Caught this cod at Gnaraloo. Was bloody big. Can anyone advise what type it is?

 So a quick report on our Gnaraloo trip this year, to say it was epic is an understatement.

Awesome weather, fishing, drinking, socialising and good banter between the deckies and the other crews.

Having Josh and his crew next door was a laugh and good fun but also comparing fishing notes etc is invaluable, different fishing techniques, rigs and water depths up there is an important factor. 

We loved the show put on each day by the boys at retrieval time, that 100 is a weapon. 

Seabreeze forecast was way off that's why I use Fishranger and it was somewhere in the middle between GFS and BOM, moderate easterlies most mornings and dropping right out in the arvo was ideal for my smaller boat. 

A couple of trips out to the 100's had us into the Goldband, they were either smallish or XOS. My biggest I reckon around 6kg

Already booked for next year.

Anyway will let the pics do the talking. 

 Can anyone ID this fish caught in 140m off gnaraloo 

 
Enjoy 

 Had a fish on the five this arvo. 8/5 25, fished till about 6:30 calm little or no wind. dropped the anchor off the back in 70 feet. caught 10 snapper all under size  (430/450 ) one good size snook ( for the neighbor ) 4 sambo's put back.

It was looking sad for a while then the Dhie took the bait, that made it worth while, it wasn't a big one ( 520 ) but legal under the old system. baking it in the barbie on the week end. 

 A busy fishing session and a great time doing it.

Don't you just hate it when you go into the garage to start getting all your gear ready for a trip to Shark Bay and there is is a horrible stench seeping from the bait freezer !

Opened the the lid and HOLY SHIT, I nearly keeled over. All my squid and occy I had for the trip was a festering mess.

Not sure when the freezer died but I reckon it must have been at least a week ago.

Looks like there will be a few quick squid runs over the next week.......

 Hey guys, 

heading up to monkey Mia next week and missus has granted me a couple of day fishing, weather permitting!

just wondering if anyone been up lately and might be able to give me a heads up on what's been around? I'm hoping to do a mix of bottom bashing and trolling from both sides.

im dead keen to try for a Spaniard, only ever got 1 before, too late in the season? Also if trolling for Spaniards what's the opinion on traces? Only ask as have a number of hook ups, but getting bitten off is extremely heartbreaking lol!! Esp when you see them fly out of the water!!

if the weather is good enough I may try head through south passage to fish the western side side dirk Hartog. Any issues with tides when doing this crossing? 
thanks heaps!

Enjoy 

 They were abit harder to get today

Forgot about this 10 mins after we talked bwahaha

Howdy All,

After some very late planning and even later packing, we ventured up to 3 mile at Gnaraloo for the first week of the school holidays. 

We broke the drove up and spent a night at a very windy Gladstone which had us having to empty the sand out of the swags and remaking them before we jumped in bed...but that overnight stop had us in Carnarvon at 1030 and into Gnaraloo just after lunch.

Thanks to Andy for the tip to deflate to 30 at the King Waves sign - the ride in was comfortable sitting on 60-80 and having a very uneventful drive in - apart from the dust which was rather thick perticularly when the wind was right behind us and we had to slow in segments with it engulfing us. 

The first night, we caught wind of some spangos being caught right on the edge of the sanctuary...Right on the edge was very accurate but i wont go into that here...
We had a go the following afternoon around 100m away from the sanctuary pilons and successfully fed some fish.

The next morning, we were up again having a go off the rocks but after donating some hooks and lead, pulled the pin.

The next few days had a building swell (to 3+m) and breeze that transitioned from sse to SSW three days in a row with willy willys. There seemed to be narrow windows in the morning and those braver than me had a go and seemed to do OK with the Mackies. We could see birds and fish out to sea from camp but the launch looked undesirable as was the transit through the reef. 

The week prior to us going, we decided to extend our stay to depart Easter Sunday, which would give us a slight window for boating on Saturday, with the weather naturally turning it on from Sunday for the next few days....

Anyhoo - Saturday came along and after hearing some horror stories about the launch at Gnaraloo Bay (bogged up to side steps), we had multople plans in place. Got to the beach, deflated to 15 all round, threw it in low range, had the MaxTrax unbolted......and launched incredibly easy... and wondered, whilst beside the massive holes in the earth cut up by people before me, if we even needed 4wd...

Anyhow, fisheries were at Gnaraloo flying their drone around as we headed out. The South Easterly was gusting into the mid teens and the swell was still a nusence so we zipped up to the northern end of the bay looking for anything interesting before heading out the back of the reef. We found a bust up of microtuna and after going around them clockwise, anti-clockwise, through them, beside them, drawing a cock shape beside them, we finally got some interest, enough interest to snap my rod holder. After a brief tussle, we had unsuccessfuly netted (tangled hooks in net with fish outside) a decent sized fish which was released.

A few more laps, zigs and zags, the small people were winging increasingly more so we headed into the bay for a snorkle.

Around lunchtime, we headed back to the beach for lunch and retrieved the boat. All the plans put into place and again, an incredlbly simple reload was completed. 

Over lunch, the wind died down again, so we put the boat back in the water (using high range 4WD with tyres still down at 15) and headed around looking for some Mackie action. Whilst motoring out, Blake (#1 son) noticed a willy willy go throught he carpark.....so we drove around in an increasing seabreeze looking for fish for 30 minutes before going back to the car and retrieving in 2wd this time, just to see how easy it could be.

It seems people go in at 40 and do a big u turn right where you launch so they dig the shit out of the beach, or people launching dont deflate enough and just bog down. I was stunned how easy it was.

After the easter bunny did his thing, headed out. Checked out the HMAS Swan memorial, blowholes at Quobba, lunch in Carnarvon, wee and souvineer shop at Billabong and spent a night in Northampton with a pub meal.

Off to Sandy cape for two nights of rain on the way home and a frightningly close lighting strike that zapped many of us (me through the eyelets in my hat to my ears) before heading home. 2300km later and pleased to tick off another north west station.

The boat went really well after some issues post our Denmark trip and the mighty Ranger never misses a beat.

On one of the days, we drove up looking for Cape Farquar and after 40km or so of driving at 40kmh, found all the access tracks near it to be roped off with 'management access only' signs all around. It was actually a real pain in the arse to have access to so many of these beautiful spots blocked off with the only remaning spots (Gnaraloo Bay) like shopping centre carparks at lunchtime. 

Overall, a great week and a half away, with a highlight being the absoloute lack of connectivity at Gnaraloo.

 My trackfish has finally packed it in. I'm going to get a new chart plotter tommorow. Can anyone recommend one 

Budgets $1500 ish

Hello,

can anyone please let me know where I can buy maggots for bait in Perth, I haven't got the time anymore to breed the myself, they make the best herring bait for when I head out fishing with the kids, any advice is appreciated.

 Be up there from 27th for 3 weeks . Any other members be up there at that time . Be mainly fishing for Marlin but going to have a first time crack at a Ruby . Any tips on targeting a Ruby ? Depth and general area , what to look for on sounder etc would be appreciated. 

 
Enjoy 

 Anyone be there lately heard the Shire no longer run the camp sitebut don't know much else ..

Both caught in less than 4m in shallow channels off Monkey Mia, both released.

We are guessing the first is some sort of sweetlip? But can't find any details, had magnificent colours and spots all over. EDIT-a Painted Sweetlip by all accounts "mother-in-law fish" apparently :-)

Second, maybe some sort of catfish? EDIT- a Giant Sea Catfish

 
Enjoy 

 Heading to Exmouth in a few weeks and trying to find out how many drooper lines i can have on a patanosta rig in that region . I know you can only have one in the metro area but is it different for Exmouth . Cant find any info on fisheries website and i did ring a tackle store in Exmouth and they think you can have 2 up there , bit strange that they didnt know for sure . Thanks for any info 

 Hi all

Heading down to Denmark and Albany for 4 days. Hoping to get a few squid and herring land based. Any suggestions as to location will be great, Cheers

 Saw a manta ray just out of woodys

Howdy Team,

We're venturing north to Gnarloo for the first week of the holidays and taking the tinny up.

It looks like the winds wont play kindly for the first few days but we will get a few days before the (not yet formed) ec TC comes to see us on easter Sunday.

Is there anything I should know about boating up there, or anything I should be wary of?

We're staying in 3 mile.  

Hey guys

Running a storewide sale for the demersal and up north season!

20% off store wide so if you're chasing lures, hooks, line etc they are all 20% off with code "Demersal20"

This is on top of items already discounted

Get in quick stock is limited..

Just jump on the website to check out prices and order

www.mackdogtackle.com.au

Cheers

 
Enjoy 

Taking the tub over for a few days and looking at the weather, Monday seems to be the last of the really good weather for a couple of days which may lead to having to get there just after dark.

When Ive been over before it was either heading to the southern end or around behind Lowendals.

Looking for the safest point to enter up north from the east if anyone has any recommendations- the most obvious points seem to be between Drambuie Bay and Pansy Island but I could be missing something

Don’t particularly want to go around the west side and in through up there or upthe middle when dark but last option if the weather doesn’t behave

Unsure were we will set up camp but probably the usuals down on Bluebell or Primrose so will have to cut across somewhere

Any advice would be great

cheers

 Dose anyone have a good size anchor they can part with. I'd like to use it as a temporary mooring when I head  over to steep point. Boat is 6.6 aluminium.  

 Tried hard could , only intice 2 about size and 2 undersized, even the crabs didn't want to play today,but got a feed

 So today we can go fishing for demersals......well if I wasn't giving plasma I would have gone......but have you seen the longer range forecast for the first two weeks of April.....who needs a closed season when the bloody wind does it naturally 

This is an interesting development