Headed out from Woodies bright and early to see how far out i could get in my 5m runabout. Got out past Carnac heading for 5 fathom but the swell and chop was making it like a washing machine so decided not to chance it and played in the sound instead without much luck. By about 11am the wind had dropped off so headed out again. The conditions had settled down and i managed to get to the west side of the bank. Ended up with a snapper, a blackarse and a cuttle. Lots of cuttlefish around smashing the bait. Some were huge but only boated one. 

 Went for a wander down an old favourite beach today. Didn't get past the gutter in the foreground of pic 2. The greenbacks got in the way!! My foot is a size 13 for scale.

I have just come back from a 9 day trip to the northernmost destination I've visited, being Skjervoy in Norway.

Skjervoy is in the Arctic Circle, and is best accessed (from London at least) by flying to Tromso (via Oslo) and then driving for around 4 hours to get to Skjervoy. The reason for this trip was to get out and try some Japanese style flutter jigs to fish for cod, halibut and other species that I'd heard were in abundance in this remote part of the world.

Fish in these parts are generally targeted with either soft plastics / shads or with very heavy pirks, so it would be interesting to see how these jigs and the light jigging kit would fare.

We were to be based out of the excellent Skjervoy Fiskecamp facility, which provides around a dozen cabins for rent - each with it's own boat which is moored a very short walk from the cabin. It is a self-drive operation, and we were very pleased to see that the boat was an almost brand new model of the Arvor 215, with plenty of modern electronics which would make finding fish easier in a place where we had no marks to start with.

Another thing that made this trip different to others that I'd done, was that it was in effect both a fishing trip and a couples holiday, because my mate Tom (from Perth) had come with his wife Rene, and I'd be bringing my fishing widow Caris, so we had 2 expert deckies to join us on the trip.

Safe to say the rental car was loaded to max capacity!

Wild moose sighting on the way down, and some pretty amazing scenery made the long drive enjoyable. The odd thing to note is the first 3 photos were taken around 2am. Given how far North Skjervoy is, you have 24 hour sunlight and given our trip spanned the summer solstice - it really was the same daylight level at 3pm as it was at 3am, and on some nights we were fishing from 11pm until 7am, as if it was the middle of the day. Could have made sleeping tough, had it not been for all the booze we brought ;-)

First day out and we were greeted by some pretty magic conditions. Our deckies were happy about that to say the least, as we had warned them to be prepared for strong winds!

After about an hour's steam into the fjord we got out to the first likely looking mark with some nice activity on the sounder, and it was time to drop jigs. We were fishing a mix of jigs with a range of tackle, but the first jig to get hit was Rene's (girls showing us how it's done!) she was using a Jigging Master Fallings 2012 jig on a Temple Reef Mytho rod, and got nailed on the first drift. It looked like a good fish so the rest of us wound up to let her fight, and up popped this awesome cod. Dinner was sorted, and Rene's first cod (and biggest ever fish) was in the cooler. Good start!

Now it was time for the rest of us to get into the action, with cod after cod coming over the side.

We were catching fish on a range of jigs, but the Fallings really seemed to be the standout for the trip - particularly in the pink & glow colouration with a squid assist attached.

A few other species began to fall to our lures too, including wolf fish (below), tusk, link and coalfish. But for days and days, the halibut that I wanted most of all had evaded us and we were beginning to lose hope we'd ever see one.

Each day was pretty much the same so I won't do a day by day report. We'd head out, jig up some cod, then try and target different waters for different species using every lure in the box, and the pics below span several days.

On some of the days, the conditions were nothing short of amazing. Complete glassoffs in some places, though this wasn't the case every day.

After days and days of trying though, I still hadn't found the halibut I'd been chasing. Norwegian halibut can get enormous (200kg+) and I was dying to get one of any size, particularly as I knew how delicious they were! Towards the end of the trip I decided it was time to give up my pride and drop a bait down for them in the shallow (15-40m) bays, which I was assured was a sure fire way to get one. This did produce 1 solid run when a huge halibut struck my bait as I was retrieving it, but the hooks didn't stick.

As often seems to be the case, it had all come down to the last day. The girls had called it quits, and Tom and I were bobbing around solo in a bay not too far from camp. We had 2 baits in the water, whilst I played around using a light (135gr) Fallings jig on my Mytho to catch some lighter fish to pass the time. You can imagine my surprise then when my jig got absolutely nailed by something that I knew straight away was not a cod.

The fight began in earnest and line started disappearing from the reel, but it was at this moment that we discovered that my line had become entangled in one of the other lines, which in turn was now snagged on the bottom! After much cursing and hasty slashing of line, we somehow managed to free my line, and the fight could continue.

When we did get it boatside we saw that we'd gotten our halibut. It was no monster by any stretch, but at least we found one (which after 30 hours or more targeting them was a relief!) and had some fillets for a black miso halibut recipe. Doesn't get much better than that.

Norway was an incredible place to visit, and I can't recommend the Skjervoy Fiskecamp highly enough if you want to get out there and give it a go. Balasz the manager there runs a very smooth operation, and made the whole trip a pleasure. Would definitely recommend it!

Until next time...

Tackle used:

Rods
-Temple Reef Mytho LJ510B
-Jigging Master Evolution Titanium 150
-Synit Mantis X35
-Smith AMJ52H

Reels
-Wiki Jigging 900H
-Jigging Master Power Spell PE2
-Shimano Ocea Jigger 4000 and 1500NR

Most successful jigs
-Jigging Master Fallings 2012
-Lamble Bait Haoli (various models)
-Smith Meijume

Terminal tackle all Shout, Owner or Sasame

More info on almost all products used is available at www.adventureangler.net

 Took a chance and risked getting smashed by "The swell of the decade". Launched at Mindarie in the mid arvo and headed to the 20"s hoping to burly up some nice snapper as the sun went down.

Really was trying to beat Gilly's 780mm from the other night.

Fished right up to 9:30pm for a total bag of 1 skippy.

The monster swell did not appear, and neither did the snapper.

We did manage to test our gear out on some large rays, scorpion fish (stacks of them around ATM), and other reef pickers.

Beautiful weather out there with the wind down and a gentle swell rolling through.

There wa 8 trailers in the carpark when we launched so how did you guys go??

 I went out for a quick fish yesterday afternoon and noticed what appeared to be a huge baitfish ball come under my boat. A couple of minutes later my sounder went from 18m to 6m and totally red in colour and I couldn't work it out until my two rods with mullies on went off simultaneously. SALMON again!!!

Unfortunately I didnt have my wits about me to get a picture of when it went red but I did when the bail was underneath..

The school was huge and I had to move to another location as I had no need to catch salmon this time around.. Been into them for weeks...

Got an invite to go out on Omega for some Snapper fun on Tuesday so Monday morning headed down to the shop for a bit of terminal tackle.. $200 later and i was set to go but wondering how that got out of hand..

We launched from Mindarie at 6:30 and there was not another trailer in the carpark.. Mind you it was dark and bloody freezing.  Headed north up the coast to avoid the cray ropes and headed to the 20"s when the sun poked it's head up.

After finding a nice hole we anchored up and got the berly going which was sweetened up with a few crushed cray heads. The boys were going for some fresh occy as bait while i went a 4" placky.

It didnt take long before we got some action and the first little Black Ass was onboard. The wind kept picking up during the morning and was still bloody freezing but it never got to uncomfortable. The fish were steady but not prolific and all seemed to be small. Probably got 4 undersize Snapper along with some more Blackass and a skippy. 

Around lunch time i got bricked on the reef by something nice and 10min later Tony was on. He got the full run around of the boat and did real well to boat a nice Sambo on snapper gear. You can see in the photo his shit eating grin.

The wind died down and shifted to the south which pushed the boat over a small sand patch. Darren proceded to extract a nice KG from there but it was the only one.. Much to our disgust.

We decided the bigger Pinkies were not coming to us so we went for a bit of an explore. Moved around from the 20's to just off 3 mile, keeping a close eye on the swells, and back again.

No size Pinkies were boated but we ended up with a mixed bag of Black Ass, KG, and Skippy.

Beautiful day on the water even if it was freezing.

Merv

I have had two Daiwa Tierra rods for ages, one O/H, one spin, they have great blanks and nice reel seats and guides, but the butts are too short and they are a pain to fish with.

Rainy days means no fishing so I got out in the shed today and bastardised a few rods and made up some extensions......whilst not the prettiest outcome, the rods are now the perfect length and strong as an ox.

Connected the butt extensions to the rods with internal ferrules made from cut up old rods, just drilled out either end to suit the ferrules and epoxied them in.

Total cost $8 for some epoxy. Happy days.

Wow! Don't know what else I can say...

Recently got back from the most epic fishing trip I have ever done. We had the opportunity to get out for a week at short notice with the boys from Montebello Island Safaris. Can't thank these guys enough! Captain Matty, Kitchen Ninja Ash, Wade-o the fish wrestler and Tommy the Photo Bomber & Backpacker Whisperer- thanks again!

Myself and forum member Decky Dave headed out on a road trip, leaving just before 5.00am Saturday morning. Dave was in fine form due to a somewhat dodgy diet the evening before, fermented with a dozen or so beers. After outscoring me about 32 to 2, we arrived at Exmouth around 5.00pm, settled in for a beer & counter meal at the Potshot, in anticipation of the fishing to come.

Arrived at the boat Sunday morning and met the 4 crew, who confirmed that there would only be six passenngers for this trip, not the usual fourteen. That's right, four crew & six passengers. The other passengers were two pairs of guys, all keen for a fish and a chat over the next few days. I know they will be checking this site, so g'day fellas.

Highlights from the trip (so many!) include the road trip there and back, my first ever billfish (thanks for your help wrestling him Wade-o!) and possibly the best beer of my life, landing a good size spaniard in a tinny on a flick rod, Decky Dave's panty antics (see seperate thread), hand feeding the locals, watching the insane crew catching waves in the middle of exploding bait schools and airborne tuna, thumping coral trout, getting great fish on jigs & soft plastics - every time!, crazy filleting sessions, fantastic food (cheers Ash for all your food made "with love"), Captain Matty's secret spots (see the sounder porn photo), squidding off the houseboat and kicking back with the fellas for a beer or three.

Too many stories to mention, so I'll let the pictures do the talking...

And if anyone is thinking about doing this trip, don't put it off. Just get out there and do it, you won't be diassapointed. Oh, and say hi to the boys up there for me.

 Hi Guys,

Another couple of weeks and we are heading up to Shark Bay for the Annual trip. I have only ever caught one trout and one red up there but would really like some advice on how to better my chances. I do understand that they inhabit completely different areas, but was hoping for some useful tips and general areas (not too general please) to look for these tasty critters.

Went for a flick at south beach for a whiting today , nothing but blowies and about 5 ton of salmon . Ended up getting 1 on a 5/0 tied straight to braid, first salmon from shore was stoked! I understand that the schools were passing through, but they hung around for ages .the old boy dropped a few was pretty hard with our lack of equipment. They did stick around for a few hours. Go hard fellas

I dont get out and fish metro much anymore because of trips like this.  The fishing is unpredictable, challenging, frustrating and can be very rewarding.  

With cars packed and on the road by 5.30pm, we had a decent run up and got to our campsite before sun up.  Unloaded the important stuff and we made our way down to the ledge at first light.  

Baits in the water and bites are not a question of when, but what.  The reefy ground has seen us pull out pinkies of all sizes, fingermark, baldies and parrot fish.  Not this trip though, we were met with red throats and blue lined emperor.  They were caught all day, but ranged from 25-40cm, so we chucked plenty of them back.  

Whilst having plenty of fun catching these tasty critters, my Live Fibre copped a serious whack and there were some big big lunges.  I fish a tight drag because the fish there love fighting dirty. After a nervous close-in combat, i got a glimpse and it looked liked a decent pinkie.  Hard to tell because we are a fair way up.  Gaff-man did a great job because there was a shark just sitting off the ledge waiting for a free feed.  I was STOKED to say the least!  

Unfortunately that was the only pinkie landed, i lost another good one on the last day at the gaff, and can only assume that some of the 1000s of fish that were sharked were pinkies.  

Also got a balloon out but my skipping gardie fell victm to a big bronzie.

Second morning was something I had NEVER experienced and will be something i will not forget.  The alvey boys were having another bottom bash so i decided to have a spin.  There was bait being smashed all day the day before but way out of casting range.  This morning the bait was in a bit closer and after watching countless youtubes of guys spinning Quobba, etc, the water and conditions just "looked right".  Tied on a 70g twisty and first cast BANG mackeral hooked!  Took some decent runs and i did all the right things to get him to the surface.  As soon as i saw it, sharked. FFS.  I proceeded to hook up and lose 6 metals in 6 casts to sharks.  I went from fishing a lighter drag to give the fish a chance to avoid the sharks to fishing a locked drag just to try and skull drag them past the sharks.  Nothing worked and i only have a head to show for a red-hot spin session.  Lost some very very good tuna and macks and im not sure what else i could of done.  Due to the structure of where we fish, the reef ledge where I landed the pinkie was on the other side.  The gaff spot on this side is just clean (shark infested) water.

The sharks were really bad this trip, we are used to having the odd fish sharked, but this trip they were outrageous.  The old boys were feeling a bit stiff and sore and with work committments, we left Saturday arvo.  Esky wasn't full, but we got a decent feed.

Although sharks were bad, this place is why I love fishing.  It is my third trip and each time I go back, I return a better fisherman.  I've gone from using paternoster to running sinker rigs, improved my knots and learnt to use wind-on leader.  It is the ultimate tackle tester location and i'm sure i'll be back next year a little bit wiser.  Let's just hope the sharks arent!

Dirk Nienaber from Stargazer Pictures joined me for a fishing session near Rotto. He managed to catch a decent Shark Mackerel in the process and take some good video footage.
See the clip here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=xXXLVx3NLJ8

 So since the tub is out of action for a while I've been review some of my go pro footage from recent trips out in my tinny, the Dog House

this was out in 17m of water near the busso jetty, 23 degree water at the time, flying fish everywhere, great to see the ocean so alive,

any ways, we started to cube and get a steady burley trail in hope of some sambos on light gear,

this lil spot has produced before and it wasn't long before we had some rats iright under the boat with some bigger models down deeper, around an hour into the cubing we had several sambos and a nice dhu boated and we're just relaxing enjoying the day as the weather had really started to glass off.

then something with a different profile broke the surface and was cruising at speed around the cubes I had recently thrown in, seeing some yellow we thought it may of been a medium sized king.

this had me screaming to my mate to re rig his line to just a single hook while I continued to lob more cubes out. At one point I was pretty much hand feeding this thing which was looking more n more like a tuna, being a tad impatient I quickly retrieve my soft plastics and removed the Placcie and threaded a cube onto the jig head,

i was in the trail no longer than 5 seconds before seeing this tuna grab my cube, I said a prayer and closed the bail arm and came up tight, my 5000 Stradic and 20lb braid started screaming as it took its first run, I was whooping like crazy, an amazing feeling and slight bit of panic hahaha! After a solid 10 minute fight I had landed my first tuna, was a very happy fisherman this day! Hoping I can get an ID here for this tuna guys, the yellow had me thinking yellowfin but now I think it may of been a big eye, Thanks for the read Pegz

Yesterday was the monthly MAAC Competition.  As I have discussed previously, these competitions are keenly fought by “quality” anglers and regularly produce trophy fish at the weigh in.  This month’s comp was no exception, but there was one outstanding capture from very close in.

There is a spot not far out from Hillarys affectionately known as Terry’s Pike Spot.  At the presentation Terry, as a past Captain had to present as the current Captain was not available (for valid reasons), was at pains to explain how he had benefited all Members by revealing this spot that regularly produces a number of species for everyone on comp day.  This was certainly backed up late in the night as there were a few “maaaaaate, you have done the single most important thing for the fishing Members of the club by handing over that spot, dribble, dribble, dribble”.  Anyway I digress, but it was very funny.

Now Terry’s spot is a shallow weed bed not far from the marina mouth where you get a range of bread and butter species if you burley up.  People tend to stop there first and get a few species on the board (the competition rules are 2 points per species and 1 point per kilo at weigh in).  It’s in about 3-4m of water and does generally produce the small things.  Yesterday however was different.

Matt is a really nice young guy and is having a “purple patch” at the moment smashing the comp last month (a 15kg dhu was in the mix), picking up a big Spaniard off Rotto a couple of weeks ago and now this. 

As the schools of herring were in the burley trail, Matt noticed a very big shape in the water.  Thinking it was a shark (you can weigh in the non-protected shark species over a metre) he threw a live herring at it and hooked up.  This thing was an obvious beast and headed for the horizon.  Good work from the skipper and they chased the fish – I’m not sure how long it took them to land it but catching a big YTK inshore, in very shallow water, is a quality effort.  The whole deal (seeing, hooking and landing) is awesome and Matt should be congratulated for this unique capture.

Our bag (3 of us) was “mixed” with quite a few people reporting a slow day also (might have something to do with a falling tide all day?).  The big demersals were generally absent and I know we threw back a lot of undersized pinkies and dhu – including one just over 500mm, but I am now very “shrinkage shy” in competitions!  It was good to see the sambos move back in close as we haven’t got one for a couple of months.  No matter what people say about them, sambos are a fantastic sports fish on light gear.  We release all we catch, except for weigh-in specimens on comp days with the occasional upgrade.  They are not wasted as they go well in the burley but it was interesting to hear one Member call them the “cane toad of the ocean” in that the “packs” consume everything in their path, including the valuable “threatened” juvenile demersal species.

 Was gonna go out today (sunday) but didnt make it, ocean looked like glass off today how was it out wide any fish action? 

Received a text from Adam asking if I wanted to go out in his boat tonight to “repay” the last Friday night trip in mine where he got the quality pink.  Conditions looked good and the thought of potentially more pinkies and it was an offer too good to pass up.  Just as we did on Friday, the idea was to try some new ground and see how we went.  Adam’s mate Marcus came along as well and it was another night with good company.

We set off from Ocean Reef just after 4pm and motored north west to a rock that breaks in swell located a metre or so below the surface.  We anchored up in about 9m of water and conditions were as good as they get.  The water was like glass, above and below, and you could easily see all of the features of the bottom.  Perhaps a bit “ideal” but just nice to be out there.

Of course I took some of my burly and the cage and it went straight in the water.  With the clarity is was good to watch how it dispersed in the water column.  True to form, within a quarter of an hour we had fish all around the boat feeding in the trail and the species in abundance were schools of skippy, and nice sized ones as well.  They were taking any bait or plastic we threw at them and it was an enjoyable time of non-stop action – there is always something to enjoy by sight fishing.  In the end it was catch and release as we had enough.  The sea was alive with everything devouring the burley, and even a pod of dolphins moved in to feed on the things that were feeding on the burley.

As it was starting to get dark, Adam threw an unweighted strip bait at the rock searching for a pink.  Just like last week, he was smashed again by something large.  The first call was shark as it hit the bait mid water and came to the surface when hooked.  It was peeling line at will and as it headed for the rock we were all waiting for the bust off.  A bit of heat from Adam pulled it away and then the fish broke the surface to reveal a nice sized salmon.  Adam had it in the deeper water and then it was just 10 minutes or more of “play” to get it to the boat.  After a few shots with the net (it was lucky to fit in) we got it onboard and indeed it was a nice fish.  It was “damaged” with the hook right down its neck so it came home for future use.

After dark, it became quite slow but we did land a couple of octopus and dropped a cray at the boat (bugger).  As usual the snook/pike came in, and we were busted off a couple of times by what were likely to be large undesirables.  The wind was building and at about 8pm it was time to come in.  Although no pinkies, it was a good night and nice to get a big salmon this far NOR.

 Left two rocks marina at 7am sunday and went straight to a new spot we found 2 weekends ago that was loaded with fish in rocky 40-45m ground. 2 metre+  swell predicted and going along the lead line was no problem, 25km out the swell was BIG, I reckon 4 easily 5 metre swells were rolling all day. I was using bait and the brother was jigging, within 5 minutes of first drift bang i was on with the ripper 78cm pinkie pictured. Brother got a hit on the jig but lost the fish. We thought yeh yeh you beauty! gonna be another fishy day like last time but boy were we wrong. After the pinkie I caught it went dead - not even reefie pickers. I started losing a few 10/0 owner circles to bolt cutters and me brother had his favourite jig bitten off, that pissed us off so we moved. From then on for the next 4 hours we tried all our spots in that area that have fished well and new ground we found in between for nothing, not even little reef pickers which seemed really strange, never had a session like it. There were 3 or 4 other boats around us and we noticed they all did afew drifts then kept moving away to new spots so i reckon other guys found it hard to get onto the fish as well. Went out to the 50m- 60m line and nothing. Was about 2pm so decided to hit our shallower spots again on the way home. Not a bite on my bait but my brother jigged up a 66cm pinkie then next drop he got onto a nice breaksea cod then that was it, no fish on bait, jig or sounder for the next hour. Decided to call it quits and was good fun coming home flat out with the big swells.       Anybody else out there on sunday? how did you go? thanks for reading.

They must be coming close to the end of their life cycle.

Got a call from my mate Darren claiming his freezer stocks were low and a nice Dhu or two had to be had to replenish it. Fri was looking good so calander was cleared and gear was sorted.

Launched at Mindarie at 8:15 and headed to the "cant miss" spot in the 40's. Poking our nose out of the marina it was a bloody washing machine with waves coming from every direction and i was sure it was going to be one of those days where just hanging on exhausted you. We threaded our way through 3 mile with swell breaking all over the place and what do you know, calm (ish) on the back side. Not glass but calm enough to head out at 15-18Kn.

The plan was to nail a couple of size Dhuies at "the spot" and then head to a known Baldie area for a drift around to get our bag. Well within 2 min of dropping a line the first Pinkie hit the deck. Just size at 51cm.  Well that was our test drift and we were off the mark by a bit so reset the drift and try again.

Darren hooked onto a solid fish with a lot of head shakes so pretty soon the second Pinkie is netted.

A school of Pinkies must be on the lump and as we want a Dhuie we decided to move and try somewhere else. The next 4 hours were spent trying spot after spot getting nothing. There wasent even the usual pickers having a go at the bait. The saving grace here was that it was bloody beautiful out there. The seas had glassed off, sun was shining and just a hint of a breeze. 

The call was made to move in to shallower ground of around the high 30's. On the first drift we both hooked up on smallish fish that turned out to be a pair of jagged Sea Sweep. Not even good for bait IMO.

Second drift and i hooked onto a nice one. Peeled off 10m of line and really was hard to get off the bottom. We were on pretty sharp ground so i was a bit concerned for a bit but managed to get back some line and get it up about 10m. Still there was a lot head shakes (snapper) but strong runs heading down like a coral trout or cod.  

After 10min of good fighting a nice 71cm pinkie was in the net.

A few more drifts produced nada so time to head back on that glassy sea. Once back inside 3 mile it was still rough as shit so i pity those guys i saw hanging in close.

It was pretty strange out there with almost nothing on the chew even on the slack tide. The moon being full must have given everything a good feed during the night??

Still 3 Pink Snapper for the day gave Darren some fillets and out the back it was a cracking day.

Merv

With the wind being good, but the swell potentially bad outside the reef, I planned to give the “stirred up” inshore a crack tonight.  With the young one chasing a different type of pink I made a call to FW members to see if anyone wanted to come along.  Happily, Bryan and Adam agreed and as planned we left Hillarys a bit after 4pm.  Wind conditions were ideal but there was a fair bit of sea as residual chop from the swell breaking on the reef.  There was also some swell at times as the sets came through.

We went to new ground in about 8m and fished that fairly unsuccessfully for a couple of hours.  A few undesirables, a skippy and a few missed “potential” quality fish.  Before it got really dark, I made the call to move to a “rock” that has produced for me in the past.  It was a hard call because the “new” spot may ultimately have produced, and in hindsight we probably didn’t give it the go it deserved.

Anyway, my trusted spot wasn’t going much better.  I have learned however that the pinkies are a waiting game, burley hard and fish well-presented baits and you never know.  There were fish all over the sounder, obviously in the burley trail, so we persevered.  Adam was constantly catching the “rock” throwing the unweighted pilchard at it but he had clearly caught a few pinkies before and had his strategy.  It was still generally slow however.

At about 8pm Adam's gear went off.  Now this was a quality fish and had all of the characteristics of a big pink – solid fast runs and the head shakes.  The call was made to get everything out of the water as this fish would take a bit of landing and then disaster struck – no not a lost fish but Bryan in his haste dropped a combo over the side, bugger.  Needless to say Adam and I were a bit oblivious to all that at the time as he played the fish nicely and I was focused on the net.  The big pink came to the surface and there is always that feeling of relief when it is in the net and hauled aboard.  Let’s just say the smile on Adam’s face says it all.

After the euphoria and photos, the reality of the lost combo set in.  It seems Bryan may have an issue with “donating” to the ocean as we were told the story of his wedding ring going the same way!  We were only in 9m of water so a dive might be on the cards for tomorrow.

We kept fishing for a while with Adam hooking up again to something large but I think its coat was grey and the bust off over sand suggested it might have been.  A Wobby and a couple of Port Jacksons and it was time to come in.  At the ramp, the pink measured 83cm and the weight “guesstimate” was 6kg+.  A quality fish in anyone’s books.

Although the bite was slow, we got a really good fish less than 5 minutes from the marina.  The company was great, and I was really glad I asked if Members would like to come along.

Sets coming through the Carnac GI channel almost topping 4 metres.....feathering on the peaks, flat calm other than that but still turned around as you never know if a particularly big set might close it out ..... 

Bit of a delayed report but here we go,

After a long wait since booking the trip finally rolled around, and with the scare of a “cyclone” we were given the instructions to come a day early or risk not getting on the island for a few days. The way into steep we didn’t know what to expect as none of us had been before, everyone was a little nervous as all the traffic was headed away from steep and all the cars were stopping us and saying that everyone was being kicked out due to the weather. Luckily we ignored all the chatter knowing that Kieran had asked us to come a day early so we could get on the island.

Once the 5 minute barge was over the adventure began, as we were racing time to get to Urchin Point before dark as we had no idea on what kind of track was ahead of us. We met a few FW members coming off the island who said it was about 4hrs to Urchin Pt. In the end it was only about 3 hours and the track was pretty cruisy with the odd bump and rock, nothing boggy which was surprising.

With the swell up from the storm we go into urchin point at about 6pm and were met with perfect left point break right in front of the shack, the next few days we explored a few fishing spots to throw placcys as the swell made some of the cliffs a bit difficult, the “cyclone” never showed up. Turtle bay was a nice spot with plenty of spango’s, red throat, spanish flag, cod baldies and parrotfish among many others with bust ups of tuna and mackies about 100-200m off the beach. We ended up going for a few sessions here but the hill was a mission with all the fishing and spearing gear.

The block was a good platform to fish however we didn’t manage to land anything in the couple of sessions we tried it but did see a couple free jumping sail fish about 200m from the cliff, few hook-ups here and there but nothing flashy. After a few days we sussed a few other spots one we called “snapper holes” (it had another name but this was more appropriate). Plenty of good sized snapper came from here as well as a big spango. Another spot close by became our spinning spot as the wind was in a good direction and it handled the five of us spinning (although there were some complications!). The “cliff spinning” style of fishing was new to all but 1 of us so we had some learning curves along with the cliff gaffing.. Plenty of hook-ups with a triple hook up we thought we were bound to land one, unfortunately for the three of us the only guy on the cliff who wasn’t hooked up wanted in on the action and eventually resulted in the 3 of us losing fish to the bottom of the cliff and he was the only one to land a nice Spanish mack. Later in the session there was a also a tuna landed. After numerous hook ups to mackies, tuna and gold spot trevally we only managed to land one gold spot.

We didn’t fish at Urchin Pt itself much with only one session resulting in a couple of baldies caught. We speared here a few times seeing countless baldies and parrot fish that were massive and the boys managed a few nice shots. With the swell down a little bit we took the boards off the roof and decided to go for a paddle, instantly regretting not going out the first days when it was pumping. Some nice waves still coming through and we were able to suss the reef, they don’t call it Urchin Pt for no reason so negotiating the way in and out of the key hole was crucial. Anyone thinking of going and wondering if to take boards –yes you will regret it if there is waves.

Overall the trip was great, I do have to mention the flies though as they were fark’d. Fly net essential and worn pretty much at all times in the day unless on a windy cliff. Mossies not too bad with only a half hour period of hectic bites at sundown on the cliffs, not at the shack. The shack was epic, somewhere to store shit and hang out in the day to watch the surf etc, genny made nights better with the lights.

Great trip and both the Hilux and the Ranger had no dramas as pretty stock cars (besides the springs on both being flattened from the load). Few photos, multiple cameras makes it hard to get all the photos off everyone and so does swimming with your phone so we lost few nice flicks.

Have a good mate from over East, born and bred in the West, who is a quality fisherman that I regularly exchange photos with.  He was out here a couple of weeks ago for a mate’s 50th and we planned lots of trips.  Unfortunately his trip corresponded with an Autumn storm front and we could only have one session in the” calm before the storm” which produced, well, SFA size pinkies.  A mixed bag but nothing of note and a bit of a disappointment for all.

Since then, he has been on and East coast “purple patch”.  First a 5.3kg pinkie:

and then this!

Caught north of Moreton Island on a whole squid, 30lb braid with 5’0 snelled hooks on mono leader.  WTF – one hook in the corner of the gob and one in the eye and a very lucky capture.  The “photo war” is hotting up but I am not sure I could get close to that beast.  Definitely a photo worth sharing.

 Took the boat up to exmouth for a week weather was shithouse due to a low preasure system hanging off the coast.

1st day on the boat we fished just outside north passage tantabidi in 20mt picked up a nice cobia a few rankin cod heaps of gold spot trevally and spangos before the wind picked up.

2nd day managed to get out for a trawl picked up a load of mac tuna and stipeys then the wind picked up again .we came in and fished in north passage couldnt get pased the goldspot trevallys good fun on light gear.

Last day on the boat was the best day decided to try for a mackie trawled up and down the back of the reef got a load of tuna and shark macs had a load of hookups that were droped before i hooked a 900mm spanyaird. Decided to head north and trawled up and down in 30 to 50mt mark seen some lumps on the sounder then bam lures got smashed line was peeling then nothing couldnt beleive it. Set the spread again and went for it again same spot got hit again landed a 11kg spanyard. We then decided to stop trawling and do some bottom  fishing on the lumps we found with good results rankin cod coranation trout spangos more gold spot trevally and a heap of  snappers.toped off a great day with a few spuid in along the beach near the boatramp. 

Packing up my gear to come home and relised the single hooks i was using  were straightend no wonder i was droping fish

Took the missus to a new spot near Rotto. We managed to bag out within two hours with a mixed bag of Dhufish, Breaksea Cod, Snapper and Harlequin Fish.

YouTube clip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=OWvuC06UegA

Finally ticked the last deep drop species off this list, Blue Eye. Thank Bodie for the help, great to meet you and sorry we did not get into the Bass.....they are quite elusive unfortunately but at least we got into a few other fish as well with a few radiants and pinks.

Brilliant ride out.

Brilliant day.

Bagged out with a mix of blue eye, radiant cod, pinkie and dhu.

Brilliant ride home.

Took my young bloke and his mate who is fishing mad and wanted to catch a sambo but had never jigged before.

Out to a shallow spot......when you see this.....

You get these......my young blokes mate Mitch with his first sambo.

We all got into them, great fun for the young blokes.

up early today with the aim of getting some pinkies for the first time off 5 fathom. With not much of an idea my brother, a mate and myself left cockburn boat ramp at 6am and headed off into the darkness. We decided we would try the inner edge of the bank off the northern tip of garden island in about 20m of water. It was now about 6.45am and with sunrise expected at around 7.00am we started throwing mulie cubes all over the place hoping to attract a nice pinky or 2 to head over to our boat. Within 10 minutes of anchoring 2 of our 3 rods suddenly screamed  off and me and my brother were on. I could feel those headshakes and constant short sharp runs, i was starting to think i may have been onto my first sized pinkie but just as i got it off the bottom my line went slack, he had Spat the hooks and i was spewing!!! About 30 seconds after my fish got away my mates rod went off, after a nice fight finally up came a 70cm pink snapper followed quickly by a 68cm specimen. Down went the baits again, we watched the sun get higher and higher in the sky, 20 mins had past and i thought the window may have closed and it wasnt my day. I was sitting down staring at all 3 rods when mine all of a sudden buckled again and i had my second chance. I carefully nursed it up and was stoked to get another pinkie in the net, not quite as big at 64cm but still a good fish. Headed back in for a squid and then back to the ramp by 11.30

Happy days

Brothers 70cm pinkie

 We went offshore today trying to catch some demersals in the 40s and 50s off Mandurah. We only caught undersize dhuies and pinkies so we decided to try our luck further offshore as the weather was nice. We sounded around in the 90s and came across a bit of a lump and I pulled up this Amberjack on my Talica 10. It had a few runs at the start and one close to the boat but mainly it was just a heavy lump. I was hoping for a big dhuie but pretty happy all the same.

 Lovely day out on the water with a few nice feeds !