thinking of heading to e shed tonight to catch some scalies

are they still around in big numbers? any info would b much appreciated

Thinking of heading up Moore river for some beach fishing this wekend has anybody got any info on whats biting at the moment - any tailor or mulloway worth driving up for? is the beach weeded bad cheers  

 Well  not too much to report, weather wasn't really on our side but we got out a couple of days (denham side ) and got a feed.

one thing I found is those plastic baits pull more a variety up when plagued by little pinkies. The old man using bait and me using plastics, the bait was gone before the bail was over but the plastic wasn't touched as much but when was it was slammed. Z mans I found the best. The gulps never lasted long but I found the mulloway loved the z mans most, I  pulled up at least 20 40 to 60 cm ones then the old man got the bigger one.

All in all love it up shark bay and I will be saving for the next one. 

 Hi everyone , hitting north mole tomorrow morn bowt 6am , just after some general advice from the pros. Got a little 5.5 ft rod with bait chase rig which obv pulls in the bream herring etc and a 7ft with 10k line which I'm always swapping from balloon , on the bottom unweighted etc .. Any tips on rigs and bait ? Got plenty squid prawn and berley just not sure what I should be chasing ... Cheers

Anyone else at steep point 11 may - 17 may?

We will be at Lombardo's camp. I know, it's tough but someone has to do it.

If you are there come and say hello.

 Heading to exmouth saturday and was wanting info on the ramp conditions at tantas after the flooding. Launching a 5.3 ali.

Any locals or guys currently up there able to shed some light on conditions. 

Cheers Paul.

anyone know and recommend where to get decent wet weather gear locally? types, brands, etc?

I'm taking Bib & Brace style overalls and proper weatherproof commercial style gear.

ive seen whitworths, bias, and taylor marine all have some, but just wanting to see if there are other options locally.

cheers

Down the beach last night and a mate caught a Cobbler.
I walked over and warned him that they sting and went and got some grips to hold onto it for him........just got the grips in his mouth and was removing the hooks and the fuckin thing flicked and barbed me in the hand!!!!
I was told that they were painful before, and now I can tell you first hand they weren't shitting me!!!!!!

Farrrrrrkkkk!!!!!!

LOL

I've been eagerly anticpating the new release of the Stella FI series.

Campbells released the pricing on these reels and my jaw dropped when i saw the pricing, these are like more expensive then the SW series.

Beautiful looking reels, but 200+ over the price of the last FE series, my god.

Think i will settle on the SWB 4000 for the same price range.

Hi All,

Just completed two very hectic but fun days of fishing.

Got the call from one of my clients to go out of Dunsborough fishing for Hapuka on Anzac Day, first Anzac I would miss in five years, not an easy call but drove down the night before, early start the next morning aboard Legend Charters, the wind and current made chasing Hapuka a No Go, but Dean the skipper, Rick and Liam ( the deckies) insisted that it still was going to be a good day.

They were spot on, first drop, got smashed first bite then followed by a bigger bite, half an hour later with lots of rod bending the line went slack and I thought I had lost all the rig ( a paternoster tied with crimps for the first time) when up popped a 16kg Dhuie, closer inspection had the second part of the rig with the sinker on had gone at the bottom of the swivel thus losing the second Big Fish. Guys don't rush your crimps, & check them.

Overall fantastic day, 6 Dhuies all around 15kg and other demersals.

Then drove back home, around 9pm quick shower, kiss the missus, tell her I love her, then off to bed for a 4.30am start the next morning wit Paul G.

Details of the Day are on Paul Gs post but last drop of the day for me, landed this 15kg beauty.

Yahoooo

 Hi guys

My new boat has a hf radio in it which I would like to keep in it as if i was involved in an emergency situation I feel this could be a life saving piece of communication. My question is do the local sea rescue groups also monitor hf and if so what channels also is 4149 the wa weather channel.

I would only ever use it in an emergency situation but I fell it could also be handy for weather updates 

i understand you need to hold a License to use it which I will be doing very soon hopefully

cheers

Rod

 hi guys, today i went to dawsville cut for some herring, within an hour i caught 13 herring, lossing some and i got about a 33cm bull herring right near the surface and it snaped my 6lb. i heard of big skippy bieng there. what rig and bait do i use for the big skippy. thankyou.

 Just got me thinking after another thread about landing fish. How do you all manage your deck space? I've got mine fairly streamlined now, no esky on board as I've installed two below deck drainable kill tanks,the esky stays in the back of the ute along with the cold beers for the end of the day :). We usually  freeze up block ice from 2L icream containers or 2L milk bottles to cool the fish. I have a green tackle bag with sealable trays of terminal tackle and a small plastic box with pliers, knives and all all that crap. Landing net is tucked up the side of the gunnel in easy reach and the gaff hangs of the the rod holders. I've basically found you can take too much crap out that's never used, so I just cater now for the targeted species with tackle etc. Always have a bucket on deck for washing down the blood and thawing bait etc.

Hi All,

Just wondering what peoples thoughts are on the best manual deep drop reel? 

 Due to the demise of all of the charter operators on Christmas I must thank this forum and fishwrecked member "Taylor Fishing" (Brendan) for so kindly arranging a trip out from Flying Fish Cove to try and tick off another species from my captured list - a wahoo -  brendan couldn't make it himself so he went out of his way to track us down in our accommodation and arrange for a mate of his Dan (thanks Dan) to take me out - within five minutes of leaving the ramp I had my first Hoo around 8-10 kgs.  Hell do they ever take of like a scalded cat and then turn and run back at you just as flaming fast, talk about slack line - I doubt anyone could retreive line quick enough to keep up but luckily the hooks stayed firmly embedded and after a good gaff shot it was mine.

Rest of the few hours out were uneventful apart from Dan hooking up to a train on a deep run bibless redhead......the knot failed as the fish sounded ( dan reckons he cant tie knots and if you cant tie knots tie more :-) but it didnt work on this occasion more is the pity

Again thanks to both Brendan and Dan for making the trip possible and for this site to opening the door to communication that made it all possible - yet another huge positive for the best fishing site in Oz

Oh and snorkelling with huge GT's and silky sharks at the cleaning station near the fuelling bouy is a must for anyone visiting the island with water vis at 40 metres it is a very special experience 

Hi Guys,

Heading up to Coral Bay in June. I have searched the site and got some great info. Every year i have the same delemma. I have to choose between taking either a 4.2m tinnie or quad bike and dads 12ft river tinnie. Having a bike is great to get to some of the remote beaches and fishing landbased, and the bigger boat allows for some better fishing.

What is everyone thoughts on going north of the boat ramp in a 12ft tinnie, I normally only head south. I wouldnt be going out near the north passage ( not comfortable in a 12ft tinnie ). I would pick my days carefully, but would it be worth fishing say half way from Mauds out to the passage. would it be unsafe out there, should i just head south.

( 1 powerball and can take the 4.2m tinnie and the bike )

any advice would be much appreciated

DAY 1
the track in wasn't as brutal as what people have ben saying it is but the track from 3 mile to the home stead was just horrible
we did a small your arround the place and visited toomb stones to watch the surfies cheat death as they climbed of the cliffs to get out of the water then we drove up to the bay for some snorkeling and drinks on the beach while watching the sun go down

DAYS 2, 3 & 4
we tried the bay with no luck and trolling there olny produced a small tuna which got sharked at the boat. and we started to doubt weather or not there were actually fish here; even spear fishen produced nothing. 

DAY 5
we changed fishing location and launched out of the lagoon and traveled south. we picked up a coupple of tuna then decided to bottom bounce in 40m producing shit loads of red throught (good fun on light gear), baby spangles and small cod but no red emps.

DAY 6
the ol boy was sick the day after as well as our mate, derik, who we were staying with so no fishing which was a bummer considdering it was flat calm.

DAY 7
my ol man was still sick so he stayed at camp. we launched out of the lagoon and trolled north. i was the first to hook up with a screaming run then pulled hooks. our derik's young bloke landed a spotted mackie then a sized spanyard then it was deriks turn landing a metre broard bar mackie then i steped up to the plate landing a 15kg spanyard, 75cm blue fin tuna and a small spottie which was released. after that we lost a few lures and headded back to camp. we returened in the arvo for another try resaulting in me landing another bluefin and a size mackie, derik's young bloke landed a small tuna and deric pulled another metre mackie.

DAY 8
we woke early to attend the dawn service at toomb stones. my ol man was feeling better but stayed at camp to start packing upleaving deric, his young bloke and i to the fishing.returning to the same place as yesterday but to our suprise it was quiet as so we kept on trolling just as the border to the sanctuary zonecame into sight i hooked on to at first i thaught was a small mackie then it woke up leaving me white knuckeled and my reel screeming as it stripped 10kg drag like it was on free spool resaulting in me being busted off arroung the reef. after loosing more tackle to some biggens we sighted a school of tuna and we trolled past then resaulting in a tripple hookup i lost my fish and lure to a leader failure derik pulled the hooks on his and his young bloke lost his at the boat. so we did what any fisherman did after loosing many lures and fish, we packed up andheadded for camp with no fish in the esky and on top of that it started to pour down but i wasn't complaining i was too buisy planing how to tackle em next year.

the track out was muddy as hell with heaps of roos drinking out of the copious amounts of puddles that littered the track.

So about 13 months ago, I picked up an egg beater from one of our site sponsors, as a backup for my beach rod. It had sat in the shed for a while and after having a reel die on me a fortnight ago, it was time to break out the new reel, spooled with 20lb mono.

I had it on a 8ft boat rod, so not big but I thought it would be fine.

Last weekend had us down south for a day, and it took two rods and my lure kit. First cast with a brand new Plug was going to go hundred miles out. Lifted the bail, rod over the shoulder then flicked it forward. SNAP.....there goes my lure with a few meters of line. The line bird caged and snapped at the reed. Insert expletive.

Walked back to the car to get another lure. Undid the birdcage, re ran the line, lured up and cast. Got about 15m out then had a mass of tangles.

I pulled out 20m of line and cut it off. Re tied the lure and finally got a good cast in, then another, then another, then SNAP as my lure heads out to the horizon. Dummy spit time, and no more fishing.

After not being a huge fan of throwing $10 buck notes into the water, I went back to sponsors store and picked up a smaller egg beater,. Total spend was $130 mark, including 4 new plugs. I had it spooled in store with 15lb Fishing WA Xtreme braid. First cast and trawl with a popper. Put the boat into gear and look back to see my line waving in the breeze. Lucky the popper floated and I went back to get it. And 15 or so mtrs of line....

After changing setup and rod, I had no problems, until yesterday.

First cast with a plug on. Snap! Fu$&. Fu$&. Fu$&.

I started having a close look at the braid, and sporadically there are furry bits in the line and you can easily snap it. I was unspooling line from the reel finding shitty spots and snapping them by hand. By now, the deck of the boats looks like a yellow spider was trying to create a web.

i found a good piece offline and cast out again for yet another snap and the spat the dummy.

I know you all can have a go at us but i would like to put this post up saying a big thanks to the cockburn sea rescue for helping us out tonight we left woodies boat ramp about 1230pm this arvo and headed out all things going good no dramas no alarms no nothing, anyway hour into trip we has first rat sambo on deck and had caught and released 2 undersized pinkys.

Anyway day drew on still no worries so head in and anchor up inbetween islands esky having one lil sambo bout 800mm and a nice black ass bout 38cm nice n fat, right burley up baits out and after a couple hours brother in law is looking at weather since seabreeze managed to stuff things up for us once again, he found a site that said there was a storm heading our way and that it was up at quinns and heading south.....

right lines up lets go home......click click click..... no power what the hell, tried to call up a few other boats out n about near garden no luck. anyway with phones not well charged managed to get hold of a mate and get him to contact the sea rescue. all because of 2 flat batteries which when after a squall had past thru and they had towed us into boat ramp, we worked out was a lose connection on battery... we have never had a problem with batteries on the boat, untill now lol

So yeah a big thanks goes out to the sea rescue for helping us out, we are very grateful and will be renewing alot of little things.

I will add as a funny/not so funny thing the anchor was holdng us and even though rescue was on their way my brother in law was shi%*&ng himself, we did manage to calm him down and we all had a good laugh but feel really bad for getting outselves into the situation.

 We have been up in exmouth over the last week and the other day as we were retrieving my mates boat the Reece hitch came away from the tow bar as the pin was missing fortunately the chain held and we managed to winch his boat on and drive the car and boat off the ramp but when we came to a stop the boat kept going and smashed into my mates tailgate and glass, grrrrrrr still all good though lucky no one was hurt and lucky it didn't happen when doing 100 km/hr.

My point though is that I think some one has pulled the pin out at the car park and not that it has either sheared or come loose? 

Interested to know if this has happened to someone else.

btw in excess of 100mm of rain today here could drop a line on the flooded roads!!

 Ok I know solo fishing is not ideal but I am getting tired of being let down by people saying they are keen and then pulling out last minute leaving me stranded and missing out. I have a 6.35 metre carrabean hardtop with a reliable fourstroke and have know issue headin out with me and best deckie, my bull terrier, if fishing alone I would wear an auto inflating PFD just in case, what is everybody thoughts on this

 Just seen a pic of 5 Dhuies taken from one boat, out of Walpole! Is the boat limit if 2 only west coast bio region? 

 My own fault really, but after a week of camping/fishing down albany, had about a dozen bags of vac paked bags of kg fillets in the communal fridge/freezer, and someone decided they would like them better than me.  I know it's only small but it just pisses me off that people would do this in a communal living environment.  Obviously they don't like squid because right next to it was a heap of vac packed squid.  At least it wasn't all my fish, still had some in the engel.

Side note, plenty of kg and squid around in the bay, just got to keep moving.

How do you bring fish into the boat? Gaff, landing net or just grab the trace & lift over the gunnel. I tend to do the latter for small to medium size fish but I have only a small boat & dont have a lot of room for gear to be at arms length. I dont usually carry a net. I have a gaff stowed near my feet but not easy to grab when theres a big fish flapping on the surface in front of me. I'm interested in others usual practice.    

 Hi,

I'm keen to get into tagging fish but dont really have an idea what is needed or where to start.

Are any qualifications or similar required?

Thanks

we went out on the lano jetty for awhile,very windy, but the grand son got some nice whiting

hey lads just wondering if anyone can pleeeease help point me in the right direction. ive made up a nifty new gopro mount for my board and really want to get it done before tomorows swell hits. im NOR and is probably only a 10-20 minute job at the most(2 ends of 30mm ally tube to ally plate on either end). any leads are good ones at the moment so cheers in advance.

Hello, recently got an 8wt gillies fly combo and just wondering if anyone knew how to change the reel from left hand to right handed?

Cheers

 Really want to take me cousin out snapper fishing at stragglers  tonight and try and get him onto some pinkies . Acording to tides for fishing the conditions for a good bight are quite high. My only concern is the wind direction seems different on most of the sights and seems to be changing constantly during the night making it impossible to keep the boat and lines in the right area. Super frustrating

The wait is over! After too many months of trying for our first sizable Pinkie – two in one session and a PB Dhuie too!
After trying everything and re-trying (bait and burley, jigging etc…), doubting yourself even re-reading the fish finding manual to fine tune reading the marks.
Turned to soft plastics on the drift; perhaps a combination of luck, weather, sea conditions, planning / preparation and perseverance but the results were very satisfying.
First was the smaller pinkie (60cm), next the Dhuie (90cm), the second Pinkie (75cm) and a Blackass (34cm) to complete our takeable quota (two fishos on board).
We (wife and one of our boys) launched from Two Rocks at 7 am and headed to our pre-chosen marks to return at 11 am.

This caps a great week off from work and the second outing in the boat. The previous trip earlier in the week (Wednesday) I ventured out of Two Rocks, solo resulting in no fish – just couldn’t compete with the ultimate predator, a 14 foot (conservative estimate) GW. This was my first sighting encounter with such a beautiful creature. I must admit rather unnerving too, especially when it circled the boat twice and even followed me when I moved to another mark; burley must have been too good. I decided to call it a day at that point.

Back to work next week, can only dream of mid-week trips out.