seas looks rough but sea breeze @ rotnest hasent looked to bad today , just wondering whos pulling pots in the morning , 

 Another early start and a different dirrection from Albany today. Picked up this horse of a sambo at a new ledge we where scoping out in the low swell. Managed a little blue and a good harlequin also. Let everything go today so they are back out cruising the reefs. 

First real big fish for my new heavy setup and it handles it well. The sambo had the Stella singing under nearly 18kg odd of drag but was much easier to control it that the shorter or lighter gear we have used in the past. Stella 18K with 80lb Tasline Hollow braid on my Maven Coast 10ft 37-45kg rod. The best LBG combo ever and I can't imagine going back to what we used to use!!

Another mercy dash to the south coast and we found ourselves with a 1:30AM alarm leaving Albany to get to our location by first light a few hours out of Albany. Hour walk to the ledge and it must of been one of my first casts after collecting some herring as bait and hooked up and fought a good fish that took my herring fillet. It was slow but powerful and was swimming around. Felt like a heavy fish but to slow or lazy for a good pinky or Queen snapper so I guessed a small sambo that couldn't take much drag on the heavy 80lb gear. Quick fight from shallow water and this silver fish popped up next to the ledge and the screams of joy and excitement from us could of been heard in another state!!! After finally cracking a good dhuie not long ago after years of trying to pull another even bigger I was blown away.

 I've been getting the Mrs onto fishing with me and she is more than happy to tag along here and there. Had some awesome times just back to basics catching herring with her or even banjo sharks and sweep we seen one arvo but a while back I took her along on one of our mega missions to try get her some real fish. She wasn't happy about getting up at 3am driving 1.5 hours then walking 1.5 hours to the spot but she did it and I'm so glad it was worth it or I would of never heard the end of it. She caught her first blue groper all on her own and it played out perfectly with me hoping for a nice small fish to eat her crab and a lovely little blue of 5kg popped up. Lucky because the next 2 we landed just after where 13 and 19kg so she would of really struggled haha. After the blues shut down we burleyed up and fished hard and got her onto a good smabo. I had to do a bit of sweet talking at the end to steer the fish close to the rocks but her first sambo around 17kg which is a very good fish. Bloody proud partner moment right there and thank god it payed off!!

 We have stepped out gear up and got some heavier stuff to try land some bigger fish and so far it's working. My brother Aron yesterday landed this monster while fishing solo. Gear used: Stella 20k, JC Customs built CTS GT fight 37-45kg blank, 80lb Tasline and 200lb Varivas leader. Loosing a lot less fish now and getting better results compared to the pe4-6 gear we have been using in the past. 

Bit of a quick story Aron wrote up about the capture.

Had a sleep in for once in my life this morning, woke up and checked the swell realised it was a full lake so I rushed around and grabbed my fishing gear and set off, headed to a local spot I haven’t fished in over a year, collected a few crabs then after about an hour I caught and released two smaller blue grouper and then it went quiet so I moved spots to where I lost a massive grouper last year, had a few casts and straight away grouper bites got a small one to the rocks then pulled hooks, started to bring crabs back in so I did a fancy burley trick my mate told me about 5 minutes later I saw a big blue brute cruise in, I quickly raced back to the crab stash and put the biggest one I could find on, watched it pick up speed and nail the crab I don’t think I’ve set hooks so hard before, I braced myself as it took its first run but it was no match for a Stella 20k 3 clicks off locked I pumped it close to the surface and it still took another run, finally got it to the surface and started steering it to the landing ledge,biggest moment of joy grabbing hold of the beast! My new personal best blue grouper took me soooo long to beat my 22kg one

getting much closer to the 30kg+ ones we are looking for on rod and reel which is a massive achievement 

 didn't land a sized pink the whole season! Go out for a feed of whiting a week after the ban starts and what do I get smashed by!!! Made my little outfit scream, lucky I fish heavy for whiting (20lb) no idea how long the fight was but it felt like a lifetime... went 950mm quick photo and off he swam.

wasn't the easiest photo to take, need longer arms!

 What a mission this fish has been for me, I've been trying to tick one off that's a half decent size for year now. Average size for them down south seems to be 45-55cm when you do see them off the rocks so I wanted one a bit better than that. Finally managed to get it but the day and story that goes with this fish made is so much sweeter! 

I flew home from work on Monday lunch time and I had been watching the weather for the south coast as I do and Tuesday and Wednesday looked magic! I had commitments Wednesday and needed to be home Monday night so I had one day to fish. I tried to find a fishing buddy but couldn't get anyone stupid enough to tag along and on such short notice so solo it was. Left home at 1:30AM in Perth yesterday morning. Drove past bunbury where I forgot to get bait and burley and going through manjimup nothing was open that early but I didn't realize I had forgotten bait and burley until I arrived at the spot at 6:30 somewhere between windy harbour and peaceful bay. Ah well to late to turn back now I planned on casting some plastics, live bait a herring and try for some groper on crabs anyway. Started the 2-3kg walk along the rocks which took me just over an hour and set up fishing at a ledge I have been trying to get to for years which my brother managed to go to 2 days previous and get a just sized dhu and a big sambo from so I was excited. Tried plastics for a while for nothing so I decided to try catch some wrasse for bait with tiny little hooks and bits of crab for bait. Bugger me is I could even get a wrasse! I got 2 blue groper of which one roasted the crap out of me on size 2 long shank whiting hook I was using. Still no wrasse so walked another 1km to a protected bay, caught 3 wrasse and walked back to the original location and planned on using those wrasse then packing up. 3rd cast with a wrasse fillet as soon as it hit the bottom I was on. Fought heavy and hard and tried to reef me a couple of times but on the pe10 gear it wasn't much. It popped up behind a bommie and a dark deep purple dhu was on the surface. It looked small but I was 6-8m up.  Deadlifted it up the cliffs and it was much heavier than I thought and had me very excited. Swung it onto the ledge and screamed for joy for I had just ticked off a fish I had worked so hard for and made the 1100km drive and all up 4 hours walking oh so worth it.

not a monster by dhu standards but at 64cm and 4.5-5kg it's a massive achievement for me to have ticked off. Can't wait to find that 10kg one now! 

had a good session on some slab Tailor few weeks back with my son both scored our PB’s 

All released  

Biggest went 34cm, lost a few alot bigger and released heaps. Also caught and got attacked by a wobbegong aha all in all was a good day out 

 It my great pleasure to guide Robert Hodge and his father on a 4 days fishing trip in Thailand.

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Hi lads and lady's,

Thought I would chuck some pics up from my week long Exmouth adventures, headed up with the intention of targeting GTs from shore which I managed to do quite successfully with 4 fish up to 20kgs, also had some cracking light tackle fishing with Giant herring,cobia, shark macks and the normal assortment or small trevally and queenies. Pics are not the best as I was solo the whole time but I hope you get some enjoyment out of them!

Headed out with the younger brother on Saturday for a last go at some demersals. Knowing the ramps were going to be a bit mental I told him i wanted to go pretty early this time and asked him to be at mine at 4am for a 4.30 launch and was surprised he agreed without complaining as its usually pretty hard getting him out of bed early on the weekends. Alarm buzzed at 3.30am and after only getting 1 hour of sleep I felt pretty groggy already and wasnt even on the water yet, I even had a spew at BP at the first whiff of petrol on the way to the ramp, "Cody, grab me a redbull when you pay for the fuel, im going to need it today."
4.40am I backed the boat down the ramp and there were already boats tied up at the jetties, boats ready to be backed down to the water and a dozen cars already in the carpark. Rounded the heads and could not believe the conditions, we were ticking over at a little over 30 knots with not a ripple on the water. Heading south down the back of Garden I was pretty confident with the amount of fish starting to push into the sound I would just sound around for fish rather than the usual anchor and burley technique.

By 5.05am we came across the first school.

Cody got out the already rigged up plastics and hit them with the camera flash to really get them glowing. We followed this school for a good while, dropping plastics right on their heads but they just werent interested yet. The thought of anchoring and burleying started creeping in as they were hanging around the same piece of structure but persistence paid and finally got the bite.

Following the school. Jazz charters in the background.

Persistence pays, redbull was kicking in but still looked like shit.

By the time I caught and despatched the fish the rest of the school must have bolted as I could not find them again. Wasnt until around 7am that I found the next school a fair bit further north towards the rest of the boats. This was the biggest school I had come across this season but they were moving quick, almost as if they knew that just half mile further they were untouchable in the sanctuary zone.

We plucked 2 on the first drop before the plastics even reached the bottom.

I had seen Wazza out there in his tinny earlier in the morning and got straight on the phone and called him and told him to hurry before they disapeared. I sounded the school for him and told him to drop, his mate hooking up on plastic before reaching the bottom aswell.

We werent fussed on catching another as I wanted to leave room for 1 dhu as we were heading out wider for a sambo jig. Unfortunately the sambos werent really playing the game and neither was the hope of a bycatch of a dhu. The fish were pretty small and spread out over a large area, not schooled up and angry.

Was stinking hot out there and I had made the rookie mistake of wearing pants so off they came.

Finished off the day with a couple salmon from the back of the islands on the way in.

Woke up at 6am with a smile knowing today was going to be perfect and that was quickly dashed to see a 10kn NW coming around Cape Naturaliste.

Punched out to the 4 Mile and did a few drifts for a massive scorpion fish and decided that the wind was going to hold at 10kn with small gusts so punched out to yesterday's spot about a further 5 miles out.

Did a good 20 drifts over various lumps that produced yesterday and couldn't even get a bite today except for a tiny dhu and the changing winds were playing havoc with my drift lines. Kept driving over a small 3-4m high lump and decided I'd give that a drift then head home and pulled out a 53cm dhu. Happy days!

Packed up and shot in stopping for another whale show and with shit weather coming I can now really concentrate on the local licenced establishments.

Steamed out of Old Dunsborough solo this morning with the Mrs doing a foodie day with the kids so I had the whole day to myself.

Pulled up behind the 8 mile and hooked into a monster scorpion fish before I could even hit the lump. 

First drop on the lump and nabbed 2x juvi snapper on both rods and second drop resulted in 2x size dhus and a snapper. 2 dhus and one person! Tried to get my bag with a size snapper but just caught size dhu after size dhu all releasing well.

Rang my cousin who had been fishing since 3am 4 miles away with no luck so he steamed over got his dhu and we left the hungry dhus to chase snapper on the gravel patches. Found some huge schools but couldn't interest them so finished up with a 4 mile bash and got some squid in 4m.

Another magic day with bus size whales doing acrobatics all around me.

finaly landed some decent KGs.... was only out for a couple of hours and managed to mark some new ground around dawesville. Were caught in 10m on occy...

Haven't landed a snapper this season but hopefully tomorrow is my day!

 https://www.facebook.com/perthboatmechanics/photos/pcb.1450930941662754/1450929381662910/?type=3&theater

Shout out to Perth boat mechanics for a speedy fix up it needed helped me inspect a few boats and gave me the tick of approval picked it up for 10k and now going to give it a bit of love. 

Next things I want to do. Half hard top , all round white light , led lighting, vhf, custom live well, dual battery

Any other ideas throw them my way

 Finally found the snaps!

Caught 8 in total kept 4 it was mental -- a very enjoyable night. Best metro fishing I've experienced!

Hi all.

Many of you will know I've been trying for a Cockburn Sound pinky for a while now without any luck. Years of watching Beau and Little Johnny post threads every half hour about when they were trying to catch a herring on a piece of straw only to get a four way hook up of 90cm pinks, and be back at the ramp 3 minutes after launching bagged out, or that time on the jet ski when one jumped straight into the esky and landed on the filleting knife and bled itself had gotten me pretty demoralised.

At the start of this year I set a goal of getting a sized pink from the sound, and gave it a few good shots. (although opportunities are a little limited for me, I did get out enough times for the missus to be saying "you caught nothing.....again?") After a couple of weeks ago I thought I'd had my last chance, and pretty much given up for this year. Well the stars aligned, and I got out with a mate on Saturday on the last day before the ban, armed with half of California's annual squid quota, an abundance of mulies and the secret weapon, Mick C's voodoo burley combo. Took my mate's new 6.7 bar crusher out as he wanted to get some hours on the motor (still not run in) and we hit the sound around 6.00am. Joined the hordes out at the usual haunts, and ten minutes later had hooked up to a nice fat 82cm pink on a floating mulie. To say I was pleased was an understatement! I was dancing around the boat, high fiving and generally giving my mate the sh%^s! He was a bit dark as that was the first "real" fish on board his boat, and he didn't catch it (I may have let him know this a few times over the course of the day)

Anyway, the bites dried up after that, so we decided to head way wide out into the 40s. Found a nice lump with fish showing and did a few drifts. Couldn't get past the hordes of skippy, we were getting smashed as soon as the baits got into the zone. Biggest went 52cm and pulled hard (harder than the snapper), a few double hook ups of 40cm+ fish was great fun. Kept a few and threw a heap back, along with some undersized dhu's, a pinky, and some small black arse. Saw some humpbacks on the way out, and while drifting another pair put on an amazing show for us around 200m away, both jumping several times and generally showing off. Was amazing to watch, man those things are BIG.

Came back inside the sound for the afternoon, and tried again for the sunset bite. Was a bit slower, but after sunset my mate managed to get some blood on his deck, and we went home pretty happy.

So stoked to have finally ticked that box, roll on summer weekends.

Thanks to all the FW crew who have offered help and advice over the years. Thanks Mick C for your super burley, and thanks to the regular posters on here for the inspiration.

Cheers,

BD.

Managed to get out on the last day of the Sound season. After trying several spots, eventually found them and it was on! Multiple pinks and left them biting at 10am ( so much for pinkys only feeding at dawn/dusk) as I'd had plenty and also the number of boats fishing close to me was increasing... . 

Been a good season from what I can see and more than half my fish this year have come on Zman plastics. Burley is definitely the key.

Now just need to find some KG spots

Cheers 

 Bled at our usual spot. Was packing up but then go a heads up from the guru. Some donkey snapper out there.

Boys got some crackers tonight. Biggest tad under 1 m . Ians boat got some good ones also. His biggest went 12.5 over the magic meter mark.

 Went for a gander down at a Rokko boat ramp last night on sunset and bumped into Moking and also had a chat to another fisher who just came in from the sound. Wasn't going to go out fishing but I convinced the missus to race home, get the boat and see if she could catch her first ever snapper.

We headed out at 7:30pm and was quickly smashed by a squal that came through which had the boat rocking and rolling and I was sure the missus was going to start heaving on the deck. She normally gets sea sick in the swimming pool. Once it passed and the rain settled I put two rods out and we started the wait. About 30 minutes in her rod started peeling line and she swooped on it like a seagull on a chip.. now the tricky part came into play, how to coach her on what to do with a big fish without treating her like a little kid and thus landing myself in the shite.. well she played that fish like a boss and soon I had the gaff in hand it was on the surface.. A quick swipe from me, a loud shreak from her and it was on the deck and my fishing future was secured. 

Her first ever pinkie went 890mm and just on 8kg. We were so stoked with that one fish for her we packed up and went home..

Happy days team....

A few recent catches. Old Herring arn't to bad if you can be bothered cleaning a few...

 Ah well.. the snapper ban is almost on, been such a good season. Went out solo yesterday and boated 10 fish all on plastics,  4 at 90cm and the rest 85-89cm so to say i was happy was a understatement. Tried for a fish on fly for 2 hours with no success. So i thought why not try again this morning and get my wife a few fish so she could try get a pb too! Launched at 4am this morning in the rain bianca wasnt convinced at all but we persisted and another epic morning 5 fish landed and dropped a few aswel.. bianca getting a few fish and a pb at 84cm. I tried again on fly and nailed a pb of 87cm! Soo happy to get one on the deck finally after the last one i hooked got sharked. So heres a few pics of the last 2 days. Restricted to 50mb which dosent allow many photos

 Managed to duck out for a couple of hours yesterday with grandsons and again cleaned up on KG, an easy dozen 40cm plus thumpers. Young Jake (8) caught 2 and then caught and landed a nice gummy shark 1200 cm. Big KG in 5 meters of water is great fun.

Tonight. Away from everyone. Solid pinks . 4 caught .

Probably been one of the better snapper seasons ive had, plenty of fish and absolutely nailing plastics since ive been home the last 2 weeks. Plenty of big fish around, mostly 85-87cms, also did 3 trips in a row where we landed a 90cm+ fish each trip. Enjoy the pics fellas.

First trip this r&r

New PB at 94cm

My brother with a new PB at 93cm caught on 10lb and plastic.

Goatlobster with an angry one.

Joelborg92 with a new PB at 90cm.

Headed out yesterday with my brother for one last hit at it before going to work, fish were on the chew big time after Saturdays blow. 10 fish for the session all on plastics, all releasewd, back at the ramp by 9am. Dropped a fish on stickbait when the trebbled opened up which was a bummer as thats been a goal this year, pink on stickbait. Will be back home just before the ban to give it another go.

This was a brand new jighead out the box before the session, accounted for 8 fish in the boat and a few more dropped, didnt have to replace the plastic once, Zman 7in Streakz with a Halco octo-skirt sweetener.

Some very solid fish tonight . Flesh quality was great. No milky colour at all . Great night except got grumpy little johnny :) everyone ended up with great feed

 just a few snapper from my hobie kayak out of the cockburn sound.

 Fattest gummy I've caught to date.