Hi all

Headed out yesterday from The Cut for a long overdue fishing session....Saturday was a better day but I had some family commitments.

Anyway, decided to check out a couple of regular spots as well as sounding over some new ground I chose from the charts. 

I have posted a couple of pics I took of the images I was seeing on my sounder (Furuno FCV-620) and I'll give you my interpretation of what I was seeing. Your comments are greatly appreciated, especially as I'm pretty new to this.

1st image:

High Frequency Zoom
Bottom Lock set to 5m
Manual range set to 90m

Bottom lock didn't pick up the line of 'fish' that's 10m above the bottom but it's showing 'something' on the bottom. The bottom is pretty sandy as there's not much colour below the red 'bottom'. I don't know how to interpret the 2nd echo but i noticed Tony Halliday mentioned it on a recent thread.

2nd image:

Different location but with similar settings to the 1st image, except whatever's hovering above the bottom on the right side image is showing about 4m above the bottom on the bottom lock screen. Again, this is a pretty sandy bottom and I was pretty impressed with the red showing on the screen, because to me, this is real evidence of fish under the boat....however, they weren't biting.

This scenario repeated itself at several spots I drifted over and if it wasn't for a flathead taking pity on my empty esky, I would have nothing to put in the pan.

Are these images of schooling fish or more likely bait fish? If you guys think they are fish, is it possible to identify them, size wise, I mean? I get pretty excited when I see these sorts of things show up on the sounder, because to me, they're fish, but the fact that they aren't biting isn't new.

I had fun out there yesterday and it's a pretty steep learning curve but a whole lot of fun all the same. Who knows, next time I could bag out in 2 drops.

Thanks in advance of your comments.

regards
rusty...

PS. Sorry about my reflection in the sounder images.

Anybody else think there were more nor westers out there this weekend than usual...??

Thanks Seaswirl, Great Day for learning,

Caught my first Dolly on the first drift

Busted my new rod on a Megga Dolly on the second drift, Had a Sook and a Cry, 

Seaswirl landed two great Dollies, taught me boat handling (nice boat to practice on the Boston Whaler) and how important it's to have the boat in the right position when chasing pelagics

"Forward, Back, Neutral, Back, Neutral, Forward, Turn Wheel Left, I said Left, Left, LEFT!!!!! Oh I mean to your right",

Pissed ourselves laughing, now I know my left is my right or was it my left??????????????

People say chasing pelagics and billfish is ADDICTIVE,

If it is,

I think I just may have had had my first hit.

Hey guys, anyone know if busselton jetty is open now or fishing?

Just had a willy willy come through Kewdale and took shet metal off the roof of a building down the street from us. winds cranked right up, sounded like a low level plane then woof!

Sheet metal landing ontop of active power lines is freaky, it looked like a lightning bolt! big sparks big whiite flame!

Anyhow i can see the flag outsidue my window, its changed directions 4 times in 20 minutes! was easterly, then westerly, back to east now northerly.

Good storm happening!

Anyone else getting some wild weather!

aii huys, just wondering if there was any decent fish caught in this years swan fish?

Hi All

I just bought a boat and am keen to do a bit of fishing but have read its not that easy getting out of Mindarie due to reefs can anybody advise.

 Anyone out there using or have used any of the black and gold range looking at buying the 50 for trolling and bottom bouncing will matched to a saltist 24kg rod that I have now with a saltist 30 star drag which will go on a lighter rod 10-15kg for shallow water work.

hey guys. has anyone had any experience with Big Fish Graphics? Saw one of the shirts (bream) on sunday and i really like the look of it. ive checked out the website and im looking at ordering one or two. are they good to deal with?

heres the link

http://www.bigfishgraphics.com.au/index.html

Gang,

Had our yearly run to Exxy this year and although it was tarnished by some seriuosly chocolate water, horrible winds, massive swells and the heart break at seeing what happened to Carnarvon - again-, we did end up with a couple of nice memorys to boot.

First of all, Id never really took a good look around the national park as it's all about the water and it's really nice. Some of the bays and even more so, the reefs just inside those bays are epic! Just wish we had a seriuos dive on them. Had the gear, didn't get the weather. I guess some times you really do forget your on top of a amazing reef and there is another reason why so many people flock there. Anyione wanting to share some dive spots for next year, I'd love to hear about them. I think we'll be dedicating a week just to SCUBA.

On one of our four trips out, in ten days I'd like to add, when we were heading home after being smashed by the weather, we had a 6 odd meter whale shark pop up next to us. We were only buzzing along doing about 8-10knots due to the rough seas and there she was off to the starboard side coming directly up to us from the depths! Slammed on the skids and it hovered around the back of the boat. Mask and snorkel on and in I go! I guess I was always thinking it was going to be big but once it's less than a meter from you with open mouth, OMG! THIS WAS AWESOME! It stayed with us for about 10 minute swim and then sunk straight back down.

Then on our last day, we travelled again out into the deep looking for the FADS, which Im guessing have been moved from last year - cause they aren't there! Did however manage to convince a Billy to have a shot at our skirts and a memoriable 15 minutes later, Happy, happy boat people! 270 meters of water is were we found this fella running between the gas rigs. Also got to smash up a very serious bait ball beign harrassed by tuna and sharks. I've never seen the sharks on the surface feeding with their heads out. The tuna were going mental and didn't care. Hour of power for us that day! Triple hook ups all morning!

Now my only drama is not being able to hit the next Billy till next year. At least I got one!

Cheers

Jason

good to see so many dollies showing up this year.

Was out the back of rotto on saturday and eventho we did not get a dollie, the water temp showed 26.6 on the sounder!

Question i had is the number of dollies being caught AWAY from the FAD's? Seems be be quite a few free swimming at the moment? As far as im aware this isnt all that common downj this way is it?

Hi guys, was going to head up to moore river this weekend and was just wondering if anyone knew how bad the weed was up that way?

I couldn't resist getting my little girl a rod and reel for Christmas while we where down in Perth so we grabbed some bait and headed down to wet a line, no luck with the fish and she has a short attention span but you can't beat quality family time enjoying the sun.

couldn't work out why we don't wind it in all the time

patiently waiting for a fish

what it's all about, family

i was out off hillarys 4pm fri to 10pm

there was a trwler prob 7 mile off shore onece it was dark it seemed to get closer

it was working with lighs blaring from the back

on sat morn i was out at 530am and it was still going

was gone when we got back from the fads at 4pm

out again 4am sun morning and also not there

any one know what the go is with that ?

cant belive someone would give him a licence to rape the ocean so close to a popular rec spot ?

Hey hey,

I have a small dinghy which i use most weekend to fish the sound. I recently hooked up a gps in it and was wondering if any one knew any general spots (not your secret ones) but just something to guide me. Nothing to far of shore as my boat is only small but yeah if you could guide me to some good local spots would be well appreciated. 

Thankyou very much. 

Hey Guys,

Because of all this warm water and the Leeuwin Current, how do you think the salmon run will be?

whent canning bridge last night with a mate we didnt catch anything plenty of blowfish i seen another bloke from a distance catch i think a flathead and another bloke catch nice size whiting around 30-40 cm  est

nice night out always better when you catch fish but ill keep goin bak there.

Need a holiday fix, but with fishing options. What does anyone know about this location as a fishing destination?

Neels

Had a great morning down at Yunderup. Took us 3 hours to get out limit. Enjoyed having a swim between pulls, and not having to worry about getting eaten by crocs!

anyone have an update on floating sea weed at west end, planning a trolling day tomorrow

Hey folks.

I was just wondering if you know of any fishing charters out there which would suit a land lubber like myself. I've tried deep sea fishing several times and each trip ended with me passed out in the cabin due to terrible seasickness. I've tried the tablets and all the other tricks but I just can't handle it. So are there fishing charters out there who can take you to calmer waters where there are lots of fish or are the 2 mutually exclusive?

I only ask because I was watching a show on Foxtel late on Saturday night (Hook, Line and Sinker) and they were on a boat on some REALLY calm water and there were tuna everywhere, even jumping out of the water. It could've been an estruary but it definitely looked like the ocean.

I thought I would give up the fishing charter thing until I saw that and thought maybe we have similar places here?

Cheers folks.

Guess what! So am I. But lazy today. Going to NOT take the boat out, but go to a local beach and try our luck with Whitting etc. Then some livies on circles and you never know. Have a couple of chairs, a few light beers and beautiful scenery. Then if a fish jumps a bonus. Good luck all.

Neels

Hey all, just after some advice and recommendations. Now that the boats gone im looking to buy 2 decent beach rods and reels. I will be mainly targetting Tailor and Mulloway using a paternoster rig either around Perth or the south west.

So first of all to the experienced guys, do i go graphite? Also in the surf what type of sinkers do you guys use? Ive always used star sinkers but do find sometimes they can still get moved by a decent swell. Should i be using the sinkers with spikes hanging off them?

Another q i have is how do you guys get a decent bait into the water? Ive always had trouble casting a 40cm Tailor out in terms of distance, i seem to get it about 10m opposed to a mulie 30-50m.

I currently have one jarvis walker gold rod which is actually quite good matched with a penn applause 8000.  Which is spooled with braid from the boat, i usually use mono off the beach because i find it more efficient changing rigs and tying knots. What do you guys prefer?

Budget would be around $120 on rod and say $150 for reel, i dont want to go too expensive but something that will do the job. If anyone has anything good that they arent using in good nick il consider buying also:)

Thanks

anyone know of some good beach fishing spots around the perth area at the moment?

Headed out for a fish today off Cape Nat. With the weather looking great the game plan was to hit the deeper water in search of some nanagi and maybe have a troll later in the arvo.

Between the four of us there was quite a bit of gear.

Got to the ramp at 5am and we were the first there for the day. The wind was blowing a bit so decided to have a jig for a couple of dhuys first on the way out.

The drift was pretty quick which made jigging a little difficult but after a few drifts Dave had jigged up a nice dhuy.

This was Daves first dhuy on metal jig and he also christened a new outfit.

After this fish was delt with decided to push on and slowly make our way out further.

Tried a few more spots on the way out jigging up a few more dhuys.

Dave scored another nice fish on a Zest jig.

With this one in the eske and the wind slowly dropping it was time to head out and try and find a few nannies.

The current was pretty strong out deep so some heavy jigs were sent down.

After a few drifts and not much luck with the jigs I decided to send a bait down which resulted in a couple of pinkies.

Clint persisted with the jigs and hooked up to something quite big that was giving the PE 8 combo a solid workout.

This fish had us guessing all the way to the top but as it came into view realised it was a shark. Lucky for the shark it spat the hook on the surface or it would of ended up in a deep fryer.

After catching a few more pinkies we moved on in search of some nannies.

The drift was slowly improving and we started to find some nice little flares on the sounder.

Eventually Clint and myself had hooked something a bit more solid than the pinks and sure enough up came a couple of cracker nannies.

With our total bag nearly reached and the drift improving by the minute it was time to try and get a couple on the jigs.

Managed a few more on a range of SPs and metal jigs.

With the eske full and the wind swinging to the SW decided to leave the trolling for another day and head home.

I retrieved at about 8pm from Hillary's tonight and I couldnt believe there was a line up to launch at that time of day!

Rotto swim, good boating weather and all these pelagics around, it's going to be tough at the ramps this weekend.

Good luck everyone and try to take your patience with you.

I might just take a 6pak down the ramp and watch the retrives, theres sure to be some clowns and laughs to be had!

Happy fishing!!

Heading out to Burns rock next Thursday, any tips on what i will catch or what is out there

Cheers

derp

Anyone know what these are doing at the moment? north currents, south currents?

Rotto swim tomorrow so be good to know whats actually bene happening out there, not been on the water for a while :(

Cheers fellas.

Hi All

Hoping to get some feedback on some Braid. Is it better to go the expensive stuff or is cheap stuff still ok? Reason for asking is Ebay has some cheap PEX stuff and wondering is it worth skimping out on it or better to go the well known more expensive stuff.

I have researched it a bit and read a few forums and most people say don't skimp out as you may lose the fish of a lifetime over saving $50 etc. But the people that I have read that have used the PEX stuff have said it's great. So it seems users are happy with it and the non users say don't use it.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Pezdog

Enjoy