what are your biggest pb fish caught in western australia?

I've been looking for a spot to fish thats not to dangerous for the little one and might have finally found one, the young bloke got his first fish other than a blowie and was super stoked check out the grin, a few bust offs and a Tailor to end the night.

 Crazy bite Friday night.

 Personal first yesterday caught and released swam off strongly been a bit cold for the Barra but ticked that one as well plus plenty of mud crabs 

Overall great time with my son and I'll be back for a wet season crack soon 

 Personal first yesterday caught and released swam off strongly been a bit cold for the Barra but ticked that one as well plus plenty of mud crabs 

Overall great time with my son and I'll be back for a wet season crack soon 

 So ended up going out today, conditions were actually really nice when the wind dropped. Heaps of fish on sounder but for some reason the bite was a bit quiet where we were. Tried a few spots. Got a rally nice fat snapper,fought like a beast, went 84cm and just shy of 7kg on my crummy little scales, so not sure how accurate. Picked up a 53 cm tailor by accident, unfortunately lost 2 big runs on floating mulies at sunset due to shitty gangs ( eyes weren't closed properly, normally make my own, but was in a rush, learnt my lesson to check next time!). Wings and frame for lunch tomorrow and will freeze the fillets.

heaps of whales about too!! All in all a beautiful day.

 hi looking at going to greenhead 1st week of january with 6.2m ali boat for about 6 days ,staying at caravan park , Just asking for general info... weather... winds . launching at  ramp ..how safe to navigate into open waters ,never been there so  any info would be greatly appreciated /- can message me 

 Just got back from the yearly trip from Gnaraloo. Great to see Seakem (Andy) up there right next to us in the cabin sharing a few beers and laughs! Sit back, grab a tin and have a read.

This year a few other boats that were supposed to come bailed so only had 2 crews of 4 on 2 boats. The little barcrusher and a big ol Westerberg 7m that had just had a full make over.... We were expecting a few dramas but nothing really eventful occured... Lost a winch handle on the first day which is dumb luck, broke the winch 2 days later which is just poor maintenance but apart from that was all smooth sailing really.

Day 1

Headed off early from Perth around 2:30am. About 20 mins out of Leeman a cheeky Roo decided to jump out in front of us. No joke they design bull bars perfectly. Hit the LHS and pushed it down and to the left off the road..... Blood and shit all over the car and boat but shit happens... No real damage done, broke a plastic light bracket on the front but the light wasnt plugged in anyway..... Non eventful from here on in. Got to Gnaraloo around 4pm and we were about to check in but we noticed a few cheeky old fellas chatting up a very tidy back packer at the filletting station.... Quick detour to the fillet station to see what had been caught. Bugger me guess who it was... Andy! Quick chat and found out we are staying right next to them!

Day 2

Windy and terrible... Decided to give today a miss in the boat. Got everything ready, rods all rigged up, everything all tidy for the next day.. Alot of beers and footy, thank god we took starlink with us. In the arvo on low tide we took a few frothies and a gaff to 6 mile and walked the reef looking for occies. Managed to get quiet a few occies for bait which was bloody awesom.... Next year I need to remember my booties, I walked bare foot but lucky i was raised in Port Hedland so my feet are hard.... Beers, dinner and catch up with Andy and we all headed to bed for a good nights sleep...... Well it wasnt good, one of the blokes snores so bad honestly thought he was going to choke to death. Closed his door and could still hear him haha..

Day 3

So pretty much the story of the week the wind was up in the morning blowing pretty strong easterlies then changed around direction about 11-12 so every day we had a bit of a window to get out... First day lauching and bloody hell the sand in the bay is soft. We had a 615 bar crusher and a 7m westerberg and it was a struggle until we worked it out. Even with real low tyre pressures getting the boats in and out was a mission. We had a 3rd car joining us the next day which made it easier we used them as a snatch vehicle but yeah it was hard going getting both in and out of the water.

Headed out to the ground we know produces well, lots of bird activity around but nothing really taking lures. Got a half decent bag of reds and a couple of rankin. Nothing huge but surprisingly the sharks werent as bad, what we did find this year is that we caught a heap of massive cods, ones that were way over a meter. Dont know why they were so prevelent this year. 

Came back to the beach and fisheries were there. Good to see them checking everyone and having a precense. One of the blokes on another boat kept a malabar cod which was unfortunately over the 1m mark so I think he got fined. Sad because the thing would have died anyway. I have a photo of a massive cod we caught that I will upload a photo of to see if anyone can tell us what type of cod it was.

Same story, back to fillet station, dinner, rums, talk shit, bed. Nothing eventful.

Day 4

Was pretty windy this day and turned out to be our most average day fishing. Late start and went to a few close in spots that mates of ours absolutely cleaned up on reds a few years back. We searched around everywhere and only managed a couple of reds and rankin did a bit of trolling and mucking around with nothing special. Our other mate turned up this day so made it easier with the retrieval. 

Filleted, beers, rum, talk shit... The usual.... The wind seemed pretty decent the next day and looked like it would drop off more and stay down for a fair bit the next day so we made a group decision to head to a spot that we have cleaned up on pelagics in the past up near Coral Bay.. Need to travel a fair way but it is worth it. So it was decided, lets go there!!

Day 5

Excited we started earlier this day anticipating the wind to drop. Breaky, coffee, load up and down to the beach to start the launching process... All pretty smooth, bloody hard to launch though. In the water and hugged the coast as far up as we could until we had to punch out..... Was still pretty windy but thought bugger it we are committed now. Steamed out in pretty shitty conditions and got to the spot. Started to get everything ready while sounding around. Found the spot and guess what........ Nothing on it!! found the lump and literally bugger all fish spotted on it... Last year when we went over it you could see the schools stacked up over it.... The skip was a bit depressed, put the boat in neutral and said "thats unfortunate".... HAHA naa he yelled "Fu&k Sake!!!!" hahaha..... Still continued to get the lures and rods organised and the boat slowly drifted.... about 5-10 mins went passed just getting shit organised then we went to take off to start trolling and the sounder was lit... you could see the fish in the water column below us... Marked the fish, put the lures out in the spread and and before we could even get a 3rd rod in the water we had a double hook up.... the other boat called over the VHF they had a double hook up too...... But they lost both of theirs... Unfortunate... We managed to get both of ours on board which turns out they were the biggest we would get for the day, they were decent size. As we were pulling them in the bleeding the skip threw a vibe down and within seconds.... whack.. he had something masssiivvveee on... He only had very light gear and after a small fight.. Ping gone.

We set up and trolled again, every time we went over a particular mark the fish were stacked and we were on... We ended up trolling out a bit wider off the lump and we managed to get 2 wahoo and the other boat managed a yellow fin tuna... Both boats were having an epic time. I think between the 2 boats we ended up with 13 fish all together..... By this time the wind had died right down and he bite had really slowed down. We tried dropping on the lump but nothing massive took the bait and the only half decent things that did we can only assume as decent fish got sharked so we moved on.... Fished a couple of small flare ups on the way back in and managed a couple more reds. Back at the beach, pull out and back to the filletting station. Took the same sort of photo necxt to the boat like we did last year, hopefullly will be a tradition if the fish hang around the same mark. Bloody awesome days fishing....... Worst thing about a good days fishing is the filletting and cryovacing.... took for bloody ever!!!!

Back to the cabin finally, late dinner and a few beers and stories! Was an epic day

Day 6

The weather was again looking pretty decent so we decided to head out to the 100s for goldban. Had a heap of good bait from the mackies we filleted the day before so we thought yep lets do it!! Headed out to a mark a good mate had given me, when we go there there was another boat very close by (One of Andys good mates), luckily they werent on the spot. Had to sound around a fair bit but eventually found a good school of fish. We ended up stayin in this area for a good few hours picking up goldban, rosies and reds. Got a very healthy bag and stayed within sort of 300m of the spot, there was alot of fish sounding around. There were no really massive ones this year - Last year we got 3 up to 7kgs which were huge...... Headed back in with the usual launch routine, was getting it pretty down pact now. Back to the fillet station and unloaded.... The boat that was right near us at the spot when we first got there saw what we caught... Bloody hell where did yas go to get them hahahhaha.... We stayed in that spot we saw you at hahaha, should have stayed there!

Back at the cabin and a few...... For some maybe a few more than than a few hahahah ........Some of the crew were really excited and decided to turn one on.... Sorry Andy and the boys hahaha! they had an all nighter and when we got up the next morning to go fishing - BTW the next day was going to be the best day out of them all, they were still drinking jack daniels hahahha. 

Day 7

The boys who stayed up all night were keen to come out in the boat..... Not happening fellas.... At least 2 of them helped lauch and pack the boats haha, they will have a sore head in the arvo

Best days fishing for the trip, wind was down, conditions were good and the fishing was awesome!!! We ended up bagging out on reds, every drop we were getting them and even getting double headers. We managed to get 1 big Coronation off one of the spots we got a fair few off last year. the other boat got 2 Coro.  We left them biting to try and go get some more Goldban. Saw Andy out on the water and by this time it was glassy conditions but the fish had completely turned off. We managed 1 goldban and after a couple of hours of catching nothing we headed in..... Coming up to the beach our all nighter deckies were perched up on the beach with the awning of the car out sleeping hahaha they didnt want to miss out..... What a cluster.... Throughout the day they decided to go to 3mile and pumped the tyres back up to 30 psi.... No drama.... Backed the trailer in and got the boat on the trailer... No drama.... Went to retrieve and even with another car snatching the ar got bogged.... WTF is going on do you even have it in 4WD?...... Woops.... no centre diff lock, no low 4 no nothing... HAHAHA a bit buckled the driver goes... I need help hahahahhaha.... Get out mate hahah.... I jumped in, few max tracks, car in 4x4, diff lock on and TRC off.... Snatched straight out..... Thats when he told us he has 30 psi in the tyres hahaha.. Anyway no harm done!! 

Fillet, cryovac, dinner, rum.... Same same. Weigh in of the fillets and we were done. The other boat was a little short but decided that we would start packing up and head to carnarvon to shorten the trip back.

Day 8

Pack up and clean up and head to Carnarvon for a pub feed and watch the Mighty Eagles win........ Well one of those things happened. Ended up at the old Gassy Hotel... Was actually a bloody good night with tooo many frothies. Great way to end the trip

Day 9

Uneventful trip back... But we did get a call from Paul the owner of Gnaraloo. We were accused of stealing 100 Litres of fuel out of one of the drums. Both our boat and the other boat we were with called Paul back and explained we only went up to the fuel drums once and that was the morning he put them out for us so I dont know who is telling porky pies.

Home, unloaded, devided fillets and the trip was done!!

Other shit to mention

- Station was actually looking pretty good and at least a small amount of effort was going in to looking after the joint finally. Probably due to the for sale sign on it..

- The filletting station water hose is a joke, surely they can replace the hose once in a while. Damn its getting small hahaha

- Ants in our cabin this year were bloody attroucious. Never seen it that bad.

- Roads in to both the station and the beach were pretty good

- Taking starlink up is bloody awesome

- I think fishing this year was alot slower than last year. No real massive reds or goldban caught this year compared to last year.

- Doing Gnaraloo is bloody hard on your gear, just have to make sure you prepare properly

Been a great run so far, caught fish 3 sessions in a row. Have tried fishing the acres of bait balls out there for not a sniff, been doing much better fishing the current lines with not a skerrick of bait in sight.
Props to Glen for copping a treble in the arm whilst dealing with the first fish of the day on the very first pass, fished on to land another mack and pulling hooks on a few more, back in for the kids school run, dinner time then headed off to hospital 8 hours after the incident occurred. Too deep to even even consider the old braid wrap and yank trick!

Still early days, hopefully have a few more photos to post up in a few months

 hi just to ask for recomendation for a marine auto electrician rockingham area for 6.2m. plate ali { CRAYPOT WINCH . GME RADIO , BILGE PUMP . SOUNDER .LIGHTS . GPS . ETC. anyhelp woul be appreciated thanks in advance 

 Thought I'd put up a pic of my last trip out. Was a good day with a tasty mixed bag. Out of hillarys. Baldie went 63cm,  biggest one I've seen for a while metro.

 Went out to pull the pots in this morning as next week of weather looking crumby. Once we got out, looked ok, so went to the 30s for a quick drop as didn't think going deeper was a good idea with the forecast. Picked up my pb baldy at 63cm on the first drop! Had been on the bottom for like 1-2 mins, so was stoked! Then swarms of baby snapper. Headed in as needed to get the pots on board. First pot had 8 second 3 and last 4. 3 undersize went back, but was made up for by 3 bigguns! No tarspot or eggs so happy days! Biggest went just under 2kg! Pretty much first jumbo that didn't have to throw back. I normally would anyway, but love the legs and will be enjoyed, tough or not!! Now even more eager for some decent weather and a good bottom fishing session.

 Absolute stonker of a girl yesterday afternoon, Summer is looking good in the Swan River!

 Never go out far in my dingy, fishing in 5-10m, but some suprising ctches this year. Pinks to 90cm, occasional dhu and YTK,

 hi guys last year the whites walked early , any word on where things are at would be appreciated 

 council has made the decision not to remove sand from bent st ramp , thus only leaving one lane for launching and retrieving , well at least untill the so called channel is still navigatable ,  instead most all of the car park has been taken up by the locals that frequent the  takeaway across the road .

past poor decisions has led to the eventual demise  

Took my daughter out with the aim to get her onto a fish or two with her bright pink Kmart Rod and 5g Temu Blade, went to como jetty for a few hours with nothing but blowies, so we popped into narrows bridge for a quick flick on the way home, it was a low tide, no run, people/boats/jetskies everywhere i thought we would be going home empty handed for sure...

She learnt to cast and work the blade pretty fast and we coverd the ground completelty, just as we are about to leave i hear her yelling daaaaaddd and look over and her rods bent like crazy head shakes snapping it back and forth, she managed to find herself onto a 51cm flatty! i couldnt beleive it... she reeled it it all by herself i only helped hold the rod and get it lifted onto the grass when she got it close to shore.

So proud of her, she now asks me to go fishing constantly haha got her a nice little light weight 6ft combo to replace the kmart gear now :)

 Few donkies from the Narrows the other day :)

Humble brag for a catch a few weeks ago, went to Narrows on a strong outgoing tide, easterly winds on my light gear flicking bream lures on 6lb/1k size reel and landed a 41 and 36cm tailor before work.
The next day the weather was the exact same! so brought my medium outfit down with a 95 Shiverstick and 3k/10lb 3-6kg setup, landed this absolute donkey 55cm tailor about 5 casts in! he flew out of the water on hookup was absolutly epic.
 

 just login on to share my experience at shark bay during the fishing comp. seems to distort the pics ?second day out

Hey team, 

Recently got back for a week in Exmouth booked 4 days on a charter got out for 3

brief summary day 1

northerly was up so decided to troll for marlin. The crew I took were kind of inexperienced fisher people but the skipper worked hard and got us all our first stick face going 5-4-4 was so fun

second day it was time to get some waters. Morning started of good for me landing a 14kg Mack (pb) followed by a 810mm trout which was also a pb. Ended the day with an awesome bag of reds trout spangoes and Mack's.

third day the forecast looked a bit iffy and the crew was a bit tired so we made it a landbased day. Awesome choice with me landing my pb queenie off the stones and my mate landing a stonker javelin from the creek

4th and final day was crazy. Went deep dropping for rubies and a nice steady action throughout the day landing 6 cod and 4 rubies. 
2 days of fillets bagging us out on demersals cleaned up and started the long trip home.

very successful trip for me the other team struggled a little I'll let the pictures do the talking

 just to ask on peoples oppinion is it deremental if motor is not  flushed every time /-  while away up north { how often should it be flushed ? }

 Just got back from our Gnaraloo trip so doing another write up..... Grab yourself a tin and have a read if your keen

This is the first ever fishing trip I have been on where I havnt used my car, my boat, my equipment. Sold the big girl a while back and still procrastinating on what I want to do for a new boat. So was lucky enough to get an invite on a good mates boat! Did 10 days in total this time up from the 7 from last year, thank god we did because the weather didnt play nice on a few days.

Day 0-1

Decided this year to head straight up from Perth all the way through to Gnaraloo in the day. Stayed at the skippes house the night, packed the boat, watched footy and ordered pizza with a couple of beers with a sensible bed time as we were setting the alarm for 2am. Up at sparrows, loaded the last of the bits and pieces in the boat and we were on our way.... Less than an hour out of town my guts was feeling horrible dutching up the car a few times, finally had to pull over for a road side bog.. Dodgey pizza I rekon. From there made it to Gero uneventfully and then through to Carnarvon also no dramas... The other boat that was coming with us caught up to us. Bit of a chat and a walk around their boat we noticed they had no tow hitch on their extension bar, bloody thing had fallen off somewhere on the way up.. This was the start of some bloody unlucky events for this boat, quick stop in Carnarvon hardware and got a new hitch. Quick stop at the king waves kill sign for a photo and let tyres down.... and OMFG the flies were hectic.

Finished the trip into Gnaraloo, the track wasnt too bad really. let tyres down and drive to conditions and its not too bad. Rolled in, checked in and unloaded the boat and car. Next day which was Sunday was looking great for weather so we were all excited to get up early and launch. Dinner, beers and rigging up rods, lines etc. Headed to bed to get up early.

Ooohhh And we got to watch the mighty Eagles flog the Shockers!! We had starlink on this trip and bought a TV up to watch the games! 3 out of the guys on the trip were Dockers supporters and 3 others were Eagles so it was great to see the Eagles win the Derby and rub it in!! haha

Day 2

Got up reasonably early around 5:30am. Breaky, coffee and headed off to the beach as the sun came up. Launching boats was very easy. No real dramas at all. Headed out to troll to try get fresh bait. Areas that produced well for trolling last year we got nothing. Trolled for around 2 hours and didnt get a hit. Headed out to bottom bounce before bite time - Up here found that he bite times play a massive part in getting your fish. Fish literally bite in those times, could get 10 Reds in the hour and a half then it goes dead. First fish on board was a Red around 7kgs, brilliant start to the trip. In the next hour 10 reds, rankin, cobia getting a decent bad. We got the biggest red for the trip on the first day that went 9.3kgs. We were catching red throat as bait as we couldnt get anything on the troll. Ended up with a pretty decent bag for the first day.

Back to the beach to see how our first retrieve goes - We opt to retrieve as for us its easier. If we had a ute or something similar we would moore. Just the issues of getting equipment, fuel, eskies back to and from the beach every day we just find it easier to retrieve every day. Anyway first retrieve was pretty easy for our boat.... The unlucky boat had a bit of an unlucky misshap... As the boat was coming onto the trailer the hitch lock on the tow ball wasnt in place causing the trailer to come off the car... No damage done luckilym we were able to push the boat off, hitch the car on and re-set. Second time went alot smoother... We use a second car and snatch strap to help the car out. Pretty easy.

Back to the fillet station and spent a few hours filleting. On the first day we got just over 20kgs in demersal fillets which was a blessing in disguise as the fishing and weather for the next couple of days was pretty poor.

Day 3

Day 3 was a rite off. Pretty windy this day so called it a lay day.... We went hunting for spaghetti.. One of the meals we pre-cooked and froze was spaghetti bolognase however one of the deckies left the spaghetti at home. So we went sight seeing to 3 mile and Red bluff and an unsuccessful spaghetti mission. Good to see the place seems as well last time we didnt get to have a drive around. Pretty nice place and might bring the missis and daughter up here in the Van at some point.

Cleaned the house, fixed up leaders and rigs getting ready for the next day.

Day 4 

Wind was down and swell was up for the next couple of day but were fine to get out. This day we decided to go to an area that produced alot of Reds for us last year. This time the bite was very very slow. Although we managed to pick up a huge coronation trout, the biggest I had ever seen... Up to that point haha. Fished alot of places, trolled everywhere we went. I did manage to pull in a 8kg mackie on a floater which was good going. Even though i say it was slow we still managed the mackie, 7 reds, the big coronation and a big bald chin. No miss haps launching and retrieving, pretty straight forward pretty simple. 

Day 5 and 6

These days should have been write off days.... Wind did totally different than what was predicted on weather apps, still got out but did not get many fish at all. Think we got a couple of Reds, Pearl Perch and Baldies for the 2 days... Once again trolled everywhere and did not get a single hook up. Still happy to be out on the water but was alot rougher than predicted. 

These days allowed us to have dinner at a reasonable time as we werent spending hours at the fillet station, filled up the boat, cooked a few great dinners so all in all not too bad 

Day 7

Looked to be one of the best days on the trip weather wise..... The weather did not dissapoint and neither did the fish...... Got to the beach and the unlucky boat had another unlucky incidents... Pulled up to the beach and one of they tyres had completely shredded itself to pieced... No dramas... Jacked it up and fitted a new tyre. When we were about to lower the jack I wiggled they tyre (Im a mechanic) the bloody bearing was dead loose I dont think the bearing cup was seated correctly on assembly because there didnt seem to be any damage just really loose... Ahh well all good tightened it up and it was sweet for the rest of the trip.... Not a good start but it was going to get better.

We decided to head out into the 80s- 100s today. First time going into the hundreds. I was given some great advise by Seakem off here. Went out do around the area he advised and found a decent showing of fish while trolling in the 70s. Came around and sounded a bit more and found alot of fish on this spot. Decided to have a quick drop.... Worth it!!! First fish came on board was an even bigger coronation trout than a couple of days before, we were stoked hi fiving and cracking our first beer (First fish first beer rule) by 7:30am..... Literally as we were celebrating bang one of the other blokes on the boat was on.... After a great fight an even bigger coronation was landed!! This was later weighed at the fillet station and was just over 5kgs!! Was massive! We were absolutely rapped!! Went back over the spot and the red throat had moved in.... Wasnt a bad thing as we needed bait... Got a heap of bait and kept trolling out to the 100s.... Before we even got to our destination again a very likely spot showed on the sounder. Pulled in the lures and sounded around. We were in just over 100m and found this spot that was absolutely on fire. The fish arches were amazing to see and I was frothing to drop a big bait down... Came around on the drift, dropped down and bang I was on!! A very very good fight and a few minutes later this thing started to "Swim" out.... I called it for a Cobia as that is what they do.... Then this thing breached the surface like a submarine.... It was the biggest Goldban i have ever seen, it was massive. My PB weighing at 6.9kgs... I was stoked to say the least. We also got a couple of reds off the same drift.

Next drift came around.... Bang on again!! not as big this time but same deal another very very big Goldban. A friendly shark had also moved in and ate a big goldban at the boat which one of the others boys on the boat pulled in... We got my goldie and another red up off that drift until we had to circle around.... 3rd drift..... We thought the other 2 drift had been good..... Well this one was better haha!! All 4 of us hooked up, we were scared we were all going to get smoked by the shark so we were literally winching these fish up!! I got in another Red and so did one of the other boys, both fish were around the 6kg mark, decent fish. The other deckie got bitten off and the skipper was still fighting his fish. It was big whatever it was. We thought a small shark must have taken his bait.... Until... Another massive Goldban breached the surface right near the other boat that was fishing with us.... It was a monster. This one weighed in at 7.3kgs when back at the fillet station... It was a thumper!!

We tried another drift but got sharked on 2 rods so decided to give up on the spot. We made the call to troll for the rest of the arvo as we pretty much should have had our demersal limit but no pelagics at all. We trolled for a few hours on the way in and nothing... I have never seen it so dead for pelagic action.

Back at the fillet station a few of the other boats around were stoked with the size of the goldies and coronation we were able to get. Weighed a few of them, filleted and same nightly ritual of cryovac, rums and dinner.

Day 8

Looked to be a half decent day. Our boat decided to troll where as the other boat decided to go out and bottom bash. They ended up with a bloody ripper of a Red as well as a few other reds - Cant remember what they got just know their red was a thumper!! They yelled over to us on the two way as they had hooked a 20kg plus mackie on their bottom rig and it snapped the line off near the hooks just as they were about to gaff it. We trolled over and once again had zero luck... We trolled for pretty much 90 percent of the day trying to get pelagics... Absolutely nothing... Had a few drops on a couple of great flare ups and kept a couple of decent reds and Pearl perch..

We didnt know what we were going to do with pelagics this year... Talked to alot of the other boats that were around and not many had gotten onto the pelagics apart from a few cobia.

Pretty low key at the fillet station thisarvo, stoked with the other boat and their red, they had a great day fishing!

Back to the accommodation and some deep discussions were had...... We had some really really good red ground a fair way north we use to fish when we were in Coral Bay and used to get mackies and the odd Wahoo out there. Big gamble but we were thinking should give that a go... Running low on fuel we were tossing up what to do. The skipper in his most serious voice says while eating dinner "Right we need a group decision what do we all want to do"...... Fuck it we dont need demersals lets do it!! Do the miles get the smiles.

Day 9

Decision was made to head to our Coral bay spot... Got up early and headed out..... A pretty decent drive and we were there.... No joke its some of the best ground you would see up there. Marked a heap of fish on the bottom and a heap sitting about 30m up... Surely that has to be something... Started trolling... teaser out... then ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ..... Were on!!! we were so bloody excited that we were on while trolling....... And then...... Snap!! hahahahahah..... The frigging wire leader broke hahahhahaha Lost the fish and the lure!!! Just our bloody luck trolling this year..... Stuff it, put some deeper divers on and try get these deeper fish to play the game.... Started trolling again up to the mark where we marked the fish and then.... ZZZZZZZZ....ZZZZZZ....ZZZZZZZ.......ZZZZZZZ........ 4 WAY HOOK UP!!! hahahahaha it was going ballistic.... Rods and people going everywhere... Thank god one of them got off so we had Andrew (Gaff) to help get the fish on board.... 3 mackies all around the 15kg mark came on board and into the catch bag... We were all pumped and stoked!! High fiving, fist pumping, bloody stoked with the decision. Again set up, lures out, teaser in, beer out of the esky..... Went to crack the beer and a huuugggeeee Run...ZZZZZZZZZZZZ THAT IS BIG!! The bloke that picked up the rod says "I dont even want to reel this in Im too screwed from the last one" hahahhaha after a bit of groning and about a 20 minute fight this fish surfaced with amazing electric blue stripes on it!! It was a bloody WAHOOOO!!!! We were bloody excited until it jumped and a hook popped out.... Fuck get it it... Get it in hahaha we were yelling, got it to the site of the boat and Andrew (Gaff) managed to nail it in the worst spot haha right in the back part of the fillet.. But just as he did the second hook came out so all in all was pretty lucky!! We were pumped!!! For the next hour and a half we trolled over this 1 spot where the fish were showing and got 11 Mackies and a Wahoo off it in one of the best ever pelagic sessions I have ever seen. We got our bag limit by 9:30am........ We were on the biggest high, better than any drug could ever give you! It was insane!!

We stopped when we had our fish and decided to have a drop on the spot as this is one of our best Red spots....... Huge fish hooked but couldnt get them to the boat, had 1 pass and lost 4 fish to either sharks or mackies, gave up on that idea. Headed in towards Cape Farqua where we had a few spots we have done very well on before. Wanted a red for dinner.... First drop... Bang red around 8kgs and a pretty big Pearl Perch.... Dinner sorted.... If you havnt had Peal Perch for Sushimi you should try it, one of the best fish for sushi

Came in and got in the bay pretty early, had a swim, cleaned up and headed to the fillet station.... Everyone couldnt believe our catch, neither could we. Few nice blokes up there gave us some Pasta to go with our bolognese sauce and garlic bread so we were more than happy to give them a heap of fillets for helping us out. The comradarie with everyone up there is one of the best things about going up there!!

Day 10

Yesterday was our last hurrah sp we cleaned, packed and headed back into carnarvon to stay the night then drive back through to Perth the following day..... Not much else to report, everyone got home safe!

Thought I would mention a few thing

- We took a deep freezer and Generator this year as we learnt from last year..... Wayyyyyyy better

- If your fishing and not catching try something different

- Sharks were insane.... Like hugely insane.... We lost over 100 rigs.... Luckily we bought spare hooks and spare sinkers and that Eugene from Mackdog tackle was there... The underdog jig he makes is awesome!

- We stayed in the cabins, they are alot cleaner than most of the accommodation around and amazing views

- Take 6 max tracks for retrieving you will need them

Cheers hope you enjoy the write up!!

 Well what a first month of being able to fish have had an amazing momth couldn't tell you how many snaps have been caught but this weekend was able to equal my pb of 90cm. Let him go as already had our limit well and truly sorted. 

 300 m off Exmouth 

 hi spending 3 weeks in shark bay starting from 16 may ,would like to target amongst other things, crabs & poss. {large whitings } just wondering if someone can help in that regard just general area as a starting point  would be appreciated , can message me  

 seems 475k was spent on upgrading a jetty  in his own electorate and after a few years its now  closed down , his incompitance and failure to listen is stagering , did not acknowlege what others were saying ,IMO  if ever there was a troglodite then he would fit the bill !!

 So after Rona did its best to mess up Easter, i decided to book Friday off and with the young bloke recently adding a trip to the fads to his bucket list, we checked the forecast and decided to have a go. 

Problem was that I made this mistake of trusting a northerly wouldnt mess things up too much.....
So after launching at ~0830, we headed over to the dog beach and picked up a couple of squid before heading out to the channel to catch some bait. The northerly had created a bit of slop so we moved to the lee side of Mewstone and quickly got some herring before heading towards Rotto via Hugall Passage.

In the lee of Rotto, it was fairly decent so we hugged the beach having a bit of an explore of some spots we hadnt seen before hitting West End at around 1030 and agreeing to head out. Well it was shit. THere seemed to be more SW swell than planned (was .6), there was a bit of north westerly swell as well as a chop from the north east with the occasional three way wave combining to something that was steap and higher than the boat. Surely this was just at the cape, so we kept pushing out to the waypoint I had for the Club Marine fad. We got about 1.5 miles off the cape before the sounder decided to be a knob and lose bottom so we turned around so it could re-callibrate itself before going back again....
After 45 or so minutes doing anywhere from 10-15 knots including throwing a couple of lures out the back for the last 1.5 miles, we got to where it should be to find nothing.....no mark...no signs of a mark and no other boats. 
On the horizion, I could see another boat so we headed towards them thinking they were on it and I had just stuffed up but it turns out they were looking for it two.

With the daughter feeling less than average, the wife in a similar spot, we turned back to rotto and spent the next 50 minutes going as slow as 13 knots towards the island. The boat would surf only to slam into a nw/ne wave so it was a case of having to slow the boat down.

In that time, the breeze had died to nearly nothing but it was just misrable so we headed into Salmon Bay at Rotto for some michilin 5 star two minute noodles.....

After lunch, we headed over to Parker Point for a swim and chill out because dad (me) was starting to lose his shit at the number of complaints coming from the small people. 

After a swim kayak and more of a feed, we headed back out south west of PP looking at some of our waypoints. Out on the 40m line, we found a bit of a showing on the sounder on relatively flat ground so we dropped baits. 

As soon as the baits hit the bottom, both rods bent over. I grabbed one and Blake (little man) grabbed the other. I ripped mine up which turned out to be a small snapper while Blake was fighting with somehting else which, after a few minutes and a couple of runs, turned into a 550mm mulloway. He was super chuffed.

Over the next 10 or so drifts, we managed 3 snapper, a decent sea sweep which we kept, a bonito (from the bottom) which my daughter wound up after a hell of a fight. 

We spent 45 minutes on that spot and had a hit each drift with one bust off and a couple of dropped fish on the way up. 

With the sun getting lower, we pointed to Garden Island and with the conditions being fairly decent, we sat on 25 knots most of the way in, pulling up a mooring at GI to have tea before getting back to the ramp at about 1820. 

Still yet to get a sized Pinky but we are clearly on the right ground and very happy to see my kids getting fish up that I have never seen. 

Mulloway and Sea Sweep were delicious

With the weather being so windy over the xmas break I didn't get a chance to go for a proper deep sea fish anytime the wind was down I had something else on, before I knew it open season was shut. So now that we are allowed to fish again I've made sure to get out and have a fish while the weather and my life let me. Actually let myself sleep in abit this morning got up at about 4:30 had a coffee checked the wind then got down to the boat ramp. Was at my favourite spot from last year also got a fish there last friday just before 6, barely any wind at all took ages for the boat to pull the anchor rope tight I just got to work getting the burley sorted out. Casted a line out to see how everything was going to sit and noticed the current was going against the wind almost so had to fiddle around with how the rods were set. Ended up fishing 1 rod in the rocket launcher and 1 in the back corner. Got my first run about 6:40 it was the rod in the launcher going off peeling line reached up and struggled to grab it out with a fush on. Felt like a good fish plenty of head shakes got afew pumps of line back then  another little burst of run then gone  I was devastated pulled up the line everything still there just pulled the hooks. Oh well baited ip and back out. Keep burleying smashed up crayfish and mulie cubes. 7am back corner rod bends over slowly so I grab it out the holder and feel weight line immediately starts peeling off, fish was going nuts straight away I thought it was a snapper but after 4 or 5 runs and the fush still staying down near the bottom I started to think it was a bloody sambo but then I finally got a glimps of it down under the boat its a big snapper,  reached back and grabbed the net ( thanks for the big net Uncle) couple more winds and I had him in the net. Fish went 87cm on the brag mat got him bled and spiked and on ice. Pretty happy with myself kept fishing as the burley bag still had plenty in it about half an hour later kinda cleaning the boat up a little and see the rod in the launcher acting abit funny so grab it out dont feel anything but I just lifted the tip and feel weight again this fish definitely a snapper and right under me very quick fight and had a very green snapper in the net going nuts this fish went 77cm absolutely stoked now. Both fish today bit off the bottom hook of the snelled hooks second fish was gut hooked maybe why I got him in so quick.

Well this is a very rare occurance for me - went out and caught what we were targeting!

The weather on Wednesday looked too good to pass up with less than 4 knots most of the day and a very tolerable swell.

Up at home at 0420, on the road by 0504 and met one of my mates from work at the ramp at 0535. We were in the water on the way shortly after to the markers at the southern end of the cockburn channel to catch some bait (never done that before and jeez there were so many fish there!) which was midly successful. With a few fish in the tank, we headed out to the northern of the two Rockingham Fads (because the Woodies ones are missing).

1.5 hours after leaving Herring Bay, we arrived on site and could see the fish just under the surface and threw in a pair of lures and trolled past where we could see them for an immedate hook up. 

Our first glimpse got the blood pumping and even though it was smaller (600mm), it was still damn exciting and it was shortly at the boat where i netted it.......resulting in the lure getting stuck in the net and the fish flicking its way out and after one slap against the hull, swimming away happily......shit!

After apologising, we went for another loop and fairly quickly hooked up again to a very similar sized fish and after seeing it was hooked well, avoided the net and lifted it into the boat....where in mid air it shook, the hooks pulled....but thankfully this time the boat landed on the dry side of the boat and we offically had our first dolly!

Cheers and hugs and a quick photo and it was dispatched and put into the fish bag, which was christened after getting it for my birthday in late August.....yah ha!


So it was now 0830 and did a heap more loops around the northern fad, saw heaps of fish and with two boats of divers around, played nicely with the 5 divers in the water, watching them catch fish. We had a decent unspoken routene in where they their divers went in and we gave them 100m before starting our run. It worked out which was a concern of mine i.e. what we would do if there were already boats there (there was one boat there).

After not getting any hits on a variety of lures, we cast in a livey which immediately managed to unhook itself......

Then cast in our other one which was immediately belted by a decent fish and after a tussle let go, only to be picked up by another dolly who i had another tussle with before it also let go. Turns out i need to let them not just take the fish but eat it rather than just hold on. Unfortunately mr Slimy Mac was mangled.

Over the next two hours, we tried everything. Managed to catch 4 stupid birds but packed up and headed across to the southern of the two fads where there was one boat drifting around. There were immediately fish there and we just couldnt temp them with poppers, divers, pink squid looking things, stick baits or bits of mulie which the damn birds kept diving for. 

In the end, on the last drop, I managed to get a chunk of slimy mack deep enough past where the birds could go and in the clarity under the boat, watched a decent fish swim up to it, have a look, swim past and have a look the other way, then the other way and finially take it. I have it 20m and yanked to set the hooks and we were on!

There was no stuffing around with nets after an entertaining fight with some jumping my mate gaffed the fish and we had our second at 830mm

That got us another 10 minutes of catching birds before we pulled the pin. Headed north to the first fad, saw some fish, caught some birds but then we were done, heading ENE to the rotto fish tower and without troubling the score card, headed back in to the ramp, with the session done at ~1430.

Overall, 91 nautical miles, 115l of fuel consumed and the motor running for 7.5 hours. 

What amazed me was:

1: How sloppy it was out at the fad with some quite uncomfortable chop running against the current, even in the near glass out conditions,

2: A seemingly 50m deep canyon in 200m of water (200m deep just dropped near vertically over ~20m to 250m, then gradually coming back up to 180m). 

3: How much the swell condition improved once we were in less than 50m of water

4: How much current is running with only a 1 degree change in water temperature

5: I actually caught a fish!