After a poor effort on my behalf in Kalbarri, I needed redemption and yesterday's forecast looked promising. Got on the water at 5 to try get some pinks on the anchor but I was too late as my mate had already bagged out and the bite was shut down. With the sw blowing a little I tried a few of my kayak lumps with no success and with the wind dropping slightly I headed out. After an hour of sounding and drifting I came across some good ground and after a bit of drifting the sounder confirmed. I re-set the drift and dropped a 5in daiwa bait junky jerk shad on a 1oz jig head and was rewarded with a good baldie. As I was sorting it out the sounder showed some good showings, so with the baldie in the bag down went the 80g jig and 2nd lift resulted in a 80cm dhu and back to the ramp.

This is a write up following on from my earlier post while planning the trip.

http://fishwrecked.com/forum/south-coast-tinny-fishing

Mid October trip down south with the camper & tinny.

DENMARK

Parrys Beach camp was a great little spot, pretty bushy & each site is in a little nook so no 2 sites are the same which was nice. Can be a little tight with a camper, car and tinny but we managed to jag one of the larger spots which was good.

Fishing Day 1: The weather was good enough to venture out in the little 375 seajay, but I quickly realised what people meant by the swell washing back off the rocks and creating an very unpredictable slop. Luckily the swell wasn’t too big and I adapted to the situation fairly quick. I headed to Stanley island approx. 5km away to a random pin drop I put into navionics as somewhere to head for & scout around. I got lucky & found some ground which was showing fish within 100m of my random pindrop. Dropped down a whole scaley with hits straight away resulting in a Sargent baker, so I knew I was in a decent area/ground. Rebaited a few times and managed to jag a cracking Blackass – PB for me anyway, from memory it was around 560mm. Weather turned quick so headed back in after about an hour’s fishing… Stoked to get a decent fish for my first time out there & not having any spots.

Fishing Day 2: The next morning I got up, ran down to the beach to find the conditions much the same. Back to camp to chuck some bait in and hook up the tinny, on the water I headed for the same area as that’s about all I had going for me. Once at the spot, the wind was already picking up & the rain drizzled on and off every 5 minutes. I picked up another Blackass a bit smaller than the day before but still well size. The weather eased a bit & my drift slowed so I tried a 100g slow pitch jig, after not having any luck I ripped it up to move spots & half way up a big hit and off the jig went straight back down with the drag screaming! A solid fight for around 10 minutes resulted in another PB for me with the sambo at around 12-1300mm. The wind and rain then came back pretty strong so it was time to rip the little tinny back to safety.

That arvo I had a chat to a couple of older fellas who spent their day filling their esky with Dhuis, Blackass, Pinkies & Nannies! They were kind enough to point in the general direction where they had their success, so I’ll definitely be trying to get back down there again so seeing if I can bag a few more species next time.

BREMER BAY

We moved onto Bremer Bay where I had been given a couple of marks to check out. The conditions were doable but no quite as good as I was hoping. Up at sparrows to head to Little/fishing boat harbour for a beach launch and head across Dillon bay towards Cape Knob. My sister was adamant that she wanted to come; so after insisting the tinny wasn’t a very comfortable experience, we set off to cover the 14km trek to the spot. This took us the best part of 45mins to an hour but the coast was so impressive to look at it didn’t seem so bad (easy writing this 3 months later HA!). Sounded over the mark & found a near on solid red block indicating a big school of something, quickly baited up one rod and told her to drop in over till in hit the bottom while I try and hold the spot. Forgetting she hadn’t been fishing for probably 20 years; I was back and forth trying to sort out the boat, check the rod/reel was setup right & before I knew it she was on! Having a laugh at the technique of probably not fishing since she was in school, she managed to get this big red gem to the surface… a cracking Nanni that went 580mm. Spirits were high so around we went again but the drift was pretty quick so I found it hard to hold a spot & keep the bait on the bottom. She managed to get the small swallowtail aswell, but we found it hard to hook anything else. We went through bait as quick as we could get it to the bottom, just couldn’t seem to hook much else. I had a decent hook up but lost the bottom hook of the snell with no idea what had done me over. As usual the wind & weather started to push in, so we went around for one last drop before making our way back. I managed to pick up the queenie @ 680mm just in the nick of time. A decent so-wester pushed up all the way home to wrap up a very good tinny trip, especially for my first attempt on the south coast.

Cheers!

 With Tuesdays forecast it would've been a sin to stay home, so out of bed at 3:30am it was to try get on the road and on the water before a line formed at the ramp. 4:50 at the ramp and a 20min wait it was. Once on the water with the great conditions i ran out to the 40s on the ski and it was sensational, although the fishing was slow I still managed my bag and a few tuna for entree. The tuna were quiet but I found one big school that was up for only 10mins till they dropped and I ended up drifting over them and jigging a few up, all on a big john's jig, they love those things and they cast a mile. I opted for a few drifts for whiting on my way in which only resulted in loosing a few hours waiting to load the ski back at the ramp.

Went out yesterday from Rockinham. Bagged out in 3 drifts, dhuies 73cm and 83cm. 

 With an awesome arvo forecast but dinner plans in place I had a small window to get the ski out and smack a few whiting. Ended with a nice bag of whiting a Skippy and one dumb monster flatly. I say dumb as I didn't actually hook it, she grabbed the whiting on the bottom and me thinking it was a squid I bought it up slowly, bout half way up I felt her drop the whiting but latch back on. I got the net ready and to my surprise a monster flatly came up with the sinker down her throat, once on the surface she spat the sinker and I fed the whiting back she latched on and pretty much swam into the net. 63cm of green flattie thrashing around in the ski footwell wasn't fun but quick moves with the knife sorted her out. Weather was sensational was good to get out in some great conditions for a change.

 hi all will be spending some time in albany - king river caravan park , over the chrissy break and just wondering on a heads up as to where to try for some land based squid & whiting any advise will be appreciated 

Good days 

Well summer is nearly upon us and that means Yellow is the flavour of the month. Had some great sessions in the Peel and Metro regions this week, with yellowfin and yellowtails coming in thick and fast. Sizes of both species being quite exceptional in my experiences, numerous plump yellowfin including a few more than normal over 35cm and over 10 yellowtails at an average size of a metre and some well over.

Dont let the ban hold you back!

Enjoy some pics and videos.

Why let a pupil free day get the the way of my Friday ADO? The kids did brilliantly with a couple of decent but fixable tangles with the middle child taking choccies for fisherman of the day.

35 very plump sandies all up in about 70 mins followed by HJs... for the sake of the kids...

Hard slog to try and catch our bag limit for the day. I caught all the Gurnard on the bottom meat while Moking was catching all the King Gorge on the paternoster rig with squid baits. It felt like there was only one rod over the side catching anything of quality so I had to swap to the paternoster to start catching. Ended up with a solid feed. 

Been up here since Sat with just the kids and steamed out twice staying inside the bay due to a more than decent swell running.

The old man popped up for a visit and we headed out today to some bombies in 10m I sounded out 3 years ago.

First drift and Lachie hooked up and we saw a flash of silver and it went hard disappeared and pulling string. The boy did well keeping tension on the fish and letting it run when it went.

Some very careful gaff work and it was in the boat going 72cm and a touch under 7kg. A new PB by a longshot.

My 8y old landed two Blackarse leaving Dad empty handed... again.

 Karratha fishing at its best. bit of a freezer filler trip for the lads.

I finally got some time to get out on the ski Saturday. But after failing my anchor and burley session then running out to the mid 30s and failing to find a baldie. I opted to pluck a few tuna out of the multiple schools getting worked by birds and head home. I landed 3 with multiple dropped hook ups, at one point I had half a dozen good sized fish barrelling at the ski shoulders out and mouths open. Caught on a raider metal and a big john's bucktail. Swell was up but when the wind dropped I managed to run home at 45knts. Not big slobs but  plentiful out there and tasty as hell.

 Snuck out for a quick 1hr fish whilst away in exxy with the family....

Quickly turned into a absolute battle of a lifetime.

Pe3 and 40lb leader, rigged with a ASWB flutter drop 40g and a prototype indian pacific pe3 rod.

Head over to my insta if you want to see the vid @joelborgers

Had a good day out yesterday. Dhuies were on straight away. 

Bought a brand new jig, When I bought it I thought yep Dhuies going to love this thing. Pulled it out of the packet clipped it on. Set the drift, sounder lit up. Dropped the jig and it was like you see it on YouTube videos, it hit the bottom and whack, the rod loaded up, fight was on. First time this has ever happened to me. I could tell it was a solid fish Was only in 30 odd metres of water, got it to the top, right next to the boat and then all of sudden my line went slack, I'd busted the snap swivel. I could see the fish going towards the back and behind the boat grabbed the gaff slipped over the back to grab it and all I could see was this big Dhuie at least 80cm model swimming away with this brand new jig in his gobb. Needless to say I was spewing. 

In the mean time my deckie was on, she was loosing string. Once she won that battle up came an 88cm Dhuie swung back around hooked up again and it was all over; we were baggedbagged out on Dhuies within an hour of putting the boat in. 

Got a couple of good ones . Small pinks small sambos pain in ass.

 Quick trip to Shark Bay fish take a bit of finding but when you do good fun.

Few good fish from a trip up north.

The big donkey trout went 740 and the black spot tusk 610.

Red caught on rod and real.

 Couple of nice ones from the other night. 81cm and 86cm

 Few rubys from a recent trip. Managed to get the little quinine out to the 300s and get a few on the jigs. 

 G'day everyone, been a long time between posts, don't get out as much as I use to. Anyway here's a few fish pics from the last year or so. 

 Managed a nice metro 71cm baldie today, new boat record for me.

Oldest boy and I pushed out again today and he was finally on the board first drift. Dropped the pick today and burleyed up and we got our bag very quickly through heaps of 45-49 pinkies... some of which are now in a shark's belly. Also nailed my first pinkie on a placcie.

It was a long 10 mile pushing back into the 10kn SE on a 45 degree angle and ended up doing and extra 2 miles to take it front on.

Arrived last night and the weather turned it on after a week of hell according to my cousin who left this morning.

Woke up to beautiful condition and decided a late start was on the cards on account of the Mrs sleeping in till 9.

No idea where to start so I decided to push straight out to the channels and found some ground and my 2nd pulled in a ripper Rankin. After 5 NWers we shoved off to the Barr Flats and caught a heap of Black Snapper keeping the ones 380+ with Missy Moo landing the pick of the bunch. My oldest caught SFA and is putrid so we're pushing out again tomoz for retribution.

 Took Wednesday off to make the most of the perfect weather.

Quietish day, but the fish that we're brought on board we're good! PB baldy (570), 470 black bum, and another bluebone.

As usual, few undersized snapper and dhu's also caught and released.

Moking was having work stress in retirement. So what does a good friend do??? He takes him fishing. And this is the result. Now he can go back to retirement work with a smile on his face. Haha

Took an RDO Monday just gone as the forecast of light winds and some rough weather the week before, I figured if I could find some stirred up water I'd be in with a chance for my first snapper for the season. Anchored up on sunrise on some inshore reefs not far out of Woodies and I let out a sigh of relief as the current carried the first handful of cubed mulies in the same direction as the wind. I fished with 3 rods to cover all bases, an unweighted bait for the rod holder, a lightly weighted plastic for another rod holder intended to fall/dance extremely slowly through the water column and a slightly heavier plastic that I would jig back through the burley trail. Didnt take long for the burley to do its thing with a couple of just undersized pinks coming in on the bait rod. I was fairly run off my feet fishing the 3 rods as my game-plan for anchoring and burleying for snapper is to always have your rigs slowly falling through the water column, so once my rigs hit the bottom after a long cast out the back I give the reel quite a few winds and get the rigs at least halfway up then let them slowly drift back down again and repeat until you're under the boat and then start all over again. Throw in chopping burley and jigging back the third rod and all of a sudden fishing isn"t so relaxing any more!

Working up a sweat paid off when the jigging plastic got clunked by a solid fish. With all the reports of 500-600mm sized snapper around I had opted to throw around a smaller 4in plastic and jighead, so I was stoked to land a solid pink on the 15lb outfit that ended up going 890mm.

I was well into the rhythm of cast, jig, cast, chop, throw, wind, jig jig jig, wind, chop, throw, cast, jig, wind when the slow sinking plastic outfit buckled over in the rod holder. This fish went 800mm. It coughed up a heap of my burley cubes and one of my whole fish baits that had flung off on a cast earlier in the morning when I got the fish to the side of the boat, burley is key!

I ended up with 2 sized snapper, missed a few big runs on the slow sinking plastic, and a dozen undersized snapper on the bait rod. Always worth mixing it up having bait and plastic offerings, some days they'll only eat one! I came in closer to try for skippy but couldn't get away from the rat yellowtail kings.

Friday evening I headed out with the brother and got stuck into some mulloway. Mixed it up again with plastics and livebait. Livebait was king claiming 3 fish but it was a blast to nail a few on plastic on a baitcaster outfit aswell. The first fish was on the first cast after anchoring, it smashed a plastic that I was slow hopping back to the boat, took me well by surprise!

Hope you enjoy the read guys, tightlines.

 Hi Guys

Thought I would post up a few pics of our montes trip from April.

Spent a good week over there camped up on the islands. As usual fishing was fairly good, with some excellent days and some fairly average. And as always sharks were ever present.

Shallow water fishing was awesome, and also cleaned up with some squid one day.

Really love the place!! Can't wait to go back.

Got some crackers