The 4 blokes that sunk there boat off Mandurah what were they doing late at night with 30 knot winds 3 mile off shore. There's a fishing band on!!! There's no way they just went for a cruise for fun either!!! I'm not accusing anyone just suspect that pots around that area get tampered with regularly 

 so i have not posted for a while now soo thought id share soome catches from the last x amount of months , most fish taken on zipbaits ssm , monsoon breakers , rigge 35 and khamsin tinys and ofcourse some baits with both bluewater and river stuff here, all fish on the boat were from the 4m tinny

 Hi Guys,

A mate and myself went on the Rottnest Safety Convoy last weekend, and it was great.

It started out at 7am launching my 5.5m Runabout at point peron ramp and meeting Sea rescue for the convoy assistance, and as I was the only boat leaving from Rocko, had marine safety as the group leader, and midway marine as a tail end charlie..

We waited to join up with the Mandurah guys, and 4 boats turned up - or 3 boats and a small ship.. one of those dream boats that you only ever get to see at the mandurah boat show, or drug cartel movies..

We headed off at about 7:30, and tucked into the wake of the 2 ladies on the mandurah marine Safet boat, and headed towards woodmans, inside the sound. the weather was fine, with about a 10 - 15 kn wind, and about 1m swell, and did good time to the woodman meeting point, regrouped and headed to the seaward side of carnac island. Visibilty was good, and we could see rotto from the carnac position, and started over.

Our boat was doing well, with the 2 stroke 90hp mercury on and we did a fuel tank change at about an hour in to the journey, just for safety sake, and it took us about 30 minutes from carnac to rotto, at about 22 knots, trying to keep up with the ladies.. Sea rescue must have noticed that we were taking it a bit fast for the swell size, versus the boat size and asked marine safety to slow down a bit during the crossing, as the side swell movement was tossing us around a bit. we settled in at about 18 knots, which was perfect, as I am just up on the plane, and about 3000rpm, which is about 75% of my rev range. we would not have been able to do more that about 12 knots, if we werent in the front boats wake.

When we arrived in thomsons bay, we made a quick pit stop for toilets, ladies from mandurah headed back, and about 25 boats arrived safely, from north and south spots. We broke into 2 teams, and headed out for the bay tours, and were shown how to approach each bay, what hazards to expect, and which bays were protected in which winds, like a 27MHZ guided tour, by the red group leader. It was very informative..

We started getting low on our 3rd tank of fuel, so headed back to thomsons to refuel and chill. the convoy leader arranged an escort back to the bay for us with one of the sea rescue boats.

We refuelled at $1,62 per litre for premium, and used $100 for 3 hours riding. about 3 standard red tanks.

We moored in Thomsons, had assistance from the safety guys there, and went to check in to the camping site.

The arvo was a presentation from marine safety on Lifejackets, EPIRBS and flares, and the sea rescue guys let off a few flares to show us what they actually looked like from shore. off for a few bevvies, some lunch and a shower, and met at the lodge for a prizegiving and dinner - great spread of all foods, good quality and proffesional service, bar available and great company. we sat with the 4 guys from rocko sea rescue and enjoyed the evening.

Off to the camp for a top up and back to the lodge for a few pints and off to bed at about 11..

We woke up and went to the dome for a coffe, packed up our gear and loaded the boat, as the 25 knot winds were starting to blow already, and the convoy decided to head back early, due to the prediction.

We followed a large Catamaran back, only running at about 11 knots into the wind, and managed to stay dry for the 2 hours it took us to get back to Woodmans, and then followed sea rescue inside the carnac area back to rocko..

We ended up playing with the trim to try get settled in their wake, upped our speed to around 15 knots and got swamped twice by running through a swell, luckily, the bilge took care of the water that we collected, but our trip was not completley dry due to this mishap - still not sure if the rocko sea rescue boys had anything to do with the unexpected swell, as the second one happened way too close to when they held up the camera to snao a pic..???

all said and done, it was a great experience, my boat went well, all my shit worked, and almost made the expense of the refurb worth it - pretty uneventful besides the 2 swampings, but enlightining to the capability of the boat, and all done with the support of a great team, which was great.

Thanks to all the guys and girls that supported the convoy, and offered assistance and advice, and to the orginisers of this great event.

LESSONS LEARNED:

* A 5.5m runabout is fine for calm to meduim sea and wind, but has its limits - 5 fathom on good days only.

* I would do rotto again on my boat, but would leave time to delay the return trip a day if the weather was bad.

* I would not take my family on that trip on this boat - the boat can handle it, but it does get scary.

* My boat uses almost double the fuel in bad weather conditions. we were prepared, but i normally only have 50 litres onboard.

* My 90HP 2 stroke has a consumption of about 25l an hour on average.

* Rotto journey from Rocko is an hour in good weather and up to 3 hours in bad.

* We have heaps of boating support in WA, and an event like this brings everyone together. the blokes and ladies of these support crews do a great job, and we should really appreciate what we have here in WA.

So, all said and done, it was great, learned heaps, met nice people, had a great stay on the island, and a great weekend.

Anyone wondering if they should give it a go, check online as they will do it all again in march..

Thanks to everyone who made the weekend very enjoyable..

Few pics added..

We are the small blue boat in the centre of the first pic..LOL!

Dave

 Just wanting to know what do herring prey or feed on so i can match the hatch with lures. thanks

The story about being chased by fisheries on the "caught by fisheries" post had me reflect on a very funny event that happened to me and my best mate dave years back.

He used to work for a mercedes dealership as a diesel mechanic. The Boss/Owner was "F" and he was a happily married man with 2 kids.

We had a dive boat from heaven with its own compressor. So often dived twice a day. Inbetween we fished trying for the luxury of Surf and reef with Dhu and crays.

There were six of us and we drew straws to buddy up and then tossed a coin to see who would be the lead diver.

On the day in question we explored the morning and found a magnificent reef at the back of Rotto about 2k's out from narrow neck. We didnt score well on the morning dive, but had 2 nice dhu's onboard, and after discovering the honey hole late in the first dive returned for crays. It was a beautiful glass day and we had the place all to ourselves apart from a nice yacht about 400m anchored closer to shore.

Now I drew Dave, and lost the coin. I sighed, because the lead diver was the one with the choice. He could decide what we did under water and we all know he was a notoriously bad underwater navigator, which always ment a long swim back to the boat at the end off the dive.

This day the water was crystal clear with 20+m vis. We quickly filled our bags with crays(and I recall the limit was more than nowadays) and dave decided to explore more. After the tanks started to get low I was amazed to see a hull in the distance, but on closer approach I soon realised that it wasnt our boat. This was a yacht.

As we surfaced about 10m away we were greeted by a fantastic site. 3 nubile girls, 2 topless and the other as mother nature intended, sipping champagne on the deck, with "F".

Dave without even thinking exclaimed "good day Frosty!!" to be met with  frantic action onboard covering up etc. Now it was very obvious that none of the girls was Mrs "F" and that something was going on here.

Now there was various chatter going on betwee F and Dave about his secrecy or job loss.

Not all was lost to Dave and I as we were taken back to our boat 400m away still with secrecy clauses discussed, chatting away to the now more clad girls.

On reflection latter we were pissing ourselves at the thoughts that would have gone through F's mind. He was planning and succeeding at a dirty weekend, with 3 rather stunning girls, parked his yacht away from prying eyes, to just have 2 divers surface next to his boat. NOT only that, it was one of his employees that knew his wive well. He must have thought what have I done to deserve this, and how in hell could that happen.

His facial expression is not discribable in text but it was something to be behold.

Dave kept his promise (and his Job) but we still Kak ouselves thinking off this events, and the shear odd's of something like this happening.

And boy oh boy were the girls stunning, but wetsuits are not designed for a 20yr olds lack off body control when it comes to our friend below.

I dont think this could be repeated even if planned.

Hope others have funny stories.

ok so, a while I go I decided to probably say a bit too much on a forum topic about mandurahmatt's blue groper that was shot on the straight hook.
realising that I should not have said what I said about shooting a fish of that size. I apologise to mandurahmatt for my comments on that as it is not my place at all to say a comment like that on what people can shoot hook or keep when it comes to fish, size and species.
The other comments that followed that one from me were also uncalled for as it is not my place to say anything of the sort. realising that some people fish all their lives to catch certain species to a certain size and when they achieve that it is a great accomplishment to them to be able to land fish at that size. So for that one I apologise for the negative comments to that. My own rules that I apply to my fishing when It comes to species and size should be kept to myself and not be used to ridicule or upset anyone else who will have their own rules on what how and size of these species.
Also my comments about a one Mr White from Seasport Charters was totally uncalled for as I have no place to be able to say those comments about someone I don't know. obviously he was contacted about the comment from someone and hopefully the same person will contact him about this one. That's fine. I had no place for those comments and apologise to the public on this site about those comments without any justification at all.
This has been and hopefully will continue to be an awesome site and hopefully reach it full potential as it continues. Have been a member for a longtime on here and now have probably realised that it is time to move on for me if I cannot comment constructively to other posts.
Adam your an awesome bloke, proud to have you as a mate and you have put in a lot of effort to make this an effective and informative site.
Well all that said I am off, have made some awesome friends on here and have been happy to share spots, info and tips on fishing my back yard. If you are ever in ol barri town come and book a trip with me on my lb tours which will be up and running by the 3rd to 4th week in January next year. That is my focus now and trying to make it as successful as I can on startup.
catchya all and enjoy this awesome site.
Tangles signing off.

We have been working hard to get our product offering together.  We have finalised the “groups” of products and services we will provide, and this is illustrated in our final draft window graphic as shown below (it is 12m x 3m fronting Buckingham Drive).

I have finally found a burley cage design that we will be happy to sell (spent a lot of time looking and was getting close to having to get something made).  They come in small, medium and large, and I can make packs of Shore Catch Burley that fit each type.

I haven’t received my WA Fisheries Fish Processing Place and Fish Processor Licences yet but they should be close now.  It was however time to test the 1,500kg per hour mixer/mincer and the commercial cryovac machine on the burley today.  I can’t sell the product yet but need to get the method right.  I will keep this batch to myself, and provide some to mates for testing, but was very happy with how it all worked.

Our bait offering has also been coming along too.  We have decided to deal exclusively with WA Bait Supply for wholesale packaged baits.  WA Bait has recently been acquired by the Westerberg Family, that also operate Pilchard boats out of Albany and we want to support WA regional business.  Good quality Pilchards in requested size packages is a key offering from our Showroom/Warehouse and WA Bait can supply these.  We have also been able to commercially source squid tentacles, peeled prawns, local octopus, 200g whole squid, bonito fillet, mullet fillet, whole herring, and will vacuum package these in various sizes as specialty baits.

The below image shows today’s test result for burley and bait packaging, but those self-caught whiting are my Pinkie lollies for next season – if there are any big ones left (sob).  Not right yet but a reasonable start.

How does the afternoon of Thursday 10 December and Thursday 17 December sound for the FW Members pre-opening inspections?  We will open retail to the public in January 2016.  Sorry about the self-promotion but I thought Members might be interested in how it was all going.

This is bullshit

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/30223106/camper-rails-against-big-brother/?cmp=st

 I've just installed my all round white light and want to install a flood/spot pointing forward to see where I'm going, lights in the rocket launcher to see into the water next to the deck and lighting that send out filtered light in the cabin to have a rigging up area etc.

What wattage should I be looking at for my lights pointing out into the water? Is it a case of the stronger the better and should I also look at installing strip lighting under the gunwales?

 Looking at buying a leeder tomcat with a 5 lt.  260 hp stern drive . Any one fished on one or owned one ? Comments please.

Any reports from up Jurien way? Where are the whites at? Are they still in close or out a few miles in the open water already? I got my pots in too late up there last year and looking like the same again this year! Got enough for a feed but never had to work so hard for them.

 Looking for a diver have a pot stuck over at rotto its in 14 metres,anyone want to take up the challenge,Will be heading to Rotto tomorrow so if there is a diver available come and get your bag limit of crays while you free my pot 0422526513

Heard on 882 with karl langdon this morning, a guy from fisheries that apprehended just this morning, a 56 year old bloke, and his 53 year old wife, with 81 cray tails in their possesion, at one of the northern marinas this morning. 

He said as well as a $20k fine they were now facing, they would also be charged with obstruction, as they were trying to tip the cray tails back into the water when fisheries boarded their boat. He also mentioned a few other avenues they could persue to increase the fines, and also that they were definately heading to court with some "seriously life changing fines". 

Good to hear!!! Looking forward to reading the full statement when all the other details are released. 

 Hi All, just got my boat back down from Exmouth and am going to punch out today and put my pots in behind Carnac.

I'm probably a week off the pace but can anyone give me the heads up in what depth to start at to ambush these whites?

Many thx in advance

just putting this out there has anyone had any bad issues with this unit, the wifes treating me for christmas, i thought it was good value for money and comes with gold card!

 Hi everyone, 

I was hoping to get people's opinion on Fin-nor reels. I'm currently looking at the Fin-nor Lethal 100 reel for GT popping.

On paper, and after reading an incredibly thorough review by Alan Hawk, it seems to be pretty good and great value for money, but I'm still have slight reservations about whether it can hold its own with the big boys. I'm going on a trip in April chasing 40kg+ GTs, and I have the option of renting gear, but I'm thinking if I can buy reasonably priced gear then that'd be preferable since I could use it at another time when I get home from my trip.

I'm just wondering whether I'm wasting my time with a cheaper reel, and whether I have to just bite the bullet and buy the high end Shimano / Diawa gear or rent.

Note: I already have a Shimano TLD 25 for bottom bouncing, an Abu Ambassadeur 7000 for general use, and my Penn Prevail does well in the surf for me, my thoughts were that this might replace the Penn in the surf, or be kept of the popping rod for throwing metals and poppers after tailor and salmon.

I know that this was a long post, but I'd be keen to hear people's thoughts.

 if anyone  needs pots dived and un tangled etc. Me and a friend will be around diving this weekend north of the river. Your boat or our boat. Wat ever is in the pot is yours, require a small fee to cover costs. Cheers dave 0407871714

 Whats the difference. I have been told reds live mostly in the reef and whites mostly in the sand. Then I have heard that whites are the result of reds malting?

Me and my mate want to punch sh1t out of each other over who is right?

Bad day for Whittleys. This one as we were going in and another Whittley was towed to the jetty as we were pulling out.

Hi Guys

Just chasing a bit of info about potting for Crays in Albany.
Does anybody do it or is it not worth it?

Will be down there for a couple weeks over christmas and was thinking of taking the pots down.

Cheers Jayce

 The crays are on.15 boats in gront of us coming in and 15 behind us.got our bag

Enjoy

 Just got back from a few days on a live aboard charter out of shark bay with Apache charters running along dirk hartog island.

weather was pretty average the whole time, but was an unbelievable trip and would recommend them to anyone thinking of doing that sort of thing.  Skipper worked hard to continuously put us on fish, moving regularly when things got quiet.  Lots of baldies, rankins and pinkies caught with a dozen or so reds as well as few Pelagics.

cook did great with the food, plenty of fish, and the decky was brilliant.

again would throughly recommend them to anyone

 As I don't know how to add a pic to a post had to do this. Been using this for the past 4 years, reinforced it today as it was flexing the gunwhale a little to much for my liking. I don't remove the winch as it doesn't get in the way when fishing. Don't use a topper, have just installed the blue slides to protect the boat from the pots.

 So after 2 years and a fair few dollars i manged to finish this project. Boat is a Pride 22ft which had the old volvo 6 cylinder in with triple carbs, and 270 leg. After a few runs out when i bought it we figured it was probably wise to repower to get good reliability.

Picked up an engine and leg from a guy who was going outboard to gain more deck space. Motor is a 350 mercruiser and bravo 2 leg. We replaced carby with 600 Holley. Full rewire, All new cables and forward controls. Volvo to bravo adapter plate. Repainted hull which was the old mustard colour. Ive Wrapped the boat in vinyl print to update it and finished most of the interior with white and brushed alluminium panels i use for signs. Trailer got a birthday with springs, bearings, brakes, mudgaurds and wheels. Just need to paint it galv silver now. Had the boat out a few times on the river, putting in at Maylands and cruising down to freeo and back, done a couple of trips into the sound without to much luck. We caught a load of skippy and herring but nothing bigger. This was a few months ago.

Boat would do 21 knots flat out with old tired Volvo and now hits 39knots if needed. Cruising at 25knots at approx 3300rpm. Ive done a few runs to test range as it only has 130 litre tank. Last run on river saw 88kms on gps and we refilled, took 85 litres so not to bad.

Im pretty new to the boating scene as i moved from UK 7 years ago and this is my first one. Was looking for any info or recomendations on fishing in WA waters. Not a fan of the sharks but as long as i keep afloat that shouldnt be a problem lol.

I have a decent fish finder which im figuring how to use and navionics gol on a tablet which i use to keep clear from any reefs etc.

Any tips, advice or info would be greatly appreciated. Few pics of the boat to date.

Thanks in advance, George

 still heaps of deaf pinkies. Out right now and there is a whole Line of dead ones riding the current. Very sad to say the least

Gents

After snapping an envy black late last year I replaced the tip and turned it into my light inshore weapon for pinkies/salmon/skippy etc. Been heaps of fun and has claimed some really good fish this year. Unfortunately my 8 year old steez is battling to keep up with the punishment so I'm toying with the idea of retiring it and buying a new reel.

Had my heart set on a replacement Steez but the production on them has been binned so I'm looking for ideas on something which is going to stand up to some punishment. Thinking either a fi stella or an exist (steez is a 2500)at this stage - the things which are concerning me is the smaller line capacity of the stella and the flex in the exist.

Surely some people on here will be using some similar setups and without starting a shimano/daiwa debate, which reel is going to hold up better?

Cheers

Not before time I reckon, the behaviour of a good 25% of skippers up around Guildford and Bassendean is nothing short of disgraceful and on a public holiday there are ripped up reeds and mud from the banks all throughout the water. I was initially concerned that it would lead to reduced patrols in the upper Swan until I remembered that on the 30 or so 2-4 sessions I had on the dinghy up there I've never seen them once.

www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-25/cameras-planned-to-catch-bad-boat-behaviour-in-perth/6974504

 Was just doing a bit of work on our new website (still under construction) and came across a few photos I had forgot about.

 Below is a photo of a Goldband that as far as we can tell must of broken its back early in its life and still managed to survive and grow to quite a good size. Really quite amazing that with all the competion down there fish like this can survive and live long enough to get that big and then be unlucky enough to be caught by us.

We often catch fish that have had these type of things wrong with them, or have truly amazing thing that you would not believe unless you see, just dont allways think to get a photo of them. We recently had a punter drop their rod over the side only to have another person pull it up an hour later (with 4 fish, double header on his and double on the lost rod!) in 100+M of water. Also had a Rosy Jobfish with an old hole through it (billfish maybe) that you could just about poke your finger through but was doing just fine.

Anyway this got me thinking that there must be plenty of these type of captures stories out there that would be a bit of fun to read. So if you have a amazing story or photos of a bizarre capture post it up and I look forward to someone bettering mine. I know this type of post may have been up before, but I'm sure there are plenty of recent or forgotten stories. It's got to be a better read than grown men having a school yard whinge at each other or endless speculation over dead fish (at least untill we find the true cause of it). Got to have something to entertain me now the Block is over?

 Hi

I am going to dwellingup on the week end i was wondering what lures work best there. I have already caught fish in teh murray but not very successfully. so could any one give me the heads up of what lures work best.