Few pictures from Port Hedland. Been extremely windy lately and haven't been able to get out as much as I'd like. [img_assist|fid=3481|thumb=1|alt=Big Spaniard|caption=Me and ma beautiful baby.] [img_assist|fid=1161|thumb=1|alt=Collateral Cobia|caption=Cobia are just as bad as noahs sometimes in smashing your fish.] [img_assist|fid=1138|thumb=1|alt=Sharked|caption=Sharked !!] [img_assist|fid=1135|thumb=1|alt=Pilbara Prize|caption=Off Port Hedland, had to beat the Tiger shark under the boat though. The ice slushy killed the colours unfortunately :(] [img_assist|fid=2007|thumb=1|alt=Emperor|caption=Lots of these about!]

Looks like the weekend might be ok for a fish. After the storms we just had the bottom should be stirred up nicely and hopefully they are on the chew. No idea what sort of fishing is planned, but it will be good to get out there regardless.

To be updated

[img_assist|fid=67|thumb=1|alt=Exmouth 2005|caption=Adrian Gribbon with a Small Black Marlin]

[img_assist|fid=146|thumb=1|alt=Exmouth 2005|caption=Rankin Cod and Red Emperor]

[img_assist|fid=149|thumb=1|alt=Exmouth 2005|caption=Broadbarred Mackeral]

[img_assist|fid=152|thumb=1|alt=Exmouth 2005|caption=Cobia]

[img_assist|fid=155|thumb=1|alt=Exmouth 2005|caption=Barracuda - Released]

[img_assist|fid=158|thumb=1|alt=Exmouth 2005|caption=My Double Header Spangled Emperor]

[img_assist|fid=161|thumb=1|alt=Exmouth 2005|caption=Long Tail Tuna - North West Reef - Released]

Had a good day out from City Beach today and landed heaps of dinner plate sized skippy. Witnessed one of my worst fishing horrors out on the water when we were the only boat near our spot when a cray boat comes around and starts dropping lines within 20 meters of us. Well, what do you know, theyve found our school of pink snapper and whammo, the 2 boys on the back start hauling up pinks around the 7-8 kg mark, one after another after another until about 12-14 are onboard. By this time i have pulled the anchor and got the skipper to motor within 10 meters and start fishing, no luck whatsoever, the cray skipper goes back around the school again, gets one skippy and disappears off to start dropping his pots again. Devastation had set in, so we decided to go and anchor near one of his pots and use his berley to bring the fish about. After heaps of skippy i managed to hook into a bigger one and it was our only pink snapper for the morning. Boltz then proceeded to land a nice fat king george, photo attached. The skippy thinned out and the sambo's came through and wiped us out on the light stuff, we decided that after witnessing the horror of pro's killing the pig, our dash had been done. We still ended up with a great feed of skippy and a little taste of snapper, was a relatively good day.

We decided to go out for a couple of hours this morning even thou there was strengthening winds and rain on the way. Luckily it was just Bolts and I and we were able to hide under the covers when the squalls came. What a productive day it turned out to be, after a putting a few mulie cubes out as a berley trail the echo came alive and a 4 hour hotbite of snapper and small skippy proceeded with much celebration from the anglers. The snapper started off small but increased in size as the tide began to change and the bite became more frenzied. Getting past the skippy became a nuisance and a little bit of extra weight was added to previously unweighted mulie cubes to get them down to the bigger fish hanging off the bottom. After I hooked into a couple of big ones, bolts got into the action and landed his first, shortly after we became plauged by 3-4kg sambos with a few bigger ones amongst them causing us a few dramas in the 20 meters of water and light lines and rods. Even thou we lost quite a few sambos to the reef we were more than happy with our catch and we certainly threw back over 70 fish between us.

We managed a few trips out to the FADs (Fish Attracting Device) off Rottnest this year with some success. The target species was Dolphinfish (Mahi Mahi) with lures and live bait. We tried trolling with lures and skirts many times with little interest from our target or other species. Soon as the livebaits went into the water, things became a little different and it wasn't long before it was hookup central. After a bit of a mess we decided that having one live bait out was the best method and each angler take their turn, if they hookup and drop the fish, back to video camera position and move over. After a few dropped fish we started getting the hang of it and landed a couple of good fish. The next trip out was even better as the fish were hungry and didn't seem to be getting spooked by the large numbers of vessels trolling past the FADS. Perth Game Fishing Fad had large numbers of fish under it along with the Hillaries Fad, rumours had it that even the Club Marine Fad had big dolphinfish under it at the end of this summer. After rotating around the boat, everyone had their share of fish and still managed to drop a few along the way. The strangest capture had to go to gribbo who snapped off to a fish and then managed to hook it hours later snagged on someone else's line and it tied itself into a tight enough knot for him to bring it to the boat. Fluke in 550 meters of water? you'd better believe it, the fishing gods shined on the young man once again.

Headed to Rotto this morning for a salmon bash.. after about 45 mins of nothing and a strengthening westerly a big hit came with 25 meters of line being ripped off before the fish knew it was hooked, soon as it found out it was hooked, we lost another 60 mtrs of 12 kg before the braid snapped.. suspected culprit was a good sized spaniard or decent tuna.. about 2 minutes after that the surface lure went off and we managed to hold onto a decent sized dolly that was going ballistic to try and shake the hooks, plenty of aerials and a decent show and hooked only in 35 ft of water.. we bailed after that as the wind came up too much and there was a good sized swell running out at west end, it may not look like it in the photo, but it was pretty hairy at stages in close to the reefs..

Easter came quite early this year and everyone just managed the time off from work for the annual trip to Cobweb Cottage, or the Denmark/Walpole areas. We were greated by one of the largest fires in the area for many years and saw some flames leap well over 50 meters and even higher in some areas. The fishing was quite good this year as we had learnt from our previous efforts how to beach launch effectively and what sort of ground we should look for. Our special spot out from walpole produced another good blue groper (green as it was a female) and quite a few queen snapper, big skippy, blackass and sgt bakers. Not quite the same catch as the year before, but enough for a good feed none the less. We also tried out from Peaceful Bay a couple of days and ended up with a few sharks, tuna, blackass, harlequin, sgt baker and big queen snapper. Here are a few pictures from this year and the last couple of trips.

Had a pretty wierd day out on the water today.. had to be the best day of the year weather wise, and i dont think i'd ever complain about there not being enough wind, but today it was crystal clear and absolutely perfect once the thunder and rain cleared.. it was like you were anchored without needing it down, which i blame for the lack of big fish.. or it was the moon, something was amiss..

First drop was a 50cm pinkie, 1.5 hours of boredom followed without bites even thou the echo was going off, then an undersize pinkie, 1.5 mtr wide ray, a sgt baker, sand whiting and flathead(throwbacks), decided to troll to the next spot, picked up a double hookup of striped tuna of about 1.5kg, 5 mins into the trawl, found a nice spot and did some drops, a big blackass and a shizenload of scorpion fish had us move to direction bank, direction had a undersize dhuie, scorpion fish and a 10kg nw/blowie, then went back into our normal spots incloser and picked up a big blackass, an decent harlequin, a 50cm dhuie that stretched to 51cm but went back to fight another day, then some more scorpion fish and another monster ray that went about 1.5mtr wide and a good 20 mins of back breaking.. Unfortunately i didn't take too many photos, only 1 half decent one..

Leaving the harbour this morning everyone had a positive feel about the fishing prospects. Mostly was the inclusion of a new Navman 4600 colour sounder which was itching to be tested in waters around the 40 meter mark 10-15 kilometers north-west of ocean reef. The decision to try a new spot was agreed to by all and a tightly packed group of craypots was sighted in the distance. After several drops a Gribbo hooked a small but size pinky and the bite picked up. Gribbo seemed to be the man on the day and shortly after landed a nice sized dhui on fresh squid. We soon became plauged with schools of small pink snapper which were awesome fun on light gear. After snapping the sinker off and still having bait on after a slow retrieve a small school shark hooked up just out of sight. After a quick 5 minute fight underneath the boat he was successfully gaffed and made ready for the dinner plate. The bite quitened off after that with only 1 sand whiting and large wrasse being caught. We had enough for a bbq that evening and trialled the sounder, which proved to us that for many years we had been stuffing about with a black and white and more often than not fishing sand for flathead when we were chasing quality table fish. Definately the best $800 spent on the boat and has easily paid itself back in quick time, highly recommended.