took a extra day off and shot up near kalbarri to chase a mulloway or 2 we fished 60 hours with a bait in the hole consantly taken turns of snoozin and fishin friday night was wobbygong night must have landed bout 20 we were rewarded with a mulla on saterday arvo bout 4 and then sunday i was woken up with me mate tapin on the window with a 76cm pinkie and a mulla simlar size to mine the tailor were also on the chew most around45-55cm slabed up to quick for a photo with a couple big mullas lost in the shorey (big swell) and unstopables every day even on 80lb braid. skippy slabs and fresh tailor done the damage and the 55g halco twisty 

when the weather went bad went up the murchisen and got heaps of bream 25-35cm and heaps of baby mullas 25-35cm also smoked on the bream gear by a few bigger models the odd tailor was caught and after an explore with the torches theres penty of bait aroun prawns garfish mullet an amazingly heathy river

156 cans of piss later we were on our way home lookin forward to a wash and a feed of fish the followin day went to chop them up after wok on my last fillet to take off a slip and 10 stitches later cut tenends the whole bit i was off to hostpital and out of action for 2weeks what a bloody turkey i've been choppin these buggers up for 12 years    

 Wednesday was a slow day but I managed to boat this samson. My biggest so far. We didnt get a measurement as I wanted to return him as soon as possible. Caught him in the 40 s off ocean reef. 

 Has anyone fished the cut recently? Will probably be staying in mandurah for a few days next week, keen for a fish!

I went down to Harvey on Tuesday morning for a quick fish to find the water level very high. Most of the spots i fish were not accessible any more with the roads leading straight into the water .

I didnt catch any fish and only saw a few rises all morning. But i thought i would get a couple pictures to show the water level around the dam.

Nearly every road i turned down ended up looking like this.

The water looked realy good but i think it is still too cold and there are no insects hatching or flying around yet. If we get a few warm days in a row the trout should start to feed on the surface.

Here is the boat ramp with the water getting very close to the top .

Altho its high , going by the dam wall there is still a bit of room left to fill right up . And the water is rising quite fast with all the streams running well.

Now i thought i would show an area i fish alot, and then add some photo,s from a few years ago when the water was very low. In this photo i am looking across towards the road i come in on when i fish over there.

Here is a zoomed in look from the same spot. Note the road leading in towards the water.

Here is a picture of the same spot, from the same angle that i took a few years ago when the water was very low.

What i hope it shows, is there is alot of unseen structure around the dam. But some areas a very plain in contrast to this location. I fished here a for a few years and had no idea there was a road running right through the spot that kept producing fish.

In the next picture i have panned to the left looking at the causeway. The white rocks are a great platform to to stand on and fly fish when the water is just over them .

And here i have gone over to the other side looking back at were i parked .

Now the water is right up into the tree line and you cant drive into that whole area.

So if you are thinking about goint to Harvey for a fish, you might want to take a dinghy or cannoe. Otherwise you will be limited to a few spots like the boat ramp, or you can walk along the causeway,s . I cant wait for it to get a bit warmer and the water to start dropping. I find every year the conditions change alot, and its worth doing some recon trips at different times of the year to scout out stucture that might hold fish.

Cheers Grant ..

any one got any reports from busso way of the beach jetty or boat cheers

Hey all.

Travelled to a mates place in Lancelin to watch the GF. Had e aquick session off the beach on sundown Saturday evening for one good fish, 44cm. Another hooked up but lost. My mate landed the fish, we perhaps could have done better but as we had a few bevvies during the game we forgot to take a torch :( Still, was filleted and eaten within an hour, very tasty.

Next morning we took the tinny out with the kids for a quick troll, 2 landed and one lost boatside, all in 10 minutes. Swell was crazy.

Photo (if it works) shows the two from the boat, slightly under the 44cm from the day before, but much fatter!

Cheers,

BD.

Stayed up in Green head over the long weekend, but due to the swell the ramp didnt look too friendly and a lot of sand and weed so fairly shallow.

Ended up heading back to Jurien and heading out from there.

As most probably know, the weather wasnt the best, but we did get out Saturday and Sunday. Saturday had little wind in the morning but a fair amoount of swell. Sunday had a little more wind and big swell, biggest i have been out in! Sounder was showing over 5m variances frrom top to bottom of the waves. Ended up with an engine issue on Sunday so the day got cut a little short as i could only put around as one engine wouldnt go above 3k revs without the engine oil light coming on...likely a sensor.

Anyway Saturday was the best of the day, being my first trip out of JB, i didnt have any ground so just winged it in some locations. 2nd drift resulted in the best fish of the trip, a 11-12 kilo Dhu for Laurie...not bad for your first ever dhu fish.

Managed a few more fish, a reasonable pinky, couple BB's and another dhu, but did end up landing 9 dhus for the day. Pinky was a good story, one mate carl snagged the bottom and snapped the line close to the tip of his rod. Next drift he hooks up and starts the wind up with a fish on. As he gets closer to the top we couldnt see any fish, and he was actually tangled with his old rig. Being a little pissed off he starts to untangle and the says 'i think theres a fish on my old rig!' and he brings his old rig with like a hand line and sure enough there is a pinky on it! All ass that was!

Sunday was a different story, with engine issues our day was cut short, but did end up with another BB and a good baldie. It was pretty swelly out wide.

Ended up Sunday arvo having a round of 9 holes at Green head golf course...that was an experience, sand greens and weed fairways!

All in all, not too bad for the weather we had, will definitely be up there again for another crack!

Had the opportunity to get a fish in before the ban Friday night. I have recently done alright at a particular spot with my brother (Rocktron on here) and as a result of that my old man has been extremely jealous, especially given his gross incompetence and inability to get a snapper in the metro area for the past couple of decades.

So, after messing with my old man as to where our secret spot was we headed out to some new ground pretty close to where we wanted to be at sun down. We tried for a while for nothing despite fish on the sounder. We told him it was the spot, then that it wasn't the spot, then we told him to get his rain coat on as he was going to get wet getting to the spot, then to drop his line because we were on the spot etc etc, was good fun actually.

Eventually we got to the spot but didn't tell him it was the one. We have done well there on baits and my brother and I thought we would have a crack at the soft plastics. Can't remember if it was the first or second cast but rocktron (Tim) hooked up. Soon after, ie just after I had netted and as he was unhooking his 75cm pinkie, I hooked up on a plastic as well. Not long after that the old man was on to his first metro pinkie. He called it for a metre but is full of shit and it eventually came over the side at a slightly less than a metre 65cm. I had left my plastic on the bottom to net the old mans fish, and we agreed to move to try and find another spot given we had a fish each. When winding in I "accidentally" hooked into and landed another. So we decided to move and take a few photos of the four landed on the way to try another spot a bit closer in to shore.

So tried another spot and had plenty of fish on the sounder but no joy again. Tried for another hour or so but no luck. Eventually decided to head back to secret spot after constant pestering from old man and brother...

Long story short, got another one on bait for the old man, one for the brother on plastic in the pitch black, and another for me (released) on bait again pulling in after agreeing that we were done. 

At the end of the day we ended up with seven between about 65 and 75. Rocktron claims to have caught the biggest two but I remember it differently. We got two on seven inch gulps, two on five inch z-mans, two on squid and one on a scalie. Pretty random. At this spot where we got them all we would have fished for less than half an hour. Unfortunately we have still only caught fish at the one spot but we will keep looking for new ground after the ban. So that takes this spot to a grand total of 11 fish from 3 visits, and every other spot to a grand total of zero...

Photo of Dad quickly grabbing the bigger fish which was caught by his son.

Great photo taken by the old man. Ironically he used to be a professional photographer

Dad showing how to balance in a small boat. Its important to keep your feet as close together as possible and preferably wedged into the side of the tinny so there is no opportunity to try and save yourself when you fall. Luckily the bait board saved him and more importantly that he didn't lose the fish

Shot of me, apologies for reflective pants

The final haul. Half the fish are already eaten and the remainder are safely in the freezer to be consumed over the coming weeks/months.

.

Hey guys caught a few good bream today and one pig middle swan.cheers BRG

 Just wondering if anyone has tried or had any luck to report for metro tailor at the moment especially with lures,not looking for spots just if there on the chew at the moment or not and how's the weed situation cheers guys,

dan

Hi, full report to follow later. 83.5cm Saddletail Seaperch (Large Mouth Nannygai), have submitted to the record holders page although I haven't hit the 50 posts yet.

Report later as I'm stuffed sorry! Few more rumbos then sleep! My PB is 86cm from memory, so almost a new PB.

6.8kg cleaned, so no monster but not a bad fish. I give this about two weeks before Bunny smashes it! He's caught a lot better, just hasn't got the measured photos (that I know of).

Cheers,

Nick.

 Thought I would give the sound a bash giving it is nearing the end of the snapper season, launched solo as a mate let me down at the last minute and avoided the crowd around the D9 and instead headed north of Woodmans seeking to fish the narrower northern channel edge.

First problem - the 8120 wouldnt find a gps signal - hmmmm that is a new one - so without a gps relied on the sounder and channel markers to find a spot, very clearly there was a fair swell running as it was actually breaking on the very edge of the channel in the 4 metre stuff this side of Carnac so headed north of that arriving at only a little after midday

Dropped a burley bucket (more on that later) and choped a whole block of mulies for progressive burleying

Being my usual stupid self fished with three rods, skippy fillet and mulie on two and unweighted mulie or scalie on the third, never expected much interest this early so settled back with a coffee and roll for lunch, murphies prevailed and two rods went off on bait runner pealing line of both at a rapid rate - picked up the first set and put pressure on - hmm clearly not a ray as I could feel distinct tail beats of a strong fish and was continuing to loose line - as I was well clear of obstructions I reset the first in the holder and picked up the second and engaged the reel, uhoh another fish but with the distictive feel of a good snapper - - I'll go for this one ! good fight later the inevitable happens, the snapper (i'de seen it clearly before it saw the boat and bolted for a seond good run cross lines (braid)  with the other rod with the fish on which was tight and still taking line. Tried my best to untangle the mackrame ? that had somehow formed but to no avail and the snapper line was now knoted and wasn't moving either way.  Picked up the other rod and afer a few munites had a madly rolling 1.8 metre gummy at the boat along with an even more tangled snapper with both visible. But the inevitable happened, the snapper took one last run and the mess of tangled braid gave out leaving me with the gummy (I would have preferred it the other way around) Landed the gummy happy with the feed it would provide but disappointed at the loss.

Rest of the afternoon resulted in several rays, the loss of an even bigger gummy at the boat and the securing of a second slightly smaller that the first which will be eaten today by some kids who love "fish bites" while we eat steak ........great afternoon, only one other boat briefly joined me before moving off, weed was an absolute pain even with a faily small tidal current but you cannot complain at two nice fish.

Just before leaving and after a totally biteless half an hour boat gave a huge lunge and the burley bucket rope twanged taught before snapping loose, hmm, no more bucket on the end ...........takes a big shark to snatch a whole burley bucket and cut through cleanly a nylon rope, might think twice before leaning over the side to wash my hands at the moment.

Have a great weekend and go the dockers ! 

Since my last report where I nailed a 118 cm fish my brother has been about a dozen times. He's caught fish every trip and I reckon the total number is somewhere around 45 in those trips. Well over a dozen have been over the metre mark. Maybe even half the fish have been over the metre. The very next trip after mine I turned down the deckie spot and the guy that went caught a 129cm fish. Mick himself has caught his fair share with the biggest of 128cm form memory. Mick and Erica's son got his first metre fish a few days ago so they're all getting into the action.
Yesterday Mick got a 114 and a 118 in quick time to go with the tally for the day that already included some impressive.
They just sent me these photos of a fish Mick caught that his by far his heaviest. It went 126cm and well over 30 kilos. The other fish that were longer were not as heavy, perhaps as it was still in the cooler periods of several weeks ago.
I'll check with Ron but if he is not a member does this fish now count as the new record displacing mine since they got a tape shot? It would be good to see the record broken.
I'm hoping to get some better photos soon.

Well once again all the planning, packing and maintenance is just about done, we head off this coming Sunday for our first ever trip to the Montes, to say that we are slightly excited is an understatement..
We have 2 boats and 5 blokes along for this trip and all first timers, we plan to be over there for a week fishing and exploring...
We have decided to launch from the Fortescue River.
I would like to say thanks to the people that helped out with info and tips over the last few weeks. Cheers
Will post a report when we get back..

 Recently returned for a tip up to coral bay with the boys. Unfortunately slr charger failed halfway through the trip so not many photos but some good ones in the time we had. Idea was to get some spearing done but conditions were testing and meant we were only able to fit a few dives in. Big swell and strong winds were persistent most of the trip but we did get a few very nice days in-between. Ill keep it basic, landed 6 blacks and two sails from a few days trolling along with few hoo’s, tuna and dollies. Had one ripper morning spearing spanglies in 20m, whilst being teased by many large tuskies and baldies coming in for a look. Also had some good dives out deep all spearing mak’s ranging from 15-21kg. (sorry about image quality res had to be dropped considerably) enjoy

quick dive in close:

spearing:

out wide:

Does anyone know if Moore river/wilbinga is fishing any good lately and if so what baits would be best for some big tailor and mulloway thanx guys 

My Dream !!! My Passions !!! IGFA World Record for Giant Snakehead 2013.

My name is John aka BKKGUY as many fishing anglers know me by this nick name in FaceBook and my youtube channel.
I came from the tiny red dot Singapore. Thailand is my 2nd home , the country of smile is also home to the giant snakehead of asia. My love for snakehead fishing started 3 years ago. I was browsing through the IGFA world record book and was looking at the snakehead freshwater page. I noticed the last world record catch for this magnificent snakehead was back then in 23 aug 2005 by a Malaysia angler – Christopher S.G. Tan. The record weight was then 10KG (22 Ibs).

I know toman in the wild can grow up 20KG ( 44Ibs). I set myself a personal goal to attempt to break the IGFA world record of 10KG. In my 2 years of wild snakehead fishing, I have landed countless toman range from size 3KG to 9KG. A few occasions during my many wild toman trips, I ever landed a 10KG toman.. but that wasn’t my target. I wanted to break above the 11KG mark…then the record will be worth the efforts.

On 19th April 2013 in the far province of Northeast dam, history is rewrite and a new IGFA world record is rewrite.
I was fishing at my usual toman spot on the 19th April 2013. It was hot and the fishes are not active on my topwater buzz bait. Just then I spotted a few toman rises , popping their heads next to the fish farm. It was a dedicate cast. One wrong move my lure will land on top of the fish farm. Not only that, the minute the toman got hookup, it will definitely make a dive underneath the fish farm net. Not an easy way to fish.

With all the hazes and factors taken into consideration, I decided to lock my reel’s drag 90% tight. I was using the daiwa Ryoga 1016H then, the best BC for toman as far as I know.

As soon as the toman rises, I casted my evergreen combat crank bait 320 toward it. With slow retrieved motion then suddenly I felt a big thug. As fast as lighting, I strike the fish with all my might. I gave it 2 strong strikes then it fish on…

The fight was nothing I ever experience before. It was heavy and the snakehead keep diving down towards the fish farm. I quickly thumb and turned the fish head away from the net.
At one point, it remain stationary as if I felt like it has stuck in between the ropes. I pulled it upward for a while, it started to swim again. After a hard 3mins fights, I managed to bring the toman to the surface.

The sights of the monster toman, once floating on the water surface, made my heart beats faster than usual. It was the fattest and blackish toman I ever seen in my life..

Now the problem is to net it. I carefully instructed my boatman to slowly net the fish in. Once the fish was in the net, I know I have a record catch on my hand… It was at least a 10KG toman with it big fat belly. I took out my measuring tape and original USA boga grip. The length is 93cm, width 22 inch and weighted in 26 Ibs (11.79KG).

I know straight away I have a IGFA world record catch on my hand. After a few photo takings and measurement, I released the fish unharmed back to the water.
It will be a day I never forget. Snakehead fishing is always a big game fishing for asia anglers.
As a professional fishing guide in Thailand. Having the WR snakehead title belt under my name, it will be a great achievement for myself. I have one more extra memories bedtime story to tell to my future grandchildren… 

Rod : Major Craft – Beneyro 12-25 Ibs- 7ft rod.
Line : Variva no.4- 64Ibs braided 8 x strength
Reel: Bait cast reel Daiwa Ryoga 1016H
Lure: EverGreen Combat crank 320
Hook: Decoy hook size 1/0

IGFA world record weighted- 26 Ibs ( 11.79KG)- U.S.A Boga Grip 30 Ibs
Length of the fish- 93 cm- IGFA measuring tape.
Width- 22 inch.- IGFAmeasuring tape.
Any other supporting evident: 2 video clips- Go Pro and back view video cam.
Photos- All photos taken of the fish and measurements according to IGFA guidance.

The awesome fights !!!The full pack actions video clip !!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8NSpCaDRLw

I have the IGFA WR on my hands.
Awesome feelings !!! Top of the world feelings !!!
It is the day I never forget for the rest of my life.

26 Ibs (11.79KG)- IGFA New World Record for Giant Snakehead (Channa Micropeltes)

How bout this weather crazy, just got back from down long point boat ramp where I was parked at the ramp watching 2m chop waves smashing the jetty noticed the hull end of a small boat had washed ashore about 50m east of the jetty. Went over and saw that it was actually from a reasonable sized boat maybe a 14 odd footer hard to tell. Was Fiberglass with an enclosed hull and anchor well. Struggled to pull it up the beach with a mate and it was soon dragged back out and along the beach. Was probably just washed up from the seafloor or busted a mooring but it didnt have much growth on it hopefully not a mad storm snapper chaser hahahah

When it come to snakehead fishing in the wild, it like a big challenge for me and as well for the coming anglers.

Most of the time, newbie anglers came ot me for tips and advises on how to catch this awesome fish of asia. Snakehead can be ferocious in the way they attack the lure. Lure fishing is the best way to get them.

Anglers must have the basic fishing skills in term of casting accurate and fast... Keep focus on the baby fries when chasing after the mama toman or keep casting in between the bunches and tall brushes at the edge bank, that's where most snakehead fishes like to hide..

That's why snakehead fishing is so addictive to many game fishing anglers like myself.

From 1KG to 4KG snakehead fights is easy to fish and the fight is not so intense.

Any snakehead above 5KG to 10KG & above, the game level is totally different...The fights is awesome and pound for pound it is the strongest fish among freshwater fishes in asia. (Forget about mekong catfish, that's not fishing but simply bull strength pulls)

True facts :

"The giant snakehead or giant mudfish (Channa micropeltes) is the largest species in the family Channidae, capable of growing to over 1 m in length (3.3 ft) and a weight of over 20 kg (44 lb)."

This fishing trip consist of 3 anglers from 3 different countries. One from Singapore, one from malaysia and the one from french side.

They have 4 days of wild fishing adventure with me and I planned in such a way that we have 2 different fishing spots to fish, so my coming anglers can experience 2 different kind of feels and terrains of snakehead fishing.. (It kind of boring if we keep fishing at the same spot for days)

Enjoys my epic catch report & exciting youtube clip below :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-M5MiVgSRE

Highlight catches........

Exotic scenery and fishing grounds....

thought i would throw up a few phots from around town, been mucking around in albany for the last week or so and inbetwwen getting ready for my trip to steep next week ive been doing a bit of fishing with the brother around the place.

shark fishing at a few spots around town, few bream on lures while chasing mulloway in the river, little salmon on a live herring slid out after kingys off the rocks and bait collecting at the local jetty for up north.

Unforgettable trip for my chinese anglers from Macau.

They came to fish with me in the hope of having a good time fishing snakehead, they gone back home with a trophy catch.

A massive 9KG single toman in a distant reservoir.

To catch a trophy fish is every anglers dream.

I've fished so many years of snakehead fishing in Thailand, Ive only seen a few toman of this massive size and 1-2 snakehead above 10KG.

Big fishes are usually smarter. They don't live to this massive size for being stupid and easy to catch.

If the day is your lucky day, one may break their own PB record anytime .


Enjoy my exciting youtube clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zfNLyRE4Fw


Photo highlights.....

A massive 9KG monster catch- Weighted by IGFA certified bog grip.

 Finally got around to getting a few photos off the camera and onto the computer of our week in Shark Bay.

So headed off after work for the trek upto Francois Nat. Park. Shark Bay. Left Mandurah at 17:30 the trip up was pretty uneventful, until about 2am when we turned off the NWC Hwy and started heading towards Denham. The plan was to pull over at the first parking bay and roll out the swags for a kip, then get started again at dawn. However the first parking bay is about 30k in, by that stage we had seen a heap of roos and had one jump straight under the boat trailer putting a decent bend in the 5mm angle iron that the mudguard is welded to! Nothing major thankfully. So got a few hours sleep to recharge the batteries, then off at dawn for our week in paradise. Woohoo!!

Got camp set, then dropped the boat in the drink and sat back and cracked a few tinnies. Lifes good!!

So the rest of the week went a bit like this. Get up have some breakfast, get the kids ready and head out about 500m from the mooring and have some fun on undersize Pinkies, Black Snapper, Flag etc.even got a few spotted macks to mix it up. It's a great place to take the kids fishing as the small Pinkies are like blowies and they put up a spirited fight on  my kids bream sticks

Then we would come in have some lunch and a couple more beers. Then off with the brother in law for a Bluebone bash. Doug comes up here a fair bit and has the Bluebone sussed. We didn't get any monsters, but scored every trip. I got smoked on a good one, had my Calcutta 700te drag locked up and plenty of thumb pressure but still got smoked. Great fish to catch in less than 2m of water.

Come back in and chill out for a while then it was Pinkie time. We got out most arvos at about 4:30 till dark 

when the bigger Pinks seem to come around. Again no real big ones this year. But managed a good mixed bag most arvos, picking up nice size Estuary Cod, Black Snapper (not as big as the ones Beau posted) even scored a couple of Mulloway and Doug got a good Coral Trout. Only hooked one shark which was good.

So all in all a really good trip. Will definately be back next year and doing it all again

Cheers thanks for reading

Chris

Gday all - Im towing the boat, Mrs and kids up to coral bay in a few weeks, anybody there now?, if so how about a fishing report,  how's the weather?, please tell me the wind isnt howling yet

Cheers Dave

Gday ......

Im sure most of you would agree its a no no to take a hand held gps with you on a fishing charter(ive seen it done several times)So in saying that would you give someone new to your fishing grounds some co ordinates to head them in the right direction,local well known spots.

cheers

Aj

 went to busso jetty yesterday for a fish and after few short stops we reached the end to see two guys with 2 good size sambos 12 and 14kg shortly after another big fish was hooked  up and landed relatively quickly this one went 35+kg not long after on again another one landed 25kg it was going off 4 landed three lost. My torsa started screaming and now it was my term sunj the hooks in and hung fish was big estimated 30+kg  unfortunately I had a tourist cast over my line mid fight and tangle me up giving fish enough time to turn and take me under jetty bust off!! F**k and a few more kind words where used. Went quiet for hours then another two where landed double hook up both 25kg..  so yeah busso jetty going off the picture with two sambos where the double hook up ones. The ones in other picture where the 4 previously landed

Headed out last night (Sunday 15/09) to have what will most likely be my last shot at a pinkie before the ban. This was to be my third trip/attempt at them this year. The first trip resulted in nothing, but the second was worse when my brother got two and I got nil. So I decided to do the only logical thing and go by myself without telling my brother I was heading out.

I don't ever remember catching a legal pinkie myself in metro waters, so I wasn't overly hopeful. With the weather forecast showing that it was only going to get better I headed out from Woodies in the tinny around 5:00pm. I found some fish on the sounder, burlied up and had a crack but no joy. Although I know that you shouldn't be moving just before sunset I decided to try another spot.

Got there quickly just before sunset and sent out two lines, one with a lightly weighted squid and the other with an unweighted scalie. Hadn't even burlied up when the line with the scalie went off. I quickly got onto it, set the hooks and started the fight. All was well with the world until about ten seconds in when the other line goes off. I then made the call to grab the other line and hope that the one I already had was hooked well enough to leave on the line and put back in the rodholder.

After a great fight in relatively shallow water that seemed to take forever, I got the "second" fish into the net and went back to the other rod hoping that I was still on as it had gone a bit quiet. Thankfully he was still there. This fish was a bit more tired by now and came up a bit easier than the first although he had taken a fair bit of line whilst I was on the other fish. The net was already occupied so I pulled him in by the leader and he happened to land with his mate.

Net result was my first and second metro pinkies. They came in at 65cm and 75cm and were both hooked on sunset. I had washed the boat, filletted the fish and got back home by 8:00pm with a choc fudge McFlurry and a few kg's of fresh fish to paciify the wife. Good result. When it rains it pours...

Cheers,

Jarrid

Before I dive into the real story, I was fishing at a creek earlier in the morning. Something pretty rare happened. This immature Chinook Salmon, around 3-4lbs, CHASED!!! my roe bag while I was retrieving the line to start a new drift. The roe bag was moving, with speed and unnaturally, UPSTREAM! I've only seen this happened a couple of times over the years. This fish didn't enter the river to spawn. It sat behind the school of salmon waiting for eggs to drift by and it would feed on the loose eggs. Apparently, it really wanted my roe bag. About 10 minutes after, it found my roe bag again and the float was yanked down HARD! It fought with more energy than some of the 15-20lb spawn-ready salmon. Simply beautiful fish and full of vigor! It was so stunningly emerald and chrome (for a river salmon) I just had to share.



Anyways...now for the REAL story!

For over 15 years, I've fished the fall salmon run. In my very early days of salmon fishing, I fished in the rivers for spawning salmon. Later on, my friends showed me how to cast spoons at piers and river mouths for actively feeding fish that were staging for the spawn. Through the 10+ years of casting spoons, I've only EVER hooked one salmon long enough just to lose it, 200 yards run later, to a line break. Since then, I've only had a handful of short hits on the spoon.

In 2007, I visited British Columbia to fish for salmon. At the Skeena River, I hooked a 30lb class Chinook (King) Salmon on the spoon and fought it for over 20 minutes, only to have the net guy messed up the job and the barbless hook subsequently fell out of the mouth. The fish was so shallow that net guy could have even scooped it up with his hands...but anyways, the fish was lost. On the same trip, I was casting spoons for Coho Salmon at the Capilano River and yet again had a solid hit, a hook up but ended with the fish jumping off a few seconds later.

In 2008, I was back in British Columbia and had pink salmon and chum salmon chase spoons and had a couple of missed hits on the Kitimat River.

I've since caught salmon on the float rod and fly rod, and trolling from friends' boats, but my goal to catch a salmon while casting spoons remained to be realized.

That is...until tonight.

Last fall, my friend Richard invited me to fish from his yacht club's docks. Salmon invades the marina between September and October for 4-6 weeks. Last fall, I put in 3 evening sessions but didn't even had a bump while Richard landed four Chinook Salmon fishing beside me. Thursday evening was the first time I fished for salmon this fall. Like the three previous trips, I didn't even get a bump while Richard had a fish pulled the hook right by the dock.

I met up with Richard at 6:30pm at his slip. He treated me to dinner before we started to cast for pike for a bit. The pike were not active, so once dusk approached, we switched to glow spoons.

Here and there, we could see salmon splashing on the surface. The odd ones would jump clear out of the water, often multiple times. Seeing splashes and jumps were signs that active fish were in the area.

Richard often cast off the swim platform of his boat. Tonight, he gave me his prime spot while he cast from the dock. It must have been 8pm when I saw a swirl about 10 feet away from the boat that was docked two slips from us. I was pretty confident that fish were around.

A few casts later, I had a good hit that pulled drag on the hit. However, the hooks did not set. Another 10 casts later, I had yet again another solid hit that stayed on for two seconds before the fish let go. Sometimes, if the fish struck the spoon at certain angles, the hooks may only find the bony areas of the mouth. Only when the hooks find the corner of the mouth would landing percentage increase.

It must have been another 15 minutes later when my rod was ripped hard. The fish initially gave short spurts of acceleration only. It wasn't until a minute later that the fish decided to go on a long run. These fish knew safety was to be had by swimming back to the lake, so the fish was headed out of the marina. But with my beefy gear turned the fish before it could swim off 150 yards. A give-and-take battle then ensued until the fish was close to the swim platform.

Richard had the net ready and I led the fish toward the net. With a scoop, the fish was in the bag. As we lifted the net up, the fish somehow fell back into the water. In a moment of scramble, we didn't really know what happened. I thought perhaps the treble hook was entangled in the net and the fish had managed to unhook itself and fell back into the water. Richard then saw that the fish had tore a hole in the net, and luckily the fish was still on the line.

For a few tense moments, I was fighting the fish through the hole in the net. Luckily, I had also brought my net. With some careful maneuvering, we managed to net the fish with my net while the line was still going through Richard's net.

Sometimes a great catch needs a dose of luck.



After this, it went a little quiet for 15-20 minutes when I was hit again, only to have the fish dropped the lure again.

As the night progressed, fish seemed to have left the area. It was not until around 10pm that Richard finally hooked one! The fish hit very close to the dock. Strangely, this fish did not go on a long run, only to twist and turn by the dock a short length from the rod tip. The fight also lasted relatively short, maybe just 3-4 minutes, before I put it in the net. It was a heavy one, a fish that needed Richard's extra hands to hoist it up the dock.

She measured out 38.5" long, and we estimated her to be at least 25lbs.



We continued to fish until 10:35pm, but it was really quiet after the last fish, so we decided to end the night early.

Thank you Richard for helping me accomplish a goal that had started over 10 years ago!!!

taggers did a great job very interesting to watch them in action. One thing i learnt if one attacks you turn it upside down. i was amazed how calm and easy they did it. i got some wicked video footage also. last pic was when they attached gps swam away no probs. wrong tags in my books but still each to their own. 3.8 female. (total length} 

Hi

I have recently moved to perth and haven't had a chance to do much fishing.

I was planning on heading down to floreat drain tomorrow. I've checked the tide and it looks like it will be droping to low tide while im there. I was wondering if its worth fishing at low tide or am I better off trying somewhere else?
I would appreciate any feedback.

Cheers

Paddy

The Offshore Angling Club held their September field day on the weekend just gone.

I thought I might post a quick report.

Weed situation was terrible and the wind was strong and westerly. In certain spots conditions were so bad that 5oz sinkers weren't even hitting the bottom, with rigs getting snared in weed on the way down and towed along the beach! Never the less some awesome fish were beached including a decent mulloway to 8.5kg and an almost 5kg pink snapper.

Most of the success was had at the Moore River mouth as it was open, and those that ventured further north to seabird and the like struggled, with exception of club member Tony who got a decent haul 'somewhere around lancelin', though he was not forthcoming with too many specifics . Three club members snared their first Mulloways on the outing, not bad going. They say the first is always the trickiest, this has the lads excited for next month.

Check out the report and some photos here:
www.beachfishingwa.org.au/reports/2013/september2013.html

Cheers,

D80