Just back from a great 12 days in Exy , covered all bases fished the shallows on plastics , jigging in the 90s for goldband and scarlett sea perch , couple of feeds of muddies and deep dropping for grey band and rubys with an exceptional amount of very large rubys accounted for including one that bottomed out 20kg scales with ease !!!

Over the years we have received significant help from a fish market monger, and have long talked about going out for a fish together.  We have been limited to a Sunday due to work commitments, and last Sunday showed some promise with the forecast easterly around 10-15kn.  We made the plan, and Dean really wanted to bring one of his employees (Spring) as a reward for doing an excellent job.

Given the forecast temperatures, the afternoon looked a lot more comfortable than the morning so the plan was to leave around midday and fish until dark.  We decided to play it by ear as to how far we ventured out based on the wind conditions when on the water and unfortunately it was blowing closer to 15kn so we had to stay inshore, much to Spring’s disappointment as he really wanted to catch a big fish.  Our “on the water” plan was to burley up a weed bank close to the marina, head to a spot that can hold big sand whiting and then settle at an inshore pinkie haunt that has produced the goods previously at dusk.

10 minutes from launch and we had the lines and burley in.  I keep the offcuts from our commercial burley manufacturing process, and use them myself so we had a lot.  We had herring and garfish all around our boat, and some large predators that smashed the schools every now and again – saw a big pike launch itself out of the water right on top of us.  We checked licence status, kept the big herring and released all of the southern garfish, small herring and other undesirables.  Unfortunately we couldn’t tempt the bigger things and the live baits went untouched.

A short move down the coast and we fished for sand whiting as the order from home was to get some fillets.  As usual in this location, they occasionally school through but you do get some bigger models.  The burley had fish all around us again, and we got some nice whiting in amongst other various species.  The highlight was Spring’s XL sandie, and this was a big fish in its class at probably near 300g.  Another highlight was Dean landing a small eagle ray on the 4lb whiting gear after a long and entertaining fight.

As the sun started to drop it was time to move and set up for the late afternoon.  Again, burley in the water and we generated an aquarium.  Skippy were the main species this time although there were plenty of smaller pinkies, and the herring again.  Spring managed to hook up to a nice tarwhine amongst the smaller pinkies, but it was a job to get a bait through the skippy although the bite fluctuated quite a bit. 

As the sun hit the water my baitrunner started to sing as something sizeable hit the floating mulie.  It is always a relief when you engage the reel and the hook up is solid, as was the case here.  I had the drag set reasonably tight but it still pulled a lot of line in the initial runs.  The head shakes were unmistakably those of a pink and when we finally saw colour, that’s what it was.  A skilful net job and we had a good fish in the boat – Spring was over the moon to see it.  We stuck it out for a little while longer but the school had moved on, it was quite dark, and time to come in.

My family is fussy about the fish we keep so it didn’t take much convincing to let the visitors take them home.  It was a nice mixed bag and was good to hear the skippy and whiting were consumed raw that evening by family and friends (and settled the anger about getting home so late), the herring were given to relations and the pinkie weighed in at 6kg with a 2.5kg fillet return plus the wings – it helps being a professional fish filleter.  I have arranged to pick up the frozen frame so I can donate it to the Fisheries skeletons program.

It was a nice afternoon on the water, testament to the fact you don’t have to go very far in Perth metro to get a reasonable return, and there is value of using various burley types and techniques for targeting different species.  We have already talked about doing it again. 

 Had just as much fun catching these kgs , almost as good as catching a Dhuie. almost.

Built up the awesome squidding down here all day to the kids and launched from Port Geo Marina with a stiff breeze still blowing at 2pm with Bailey our pup on his maiden voyage.

Headed straight for my honey hole and the look on Lachie's face said it all when he saw the colour of the water. We did three large drifts for no interest on a range of jigs so pushed out to the 10m line where the water was nicer.

Hit a couple of broken up areas with jigs and whiting rigs and not even a bite and kept a sardine cube untouched!!

Oh well... the beer and lemonade was cold, the tunes were good and Bailey was a star.

 Fished the mouth of the Murchison out the end of Chinamans last night. Tried baitcasting some mulies for Tailor, but they were a bit mushy and the pickers were cleaning them off the hooks.

My daughter's boyfriend thought he would try a popper in the dark and he eventually hooked up big time. After a good tussle, he had a very big Tailor at the base of the rocks (est 6 kilos), but he tried to lift it up onto the rocks we were fishing from and the line snapped and that was the last we saw of the jumbo Tailor  .

Another one that got away...

Been scanning the forum as a ghost for a couple of months now and finally decided to write a small report of a foreigner’s new home. I have been calling Australia home for a couple of months, however the trip happened 4 weeks after arriving in November 2019. 

Been with a new company for six weeks before they forced me to take a two-week holiday (Christmas break), how unfortunate. Me and the misses decided to start working our way up from Perth driving north and sleeping wherever and whenever we feel like it. Fishing rods packed, sleeping in the van and having no idea what to expect along the way. Got a few decent tips from searching the forum.

The first couple of days had minimum success as can be expected if you drive around inland and looking at all kind of tourist attractions, finally we made our way up to Hamelin Pools and decided to continue to steep point and see what the fuss is about. Our first two night we stayed at false entrance, being the only campers there was exiting and allowed us to explore and really experience a bit of remoteness reminding us of back home (Namibia). Early mornings and late afternoon gave us a couple of tailor which was fun and starting to lighten up the trip. Next stop, steep point and the next two days fishing the bay and diving in the area yielded no results and after just two days the wind has finally driven us away and made me realise that we were not nearly as prepared as we should have been, we decided to leave and continue north, but before we leave I will gather the courage to stand between numerous other anglers on the point and give it a last go with my spinning setup and hoping that if I manage to hook something that someone will give me a hand getting a fish up the cliffs. One fellow angler saw me standing on my own and having a less than average time, told me to join them and even gave me one of his lures, a yellow belly that is apparently deadly. Humbled I casted the whole afternoon till dark with no results and not seeing one fish landed for the day. To show my gratitude I had to spend a couple of hours on the cliffs the next morning before we leave. This is when it happened for me, my first Spanish mack and that on spin from the shore blew my mind. We ended up spending another three days at steep point joining my newfound friend and his camp. This is where I fell in love with WA and its people, taking in a foreigner and sharing without the slightest hint of selfishness. 

As our trip continued, we found a honey hole and managed to bag a couple of good crays (biggest 2kg), and to repay some of my debt we had a good feedback at the camp. We headed north and ended our trip in Exmouth, a great first trip. Since then I have done a couple smaller trips and closer to Perth as my work does not feel as forgiving as when I started. Now that I managed to get rid of most of the touristy stuff and settling in. I am looking forward to exploring and uncover a couple more secrets along the way. 

Shot out late yesterday arvo for a solo inshore bash, weather played ball and was bloody beautiful. Heaps of bait playing on the surface on the way out, which had me frothing for a couple of 90+ snapper. Anchored up and got the berley going, got the baits out and picked up a small pinkie (yes, it was legal). A bit of time passed and just the usual skippy/herring/flathead hanging around. Bit of current happening so I had to muck around a bit until I got the weight right on my rig. The amount times i picked up a bottlebrush nut thinking it was a ball sinker was quite funny. And trying to thread them on in lowlight without a headlight is frustrating. Anyhoo

Just on sunset I got a run and started getting my hopes up for the big pinkie, strange fight ensued which was unlike a pinkie or stingray. I find it hard to pick what it is on the lightish gear. Had the other rod go off at the same time which turned out to be a small stingray. Got the original fish close to boat but had given up on it being a snapper. Saw the blue fins and my heart jumped a bit but it ended being a small sambo. Shortly after I had another run but pulled the hooks, I rerigged and fed the bait out with the current and hooked up, not fighting like a snapper but I still took care as it was giving me curry.  5minutes later there was a nice little dhuey on board which ended up weighing 6.9kg. You can see in the pic my net has a hole in it (cant really see but its quite big) and the fish swam straight out of that 3 or 4 times before I finally got him. Stoked with that fish I started packing up and headed home stoked with an hour of hectic fishing under my belt. Nothing huge or spectacular landed but happy with the action.  cheers Jim

If anyone can give some advice where to catch pinkies at the moment around the sound, garden island and five fathom. Please pm me if you can help

cheers 

G'day guys,

Last week we (Harro, Kane and myself) decided to head north to Exmouth, to chase the sunshine, warm weather and quality fish.

With the weather gods playing their part, we were able to find pockets of good weather utilising the Windy App. This allowed us to fish 5 out of our 7 days.

The first few days we fished the gulf and islands, getting into a few fish. Kane catching his first Coral Trout and Harro falling in love with the Vexed Bottom Meats (it wont be long and I'll have fishing jigs and plastics haha).

With the weather clearing up we decided to head out deep and try and find some Red Gems of the deep. First drop and we were on, landing our first 20kg+ GB. 

After that it was slow going, sounding around, hooking and dropping a small black before finally coming across a small patch of Rubys. From this little school we managed a Darwin Roughy and a pigeon pair of Tang Snappers too (a first for the boat). Last drift of the day Kane managed to catch his first GB, a solid fish at that. 

That fish concluded what was yet another awesome trip up north. I absolutely love that place and can't wait to get up there again!!!!!!!!!

 Just got home from an awesome week In Exmouth. Plenty of sharks in most areas of your heading up that way my best recommendations are travel a bit further to Long Island work the ground 15 to 30 meters very productive . Never experienced so many good reds in under 30m . Regards Camel 

 Had a productive day out with the wife. Biggest red went over 9 kg

If there is one thing about fishing, then that is the unpredictability of the outcome of this pastime enjoyed by millions around the world.  Fish behaviour is determined by so many variables which include air and water temperature, current strength and direction, moon phase, air pressure, wind direction ….. and the list goes on.  Seasoned anglers take decades to learn the patterns that determine fish behaviour, and even then they are not guaranteed that they will return successful.  

Enter the occasional angler like myself who only has the opportunity to get out on weekends and then only if the weather permits.  The point here is that a lot of my success is being at the right spot at the right time even though unintentionally and unknowingly.  Such an occasion occurred this weekend when mate Xavier and I decided that it was time to stock up on snapper fillets (I am starting to scratch the surface of this fish’s behaviour).

We took off from the Woodies ramp at first light with the plan to fish the West side of Garden Island until the wind settled and then to head off to a new patch of ground which I recently discovered South of Rottnest Island.  We have a few snapper spots on the west side of Garden Island, but the Raymarine told us that there was nobody home at the time that we passed over their regular feeding grounds.  There have been some good reports of snapper being taken in shallower (less than 10m) water recently, so we changed our plan to look for some promising indications at this shallower depth.  It did not take long before the sonar reflected some good activity below and the pick was summonsed to keep us on the spot.  A few handfuls of burley made it clear that these fish were not the snapper that we were hoping for, but in fact a large school of skippy.  I never turn my nose up to a good fight on light gear, so we spent the next hour plus being entertained by these willing trevally, with the occasional curious herring mixing it up for us.

Around mid-morning we made our way to Rotto in somewhat sloppy conditions resulting in a painfully slow trip.  Xavier and I had not fished together since PC (pre-Covid) which meant that the chinwagging made the trip across more bearable.  A number of drifts over the designated grounds resulted in no more than undersized pinkies (47 - 48.5cm ouch!).  Around mid-day Xavier suggested that we head off to the West end of Rotto to a spot where we had pulled baldies from the depths before.  Loaded with bottom baits we were soon drifting over the caves below trying to entice a baldie or even better a dhuie to take our baits.  Whilst on the first drift we noticed some good bird action closer to shore, not too far from some breaking surf.  I suggested that Xavier change his bottom bait for a stick bait while I manoeuvre the boat to within casting distance from the action.  At this stage we were convinced that the action was a school of tuna smashing the baitfish.  Xavier hardly had a chance to put two turns on the Shimano before we sighted a decent mackie come up and smash his lure.  The first run was hard and long with at least 40m being stripped from the reel in very rapid time. Xavier’s first comment was that he was not going to land this fish today, especially not on the 3-5kg rod and 20lb leader with no steel.  I spoke some courage into him and said that I would follow the fish with the boat and all that he had to do is keep the pressure on his end (I too was not convinced that this fish was coming on board).  At least these macks are clean fighters, unlike the kingies and sambos that run you straight down into the bricks below.  After a decent fight we eventually gaffed the shark mackie and had it on board, celebrating with high-fives (what Covid?)

By the time we bled the fish, we had drifted a good few hundred meters from the action, but the birds were telling us that there was more to come.  Xavier took the wheel and I quickly tied a 120mm Fish Inc sinking stickbait to my now favourite combo - loaded with 30lb Pandora X8 (thanks Luke Ryan from Tackle West) and waited in anticipation for my turn to get into my first - yes first mackie.  I need to digress for a moment and confirm that I have put half a dozen others onto mackies without being able to catch one myself - the confidence level was not too high at this stage.  Xavier skilfully lined me up and I put in my cast.  My hands were shaking and the mind was running through all the checks to ensure that I did not stuff up this opportunity that has been eight years in the making.  As my lure hit the water I witnessed at least three mackies jockeying for position as they raced to engulf my offering.  I am not sure that I even turned the handle before the PE4 Oceans Legacy bent over donating line through its guides at a speed that I have only experienced after hooking an angry kingie.  

After what felt like an eternity I eventually had the fish next to the boat so that Xavier could put the gaff into it and bring it on board.  After more high-fives (sorry Hon Roger Cook) and real smiles for the photos, and we were ready for another round.  Unfortunately three other boaties noticed the action and raced right into the middle of the school of fish.  Now this does not take decades of experience to understand that type of behaviour will chase the fish straight down and turn off the switch.  Oh well, I had my first mackie, we had two on the boat, and both without steel - let’s not push it. 

We decided to call it a day and made our way back to Woodies with smiles that were impossible to erase.

YouTube video - https://youtu.be/K47sFbMVqYk

 Went out with a mate from Hillarys for a tuna troll yesterday arvo. Acres and acres of bait out near the big ships but couldn't turn a reel. Still a beautiful day to be on the water and enjoy a couple of beers.

had an interesting arvo yesterday.

didnt get out til 1 as had to do a picnic with the wife in the mroing, took a mate out, and bashed straight out to the 40s.  managed 3 dhus, 2 baldies and a breaksea and a few undersize snapper..

dhues were 48, 48 and 49! we knew they werent gonna be huge so reeled up slow and released well with the dropper weight, same with breaksea and one of the baldies and the snapper.

only keeper was a 50cm baldie, so good fish.

highlight of the day was almost falling in when a whale breached not 5m away, then proceeded to swim striaght  under the boat and out the other side.... pretty disconcerting, but amazing! unfortunately no camera, and mate was tyiing a rig! we just stood there shocked for a few minutes..

saw 2 other whales and a pod of dolphins.

curised in at 35 knots with the sunset behind us to an empty boat ramp.

not very productive, but one hell of an afetrnoon all the same.

cheers

goat

Well i gave it a good crack this weekend and after getting thrown around by the Wind and swell last night i was starting to think my early success was beginners luck.   After catching a stingray, one skippy and two wrassse I gave up. Never to be defeated and living close to ocean reef, the wind change to SW tonight inspired me to do it again.   Arrived at my spot at about 4.30pm and had to spend a bit of time working on the drift to get on to the sand spot I had eyed off.  Started the burley trail of diced mulies with a few handfuls of chook pellets soaked in tuna oil.   second cast ....on to a just size pinkie. As I am unhoooking that one the other rod goes off and his twin comes on board.   two just size pinkies in about 20 minutes. Then it all turned to crap....the wind changed pushed me back onto the bombie....the pinkie stole my hook and when re-rigging my brand new terez  15-30 the tip clean snapped off...(back to bcf tomorrow for a warranty claim) and then to top it off I had to leave the stuck anchor out there.   Anyone know of someone who can help me retrieve it. It's in 5m of water??? Anyway, the good news is I bagged out on pinkies for the first time ever ...but as usual nothing comes for free! 

G'day All
Off to Rottnest Island this week for some land based fishing . Wondering if anyone has been having any luck over there and knows or has heard what's actually biting.
Im taking my poppers and sticks to try entice some pelagic's and my soft plastics over and a few squid jigs and will visit the usual haunts of Radars and around Strickos for some likely holes in the reef.
So yeah any info knowledge or reports would be appreciated
Cheers
Beats working.

 Been getting into a few pinks lately with fish on this spot about half of the time I go there and a few smallish sambos which is a nice bonus. 12m 

Havent put up a post in since before the young fella was born (now 9 months old), felt like todays run was worth it.

Newly found time constraints have meant more efficient fishing missions, so having a go at squidding with my wife lately (kid at grand parents).

First 2 trips for 3 and 2 smaller squid, not a bad feed for the 2 of us with some fish caught on previous trips thrown in.

Saturday seemed like weather could go either way, but report looked to good to miss today, hit the water by 2:45 and shot out to the weedbeds we had been trying.

Managed 6 squid in the hr on the water with biggest hood going 27cms, also finally managed to outfish my wife!

Water was like a pond when it was time to leave and honestly if my mum wasnt cooking dinner would have stayed longer.

Nothing beats heading home at WOT after a good day out.

Went out for a post covid fish with my son yesty arvo/evening trying for an inshore snapper out from Warnbro although not too much to write home about, it was just great to get out with my son after not fishing with him for a long time, I have so missed fishing with him so much and enjoyed the hours we spent out on the briney.  Ended up with a nice black arse 6 skippy a port Jackson each my son got a ray and me a poxy eel, but all in all it was more about the time you get to spend with your family doing what you love cheers

 Needed a fishing fix, so went out on Offshore Charters with 3 other punters today.

We got our boat limit of mainly smaller fish, with a couple of nice sized Pink Snappet rounding out the catch. Mostly pinkies, coral trout and a couple of redthroats going into the esky. A couple of undersized Dhuis, pesky Skippy etc also caught and released. I got done twice on my SP outfit by suspected sharks, the second one taking all my braid with the knot at the backing snapping when I locked up.

Heaps of whales out there today and as always, bloody great to be on the water.

A couple of pics of me with average fish should be attached.

I've been going out for the last 3 weeks around either dawn or dusk trying to get myself a snapper without any luck yet have caught black ass and a decent flathead but no snapper and after having to come home at dusk a fortnight ago on a flat calm evening becanuse I didn't have any lights I decided to replace all the lights wiring and all so I can stay out in the dark. Knocked off work and got the boat and headed down to woodies shot out behind the islands and got anchored 11m around 5, I knew the full moon was not going to help with the snapper but I thought the light would be handy I had a awesome burley sock I'd made myself and got to cubing up mulies around 7:30 when I was starting to think how long should I hang around for and one of my Rods was getting a little movement so I picked it up and started winding slowly and could feel something so I just pulled it up real gentle thinking it was another flathead then it got to the surface I don't think it knew it was hooked until it saw the dinghy all I saw was a white flash as it took off back for the bottom, I got it back up again and it took off back down again fought it back up and it was done, except I netted it and it just tore a hole in my cheap bcf net so I grabbed a rag and just grabbed him by the mouth and pulled him in. Still no snapper but my boats first dhue for me not too bad either at 68cm. YEWWWWW

look

 Been a bit slack getting this one up. took advanatge of the good weather pre the blow. been out a couple of times on mine and mates boat, getting the sounder to read well finally. both have airmar 1kw transducers but reading significantly better on the furono than my lowrance. always thought transducer made most the difference but clearly not. found some new ground about 1nm in closer to the ground have fished for years. same structure, being a veru steep rise from @ 200m to 220m. interestingly fish held on top of this rise, rather then theo other ground where they are at the bottom. the school is massive, made up of grey band, pinks (XL), a deep water tusky (XL), and nannies (okay size). biggest GB went close to 40kg and the range from 5kg+.

 Went out late Friday arvo off ocean reef for my second crack at catching a snapper. Read up on all of the tips and studied the charts for a likely spot. Anchored in about 8m of water just shy of the 3 mile in a clear patch surrounded by some good looking reef. Let a couple of unweighted snelled 5/0's with 30lb leader out the back and started to burly hard with chook pellets and chopped up mulies.   Was quiet to start with so decided to drop a whiting rig down for a bit or fun. Caught a couple of skippy before one of the rods went off....disappointingly a wrasse.   About 10 minutes  later had my first decent run and landed a 55 cm snapper.   Was stoked!  In the following half hour then caught 6 x 70cm snook which was fun to start with, then pissed me off as they kept destroying my rigs and getting in the way of the snapper I was after.   On sunset the snook went quiet and then I was smashed for the next half hour by some good fish, with both rods going off at the same time. Unfortunately they kept biting through the leader between the two hooks and after losing about 10 rigs I decided to pack it in. Home by 730pm with my first snapper and a half a dozen big snook for cray bait ...and gave a few to the old folks to try.   Have since upgraded my leader to 80lb cause I think it cost me some quality fish. Anyway live and learn and had a ball in the process!  Westy. 

 Been lucky to getout the last couple of Thursday's and finally checked out the fads off o/reef Thursday week ago ,still learning my new boat so a little nervous going so far offshore, not much going on out there as far as mahi mahi  but I was surprised at how many boats were out there so early, i was lucky to have my mate Eric  take his boat as well so I felt pretty safe. After a couple of hours we made the call to at least try to catch something so we came back into the bank for a Dhu hunt, as in the last post the comments the tide on the crazy current were bloody hard to fish, I was working pretty hard to get a bite but if you let the sinker stay on the Bottom  the bait was getting hammered , really hard to hookup; had prepped a couple of new vexed meats the day before and chucked one on and got a great 94 cm beast, pretty happy with that so the world for me was pretty good at that stage, we got another nice one in closer where it had glassed off and no current, nice day out and did  almost 80nm: this Thursday went Dhu hunting again and had an awesome day , had my best rod in a rod holder that I fitted the day before onto the bow rail thinking it was tight enough with a jig on on the line ( Stella  8000) , I was fishing wth my bottom bouncing setup and concentrating on the bite ,I don't know how long it was but after a little while I glanced at my stella and it was gone and the rod holder was on an angle that was pointing to the water, my heart sank so fucken low I could of cried like a baby, I looked at my mate and said Eric I just lost my Stella it's at the bottom of the ocean, very low moment I can tell you going fuck is all this effort worth it, picked up my other rod and started fishing again trying not to think how much money just went down the drain: after a minute or so I felt a light tap tap on the line, felt vague and light, I thought better check my bait anyway ,winding slowly up my line felt a little strange,up came the first hook no bait 2nd hook no bait , the tag on the sinker line had my braid I had just lost hanging there on top of the sinker and attached to that is my Stella and I all  of a sudden I felt a whole lot better, attached to the Stella was a great baldie; faark could not believe it; gets better, loaded up my bait again and put dropped a fresh prepped meat on the rod I just lost and put it in my back rod holder where I knew I wouldn't loose it, all good fishing again; soon as I hit the bottom with my other rod I hooked up and had a great tussle with a 82 cm Dhu; happy days; just happened to look at my Stella and the rod tip was almost touching the water, had so much load on it I thought I hooked the bottom; got it out of the holder and holy fuck it was screaming out line, I thought just maybe it could be the one I been chasing for a while; after a truly epic battle up popped something I dream about at night and it make all the effort worth it, cheers fello fishos; had to tell the story:

Big boy went 107 cm just on 20 kgs

Not much of a report - but I figured I would share my struggles in case it makes anyone else feel better about their fishing ability ! 

Went out today from Rockingham, cruised out 20nm @ 0600, conditions were magic but the current was ripping as hard as I have ever seen it. The sea anchor wasn't working as it seemed to overtake the boat. Tried to anchor but the current was so fast we couldn't hold ground. I'm hardly a veteran at the bottom bouncing game but that was the fastest I have seen the water moving out of rockingham ever. 

Changed spots (several times) and seemed to escape the current only for 1x massive cuttlefish. Hard to complain when the conditions were so good. 

So... that's my 3rd outing in a row where the eski has come back empty ! Wife is starting to question if we really go fishing ! 

I'll admit, the last 3 times I've been out have been labelled as "low fish activity" on a solunar website - so either the spots I have are fished out or there really is something to the solunar theory about fish ! 

Quick trip out today after work. Weather was too good to not go. Was a bit slow but did manage to land this one. Was just under 80cm.

Seems to be a few about at the moment. Caught in 35m off Rotto on an old mark I havent fished for a couple of years.

Happy Days...

Glen had previously invited me to fish the FADs, an opportunity that I had to reluctantly decline.  I was not going to decline a second invite and even though the swell was up, I gladly accepted.

We launched before first light from Mindarie and after navigating a rather tricky Three Mile Reef with white water breaking all over the place, we were on our way to the Recfishwest FADs about 54km offshore.  A short stop at Direction Bank for breakie whilst celebrating another awesome sunrise in a crazy Covid world, and we were on our way again.  We arrived at the FAD and were pleased to see that we had this part of the ocean all to ourselves.  Our target species for the day was the dorado (also called the dolphinfish or mahi-mahi), a species that has been on my bucket list for a long time.

I had visited Luke Ryan from Tackle West the day before and he had given me some great advice on catching this fish (btw, Luke has a well equipped tackle shop with quality gear and is never shy to share his knowledge and experience).  Loaded with the lure that Luke suggested, I hooked and landed my first dorado on the second cast.  What a great fight this fish offers as it delivers a number of breathtaking leaps in-between line stripping runs,  before eventually unwillingly surrendering to the angler.  Next it was Glen’s turn and so we took turns in landing this stunning species until our arms were cramping from fatigue.  

There was a period of about an hour where the bite slowed due to a couple of spearos who arrived on the scene.  They however soon reached their quota and thankfully disappeared over the horizon.  Another two boats made a brief appearance during the morning, but everybody acted like gentlemen and made way for each other.  There were more than enough fish to go around in any case.

After an exhilarating morning of landing about 20 fish between us, we decided to make the run back home.  Back home we cleaned the six fish that we kept and vacuum packed the fillets to enjoy on another day (two of which my daughters already pinched).

What a great part of the world we are privileged to live in. 

YouTube video

https://youtu.be/waBOfS0ExWU 

Headed out to the FADs again yesterday with the bro.

Very early doors start paid off and we had our choice of FAD to ourselves for about 90 minutes. After that a few other boats moved in and it was time to bail.

Bit quieter on the numbers but we still got a bag each, including two nice bulls for Paul.

First five fish came on the 1/4oz Bucktail Banana's again and a small cow for number 6 on a trolled 8" Zuker. Quite a discrepancy there.

The second last fish pictured regurgitated a 12'' fish into its throat when we boated it, the pig still ate the little peanut wafting in front of him.

Loving the new Mercury 175 V6.  

 Hey all, haven't done this in a while so here goes

Went for a quick anchor and burley solo a couple weeks ago, started off trying to get some fresh bait, absolutely no problem finding the herring (12 in 20mins) but finding sandies completely different story only 2 in 30ms of drifting my usual spots.

Once the sun had dropped enough set up anchor and started flicking around some small softies and nailed 3 black ass in 3 casts (all small and realeased one just size) followed by a small pink. Picked up the slightly heavier combo and nailed a just size pink (released). What followed was alot of bust offs and snap off from countless rays and sharks.. finished the night with a mid 600 snapper on the tide change. Called if after another ray happy with the avros efforts. 
 

Simple sessions are sometimes the most fun being close to home waa a bonus 

Thanks for reading

In the mid 30s