http://www.trvsrg.com.au/CurrentState.html

 I have a stripped thread on my outboard gearbox. It's  a 1/4.  I don't suppose anyone out there has a helicoil repair kit I could borrow.  I will collect and return from anywhere metro????

Gday taking the boat out of mindarie saturday before sundays storm. Havent been out there for quite a while and me mate is after his first dhuie or baldie. Any suggestions as to what direction and what depths we should fish at this time of year. I was thinking of heading more north out deep to the 60 - 70m line or do you think better fishing in the 40 odd metre line any tips welcome cheers  

 hi, yesterday i went fishing with a mate at a remote but non poluted part of the swan river flicking out soft plastics. we kept seeing big mullet jumping. what do i use to catch one of them and are they edibal?

 Hi all.

I know there's plenty of posts on fridge freezers, this topic has probably been flogged to death. But I just want to know if these so called dual zone ones can operate as the whole unit being a fridge or the whole unit being a freezer. And if so which performs this best? Basically I want to enjoy the dual zone goodness heading up, and during fishing trips. And then be able to load it up with fillets and freeze it for the return trip. Wishful thinking yes. Any advise appreciated. 

caught it whilst out today (South West) , inhaled a squid bait . in ~110ft

 released

 Hi everyone.  After buying my first surf rod I really want to get some action. But I realised that I have got not much of an idea on where to use it and what to go for. I have heard floreat beach drain is good??? I do not have access to a 4x4.

if you have any suggestions please tell me what you will catch and how I should target them. I know some basic tailor rigs and know I should use mulies and a gang. Also know for salmon that you will catch most on lures.

the rod that I will be using is a Rovex air surf prime ASP 132. Reel is Fin-Nor Biscayne FS80 spinning reel. The mainline is 25lb mono. I will also have access to 30lb leader.

lachie

 The drag was playing up on my Stradic FJ 5000 so i took it apart to find one of the felt drag washers was shredded. Currently I just replaced the felt with some new for a temporary fix, but was wondering on thoughts of going to maybe carbonex washers or are there any other choices?

 Hey guys, just wondering if anyone knows anyone willing to let me shoot on there property with two of my sons. I'm 55 and an experienced shooter but I have lost my contacts because I haven't been shooting for a while. Send me a pm if you have property or know of someone who does, don't mind having to pay.

thanks guys 

 I have a couple of heavier combos which I generally use when on charters with Whitey.  My main weapon is a Fin Nor Ofshore 9500 reel mounted on a 5'3" Abu Garcia 15kg rod.  I've found this a bit too heavy unless I'm lucky enough to get into sizeable demersals.  It's also not real flash when used for jigging. I've had a Shimano Aernos XT 8000 in my bag for a few years.  It's hardly been used and only for beach fishing at that.

Question:

1. Would this reel, loaded with braid(mono at present), be suitable for bottom bouncing and if so;

2. I would like a recommendation on a suitable rod to match.  Something lighter than what I have but also suitable to handle a decent size dhufish.

Many thanks in anticipation.

Baz

Hi Guys,

I'm just after some advise about Cervantes in May I will be taking my youngest son (3) and the missus for a weekend of fishing and cray fishing I'm hoping to catch a decent Dhuie or Snapper for then as long as conditions suit I also wanted to drop some pots and was after any advise that could help make this trip a success, not after GPS locations just some general advise to help catch them there first decent fish so I can get them hooked on fishing. What depth are the crays at this time of year?

Any advise or previous experience at Cervantes would be great thanks!!!!

 hey guys just in the process of gearing up for a new target i want to tick off the bucket list. got a decent pe8 setup coming and i want to try and target a 20kg+ GT landbased. i know guys do well at the navy jetty and oyster ledge at exmouth and ive seen a few come from dirk and quobba but they seem to be a not commonly targeted fish or are they just to hit and miss to target propery?? going to be fishing mostly washy spots so not sure if poppers or stickbaits are the go as i havent really done this style of fishing before so any tips or tricks would be much apreciated cheers..

 Fish were all caught on Five Fathom Bank at sunrise, been getting the crays in close in 3-5m of water.

 Hey guys,

I am going to purchase a new small rod and reel and am after suggestions. 

Will be used to target smaller fish like black bream, herring, flathead, whiting, fresh water fishing, etc. 

Thinking of spending around $200 on the combo. Will prob put 8lb braid on. 

Cheers

Rob

What a wicked weekend fishing down mandurah inthe river lost 1 big run that was a mulloway and got another big run in that was a bgi sting ray no pics though sorry in the river of all places both runs where on snelled hooks with live trumpeter i was using a lever wind reel i really like it to now the settings for drag are nice and the rod was a abu garcica muscle tip and a easy strike overhead lever wind reel and 50lb mono

? whats the small sice mono in 80 lb

Me and a mate are planning on heading over to the Abrolhos Islands in our 6 meter ally boat.

Depending on the weather we'll be heading across on Thursday morning and then coming back Saturday morning.

Is anyone else going over around the same time?

I would prefer it if we could tag along with another boat if anyone is going. Safetly in numbers.

This is our first trip over and we'll probably just be sticking around the southern island group. Any advise would be welcome.

All,

Following on from "The Second Post - 3 Mile Experiences", we put into practice the lessons learned and picked up 10 Pinkys this morning.  We kept our bag limit with fish between 580mm and 710mm, as per the attached photo - Luke got the big ones.  Most on sinking pilchards in the burley trail but the biggest one was caught off the bottom.  The water was fairly dirty today and that may have had something to do with it.

There was a big shark out there and it is the first time we have seen a Snook fly!  He tried hard to get our Pinks but luckily his only capture was a Skippy, and the unlucky flying Snook.

Worth getting up for and missing out on the Easter Eggs.  Happy Pink Easter.

Mick

Friday had a capsize off the back of Garden Island and yesterday had another one off Rotto.

I took the wife, kid and woof down to Woodmans Point on Friday and couldn't believe how far the swell was managing to make it around the corner, and could see waves breaking inside Carnac Island. There were certainly some boomers out. 

Be safe people. Be smart too! Even in 2-3m swell, waves WILL break where they don't normally break, as we have seen.

 hey guys 

this year we have decided to take the boat down to duns for my school hoildays we have never fished down there before and have no idea on where to go was  really hoping to get into some fat YTK and dhues on jig and or bait any help regarding what areas to try, depth to fish, srtucture to look for, or bait to use would be really REALLY appriciated ( not asking for precise spots just a general idea of where to find them) the boat is a 7m commodore attitude centre console has sounders etc 

cheers guys and happy easter 

 Does any one have one installed are they are a good idea?

 Have been hearing there's been a few decent kg's being caught in geo bay the past week. Taking the yak out tomorrow to verify (weather/hangover permitting), let you know how it goes.

 Finally joined Facebook last week ( gave in to peer pressure). Joined the fishing busselton sw page, I thought this page was to help fellow fishers in the south west area. Turns out its to help out BCF. There was a post about the latest bait delivery, saying get in quick, being a long weekend mulies would likely sell out. So I posted that geographe camping just got a pallet of mulies, and if they did sell out this is where you could get some. I do work there and we are not site sponsors. Got deleted within a few hours. Do you think this is in the best interest of the sight, or am I just cut my post got deleted?

bought my self a white ockta jig today the blokes at complete angler rocky reacon they are the go for red emperor up north has any one had any joy with them down in the metro the jig I bought looks like it would be a dhuie lolly

haven't posted anything worth reading for a while now so here's something I thought I'd share.

caught my first decent mulloway on Friday morning at 2.30am and took a few baits to get him cause he too the first two before I could get to hook it but eventually landed him after a 5 min or so battle. weighed 13 kg bled gutted and gilled and 110cms. so overall weight I would think to have been 15 kg. good fish either way :)

oh and if your gonna ask me were I caught it. don't bother :P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P

 Are yellow tail kingfish any good to eat ? caught a couple about 750mm and bled them properly.Your bcooking sujestions would be appreciated.

Cheers Paul

Hello All,

Well, time has passed after my First Post (http://www.fishwrecked.com/forum/first-and-hopefully-not-last-post-full-edition) about my lack of local knowledge and experience relating to fishing the waters of WA after moving here from Queensland in December.  I thought I might update the knowledgeable FishWrecked Members about some of the recent experiences in the hope that these may provide insight that could assist other “newbys” in the nuances of trying to get the family a feed in waters you know nothing about.  I must say at the outset that a lot of my motivation was about trying to stop the torments of immediate family members - “where are these fish that you spend so much time chasing”, “I want slabs not bites”, “you got the wrong boat as you can’t go far enough to get us decent fish”, “how much cash are you going to spend on your fishing gear with no return”?  I am sure many of you are all too aware of these types of comments!

So, where I left off in the First Post was to concentrate on the dawn and dusk and see how we went.  I had proven that the 5m Quintrex Hornet Trophy had the required navigation gear to do this successfully when the conditions were right.  The real problem is that over the past months the conditions have rarely been right and I have gained an appreciation as to why Perth is called the Windy City.

Based on the local knowledge and experience I had gained so far, I saw a real need for an “all round” combination that would catch anything from the Sand Whiting to the Sampson Fish.  This need was also brought about by my interest in fishing the MAAC monthly competitions where there is a real incentive to catch the maximum number of different species whereby I didn’t want to have heaps of different gear for this purpose.  After much research and internet reviews I settled on a Shimano Stradic CI4+ 4000 spooled with 300m of Diawa Accure Tournament 30lb 8 strand braid fitted to a Storm PE3 Jig Stick.  What a lovely little light combo that could land most things as long as you fought the fish.  I don’t eat the things so it is all about the sport for me.

Another thing that my limited local knowledge and experience had suggested, and following a number of posts, was the importance of burley.  It is not something I had routinely used fishing the beaches and running rivers but I could see the real need for it in the reef environments off Perth Metro.  So, it was off to Nana’s to see if she still had one of those old style mincers (the cast iron ones that you anchor to a bench and they can just about mince anything with a bit of elbow grease).  Hooray, I could get one and it is now a much loved item of my ever growing fishing equipment.  The burley making however is not a much loved event of the family as I do it out the back and let’s just say it creates the odd impact or two on the local amenity in the way of air quality.

Off to the pet food shop and I purchased 25kg of chook pellets as a base for the burley.  Off to the tackle shop to buy tuna oil with aniseed.  Off to the fridge to pull out all the old bags of bait, small fish kept for dead baits and fillets of those less than desirable eating quality fish, collection of those old frames that had been frozen for disposal on bin day.  In the end, I ended up with pellets, oil, whiting (whole and fillets), pilchards, squid, prawns, octopus, Skippy fillets and various offcuts from all sorts of things.  The mincer got a real workout as I created a bucket load of brown smelly paste that I then mixed and mixed and mixed.  Loaded it up into sealable plastic bags so the roll would fit into my burley bomb and then into the freezer to become rock solid.  Experience with using it suggests that if you make it right it lasts between 2 and 3 hours.  One lesson however is don’t use too many pellets – it makes the mix too crumbly and lasts about 15 minutes – make sure there is plenty of fish and other solid flesh to get a thick toothpaste type of consistency, and grind the pellets up as well.

Anyway, the alarm clock is permanently set on 4.30am and the wind forecasting web sites are reviewed many times a day to pick those meteorological abnormalities where winds are light and seas are small around the dawn and dusk time frames.  Luckily there have been a few such occurrences over the past couple of months.

The following is a gallery of some of the recent captures and a bit of commentary.  Note that these have all been caught on the 3 Mile Reef in about 10m-12m of water – shows that you don’t have to always go a long way to get some decent fish although the desire to go a bit further afield is growing more and more. 

The first fish with my new rod and reel.

A nice Sampson at first light.

Skipjack Tuna at dusk - what a good fight that was.

The bag on the night we got the Tuna.

A good sized flathead - this was the only fish not caught at the 3 Mile - got him in about 30m with a live slimy on the drift.

A school of Skippy that liked our burley.

A bag from a night fishing with the nephew and kids.

Sarah's Sambo.

Luke's 700mm pinky - I rate this as the premium catch so far.

The bag from the night we got the big pinky.

Luke's first legal Dhu.  We had caught about half a dozen or more undersized, including a 480mm, so it was good to finally land this 580mm specimin.

The bag on the night we got the legal Dhu.

This one inspired us to go and get some cray pots.

A "heart starting" Sambo and sign of things to come.

The biggest Skippy caught so far.

Double 600mm pinks.  The Sambo, big Skippy and these two made for a great morning.

I reckon Snook are the mongrels of the sea.  They always come on just after dark and smash your mono.  We have lost good fish because of line damage caused by these bastards.  At least I have a use for them in the cray pots now.  Those Harlequin are quality eating fish though.

Unusual catch day - a big Wobby, a Spangaled Emperor, and a big mongrel Snook.

The 430mm Spangled - needed to ask for confirmation as they really shouldn't be this far South.

Our first legal cray from the 3 Mile.

A few of the “golden rules” I have picked up using my limited, although growing, local knowledge and experience are as follows.

• Burley long and hard.  Get a slick going and keep feeding it with “chunks” but don’t overdo it and feed the fish – you want their interest only.
• Burley works best at anchor, and make sure the burley is in your fishing zone.
• Always have a floating bait out and only let out enough line so the bait won’t hit the bottom – or better still, free spool until it hits the bottom and then set again.
• Learn how to rig a snelled hook set as whole pilchard bait presentation is much better than on gangs.
• Expect to lose some gear as there are some ocean “beasts” attracted to the burley that you will just struggle to stop.
• Pilchards are a really good bait that most things like.  Yes they go soft, yes they come off easily, yes they are stinky and sloppy but you do get really good results.
• When the sun is up it is the playtime of the wrasse and parrot – it is only the odd black arse we have caught on the shallow near shore reefs during the day, in amongst the thousands of red and brown nuisances.
• You can catch big fish with little hooks but you can only foul hook “little” fish with big hooks.
• Big Sampson Fish like little live wrasse.  Sampson Fish are not worth keeping but are great sport.
• Use solid mono leader and avoid all weak points – attaching a hook with a loop just doesn’t work on big fish and we have lost many because of this – spend the time on tying the pana properly.
• Watch out for cray pots in the dark – always best to try and plan your dusk and dawn trips in pairs so you can see and note the positions of the cray pots in the afternoon and set your morning course to avoid them.
• Be very wary of charter boats – see: http://fishwrecked.com/forum/seeing-eye-dog-needed-charter-boat-skipper
• Behave yourself at the boat ramp and be courteous to others – see: http://fishwrecked.com/forum/rampies

The images show that we have been generally lucky and have landed some nice fish from near shore waters.  We have put the effort in though and it is good to see that you can get the rewards when you do.  I still feel that we are complete novices and have a lot to learn.

It is fair to say that I have nothing but admiration for the WA waters and am looking forward to continuing the adventure.  I do hope this post can inspire other new to WA fishers as it is an aquarium out there.

Good luck to all.  Mick

So this was the 3rd attempt at an Abrolhos Weekend. I had a mate flying in from Melbourne making the trip up and had to keep cancelling flights due the weather, but last weekend 12th – 14th April we finally managed to go.

 Left at 1:30am on the Saturday and had a traffic free run up to Gero. Launched and was greeted with some nice conditions on the way across.

 The first spot we pulled up to this is what the sounder showed.

Second drop with the OctoJig and managed this nice Dhuie. The Dhuies went mental for the Octojigs up here.

Headed down to Wreck point for a troll, heaps of birds but only managed a YTF, Didn’t really put in a lot of time for Maccies though.

Here are some other photos of other catches

No big Coral trout this was the biggest

We anchored at Gun Island each night

Here is a short video of getting some shallow water crays

https://vimeo.com/92323504

Awesome trip as always up there

 Hi guys was cleaning out my fishing gear and took a photo of my currrent reel collection, figured id put it on fishwrecked. Maybe other people could do the same to compare collections.

 Hey fellas, 

ive just moved up to Hedland full time  for work and was chasing a bit of knowledge about land based fishing around the area or if anyone in the area needs a deckie until I can get my boat up here . And info would be good. 

Cheers

 hi guys, now that its easter the salmon are coming in. were are good spots not to far, what times, bait/lures, tides ect.

any help would be good.