Finally bit the bullet and headed out today. The wind died for a couple of hours and it wasn't too bad. Went to the west side of side of 5 fathom to try and snag a dhuie or snapper. No luck on that front but did managed to catch my first evet YTK. Weighed in at 12kg and put up a hell of a fight. Good luck to those of you heading out over the next couple of days. Have fun.

 2 weeks away in jan 2017 got into some good fish 

Had a look at the forecast all week and there was only a short window this morning but Guildford was going to be still all morning so decided it was time to keep the cover on the boat and take the dinghy out for spin. Got down the Fishmarket Reserve at 6:30am and was the only one there and the water was magic with the tide still up.

I've been really struggling on the bream as of late and have been down the last 3x in a row for 3 donuts whereas two summers ago I was killing it every session and I've even considered selling the dinghy after yet another depressing failure.

Decided not to mess around and headed straight for my honey hole which is a large flat sandy area with structure and reeds either side but even this area has been very unkind to me lately. First cast with my hardbody at my favourite bit of structure and I was half heartedly retrieving it and my 1-3kg rod and 1000 reel went nuts but I just wasn't ready for him and committed a rookie offence and gave him just enough slack to throw the treble. What followed was pretty much a hit a cast and pulling in so many bream I lost count ranging from rats to around the 25cm mark. I pulled out the popper for a crack but no tackers so it was back to the hardbody for more medium sized bream and a Billy Bunter.

As fun as it was I decided I need to add a 30+ to the morning's effort so started working the deeper snags I've pulled big models out of but didn't get so much as a tickle so I headed down to a shallowish rockwall where I know the big boys also hang out and slowly trolled along it with the electric motor and I was on bigtime. He was taking as much line and I was getting back and it was an effort to keep him out of the rocks and away from the snag he kept heading for but once I got him into deeper water I knew I had him and played him back to the dinghy. He went 36 and was a big fat fooker and I took a quick couple of snaps and sent him back along with the others to duel another day.

Little Dhui from the other day NOR

 Well then...

This is my mate who i went with on saturday night who decided he wanted to go agian on another little trip down the beach. To the same spot.

Yesterday the 18th of Jan was another windy arvo when this friend of mine decided it was time for a walk down the beach with the wife and kid. He grabbed his gear (12 ft beach rod with a penn gti reel loaded with 80lb braid), 2 mullet and headed for the beach. It was just getting late when he got there and cut a fillet off his first mullet and off went the first cast. He felt that he may not have casted into the correct position so after about 2 minutes of waiting he reeled it back in. Out went the second cast a little further and he felt he had nailed it this time, as the bait hit the bottom he went to flick over the bail arm, but the line was coming off at an alarming rate already. WTF !!! he said quietly to himself so with a swift drop of the rod and the bail arm engaged he was on to something big. The blistering run seemed to last a lifetime and due to the size of the reel in comparison to the braid on the reel he was llosing line fast. As the drag got a little tighter he managed to stop the fish and begin to get some back to which the fish replied , ''I AINT DONE YET'' off it goes again with even more speed than the first. He was lucky enough that the drag was set just right to be able to stop the fish and begin the task of bringing it back to the shore.

After approximately 100 years or what felt like an eternity the fish was near the shore and he was not expecting anything other than a stingray (we always think positive) when once again the red eyes show up in the surf.

OH MY F%*&ING GOD!!! he screams LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT !!!

Passed the rod to the mrs as he went to the waters edge to grab it and drag it out of the water.

With a grin from ear to ear he said HOW the F*^&K am i going to get this home, so, leaving the mrs down the beach he runs home to grab the ute to load up the prized catch.

Then when he gets home he sends me a msg '' mine is bigger than yours ''

Jerk

Marvel at this beast

No length measurement but it went 24kgs on the scales

 Just north of Two Rocks and in pretty close.

Finally starting to get the hang of this soft plastic gig.

 It was a windy saturday afternoon on the 14th of January, a friend of mine had invited me over for dinner earlier in the week to which both me and the mrs agreed to attend.

I received a phone call from him around lunchtime on saturday saying bring a rod just in case the wind dies down in the afternoon to which i happily obliged. I grabbed the flickie that i normally take out on the boat which is a shimano tcurve revolution travel 3 piece attached to a shimano spheros 14000 FB with 30lb braid. I grabbed a bag of mullet packed the rod in the car and off we went.

Got to my mates place in Silver sands and saw he had made up half an esky full of burley ready for tonight. I said '' shit... going all out are we '' to which he replied '' Na i just need to get rid of thei S-^T''. We cracked a few beers and had some dinner which consisted of rissoles which contained prawns and 2 cray tails with many other herbs and spices (EPIC) salads and some lamb. After an hour or so, the sun had gone down but was still light so we packed some beers, grabbed the burley, the rods, a torch, the mullet and headed down the beach.

When we arrived we joked about how there was a gutter right in front of us ( because we are too lazy to walk down the beach looking for one ) and said this is where all the big fish hang out. It took us all of 5 minutes to tie the rigs on (tailor rigs) and we launched the burley into the drink about 70m up wind. We casted out and sat down for the next beer.

The women came down about 15 minutes later asking the typical ''have you caught anything yet'' question to which me and my mate both look at eachother and roll our eyes. About 3 beers later by this time its dark and things were not looking good.

We were forever getting small hits by whatever was there and i pulled in 5 ghost crabs. I was thinking ''wow that burley really brings in the shit hey'' and shortly after that i had a hit... my drag was too tight and i pulled the bait from its mouth or it let go.... i loosened my drag right off and bang.... i'm on.....

Drag screaming off i see the direction of pull flattening out as whatever it is, swims straight out to sea.... after nearly being spooled it spits the hooks. I had to stop 3 times to have a sip of my beer while winding all the line back in but this gets us a bit more motivated to keep going. By the way as i was a little tipsy by now standing up was not an option, only to cast.

After much debate me and my mate had both decided that it was most likely a snotty (stingray). So although we had some glimpse of catching something we were a little dissapointed that it was most likely something we didnt want.

SO.... I rig up the next bait and cast out and sit back on my perch waiting for the next one...

2 minutes after casting the same thing happens... drag still tight and i get a hit but the hooks pull. I loosen my drag again, bang its on again. So this time i slowly tighten the drag but notice a distinct change in direction of pull, this time its going north, not west. It swims about 150m up the beach before turning around and swiming back towards me. All this time i have not moved off my perch in fact i think i was even laying down for some of the fight. I thought to myself, im getting some line back here so i might have to get up. we start to walk towards the water and follow the fish as it turns up and down the beach and we both keep calling it for a stingray when i see some distinct red eyes in the torch light, and the yelling starts...

MULLOWAY !!! MULLOWAY !!! MULLOWAY !!!

I fight against the waves, then one decent one comes in so i gave it a bit extra as the wave broke so old mate could grab the leeder and drag it up the beach then the hi 5's started.

Happy as a pig in shit, i pick up the fish and walk back to where the women are to show off how good i am at hunting and gathering because thats what you do after that many beers :)

We didn't fish for long after that as we were more than happy to split the mulloway so home we went.

I wont forget that night for a while.

I have been fishing that beach for about 20 years since i was a young tacker and all through my teenage years i had been chasing one of these bad boys and the old ''ah lets just have a go'' trip paid off.

 Hey dudes, its not huge went 55cm. Pretty proud and a very pleasant surprise :D . Caught in the mandurah trench whilst drifitng a mulie targetting basically anything. Unfortuantely wasnt much a fight with 40lb gear - but just incase I hook a shark or 15kg+ sambo!

Last night's snorkel in Warnbro sound - 2 divers

 G'day all a mate and I got into a few nice tailor lately on a trip away 

Happy new year

  After a failed attempt at going offshore yesterday (left the battery and radio on overnight... f##k) we went for round 2 this morning and this fish made up for it and some.

Picked up a few blackass a 5ish kg dhu then a new pb(for the 3rd time in 6 months, must be doing something right) went 90cm and guesstimate 13-14kg. Chuffed!

 Finally caught some decent trout -- caught four in total the biggest was released as it was 57cm. 

Seem to be a pretty hard fish to catch -- easily spooked but I worked my way around having a few flicks in each spot and working some snags.

Has anyone got any tips on how to catch them without a fly.

Cheers.

 Good start to the fishing for 2017.

Decided to head down to Mandurah for something different, and it certainly was.. producing a good mix of Big Dhus, big breaksea cod and a Blue Grouper. Missus even caught the Blue.

Dhu was 11.5kg, Blue was 11.2kg and breaksea were between 40-50cm.

Mate on another boat even scored an 16.5kg Dhu. 

 A PB to start the year a good start. We managed to land 2 Dhuies 1 metre (15kg) and 750 and released 4 dhuies, plus a baldie and breaksea to round off our limit.

Little Johnny went past us on the way in thought he must have bagged out early.

 Another great day here in Esperance on the jigs and plastics for Bear, Striker and myself.

Another esky full of reds, biggest going 620mm to striker, and with some big Black arse at 550mm. Bear taking the honours.

Added in the bag was another blue grouper for myself, some fox fish and on the last drop of the day a surprise just sized dhuie.

This place when the weathers good is brilliant for jigging and plastics.

Will certainly coming back.

 Xmas brunch

 Started to pour off Margaret River  yesterday  arvo and hooked up to this fella and what a reward it was, caught another smaller model aswell as a blackass, a lot of little fellas around cheers

Decided to have a crack this morning even with the strong easterly, was rough in the morning but calmed off nicely for the trip home.

Picked up 2 nice dhuies and a breaksea, this was the larger dhu. Both dhus we're caught on school whiting which is a change for me (usually ocky)

Also seen some schools of tuna in the 30's but was unable to tempt them.

 Bagged out 2 licences from 2 pots 9m water inside 3Mile . 12 in one of Hezzy's pots ;) Held high hopes for 2 pots in 17m but only 3 kakkas ? Was rough out there ! Weed in one pot - guessing deep drop placement was useless . Rebaited and see what Thurs a.m. holds !

 Pots full. Crabs ,and the good old Occo ready for 16 th

Finally some runs on the board - OR shallow

 Not having a dig at new rules. But they suck -icks. 3 divers all guaged and turned over ( 8 each).had to let 3 go . 1 diver went down after dive to get other 3 . Bloody hard to see fine hairs. Tar.eggs. Hairy girls easy  . Fine hairs impossible . It's crap . Going to be issues in future. . It's bull--it. Endangering  divers in my book.

 Potters. ( rocko)

 Few around atm . Pick and choose ( pink underneath ) full of meat. Prawns first , crabs second . Crays last . Good crab sandwich hard to beat. :):)

triples anyone ?? this was not expected 

 north mole never seems too suprise me anymore, that place produces all sorts (people & fish) saw this get ripped out not too long ago

2 good mornings down at Cheynes with the boat. Heaps of fish around in close about 10min run out from the beach launch. First morning was good with quite a few fish and of couple of big bust off's.

second morning even more fish and a little dhu that went just over at 55cm which was a nice surprise and we let a lot of good fish go on the second morning as the esky was full I and had more than enough fish to clean.

I dont put reports up on the net much but this day was magic.

I fished FFB solo the other day after sambos and kg's, weather and fishing were rough to start with but came good in the end. Plenty of whales about as well making plenty of noise.

Picked up the targets with the highlights a thumper sambo which went 150ish cm and a few Kg to 51cm.  Would have been better if the ban was off as I got a thumper baldie on the kg spot as well as plenty of other yummy fish I couldnt keep.  All fish released well except for the Big sambo which I couldnt revive and the baldie which was gut hooked. It was extremely hard to put the baldie back knowing its fate. 

I put the baldie pic up against my better judgement. Was a solid fish at 66cm. Im sure the baldie was wondering if I would release him going by the look in the eye!

cheers

Headed out behind the ships from bunno today. Three dives in 30m or there abouts for three of us. Crays weren't to thick but we were swimming on good ground which made for nice diving. Vis was about 15m, few fish swimming around to tease us as well. 17 crays in total

Put this together from earlier this year, camera mount was a bit dodgy so have to sort that out next time.

www.youtube.com/watch