two blue long lines going across the sounder. i commented there are my two dhuies for the boat. wouldnt you know it one of my regular deckies hooked up, then all hell broke loose with every one hooking up. 

we ended up with five dhuies (one double header) on the deck within minutes with the biggest being around the 18kg mark and the rest from 5 to 13kg. three were released, two swam away and one had to be put on the release weight. after sorting out the fish we moved spots back in shallower and down sized our hooks trying for some kgs. we ended picking up a couple of whiskerys which was enough for all of us so we called it a day and headed in. probably another 3 months before i can get out again. 

 My missus caught this tuna on Saturday.  I call it a Big Eye, but not sure.

YouTube clip here  https://youtu.be/x-kOT8d5k9M

 After years of dreaming and talking about buying a boat i finally took the plunge a couple of months back. Lashed out and bought myself a Trailcraft sportscab with all the fruit. While fairly new to the boat based fishing i have managed to russle up a few marks and have been doing ok when the weather permits. I thought i'd contribute and post a few pics of the better catches over the last couple of months and a few of the tub. The queen snapper caught by a mate was yesterday, this was the best weather yet i could of sworn it was spring and even got a little sunburn. All i have to do now is win lotto to free up the week days which seem to alway be the best conditions! 

 Chasing snapper on Sat and got this guy on a white 7inch gulp in front of 3 mile. Pretty quiet day but managed a feed of fish in the end too... 1st kgw on a jig (55g colt sniper)

Yesterday was the first time that we could test the Shore Catch mulie shred over a day’s solid fishing Perth Metro.  It was the MAAC comp, and only the fourth one for the year as four have had to be cancelled due to strong wind warnings (over consecutive Saturdays!).  Conditions were generally excellent, but the NE was blowing early.  We headed to the high 30’s first up, which was a change for us as we usually catch the inshore species first waiting for the wind to drop before heading further.

You can’t leave the marina until 7am so we arrived at our ground about 7.30am.  As I have described before, we just get to the general area and sound up the fish then spot lock the Minn Kota.  We evaluate the bite and if it is suitable, the shred and burley is then deployed to a few metres off the bottom.  The thing we learned from this trip is there is no doubt the shred improves the bite (we did the “no-shred / shred” test).  We got fish all day, and my highlight was the big mulloway that was picked up mid-morning.

The bite was fierce.  We moved around a bit to maximise the number of species, and to occasionally get away from schools of big sambos.  Dean picked up this horse, that weighed in at 25kg+ and it was time to move on.

Dean ended up with 10 species for the day, and I got 7.  The fish were:  Mulloway, Red Snapper, Queen Snapper, King George Whiting, Flathead, Skipjack Trevally, Tarwhine, Sand Whiting, Garfish and Samson Fish.  There were plenty of pinkies, dhuies, baldies and black arse but none were "keeping" size - released in good condition.  We threw heaps of fish back and only kept the larger models and/or those on the list that could be weighed in.  We could have easily bagged out for more weight but we only took what we would use.  Can’t complain about this bunch of tasty ones (the esky lid is 730mm).

Another awesome day.  The shred is an excellent product and, as per FW Member’s requests, we will make our first delivery to Rockingham tomorrow (Compleat).  It is definitely ready for the wider market. 

 Left two rocks at midday and hit one of my spots in the 30's that usually produce. Fished for about 10 minutes without a bite, sounder wasnt showing much and not even the usual little reef pickers were biting. It was a very slow drift with hardly any wind so decided to float an unweighted mulie off the back. It was only in for about 5 minutes, i saw the line tighten up, rod bent over a bit then went slack. The mrs then pointed to the sounder and i couldnt quite believe how many fish were under the boat. Looked over the side and i could only just make out a big school of tightly packed fish swimming slowly deep under the boat. Looked just like a school of salmon so out came the 40g silver twisty on my 4kg combo. Threw the twisty out, let it sink deep then started cranking and hooked up. Good fish took heaps of line, went deep for a while then came up, it was the southern blue in the picture and along side and behind it were 5-6 more following it. Twisty out again, let it sink deep, handed the rod to the mrs and told her to start winding fast. She hooked up and this fish screamed off along the surface, had it on for a while and it spat the twisty. I threw out again, hooked up and dropped another one then that was it they were gone, was a few minutes of good fun for one fish landed. Went out deeper to the 40's to a spot i know holds dhuies cause ive had to put a few good ones back there in the past - not a bite! tried a few other spots for nothing was very slow fishing. Mrs kept saying go shallower, ( which i never do for dhuies and baldies) so to shut her up i went to 24m and bugger me hooked up the 88cm -  9.2kg dhuey in the photo. Fished for another hour but nothing else was biting. Was a slow afternoon but still had a good time and got a good feed! Thanks for reading   

 Wild snakehead fishing is the most competitive fishing in asia.

 How did you go?  Im planning on heading  out there tomorrow and sunday, gonna try in the  30's and 40's metre line -  anybody get onto descent fish in these depths,  also any tuna out there?  cheers dave

Well its that time of year again ..... yep pinky time!!

My very keen cousin Jimmy (James) said " Ryan take me snapper fishing " and whilst he has his own boat it was more of a catch up/fish sesh as we've both been busy!

Jimmy's so keen and full on energy haha .... like I was many years ago .... well nearly 20 years now since I started targeting inshore metro pink snapper!

 Decided to get a quick pinky fish in this morning before the weather came in. Haven't been for a fish for around 2.5 months due to a Europe trip and some unfavorable weather. Best run we have had with snapper. Ended up keeping 4 around 80cm.

Great night out Weather lined up and so did the pinks. 2 hours saw 2.5, 3, 6 and 6.5 Kg pinks make it on deck.

 long time between posts...whats up all.

Well, too much fishing, not enough working, and far too much spending $$$$$$$ Some how managed to end with a pair of Shimano Beast Master 9000 paired with shimano status B/B Pe 5-8 rods......complete angler nedlands thank you, if ya looking for a bnunch of good lads who know their shit and are happy to help as much as they can, give them a visit.

Please keep in mind. I have never deep dropped with electrics , let alone used an electric. Had one drift with some diawa one years back up in exxy... my biggesy complaint F****** bait! get that smelly shit off my boat. hate it. First time i had ever dropped with it on the new tub. The odd decky here or there i crew with , fish bait, but they get resigned to the starboard bow corner. and normally a fair bit of tongue and cheek about cleaning duties and how much i hate the stuff (generally they clean as they go then, and never an issue) but when pandamodeom happens and its all systems go. our methodical cleaning skills dissappeared , 2 out of the 3 trips out there, the deckies were very green, with not the best sea legs. Keen as all hell but for some reason , when their mindest is going deep dropping, everyones sea legs are out the door and dont mind the odd vomit. These guys do reghulary come dhuey fishing with me

and no, no one was kind of to give me marks... ha ha ha

what the few i know that deep drop (all catch fish) and complete angler, their were a couple common going points. Which i will keep to myself cause that and the amount of research i have done before these first few trips, and a few logical decisions along the way.....

half day out after a gentlemens start and a dhue jig heading out,

That session was called one of the following;

• "learning about currents, and drifts(lots of missed drifts on guesstimates" ,
• "the idle length of rigs etc et (lots of tangles)"!
• " how not to throw a 1.2 kg sinker rigged with 40 pd fluro......sigh" not once , not twice but 3 times.  sigh there goes my 3rd sinker you twat

 Think i ended up putting  2 baits down. whats wrose. was finally committing to dropping my boats first bait down (for myself). 

The end learning curves, deep dropping requires a full day , while doing recon. not half day turn and burns.

Well, first full day trip. Hopes were high and soon enough the sun was setting and we were on the way in with the word, green eye amongst other things. The big spend on the sounder package only to learn, a few new things now to remember and keep changing, till i find the best settings for certain depths. sigh.

2nd trip, started at an area we found structure. first drop nothing, just sharkies...... sounded north slightly in a NE direction, about a 1 km off that original mark. "Thats different". i said to the decky. hmmm...still not having  any understanding about sounders (cause the trips he has come out, we fish dhues normally and hes all well and keen to learn) but when you throw all that out the door and tell him now we are doing basially the opposite in a way. He was just confused. hell i dont exactly know what we are spouse to be looking for yet! didnt even get time to really see the bottm, and as they say in NZ i was getting "Railed as bro" with no gimble bar one of those shitty cheep ones  that does sweet FA. a nice bent but going into the groin areas and pure up and down motions. I still have broozing around that right now.

Now i have caught a 49kg bass on PE 8 JM gear (from 180), a 32 kg Puka from 42 m of water on PE 4, they all fought similar hard at the start but once off the bottom seem to not cave in, but you new you had won kinda, well not this one. this one made me pay till about 75m was its final last semi railing. it pulled. like i am kind of gob smacked. at how hard it went to be honest. 

so after 15- or so minutes, about 50m off the boat, and yes i will never forget that bubbles then pop, like a submarine up comes this head and now floating on the surface...... didnt want to even call what it was, as i was so fucked , i just wanted the fish in. ha. and my decky gaffs "what the F*** is that"...  thats a big fat slab of puka and a new PB yeoow.....

the decky got a 15kg model on the same drift a couple drifts later. 

Rest of the day, reality check. green eyes.

So i have learnt a fair bit. so far, the ups and downs. and will still proibaly feel the downs for quite some time. I am well aware that i fluked finding ground on the 2nd real day out there, but stoked in a way as i had litrally 0 marks and put some area with reasonble contours loooking at some certain sea maps.

my best pieces of advice and what i found usefull for me and will continue to do so;

• Number one; LISTEN to who ever you ask, and take it in, but do not swear by it, you will eventuelly find what and how works for you in your boat, i am still learning this and progression is made every trip out there whether fishless or not. the the 4 different lads i have talked to, one thing seem to be distincted, all had something specific while could be completely different to one another to say about something.... hence why i say dont swear buy what ever one tells you, different things work on different days etc etc. Take everything in, any info on deep dropping advice is hard enought to get!
• Screen shots , these helped alot. Show people you know who have caught fish, and ask the questiuons your self,
• take an IPOD you loose all radio reception, and its a quiet day with no music and awkward silences are kind of actuelly really awkward out to sea.... i dont know why 
•  

excited was an understatement, cracked it. 4 more species to find....and then repeat on manual jig 

•  the other photos are of , my man cave room / bar.  I am currently sleeping their, as im doing renos in the main bedroom and ensuite but moove back their this weekend! once all set up she will be a pretty ladsy place to have a beer.
• Oh yeah, just did my Electrical Contractors Ticket....and boy i was impressed with the course that was put on. really really helpful and highly recommend where i did it (PM me if you wanna know more)

 the fish bottomed out the scales at 30+, my guesstimate 35+, deckies 40+ as well as my two room mates who came and had a lift. call it what you want.

the one where you see the filleted puke, looks like the baby.... only photo i think i got, rest ont he deckies phone.

Enjoy

 over and out, it will be a while till my next post..... this starting a new buisness is going to be a reality check from living the dream of no work for 4 months

Terboz

 and i would like to lastly thank, the lads who helped me with what ever advice they wanted to throw my way. I have met a couple real good lads from this website who i still talk and fish with regulary, and some of your inputs were crucial to cracking on the 2nd full day! it is appreciated and you know who you are.