Saw this at Lake Mahinapua in NZ a couple of weeks ago.
Complete with a wood fire !
It wasn't just sitting in a paddock, this thing was road registered.

 Lost big dhu (got bricked) 

Still got a feed.

Headed out on sunday, with the initial plan to go to the fads. However it was a bit rougher than expected so stopped out near the bank for a bottom bash.

Bit of a slowish morning, with only a couple caught. Moved around a few times and then found a spot that looked good on the sounder. First drift, double hook up, and we landed another pink and the dhu and then a flathead.

That was our bag so we packed up and came home which was about lunchtimeish. All in all a good day out with a reward of a few fillets!

Hi folks

Heading to Dunsborough this weekend, Has anyone heard how the crabbing is going down that way, Or around Quindalup boat ramp

Cheers

 Finally I got out for a fish, seems like ages since I last got out, but it was worth the wait.

Got to the ramp at 6:10 and set off for the 40's. Sea was a bit all over the place early but turned to glass on the way home. It was a bit rough as we got closer to the 40's so chucked out a skirt and trolled the last few miles. Which turned out a great idea as we found some new ground showing fish. Pulled in the lure and doubled back. First drift got a few bites but I was a little off on the drift line. Second drift was a bit closer but still not quite over where I wanted to be. Third time lucky and Doug gets a nice Baldie.

Baldie for a Baldie as he said.

Next drift it was my turn. Hooked up solid and after a good tussle up popped this fella!!

Went 10 kg's and got him on a fresh strip of Sarg. He also spewed up 3 baby cobbler type fish. I always try the Sarg strip as have heard it deadly but this is my first good one on it.

The fish shut down a little on the new spot after this so moved a mile further out and finished our bag with a 52cm Pinky to Doug and a 42cm Baldie to yours truly. Also managed a couple of good size Whispery Sharks to round off a great day, after a long time between drinks.

Cheers for reading

Chris. 

Squid from Last weekend.

Some big squid in the sound and behind the islands.

Like Little Johnny said now is the best time to catch some big once.

 Had a squid with little johnny today  and gave him a towelling. Think i caught 16 to his 4.?

Cheers for a good couple hours mate!

Heading up next weekend for 2 nights. 

Any tips?

Will have the kids in tow and don't have a boat so need to keep it fairly basic. 

d The day started at 5.30am with me waking my 6year old daughter to fish in her first fishing comp.

To my suprise she was more than keen even tho her last trip ended in sea sickness.We were at bunbury power boat club all signed in and on the water by 6.45. Izzy told me she wanted to catch a dhufish and a shark. So we headed to a little lump 13nm out.It was on within the first 5mins with Izzy catching a 5kg dhufish and my old man landing a undersize one.Dift two saw 3pinkies landed and a7kg gummie.Drift 3 and it was on again with Izzy landing a under size dhu myself a black ass big sambo and a nanni on jig while my old man a little baldie and a nice kg whiting.

One more drift resulted in afew more fish of various species.So the call was made to head home early with a nice catch in the esky.

Not really any big fish but watching Izzy catch her first dhuie was better than any 20kg dhufish i have ever caught.To say I was proud is a huge understatement.

With conditions looking ideal for an inshore pinkie dash this afternoon, it was too good an opportunity to miss.  It is important to test your theories about how and when to catch them in close, plus I had the shredded pilchard I was keen to try, so we headed out from Hillarys mid arvo to sound around and find a likely location to set up for the evening.

The SW wind was a little uncomfortable and it was choppy but certainly fishable.  For the first hour or so the fish didn’t “play the game” at all.  It was probably as slow as I have experienced for a long time as the pickers weren’t even biting.  It was a matter of trust the burley, trust the techniques and have patience.  As the sun started to set the bite changed dramatically.

The first capture was an Eagle Ray, and don’t these things go hard.  Then the Skippy came in and the bottom rig was being hammered by fish up to a kilo – they go hard too.  I was using the “Big Angry Fish” release clip with my floater and not long after there was a slight “thud” as the braid pulled away and solid line was being taken from the open spool.  Set the hooks and it didn’t take long to have a good idea what was on the end.  A nice pinkie, certainly not huge, and a good sign.

I kept feeding the shred and burley out and we had pinkie mayhem for a while – it was all about them taking the pilchards.  I did miss a few fish through “operator error” but managed to land this nice specimen.

I gut hooked this fish so lost my rig.  With no time to tie another one (no stock of my preferred rig at the shop as they have sold out) I had to use a single hook floater.  Harder to hook the fish with a single 2/0 and I did have a lot of “munched” bait come back after short runs.  You don’t get long with the feeding school bite, and I did eventually get a solid hook up.  Another nice fish and this one was lip hooked.

I had my bag already so it was good to release the fish.  It was in excellent condition so no doubt will survive as it swam off very strongly.  We have a freezer of vacuum sealed fine table fish of various species, I don’t eat fish, so plan to release most pinkies that I catch from now on.  I will only keep my bag of Snapper when others will eat it fresh. 

The bite slowed, the Snook came in so it was time to call it a night.  How lucky are we to have this fishery at our doorstep!

Not as many Metro pelagics about compared with last year but we have still got into some over the past few months. Here are a couple. There were a few maccies caught as well but we seem to have eaten them before we got any photos....maccie still one of my favourite fish fresh, although the marinaded YFT last night donated by Langa was pretty good!

We have dropped a couple of very big YFT lately.....still trying to crack the magic 30kg metro YFT.

So here is my report for our annual family holiday to Monkey Mia.  This is our 11th year and each time we go i try to advance my knowledge of the area and the fishing techniques.  In that regard i think i succeeded.  In the past we have been told to use fresh butterfish as bait and this trip we found a spot close to monkey mia where we could stop and catch plenty of them for the live bait tank.  This we did most mornings before heading out to our chosen spot for the day.  We also found a couple of new spots where we caught much bigger blue lined emperor, or black snapper as they are locally known.  I fished much more with bait this year rather than jigs or soft plastics.  Interestingly we didnt see one sized pink snapper.

As previously mentioned, I had my Yamaha boat motor key stolen and I need a new one. I don't unfortunately have a spare and am unable to get the code from the key so can't order a new key? Any ideas what to do? Thanks

My boat normally gets stored down in Freo in undercover storage, however last week I had it connected to the car on the front lawn for a few days as I was using it most days. I dropped the boat back off into storage last Thursday.

This morning I went to my car and scumbags have broken into my car and gone through the glove box and stolen my keys for the boat starter, storage facility and boat club. They didn't take the brake controller, ipod shuffle on the back seat, or $2 in change, or even the keys to my old boat. They actually have stolen nothing else.

They have got no idea where I store my boat plus they would need the PIN to get in, they could go to the boat club and steal the ice from the ice fridge but the button security has been cancelled and they have keys to start the boat, but no boat.
So whether it is a local that knows I have a boat and has stolen the keys so when I leave my boat on the front lawn next time they can steal it and use it, or whether they thought the keys were for my house, I've got no idea.

Bloody inconvenience of getting new keys and fixing car window - very weird criminal this one.

Please enlighten me with previous experiences of this or a good explanation as to why they stole only the boat keys to my good boat instead of my crappy old fibreglass boat.

Grey Ghost (Rob Yates)

Bigger than I expected!!!!

I had better be able to see down to the centre of the earth with this bad boy.

Had a couple of trips out over the Remembrance Long Weekend fishing from Hillarys.

The first trip was a “hunter gatherer” mission as Jill’s relations were over from Sydney to visit the "newborn" (originally from WA) and I was asked to get them all a feed of fresh fish – didn’t take much asking really.  Headed out on Saturday afternoon with Michael (zOOm - he seems fairly keen to keep in touch and head out with me and we always have a good time).  Conditions were very calm after the Easterly (perhaps too calm) and the plan was to fish relatively shallow (20m+) from NW of Hillarys, South to the Southern Cardinal Marker.  It is fair to say the fishing was fairly slow although zOOm got a nice sized gummy and I got a sized Breaksea in the first hour or so.  The gummy was released but the Breaksea is Jill’s favourite so went in the slurry.  We landed a variety of other species on our travels and released them all.

We got to the spot to anchor up for the night fish and the sounder was much more positive.  Set the burley pot a few metres off the bottom and the activity continued.  The fishing was improved with a fairly constant bite with quite a few undersized pinkies, undersized Dhu and a variety of other things.  Everything released well as we were in fairly shallow water and it was certainly entertaining.  Just after dark I dropped a slab bait down and it was immediately snaffled by something with a bit of size that was peeling line off.  After a lively fight it was good to see the 5kg+ Dhu come to the boat.  Nice, mission accomplished and the in-laws would like that offering.  Not a huge fish but a good one in relatively shallow water.

At one stage in the evening, Michael looked at the sounder and said “something big is coming up to the burley cage!”.  There was clearly an “s” shape from the bottom to the cage, then there was a thud of line on the hull and all we had left was string.  Must have been quite large to take a 320mm x 115mm cage.  Everything seemed to shut down after that and it was deemed time to come in.

ANZAC Day is the annual Wally Lothian Competition at the MACC, in honour of a legendary club member – see the Club website for details on Wally.  The “Wally” is an inshore comp with the boundaries being the Ocean Reef leads to the North, the Southern Cardinal Marker to the South and the reef to the West.  It is a 4-hour event with the sail past at 8am following the service and the weigh in by noon.  The fish is all filleted and cooked by “the fishers” for consumption by the general members in what is always a good afternoon in the Boatshed.

With the rising swell on Monday the plan was to go early and chase some of the inshore pinkies (not to be weighed in of course as they would have been caught outside of comp hours) as the Wally is a social comp you are not restricted to leaving the marina at a certain time - the comp begins after the sail past.  Up early and let’s just say the conditions were atrocious so I went back to bed.  I did give some thought on “bailing the Wally”, but the significance of the day got to me – what is a bit of rain, wind and swell compared to what our WW1 Hero’s had to sacrifice to guarantee our freedom.  Yes, I was going to get wet and it was going to be uncomfortable (I have a small open boat) but you just have to do these things.  I let the young deckie off however as she has had the last 2 comps in the rain, so it was solo for me.

Conditions in the lead up to the sail past were not too bad and I was so glad I participated in the event.  To hear the Ode and the Last Post across the water (it was so clear as sound travels really well over the ocean) was truly awesome and a nice moment to reflect on the fallen hero's.  I took a photo of the Club and all of the people on the lower level but it didn’t come out that well.  The other image is a “zoomed” photo from shore with my little boat on the right with me in my fluoro rain gear.

As soon as the service was over the heavens opened.  On the way out to the first spot the storm strength rain came through.  It bucketed, and although I had the heavy rain gear on it just drenched everything.  There was no escaping the rain, wind and chop all morning – conditions I would never normally fish.  I fished on, got my bag of herring eventually (fishing in relatively sheltered spots to the East of any hazard) and was very cold and miserable.  Back to the Club (didn’t bother to weigh-in) to fillet the fish.  As I was filleting we got another storm rain event and the gutters discharged onto the filleting tables and drenched me with more water and fish guts.  Anyway, I kept going and handed in my handful of filleted, skinned and de-boned fresh fish for the day – a small offering but I did it.

At least I could go home, after a couple of brews, and have a hot shower (20 minutes in the foetal position trying to get warm again) before going back for an enjoyable afternoon with good people.  Our Diggers did not have that luxury. 

LEST WE FORGET. 

managed to get out probably for the last time at seabird there is no access onto the beach anymore the water erosion has taken the beach access away only way I could get out was making my own track which was ruff as guts riding a sand bank as the trailer crabbed walked rite on the waters edge. Only way on and off the beach with a boat is the caravan park and you have to stay there to use it. But after all the excitement off trying to get the boat to the water we managed a feed.

Hi all, 

Been getting amongst the metro salmon of late with plenty caught and released.

Attached short video of quick late arvo solo dash I did on Saturday. Lots of boats but plenty of fish around and everyone being sensible. 

http://youtu.be/kkFv_0P1G9Q

Cheers,

Joycey

Headed down south to Augusta with fellow fishwrecked member Dylan (Hutch).

Arrived at Augusta at around 4:30pm on Wednesday and went for a fish straight away. We just went out the front of our caravan park (Flinders Bay) we only fished for about an hour with minimal success we only had one run and landed one barely legal Tarwhine.

Later that night we headed down to the marina for a fish, we caught lots of yakkas for bait the next morning.

Thursday morning the alarms went off at 6:30 and we went out in the kayak for a fish. We paddled about 500-600m out before dropping the anchor. The fish were on straight away but unfortunatley they were only wrasse and lots of them, after half an hour of pushing through the wrasse Dylan finally hooked something that pulled about of drag on the light gear, after fighting it for a couple of minutes up popped a lovely little 35-40cm pinkie, during the next couple of hours we had fun with skippy, eagle rays and an undersize blackass. The call was then made to throw out the big rods in hope for something a bit bigger, every bait was smashed by squid but didnt land any since we forgot the squid jigs. 5 minutes later the snapper came on in there thousands with every bait being smashed, unfortunatley they were all 35-45cm so they were all released. Suddenly we here my drag scream, straight away we knew this was a much better fish then small pinkies, we called it for a sambo since it took a surface bait but after a small and exciting fight up popped a 1.17m hammerhead, after a bit of struggling we got him in the yak. I was excited since the banter about my gosa not catching any fish could finally stop. After this fishing slowed down so we headed back to camp.

Later that night we cooked up the hammerhead on the gas stove, in my opinion it was one of if not the best fish I have ever tasted. After dinner we headed down to the marina again only to find the same species as the night before along with some herring.

The next morning we woke up in hope of a land based sambo, we headed to a likley looking spot, the first step was to catch a live bait, in this case a herring, unfortunatley we only got one, but it got smashed twice by nice sambos unfortunatley no proper hookups, after not being able to catch a live bait, we changed to poppers, Dylan had a monster 35kg+ one follow his lure right to the rocks then a few casts later he hooked up to a smaller model only to lose it not long into the fight. Nothing else happened so we called it a day.

Later that night we went for a shark fish at a likely looking beach, Dylan yakked a couple of baits out only to be smashed by port jacksons

The next morning we got up and packed our gear up to leave Augusta. We went up to Dunsborough to meet up with Max Sampson (doubleheader_king) to catch some sambos at a spot he knew, unfortunatley this plan failed as we were on a tight schedule. Lucky enough we heard of the salmon being on around Bunker Bay, we had no luck though, luckily Max had another spot in mind so we fought the crowds and got into a couple of nice salmon. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: if youre going to take a couple of salmon home for a feed, please only take what youre going to eat as these fish are an amazing sport and a great fish to catch, also please dont bleed your fish all over the rocks, its uncomfortable and slippery trying to chase a fish on blood invested rocks.

Cheers Dylan and Max for coming and we should definetley do it again sometime

Cheers for reading

 Left two rocks marina at midday yesterday after the wind was forecast to drop off. Headed out 30km in NW direction in search of new ground as my other marked spots have been producing alot of undersize dhueys and baldies last few trips. Sounded around for a while and happened upon some ground that dropped off quickly from 34m to 48m metres and schools of fish lit up on the sounder at the deep end. Dropped straight onto them and bang up came the dhuey in first pic that was just under 12kg. Baits down again up came the other smaller dhuey in pic2 at 8 kg. Between the mrs and myself we then got 3 undersize baldies, two breaksea cod with one being a keeper at 44cm and the mrs got a little dhuey that went back and a big arse sea sweep that fought like hell very much like a pinky with lots of headshakes. Went back over the same area again and got the double header of good dhueys in pic 3 which of course also went back. Decided we had plenty of quality fillets for the freezer and headed back in windless conditions with the ocean having that "oily silver silk" look - was a fantastic few hours out  .    

 Went diving and line fishing on the mid west coast yesterday. Left old mates about half six as the wind didnt require getting up at sparrows.

First location saw shot and missed and couple of dhus Estimated around 75 & 80 cm. Also had some small baldies and undersize dhus as we were searching. Only small family of crays seen.

After missing a few i came across one not great but in at 56cm. 

Lunch break ensued we move south half a mile. Met with loads of activity and plenty of just size and undersize baldies. Mate gave one a career change to the icebox that went 46cm. More small baldies and undersize ones kept lurking. Not wanting to pull the trigger i held off. 

Mate came across a dhu that went 67cm surprised that it was skinny given similar sized dhus caught have been much fatter.

Still waiting for the larger baldie model to arrive a couple in the mid 50s came in for a look. In my inept and feeble futile attempt to stalk one of them i shot and missed. Off they went. 

My mate then pointed at a dhu guestimated in the low 80s i knew i should have held off but luck of the draw she lived to breed another day.

with low light we berleyed up and in came the undersize and just size baldies. Thinking i had the go home fish it was not to be just a good fighter for size. Back it went. Up came a blackarse just under 40cm it went back. Finally a baldie that went 45cm came over the side. with the sun low and wind light we packed up and headed back.

A great day but very surgey and strong northerly current. We missed the kitchen at the endeavour tavern so it was pizza and a quick stubby on the way home. All in all a good day

 Gidday fishos been months since I've posted so I'll let ya in on a tip, the Murray is going off with good size mullys and saddleback black bream, Wednesday night went to a secret location with multiple bust offs on fish I'd estimate to over 15kg. We were lucky enough to land this fat healthy girl at 12kgs and full of roe. A couple quick snaps and she was released back into the mighty Murray. Bait - live poddy mullet. Weapons - small 6/0 60lb leader with a running sinker, pen950 50 lb braid matched with 15kg boat rod, heavy gear is needed to put the hand break on before they run ya into the snags,

Headed up to the Monties last week with the new boat for a faimly trip, kids and partners invited.It wasn't a hardcore fishing trip at all!

We managed 2 bluewater fishing trips which resulted in a few longnose, perch but we just couldnt get past the sharks.

All in all a amazing fishing snorkelling camping trip with a great crew!

Yes it was towed by a Jeep, performed amazingly. No idea how anyone can tow anything bigger than a 7.5m but the weight adds up seriously fast!

Few Tweaks and we set off:

760L Fuel ( used 560L)

280ah House batteries, 1400cca Start battery, Ctek battery management, 200w Solar.

1 Engel on Freeze, 1 of Fridge and 1 isotherm.

200l of Water

The Boat purred along on 1km/l which i was pretty happy with considering the weight.

The conditions were pretty horrible as you can see!

Cheers,

Vinnie

 have the option to do a last minute tag along trip for the Anzac weekend but so far only the sat looks good enough for a fish. Has anyone down there atm and can report on how the fishings been? Otherwise I'll stay in perth and watch the footy. Cheers 

 First day we got out as a family being pretty calm most the day we went straight over to the channel where the kids had a ball, mum and my daughter done the best with a thumping blackie and a good rankin.

Second day out it was sloppy so went close to the island to try our black snapper spot we hadn't been to for 2 years and they where biting well until the blowies turned up and made it a bit harder but we managed our bag limit.

Last day we got out fishing we went to our main spot up close to the top off dirk hartog and managed a 13kg cod and a 4 kg coral trout, heaps off estuary cod around released 4 over 7kg

A mate and I decided to give the Mum's s rest and have a dads week down at Cheynes Beach Caravan Park with 4 kids aged 4-9. After day 1 we decided to name the week "mum appreciation week!"

Headed out to fish for fun last Saturday after the strong morning easterly abated, and spent some time on the water without competition rules and timeframes.  Have fished a lot of comps lately and although it was the Hillarys Yacht Club day, Saturday was about enjoying being out there in excellent conditions and trying a few different things.

Left Ocean Reef about 2.30pm and headed West.  The plan was to go into the 40’s and search the known area for fish aggregations, spot lock the Minn Kota and just give lots of different locations a go over a few hours.  We would then pick the “likely” spot to fish dusk and hopefully get a few pinkie schools move through.  Check out a few spots closer to shore on the way in and see what was there too.  Anyway, that was the plan.

A good run out with the residual easterly chop and a 1-2m SW swell not being a real bother.  Looked at the ground until we saw fish on the sounder.  It didn’t take long for the fish to bite, with my rod buckling within a few minutes of a squid head going down.  After about 10 minutes of quality fight it came to the boat and was a good sized sambo.  I reckon it was around 20kg, pretty heavy, and we returned it alive straight after the photo.  A few minutes later, a quality Harlequin.  A nice start.

We caught fish all afternoon.  We brought home harlequin, dhufish, baldie and pinkie (demersal bag limit).  We successfully released many fish of different species.  It was constant.

During the “pinking hour” we saw a lot of schools of big pinkies move under the boat but we couldn’t tempt them, and we tried a lot (the size one, 540mm, was caught earlier in the day). 

The conditions were so good we decided to move in and night fish a few shallower spots.  Found a school of tailor and continued with a wide variety of fish landed and released.  Just as we were “packing up” I caught the biggest wobby I have ever seen.  This thing was 6’+ and a back breaker – cut the hook off at the boat.  After that, head in and back to the ramp about 10pm.

Fished with a good mate and we had a great trip in excellent conditions.

Mate (milesy) took me out today and to get onto some dhus, spent a lot of the day going to spots that usually produce. Besides coming home empty handed, there was barely anything showing up on the sounder. Covered a lot of ground, and he has a lot of spots that produce good fish, every thing seemed a bit off.

Just curious if anyone has any insight of what could attribute to this? Unless the metro area has just been severely thrashed, still seemed a bit odd. That we couldn't find anything even decent

Havent posted for a while. Been doing ok on the Dhufish out from Cockburn. 35m -40m.Local occy doing the damage.

 Well, at about 2:30 this morning we got home from our annual trip to Exmouth. I think it is now 4 different cars in 4 years - this time in a 1988 Hj61 Landcruiser with the factory turbo diesel and 5 speed manual. It towed the boat beautifully with an average of 14.5L/100 over the entire trip. The weather was hot, but cooled off at night enough for a good nights sleep... We did all of our fishing / diving in the gulf, but the spring tides stirred up the water terribly for most of the trip. Attached are a few photos of a bit of a variety of what we did - the deepest fish caught was in about 1.5m of water. I had a terrible time spearing in the dirty water, missing a couple of Jacks that would have easily gone 65cm - I will be after them next year!!