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.

it was a little rough out there today so we did a spot of squidding. Got some big ones.  

 Do you think that referees should be able to be taken to a tribuneral in the case of bad decisions? Friday night and the ref let a trip incident go that cost the dragons a try. A few plays on and a foward pass was let go which resulted in the dogs scoring. With 3 points being the difference in the final score, I feel cheated. Can't help but think how the loosing team feels. I think the ref should at least be put in front of a governing body for referees and repremanded.

Had a cracker day out of Two Rocks on Thursday as did a few others from all reports. Headed out to some new ground we found late in the day on our last trip out but didnt really get a chance to fish properly and it was on from the first drop. Jigs were down for less than 5 miuntes and a couple tuna were already causing tangle problems. Im thinking they're Big Eye but not 100% convinced?? Got more pics if anyone can confirm. Ended up being a heap of good ground with plenty of fish and we could do big long drifts and picked up the Tuna, Dhus, Blackarse, a Baldy, 2 big Cuttlefish and some solid Pinkys, one of which was a PB 850mm and the boat scales said 7.3kg. Stopped at a mark in 30m on the way in and found a couple of nice 10kg+ dhus in the shallow stuff which were released easily. One of the best Metro days I can remember weather wise and the fish were on the chew all day.

 A fairly average week with not a lot of fish coming on board. Doing the miles and seeing the fish but encouraging them to bite has been another story. Some groups up here seem to be doing well but we are yet to get into the groove !

We have managed to troll up a couple of nice mackies that made it past the Sharks and we have even managed to put a half dozen Ruby's in the esky. The Reds seem to be a little scarce with only 2 size coming on board but lots of babies or just sized which we are releasing. We have managed a couple of really nice Rankins and some other odds and sods including a good size Tang Snapper, which Bernie from Mahi Mahi rates as one of the best eating fish in the sea. We are it that night and would agree, it ate exceedingly well !

Seen some interesting sights, lots and lots of whales, breaching quite close to us, slapping their tails and fins, magnificent but a little unnerving. We were motoring along with a free swimming Sailfish who was sunning himself on the surface with his sail up. Have also seen some free jumping sails and a nice Marlin following up a line caught fish.

Weather has been Ok and we have managed to get out into the hundreds which is where we picked up the Rubies and some Goldband.

Weather is turning feral tomorrow so looks like a couple of days on the beach. Hopefully it will blow over quickly and we can get back into it.

I will try and post a couple of pics from my phone. if it doesn't work it will have to be later.

Still a few more down there for next time.

 Good day out.. stayed in close to look for new ground.

Having not been able to make the most of the awesome weather earlier in the week, myself (Marc/Oceanside staff) and good mates Miles (FW Milsey) and Nick decided we couldn't let this rare stint of good winter weather pass by without having a solid session, so last night we committed to an evening Dhu bash.

After knocking off at 5.30pm we prepped my new tub for her first proper offshore mission. We were on the water by 6.30pm and steamed out to the 60m mark Rottenest way. The night started off a bit quiet, Miles and myself were throwing around some artificials but unfortunately the night time artificial bite wasn't happening.

With mint conditions yesterday, decided I needed to skive off work at lunch and have a fish. After the guy formerly known as the guy who fishes a lot with Scano (hehe) could not make it, and Baron could not make it, I took Baron's old man Ken Snr. I did a trip with Baron and Ken Snr to the Monties a few years ago that Ken Snr had organised, so a good way to finally pay back a favour.

Was a cracker of an arvo but started slow with fish totally shutdown until Ken got this badboy, officially the biggest Dhu caught on my boat at a measured 103 cm! Kenny Snr is about 70 not out and combined with a dodgy shoulder, this gave him a monumental work-out on his 6000 size reel. Top stuff! Unfortunately baratrauma was pretty bad and there was no releasing this old girl.

Ended with a KG, baldie and 65cm dhu on KG gear in the shallows on the way in.

 Headed out from Mindarie with a solid plan of stopping to pick up a few Skippy and finding ground to anchor for some snapper on sunset.

What else can i say but all went to plan. Skippy in abundance in 15m with a small pollard, oil and mullie burley. Anchored in 20m and got Surecatch's Gold (pilchard shred) going. First snapper to the young bloke, a solid 4Kg and 70+cm. Sun went down and a double hook up for myself and Darren on another couple of solid fish. 

First go at using Photobucket so hope it works.

Merv

 Do baitchaser rigs on bream rods count as light tackle? I'm talking the cheap half dozen No. 10 hooks with a bit of tinsel attached, break them in half to be legal. Dangling off an old bream  rod and even older cheapie threadline with old, old 10lb mono. I use these to catch wrasse for live Dhu bait. Using one in 8 fathoms today north of Kalbarri--mate had a mulie floating down there, I caught a few wrasse then something solid hooks up. This happens a bit, usually results in a bust off or a nw blowie. But I am patient, apply steady pressure and start to make ground. Imagine the hilarity when 73cm of pinkie shows up. I reckon I'd be battling to keep a 30cm bream out of the snags with this outfit. Much laughter and headshaking , and first keeper of the day. Try the shallows for a while, nothing, move out a bit , onto a little patch, and bingo, dhu on a jig. Mate is still dangling baits for nothing worthwhile. Then a smallish sambo on a jig. Move along a bit, drift's almost non-existent, keep a livie down there, goes off, up comes a nice sambo after a hard battle. Mate still has little to show, apart from an undersize dhu and a procession of redthroats. Drop the baitchaser down again later for more bait, another solid hookup, this time a good surf parrot. With a wrasse under it.  I don't think I've ever had one on a line before, certainly speared a few.

When the missus and I left home on Sunday the temp gauge in the car indicated 0 degrees.  At least it warmed up to 4 degrees by the time we launched at Woodies at 6.30.  Our first target area was between the islands and after one drift we ended up with an undersized Dhufish.  There were a couple of unpredictable swells popping up all over the place so we headed off to the 20m mark in the Sepia Depression to catch some whiting.  After tiring from this species we headed off to the western side of FFB and anchored in about 20m. Soon after burleying we were plagued by skippy and even managed a couple of bonito. We never caught anything of note, but did get smashed on three occasions.  We ended up with eight species which included dhufish, snapper, whiting, goatfish, bonito, skippy, flathead and sambo. Good fun for a cold winter day.

Link to YouTube video below

https://youtu.be/RcuRMl6EpJQ

 headed out today off bunno today.The old man cleaned up with a dhuie 980mm and a 750mm queenie.

As per my recent Shore Catch post, we headed out in good conditions this afternoon.  Got away from Hillarys not long after 3pm.  This trip was about taking a long term work mate of Dean’s to catch a few fish.  Dominic has a boat but no real luck with the fish so it was a bit of a guiding and advice trip.

The first ground we chose had reasonable sounding.  The 20kg+ bucket of mixed shred came out with us but it was a bit of an “epic fail” as it was too heavy without support and broke up.  No worries, the wind conditions were great and the current was low so over the side it goes down onto our spot in batches for 15-20 minutes.  The sounder shots were awesome and the one below is a “frenzy” to get to the shred.

It was on again.  Constant bite from a whole range of species.  The highlight for me was Dominic landing his first nice pinkie, we measured it at about 525mm and in an instant we chucked it back to swim away.  The look on his face and the comments as he watched it go were priceless.  Too small as they shrink in the esky. 

Happily, within the next 10 minutes he hooked up to another pinkie and this one was a bit bigger.  We had given Dom a good combo to use, after one failed drop with his, and the fight was excellent viewing.  Not a huge pinkie but there is certainly a happy look here.

Lots of sambos – my arms are sore as I type this.  It was fun hooking a skippy, winding it into the “zone” and getting the “upgrade”.  We did get “shredded” by some very large models with this technique though.

Most fish were released but we kept the best eating ones. 

Back in before 7pm in what was another epic Perth Metro NoR dash.  We are so lucky to have this fishery on our doorstep.

 With the forecast looking suitable for Super Deep yesterday and good mate Shaun (FW members Shabba) was keen to brain some fish for the family the plan was made!

Shaun has caught some awesome super deep species with me but not greybanded cod (GB). So armed with some custom shop rigs, Esca lights, Lundz squid and beers .... we were off!

I went to an old spot I hadn't fished for a while and located GB on the Furuno sounder. Shaun dropped first and hooked up to a small fish and I said leave it down and hopefully a bigger GB will jump on!

With another trip to Coral bay coming up in the next couple of weeks – getting a little excited with anticipation. It usually starts a couple of weeks out with the thoughts of “what’s the biggest red going to be”, “can’t wait to get stuck into the goldbands”, “hope we can find some rubies”, and probably more than anything, “hope the wind stays the f*ck away!”

Anyway, whilst thinking of what’s ahead, noticed we didn’t lodge a report on what had past – latest trip to CB from April this year.

This trip was a little different from the usual boys trip as we enlisted a couple of young guns (our lads) for their first (of hopefully many) CB fishing trip.

Trip started with a drive through the night on the Thursday, to arrive in CB around 8am on the Friday morning. Check into the backpackers for a day, grab a pie for breakfast, and then hit the water.

We were blessed with the weather over the first few days, but this would turn later in the trip.

Anyway, day 1 headed out south passage to a likely lump and the sounder lit up! This was a spot that regularly produces and it was looking the goods again. Set the young lads up on the first drop but the fish just weren’t interested.
Everywhere we went, the sounder showed plenty of activity, but they just weren’t interested in in biting. We ended up with a couple for dinner and returned back to base to recover from the previous nights drive. Here is an extract from my mates lads electronic diary – although we didn’t clean up on the fish, this is priceless:

“Day one we went fishing and I caught two fish my friend Zak caught no fish my bapou caught a red emperor my dad caught three fish and my friend got seasick but didn't vomit.then we went home and saw some snappers at the beach andone bit my friends finger and they swam through our legs and we feed the fish's and then we went to the pub and watched footy port Adelaide vs Essendon port Adelaide won by a lot then we went home and went to sleep.
I'd rate it 9/10 for that day”

Day 2 was much of the same and with the weather looking good, we headed north and out to some deeper water in search of some goldband. It was similar to day one in that the sounder was promising but the fish just weren’t hungry (this seemed to be common with everyone fishing at the time). First drop we copped a few decent bites but then it shut down all together. We tried for a while but then conceded and came in to some shallower ground. We got onto a couple of fish and the young lads hooked up so there were smiles and high fives all round. Was awesome to see the new recruits pull in some nice reds..

Day 3 and the weather was one – and luckily so were the fish (we have been telling our boys what great fishermen we are for years and those tales were starting to look a little tall after a couple of days with limited fish!).
Rods were buckled over for the best part of the morning with the boys clearly out-fishing the men on the Reds! High fives and smiles again and three days in a row on the boat and we couldn’t be prouder of the boys. The next couple of days were not looking good weather wise which I think was a blessing as it let us all recover a little and show the boys some more of the Bay.

Day4 – lay day! And a couple of mates turn up

Day 5 – Head out south again for a relatively quiet day on the bait. Managed to wrestle up a few more reds and rankins and Paul on the Jigs cleaned up on an assorted of Tuna, rankins, cobia etc – he was getting smashed every drop (cant load these fish photos tho as they are bitmap - but you get the idea)

Day 6 – one boat headed out North again in search of some deeper species whilst the youn guns explored a bit more of the bay.. Turned out a pretty good day all round snorkelling all through the bay and some big rosies, goldbands and pinkies hitting the deck. (same problem again with most of the photos from the boat - ah well)

Day 7 – weather had come up again so it was an early departure back to Perth.

All round a great trip and awesome to get the boys into some great fish.

Up there again in just over two weeks so back to the wait in anticipation of what’s to come……..

cheers

Brett

Good day out on the demersal Sunday, teaming up with Bodie for a 2 boat Metro demersal sortie.

Conditions were a bit messy but quite fishable.

Both boats ended up with a similar haul, this was ours, a great feed of the 4 best demersal fish in Metro waters for me, Langa and TimVB on my boat.

 Few photos from recent trip to coral bay we got lucky with the weather early in the trip as usual didn't take enough photos to busy fishing !! Good red rankin and trout came from only 22m on the pick very rough day

Went with the mrs last weekend and had a coffee at the new café there on Alkimos beach, ive never been there before and presume the structure sticking up out of the water in front of the cafe a couple of hundred metres out is all that's left of the wreck?. Anyway the beach just to the left of the lookout looked like it could be worth a try for tailor or mulla's has anybody had any luck there or is it better to walk either north or south of that area along the beach to any better spots? cheers for any info!

 Headed off on a solo mission early Tuesday morning hunting some snapper got into a few nothing huge but still good fun

Saw lots of boats on trailers going to the northern marinas as I was heading south on Marmion early this morning and just wondering if any fishwreckers had any luck?, weather looked awesome out there! cheers Dave