We have had some excellent captures by our juniors at the club lately.  It is great to see the young ones out competing on the water, and all bodes well for the future.  In fact, juniors comprised 15% of the total field in the last club competition.

Pictured are Luke with a quality 10kg Spanish Mackerel, Grace and Scarlett with nice tuna, Darcy, Max and Sarah with Dhufish, and all caught out of Hillarys or Ocean Reef. 

The smiles say it all.

 Got a nice feed of herring, and 6 nice size skippy behind Garden Island.

Headed out Friday afternoon for a sunset/night fish. I was initially a bit worried about the winds as they did not drop off as per the forecast, however bit the bullet at 5pm and headed down the ramp to check it out. Turned out to be quite a nice night on the water. The winds were gentle, no swell and a nice sunset made it a pleasent couple hours on the water.

We trolled the back of the 5 fathom for about 30mins, while we sounded some spots, with no luck on lure. Picked a spot and anchored up just on/before sunset. We probably left it a bit late as soon as I dropped down I was on to a nice 600mm pink, didn't even have time to get any burley out. A few pics and I dropped back down then set to work on the burley pot. Shortly after the reel started screaming again and I was on, what a called for, a much larger pink snapper only to be reefed shortly into the fight.

After the sun went down it all went quiet and we packed up by 9 with the one fish and one unlucky squid that decided to hang around the boat.

 It's been over a year since the last time we went out for a metro pinkie bash and the weather looked too good on Saturday not to give it a crack. Got up early and made it to the ramp by 4.30 with the aim of making it out past rotto before the sunrise which was predicted for 6am. We buggered up and took a little too long to get out and missed that first light. Anchored up but quickly realised the tide was going apposite to the wind which was causing our burley and bait float away from the reef. 2nd attempt sorted that out and we were away. Action was instant and within 30 minutes we had a 65cm, 70, 50 (which went back) and lastly a stonker 90cm come up. All were caught on weighted floating mulies on snelled rigs. After a couple more bites but no hookups it went quiet  and that was us done. Pretty happy to get some fillets in the freezer. Didn't weigh the big boy unfortunately but it was super fat, does anyone have any thoughts on a rough weight?

upload pic

 I went out early yesterday to the 5 fathom to try and catch some skippy so i can take my dad out when he comes back down in a fornight. I got 6 skippy, 2 small snaps a small ray and a just undersize black arse  so hopefully they will be there when dad comes down cheers.c

 My old man came down for my daughters engagement party over the weekend, managed to get him out for a couple of hours on Sunday mornin. I know there only whiting but its his favourite fish. To me it wasn't about the fish, it was spending some quality time out on the water with your dad, memories  that you can remember and cherish especially as his health is deteriorating and i really only get to see him a few time's a year. On the way back in we were flagged down by a fellow boatie who was having fuel issues, so i gave him a tow back to pt kenedy ramp from the sisters, he wanted to pay me for doing it but i said no its not needed, as i was happy to help out a fellow boatie in a little bit of trouble. Darryl

Hit the ramp around 6pm to head out to one of my favourite inshore reefs.  Conditions were good with 5-10kn sw winds, moderate swell and a high tide.  After about 10 minutes we arrived and watched the swells for a while before deciding where to anchor.  The sets were reasonably large and surging so we couldn’t really get as close as I would have liked.  Before we set up there was a quick dash to check out the flocks of birds which were active about 500m away but by the time we got there the action was gone.

I had been dusted by kingfish at this spot before so brought out the reasonably heavy gear and set a heavy drag.  40cm garfish was the bait of choice and after a dozen casts or so it was smashed.  The fish played the game initially and headed away from cover towards the boat.  A moment of concern as it headed for the anchor rope but it swam above it and then saw the boat.  After seeing the yellow flashes there was no doubt what it was and it went pretty hard heading for the bommie that was close to us.  Nice to see it in the net and while it was only a rat, pound for pound they go pretty hard.  A quick photo and released to swim off strongly.

We kept casting and just after the sun set the tailor came on for a short while.  I had quite a few garfish loose their tails and probably need to change my rig to position a hook in the tail section.  It didn’t matter though as my eldest boy, who has never really fished a lot, hooked up to an angry fish using a large mulie on a gang.  It is always good to see “new” fishers tackle the task and we were stoked when it was landed.  Again, a quick photo and a strong release.

As the light failed we packed up to be back at the ramp about 7.45pm.  A quick trip where everything went to plan, other than having to cut the anchor off as the surging conditions wrapped the chain around a rock.

 Managed to get out wide on a mates boat.. slow bite but got there in the end. Some nice Bass and blue eye

 Had a nice day fishing for Herring, and some large skippy in the reefs behind Garden Island.

Funny what turns up some times, 50M from shore on a small piece of fresh herring as bait.

 Trip to the block late jan was going to be a special one because was taking the old boy on in his first lb trip needless to say he loved it!!. We worked hard for the fish we caught as the water colour was of for most of the duration of the trip, didnt bag out but some quality fillets for a feed for the five of us. Photos compiled by all the boys and a special shout out to Rig for passing on some great info after his trip cheers mate ! 

 Hey gents, 

Can anyone give me a walpole mouth report? shallow?

Thsnks in advance

 Hi Crew. Currently caravanning around the country for 12 months with the Mrs and we're camped at Cosy Corner near Albany this week. Wet a line this arvo and caught a couple of Hezzas and Whiting which was a bit of fun. Will try and do some more posts as we travel around the country.

Been trying to get out on the water a bit more lately. 

Had a good time with Terry and Bob pulling pots this season, and although we didn’t do spectacularly it was fairly solid with each cray costing $4.92 (including fuel, bait and ramp fees, but excluding labour).  Terry and Bob’s pots came out on 20 December, but I decided to keep mine out there in the shallows to hunt some reds and scout some likely spots for next season – I’m still a bit of a rookie.  Generally only pulled them when the weather was good, and added another 20 odd crays to the season bag.

Headed out one day when I probably shouldn’t have.  The SW wind was much stronger than forecast, and made for quite an uncomfortable time.  Pulled the pots for a few but made the mistake of just chucking one over on the reef because the sea conditions were so nasty.  Had the rods on board that day so came in a bit closer for a fish on some of my snapper ground (have always caught my best pinkies in nasty conditions) so decided to give it a quick go while I was out there.  What do you know, the floating mullet fillet and burley had barely hit the water when the baitrunner started screaming.  You could tell it was a nice pinkie by the runs and shakes and after a good fight the 78cm model was landed.  Not sure of the weight but probably 6.5-7kg as it was a fat one, and a nice mid-summer fish from the shallows.

The next trip out, that bloody pot that was just chucked over was stuck.  Nothing I could really do as I used the boat and tried to pull it from every angle without success, and in the end had to give up.  No choice but to contact some diver mates and arrange for a trip to get it off.  I was very fortunate that Leigh agreed to come out and free it, and he wanted to have a dive to hunt for some crays at the same time – happy to oblige and provide the boat.

The release went smoothly as Leigh just pulled on the floats when it was free.  It was reported to be wedged between three boulders rope down so couldn’t have been retrieved without the help of a diver, and even though it had been out there a fair while there was still had a size cray in it.  I spent the next 45 minutes watching the bubbles and keeping the boat close which was quite relaxing and I did notice that Leigh spent quite a bit of time on the few marks I had sounded up for the pots.  When he surfaced, the catch bag looked healthy but was dominated by an absolute beast.  3.5kg and one of the biggest crays I have seen.

Leigh is a keen tailor fisherman so we decided to head out again to the inshore reefs and try our luck when conditions allowed again.  At the ramp for 4.30am, and a slow trip out so there was enough light to see the reef structure and get in close to it.  The highlight of the trip out, although I didn’t see it, was a big mackerel leaping high out of the water just outside the marina.  Another highlight was my eldest boy, who has never really fished with me, agreeing to come along and have a go.

The fish were there and we landed half a dozen in about 20 minutes before 5.30am, including one for the young fella.  Then, in an instant, they were gone but you can’t complain about the “mayhem” in the first light period.  We released the fish, other than the two that were too damaged and cooked up that night - the photo is not the biggest one we got, but was still a nice fish.  We spent the next hour or so checking out some more likely ground for future trips. 

I’m still amazed by the quality of inshore fishing on our doorstep.  It’s nice that you don’t have to go very far to land some quality specimens.

Opening night at Harvey Dam

Decided to trek down to Harvey Dam last night after work to a spot we got incredible numbers at last year. Safe to say I will never be going back there on opening day again. First of all it was packed, drove around the whole south side of the dam that was accessible via 4x4 and apart from a few little 50m spots basically the whole dam was pegged out. Talking to a few blokes from Bunbury we knew down there they go there Tuesday night and it there were already quite a few people there then. Apart from that with the large number of people bought in the trash with people cutting up in their 4x4s in the mud right close to the dam.

The dam this year was extremely low. The water level was a good 30-40m below where it was last year and there was a lot more mud around the edges this year than previous, and to make things worse the wind was in a totally different direction as what it was saying on "Windy" The wind eased at around 8:00pm which was good however the moon was that bright when we were walking we were casting pretty big / dark shadows which didn't help.

Anyway went to the spot we have been going to over previous seasons (Not on opening night) and the whole bank was taken, luckily we packed kayaks and as the laws have eased we were able to kayak over the other side of the dam where it is not accessible with a car and we had a pretty big stretch of the bank to our selves. A few other people had the same idea we did. Marron started appearing around 8:30pm but there were about an 8th the amount of marron that we have been seeing over previous seasons and there were no real massive ones around, the ones that we did catch were only just the 90mm. We ended up with 7 marron between the 2 of us and I decided to call it quits at around 10:00pm. Talking to a few others in the area that seem like regulars they were very surprised with the lack of numbers as was I.

All in all was a good night to get out, however I wont be going back on opening night again. I will try head down before the season closes to see if it was just the moon and see how I go.

Cheers

 Report stark bay, west end Rottnest Island 

Hey guys

 Haven't really posted much on this forum l'm 17 and do a lot of fishing around the Bunbury area. The one fish that has been on top of my bucket list has been the mulloway it's been about 4 years of chasing these fish to of finally had success. Last Monday arvo l decided to head down after work to a gutter l like to fish for tailor and with a strong sou wester blowing and plenty of weed getting washed around l had a good feeling after 30 minutes l was about to pack it up with the weed just getting to much but finally on my last bait l had good run after 4-5 long runs l finally managed to bring it in unfortunately l was by myself so l had to land this fish myself and l knew my hooks weren't strong enough to drag this fish up on to the beach so it was a desperate run into the water to grab this fish my first grab was straight into the gills which wasn't a smart idea. This is one fish l will never forget. Weighed in at 17kg and measured in at 1200mm 

Ethan

 21 deg around the 200's

Have just been looking at the sea temps on the BOM website, 22 -23 degrees off perth and 24 degrees off jurien - has anybody seen or hooked a Spaniard, yellowfin, Dolly or marlin etc looks like it might be shaping up for a good season, my boats nearly ready and I wanna get out there and pull some lures!

First free dive of the abalone season,each year they’re getting deeper or I’m getting shallower but still a good return  

Went to visit the better half’s friend on the weekend and got chatting with her husband and drooling over his 6.5m Coastrunner with self-deploy Minn Kota and awesome fishing deck.  Over a few chooks, we planned a first light tailor run to see if we could find any around the inshore reefs.

Got to the ramp about 4.40am in darkness with a 10kn southerly blowing.  The swell was forecast about 2m so we fished a close reef first up where you didn’t need to see the waves.  No luck there so when the light allowed we headed further out.  Used the Minn to hold us in a spot very close to the breaking reef, deployed the burley and soon had bait fish around the boat.  The swell was building so we knew we didn’t have long to fish safely.

At about 5.50am we got the first decent hit and after a good fight had a nice tailor in the net.  This was a quality fish and it was excellent to land the target species. 

5 minutes later we had another one, although not quite as big as the first it was still a good fish.  Then the waves started to break a bit close to the boat so it was time to move on.

Headed to an adjacent weed bank, got the burley out and had our bag of nice big herring in about half an hour.  Back at the ramp around 7am for what was an enjoyable couple of hours before work.  Definitely one to do again while the ban is on.

 Haven't seen any sign of them for a couple of years, where are they? 

Nice family day out last long weekend from Palm Beach ramp. Was not an early departure (0730am), but still managed to park in the normal bays instead of the overflow ( I guess the snapper hunters were already returning form the sunrise catch)

Took heaps of time cruising out to spot X, and as per usual someone else on it- so decided to sound around a bit further afield. found a pro pot and the ground looked promising. Nothing big showing on the Lowrance Elite TI9, but needed to set up as when I take the Wife and 2 kids 7 and 10 out I am Skipper/Deckhand/Chief Steward and bait boy (and sometimes guidance counsellor and MMA referee!)

I guess it was about 7 minutes before miss 7 was "feeling sick", and that rod went back in the launcher. By now I had 3 lines in the water and the Wife and other child were looking a bit green also.

A bit of excitement came on the backup rod/reel, an old Okuma 20 O/head on an even older Ugly Stik. It's got level wind and some braid on it, but you wouldn't make it your go-to outfit (note-it's the Wifes setup and has not seen too much recent action) . To make the odds even further away from our favour, the leader on it was a bit naff (Lesson number 1 for the day- always renew leader and retie swivels etc!)

So, as I was saying, I have the you beaut Daiwa Dogfight 6500 and the brand new Saltiga 4500 expedition out the one side and the busted arse Okuma/Ugly stik buckles over instead. Wife is "asked" to pick up rod and fight fish. Fish appears to be winning (read: is winning, and stealing line at a fair rate of knots) Wife starts to win after I push the drag lever up to the stop, but wife loses a bit of confidence when rod has more pressure on it. Rod gets handed to me hurriiedly. I do one pump and wind and POP. fish gone-leader parted. My best guess by the fight had is a small/medium Dhu (bummer)

Wife looks at me to say "it s not my fault" and the 4500 Saltiga outfit buckles over as pointed out by Miss 10. Now this outfit is actually for slow jigging, so you may know these are really "bendy" rods and it may look like it is a bigger fish than it is to the untrained/inexperienced eye. Wife says "You get it". I say "You get it" and I get it out of the rod holder and pass it to her. Now this rod/reel combo is just beautiful to use- light and balanced and easy to tire a medium size fish. Wife is winning the fight, but here comes lesson #2- "Always pre-set your drags" at home correctly. fish makes a run for the rocks. Wife hands me back the rod and now its up to me. I tighten the drag marginally, and pump/wind the fish and get colour. Now it's "Get the net please" babe, which is code for "get it NOW~!~"   and luckily the fold up net I purchased is not too hard to retrieve from the side pocket and unfold, and Miranda manages to scoop the Queen Snapper as per photo 1 up nicely. Kids come alive and we are now cooking with gas! Fish dispatched onto salt ice slurry and high fives all around.

I turn to get some pre-made rigs and re-set to go back over to try to retrieve the Dhu. Once set up, I steam back up and sound over the lump again. cannot see much action. The action onboard is turning more "When can we go". sum total of 30 minutes fishing I guess.

It's starting to look like a Mutiny is on the cards...Not sure how to avert it just yet. As many (even I) can attest, the sea-sickness is killer once it sets in, so I promise "one more drift, then we can go in behind Carnac island for some whiting"  (all lies, but hey you have to try I guess!)

Drifted the spot again, one wrasse only. Youngest is on the passenger seat prone, wife is on the rear lounge with oldest child giving daggers.

So, decision is made- Wind up sea anchor and retrieve lines. Hammer down and all the way back to Palm beach from north of GI. Unloaded family and they went on to have a nice beach day and lunch on the foreshore.

I went back out- and I am GLAD I did.

This time I went south after going under the causeway. To spot Y, which has produced some Breaksea for me before. Tried and tried various drifts, long drifts and short drifts to no avail. By now I had eaten lunch and the "bite time" was well and truly gone. I was beginning to lose a bit of interest, when I got broken off on the big rod. I thought it was just the bottom (to be fair I wasn't really watching) but the sounder was lit up! 4500 expedition buckled over and yeeha! now this is a fish! only in ~8meters of water too. this fish was pulling drag and I could tell it was VERY sizeable. It had several nerve-wracking runs before I managed to get it to "colour". now I was really nervous because I saw it was a big Dhu and it started to head towards the sea anchor lines. a few nervous moments later I forgot the net and gill grasped it aboard. WOW, it was heavy and as they do it cut my bare had a little when it thrashed.

Adrenaline pumped, I let out a WOOHOO that I reckon people on the beach could have heard. It's been such a long time between drinks for a larger model Dhu for me. elated to say the least.

Time to roll lines, and steam back (not before messaging the Wife to bring the car and trailer back to pick me up) 

A happy day, some fish for the family and a memorable fish~ my motto- Never give up! The fish was nearly 900mm and ~11.5kgs. I think I may invest in some proper scales as it was weighed on bathroom scales and I do believe it was a few KG at least heavier.

The last picture is from the same area 3 days later. I believe I hooked the big one again, but pulled hooks on it. The double header again happened way away from the bite times from Tides4fishing (weird?) and I released both fish to grow some more (they both swam away strongly as it is so shallow, and the Pink was caught in the no-take zone)

This fishing stuff is addictive!

Tight lines :)     

Can anyone tell me if there are any snapper biting atm offshore from mindarie, was thinking about a snapper fish this Wednesday arvo, I’m not after your spots just wanting to know if it’s worth a go.
Cheers in advance

anyone in coral bay or heading there lock up everything just seen and heard today a heap of caravans have been targeted taking bbq, fridges and anything thats not locked up 

 With the stars aligning last week I was able to get up to Gods County and get amongst it!

The weather was looking good for fishing Sunday through to Wednesday so we went up for the first time for me at this time of the year.  

Camp was quiet, flys were way better than earlier and night and day temps were perfect.

Sunday resulted in 2 x nice Baldy's , 1 huge Rankin , 1 x Estuary Cod , 1 x ok Spangly and a couple of Flags.

Monday was a good day although the wind blew up from the North and we had to punch back into it.

 3 x good Rankin , double header of good Spangly's , 1 x nice Red and a couple more Flags. All over in about 1 hour . A fish a drop with a bit of a rest half way to regroup. Dolphins escort for about 5 min on the way in really topped off a great morning.

Tuesday was average - fished different ground as eyes were on us from crew not getting much and we didnt either bugga..

Wednesday we went on the hunt for new turf and we found it! got onto a patch of Reds but after the third the sharks moved in and worked us over. We moved slowly and not far enough but kept on finding ground that we wanted to try as was loaded.

At one point after deploying the drifty the pricks were up and going for that without a bait in the water! So we kept moving on. I think I marked around 12- 15 new spots working our way back to where we normally fish. We did add another couple of Cod and a couple of nice Cobia(not like scotto's) to the esky plus more.

Whales , turtles and sea snakes going off everywhere , bit of surface bait bubbling but no spanish , just one sharkie on the Wednesday.

All up was a great break and cant wait to do it again.

Esky shot from the Monday and we had started working on the fish but thought better get a pic of whats left. Cheers 

 Just thought Iwould put it in this forum aswell

For a number of reasons, I haven’t been fishing or reporting for a while.  Young Luke hassled me to finally go out on Sunday, and we left Hillarys at 11am to fish the wind change about 5 miles out (<5kn at 11am).

The bite was good and we had a nice bag by 12.30pm, when the SW wind really started to pick up. 

We also released a medium sambo, big leatherjacket, quite a few undersized pinkies, and a huge eagle ray.  A quick inshore stop to try for KGs on the way back yielded the herring.  All filleted up within a few hours of being caught.

Great conditions for the dingy before the wind, and quite a nice result for a 3-hour mission. 

 Anyone got any advise for land base fish in jurien this time of year? Thank you 

Mate landed this 52cm KG on soft plastic, managed to capture the strike on the sounder.