To settle an conversation i had the other day what depth in reality would be the absolute maxium to send down a livie like a Scaly Mack or yellowtail and still have it in good condition , All the live bait would be kept in a live bait well and still in good condition before hand and thoughts ?

Is anyone aware of any pinkie action in the sound? want one for the table and happy to let an others go

hay guys and girls,

im heading to exmouth next year some time hopefully around easter  time i would like to be up there for a month.  i was up there 2 yrs ago at easter and enjoyed it very much but i never took my boat ,1 because it was my first time up there and i was just looking around, now that i have looked around im draging my boat up there this time.basically is easter a good time to go with the boat or should i wait till after the school holidays ??? im hoping adam gallash could help on this

Gday crew
i'm getting my old boy some tackle sorted for his quick mission up to exxy next week. he will fish probably exclusively inside the reef south of Tantabiddi off a dinghy. common practice in the past has been to anchor off a bombie and burley. mixed success but sometimes the spangos and golden trevs are ridiculous! good fun.
anyways - we have always fished unweighted mulies and fresh fish bait. so i'm tying him some rigs and stuff coz he's not really up to tying solid knots in 60lb mono anymore. but i was thinking i should rig him a few lightly weighted gangs for a slow drift out the back for mackies, and drift baiting etc if he gets into deeper water (unlikely - him and the uncle are pretty sedate old buggers).
so now i'm thinking - well, maybe i should set up a few soft plastics for him to chuck around the bombies? any feedback on the best type? deadset - he'd be lucky to try em i reckon so i dont wanna go get seven different sizes etc, but did wanna arm him with something. was thinking of berkley alives as they will keep nice in the caravan for whenever he may get around to using them...
any good advice on sizes/colours etc? or any revolutionary (and simple)rigs i could send him to battle with?
any advice appreciated.
tight lines fellas.

are there any decent landbased spots to fish in warnboro sound?

Hi Guys, looking for an opinion from some Cockburn Sound regulars on whether you reckon the Sound will be fishable on Saturday keeping in mind the fairly strong southerlies forecast. I am keen to fish the area but it is a long trip down there from home

Cheers Steve

p.s. I am more interested in boat fishing rather than land based

In response to a couple of PMs, I dug around my fishing books and magazines. I'm no expert (know JS ), but here's a pic - easier than describing them:

One variety is the Mustad Powerbite. 

Can Anybody tell me where the best areas are for bream at the moment.

Cheers
Dean

Hi guys

my brother and i went out to cockburn sound yesterday for a couple of hours in a 4m tinnie. Its only the second time out on it in the sound so we are still looking for spots that hold fish. Anyways just thought i'd let you know that we went near the shipping yard entrance and caught easily 40 to 50 small (15-25cm) pinkies. Released them all but they were good fun on my 8lb line. most of them being caught as im letting the line out so i didnt even hit the bottom. We also caught 1 15cm fish that im pretty sure was a queenie as ive never caught one but it looked identical to a picture i have at home. however i didnt know you could really get them down here. But that went back too. 

Can anybody shed some light with regards to pinkie seasons as i am told by some that your alowed to catch them all year and others say you'll be fined if you keep them at certain times. Or is there an unwritten law about catchin them at certain times of the year. Any info would be greatly apprecited.

At the end of the day we were out for 3 hours from lunch till 3pm. Caught a couple of yellow tail but nothing worth keeping so everthing went back. But it was a good day anyways. Hopefully get out again next weekend to do some more exploring around the sound and might even go for some squid as there seem to be heaps of people catching them at the moment.

cheers

Going down to Hillaries Marina shortly for a fish, might try near the kiosk and off the walls depending whats going on, if you see me come say hi, i will put my fishwrecked shirt on just so you all know who i am, about to go to the shop and get some bait and stuff then head down, might give the 1kg a go as well.

Went to the south wall this morning (Hillarys), as i do most weekends, thinking i'll bag a few herring for dinner tonight. WRONG!!! Not one little 'sea rat', not even a bite. What The?  All the conditions were the same as other times iv'e gone, but nothing around, apart from those pain in the butt blowies. Does anyone have a theory, or did anyone go this morning and catch something? If you did, please don't rub it in too much.

Cheers Fab

chucking some lines out at the tip of the main wall at hillarys tonight? say 530ish?

Hi again.

Anyway would it be better to get the 50w and 24kg game rod or the 50w with the 15kg game rod.

Cheers

On google maps is the dark black water the deeper water or the dark blue water? e.g if you look closely at hillarys boat harbour some of it is dark black and some dark blue ... some bloke at hillarys today noted that there was a few deep holes and he could see these on google earth ... any info would be appreciated!

chris

Heading out tommorrow looking to get a ruby snapper, or some gray banded cod ,the weathers looking good, and the boats fueled up. so it of into the blue yonda in search of these fine fish . will hit the shallow ground on the way in try to get some dhuies or snapper , are well here's hoping

guys got a bent but custom game rod.
blank : seeker
rollers: aftco
reel seat : aftco
grip: leather
line rating : 15 - 24kg
worth over a grand
sell $600
condition brand new
brenz

Can anyone tell 100% when the new bag and size limits come in ,or are they allready in .I know the closed fishing is 15 october but nobody seems to really know. i read the topic from the fisheries and it wasn't there or i missed it . heading out tommorrow ,don't want to break the rules and end up with a fine .

If anyones got a spare spot , share expenses and laughs jus pm me

cheers feral

After i dragged myself out of bed at 5:45 this morning albeit half an hour later then i had my alarm set for lol, i set out for Hillarys North Wall disabled jetty on the hunt for a nice feed tonight after being told by UncleStu it would be a great morning to try!

So i got there at about 615 and UncleStu pulled up the same time as me, we introduced ourselves and then wet some lines after being soaked by quickly passing cold rain.

Stu was reeling in yellowtail after yellowtail (feeding about 10 to the cats, Colin H i think we have found the problem to the ever increasing cat population 'UncleStu!!!!') I managed to have a floated rig and i was reeling in herring after herring and a few mullet.

After the blowies came around once the sun had risen there weren't too much good fish left (i reckon they get scared of the blowies and head out further or deeper) Stu did manage to catch that beaut of a skippy (28cm) on his light gear which looked good fun pulling in!

Now for all you soft plastics addicts there was a few guys fishing inside the marina right next to the restaurant, one bloke managed to land a 1kg (or more) skippy (friggen monster!!!!!!) i couldnt believe it and a few smaller ones as well probably about 600-700gms.

All in all i had a great morning and it was great fun on the light gear!

just had a look at the former hmas perth wreck dive site. the underwater picture isnt working but the above water one is. the swell dosent look too bad either.

Deckie spot available at midday tomorrow.

Share expenses etc etc.

Bit of Squidding then head out for a dhuie once the wind drops, STAAL is too chicken shit to tell his mrs so I got a spot available

 If not I'll have to take my mrs, please save me.

Al. 

Is there any squid in the Hillaries to Mindarie area at the moment? How hard to get them during the day? Sunday is looking decent and I am thinking of taking the kids out.

I took yesterday off to do a few chores at home before my wife and I head off to Egypt.
However, there was a small weather window early in the morning so I decided to go for a quick fish down at Hillarys.
Fortunately,the weather window stayed open and I ended up staying out fishing for 10 hours.
The following is an account of why that happened and why my wife put me in the dog box.
As I said earlier, my plan was to head down to Hillarys for a few hours and then to get back to my chores. So I woke up at about 5 am and after dragging on all my wet weather gear, I headed down to the lighthouse on the north wall to fish just before and after dawn.
The currents were unusually strong and a solid easterly was blowing, so it wasn't ideal conditions, but I did manage to catch two skippy, one fairly small, one very decent.
With the wind starting to really pick up I decided to move to the area between the Restaurant and the Yacht pens to see if anything was happening. An unweighted mulie and a variety of soft plastics only attracted the attention of the blowies. The wind was continuing to blow pretty strong from an easterly direction - and as I had had been there for a few hours, I thought I should head home and do my chores.
Fat chance. With that wind blowing, the conditions were pretty good for fishing off the main wall.
One of the great things about an early morning fish at Hillarys is that there are plenty of places to go for a quick bite to eat. So I dropped into the local Gloria Jeans for a couple of fruit muffins and a cup of coffee to warm me up. I don't think the staff there knew what to make of me as I was covered from head to toe in water proof gear (they had predicted heavy showers all day)and was more than likely giving off an odour of slightly thawing mulies.
Anyway, after that top up, I headed out to one of my favourite spots opposite Boy in a Boat reef.
The weather gods were still smiling, but after about a couple of hours of throwing different baits out I was starting to think I had better go home and do my chores - or maybe I should try some soft plastics.
I was going through my box of sps deciding what would work best when zzzzzzzzzzzz, the line on my 10 foot rod starting peeling off. I jumped up and set the hook and the creature on the other end kept heading west. However, my Stradic did its job and after a pretty solid fight I had a sizeable stingray up to the rock wall. I am not a great fan of stingray flaps, so I cut the line as close to the hook as I could and let it swim off. Well that livened up the day.
I was starting to re-rig that line when my other rod, which was rigged up for throwing unweighted half mulies went off.
I set the hook. Same story. The creature (which I could see quite clearly was a much bigger ray) headed west. I knew I was in trouble as I only had 20 lb leader on and this ray was heading straight for the reef. Ping, goodbye ray.
By this time, there was no way I was heading home to do chores.
I re-rigged my gear, and thought that should be the last of the rays. Unfortunately not. I had managed to grab a rock crab and borrowing (stealing) from Spess' great idea of rigging them up on soft plastic jig heads, I threw one out on my lighter rig and sat back and hoped a pink snapper might come along. Unfortunately not. About an hour later,zzzzzzzzzzzz, my line headed west and there it was - another huge ray heading straight for the reef - Stingrays 2 - Colin 1.
Soon after that I noticed a small school of Buff Bream move into my burley trail. These looked quite sizeable - but after tangling with the rays I thought maybe I should try something a bit smaller. I rigged up with a sp jig head, put on small peeled prawn and tossed it out. A few reasonable bites, but no hook ups.
So I grabbed the smallest jig head I had and tried that out.
Threw out the prawn, watched the big Buff race out from the rocks - bang I was on. I had the drag on my new Sustain fairly tight and managed to hold the fish up for a bit, but with rocks everywhere around him he soon cut me off.
That was fun - so I rigged up again. A couple of casts, then bang, I am on again - but even with my drag tightend down some more it was under the rocks in a pretty short time. Buff Bream 2, Colin 0.
I wasn't catching any edible fish - but this sure beat doing chores.
Sadly that was about it for the fishing action. I managed one more reasonable skippy - which I returned and then decided to head home - to find my wife steaming and asking why I hadn't done my chores. And I thought the stingrays were looking angry.
How can you explain a fun fishing day to a non-fisherperson. I gave up and swore I would do them today. I better hurry then and stop typing or I will really be in the dog house.
All the best, Colin Hay

What are the best ones to use off like jetties?

And what are the best times to go fishing for squiddies?

Where is the best place to go along the scarborough beach strip?

Are there any no fishing zones (due to people swimming etc)?

G'day guys

Just flicking around on the net and came across this beauty. Would save a lot of messing around with rigging needles and waxed thread. Super quick as well to get the livey back in the water.

 http://www.quickrig.com/Images/baitclip.wmv

Cheers Mick

goin for a paddle on the yak this avo at hillarys if keen give us a call on 0433454156
cheers brenz

Hi everyone

 im goin fishing tonight at the cot groin. Has anyone been there lately and had any success. Will be there round 6pm for a couple of hours. Hoping to get some herring and maybe a tailor or two if we're lucky. We've never been there before so any tips anyone could give us would be greatly appreciated.

cheers

Something to look forward to Pilbara boys

During a visit to the Pilbara region this week, Fisheries Minister Jon Ford said local fisheries volunteers were doing outstanding work in spreading the ‘fish for the future’ message with the help of a new community education trailer.
Mr Ford said the recent inland tour to Pannawonica, Paraburdoo and Tom Price, where fisheries volunteers visited schools and shopping centres, was a good example of how the trailer could be used on an ongoing basis.
“The volunteers and fisheries staff who took part in the tour, said the trailer attracted a lot of interest from people keen to learn more about fishing in a sustainable way,” he said.
“Thanks to Rio Tinto, who sponsored the purchase of the trailer, as well as the Pilbara Regional Recreational Fishing Advisory Committee which helped with the purchase of electronic equipment, this has proved to be a highly successful community initiative.
“The trailer has display technology to show people important messages about fishing in a responsible way, and understanding the importance of the marine environment both now and for the future.”
Next on the program for the Pilbara fisheries volunteers is to take the new trailer to the popular festivals that are coming up across the region in July and August.
The custom-built off-road trailer will be displayed at the Spinifex festival in Port Hedland on July 26, the FeNaCl festival in Karratha on August 2 and 3, and at the Nameless Festival in Tom Price on August 8.
The Minister said the festivals would give the volunteers an excellent opportunity to continue their valuable work of informing people about sustainable fishing practices.
“In order to continue to enjoy the lifestyle, people have come to expect while they are out fishing in Pilbara waters, we also have to let people know that we should fish for the future so generations to come can also enjoy the experience,” he said.
“The various fishing clinics and presentations conducted by the fisheries volunteers help to get that message across.”
The Minister said the Government was investing in quality research to help monitor fish stocks across WA and guide decision-making that would balance the social value of recreational fishing with the need to ensure the State’s fish stocks were managed sustainably.

Gooday all, a week or so ago someone north of the river was chasing work for their 19 old son - but i can't find the post. I have some work if there is still interest.