As Ryan posted last night, we headed south and got a few marron. Thought I'd show you the end result that my wife and I enjoyed for lunch today. Yummo!!!

After seeing all the awesome fish on the site thought I would add a few of my own..not that they are all awesome but some are different to whats usually here!

Rayman 

the two mannas from the narrows the other night.
the bigger went bout 150 and the smaller about 134 if i can remember correctly

A good trip to the channel islands.  Planty of fish caught and loads of laughs!  Hope this workks...here goes

Rayman

Steep point 2008 Well got back from my trip a little while ago but thought i would wait to post pics until the jan edition of hotbite came out :) We left for the 13 hour drive at 4.00pm tuedsay and arrived at the location 14 hours later due to getting bogged on some of the hardcore fourwheel driving sections. Once there we headed out in the dingy and trolled lures with no luck. We then bottom bounced for till sundown. We all landed nice pink snapper. Pretty much snapper and blue lined emperor foir the rest of the trip. Heres some pics i did :) Just a couple pics of my trip to shelter bay. More pics to come and with good fish in them :)

After a top day Sunday I thought after checking out Seabreeze I would do another trip to two rocks.

My 5 year old on Sunday managed to pull in the 10kg Dhuy on his 3 kg ugly stick(10kg line) with a little help from his 8 year old brother. Picture attached. Igot video too should see the bend & hear the exitement, haha!

Was out there again today, put in at 10am just as the wind was picking up decided to go south west into the wind, as to have an easy ride back in the forcast 23 knots.
with the strong wind I was drifting at 2-3 knots. Finding fish ok on the Furuno 585 sounder, but no takers exept for a couple Sgt Bakers.

Went as far as gemini Wreck (nothing taking my Jigz) , then out west to 40meters (dropped baits in front of some solid fish on the sounder) then north till WNW of 2 rocks(same again, No takers)

Big swell and fast drift I recon were my down fall.

Used Preium Occy & SGT Baker fillets, the Almanac looked ok, Oh well better luck next time.

Any tips fellas?

What is the ideal drift speed, I maybe should of put the sea anchor out?

cheers

Justin

Headed out to the 40s this morning with Barney nice & early - weather was ok but swell was up so made it interesting crossing the 5 fthm bank in the dark - did 4 drifts and managed 5 Dhus - all around 600 except 1 around 900. Very little sign on the sounder compared to other times we have fished this area so maybe the swell had a bit to do with it - not a bad day & back at the ramp by 10am.

Moylee

headed down to preston beach for an overnighter last weekend. got there about 4 in the arvo and first cast landed a little tailor. caught a few more until sundown of which only one was legal, its amazing how many 29cm tailor i seem to catch. At about 10 i switched from mulies to tailor fillets for bait and within 10mins i was on with the first of 3 shovelnoses for the night, i only caught them on fresh tailor and when i ran out and went back to mulies i didnt get a bite.

Went for a fish today and what a day it was. Me and two mates decided TwoRocks was on the cards and that we would be there for a 0530 start. When we got there the car park was already full of trailers and there was a cue for the ramp which did the full circle of the carpark and went around the corner to the main road. we were lucky we got there when we did and were in the water within 30mins of arrival. So after the peek hour session we decided to venture around the 40 mark for some new territory whilst doing some fine tuning to the new Broardband sounder unit. We found some nice lump and proceeded to drop a line in. Bang on. One of the fellas was straight onto a 12kg Duhie followed by the other fella and myself pulling up 2 good size Baldies. We had established a drift line with 4 big lumps in it and continued with it. After 3 passes we had pulled 6 Duhie 2 release ranging between 7 and 12 kg and 3 Baldies between 2 and 4 kg. We had our limit by 2 pm and were out of the water by 4pm then cruised home. Over all it was a top day for all involved. How did everyone else go??

Cheers

Tez

went out on saltwater charters today to go hit the derwent and test my new pe 8 xzoga and trinny dc jik lah combo. when we got there the conditions were no were near perfect and as i couldnt be assed dropping 40oz of lead to hold bottom i decided to jig , resulting in a rat sambo and another that was an estimated 22 kg wich was a workout in 200m. the boat managed many snapper skippy and black ass wich going by the conditions was a credit to the skipper to find the fish for every 1 . great boat and great crew highly recomended.
cheers brenz

Bob just come back from his local tackly shop (Club member) needed new flares before we go away.  The owner was saying that he has 60 people waiting for the new epirb 406 on his books.  Apparently it could take as long as 6 months to fill his orders, scarce as hens teeth.  So I hope everybody was lucky enough to get theirs early.  Sounds like also they could be over $500.00

Down at a local spot this morning with Sherbs and Colin, the morning was slow with very few and small tailor. Steve caught a couple of nice herring, colin was getting pestered by rock cod and some small tailor. I managed a couple of keepers and a few thrown back which were too small.

AS the sun came up around 7, I moved to another spot where I had caught salmon previously. after a few casts I hooked up and after a short tussle brought the fish in. Colin persisted in the same area we were fishing earlier on and caught a hooter whiting, one of the biggest I have seen!

Pics of what I caught.

Cheers
Dean

Double Digit Dhuies

One of my good mates, Brad, is being dragged off to Xmas Island for 1 year plus within the month for work (well for the good wife anyway).  He has only ever caught a just sized dhu; so the task was to better that last Friday.  With the weather for Friday being predicted as the best for the week, an early start was the order of the day.

We launched at Two Rocks just before sunrise. 10 miles out, first drop of the day, I hooked up to a big dhue, but unfortunately the hooks pulled early in the tussle.  New ground found and we both load up, me with this one and Brad with a small PB ~8 kg Dhu 30 seconds later.

Another drift 20 metres west then produced for Brad his first double digit dhu and probably his PB Dhuie for along time to come.

In between the dhues were a couple of pinkies and a big cuttlefish. 

With the limited days available for fishing lately for me (weather and work) this was a great day to be on the water.

Since the wind gods were kind yesterday we managed a trip SW of rotto in the 70's to some new ground. Used the soft plastics most of the day. Queen snapper went 12 1/2lb.

Went out today for a look see if the fish were on the bite. Picked up Menopaul at five , Headed out just before sunup ,was a flat morning with just a slight bit of south chop left from yesterdays sea breeze .Only a short run to the first patch ,but no one was home ,not a lot on the sounder. So we headed out towards the bank, to work some deeper patches. The next patch showed a little colour, it didn't take long and I was on but after a few hard dives and some headshaking I realised it was a sambo ,quick photo and back to the deep .

Next drop ahhhhhhhhhh yes more sambos ,then a large ray, then a carpet shark .Time to move all fish released from this patch .Next patch and our first dhuie around 550mm released . mmmmmmmm now where were the big ones , not much on the sounder anywhere ,Next patch and things started looking good with menopaul getting a 11kg

and me a 12kg dhuie.

Jesse and menopaul picked up a couple of nice baldies, around 3kg .

The icebox had some fish in at last ,another drift a one more dhuie around 600mm released. Time to move back in closer as things went a little quiet ,stopped at a couple of patches on the way in, Menopaul got a 10kg dhuie , Jesse got the 9kg dhuie on his light rod and the breeze was now up to 18 knots I was a little concerned he would lose this fish , so up with the lines and reversed back to take the pressure of his line, only being 9kg .Did well to land that one with water splashing over the back, and the boat rolling around ,top job

. Time to head for home , another great day .made up for the crap weather we have been having.

Just wondering on your  thoughts of fishing charters out of the metro area. Other than catching heaps of fish....what would you like to see happen on fishing charters, that are not at the moment ! Target different fish..gear ect  cheers

 Santa came early yesterday and delivered a nice 204kg Blue Marlin on 24kg stand up. It took just over an hour to boat, the unfortunate thing was that it was hooked through the eye & bleeding a fair bit, so needless to say the locals are having smoked marlin for xmas dinner. 

After my work BBQ function at Matilda bay yesterday (which we , the family, arrived by our boat) we headed off for an arvo cruise on the river.

The southwester was pumping...as usual, which made for a bit of rough water in open parts of the river.  The birds and tailor were harassing the bait schools off Point Walter and a couple of other areas as we cruised toward Blackwall Reach .  We would come back to them when the wind settled at sunset.

I sounded around near blackwall reach looking for wrecks that I have dived before and looking for potential new dive sites.   There was a big tailor school smashing bait close to Bicton baths, so out went the slices.  Instant triple hookup, one jumped off and two choppers made it to the boat for a quick release.

My 4 y.o. Zoe, reeled in her first Tailor and was very happy.

We caught about a dozen more before retiring to a mooring off The Coombes for nibbles, a few ales and a rest from the wind.  A couple of those crazy yakers peddled past looking for potential mulla territory whilst the Cottesloe boys ‘stroked’ past us a few times in their surf boat whilst listening to young Zoe singing ‘row row row ya boat.....was funny as.

Close to sunset we headed off back to the ramp at Burswood.  The Tailor were now working east of Point Walter but the wind was still up.  These fish looked bigger though, so out with the lures again.  We caught about another dozen within 30 minutes and kept 3 that were just over size (just had them for lunch too – very tasty).

Despite the wind being a little too strong and cool, it was a very enjoyable evening on the river with the family – will have to do it again over summer.

Cheers

Pete

Well, you’ve seen the surface pics and now here are the underwater shots.

Not fantastic  - vis not the best, film camera jammed etc etc...time for a new camera!  But, the shots do display how tight the pinkies swim together and they compliment Ryans above water shots.

Approaching the school;

Very close;

Went out fishing with my boyfriend on my first charter and this is what i pulled up im pretty proud of it.

(the only 'big' fish i have ever caught)

Yesterday was absolutely awesome. Pete D, Scott (Soupster) and myself went for a cray dive with a twist. We approached the back edge of Five Fathom Bank with a bit bigger swell for our liking so we came back to the inside of it and tried a few new spots to dive. We've been doing well at our normal spots of late but we've been wanting to rack up a few new spots also. We ended up with our bag limit of crays on the first dive with mainly reds to make up the catch as the whites certainly have bolted by the looks. The second dive wasnt so nice as the new recon ground was void and the water very wishy washy!

So, with the 2 dives done we had to be back early for a BBQ get together on the Swan so we thought we'd have a quick flick for pink snapper as our dive spots were close to a pinky lump that Pete & myself have fished before. Pete was motoring up to the co-ord and as we got closer we thought "whats that on the surface" with a "bloody hell, thats a big school of pinkys" being the second words

WOW, i've seen this before but never had the opportunity to swim with them. As we approached i fired off a shit load of pics (i was giving a Japanesse tourist a run i reckon) and then after that Pete & myself went in to swim with them. Scotty was at the helm (Scotty also had his turn to swim with them next) with Pete shooting a few pics with his underwater camera when we were really close to them (snorkeling) which hopefully will turn out. Pete & myself got really close like 1m away and had this spawning group of pinkys doing their thing right in front of us. This highlighted just how important these fish are and why we need a ban also.

There were 2 dolphins also that were swimming around them and would periodocally "whack" one with its nose and give the fish a hard time. When they're in this mode they dont often take baits and after a quick try Pete got one fish and we then took off.

Eyeballing these magnificent fish doing their thing in the wild and being able to swim with them was truely awesome and my highlight for 2008 for sure

Pete's Pinky, it was a keeper! 

These are the pics from our last exxy trip I will learn some day to get more pics just did'nt have enough quality shots... We had a great time with my uncle taking the prize for sure. The rest of us were plauged with bust off's and sharks!!! We spent a week in total It was a good first trip learning all the ground and spots next time we won't have to spend the time looking for spots but we had a gret time any how....

Rob 

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So we packed the car at 4.30pm on friday arvo with the fridges, clothes, rods, reels and the kayak we were ready to go for the weekend. We set off on the 2-3 hour trip, first up to lancelin and then by beach and track up to wedge and the shack we were staying in, once we got there we opted to stay in the night and drink with the boys as the weather was not the best and would make fishing hard, we prepared for and early start in the morning.

Out of bed at 6am, sherbs and I went down to the beach in front of the shack, and after about 30 mins of pulling lines checking bait and catching weed we decided to move as the area was barren. We headed for south rock just 5 minutes south of wedge Island, and this area contains reef and some gutters which we thought would hold some fish.

While arriving at the rok the tide was very low and made it easy to walk out onto the reef, it is a big platform and extends for about 100m, with channels and bommies to cast into. I walked out a bit further than sherbie and we started fishing. I starting catching the odd herring and chopper tailor, but the fish were thin as the sun was now well into the sky and the fish wern't biting. Steve moved up into the same area and managed a couple of herring and tailor and a unusual reef fish.

We headed back to the shack for breakfast and then I went out again on the kayak this time, behind the island fishing fishing in a channel between 2 reefs. I set up anchor and only after a couple of annoying wrasse I hooked up big time almost falling out of the kayak I managed to straighten the kayak and the fish continued to pull me around. After a couple of minutes Up came a ray and I quickly cut the line and buggered off before I got another one.

On the way back I trolled some mulies and had a couple of hook ups but the fish spat the hooks. Back onto land at 1.30, then had a little tour of wedge with andrew (sherbs son) Up some dunes and along the beach. Got back to the shack and had some lunch and our next plan was to try south rock again for an arvo fish. We got down there at 4.30pm and set up, the conditions weren't ideal as there was a strong south wester and the beach was dropped off about 60m out so we had to wade out and then cast to get past the breakers. Andrew one of the guys staying at the shark with us managed to get 5 nice sized herring, I had one monster run on my beach combo, almost down to the backing and PING snapped off... Called it for a stingray. We finished fishing at 6pm and headed back to the shack for dinner, as the conditions were just too hard to fish from, we planned to get up early morning on sunday to have a crack at some tailor when the weather was a little nicer, that night we sat out the back and continued drinking.

Up at 4.30 am, sherbs and I headed down to South rock in the cruiser, and Once again it was low tide, however We decided to try a different area which looked very promising. First cast Bang I was on and Pulled in a small ort jackson shark about 50cm long, and sherbs caught a nice sized herring. It was a few more casts for me before I pulled in my last tailor for the trip, but it was a nice sized one. Sherbs now began to put on a fishing clinic hooking up more often than not and each one producing either a chopper tailor or a herring or a hooter skippy. Others soon noticed we were in a hot spot and after a while he had a little crowd fishing with us.

For this short little morning session we caught a heap of fish, and sherbs mentioned it was the best he had had in a long while. We headed back to the shack and had some more fun on the kayaks and surf skiis and then we were packed up and ready to leave the shack by 11.30am. We all followed dougie back to lancelin along the beack and tracks while a few in convoy were bogged we were fine in andrews land cruiser which chopped up the beach. We got into lancelin and had some food at the local bakery, where we said our goodbyes to the boys and headed back home.

Thanks the Sherbs and Andrew for a great trip, we had plenty of fun and a few fish along the way.

Sherbs will put some pics up soon.

Cheers
Dean

HA HA HA  GOT YA'S !!!!!!!   AMEN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First fish on the new 150 Staal.

Not on it's 225 rod but worked OK on the 500

Hi Guys,

Havent been on here for a while, but got my hands on a hilux surf and am now mobile  Me n some mates went for a fish at some of the beaches and reefs north of Two Rocks and managed to land 2 dozen big sized herring and some monster garfish, but no tailor. I keep hearing reports of tailor mulloway etc. getting landed from these beaches but have always had no luck. Was wondering if anyone has ventured up that way lately and hooked up onto something big???

Where is fisheries when you want to be inspected? lazy buggers !

OK long story longer :) I came in after being out on a miserable day 10-15k winds but they dropped down to about 5-10k after 10ish on 30 Nov and wind direction changed so here am I drifting over nice ground I notice where there is one lump there is more and the southerly was pushing me over all that but not much luck some nice black arse still a nice feed once the wind changed to SW life got interesting I got a bit no wait a pull and a zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZ on my 7kg drag setting I wound and used the rod only for my arm to get dam tired man this was work I was smart though and tried to put the rod in the metal bar I have to allow my hand to take the pressure off as my left arm was killing me after 5 minutes yup I think I am a pussy :( Brilliant as my idea was not I kicked it into free spool arghh wommmmmmmmm line ran off once I placed pressure on it again sure enough twanggggggggggggg  

Up comes the swivel, so here I go a few more drifts and woha same run, this time I bite down and work the rod letting teh fish pull on the 7kg and if line went out bugger it let it, and wind at every opportunity after a painstaking 2 hours (real time 5-10 minutes) up comes a massive 90cm duhfish ! it was knackered just floated and let me net it I had to use my kill tank what should the ratio ice to water be again ? plopped it in it barely fit oh what a feeling my arm was dead... I used the last few remaining baits up and then said its a good day to head in early....

Gloated to the missus on the phone and have not felt like fishing for 2 weeks now but the bug is returning as I know there is another duh out there with my sinker and hooks in his mouth    I even went all the way to rotto with out a rod on the boat to appease the god of fishing vouchers :)

*

I was up north recently (just into the NT) and we found a floating palm tree root in the middle of nowhere. It was loaded with dollies, all around 3kg and they were hitting anything- divers, poppers, stick baits and plastics. In the end I took the hooks off my stick bait and drove them crazy casting that around. There were a few bigger males sitting out the back (6-7kg each) but getting a lure with hooks in it to them was impossible as the smaller ones were onto it in a flash. I jumped over and took a few underwater pics. If you look closely in the palm tree photo you can see the dollies cruising around in the background. There were also a few nice triple tail under there, it’s amazing how much life relies on this type of structure.