Hi guys i went fishing yesterday for bream i came to a point were there were bream every were i put my lures and my soft platics down but they dont take it they ust look at it and swim away how can i catch them????

Went out sunday morn for a bit of a dhu bash but only the small ones wanted to play but the gs were very obliging nice baldy too

Hi

Firstly sorry about the length of this report. I could have written so much more.

A week with BKK guy – more than just fishing.

Before you leave for any holiday you have certain expectations, a set of hopes and a handful of ideas. This is particularly true when embarking on a fishing holiday. You have an idea of the species you hope to catch, the dream that these fish will be of monstrous proportions and you will often find yourself fantasizing about the way they will have your reels begging for mercy! Well, these were at least my thoughts before I boarded my flight to Thailand. I and a good mate of mine Clayton had booked a 4day fishing adventure to Thailand fishing with BKK guy (John). We would be fishing for predatory fish on the first day, wild fishing for Toman (Giant Snakeheads) for two days and the final day we would hit the Barramundi ponds for some top water action. I have been fishing seriously for about 4years and have been an avid aquarist all my life. Many of the species we were to target were dream fish of mine, many of which I had previously and currently keep in the confines of an aquarium. So this trip was particularly special to me.

Day 1 – Predatory Pond.

John picked us up from our hotel at 4am; both Clayton and I were both nursing a severe hangover. In reality, we were both probably still a little on the inebriated side, rather than hung over. Not a wise move, but nothing a quick stop to Maccas didn’t fix. The first thing you notice about John is his personality. After a couple hours of talking fish with John on the way to our first fishing location I felt like I had known John for years, to say he is personable wouldn’t be doing his warm personality any justice.  I talked fish biology with John the entire way to the first pond, everything from how often Arapaima come up to breathe to the way in which other species spawn, it felt good to talk to someone who was perhaps an even bigger fish nerd than myself, no easy feat to manage.

We got to the first pond while the sun was still down and quickly noticed a couple young Arapaima slowly drifting around the shallows. To say I was now excited was an understatement, I could see the fish. Bait fishing is not permitted at this pond; our fishing method is a little bit of a secret. It was a hybrid method between float fishing and fly fishing.  Within our first handful of casts we had both landed an Alligator gar each, a truly prehistoric looking fish that was a challenge to photograph, get your hand anywhere near the business end of this fish and you will quickly cut your day short. The fight on these prehistoric gars was a bit disappointing, but still good to get a nice picture.

The next thing I noticed about John was his photography skills; he knows just how to hold fish and the angles required getting the best possible photo. Photography is a strong point of Johns, which is great as you don’t need to worry about taking any pictures yourself; the pictures and memories you get are fantastic. Back into it – next up is a double hookup on Red Tailed Catfish, one of the previous hopeful species I mentioned, I was wrapped. Things then went a little quiet for me, and by a little quiet I mean I didn’t catch a fish for a whole 20 minutes. In which time Clayton had already managed to land another two Red Tailed Catfish, at which point we both decided they were the Samson fish of the freshwater ponds, they pull like steam trains and head straight for structure. After a couple RTC your back and arms are sufficiently warm.

Then it was my turn with another RTC, quickly followed by an African Walking catfish (Clarias sp). The walking catfish did its best to slither its way back into the water, but John knew exactly how to handle this fish in a professional manner. On the topic of professionalism, the way in which the fish were handled by John and the owner of the pond is first class. They know the importance of handling these fish in a professional manner, ensuring that the fish are not harmed and returned to the water in the best possible condition. Something that I am told other ponds do not do very well, and is subsequently why the catch rates in many ponds around Thailand is less than desirable at times.

Clayton then hooked into something, something big! This fish took him straight for structure, in the way of a bridge that went over a narrow area of the pond, we immediately called this fish for a RTC and it was. The biggest for the day and an absolute horse of a fish, a few photos a couple fist pumps and we were back to work. While at this point, I was happy that we had caught some great fish of those monstrous proportions I had talked about earlier. One thing was still missing, an Arapaima.  Which I was a little taken by as over the course of the morning I had seen a countless amount come up for air, but alas, we were still yet to land one between us. So we moved to an area of the pond that was known for deeper water to increase our chances of catching one of these truly majestic creatures. 10 minutes after a spot change and Clayton was in, we could immediately see that this was something else to what we had previously caught. A very spirited battle that had Clayton retrieving and losing line for 10 minutes and we finally saw its big golden back emerge from the water, what a fish! At an estimated 65kg, this fish was expertly put into a sling by the pond owner and hoisted onto dry land. We were both speechless, the size and even more than that just the physical image of the fish that was immediately burnt into my brain. Beautiful isn’t the word, this fish was awe inspiring, and perhaps the most beautiful animal I had ever seen. The Arapaima monkey had been lifted from Clayton’s back. As an angler, fishing with a mate you are always happy for a mate to catch a good fish, but it can make you nervous, and I was. Would I catch my dream fish on this trip? Did one of these majestic fish have my name on it? I didn’t know and it was scary. Next cast for me and I was on again, it was a good fish, but I knew in my heart it wasn’t the majestic Arapaima, and it wasn’t. The fish that surfaced was golden in colour, but it was another catfish. A species I had kept in the past at home in Perth; Wallago leeri.

John quickly told me how lucky I was to have caught this fish, as it was a rare catch, I didn’t appreciate it at the time as I was now completely obsessed by catching my prized fish. John was doing his best to put me onto an Arapaima, teaching me every secret in the book. Another dozen or so casts, and more doubt was creeping into my mind all while still being hopeful. Next cast and BANG, my line peels off at a million miles an hour. I retrieved line, I lost line, the fish swam up the bank near some trees, I followed it, and my heart was now in my throat choking me. Finally we saw the fish, a moment I will never forget. One problem though, the owner of the pond was about 10 minutes away, so the fish couldn’t be put in a sling and brought onto dry land until he arrived. The next 10 minutes felt like an eternity, luckily John expertly placed the fish’s prehistoric head in a net and kept it calm. Finally the fish was landed, on dry land this thing was a beast; part dinosaur, part crocodile with some fish thrown into the mix. One of the happiest moments of my life, I felt like a lot of my angling and in particular fish keeping life had directed me to this point. I had done it. An estimated 75kg Arapaima had my name painted onto its side in beautiful gold’s and reds. I had seen many images of anglers taking photos of Arapaima in the water holding their prized catch, so when John suggested we did the same, I had my shirt off faster than a male stripper at a hens night!

We then moved to another shallower area of the pond to target more catfish as we had our Arapaima and the pond owner didn’t want us putting anymore through the stress of capture, completely understandable.  So we moved and instantly we had a double hook up of Arapaima! I will save you the details, but both Clayton and I both landed another dream fish. After trying all day for one we had decided to purposely not target them and we caught another two, but hey that’s fishing! And I’ll take it. What a day, I had caught every fish I had dreamed I’d catch in the predator pond plus a few more. What a start!

Day 2 – Wild Toman

We were up at 3am next morning to head to our first location for wild snakehead fishing. This was not the season for snakehead fishing, so I knew things were going to be tough. John had specifically chosen this location as our first fishing spot as the terrain was forgiving. The way that things were to work for wild fishing was there were two boats, with a Thai ‘boatman’ in each boat that would drive and maneuver us through the terrain. John would also be on a boat teaching us the specifics of Toman fishing. We were fishing with topwater lures the entire time. I started with John in the morning, and quickly learnt that the key was to get the lures as close to the vegetation as possible. No problem right? Well, not really, not in a rocky boat using lures you had never seen before. Like anything in life you quickly adapt. Mid morning I had my first wild Toman, a nice fish of 3kg.

I was over the moon, catching monstrous prehistoric fish in ponds is amazing, but hunting them off season in the wild is another experience entirely. That fish meant a lot to me, the sense of accomplishment was immense. At lunch time we stopped and met up with Clayton and the other boatman, unfortunately Clayton hadn’t landed a fish, despite countless strikes. So we swapped boats and away we went. The boatmen don’t speak any English so my afternoon was very quiet on the conversation front and on the fish front, with only a small Toman landed of about 30cm. We knocked off at 6pm and arrived back on dry land, Clayton had landed his first Toman! His face was priceless, we have done a lot of fishing together but I have never seen the expression he had on his face that night, pure elation. He had worked hard, very hard and he had his prize, well done mate.

Day 3 – Wild Toman

The night before we had gotten to our hotel at 1:30am and John had told us he would be picking us up at 3am! You have to be kidding me right? He is a hardcore angler; if that means no sleep it means no sleep. But we bargained with John and scored ourselves a nice sleep in, 4:30am! Another reasonable drive and we were at our next location. Apparently the fish are fewer but larger at this spot. I was absolutely drained, but pumped. Today I was with the boatman for the early session. I quickly noticed the terrain was much more unforgiving at this location; I put a few early casts into the vegetation.

I remembered Johns mantra from the day before which was “just keep casting”, valuable advice. A couple casts later and I was on, I was on in a big way. This Toman had reminded me of the RTC from day one, powerful and dirty, pulling me towards vegetation, then under the boat. The fish was landed and unfortunately I didn’t have John’s expert camera skills with me. Because of this, the pictures of my prized Toman were not the greatest, regardless I was happy. At lunch time I showed John the photos of my prized 5kg Toman, he was bitterly disappointed with the pictures we took of this great fish. Clayton had also landed a smaller fish that morning. A good start. The afternoon session was on and I quickly landed another nice fish of 2kg. The rest of the afternoon was made up of a few close misses, without any more fish being landed. I didn’t mind the scenery was beautiful, the company was great and I had already landed a few nice fish.

Toman fishing is hard work, lots of casts and heart breaking near misses. John’s early advice of “just keep casting” is the perfect advice. My biggest fish was caught on a bit of a dud cast into a pretty unlikely area. You need to cover all bases, the fishy looking areas and the not so fishy areas. Just keep casting!

Day 4 – Barramundi Ponds

Finally some rest, bed at 11pm the night before and up at 7:30am for a quick feed. We hit the ponds equipped with our spinning gear and a handful of poppers. The first pond we fished only resulted in a one missed strike. John was quickly onto the phone to the owner of the ponds, we were then allowed to change ponds to a “virgin” pond.

This is another massive advantage of having John with us, he knows all the owners of the ponds on a personal basis and is allowed certain privileges to him and his clients, having said that John doesn’t abuse these privileges and is very respectful to the fish and owners.  These fish had never seen a lure in their life and it showed. We landed over 30-40 fish in the 5-9kg range each all on poppers. Even when you didn’t hook a fish it was great as they would hit the poppers out of the water, the visuals were great. I won’t go into great detail about the Barra fishing as this report is lengthy enough already.  

A final note – the fishing in Thailand was everything I had dreamed of and much more. Not only did we fish hard, I think Clayton and I made a great mate in John. I truly believe that we would have had only a small fraction of the success without John. He can tell you what techniques work where and at what time and why that technique works. I learnt lessons in fishing techniques but also fishing ‘toughness’ as silly as that might sound to some. Lessons that I will take home with me and apply to fishing and also my personal life. This was a truly amazing experience that will stay with me for a lifetime. I have had the fortune of fishing in a number of countries in the last few years with many charter operators, and none come close to John. Not even close. He truly cares about your experience, an absolute champion fisherman and a top bloke, I can't say enough positive things about BKK guy, a champion amongst anglers.  Thank you.

 After 2 weeks off over Xmas and New year and the wind stuffing up my plans for fishing, fishing and more fishing. With the weekend weather looking good I was keen to say the least. A couple of phone calls later and both deckies had to work, oh well I wasn't missing out on a fish so went solo.

Got out to a couple of marks in the 40's to find the sounder light up. Dropped down a Daiwa Pirate jig while getting the bait outfit baited up. I didn't even get to bait up as the jig got hammered as soon as I flipped the bail arm over. Up came a 45cm pinkie, released on the weight probably didn't need the release weight but better safe than sorry. Dropped the jig down again and same thing happened, a little bit smaller than the first. A good start but nothing size yet. Finally got some bait on the other outfit and managed a 51cm Pinkie. 

Things went 

A bit quiet after this for quite a while. Not sure if the released fish spooked the school as they were still showing up on the sounder or whether the bite was on early in the day. Here is a sounder shot of a smaller school, the first school I came across went across the sounder screen for quite a while. Still learning with the 587 this shot has the white line on at I think about 5 or 10%.

 Sorry about the photo

quality taken on the phone. 

Seabreeze was in pretty early so made the decision to do a bit of reconnaissance out at 50m before it got worse. Found a few craypots so sounded around those for a bit and a few drifts but could only manage a couple of Sargent Bakers. Decided to call it quits at about 12:30 and started making my way home. Loving the 1kw tranny as on the way home at about 18 knots it still shows great bottom. In 39m spotted what looked like a small school of fish so throttled back and done a U turn. Went back over the ground and dropped my new favourite jig down and nailed a nice little Baldie, again not huge but still size.

So that finished the day off nicely. Catching my first legal size fish on a jig!

Thanks for reading

Chris.

Picked up this nice Pinky in 80 metres on Saturday, along with a nice eating size Dhufish, a few Breaksea Cod and a couple of reasonable Queen Snapper that we released. Great day out on Snuffs 255 Boston Whaler with JohnF. Got to say the ride in that Whaler steaming home at 24 knots in a pretty average seabreeze was awesome. Good company and a great day....thanks guys

 Cracking day out for little boats. 

Ended up with two dhus, big blackarse, baldie, 60cm flattie, fox fish, two gurnards, big red cray and an occy. 

Boom. 

The Assassin Land Based Fishing Club Monthly Lure Competition was held this morning between Yanchep Lagoon AND Two Rocks in nearly flat conditions.
11 Anglers attended but the fish were scarce , the morning Dolphin patrol probably played a part in shutting the fishing down.
Fish caught were mainly Herring with some Skippy and Wrasse thrown in.

Results were Dave (Ragbag) First Place
Matt (Falty matty) Second
Vince (Snapper) Third

Next Competition will be the monthly over nighter .Please remember to read your emails carefully :-)and to bring a camera to take photo's of you catch.

Tight Lines

Vince

First queenie on jig for me. Good fight on PE2, took me into the reef breifly as it hit the jig just off the bottom. Released to fight again.

Bait outfished jigs on the day quite easily. Thanks Snuffs and Belly for a nice day out.

 Hi,

Was wondering if anyone has heard reports on whether any mackerel are being caught at Jurien Bay?

Is it best to troll for them or to anchor up and burley?

Thanks

Andy

Probably had the best day yesterday since I've owned the boat and I'd like to thank a mate of mine Leon for taking us out there, putting us on the spots and showing us how to specialise for demersals.

We checked  the cray pots behind GI first  for 11 reds, no  jumbos like  the last couple of pulls and actually had a couple of undersize throw backs which of which I can only recall having one all season. Currently in 24 meters, the whites have well and truly moved on now.

We then punched it out through the backless swell to 40m plus with a top speed of 15kts, it seemed to take forever to get there with the pressure being on Leon for us to get results. It was one of those times I was thankful for having a glass boat.

Finally arrived and I have to admit, the country looked good! Sea anchor out, rigged up (just used squid all day) with the first drift picking up a Dhuie, second drift a Baldy, 3rd another Dhuie.

Sorry I have no sizes or weights but hopefully the pics will help.

End result for 3 of us was

2 x Dhu

1 x Baldy

1 x Queeny

2 x Nannygai

1 x Skippy

1 x Sweep

11 Crays

The release weight was working overtime with 4 oversized dhu's being returned to the water whilst we worked towards our class 1 bag limit. We all were of the opinion that the closure has helped dhu populations. Even though the majority of people stick to their bag limits I'm sure, it would also mean there are less dhufish experience the risk of not surviving the release weight ordeal, we're definitely fishing for our future.

Thanks again Leon, you not only demonstrated you know where, but just as importantly know how.

In closing I'd like to say fishing in company far outweighs fishing alone any day of the week. We aren't big drinkers but in classic Aussie larrikin style had many a laugh, something you just can't do by yourself!! Cheers and thanks for reading

 Thursday 16th January

7 x Herring.

2inch gulp nuclear chicken soft plastic with braid.

"Caught and Release" an undersized 27cm tailor and small flatty.

been catching and releasing undersized tailor atm..... where can i catch legal size.... bah humbug.

 Hit the water at Woodman P oint at 4.33 this morning, headed out to the fourties , first drop a kilo plus KGW, followed quickly thereafter by a speccy blakbum, then another, then a 15kg dhufish that literally straightened a pair of size 2 whiting hooks snoozed with skinned occy, a good gaff shot by my mate secured it and could not believe when I saw the hooks that it stayed on, light clutch and soft rod obviously did it's job, then a baldie to finish off the bag, another speccy blakarse released with a weight.

moved inshore into 35 metres and first drop two stonker KG W ........Back to ramp by 10 

more full moons please

 Hi Guys,

Gonna head down to HBH this evening to have a flick around with some lures. My question is, am i wasting my time? Everytime i seem to head out i come back empty handed. Granted i am new to perth and the fishing scene but i never seem to catch anything. I have tried bait, lures, soft plastics, 3 gang hooks, small long shank hooks - No matter what type of fish i seem to target i allways strike out!! I was recently told the moon plays a big part in the fishing - with that in mind i headed down to club Capricorn Thursday night. Conditions seemed perfect but yet again no fish to show for my enthuasism. Can some body please tell me where i am going wrong , i have just about tried everything - early mornings, late nights ect..... Ideally i would like to chase some Whiting, Herring , Tailor just for abit of sport. 

Any info passed on would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks in advance,

Ryan

 what lure do u think is the best to catch bream on??????

 hey guys,

has any one been catching bream lately???

Went on holiday to Kalbarri over the Xmas break for 9 days and decided to take the boat up and face Kalbarris windy conditions to see if we could catch some fish. When we got there it must have been blowing 35knots and with the cyclone coming down we didn't hold much hope of doing anything other than crabbing in the river. Luckily as is with Kalbarri, the mornings aren't too bad. There's this window of opportunity that lasts about 2 - 5 hours if your lucky so we got to head out 6 of the days we were there.

First day we landed a 65cm snapper, 70cm rankin, 51cm dhui and a cobia.

The following day we headed out and it was horrible, talk about getting smashed though the boat handled it pretty well. We did a few drifts before it was too windy and ended up with a small mulloway and a 62cm snapper. We decided to troll back to the mouth and just before we headed in we spotted some dolphins so decided to do a troll pas them. My rod buckled over and the line went screaming off, I looked at the line and it was in the centre of the dolphin pod so I figured I had jagged one of them. Luckily it was a nice Longtail Tuna and with some great driving in some crappy conditions we had got it aboard.

Next day was a waste of time, went out and checked the pots, and came back in for some crabbing - Bugger all crabs by the way, caught one legal muddy.

New day, new hopes. We decided to head just North of the sand patch to look for some new ground. We found some but couldn't stop any of the fish that were hitting us in 14m of water. Wind started to increase so we decided to troll back. Quarter of the way back and my mates rod went off and he got a nice Cobia.

I had marked a bit of a lump whilst trolling back in a couple days earlier and decided to check it out (yes I know it shows the GPS location - merry Christmas). When we got to the spot this thing was covered in fish so we sent down some soft plastics and my mate got smashed. We had to up everthing and give chase.

After a nice fight, up comes another nice longtail tuna.

Back we went to fishing this spot but my soft plastics kept getting a beating so I decided to send down a jig. It got nailed! I think we chased this thing for 2kms before getting it on board.

The next day we headed back to our lump, the great thing about this spot is it held bait fish so every day we had live baits which is a killer bait indeed. We did quite a bit of drifting with live baits and boy did they get smashed, most of which we couldn't stop or they were the boys in grey and bit us off. Caught a nice 64cm rock cod on a live slimey which was a pleasant addition to the freezer. Other than this and another snapper, not much caught.

Following day back to our live bait spot (now your live bait spot :-)). After filling our live bait tank we decided to head to the 14m mark just north of the sand patch again and see if we could stop whatever it was that was bricking us a couple days earlier. We got smashed again and lost a lot of fish until I got this up which seemed like the smallest of whatever was down there. I thought we may have been toying with some large GT's but I didn't think they were this far down but the next day another boat we were up there with landed a nice 16kg one so there you go.

All up it was an enjoyable fishing trip which would have been even better if the wind had pissed off so we could have had more time out on the water.

If anyone goes to 'The spot', let me know how you go :-)

 started bout 1 on friday arvo havin a troll for tailor in the river after bout 2 hours we had about 8 rangin from just size to 1 at 42 cm kept a few live and few on ice then we decided to brave the south wester and go to rotto took us about  45mins to get there.

We had a couple of balloons out in the hope of a sunset macky or tuna  til some not so good skipper run over me mates balloon line and cut it, it was only 60m out we werent in a main traffic area or any think he did have the whole ocean but any way, he cut it off.

what happens next you wont belive we pulled anchor went to get old mates rig/ ballon took us bout 5 minutes to get there i lean over the side and off the bloody balloon goes at about a million miles an hour against the wind  snaps the balloon trace and goodby cheers to that skipper i recon you lost us our first metro mack for the year

 up at sunrise for a troll behind rotto no mor than 10 minute driven birds bust ups everywear bout half hour later i got the first run to chrissen my tyrinos 30 with 15kg and my first shark macky stoked! this was followed by joe reefs stripey tuna then 2 lost fish called for tuna joe reef picked up another shark mac and i got a rat king on the biggest lure out there angry little bugger 

we then had a spin at the kings only managed a few rats on halco twisty and sticks but after gettin a couple they were very hard to tempt with anythink smart fish cause i love kingfish curry and didnt manage one size king

the other photos of a 12 ft bronzie on a trip a few weeks back we werent havin any luck tried 4 or 5 spots at the first 4 nothink, then got a hookup sharked, right get the harness we said drop down a bait bang were on, we took turns for an hour til we got him up after a few picks we poped the hook give him a quick pat and on his way what an amazin creature. he was very calm at boat side and left us in abslout ore at his power check out how much water he can move with that tail in one of the pics est 300kg we werent expecting that big

main lures we were gettin fish on were chrissy trees and pakula micro uzis for tailor, tuna and macs

halco twisty,norcraft inzuma and zip bait sticks for kings 

 Been having a cracking time trolling for tailor in the eustury this summer biggest fish landed 51 cm 

 Hi lads Just got back from my first time fishing inkalbarri in a couple of trips so decided to post my first report! not sure if Im ploading the images right so bare with me if im not! So to start off with ive just got into saltwater/estuary fishing in the last year and a bit. I lived in south africa for the first 13 out of 20 years of my life and grew up carp and catfishing so all this is new to me! ive picked up on all the techniques and that so im fairly clued up! Before this trip my pb tailor was 40cm and thats about the best thing ive caught apart from a ray and an occy. 

before i start id like to thank Oceanside Tackle for their generous advice of lures spots etc as well as Callum24 and Tangles for the advice they gave! Sorry i couldnt get a hold of ya for a fish Tangles but ill be back up there soon forsure and definately go for a fish then!

So the Family arrived in Kalbarri on the saturday after spending 3 days in Dongara with howling winds all day and night! First session was on sunday morning early. Went to chinamens about 6 little swell almost no wind at all! rigged up the new Stradic 5k Fwa 9ft combo with a roosta 135 (which ended up being the go to lure). it started off slow with only 1 hit all morning and nothing else. had the spot to myself all morning! Bit dissapoited with the first session spent the rest of the day at the pool recovering after the long drive. later that evening went to the beach out frnt of the resort we stayed at near the refuelling jetty to trhow some placcies around for bream or whatever else lurks around and dad hooked something on a 3inch zman shrimpz that was almost unstoppable snapping the 8lb leader after about a 30  second non stop run on near locked drag! any ideas as to what it coulda been? i called it for a soapy. uneventful first day!

monday was spent doing more touristy things with the family around town and doing all the shopping for the week. stopped by the tackle shop for some advice and to get bait gangs etc... that evening hit up chinamens again with a bt more wind and the tide running high it was hard to fish so left after a short while!

Tuesday was predicted to e calm winds in the mrning so decided to rent one of the dinghys and head up the river for some bream and hopefully a jack! left early and got to a decent spot to set up camp for the day

first cast resulted in a 27cm bream on a prawn for dad and second cast pulled up a 31cm bream! 

Bit jealous of the bait working i was about to switch from the placcies to prawn when i snatched this little estuary cod out of his ledge n the 2.5 zman grubz in motor oil! estuary cod was one of my target species alongside mangrove jack so i was stoked!

After landing the cod i decidied to stick with the placcies as the bait wasnot really working anymore. i was rewarded when i bounced the grubz over a big ledge and got wacked by something a bit bigger. it took my straight back under the ledge, gave hi some slack and he came out. as soon as i flicked the bail arm back he broke the surface and all i could see was a big flash of red/maroon and before i could blink he went straight back in the ledge and snapped me off! easily the most depressing moment of my fishing career! my biggest target of the trip within reach but missed! with a sulky mood the only other fish caught was a little grunter

with that we went home for the day and a nice pub lunch and hit up the pool for the rest of the day.

wednesday was univentful with the parents not wanting to do anything so we decided that id fish the beach near the jetty again that night. armed with a bag of prawns and a bag on sanmer we went down not really expecting much but using as more of a fun session. after dark mom and sister went home and me and dad stayed for a bit. got a couple hits and a nice run on the big rod but no connections apart from crab claws to the toes!

With the fishing so slow i decided id ht chinamans again early on thursday and realy fish it hard for as long as i can! it started off badly with me waking up late! not happy i set off alongside dad who went to play golf. got there to a gusty wind and a low tide. first cast, snagged. got cut off and lost a lot of braid so the day really started of bad! i packed up and on the way out stopped to take a pic of the area when an old lady walked past with her dog. she said goodluck to me and with those words ringing in my head i decided to re rig and stay for a bit longer! and that was the best decision i made all trip! After a couple of casts i was on! adrenalin started flowing and i knew something was gunna happen this morning! i dropped him but the very next cast i was on again! the williamson jet popper 5inch was attached to easily my biggest tailor! dragged him up on the rocks gave him a measure and he ended up going 67cm

i was stoked! new pb with the first fish! Bled and on ice straight away and back into it! couple casts later on again! but lost him at my feet and watched him swim away with my jet popper! quick call to dad asking him to pick up a couple more roostas and back into it! for a while there was nothing on the clone stickbait switched to a richter and bam! second cast on again! pulled in a 63cm model which ended up being the smallest out of the 5 tailor i caught for the trip! put him on ice and when i turned around there were mullet jumping everywhere! the richter was being followed by 5 or 6 huge tailor greyhounding over eachother trying to get it! it was the most insane thing ive ever seen! they were almost beaching themselves trying to cathc mullet and the richter! this went on for about 35 minutes! only 2 more hookups dropped none landed but every cast they were tearing through the water chasing the lure and pullng out just before hitting it!

after this dad rocked up with the roostas. switched to a redhead and a couple of casts later pulled in another 67cm. bit thinner but still a nice size! let him go and kept going. after that one it went quiet for another hour or so and thats when dad had enough. i said last cast and we bail. i watched the popper hit the water and a couple turns of the handle i i felt a strng pull. i was fishing near locked drag as they were pulling so close to the rocks. i thought i was snagged but when i pulled up to see i felt something pull drag and thats when i saw it. a big slab of silver green leapt about a metre out of th water! it was massive! i looked around to dad, he had an awestruck look, i looked back as it took another jump and had the same look! with the big hunk of tailor pulling drag and trying its hardest to get me around every rock he sw i managed to wash him up the platform i was on and started to slowly wash him to the beach! with one leg vanishing in a reef hole and nearly falling over multiple times i handed dad the rod and grabbed the tail. with a big yell i lifter out a monster tailor! gave him a measure went 83cm! obvioslu not the biggest ever caught but at almost double my metro pb it felt huge! it weighed at least 7 kg fat as belly filled with mullet! 

after some surgery to remove the trebles which were stuck one in the throat and one inder the gill plate i tried to swim him for about 15 minutes to no avail we decided to keep him, and with two already kept for a feed, he was planned as bait. such a pity not letting such a monster go but i guess it the luck of the draw! after that we headed back to the resort and went to the fillet station down the at the refuelling jetty to filler up the catch!

we shallow fried the fillets in a salt and pepper coating and i have to say it was by far the best fish i have ever eaten! not sure if its because i cought it, because it was so fresh or just becuase it took so much effort for the reward!

Friday was spent at the pool again witht he fam and at the beach for a fish that night. same story couple big hits a few small runs but nothing apart from crabs! saturday was the last day and we packed up to leave about 9am. i decided to go for a last sesion at chinamans before we left. picked up the last tailor for the trip at 70cm 

Packed up and left what can only be described as paradise behind! no worries ill be back soon! again id like to thank all the people who gave me any type of advice as it was all helpful! next time hope to explore more spots!

sorry for the long report and the pretty average pics! all were taken on iphone so cant expect much! 

Thanks for reading guys!

Hi All,

After noticing a few crabs being caught I thought it would be time to give it a crack.
Started off Friday evening we headed down the swan to throw a few nets off the banks into the deeper parts of the river. After a couple of hours without any luck I called it quits and went for a drive to a few popular jetties. Not a heap of crabs around but a few had 8-10 crabs but had put in a few hours for them.

Not to be put down, after a scorcher day on Saturday, that arvo we packed up the car and headed Mandurah way. I was really keen on at least a taste. Pulled up on the banks and went straight in. Walked for around an hour and a half only to get 2 sized crabs. Grabbed a coldie and waited for darkness. Once dark out with the torch and an hour later we managed to get another 17. The size wasn't massive with most 2-5mm oversize and a few around the 10mm over.
Sunday night dinner was crabs with chips on the side, nice way to end a hot weekend.

Cheers.

Another fishing tales for Marcus when he return back to malaysia .

This is Marcus very first time fishing freshwater fishes in Thailand.

For a person who has never fish a mekong catfish nor a snakehead before in his life.

I think he done a pretty good job for his 2 days fishing adventure with us.

He has broken his personal best record for both mekong catfish and snakehead.

A whoppy giant almost 80KG mekong catfish.

As for snakehead fishing in the wild, he beaten the odd and landed himself a pretty nice size almost 5KG giant snakhead. Well done for his very first attempt in the wild with us in Thailand.

Fishing in the wild for snakehead can be rather challenging for those newbie anglers.

As a IGFA WR for snakehead holder 2013, I'm more than delighted to share my own experience to all coming anglers.

Enjoys the exciting fighting scene for the 2 days trip in this youtube clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9h5l_sKYqA

Upgrading and keep improving our service, that the way to go in order to stay ahead of others.

We have invested in 2 brand new limousine to cater for our anglers.

Brand new Toyota fortuner SUV and a MPV Innova transports for comfort and easy long distant ride.

Highlights catches of the trip.

A whoppy size almost 80KG giant mekong catfish landed by Marcus.

Look at the gigantic head of the mekong.

A pretty nice 5KG giant snakehead (toman)in the wild.

Myself also landed another nice size toman on combat crank lure.

Went out on charter this AM targeting pinkies.

Was very windy at the dock, and I was worried we'd have to 'pull the plug'.

Anyhow, we headed off and experienced an awesome snapper bite, bagging out in around an hour;

www.shikari.com.au

Can't wait to do it again!

 Went for a quick marron this afternoon, caught a few average size and a couple of good ones.

Pic of the two bigger ones next to a two litre juice bottle.

Marron season 2014 started 8th Jan (Wednesday) at 12noon and both Blake and Ryan got into them. Ryan went to Harvey Dam with good mate Scott (Soupster) and they bagged out (first pic)

Blake and good mate Dan went to the Murray River and got into some descent marron also, the biggest going 120mm carapace (second pic)

Marron season runs until 5th Feb 12noon 2014

Caught this from our boat 20m of water 14.4kgs it has been an amazing time for us these holidays on the water, have caught 3 different species that we have not caught before, and only a few klicks out frome the shorline. Back to work on monday was gonna try and go sunday, but the weather has changed as sunday was looking good but not that flash now, still might sneak out for a couple of hours anyway in the morning.

I always thought my trips were pretty epic...but whenever I come on this forum, I feel less than worthy all the time...how do I even compare with Vanautu???

I tried to be brief this time since there were 19 days to write about. Most of the pictures taken were of new species caught. I added 30 new species on this trip to bring the total number of new species added in 2013 up to 103 species. I would say I've probably easily caught 50+ species of fish on this trip. Fishing in Florida is pretty insane!

Just to tease you a little...

...and also this...

Check it out on my blog...all the juicy details are there!

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2013/12/florida-road-trip-2013-day-1.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2013/12/florida-road-trip-2013-day-2.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2013/12/florida-road-trip-2013-day-3.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2014/01/florida-road-trip-2013-day-4.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2013/12/florida-road-trip-2013-day-5.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2013/12/florida-road-trip-2013-day-6.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2013/12/florida-road-trip-2013-day-7.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2013/12/florida-road-trip-2013-day-8.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2013/12/florida-road-trip-2013-day-9.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2013/12/florida-road-trip-2013-day-10.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2013/12/florida-road-trip-2013-day-11.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2013/12/florida-road-trip-2013-day-14.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2013/12/florida-road-trip-2013-day-15.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2013/12/florida-road-trip-2013-day-16.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2013/12/florida-road-trip-2013-day-17.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2013/12/florida-road-trip-2013-day-18.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2013/12/florida-road-trip-2013-day-19.html

Thanks for reading!

there was a bit of swell yesterday at rocky point and all the young fish retreated to a little hidaway in the rocks where we were catching quite a few young mulloway ranging from 100mm to 250mm. spotted a few herring but they wernt going for the prawns just having a look then swimming off.

Back in December myself, Tim (aka Tim VB), John (aka JoRn) and Dale (aka Wydra) did a lodge based trip with Ocean Blue in Vanuatu.

Shortly before the trip I found out I'd be moving to London immediately after the trip was over and so this was to be my farewell trip, so was certainly more than ready for a few casts!

The trip which we booked was 6 days based out of the Trees and Fishes lodge. In contrast to my Eiao trip 6 weeks prior, this trip was certainly far more luxurious - fishing off the excellent 32ft Edgewater and returning home each night to 3 course meals and more Tusker (beer) wine and spirits than you could poke a stick at.

As with many people fishing this trip, our target was doggies and GTs. We didnt get large numbers of either, but the fish were present and we certainly missed more chances than we converted with at least a couple of very serious dogtooth being lost (including one that absolutely took me to school on a Carpenter Monster Hunter 80H, Stella 18K and PE10).

Between us we landed 8-10 doggies and a similar number of GTs (including a good one for Dale on popper) as well as red bass, coral trout, jobfish, yellowfin, reefies and more Whalers than ideal - including one which won Tim the much coveted title of 'Whaler Master 2013' - a title which he's told me he hopes to vigorously defend in Oman later this year.

The trip was now over a month ago and my memory is a little hazy (probably in no small part due to the surplus of Tusker cartons that we brought on our first day) but some highlights for me included:

1. the couple of brief windows when the doggies were really 'on', which usually resulted in multiple simultaneous hookups followed by multiple simultaneous bust offs;
2. taking out the combined whisky drinking and night time kayak fishing challenge, by landing some mysterious emperor looking thing in around 50m of water on a kayak with no torch one night (not recommended);
3. a couple of great sessions catching rat Yellowfin tuna on PE3 casting gear, including where a big Sailfish swam up to the boat, was hooked by the skipper on John's popping gear and then won its freedom; and
4. the look of pain on Tim's face when the leader slipped out of the deckie's hand while still attached to the massive whaler he'd just battled up from 140m of water, which then proceeded to saunter back to the bottom under full drag - much to the delight of all aboard (other than Tim).

I'll let the pics do the rest of the talking - but all in all it was a fun, professionally run trip with a great skipper, excellent boat and fantastic facilities and I'd certainly consider one of the Ocean Blue liveaboard trips in the future.

Dan

 I've had family over from NSW since Boxing Day and fair dinkum hasn't the weather been average for playing offshore tour guide?! As you would have it the weather came good on the day they were due to go home so we pushed their flight back and I threw a sickie to get out on Monday. First on the agenda was to check the pots which we hadn't been able to get to for the last 6 days due to the poor weather. Touch wood I've been lucky with my pots with just a float being chopped (easily found as rope was dog boned) and what I think what was a diver raid as 2 days prior we bagged out with all pots having crays then after a 2 day soak with the following pull resulting in many an empty pot. All of them are in the one area with no sign of relocation, one pot had the gate pulled wide open and bait lid wide open as well. There were divers on the lump so it's my best hypothesis. Anyhow we pulled 11 crays by 8:30am of which 3 were jumbos. This was a PB as we've only managed 1 jumbo max a haul. It appears the whites have moved on now but feel I've had my fill and will probably pull the pots out in the next fortnight before my luck runs out.

The tourists were keen to see Rotto so over we went in favourable seas to parakeet bay where they got some snorkeling and swimming in as well as a nice "expensive" lunch in Geordie Bay. The kids wanted to go on the inflatable water park in South Thompson so we ducked around and dropped them and the girls off and the brother in law and I headed back around off the Basin to burley up. Within minutes we had Skippy in the burley and had a blast on light gear  floating slightly weighted mulies. We had half a dozen and wanted to get to 8 before 4pm before heading home. We had a 3kg and a 4kg outfit floating. I picked up skippy #7 on 4kg and the 6'6" brother inlaw had his bait taken right on the buzzer and was into an tough fight on 3kg. 10 mins later we had a 45cm breaksea on board.

What a great day, I was able to get the tour guide thing out of the way and managed to get a few days feed for all of us as well.  We were home in time to eat the blackarse and some skippy along with crays in a carbonara style dish my sister whipped up.

After reading a previous post I purchased a vac sealer from Oceanside and would have to say seeing that Skippy isn't the best fish to freeze, vac sealing takes the pressure off having to eat them so fast. I'm able to get a couple of extra days which gives you something to look forward to through the week.

Thanks for listening and to my boss thanks for understanding :)