This was a few months back now, me and my mate headed to our inshore snapper spot around kwinana. We had no action for the first hour or so just casting out whole squid as drift baits on stradic ci4000 and talica 12 .After that my mates ci4000 screamed after a 10 minute fight a 7-8kg snapper surfaced just as that came up the talica ran and another 8kg snapper surfaced.

Heading out behind garden island tomorow, thinking about going out into the 40's plus searching for some ground for dhufish and snapper. Can anyone give me some advice on how far out we should be heading and maybe some coordinates to your favourite lumps

 Hi Guys,went out again today and pulled up another Good Ruby from the Depth's off Exxy.

The only scales we had topped out at 25kg

Cheers Ozzy

Took a Mate out To-day to show him a different Style of Fishing,the pic's show how we went

Just landed this massive 8KG MAMA toman  last week.

The excitment !!! The fun !!! The challenging fishing ground !!!

What can I say   ??? Simply love the wild N love toman fishing...

It is one of the best game fishing sport around in asia..:)

Enjoys my GoPro video clip......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ4XNJQ_FZg

The big catch of the day....8KG massive MAMA toman...

 Sorry no pics today forgot the camera.TWell with the forcast saying wind was coming in early we headed out thinking it was going to be a quick trip and home.The rain clouds parted and the wind droped .Ended up being a nice day.Plenty of small fish around with a heap of tags getting fixed to fish.

Fish for the day

16 dhuies  12 tagged, 2 released without tags and 2 recaptures.

1 Sambo around 20kg

6 Baldchin 5 kept 1 released

1 Black ars tagged

and other mixed fish Skippy,Wrasse,Sargent Baker.

A few size dhuies but nothing for the bag.Another good trip and that makes over 200 tags JODY MORE TAGS PLEASE..That takes us to 21 recaptures will add the new ones to the list i put up weeks ago some intresting growth rates.

 Booked on a charter to Broome, touched down, settled in and called the skipper for updates on what's biting in anticipation for the next day's charter. To my disappointment, was told the trip was cancelled due to strong easterly wind that had been blowing the since a few days ago. Had I not called the skipper at 6.15pm the day before, I wonder if he was ever going to call me at all to tell me about the cancellation. Totally screwed up my plan cos I had made myself free the whole day next day for the charter. If only he had told me earlier I could have made a Plan B.

Anyhow, went to cable beach to do some casting. With strong easterly wind at 18 knots and 27 knots gusts, I was the only soul on the beach. Obviously apart from sea water, i caught absolutely nothing. Tried a few other spots including gantheume point and jetty to no avail. The easterly also stirred up so much sediments the water was mirky white in colour.

The next morning we spent the morning going from tackle shop to tackle shop to find out what's biting where. Spoken to Steely from Kimberley Outdoors and Camping and apparently he knew Sean Costello too and they were both popping nuts. Also found that no one ever tried jigging in Broome so was keen to give that a shot.

First lauch from the beach and tried surface luring at a bommie barely a few meters deep. The reef stood out like a sore thumb when viewed from polarised lenses. Gave my Maria Bluescode a go since it had been sitting in my tacklebox for years and never seen daylight. First retrieve saw a mack tailing it. Fired a second cast, couple of twitches and felt a hit and the line instantly went slack! There went my Maria sinking stickbait which had been with me for 7 years...sob :(. Put on a Clone stickbait with wire but the fish shy away this time.

The next couple of hours were spent trolling. Mate was trolling with his large crytal minnow which is the go-to lure in this region. I believed him cos he had at least 2 dozen brand new ones sitting at the corner of his house- testimont that the lure's effectiveness in this region. I put on my Ofmer Rambler that dives to about 4m. After couple of rounds trolling my spinning outfit started spewing line. Not long after that a good speciment of queenie surfaced. I was pretty stoked cos another cherry was popped. Guess the Rambler won hands down because the fish were holding deeper and the crytal minnow my mate used, although a deep diver, didn't quite make it to that depth.

After that we trolled to no avail although I kept sensing hits on my lure. I suggested to Brett to let me jig. The sounders showed the fish was holding in mid-water of approx 15m depth. I dropped my light jig of 40g and got an instant hook-up. A small big eye trevally surfaced shortly and was sent back to the drink. Subsequent to that I caught a few small queenies and GTs all on light jigs. They were feisty little buggers hitting the jig continously until the get hooked.

After that we went back to refuel the boat and came back out again at about 4pm. Sounded up a spot that made me really excited.

The next 2 hours were non-stop action with a fish every drop. Brett was using his trusty Wobbler in 40g rigged up with wire on a Penn reel mounted on a Ugly Stik/ Silstar solid glass tip rod. He would let the spoon fluttered down below and cranked up as fast as possible. This single lure was catching fish after fish until a big cod took his Wobbler and burried him. He did try to steer the boat away from structure but the cod won.  Think that was the same cod that tried to go after the baby GT I was trying to land. It was easily half the size of the tinny we were using and I thought it was a queesland grouper because I spotted the yellown fin. 

Anyway, I changed jig to vibes and plastic and a few other type of lures and they all scored. The fish were all fired up and anything you tossed over the side will be nailed. Lost of few jigs to mackie but since the water was fairly shallow, I didn't try wire leader because it will be really visible.

The fish ain't big but was heaps of fun on PE1 outfit and jigs of 35g-60g.

I stopped taking pictures after a few shots because they were all the same usual suspects, only difference was the fish became larger as the sun set and totolly shut down when it became dark. Strange huh ?

Tried popping as well but didn't managed to raise a scale.

So if you are going to Broome, don't hesitate to give jigging a shot because it works!

 Just a quick report because I heard there was a lack of scalies around!! I was down at the ammo jetty this morn getting some bait together for quobba and there was heaps of them!! 

Just thought I would let everyone know 

 Just another pink from the sound again this morning fellas ... Dropped a smaller one aswell

Excuse the comp code haha

Normal 0

Just spent a week up in Quobba with a few mates. It was my first time up there so I wasn't too sure what to expect. Spent the first few days having a go at ballooning with limited success, mates lost a couple of mackies on reef and all I had by day 3 was a longtail and a few spangos etc. Had some battery troubles with the boat (sucks that- all good at home but when you get there and ready to take her out starts playing up) it would start then it wouldn't, anyway the beer was cold and the weather was warm so life was still good. Decided to take the boat to Carnarvon and get her fixed then wait for better weather to take her out. Was hell windy for a couple of days so in between fishing we done some exploring of each spot all the way up to Red Bluff, some real nice looking spots you just got to know a bit more than what I did to have better success I guess.

Come Friday, last day of the trip, esky looking pretty empty at the moment, me thinking we must be pretty shit anglers to come all the way to Quobba and go home with F*%K all. We finally got to take the boat out.

Launch at the "ramp" (lol) at blowholes and make our way anxiously out through the breakers to a likely looking spot. Lures in the water QANTAS lure on the starboard  and the Gold Redhead on the port side, trolling for less then an hour when ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ one rod goes off, I just love the sound of the reel going off as a mackie makes it's first screaming run, it's what we live for ey!, standard fight and first mackie gaffed and in the boat, lures back out again. For the next few hours we would hook up every half hour or so. Made the call to head in after we had run out of ice and storage space (thank god for the precision pack) total of 6 macks, 2 missed hits a couple of close calls with whales popping up in front of me and best of all not a shark to be seen!

Headed back in to see fisheries in the bay, after checking the catch I asked them if it was ok to take other guys out who hadn't caught any fish yet and she said yep as long as they have the boat fishing license so after dicking around for about an hour waiting for a bigger esky and more ice it was out with 2 mates and in with 3 more.

Out we go again and the actions even hotter than before, lures go out and within 5 minutes DOUBLE HOOK UP!!  Both boated and within an hour and a half we were on our way back in with 5 more macks. We could have got one more to fill out the bag limit but the wind had picked up a bit much and I didn't want to risk anything negotiating the breakers back in.

Safely back in and stoked to have a few fish to take home, probably my most successful day of fishing on my own boat. Total for the day 11 mackies biggest one almost 20kg and apart from the 2 little ones we got on the double hook up I would guess the average weight to be around 12-14 kgs

It was definately a great experience my first trip to Quobba, definately need to do more homework before returning but glad the last day turned a shit trip into a good one.

Enjoy the pics

Cheers

Vince

Greetings FW! Long time reader, first time poster..

Really enjoy reading reports on this site and hearing/seeing whats happening in the WA fishing world.. so I figured after getting back from Coral Bay I thought I'd give a cheeky report on what happened.

I was only land based so spent the week casting plastics and metal slices around. Just to be spend a few hours every day strolling up and down the magnificent beaches while casting lures was awesome. Sure beats working! Coral Bay is  paradise and so worth the drive.. and it's even better when you get some fish.

So basically over the week we managed to get into a lot of different types of fish..Was fishing on light gear so everything was fun. sightcasted into a few small schools of small queenies which brought some great action. Add in some smallish trevs, a stack of undersize macks, some small spanglies and a variety of stuff that you get on plastics when off the beaches up there and it equates for good times!

Bad times involved jagging a turtle in the wing with a jighead which thankfully was easily set free, as well as getting my thumb sliced by a longtom..not cool... anyway

I seem to pray a fair bit when spinning off the beach (particularly when not much is biting...) and one day I was repeatedly praying and asking God for a big trevally to come my way.. and when i say repeatedly i mean for the whole morning. Not sure why I was asking for a trev, prob just wanted a good fight! Managed to get onto a nice golden trev of about 2 or 3 kg which was a pb for the trip so far and i thought my prayers had been answered (and not for the first time while fishing!). Anyway, eventually started to get the feeling that the trev i'd got wasn't the one i was asking in prayer for.. so kept praying and asking (and casting) and eventually got onto something big! My prayers were answered! After a pretty decent fight with the help i my dad i landed this gold spot trev. measured 95cm and a pb for me landbased! great fun! Looking forward to getting back up there again, though sadly i know it will be a while before that happens.

Thanks lads!

Brett

Hi guys

Went out Saturday into Cockburn sound and got a few squid in prep for a big day of snapper fishing.

Got onto a massive school of pinkies and got at least 20 this size.

Also got 10 tailor around 15cm and plenty of yellowfin bream.

We were purely going for bait so had the sabiki rigs cranking. Was really good to see how many babies there are around. Didnt manage to find one bigger than 15cm. But didnt matter because the 20 made up a good feed in the end. JOKES!!!!!

Can anyone tell me how old these fish were?? Hopefully they will jump back onto my hooks in 4-5 years time. This time they will be dinner!!!!!

Went out and pulled a few crab pots off Freo with a Pro I know. Depth varied from about 350 to 400 fathoms. Apparently the tastiest crab in the world and I can vouch for that. When they are caught they are put in to about 8 degrees of water to revive because that is the temp they are usually in. They get exported live to China Asia.

Went out to the southwest bank,

6am in the morning and the first drop in, fresh ocy and pulled a nice 22KG dhuie ;)

Catch for the day i think!

 cockburn sound whiting, mmmm!!

Dispite the howling easterly and a bad case of the flu I headed north from Carnarvon on Sat. I normally would have stayed in bed fealing crook but I had a new Yamaha 115 4 stroke that needed to be run in.

We found schools of long tail tuna feeding in between countless whales, mixed up with the tuna was this gold spot trevor.

I didn't weigh or measure it but it certainly gave my Demon Blood 64cj/catalina combo a good work out.

It was released unharmed to fight another day.

 Hi all

I am after a big fish or shark. i been fishing at the cut for a week and all that is there is small bream and small tailor. I went to the north side of the cut and nothing what do i need to do????????(help)

cheers

Well another great day out on the water. 15 Dhuies caught  11 tagged,2 baldies and a kick ass sambo.and Jody wasn't even there.All good fish today with no undersize fish had a couple around 10-11kg  (released)

 just been fishing off the rocks at bunbury cut and theres not really anything special there at the moment apart from yelowfin bream and the odd chopper and alot of sloppy weed. if your thinking about going i wouldnt bother during day times but you might bit in with a chance later on in the afternoon for some bigger tailor.

parry

Massive squid are plentiful on the jetty this week with conditions being perfect for squidding. My mate has been bagging out with quite a few of the squid being 50 ring monsters the cones measuring well over 30 cm. Chopper tailor are about in reasonable numbers with fish measuring in the 30-35 cm range. Fat herring have been schooling on the surface under the lights at night in large numbers, just throw an unweighted hook with a bit of squid into the schools and you will easily hook up. Skippy sizes have improved over the last 2 weeks they can be found in the usual places around the pylons. Not much word of the Mulloway this week since the mulloway fishermen have been staying away because of the relatively calm waters. If you decide to head out make sure to take the warm gear since it is quite cold fishing in the SW winds.

Hi all

Headed up to Darwin on Friday 13th (no, I'm not superstitious...I think) arriving at 1.30pm and we spent the afternoon hanging out in 30'C heat....a far cry from the 6'C when we arrived at Perth airport. We had great weather all week, mins of 16C and max around 30C every day.

You can see the new wharf from the family's balcony and it gave me a chance to try out my new 150 - 500mm telephoto lens.....also made for a great night time photo.

On Saturday we headed out early from Buffalo Creek to the Vernon Islands with my brother-in-law, his nephew and his mate. It was a magic sunrise and the water was a glass off. All reports suggested the tides were right for some fishing action and I got on the board early with a couple of nice golden snapper....the others chimed in, too.

Then the brother-in-law's nephew's rod screamed in agony and hopes were high for the prized black jewfish...but alas, ecstasy turned to anguish when a 4m lemon shark emerged from the depths, so it was cut free. We moved a few times as the tide turned and managed a few more assorted fish before heading home. There was a queue of boats waiting to retreive, when we got back to the ramp in the creek.

Bummed around on Sunday and did some sightseeing around the marina at Bayview...watched the lock in action, too.

Visited Crocosaurus Cove on Monday and checked out the crocs, the barra and other fish in the aquarium and took a leisurely stroll thru the reptile house...well worth a visit, and so handy as it's in the centre of town. In the afternoon, I got 9 holes in at Garden Park with my sister.

Woke up early Tuesday morning with a serious stomach bug...don't know where it came from because we all ate the same thing on Monday night, but whatever it was, it flattened me for a couple of days. Missed out on a crabbing & fishing trip on Tuesday....the boys caught some nice bream and mud crabs. Also missed out on our planned day trip to Litchfield National Park on Wednesday...too scared to venture too far from the bathroom....IMODIUM is the answer! Mrs gates reacted badly to the midgies and came out with blistered welts on her legs and arms, so that put a dampener on things, too.

Was feeling better by Thursday so I stepped up to go out fishing again. Learnt a valuable lesson about not launching the boat with your phone in your pocket....yep, slipped on the ramp and went head first into the water...also had my compact digital camera in there, too. Got a new phone from the local phone shop and I'm looking into buying another camera.

The fishing was a bit slow up the East Arm....caught a few small jewies (mulloway) and a nice schoolie about 70cms....also had fun catching a few catfish and feeding them to the sea eagles that were camped in the nearby trees....sorry, no pics.

Took it easy on Friday and checked out my brother-in-law's favourite fishing tackle shop....you could do some serious damage to your credit card in there....or any tackle shop for that matter.

The US and Australian Air Force were playing with their toys and we had a pretty good view as they flew close to us in Bayview.

A quick 9 holes on Saturday morning, a bite to eat for lunch and then it was off to the airport...arriving back in Perth at 4.45pm.

Already planning another trip up that way as we didn't get to try our hand at barra fishing.

regards
rusty...

A picture tell a thousand words and what about video clip ???? I will use my youtube clip to present my fishing adventure to my viewers... The fun way of fishing snakehead in the wild ....

"I won't be rich in doing what I do for a living but will be rich in life N inside my heart, That's the way I want to live for the rest of my lives" By BKKGUY

Enjoys guys........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5g70MMYHno

Highlights catches of the day.....

 Cant quite remember the exact details on why the decky (wife), wasn't keen but anyhow I found myself alone powering out the slightly gnarly south passage on a recent trip to coral bay. The wind wasn't bad and was supposed to get better so I decided I was going to fang out to the 80 metre contour and drag some skirts around to hopefully connect myself to my first billie.

So out I went, life jacket on, dead man switch connected, flares and epirb in easy reach (the passage exit made me poop a little) and tried not to hit any whales while heading out to the chosen spot which was only about 10 mile straight out. Once out there I threw in the richter witchdoctor knockoff, a williamson sail catcher I think it was and a larger skirt and commenced the troll, wishing I brought beer already.

Took maybe 20 minutes for the smaller skirt/saragosa 14000 setup to start bounching around in the holder, peered back and it looked like little tuna or something were savaging the lure just little splashes and what not. Then I saw the shoulder of something large come sideways through the wash which sent the pulse rate through the roof and sure enough a few seconds later the rod buckled over and something went off on a fairly slow but steady run.

It was at that point I started wondering If it was a good idea going for a solo fish as I had to fumble around looking for the gimble belt, wind in the other line/teaser in then put the motor in gear and get ready to possibly chase some line back. Luckily the fish appeared off in the distance and started jumping around also letting me ID it as a sail and not some 500lb monster so I knocked the motor back into neutral and settled into the fight. Didn't take too long maybe 10 minutes to get it near the boat but then it started circling the boat for quite a while ,not finished yet. I was quite happy that the boat is sort of open style and was able to follow it round and round till I decided it was done. It was time to grab the bloody thing, all I could find was a hand towel for a glove so I just grabbed the bill and hoped it didn't lunge and spear me in the face or somehow embed the hook in me. It was fair tired so it let me hold it vertical and still, while I struggled to muster the finger strength to work the pliers without droppping them over. Hook came out alright so I grabbed the camera to get the money shot which was supposed to be a self video of me and the fish, but I discovered later on that the camera had already been rolling so when I pressed the shutter button it turned off not on. SPEW. Any way I wasn't exactly going to be able to swim the fish with the boat in gear so I just dropped it back in the water. Luckily it self righted in about 3 seconds and made its own way off looking quite healthy.

Time for a rest so off went the annoying smoky engine and I bobbed around in the ocean for while rejoicing but wishing once again I had brought some beer. I was proper stuffed because I never had time to remove the thick jacket which was under the lifejacket I was wearing and the sun had heated up a fair bit. Some large looking whaler sharks came up for a look with a few remoras which dettached and came to suss out one of my skirts I had dangling on the surface.

After a rest and some water the motivation returned and out went the spread again. I doubled back around to run over the same spot and within 10 minutes the 'gosa went off again. This time the fish took off at speed with the rod in the holder leaving me to wind in the other line. The lines crossed with the braid cutting through the 15kg mono/ tyrnos 20/ larger marlin skirt, so I lost that. As I grabbed the fish rod the hook pulled so I lost the fish too. Bugger.

OK round 3. The lure of they day was tied onto the 15kg tyrnos setup and sent back alone with the teaser. I cant remember how  long I had to wait but sure enought the rod starts bouncing around and I brace for anouther hookup. This one took a while maybe a minute or two. I give the fish credit it really wanted to eat that lure and eventually the hook found home and the fight was on again. Being on mono this time it felt like a big elastic band which took a bit of getting used to but after an unknown while it was boatside ready for a de-hooking. This time the leader was wrapped around the bill which complicated things a little and it took a fair amount of effort to pull out and unrwrap. I can still remember the feeling of the hook just starting to penetrate my hand momentarily before falling away and allowing me to drop the fish back in the drink. This time it wasn't looking that flash and was swimming along on it's side one the surface. I got back to the controls and started to follow it with the boat but luckily before I got there it got its bearings and swam away.

At this point I decided to call it a day. Even with the water starting to look like it may glass off and only being about noon I figured I wanted to end it on a high note, and started the steam back to the ramp dodging all the whales again. For me coming in the south passage always seemed sketchier than going out so I went the north (for the first time) And was back before one O-clock I think. Never been happier to bring back zero fish, and finally got to have a drink or ten. Sorry about the massive spiel and crap photos.

By mr_meks at 2012-07-24

By mr_meks at 2012-07-24

The first one just before release.

By mr_meks at 2012-07-24

The greysuits coming for a look.

By mr_meks at 2012-07-24

By mr_meks at 2012-07-24

By mr_meks at 2012-07-24

 I’ve been trying to jam as much fishing into this uni break as possible and last Thursday and Friday were looking like another opportunity. Once again my mate who is over from the east came along and also my Grandy, After watching me pull a meter plus dhu last time my mate was pretty keen to catch his first sized dhu. Plan was to fish Thurs then head into rotto for the night and have a quick fish the next day as we had to be back at mid-day. We hit the ramp at 8 and lines were in just after 9 and it didn’t take long for my pirate to get hit, Lost a bit of string on PE2 and was pretty confident to call it the first dhu of the day and not long after a nice 7kg dhu hit the deck,

The fishing was a tad slow and i wanted to head out to a deeper spot i found a few weeks back so with the last few drops approaching my mate lifted his game and finally hooked up to a solid fish, It fought harder than most big dhus ive seen so there was a chance at a sambo but after a few mins my mates new PB dhu at 95cm hit the deck and he was stocked.

We then headed out and it didn’t take long for the pinks to come to the party with a few around 70cm joining the esky.

My grandad then managed the first Radient cod ive seen and after a quick clean up we headed into rotto for the night.

A very lazy 8am wake up and a few eggs later we were back in amongst it and i was keen to put a few new spots into the GPS. After a bit of sounding the lines were dropped my grandad hooked up to the first fish of the day which turned out to be a monster baldy that went 65cm.

A bit more sounding and fishing for little result till again my grandad hooks up to a much larger fish that took literally all he had to give and he was stocked with his Pb dhu at 90cm.

A quick clean and we headed back to the ramp in pretty good conditions.

Went down to Quindalup for a weekender, 13-15 July, at a friends beach house. You cant beat free accom 

Saturday morning, the weather didn't look the best but that stretch of bay is pretty well protected so we figured we'd have a quick go at catching our dinner. Plus I'd just bought a couple of new squid jigs and was keen to get them wet. We figured a two pronged approach would be a safer bet to get a feed, so we dropped half a dozen crab nets over the side of the tinnie then left them to go chasing the slimey-squirters.

Word of advice, prolly best not to experiment with a knot you've never tied before when attaching your new jig! So I waved good bye to the first of my new jigs after 10mins of fruitless fishing and got the boys to drop me back at the beach to run back to the house and get the other one (who knows why i didn't bring them both but it was a short walk anyway). Meanwhile the lads picked up a couple of the girlfriends from the beach (for luck) and went back out to check the nets. The nets had been in the water maybe 25mins? but the blue mannas had wasted no time in having a go at picking at the spleen. Every net had 2-3, and on average one of those were size, so the first pull had us a crab each. It wouldn't be dinner but certainly a tasty snack, and it was enough to keep the motivation going in the drizzle.

I hopped back in the tinnie with new jig #2 securely tied and we went for round 2 with the squid, this time with results. Didn't take long before we were getting ourselves covered in the dark sludge that they shoot at you with deadly accuracy. Laughs all round as we took it in turns to get inky muck on our clothes and faces, pulling them out of the water. Dinner was served.

We did a couple more pulls of the nets with some more squidding in between until we were satisfied that everyone would be well fed for dinner. Returned the house, warmed up in front of the fire, then enjoyed a huge feed of calamari and chilli crab for dinner.

What a great weekend, need more just like it 

Well the weather had changed a little with north winds ,and north tide made for a quick drift and a full on job holding on the ground .Had a couple of members come for the ride Mat T and ToT both from the site.Jody and Jesse and myself made up the five .The plan was to get out to the 80-90m line but that changed once we got out ten mile ,as the wind was around 15knots and i made the call to stay inside direction and try some dhu ground .I have just fitted the new furuno 587 to the boat so was keen to try it out.The first spot and a recarture and three small dhuies,all released.we moved from patch to patch with fish of some sort coming from most ground .Found some new stuff with the sounder so will try that next time out .Was a bit of a job holding over the ground but it did ease of after lunch .We ended up getting our bag 2x dhuies,4 baldies 1x breaksea,1x snapper,1x foxfish 1xblacktip shark released,1xcarpet shark released,10-15 sargent baker and other small fish.Also  (two recaptures and two tagged fish returned.)one of the tagged fish we caught last sunday was in top condition see if we get him next week.Anyway top day and good company enjoy the pics.

So i thought write up on our episode in the Rottnest trench. After a slow day working in the 300 to 400's we returned to the North wall to finish up and hopefully boat a cod for one of the crew who yet to land one. On the drop Jamie had a big hit on jig but for no hook up, Soon after Joel hooked up to decent fish but was soon sharked and bitten off followed by me hooking up. My fish tore line off the electric and it was soon clear it was no cod or trevalla, more a fish with stamina and pace. We guessed it was probably a shark but the beauty of the deep drop is that you never really know what you could get connected to. Starting at 300meters on the line counter we soon were at 700 meters with 300 meters remaining.

As the fish steadily headed west and us steadily tiring we decided to change tactics. We put the boat in gear and drove west, getting ahead of the fish and began lowering the line angle to attempt to get the fishes head up and begin plaining it to shallower water. The tactic gradually worked with us gaining 20 to 30 meters maybe every cycle.

As the hours passed with a few phone calls on the sat phone to our wives that we were going to be late (again) The spool on the myiah epoch began to fill and we guessed we only had 200 to 300 meter to go... At this point we all were pretty flogged and sore having fought the fish out of a long bent butt which was pretty uncomftable and burst blisters raw on the tips of the fingers from thumbing the spool and on the insides winding.

We then found the plaining technique was improved by moving into slow circles. The circles got tighter and the fishes ascent speed improved. At the two and a half hour mark we had the fish within site, a large long silver shape well below the boat. Every now and then we would get a clearer glimpse which had us all guessing and as you know we have all been there- "it a baldy, no a queenie, a dhuie" and ends up being a sambo!

Occasionally we could see a long bill like shape which had our hope soaring thinking it was abouut to be our first metro swordfish. Anyways it wasnt to be with us realizing it was a tail hooked Thresher shark. Some what disappointing but great achievement!

Up close it was a strange looking fish with an eye the size of your hand and pearlesant glow to its skin. For such a sizable shark its mouth was tiny, indicating its feeding habits. The teeth were needle like and about 5 -7 mm.

As ive said before the shark was in poor condition but still alive on release. Sharks are tough critters and id hope it revived on it way back to the abyss.

Anyways i cant stand crap marketing and self promoters but i will give credit the saltiga boat braid, wind-on dave's wind on leader, miyah epoch reels and my rigs for all its unforgiving punishment.

Anyways see you back out there.

A follow on from my previous report but i thought i share a quick vid i put together from our trip to Warroora last week.  

 After watching the weather for weeks the call was made to pack the gear and set off north, after last year’s trip to Warra station we decided to head there again although just take the dinghy this year. We didn’t do any fishing inside the reef last year so i was fairly keen to try and crack a few Spanglies. We thought we would try and escape the school holiday crowds and stay down the south end and after a bit of driving around we found a spot and set up.

Day 1

After unpacking the boat we eagerly got the boat on the sand and started prospecting the foreign ground. It was after 11 before we got wet so we decided to stick around the reefs and try pull some spango’s for a feed. We headed north and found some skittish bait and quickly had some lures in the mix, the long toms were on and off within seconds of the lures hitting the water and we knew pretty quickly our lure collection was going to feel the full brunt of what Warra has to offer. New lures on and we finally landed a tom, Oliver quickly lost his second lure before i had my lure back in the mix and this time hooked up solid to a deeper fish that turned out to be the first spango of the trip.

Things went quite and we started heading home along the reef chucking lures on any likely looking ground, After getting dusted a few more times and a few thousand Chinaman later Oliver hooked up solid to his first spango for the trip.

We decided to call it a day and head back to fillet up.

Day 2

The weather was looking the goods and we temped the idea of heading offshore, However, after the first cast no more than 50m from launching came up solid and the deep idea quickly went out the window. My PB spango was quickly onboard for a pic and sent back.

We decided to make it a release day and the gods were on our side as over the next few hours we caught over 20 spangos up to 70cm and many more lost. The trevs were also on the chew with goldens and goldspot coming to the party.

After the breeze swung we pulled the dinghy and went on foot. We walked a solid click from camp where we found some nice shallow bombies and my popper was followed all the way to the beach where i stopped quite literally millimetres from the sand when a monster snapper came out of the water and nailed the popper, My new PB was bumped up and was happy to see him swim off.

Day 3

We spent the first hour flicking the same ground from the day before without a single result, once the easterly had backed off we putted out deeper scoping the sounder, I found some likely looking ground and the pirates and jigs were diploid. Plenty of hits and small fish but not what we were after. The sea breeze starting puffing and we called it a day, sad and slightly disappointed after the previous days highs.

Day 4

A front came through and we decided to head into coral bay for some supplies and a shower.

Day 5

The forecast was looking reasonable but not special, however, the long range forecast was looking even more dampening so we decided it would be our last opportunity to get outside the reef. We got to the 30m line and chucked the trollers out and no more than 10mins in the diver went off in a pretty big way, Oliver grabbed the rod as I cleared the lines and helped subdue possibly the biggest fish in the dingho. A few blistering runs later the fish went deep and finally some line started coming back in our favour. Mack, tuna, Trev, shark, all were thrown around until finally Oliver’s and the dinghy’s first YFT was boat side. A quick net job and we had sashimi for the trip.

With high fives and smiles going around we continued heading out till I finally found some nice looking ground holding good fish. Lines down and a double hook up and bust off proceeded. Heaver lines down and again double hook up, Oliver on PE 5 had no troubles skull dragging his first Rankin on board,

 I re-rigged for what felt like the 1000th time and sent the baits down. Again it didn’t take long to hook up. I put some hurt on and finally got one away from the coral. Up popped another nice Rankin. 

We decided we had plenty for a feed and to have one last drop on jig. Oliver was getting some good hits when he hooked up to a ridiculously big fish, We were both originally calling a grey suit but the tail kicks didn’t look all the shark like, It pulled more string than any sambo id seen and after the fish was brought up all 50m we were surprised to see the biggest golden trev either of us had ever seen. A few pics and he swam back down to the depths.

We called it a day and headed in.

Day 4

The SE’er was up for the next few days so we were stuck around the shallows. Once again the snapper didn’t disappoint and even my Rents managed some, we had no troubles hooking them on all matter of lures.

The rest of the day was spent in the water snorkelling around where we found some epic underwater life including coral, all matter of fish including a big trout that had my finger twitching and heaps of turtles.

The last few days were spent doing much the same as day 4 due to the persisting Easterlies. One thing i really wanted to catch was my first northern squid so the last afternoon was spent casting a jig around. It only took two casts and i was on, I quickly came in and we put the boat back on the trailer to pack for our return. 

Oliver and i snuck a few quick casts in off the shore and after bit of a wander i hooked another squid and started bringing it in when Oliver spotted the rest of the school in close pursuit of his jig, He quickly hooked up and landed his first northern squid also. We pretty quickly had a good feed after the school wouldn’t leave our jigs alone. We cleaned the squid and put the rods away for the drive home the next day.

Overall the fishing was red hot and it was even better hearing Perth had copped some weather, I’m already looking forward to heading there again next year and making it an annual pilgrimage.

Thanks for reading Miles

My mate Dale and I decided last weekend was the time to chase a few of the stripey eyes in the north metro.

As you can see, the conditions were pretty terrible.

The plan was to drop a few jigs on a spot that had previously produced my PB dhuie. Unfortunately, this was not to be the day for that spot, with only a double hookup of undersized pups and some random junk fish.

So off we went in search of new ground. After finding a couple of likely looking lumps in around 50m, we quickly boated a few little sambos on various jigs and gave a new combo a bit of a test. Some fun was had, but the esky was still empty, which at almost 11am was not a good sign.

So we decided to head a bit further afield, but in similar depth. I saw a pretty solid looking show on the sounder on the way to the contour which we were planning to hit, so thought we'd give it one drift, and this was the result. Double header of dhuies on a Caprice and JM jig respectively.

A second drift pulled another double header with another dhuie and an emperor of some description (like a spango, though pretty dark in colour). We released the smaller dhuies and with the emperor and my mate Dale's dhu pictured above in the esky we decided to head to some deeper ground to get away from the dhuies and try for some snapper.

First drift on a likely looking lump and I snagged up, losing a brand new Lamble. Ouch. While I was re-rigging, Dale jigged a nice pinky, double ouch.

After a re-rig I dropped the jig, and pretty quickly hooked on to something solid. It was fighting like a dhu, but given the size of the thing and the fact that we were in 95m of water it had me guessing till the last 20m or so what it was, and then up pops this solid dhu. I was pretty stoked, my second biggest on jig yet.

All in all a pretty damned good day on the water, which was made all the better with a great bbq and more than a few beers later that night.

Dan