Apparently someone got a 9kg pinky at the narrows?????? In this mornings paper. Geez thats a big fish if report is true.  I know theres heaps of juveniles in the river and the odd sized one caught but 9kgs is massive!!!! 

Has anyone ever caught one of these squid around Perth before?

I have never seen or caught on like this, hope the photos work

 Hi guys are there any reports on the squiding scene in safety bay at the moment

Cheers

All our plans were thrown into a bit of chaos with the onset of rain a day before our planned arrival.  luckily Pam from steep point contacted me and forewarned of the road closure.  we bought our plans forward 24 hours and the boys driving in got away early.  had a few dramas on the track with a broken trailer spring and getting well and truly bogged.  anyway, managed to make it to the camp and got enough setup whilst the rain came down.

We took the boats across sunday and set up the camp good and proper.

1st day of fishing on Monday in a big 4m swell but otherwise good conditions.  as the respective boats owners were passionate one eyed supporters of the two wa based afl clubs we had decided to have a little competition.  The loser each day had to fly the opponent's team flag the next day.  rules were set and judged by the person staying on shore that day.

rules for day one was simply "longest fish", but I did clarify were the units of measurement centimeters or hours, minutes, and seconds?  needless to say it was't the latter.

well it was a good opportunity to try my new vent right ally bait skirted lures.

but first I wanted to head deep.  that didn't go according to plan when one of the crew turned green in the backwash off the cliffs as we headed south.  we made the sympathetic call and turned back to shelter bay to drop him off.

well that turned out to be good karma because we headed out again and turned north.  not long after my reel screamed as the lure was hit and taken on a big run.  rather than strike early, I let it go until it tired before putting the brakes on and reeling in a big mack.  my best yet.  It's not often you can't shut the lid on an 1100mm maccie esky!

1.41 cm and 20.4 kg....  I think i was safe on not having to fly an eagles flag from the mighty bon peche!  and if the other boat came in with something bigger, then we were all winners!

day two and the rules were set as the most diverse mixed bag.

we had another good day, coming back in with a total of nine edible species, including squid, spanish mackerel, mangrove jack, Spanish flag, red throat, baldchin, and a couple of other 'edible' species like butterfish and Charlie Court.... and again bon peche was saved from the embarrassment of the eagles flag...

day three and there were no rules..... as he who sets them took off to fish the beach and low cliffs before deciding on what they would be.  initially we hang in the passage and tried to find the black snapper.  All we found were sharks!  I had a few minutes of fun on one of a decent size on light gear before getting snapped off.  Then we headed outside were one of the guys landed a couple of macks on a deep diving rapala.

Each afternoon we'd take the carcases out into the bay and feed the taxman.

days four and five we took advantage of the near calm conditions and head out deep to a spot provided by a FW member.

got some good showing on the Simrad....

and turned them into these

And steep point wouldn't be steep point without a pre-dawn photo...

all in all, a great week.

Our run back to denham was the best I've had.  90 minutes and hardly a ripple.

The only downside was car trouble on the way home, luckily close to home but still an expensive tow.  we suspect the alternator has failed.  will find out soon enough.

With yesterdays (25/5/15) awesome forecast I had to go Super Deep - Yes Again!!
 

My staff member Marc was keen to get out there after seeing my last trip out. I said do a roster swap with Reese (my other staff member) and lets go!

We set off not too early and planned an arvo fish. I said to Marc what fish would you like to catch ...... he said any Super Deep fish would be good but a bass groper on jig would make his day .... great no pressure ha ha .... I suppose I did ask!

2 hours out in the dinghy on Saturday has produced again I love this place. No need to have these big expensive boats to get good fish

 Had a fun day beach fishing south coast again. 

Not bad size skippy

Couple salmon 

Has come and gone in a flash and reality hit today facing work!

Flew to Learmonth Thursday 14th with 3 of the 4 starters where we were met by a mate who had already taken the boat north with his family for 10 days. The esky was full and cold for us, good start! The speeding fine was not a good start, the excitement was kicking in! Hit CB and the water was like glass. Brief daily summary;

Thurs Day 1- We arrived CB at ~ 4.30 and were on the water 15 mins later. Mate spent further family time and did not attend!! Knowing we had only an hour or so of light, we hit one of my favourite spots south and it did not disappoint. 30 knots we were there in no time. Sounder show had us bursting at the seams. First drop red and red throats, great bait, back down they go. Second drop red and spangle. third drop double header of reds and gold band (first for the spot, and not even 70m!! Just over hour later we were heading home with a healthy esky for what we did not think was to be a fishing day?! 30 knots all way in the dark! Nearly taking out an unlit yacht inside the reef was not cool. Forgot to add the visit by a 4m+ hammer head trying to steal a red! In the dark and with me on the net, I shat!

Fri Day 2- Mate dropping family to Learmonth again unable to attend! Weather looking iffy we headed north. Travelling out 10-12 knots we were looking at over an hour trip so dropped out a red head and a skirt. With 10 mins we landed a ~ 15kg wahoo! 20 mins later hook up on sail, on the red head! Winding the skirt in we saw another sail free jumping, next thing in, second hook up, luckily on each sider of the boat. Both good sized ests 50-60kg, freed boat side. Hitting the spots, struggled to hold bottom with 20knot+ winds so headed home!

Sat Day 3- mate was free of family and after towing a boat around for nearly 2 weeks was free to fish?! So he thought- weather crap, were land based!!! Hit the pub for few off the wood.

Sun Day 4- decided to head back south, had good flare ups but not a great day, just didn't seem hungry. Ended up with mixed bag of reds, spangleds, robo's and honey comb cod. Mate at least got his rod wet!

Mon Day 5- the weather looked the goods so we decided to venture further and wider north to ~ 150-160m. Found the gold bands and they were hungry! Decided to break out the electrics and give them a good run. 12 solid gold bands 6-8kg and it was an early end to the day!

Tues Day 6- weather looked good again so thought that was great fun yesterday, lets do it again!! As always, something had changed and we struggled catching only a few.

Wed Day 7- weather still looking good so call was made to head south to try our shallower (60-70m) red ground that we had not yet fished. Little slow but managed a few reds, robbos, rankin, spangles and honey comb.

Thurs Day 8- we hadn't hit our red ground north so decided to give this a crack. Again we found them hungry and founded a great new patch of ground that I will call the gravel patch. No great flare ups but plenty of small deviations and showing of fish that produced a great catch of reds, spangleds, scarlet, rankin. Mate ex family landed first red of the trip!

Fri Day 9- weather again looked epic so decided to hit 200m+ line for some rubys. Hit 240m and had two drops and couldn't hold bottom. Given we need only 2kg each to hit our limit we potted back to 90m picked up a couple of tuna for sushimi dinner and found some more new ground. 3-4 drops saw us with good reds and rankins so called it a day around lunch to head back to the thought of packing up?!

Saturday saw us head home after next batch of mates taking over the boat arriving! Crusing with car and trailer only we were making good time unfortunately being held up by a head on between a truck and a car. No fatality miraculously but still not a pleasant sight and an unwanted hold up.

Summary of parts reds 4-7kg, gold bands 6-8kg, rankins 4-8kg. 20kg in the freezer, happy times fishing 8 of 9 days anywhere from 60m to 240m!!

Pics, day 1 sounder, day 1 catch, gold bands day 5, gold bands day 5, catch day 8, catch day 9.

Had a great day fishing Bernier Island on Friday 22/05/15.

Conditions where mint. Caught a range of different fish.

The biggest Mackerel went 20+ kgs and a 1.5M mahi which is my PB.

Saturday turned shit with strong SE and didn't even bother fishing, had too many drinks the night before.

Over all a good trip but too far for a weekend.

Cheers

 Got out to the 40's about 8am and just before getting to our marks we came across a set of pots, sounded through them and found some real good rocky lookin ground going from 41 then quickly up over around 34 then flattening out around 39 with occasional fish showing on the sounder. First drift and non-stop action. My brother and I are pretty much opposite in our fishing styles, he's right into demersal jigging on light gear and im a 80lb braid, 10/0 hook big big bait kind of reef basher. Gotta admit the jigs outfished bait about three to one. Over about 8 drifts through that area he kept hooking up on Dhuies and baldies each drift, a big arse breaksea cod and a few different reefies. I got dhuies and baldies as well but just not as many. I got a fast strong run from something big, drag had a good scream and it was gone bugger! felt big.  Most fish undersize and in the end he had a 55cm dhuie and nice baldie in the bag. Action slowed down after about an hour, bolt cutters moved in and took my 10/0 owners so we decided to go to our spot where ive got nice dhuies, pinkies and baldies a few weeks back in 43m.  Was a bit slow, a couple of undersize baldies and dhuies got jigged up, nothing on bait so we moved to another spot we found previouslydropping off fast from 32m to 39m. Second drift and I was on finally! Up came the 85cm dhuie pictured, i know they get alot bigger but i was stoked when that came over the side. Brother changed to soft plastic got a 64cm dhuie which of course had to be released, next drift he was onto something real big, after a minute or two fight it spat the hook. Was a great day with fish everywhere and was good to come home with a beer and flat ocean. Lookin forward to doing it again, looks like i might have to try this demersal jigging thing. 

Took out a friend early this morning near Garden Island. He doesn't get chance to get out much, so very happy to get him onto his PB snapper (74cm).

With the weather looking reasonable yesterday decided to pack the deep drop gear and head out real wide chasing some deep drop fish.

A Mate of mine Carl had never done it before and after having some discussions on our recent Abrolhos charter he decided to pick up a Tanacom bull 1000 from Bluewater Morley in readiness of a deep drop.

Stopped in shallower around 300m of water to give him a run on his new combo and get a feel for it. I have no marks in that depth where we were so it was just a drop and see and he was hooked up straight away. I said to him that the deep water stuff is littered with green eyed sharks and he would know about it if he had hooked a big deep drop fish.

Up came a meter or so green eye and that let him know what its like trying to bring up fish from the depths.

I said I had some spots not far away that have held blue eye in the past and to head out there. At that stage the wind had come up a little but the drift was not too bad and it was only 3 mile away.

First drop and he hooks up big. I said to him this time it wasn't a shark and likely to be a big deep water fish. after 10 or so minutes up pops this guy! Probably the biggest I've got out there at an estimated 25kg or so. Think his face tells the story.

Unfortunately with the wind coming up it made it hard to read the bottom and the school moved on. I could find them but just couldn't get the boat on them with wind going in circles and the current really picking up. Did pick up some other bits and pieces which I've not seen before but no idea what they were. Not big at all.

Will start to spend more time in shallower, 250-350m looking for the elusive Harpuka and Bass Groper which I just cant seem to find!

Cheers
Bodie

well I just came back from an awesome trip to the Abrolhos islands with blue lightning charters and here are some of the fish I caught. 

Species caught 

dhufish 

coral trout 

pink snapper 

baldchin groped 

sharks 

yellow fin tuna 

i think it was shark tuna 

spangled empror

red throat 

Spanish mackerel 

Crayfish 

and lots more 

I also caught my first ever fish on a softplastic which was a dhuie and 2nd fish a coral trout. I am now converted ahah !

To soft plastics

Also sorry about some of the picture quality the didn't seem to come out very well

Found a heap of sambos in shallow, had fun with 4 way hook-ups on Langas 285 Boston Whaler, a fair bit of hot shoe shuffle going on and lots of crossed lines and a very cross TimVB at one point as he namby pambied around with his piddling PE3 gear....hahaha. Most this size.

Ended up with a nice few feeds of two dhuies (one 10.5 kg), two baldies, two back arse, a mulla, sore arms and a partridge in a pear tree. The surprise Mulla was caught after we got the two dhuie limit and moved spots from the dhuie ground so we would not catch any more dhuies to reduce risk of baratrauma injury to the fish, Mulla was caught around a fair bit of bait.

 Went out for a arvo night beach fish east of esperance last night with amazing weather no wind at all and perfect conditions we had a good fish. I caught a good mulloway on fresh caught squid from the morning in the tinny. Also caught some good size skippy and a monster shovel nose. Salmon was a good 5kg 78cm..

Heading back out this arvo!! 

 Im going out of there early tomorrow, any reports/ tips on where you found some fish, Im happy to share any good info on here with other fishwreckers after ive been out there tomorrow    cheers dave  

With yesterdays awesome forecast I had to go Super Deep!
 

My staff member Reese was suppose to be working yesterday but I said you wanna go Super Deep? his words hell yeh!
 

We set off not too early and planned an arvo fish. Last time Reese came out he got Blue-eye Trevella but he was keen to get a big one and have a crack on a super deep jig!

 Hey FWer's,

Got out for a fish today.  Great day on the water. Headed out to the 40's off Mandurah at 6am. Hit up some new marks I came across last time out. 2 weeks ago all we got off these spots were undersize Pinkies and a couple of small Dhus, but the signs were there so gave it another crack today with much better results. Only a couple of undersize snapper this time but heaps of undersize Dhus (at least 9 for the day) but also managed 2 size ones not huge but good enough. Also scored 2 cracking BB's, a nice KGW,6 Skippy and a small shark.

But the highlight for me was ticking a Shark Mack off the list, and a good one at that. We had just been commenting on how warm the water felt. Not long after, the deckie was onto a reasonable fish, so I started winding up my jig pretty quick to help with the net. When about half way up I got smashed, and off it went. I was thinking Sambo at first but early on it headed for the surface at a pretty good rate of knots. After a good tussle we got its head in the net but had to grab it's tail to get it over the side. Weighed and measured at home at spot on 7kgs and right on 1m long. Got 4 Mackie species now: Spanish, Broad Bar, Spotted and now the Sharkie, gotta get me a Wahoo now.

Sorry about the photo, should of left the sunnies on 

Not sure where the photo went.  Edit think it's back. 

Here's a few pics from my recent trip to CB. A little lazy with the camera this trip....or maybe was too much action!
Weather was hit and miss as usual although driving up the day of the cyclone we thought it would be much worse. Turns out the day after was our best weather. managed to catch 54 good size Reds for the 10 days along with plenty of other species, most of which are back swimming around.
Now only 50 weeks til the next trip........

 myself and my brother Aron have been lucky enough to get some awesome gear from assassin tackle australia to try out and well with our first weekend of having the gear we managed a heap of nice fish. spinnig off the rocks, casting in the river and sliding off the beach after dark accounted for these fish this weekend. ill let the pics do the talking with plenty of good fish making there way up for a photo.

Finally made it out last tuesday after the weekend blow,

arrived there pretty early and got our 4 pinks in an hour

ended up releasing 11 more and getting bricked by at least 4 more till about 9am then the usual skippy and sambos moved in

My mate Ian finished off the morning with this, all caught in 12m

 Just thought i'd throw a post up as it seems i can upload photos again all of a sudden. The girlfriend got these on sunday just gone, gentlemens hours, about 1030am. Nice tailor then a big salmon to put me to shame as i caught nothing! She casts a 12 foot surf rod like a pro! Had to tell her to settle down as she was casting past the front gutter and out the back break! Tailor was nice fresh for lunch and the dogs enjoyed a week of salmon (swallowed the hooks otherwise would have released) Conditions couldn't of got any better

First time out in Kalbarri in the boat. found some great spots but its a long way and a lot of nothing out there. Sounder shot had Sambos, Pinkies, Reds and Cobia on it. Found lots of Dhuies to the north. Going through the river mouth was interesting

Released most of the fish.

Got some good Reds this year, released some big ones to fight another day.

Exmouth wasn't on the list for this year but with the weather not looking great in Carnarvon we decided to head to Exmouth for four days before going to Coral Bay.

Fished 11am to 1pm and caught 3 squid in first 5 minutes, then all went quiet for 1/2 an hour, fired back up again and boated another 12 before pulling the pin, with 3 or 4 squid still hanging around the boat while packing up. 5 preped for dinner, 10 frozen for snapper lollies.

The trip took place from April 18 to April 26, 2015. We had 7 days in total and we spent most of our waking hours fishing and eating. At the beginning of the trip, I spent a few evenings grading Grade 10 Science ISU's. It was exhausting to say the least to mark assignments after a whole day of fishing. But even through that, I caught 33 new species in the 7 days...with many missed opportunities and heartbreaks. I will return to Mexico as soon as possible...this was just the first blood drawn...

As usual, these are the links to my blog posts.

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2015/04/2015-mazatlan-day-0.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2015/04/2015-mazatlan-day-1.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2015/04/2015-mazatlan-day-2.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2015/04/2015-mazatlan-day-3.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2015/04/2015-mazatlan-day-4.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2015/04/2015-mazatlan-day-5.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2015/04/2015-mazatlan-day-6.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2015/04/2015-mazatlan-day-7.html

This was my first ever species from Mexico...

Flathead Sea Catfish (Notarius planiceps) - Species #430



Raucous Grunt (Haemulopsis leuciscus) - Species #431



Yellowstripe Grunt (Haemulopsis axillaris) - Species #432



Striped Weakfish (Cynoscion reticulates) - Species #433



Spotted Rose Snapper (Lutjanus guttatus) - Species #434



Green Jack (Caranx caballus) - Species #435



Beaubrummel (Stegastes flavilatus) - Species #436



Rivulated Mutton Hamlet (Alphestes multiguttatus) - Species #437



Burrito Grunt (Anisotremus interruptus) - Species #438



Starry Grouper (Epinephelus labriformis) - Species #439



Mexican Barracuda (Sphyraena ensis) - Species #440



Yellowspotted Grunt (Haemulon flaviguttatum) - Species #441



Brassy Grunt (Microlepidotus brevipinnis) - Species #442 (Standard length vs. body depth = 2.4)



Finescale Triggerfish (Balistes polylepis) - Species #443



Yet to be identified catfish - Species #444



At the end of my first fishing day, I caught my 16th new species from Mexico...the Pacific Dog Snapper.

Pacific Dog Snapper (Lutjanus novemfasciatus) - Species #445



Pacific Mutton Hamlet (Alphestes immaculatus) - Species #446



Dow's Mojarra (Eucinostomus dowii) - Species #447



This was a species that I caught but no one else did...

Pacific Sleeper (Gobiomorus maculatus) - Species #448



Largemouth Blenny (Labrisomus xanti) - Species #449



Chameleon Wrasse (Halichoeres dispilus) - Species #450



Panamic Sergeant Major (Abudefduf troschelii) - Species #451



My favourite fish of the entire trip...because I've been trying for years to catch one from Hawaii and especially in Florida...

Longfin Yellowtail (Seriola rivoliana) - Species #452 (aka Almaco Jack)



Orangeside Triggerfish (Sufflamen verres) - Species #453



Pacific Graysby (Cephalopholis panamensis) - Species #454



Yellow Snapper (Lutjanus argentiventris) - Species #455



Pacific Crevalle Jack (Caranx caninus) - Species #456



Shortjaw Leatherjacket (Oligoplites refulgens) - Species #457



Pacific Red Snapper (Lutjanus peru) - Species #458



Cortez Rainbow Wrasse (Thalassoma lucasanum) - Species #459



Panamic Frillfin (Bathygobius ramosus) - Species #460



Cortez Damselfish (Stegastes rectifraenum) - Species #461



And the last fish of the trip...

Mexican Night Sergeant (Abudefduf declivifrons) - Species #462



And here's A LOT of food porn...

picky test

April has historically been an excellent month to fish in Oman for big GTs. It’s the month before the monsoon season, and therefore marks the last month of fishing before the season ends.

Because of that, when a trip cancellation meant that myself and a group of friends (Maurice from Rotterdam and Dave from London) would have an opportunity to fish this prime month, we jumped at it! We knew going into this trip that it was going to be a case of high risk and high reward. If the winds dropped enough to let us get to the islands, we should have red hot fishing. However there was also the chance that the winds would be pumping, preventing us from hitting the islands, so it was really likely to be a case of all or nothing.

On this trip we were to be the last group of the season fishing, with just one boat operating for the duration of our trip. Because of this, we were able to get there a little early and get set up, as well as have a go at some land based fishing. After enjoying some much needed warmth from the moment we got off the plane, we jumped in the car and began making our way down the incredibly scenic coastal road towards the No Boundaries camp. All the way down we were seeing spots that as well as looking amazing, also screamed of fish.

It was therefore with high hopes that we set out the next morning, planning to have our first session of casting lures off the shore. Upon reaching the coast at sunrise, we noticed that there was quite a bit of swell running, resulting in a lot of white, shallow water before you could reach the deeper parts at the edge of the wash, where we hoped the predators would be patrolling. I was fishing what is primarily now my seabass outfit, in the form of the new Yamaga Blanks Early Plus 92MXL, and casting a Megabass Zonk 120 (my favourite minnow as of late). This outfit allowed me to whip out some really massive casts for this light lure, but despite that it was still necessary to wade out 20m+ until you were between waist and chest height, to really get beyond the swell.

We started casting and working a small section of the coast with our lures, and it didn’t take long before I had a strike, and the first fish of the trip was on! Sadly I didn’t get any photos, but the fish was a mulloway (or cob) of around 45cm. By no means a big fish, but it was my first mulloway on a diving minnow, and we were happy to have gotten a fish after only a couple of casts. Thankfully though this was not to be the last, and the mulloway kept following in quick succession with us getting around a dozen for the morning between us.

Just as the sun was starting to rise in earnest I lobbed out a cast which, after about 5 turns on the handle, got absolutely nailed. Line started disappearing from my Stella 4000 at a ridiculous pace and I began tightening the drag, but was conscious of the fact I was fishing PE2 line on a seabass rod, using the standard hooks and split rings on my Zonk lure! In my time fishing I have actually never been spooled, and there was a point when I had a little over half my spool out without having even gotten 1 wind back on the reel, where I was seriously wondering whether this would be it!

Thankfully though I managed to slow the runs, and began the long process of wading along the coast and working this fish back through the surf. After around 20 minutes or so the fish was back near the shore, and we caught a glimpse of silver. It was my PB Queenfish by a long margin. While by no means the biggest or the rarest fish I have ever caught, I think that for me catching this fish on seabass gear while wading in warm water and watching the sunrise with camels on the shore for company, will mean that it stays in my mind as one of my most memorable captures to date.


The first day of the boat fishing part of our expedition came along, and we loaded the boat with a ridiculous amount of kit in hope of a mission to the islands. Unfortunately though the wind had other plans, and we were not able to make it out. The plan was to head south and cast along the cliffs for the bream which Oman is well known for in the light tackle community. It was however to be a very slow day. Water temps were very warm and we noticed a lot of dead fish along the coast. We are not sure why this is, but perhaps it was shutting down the bite.

We did finish off with 2 bream for the day, both of which fell to my Megabass Zonk 120 (yes there is a trend developing here!). Maurice also raised one on a Feed Cone 25 popper, but it didn’t commit.

Day 2 was much of the same on the wind front sadly, and we decided to head a little north of the ramp to try some light jigging marks. We got a couple of taps, but nothing hooked up. Then all of a sudden the wind died down, and skipper Yassir made the call to go for a quick run out to the islands and see if the fish were playing ball! We were well and truly excited at this point, having prepared ourselves for another inshore day, but we quickly started getting the GT kit ready for action.

From the very first drift, I had some follows on the Temple Reef Ballista Detonator 168BM which I was using, which was my star-lure last trip. Mid-way through the second drift though I noticed some fraying on my mainline and went to re-tie a leader, and just at that moment I hear a lot of commotion and see that Maurice is on big time! Something big and angry has engulfed his Feed Pin 180 and is making for the horizon. This was Maurice’s first experience with a big GT, and he now knew what I meant about the power of the things! It was a great thing to be there and watch a friend get his dream fish, and after a few pics, a tag, a weigh and release, we had the first 40kg+ GT of the trip on the boat.

It was time to reset the drift and make another pass of the mark. We began casting, and I picked up a nice Queenfish. Around the same size as the one off the beach, but a lesser catch on PE10 than on PE2! Then Maurice joins in the casting, and second cast – he is on again! Unbelievable. The Pin 180 was certainly the favoured lure that morning. This fish seemed even angrier than the last, and put up one hell of a fight. It was a wonderful looking fish, very dark in colour, and we now had two GTs above 40kg on the boat in the space of just a few casts.

We were at this point now all hoping that our plans of ‘high risk and high reward’ had paid off in spades. After this fish though, the bite really shut down. We kept popping a range of marks up until lunch time, at which point we dropped a couple of light jigs over the side for a bit of fun.

We picked up a few small bits and pieces, and Maurice dropped a really nice fish on the jig. Then shortly afterwards the Jigging Master Fallings jig I was using got slammed. I was using a PE3 jigging combo (Temple Reef Mytho and a Wiki Jigging 900H reel) and I knew I had to put on as much pressure as I could to try and keep this beast away from the reef. I hit max drag on the reel and started applying a lot of thumb pressure, but the line just kept going – which made Yassir think I was snagged on the bottom, until the high speed bursts of the fish and my excited yells made clear this was a great fish! Unfortunately though after ripping off over 150m of line under full drag and lots of thumb pressure, the leader got mauled on the reef. The one that got away, which I can only imagine was a GT or large Amberjack or similar, but who really knows.

The afternoon saw us casting on some very shallow marks, in search of more big GTs. By this time Maurice had switched to the light tackle, and I had moved from popper to stickbait, in the form of a BFP Mafia One 180gr. I really loved the action of this lure, with heaps of flashing and side to side roll, which gave me a lot of confidence about getting a strike. On a few of the drifts I was getting follows from smaller GTs, but they were not really committing. At that moment Maurice hooked a garfish on his PE4 casting kit, which in turn got inhaled by a good sized GT! Luckily though after a couple of blistering runs, the GT threw the hook – which was the best result as any attempt on landing it on PE4 in such skinny water was bound to end in tears.

Just as we were getting ready to head back, I lobbed my Mafia One towards a bommie that was protruding from the surface of the water, and after a few twitches, it was BANG – fish on! Given how shallow we were, we needed to pull this fish out and pull it out fast, so a lot of drag was put on, and the spool was getting grabbed as hard as I could as I shuffled down to the back of the boat while Yassir drove for deeper water. I lost a lot of line initially, but then slowly started making ground towards the still-moving boat. I had had some big fish on the last trip to Oman in October so knew what to expect, but this fish was a nightmare to pull towards the boat so I was really expecting a great fish. You can imagine my disappointment though, when I finally get the fish near to the boat and see that it’s only a small fish, but one of the trebles has hooked up on the side, so the fish was getting pulled sideways through the water making it feel much larger than it was. Oh well, at least our GT drought had been broken for the trip, and we went back to camp much happier that night.

What we did not realise though, was that the weather was not going to be friendly to us on our last 3 days, and with the exception of one very brief window at the islands on day 4 (where we didn’t raise any fish), we were relegated to inshore fishing for the balance of our trip – which meant no more GTs. Rather than spend more time chasing the bream, we opted to dedicate the majority of our time to chasing bait balls, in the hope of queenies, mahi, trevally and anything else that might be around. There was mounds of bait around, but the predators were not too interested in our offerings and so the fishing was slow and I won’t give a full run down of those days, but we did land a few more good fish on the light tackle.

Some standout captures were this great Queenfish caught by Dave as part of a double hookup on his Yamaga Blue Sniper 77/3 rod and Tacklehouse K-Ten Minnow, and Maurice’s Mahi which he took on his Carpenter PE4 gear and a Smith casting jig.

After the way my October trip finished up in Oman last year this was a much slower trip, but it was still great to get back over there and extract a few nice fish. I am already booked again for April next year, and if the weather behaves, am sure we’ll get some great action!

Almost all tackle used is available for sale at Adventure Angler, at www.adventureangler.net

 Haven't done any netting for quite a while, but been hearing good reports. So thought I'd give it a go tonight. Finished work at 5 and straight down to Port Bouvard marina and down the Harvey inlet before dark had the net in. The Mullet started hitting the net before it was even completely set. First run produced 11, second 10 & last run finished off my bag of 30. I was back at the ramp not long after 7pm. 

Plenty of cheap top quality bait for our trip to Shark Bay, and for bottom bouncing for a while. Top night. Cheers

Chris