I have been looking at getting a 2500 to 3000 size daiwa spinning reel, some of the options so far are the daiwa TD Bradia 2500R, TD Sol, TD Heartland and the TD ADvantage.... Was looking to spool the reel with 10lb braid and throw plastics for salmon etc.. Any opinions  or if anyones used/owns these reels it'd be great to get some feedback. Also if anyone has one for sale I may be interested. Thanks in advance.

Hey guys, I'm heading Down to denmark over easter and have never been there before. I will have a boat and a 4x4 and was just wondering what the fishing is like down there. Any info would be appriciated.

Cheers

Hi Fellas

I am heading up to dongra for work and was wondering if anyone knows about the fishing there or any decent fishing spots off the beach/jetty?

Unfortunatly i am only there for a few days so i want to get a bit of rnr for a few hours before the drive back.

Cheers guy's Hemi

Got to finally listen to this today driving back from Karratha to Dampier. Some good stories from people, I had a good one to tell but couldn't stop to phone up.

Cheers
Dale

want to try ballooning for mackerals can sombody help me out with rigging info

cheers

hello i was wondering what soft plastics are good at hillaries for everything but manly whiting and pinkies

cheers

Went out on Sunday in those glassy conditions and saw tuna schools everywere from the 3 mile to the 40's. Finally got a chance to see what those little buggers were chasing. Couldn't believe it, the bait fish were no bigger than a large gabusia minnow (zillions of them). I have never had any luck with Perth tuna, probably because I have been way off the mark with lure size/style. Do any of you guys target these little rockets? Any suggestions on lure type, approach to the school, speeds etc would be most appreciated.  Also, what species would they be?(only about 700mm long)

We've been around the Northern marinas crabbing with nets fairly successfully, but as this is our first season doing it we're not sure when (and if) the crabs disappear or if there is a 'season'.

Could anyone let us know so we're not throwing in nets for nothing?

Cheers

hey all jiggers.

ive recently seen a FIN NOR rod in a local tackle store which is heavily down priced.

it is a 30-50lb rod.

dose anyone have any experienses with this rod? im not shore if there are many different ones.

its so light and i think its good but what do you people think of it?

and if its a 30-50lb rod wat size jigs can it use?

cheers danno

looking for a gt outfit, can anyone tell me the difference between the stella 18000sw & 20000sw, besides the retreive, drag and capacity, which one is better.  Also a balanced rod to match?

So it's time to make it official.

I am moving to Kununurra permanently in May so as a farewell to the South West crew and fellow FW members I am going to hold a fishing comp (not leaving the site just the southern end of town).

It will be Saturday April 10. The comp will follow the exmouth rules and regulations and will be fairly simple but fun and based mostly on catch and release. You will pay a basic entry fee which will go towards prizes (probably $20). It will include both LB and offshore and freshwater if you want. But there will be a jigging contest  for all the gun jiggers.  Will include both junior and senior but probably easier to just have the one open age.

It will be a name tag photo with brag mat length as proof and not concerned with weighting a dead fish, but you can keep your catch as long as it meets fisheries regulations.

The comp will start at 6am and finish at 4pm with a few refreshments. At this stage we will look at Geographe Marina due to facilities (and bar) but you can lauch anywhere once you pick up your tag. I can arrange for you to pick up your tag on Friday arvo. But the finish time is 4pm Saturday at the Marina.

We will draw up a species list and it goes on length, not weight as discussed above.

It is a social comp so come join in and meet some fellow members.

If I have forgotten anything I will update the thread. Busy thinking about Barra...ha ha

Look forward.

Hi all  had a preey big weekend fishing and camping down at wedge fished fri and sat night to catch 4 Eagle rays and a huge shovel nose my tinnie broke down up there was spewin as the conditions where perfect had a dolphin come to the tinnie and he let us pat him and mucked round with us for a good hour . Went trollin out at west end today raised nothin so put the shark rods out and started to burley and got a small hammer head good size snapper ,black ass and 2 more rays had some really big runs but dropped them not sure what they where all in all awsom weekend

Hi guys can anyone tell me what the big orange goldfish looking fish are that are often on the exmouth pier cam. I had thought they might be orange ruffy but just did a google serch and they look different and russ said they are only a deep water fish ... So help please need to prove him wrong LOL

Sandy  

hey iam dying to catch a big GT just wondering what gear is needed to catch these beasts ive got a shimano stradic 8000i (i hope this does the job) reel just need line and rod now.

cheers

After reading Colins account of how Dave got a hook stuck in his thumb it reminded me of a nifty way of how to remove hooks.

I came across this Youtube clip which shows in detail how it is done.

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

I tried it on a mate a few years ago. He was tightening a blood knot on a small long shank Gamakatsu when it slipped and he drove it into his thumb. He was squealing like a stuck pig and wanted to go back to shore and we were at the back of GI and hadn't even got a line wet yet.

So I sat him down and poured him a cuppa and explained a few things, like my real name is Doctor Toothfish. Yea right. That went down real well. LOL I told him about this technique that we used to use on the fishing boats all the time (bull$%@t).

Well more important the two options were 1. Pull the pick, steam home, put the boat on the trailer,go to the Doctor or Hospital and generally stuff up the whole day or 2. Let me pull the hook out stick a Bandaid on it and have a nice day fishing.

I explained how I was going to do it and initially he didn't want to know about it but I eventually won him around. The most important thing is that downward pressure is applied to the eye of the hook. I told him that I was going to pull it out on the count of three (more bull$%@t) cos I went One, and as I was saying Two I whipped it out and it was all over and done with. Has anyone tried this method before?

We went on to have a good days fishing.

I know that some Doctors don't even know this technique and would push the hook through the skin, cut the barb off and then pull the hook backwards. A word of caution if in any doubt then just go to the Dr's/Hospital.

Cheers.

Toothfish.

Well after the old man had to give it a miss last weekend after his back was playing up, he was keen as to get out this weekend.  And he definately picked the best day to do it.  After risking our lives coming back through the slop last Saturday, this was just an amazing contrast.  Almost all day, it was complete glass. 

We got to the ramp at about 6am and a mate from work was two boats in front of us.  That's who I went out with last weekend.  I don't think he was too keen to show us his secret spot because by the time we got out through the groin, he was no where to be seen.  Didn't have time to hang around and chat obviously!

We headed out to a spot where Dad had last been out from Two Rocks back in 2003 (according to our fishing bible) and caught a nice little Dhuie.  I think he was scared to stir the water up because for some reason he didn't want to open the old Mercury 4 Stroke up too much.  When I had a go at him, he turned and looked at me and calmly said "There's no rush.  Plenty of time to fish."  With 30 mins eta on the GPS, It felt like I could jump out and swim faster!  Arrrgh!  Let her have it Dad!

Anyway, it wasn't too long before we stopped and I had my line down before Dad had even got up off his chair.  There was going to be no need for a drift anchor today.  Although some how, we did manage to cover a little bit of ground.  Not much longer and I had my first hook up.  It was big and it went for a run.  I was thinking bugger - it's a shark.  But after about 5 mins, I had it close enough to see that it was a big Dhuie doing bog laps about 15-20 meters down.  The visibility was amazing!  I was stoked to see such a big fish pop up and surface along side.  It was a PB by a long way for me.  A 12kg Dhuie (not sure on exact weight cause the old man weighed it later on steping on the bathroom scales and I wasn't there).  It was also a drought breaker for not just me, but the boat.  Hadn't landed a sized one for a long time.

By 8.30am I had managed to pull 2 nice Baldies on board as well and it was already by far the best days fishing I had ever had.  Dad was struggling to get anything on board, then he hooked up on something big (as you can tell by the photo).  Unfortunately it turned out to be a stingray which I also hooked and helped him pull to the surface.  At about 9.30am, Dad caught a nice little black arse but we decided we had enough fillets on board and we wanted to keep fishing so we sent him back on the release weight.  He was in good condition.  We decided to fish till 11.30 at the latest and in that time, we each pulled up a KG.

During the morning, we also saw something strange in the water about 100m away so we pulled our lines and slowly putted over, camera ready.  As we got closer, we realised it was a turtle???  Never seen a turtle out from metro before (if you can count Two Rocks metro).  Unfortunately it dived before we got a chance to take a happy snap up close but I did get one from a distance which you can see in the photo below.

It was an awesome day with a nice ride in.  I was still on a high from catching such a big fish and the weather just topped the day off.  If only it was like that every day we went fishing.  I also met a couple of fellow forum members back at the ramp.  Paul G (sporting his Fishwrecked Tshirt) and his son Jesse G.  They had just got back from having a dive.

Let's hope there are more days like that coming up soon! 

The weather looked reasonable so headed out at about five thirty from the point peron boat ramp, seas were flat so headed out to the 40m line just south of rotnest.

We had a few drifts and just on sunset landed a breaksea cod on the first drift. The next drift turned up a nice about a 75 cm dhuie from the deeps. so we went back for a third drift and managed about a 1m whiskery shark coming up. Nearly forgot the last dhuie we got, had a quick photo and release back to the depths to swim another night.

Got to about ten thirty and headed in towards the five fathom behind garden island to try for a late snapper but come across another boat with electrical problems so towed then back to the boat ramp, ended the night early but was an overall productive night.

Anyone see the fishing reports in the Sunday times?

In particular the short read of the guy out from west end harrased by a 4m white.
Atricle says the shark advanced at him but seemed to turn off when came into the range of the shark shield.

Interesting to read a 'close encounter' when someone is actually using one.

Any of you had such experiences where you believe the shark shield has done its job?

with the glass off conditions these last 2 days how did everyone go?

went for a double dive on yesterday off mindarie and managed a few crays and looped a foxy, On the way out saw plenty of tuna out smashing baitfish and continued through the whole day. Only took the overhead out for trolling, DOH!

With this in mind i figured i'll target tuna today got out there nice and early and saw schools of baitfish (whitebait to big scaleys) everywhere bubbling on the surface, trolled for a hour around and through the schools but no luck. Waited for the tuna to start feeding but they never showed up, didnt think it would take that long with that much bait around. Not sure where they dissappeared too. Did catch a nice harley tho. Anyone get any tuna today?

Looking to buy a chart for C120 for Perth waters wondering if any one has one for sale before I go to the shop and purchase one.

Thanks

Pm or 0433661099

Marcus

what sort of traces are generally used for luring tailor? is wire needed or is mono better? i'm leaning towards mono atm seeing as it won't spook other by-catch species like skippy that don't need wire

and if mono is the choice, how heavy would it need to be to prevent instant bite offs?

went out today just as yesterday with no wind in the air... headed straight out toward the southern fad and trolled for half hour...caught two baby tuna. then headed 2nm west to 275m deep. sent down the rigs and bang... first drop. Pink snapper. Nice way to start the day... then next drop... triple header green-eyed sharks. time to move on. went out another 3 clicks to 410m. hooked up to something bug but somehow lost him half way up.. then all we caught was sharks... can anyone help me out with snapper winch fishing and also what ground to look for when fishing out deep for hapuka and bass grouper?

cheers

Jack 

Edit: sorry guys but all the pics have dissapeared. Ill throw in a couple of the finished product though


With 8oz grapnel sinkers costing about $10 and proper moulds costing a fortune I have been making my own grapnels by modifying $3 snapper sinkers from big W.

You need: Drill, 3mm drill piece, steel coat hanger (or steel from bunnings i guess), pencil, pliers

Step 1: Cut the coat hanger at desired length so you have 2 straight pieces, depending on the size of the sinker and the size bait you wil be sliding (see pic 1).

Step 2: drill two holes in the sinker at 90 degrees to each other and one just above the other. Insert the wire through the holes (see pic 2).

Step 3: Bend the wire on each side of the sinker by about 135 degrees so they cross over (see pic 3). Where the wires cross bend each one back to create a bend in the wire that can be used to "snap"" the wire into place later (see pic 4).

Step 4: with the wire in place as it would be when the sinker is in use (see pic 5) mark the spot where the bends in the wire touche the sinker. Drill small indents into the sinker so the bends in the wire catch, allowing the wire to "snap"" into place (see pic 6).

Step 5: Repeat for the other wire, with both wires snapped into place it might look something like pic 7

I have found these sinkers hold in the sand a lot better than the store bought ones as the wires are longer and thicker, which allows you to slide very big baits even in strong current or through heavy swell. Im sure this method can be improved and would love any advice. Hopefully this can help people save a few bucks and get some big fish land based.

EDIT: after some trial and error, found that using the same wire you can wrap the wire tightly around the hole you would tie your line to, then bend into the shape shown in the last pic. Then, file a gap in both sides allowing you to attach a cable tie to hold the wire in place, and you can add a fifth arm. This serves 2 purposes. firstly, you can clip your baits, so you dont need an IMP clip, just hook the bend in the wire over your bottom hook (Privided sinker leader is longer than the hook leader). Secondly, this fifth arm seems to help the sinker hold in the sand when sliding big baits.

still plenty of room for improvement....

cheers

make ya wanna pick the wand up???
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4pOOMpFW_8

Anyone got any tips for fishing canal rocks region safely from a 4metre tinnie?

Heading down for six days over Easter and looking for Salmon, naturally.  

What lures are good for casting, trolling...etc What time of day, how deep...etc

Any advice would be appreciated! Got the family with me so I can't spend all day chasing them!

I fish out of Bunbury and have been fishing this area for quite some time. Down here at this time of year we always see plenty of Hammerhead Sharks. This year I have noticed a lot of small young sharks that are blue in colour with a decent eye on them. They are prolific at the moment with catches nearly every time I go out. At 1st I thought they were young Makos because they are similar in appearance, but they don't exit the water whilst fighting like Makos normally do. Are they Blue Sharks that are related to Makos?

Water Temps. down here are slightly higher than the last few previous years.

Are any members in the metro or south west area noticing this as well?

Would be interesting to know...?

My grandad is here from OS for a few weeks and I was hoping to take him up the moore for some bream...

was hoping that someone knew the cost and specs of the tinnys they hire out there just for the day?

If anyone could help out that would be great,

Cheers,

Schecky 

My poor dog couldn't get a look in. The honey bees must be thirsty after all this hot weather. Fortunatly both he and I are vewry tollerant and not phased by these lill critters. It was almost as if they were joining in on the fun. No stings attached.. LOL

Can someone help please!!!

I have come to the conclusion that I am a crap at catching tailor from the shore. I like to think of myself as a fair fisherman at most species. Plenty of fish  from boats and shore but when I target tailor from the shore I suffer like the Dockers. Have caught them to a good size out on the reefs, Shark Bay but am useless off a metro beach.

Plllleeeease help me

Cmong along.

The prize i am donating for the comp

Here getting the stickers applied and 2nd coat of epoxy, will be completed by mid wekkd and fully unveiled.