With the long weekend over the Australia day weekend making it a 4 day weekend, we decided it was time for a boys trip somewhere. After a little discussion we decided to try out Leeman as we had not fished there before, and with the warmer water pushing down we thought we would be in with a chance of some mackies and Tuna. Pushed up to Leeman at 4am Saturday morning as we wanted to get out for a fish Saturday with the weather looking ok. Managed to check into our accommodation and on the water by 8.30am. Weather wasn't as good as forecast but was definitely manageable. didn't take long until a little flare up came up, and within a couple minutes we were fishing. First drift resulted in 2 nice baldies hitting the deck, with the 2nd drift another baldie and a nice dhu. Good start!! Didn't take too many pics on the first day as it was a bit lumpy. Sounded around for a while and found a few more bits and pieces which pushed the daily tally to 4 baldies, 2 dhus and 1 BB. Decided to troll in towards beagle island and see if you couldn't luck a pelagic. After an hour or so we had a double hook up on the lures, resulting in 2 smaller SBT's which were quickly dispatched to the esky for the nights sashimi. Nothing more to really note on the troll, although we had a massive hook up on a deep diver in about 15m of water which was berried in the reef in about 20-30 seconds, not real sure what that was and also a couple of Nor West blowies took the lures....wtf those fat bastards can swim pretty quick!

Sunday saw us push out in a slightly different direction, out into the 50's and beyond with much the same plan. Look for a bit of ground whilst chasing tuna, birds, etc. Came across a nice ledge in 52m of water which came up to 46m so decided to give it a run. As with the 1st day, first drift resulted in baldies hitting the deck, always a good start! Followed by pinkys and a lot of red throats. read throats were like flies! I dropped down a smaller rig with 3'o hooks to see if I could find a baldie or 2. Did not take long before I hooked up big time. As we were getting a lot of Sambo's around the 4-8kg mark, I just thought it was another, with a similar fight. to our surprise, this big guy popped up!! about 11KG-12KG! happy days

Knowing these larger models normally hang round in pairs, I instantly grabbed the jigging outfit and strapped on a 160gm dhu drop, spun the boat around and did another run. Within seconds was on again!!! Another great fight on PE 1.2 saw this big girl surface!!

whilst this was happening rods were going off everywhere with Sambo's creating some great 3-4 way tangles!! plenty of red throats, a couple small dhus, more small pinks. Sounded around for a few more spots, with us ending up with 2 dhus, 4 baldies, 1 pink, 2 BB's and a red throat for the day. Same again, headed in trolling towards beagle island, but there was almost no pelagic action to be seen. Monday, last day fishing, decided to push out the same way as Sunday, this time a little further with the hope there would bee some top water action out wider. Fished a couple lumps for a nice Dhu to Brad, his biggest to date.

A couple baldies came over the side, and decided it was time to head wider. Out we went towards the outer bank where it comes up a bit in depth. Found a nice rise up to 39m from 52 so down when the jibs and bait. Scano wasn't having a great day, so he decided to strap on a 8 inch Zman plastic onto a 2oz jig head and down he went. I think it was first drop and he was on big time. We called it for a sambo initially, until it started to colour up and we didn't believe what we saw, fish of the trip by a long way, on the most unexpected method in 45m of water! up popped a nice 71CM Coral Trout!

high 5's all round!! Went round for another drift and Scano hooked up big again, and with a much the same fight, we called for possibly another trout but unfortunately is spat the plastic about 15m from the boat. We ended the day with a couple Dhu's, nice trout, baldies, Red throat and a nice Pink to cap of a great trip. We trolled and flicked lures at tuna Whilst out wider, managed to hook a couple small stripes, but just couldn't find a Yellow fun or mack unfortunately.

Things to note from the trip. I lost a 15-20kg Cobia boat side on a jig after a good 15 min... just spat the jig...gutted!! New Ramp, its a nice ramp, but with a blowing Southerly or South westerly its a little dangerous. The first day we came in, it was blowing pretty hard by the time we made it to the ramp, drive the boat on and even had a local come up and say I made it look real easy in the conditions and a lot of people get themselves in trouble. I said long boat and drive on trailer makes life easy. A Few fillets to go round!!

Nice and quiet, we stopped in Jurien for some food on the way back, the place was packed!! Great trip and will definitely be back to Leeman. Bodie

 New to Bunbury and had done some research on this forum so I decided to try the cut for some tailor last night on the full moon.

Didn't bring down my proper fishing rod as my car was filled up and was worried I might snap it when I moved down but I had my travelling rods with me. 

Got to the cut at sunset and tried casting weightless mullies on my travel rod and it snapped. Figured I was already here and there was no point crying bout it during the golden period so I just casted lures with my backup rod. 

Managed 10 tailor in an hour but they were all 28-29cm. Went quiet soon after 8.30. Was plenty of fun on the light gear but I was hoping that I could have at least kept 1. 

Was just wondering if the cut have bigger tailor than that?

Regards,

Kai

 Promised my son that he would catch his first tailor tonight. With a nice breeze blowing we ventured off to White Hills.  Given all of the reports I waited patiently for the bite  to start but it never came. In four hours (4-8pm) we manged two small herring and outside of that didn't get a bite.  Was a pretty quiet drive home but at least the lightening show was entertaining. Westy. 

 Went out sat fully hung over but all went away when that rod went over. In 10m off water. 7kg @ 4.5kg

Pretty stoked with this thumper on the light gear (PE2) today. Really pushed the Daiwa Ryoga Bay Jigging to the very limit in 80m of water off Hillarys!!!

Happy Days!!!

With the forecast looking good yesterday, Dean and I planned to continue hunting the ground in the 40’s we have had a bit of success on recently.  As seemed to be the case over the last week, the BoM didn’t quite get the wind forecast right so we delayed our trip to one in the afternoon rather than the morning.  The sambo rig destroying session of a couple of weeks ago meant we actually needed to spend the time preparing more, and re spooling, so the morning didn’t go to waste.

Hit the water just after lunch in excellent conditions and it was a rapid trip out to the “grounds”.  As before, we don’t fish the marks rather sound the general area and when you get good shows of fish on the sounder you lock over it with the Minn.  Let’s just say the first location was “alive” so anticipation was high.

The fish were biting and it didn’t take long to start getting them to the boat.  Nothing real big to start with but quite an array of different species, with the pinkies and Dhu all being undersized and released.  Then, Dean hooked up solid.

This was a strange fight and not characteristic of one we had observed in recent times.  We generally try and pick the fish type from the fight but Dean was having trouble with this one, both picking it and trying to get it to the boat on the relatively light gear.  His call was a large ray, but the lunging runs cast doubt on that theory.  When we finally saw colour, it was long and silver and when the “beast” of a mulla hit the surface it was lucky the gaff was nearby.  On it came and the celebrations of Dean’s first mulla capture began.  This was a nice fish of 15kg and 120cm.

After a few photos, the fish was dispatched to the new cooler bag with ice which was certainly a nice way to christen it.  Back down and within minutes Dean was on again.  He picked it this time and after another good fight another, smaller model, came to the boat.  I had heard a bit about “fabled” spots that hold big mulla in deep water and it was awesome to confirm they do exist.

We moved on with the fish still biting as with conditions like we had, it was about looking at the marks.  We landed quite a lot of fish over the day but it was the mullas that stole the show.  Perth Metro waters never fail to amaze me with the diversity and quality of fish you can get so close to home. 

plenty of these big boys about at the moment, got our 20 in Under an hour yesterday!

biggest went 720mm claw to claw smallest 600mm

new record for me the 720mm one!  

Gotta love big summer blueys!

 Awesome day today out of Mindarie, conditions were magic.

mate pulled a horse of a Dhuie up only to have the hook pull about 5 m from the boat.

Spewing about that but managed a couple of smaller models soon after, a decent pinky, big flathead ,baldchin and a good red throat.

Then pulled another Dhu about 8kg which went back down, thought would call it a day at that and left them biting.

back in by lunchtime.

 With yhe mint weather today and after a couple days chasing crabs in Mandurah ee decided today was a good day to go out and look for a dhuie. No luck on that front heading home seen some birds working. Cast out a plastic and a stickbait 0n 10lb and 15lb expecting the standard little tuna. 

To our surprise both lures got monstered by big shark macks.

Mine went 105cm on 15lb and my mates went 95cm on 10lb.

Both of us nearly got spooled but we beat them in the end.

Gail and I did a run to our favorite spot near Rotto on Saturday and managed a decent bag.  During the session I managed to land by PB Baldie of 65cm. Another great day on our metro waters.

YouTube Clip

https://youtu.be/FtITtPg8aio

Fresh bait for the next couple of weeks! Went out Wednesday night with my old man and brother for the first time since the season has open. Had our nets set just before sun down to then be dragging them in a hour later! Was a good night, back home by 10pm.

My net was set in waist deep water in the beginning, but was soon repositioned to knee deep after a 2m ish shark was spotted! 

 few bottom fish pics from over summer, been good fishing but looking forward to the bills coming back on the bite up here

Had a trip up to green head with three boats over last weekend. Was pretty good but light on the dhus with us only getting two over the weekend - one of which was only mid 50's and the other mid 70's (in 11m depth). The other blokes on my boat got the dhu, I only ended up with undersized ones. Ended up with the two dhu, two pinkies, two blackarse (one @ 50cm) and six baldies with a few of them at a decent size. The other boats did similarly over the trip. 

Also had a bit of fun with a kingy in about 8m, a decent hammer head, a massive tiger and a medium sized ray that had me thinking i was onto the horse dhu, and what I think was a sambo that eventually bricked me...

Good trip overall, had excellent conditions and some fillets for the future. 

p.s. disregard the skippy 

 Headed out from Two Rocks at around 4:30 on Sunday for the first serious fish of this year. Surprisingly there was only 2 boats in front of us but as we departed the marina there was a line forming so i  dont know how busy it got later on. Liking the new jetty and hope the second ramp gets installed to releive the conjestion there.

We headed to some new ground in the 70m range with the hope of finding some big Dhuies to start off the year. There was a bit of wind chop around so it wasent the fastest trip out there but overall the weather was pretty good and the day as a whole was comfortable.

After sounding around for a bit and not finding any fish shows we decided to drift a likley looking bit of ground with The skipper, Darren, and Bluey the novice deciding to go the stink baits and myself opting for some soft plastic action on a 4oz jig head. 

It didnt take long and there was some intrest in the occy with Darren landing his first Pinkie of this year at 60cm and Bluey getting a nice, and his first, Baldie.

We kept sounding around for some different spots in the same depth range but the ancient Lawrence sounder started to play games and was losing bottom making it very frustrating. When we had a good bottom lock we still couldnt find any fish shows so again just drifted the best looking ground. It didnt take long and another 2 baldies were boated and then the call was made. Head in a bit to a known Dhuie spot to fill the esky.

Turned out to be a bad move as the bite completely shut down, or we just couldnt entice them, and we spent the rest of the day feeding the wrasse.

It was the first full day that i have just used soft plastics and my count was 0...:(

Again it was a beautiful day on the water and a feed of Baldies and Pinkie is a good reward.

Fished the MAAC competition with delightful Sarah, my 10 year old Daughter on Saturday.  She has just become a “fully fledged” MAAC Junior and this was the first time it was just her and me on my small boat for a comp over 9 hours on the water.

Sarah was keen as mustard.  I spent a bit of Friday telling her about techniques and rigs and we happily made up all the stuff we would need.  I know she took it all in as she spent an hour or so explaining what we had done in great detail over facetime with one of her best friends.  She didn’t even bat an eyelid when I woke her up at 4.45am the next morning and hopped straight out of bed and got ready.  The ramp was relatively peaceful when we got there and we had no problem launching.  We were at the marina mouth at 6am which is the time you can leave.

The plan was to fish “Terry’s Pike Spot” for a few species, head south to a whiting hole, head south west to Hale Road Reef, out to “Whale Rock” and the “Beehive” and then fish the old coral heading north.  Nice and close for the little boat and all spots that had produced many times before.

What’s the old saying “no run no fun” and it was a glass off at 6am.  We couldn’t raise a fish off the pike spot so had to change plan to head to the nearshore reefs for the bread and butter species.  It was hard work there too but we did manage to land a few nice gar, amongst the blowies in the burley.  As the MAAC comp is all about the species not the quantity it was time to move on.  Our whiting spot was slow as well but we did get one each after a while – plus a couple of yellow tail for future bait.  Off to Hale Road with not a lot happening there either, except for a 45cm Dhu on a floater that was successfully released.  Out we go and those spots didn’t fare much better, except for a skippy that Sarah got.  Time to head north as the southern run only produced 2 species (3 for Sarah) with a fair amount of effort required to get them.

The northern spots weren’t much better but hopes were picking up as the westerly wind started to blow.  With no real luck at about 5 spots, it was time to pull the “red hunters”.  WTF, someone had surrounded my 2 pots with 3 of theirs – would have been lucky to be 50m between them all!  The ground the pots were on is a rather endless stretch of rocky stuff and I just sound it up (the Lowrance HDS9 Gen 2 with structure scan gives a very nice reading of the bottom) to pick the marks and have no real set ones.  Anyway, we pulled them and there were lots of crays although many were tar spot and/or berried females that needed to go back.  We did get 4 keepers however, with one nice big one.  Baited them up again and moved them away from the “bombing” they had received – onto equally suitable ground in the general area.

It was then I remembered that there was a spot not too far away that had extensive weed growth on it.  It’s only little but the Minn could hold us on top of it.  What do you know, the fish were there and hungry.  We then spent a nice couple of hours landing a size Dhu (3 more released), a blackass, a couple of KGs, a skippy, and a variety of other things - the absolute highlight was Sarah's first KG.  By the time we had to move on, I had 6 species and Sarah had 4 so we had something to show for our efforts.  It was a slow day however and we were thankful that 1 spot had produced.  We came in close and had a final try for herring, snook and tailor with no success.  Whilst we didn’t get a lot of fish, our bag was a very tasty one – even though you couldn’t weigh in the crays, foxfish of yellowtail.

At the weigh in there were mixed reports about the day.  Plenty of good fish landed by the seasoned MAAC Members but the reports were that it was generally patchy.  One thing that did emerge was that a lot of the fish were caught around the “bite time”, which I think was around noon-1pm.  This did coincide with the time that we got our fish so there is probably something in all of that.

Sarah’s 4 species and the weight of the fish were enough for her to win the Juniors for the day, and we also picked up the participation prize which is a carton.  After our names were called for this prize, Sarah came up and said what did “we” win, and it was ‘no, what did I win”.  She then hit me up for half of the carton cost in cash.

Sarah was an absolute pleasure to fish with.  She seemed to genuinely enjoy the day and was no trouble at all – although I do need to convince her that she should bait her own hooks.  It was one of those days that we will both look back on with fond memories, and look forward to the next one when hopefully the fish will play the game all day.

 Took the bro Inlaw out on me boat for the first time and he got his first Dhu on the first drift then nothing, he was pretty happy tho but a Pretty slow day out from seabird only the 1, plenty of pickers tho

 couple of fish from last sunday quick run out for deep drop put on brag board instead of reports. full report under that article.

Alan James: As promised another photo bigger fish is dark on one side but crap photo im sure it was a larger version of smaller Harpuku, once i took a fillet of him and his mouth closed up bottom jaw sticks way out like other Harpuka. Like you i thought maybe Bass groper but on refelection i did think big Harpuka went 46 kg didnt weigh the small one. cheers humpback.

ps// thanks to ryan and his boys from oceanside tackle his off the shelf rig stood up well.

photos not working sorry !!!

 Try again with photo Alan: fish did have a colour change at top bit hard to see as its in the shade ?? like you not 100% on Species ??

 went to the back of the islands the first day then back to dongara the 2nd day had a ball until I found out our house was the last one of 16 standing after the fires down south so had to rush home.

A bit late posting this report as I have been installing the shop graphics, but a bit more about that in a subsequent post.

Headed out early Monday morning with Dean and Wal to give the new spots in the 40’s a crack as the weather was awesome.  No real plan other than to “go the distance” and have a look at the marks.  The spots were found many years ago by a “now retired and moved away gentleman” in the days when you had to use a paper chart plotter on the sounder.  Didn’t he do a good job as the desert ocean floor turned to a “sounder explosion” whenever you moved over the marks.  They were relatively small but with the Minn Kota spot lock we could easily hold the ground and fish it with light gear.

It was the day of the sambos.  You know there are times when there are plenty of fish on the sounder but you can’t get a bite, this day was completely different to that.  The advice with these spots was “good luck getting through the sambos” and how true this was.  We had an epic few hours and boated 30-40 (all released).  Double and triple hookups were the norm and every bait worked with hordes of fish coming up to the surface to "support" the hooked ones.  After getting spooled by a very large model, Dean brought out the heavy artillery to try and land a big one.

There is nothing better than hearing a “locked up” Stella screaming in protest as the hooked fish tries to head to the horizon.  This was the story with one of them on the heavy gear and let’s just say there was quite a bit of pain involved.  

After a good fight the large model came to the boat and there was quite a bit of effort to get him on board without a gaff.  Nevertheless, we made it, and time for a quick photo before he went back.  We had no scales but this thing was all of 25kg+.

We ended up moving to try and get away from them and Dean scored an absolute horse of a flathead that went 67cm “cold”.  I got a nice black ass, and some big skippy, amongst heaps of other released things, before the sambos found us again.  The only downer was being bricked by a couple of very large likely Dhu.

The plan was to come in relatively early, as there were plenty of things to be done, and check the “red hunters” on the way back.  It’s always good to see the feelers hanging out of the pots when you bring them up and we ended up with 7 keepers out of 2 pots to top it all off.

It was one of those days that you hope for when you drag yourself out of bed at 4am for a morning fish.  Great company on an awesome boat and the fish played the game.

 sorry lads put story on brad board instead of reports my mistake. hope you can read report under brag board !!

Today went for a quick fish at a place i know of. Has nice barra and Perch, caught ten small Barra today. Wicked fun on lures, off back to Dunsborough now for more fishing. Max

Any truth to the grain spill in Cockburn Sound, few reports coming through Facebook

 Went out with a fish wrecked member today off dawsville 

Thanks Browny and josh for the fish tday.  We caught snapper,dhuies queen snapper, black arse and kg whiting great to get out a bit further than I take my runabout cheers again sorry photos won't upload

Thought I'd go out for a troll? If so, what sort of size are they ATM?

If not, any stripes or Macks?

Cheers

 Quick dive down south producing the goods.

 G'day all went for a fish today before going back to work tomorrow after being on Xmas break .

got 2 good dhu early then used the small gear to finish of our bag limit.

also put the camera down and got some good footage of dhus , pinks ,blue groper ,baldies and some nice plate corals . Hope the pics work

Well, another year, another Christmas spent in Florida.

I had not plan for this trip. Elijah emailed me in the fall to inform me he was going to Florida for Christmas and he need fishing info. Soon, I jumped on when Michael could take time off work to join me. George was snowbirding in Florida so he planned to join us for a few days in the Keys, and we roped in my friend Bartek as well for his first real Florida fishing experience.

I had high hopes to add a number of new species, but both weather and our group wish had me scratched out a number of new species opportunities. Still, I managed to catch 8 new species from Florida. It was no small feat since I had already caught 103 new species previous from Florida, plus another 50+ saltwater species from the Western Atlantic Ocean from different states and countries.

Although the new species additions were low by my standard, the quality made up for it. The species I managed to add were very, very cool!

Spotted Scorpionfish (Scorpaena plumieri) - Species #477



Spotted Trunkfish (Lactophrys bicaudalis) - Species #478



Grey Angelfish (Pomacanthus arcuatus) - Species #479!!!



Hardhead Silverside (Atherinomorus stipes) - Species #480



Red Lionfish (Pterois volitans) - Species #481!



Ocean Surgeonfish (Acanthurus bahianus) - Species #482



Irish Mojarra (Diapterus auratus) - Species #483



Atlantic Stingray (Dasyatis sabina) - Species #484



I also caught a personal best Red Grouper. It was most likely an inch longer than the legal keeper minimum length of 20", but we didn't have a ruler on board and we didn't want to risk keeping a barely legal fish, so we sent it back to the reef.



Aside for the new species, I caught another 40+ species. I only photograph a fish if I needed better pictures for my life list, or if I happened to catch something rare or cool. The usual Grunts, Jacks, Snappers and such are not that cool anymore. Here are some addition "cool" species that were on my camera.

Sheepshead



Puddingwife Wrasse



Blue Parrotfish



Graysby



Sand Perch



Grass Porgy



Blackear Wrasse



Grey Triggerfish



Oyster Toadfish



Overall, it was a great trip to Florida that I got to spend with great friends and family. Elijah and I are already talking about Florida Christmas 2016!  :lol:

And for your reading pleasure...

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2015/12/2015-florida-christmas-day-1.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2015/12/2015-florida-christmas-day-2.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2015/12/2015-florida-christmas-day-3.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2015/12/2015-florida-christmas-day-4.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2015/12/2015-florida-christmas-day-5.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2015/12/2015-florida-christmas-day-6.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2015/12/2015-florida-christmas-day-8.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2015/12/2015-florida-christmas-day-9.html

 Hit the Cut with some mates last night, next to the cafe / tackle shop on the northern side, didnt have much luck though. Undersize KG and a barely legal Tarwhine, few Herring and Trumpeters and Wrasse (all released except a few Herring).

Anyone producing better results ? We got there about 7 and we had a small wave of consistency.
Was good to drive down and have a go as we don't do it much. Left after a long lack of nibbles after spending about 4 hrs there, and we shifted to a few more spots up the cost towards Freo with just Herring for the rest of the evening. Also had a big run on the balloon rig at a spot in Cockburn with a failed hookup. Better luck next time I guess.  

 Put the pots back in last week and loaded them with tuna heads.  Checked them today and got three in each pot.

Bait was still pretty good.  Topped them up with a couple of small wrasse and a bonito we caught last week.