Been almost 2 years since I have seen him. Finished his quarantine last night . Squid on menu this morn. Plenty of good ones around .

I took a couple of young blokes from the UK for a fish on Saturday and it is fair to say that they both are very novice fishermen. We spent the first hour in the shallows so they could get in some practice before heading out wider.

Fished a few marks without any joy before moving to another spot and whilst lining up the drift, one of the young blokes pulls out a banana and starts eating it! After delivering a barrage of expletives to him and him nearly choking in his haste to consume the banana, the three of us dropped down. 

Baits hit the bottom and almost instantaneously their rods load-up and they are into what appears to be reasonable fish. The first Dhu comes up and after sorting out tangled lines, the 2nd Dhu hits the surface. 

What is almost as good as catching fish, is seeing others, and in particular, novices catch fish on your boat. 

Was a ripper day.

Shot out Easter Monday got Moking onto a nice Dhuie. Pulled a bit string. Actually he cleaned us up, got most of the catch. 

We bled last time out a couple of weeks ago. No north tide this time and the pickers were out. 

Hey guys, long time no post by me, have been trying to upload reports regularly but seems my phone and its photo resolution is not compatible with the forum and the pictures come out all skew-whiff, so have had to upload to a third party photo sharing website first.

Finally ticked off the metro mack for this season, didnt think it was going to happen after a run of bad luck with 2 fish going full airborne on the strike and missing the hooks and getting snipped off by another while targeting sambos in the shallows. New PB for me at 1.44m

Took dad out a little while ago to chase some fillets. Halfway across the sound I realised I had forgotten the sounder and only had the GPS. All the fish come off the one spot, and after only ever catching 1 baldie off Perth before, we ended up with 3 in one session.

Have been taking advantage of the very little swell off Perth lately and sneaking into some gnarly ground hoping for some tailor out of the whitewash, some sessions better than others but I think if I het them at sunrise or sunset I would be in for a hot session. Havent had any luck on poppers yet, all the fish have been caught on stickbaits or plastics.

Last year I won a $1400 reel through Recfishwests FADs photo comp and was honoured to find out they were going to run the photo on the front cover of their 90 page Annual Report. You can check out the online version here https://recfishwest.org.au/news/recfishwest-2020-annual-general-meeting-reflecting-on-a-year-of-great-gains-despite-big-challenges/

I also feature in the current Western Angler, where I answer some questions about how I got into fishing and some of my favourite styles and share some techniques on how I target YTK.

On Good Friday I took the young fella out for a quick session around the inshore reefs for some fun on herring and we come across a little school of big snook which was a lot of fun on the plastics. We had a good laugh as he got to experience first hand at how smelly and slimey they can be.

I snuck out yesterday arvo for a quick anchor and burley session in the shallows hoping for some big autumn skippy but with the lack of swell recently I might have to wait a bit longer before I see any around the reefs. Had a red hot session just flicking back mulie cubes on the 12lb gear, landing a handful of 50cm kings and a bunch of 40cm pinkies and skippy. As I was packing up so I could be home before dark the big rod went off and after a decent tug of war I boated one of the best kingies Ive caught in a long while, going just under 1.1m and with very fat sides, this fish had been gorging on the abundance of bait out there at the moment!

Still some nice ones around and they're all nice and heavy. Did 5 runs on 7 nets for our 8 with Dad and my eldest boy

 Hasn't been many posts on here lately. Maybe everyone is put off by all the recent posts about metro marlin, and let's face it, this ain't anything like that, but anyway.,.

Went out early Sunday for some bottom bashing. Went to one of my usual spots and there was not a single show on the sounder. Thought I'd have a go anyway and after a while got mauled by skippy. I think they are great bait so wasn't too upset. After that it slowed down so put the rod in the rod holder and went to fillet up a skippy. Before I could start the rod was getting bites so picked it up and hooked up solid to a nice fish. After the characteristic dhuie surges up came a nice 12.5kg dhuie. Not a bad start for 6:07 am.  Not long after the floating line went off and after a bit of a tussle I got bitten off by what I am pretty sure was a mackie. Bugger! I don't like using wire trace for them because I don't think they eat the bait as often, but interested to know other peoples thoughts?

Anyway, not long after up came a sized baldie. It wasn't in a good way so no release for him and into the bag for a bag out by 6:30.   Didn't want to head in so decided to troll to find some new ground. After a while I was reasonable close to one of the fads so headed over and to my surprise there was no one else there. Dropped a bait back and before I could turn around it was on. Over the next hour and a half it was about a fish every 5 minutes, sometimes two at once which was chaos on my own, especially when a bird flew into the line and got tangled up with a fish on the other end! They weren't big fish, but they'd have to be one of my favorite fish to catch. Kept a couple of them and then cruised back in with perfect conditions.

Stopped off for a bit closer to shore to clean the boat and - first time ever - got boarded by fisheries to check my catch. Before they came on board I asked them if they wanted to come on board to measure my fish. Once they got onboard and I opened the bag they decided they didn't need to bother  measuring

With the warm current still cranking and weather forecast looking do-able, me, Daz (DazSamFishing), Bodie (Bodie) and Troy (Baron) headed out on the big girl for a day of burning fuel, drinking beer and hoping for another metro marlin.

Run out was good, hit one of the FADS for a quick dolly, plenty there but they were pretty shy, but Daz showed us a little trick and we got one on stick bait. Then headed out to the warm water. 

Spread out on the Regulator.

After 6 hrs of nothing including heading half way to Madagascer, we were all feeling a bit sleepy after several beers and too much rocky road, then boom, short rigger gets pulled from the clip.

After a few moments of imitating Fraggles with arms waving on the air, we looked out the back to see if we should clear the spread as not much line was getting pulled, and then saw a big blue dog hairing across the surface outrunning the boat, this thing was big and angry, jumping out of the water and getting in front of the boat with a big lure hanging out of its gob. 

Had to speed up the boat to get in front of it, then the boys cleared the spread and Troy locked in for a monumental fight. 

It was more than 30 minutes before we saw the leader for the first time, Daz just touched it and it took off again, and this cycle was repeated another 6 times.  This thing was not playing nice, it ran under the boat several times and the inexperienced Marlin skipper (me) was not helping things.....

Just when we thoughts we had it beat, it bashed its bill on the side of the boat (another scar for the Reg) and dove under the boat and wrapped the line through the ladder bracket and around one of the props....In Bodies words "This is a disaster!".....

Daz pulled his shirt off (normally he does not have a good reason except when "Im too Sexy" comes on the radio) but in a blink Daz was in the water and screaming for the motors to get shut off....Troy backed the drag off, Daz wrangled the line from around the prop then the ladder and the Blue ripped another 50 m of line while we dragged "Fabio" back on deck out of 1000m of water.....the shirt never went back on...... 

Another 10 minutes and we had it to the boat. One epic battle, we managed a few quick photos but this thing was not done, it rag dolled Bodie and Daz who were both hanging on to its bill, spat the hook and took off into the cobalt blue water....no need to swim this bad boy. 

Brilliant job guys, it took all 4 of us to land this fish, for Troy, a fish of a lifetime, for all of us, more tall stories to be told at the MAAC for years to come!

 Caught on a 105 sinking stickbait by Nomad in the fusilier colour

 After pulling the pin on Friday, I was desperate to get out so convinced the decoy to be up at stupid o clock and bashed out to the fads. Was a bit bumpy but not bad. First fad luckily got there first, managed 1 drift before the spear is turned up. Got 2 fat skipjack tuna. Mate was keen to try them, figured if no good would at least make excellent bait! We're bloody good fun on the light gear!! Reels screaming. Then left once the spear fishers were ready. Went to the next fad and someone was there being a bit of a muppet. Was using engines to back up onto the fad, diver in the water with no flag or float, then would just keep dropping them right on the fad regardless if it meant u were going to drift right over them. If anyone was trolling that could have been downright dangerous as could barely see the guy. Luckily they buggered off after we asked them what the hell they were doing. Was quite frustrating trying to keep things safe when they were repeatedly putting themselves in risky situations. Did a few passes with stickbaiys for nothing, we're about to leave when chucked in an unweighted mulie cube for giggles. After dodging the birds for a bit reel started screaming as I was hosing the boat, and hooked my first ever dolly!! Epic aerials, didn't disappoint, jumped out the water like 8 times! Was stoked to get it on the boat. Went 85cm. Not huge by any means but I was over the moon. 2 boats saw us hook up so decided to continually motor right over the fad trolling, but didn't seem to get much. We did another pass and mate hooked one (on cube), then back in the water and we had a double hook up! Bloody good fun as neither of us have caught them before. Could see packs of 2-3 patrolling on the surface. We decided to head as had our pelagic bag and weather was due to turn. Stopped at a spot on the way in and I got a cracker baldy at 58cm.

then bashed home. Was horrible combo of swell direction and wind on way home so made for a long trip, but was worth it!!! Cant wait to get out there again!!

Couple of mates and my self headed up to Jurien on Friday looking for a marlin after seeing some favourable looking water on ripcharts and an epic forecast. The weather didn disappoint and we headed out in my mate gregs refurbed 19ft Douglas craft centre console. Got to the shelf after about an hours running and to our fortune found a random float that was surrounded by mahi mahi. Mate Sam ties on a stickbait, lobs it out and gets ravaged by a pack of hungry dollies. Hooks a smaller one which carries on jumping around in typical fashion, gaff, spike, bleed, ice repeat. We all take turns catching a couple small to medium ones for the bin, epic watching them crawl all over a high speed skipping stickbait. Then we’re off again looking for the edge of the warm water we were hunting We put the gear in at about the 800m line and continued west. As we neared the area we thought the edge of the current should be at around the 1000m line we found a line of scum,( algae? Coral spawn?) with birds working in patches and sauries showering out of the water in their hundreds. Weve made the decision that this is where we are going to concentrate our days efforts and begin to mow the grass over a couple of kms of water between the two converging currents. The whole area was littered with patches of bait and bird on the surface and some good size bait balls in the top 40 metres of water. We thought surely there had to be a hungry unicorn around here somewhere but after a few hours of back and forth and nothing to show we started to second guess ourselves and begun heading south loooking for something else. After about 45 mins heading south and seeing nothing we decided we were idiots for leaving that much bait and turned back. I decided a lie down was in order, weve had quite a few bites up north when I have a nanna nap, and as we got back to the area with all the life I came to. As I;m saying to Greg ‘we shouldve had a bite while I was sleeping’ the long rigger gets knocked out of the clip and screams off but drops the lure. We’re all screaming and carrying on at this stage, and as Greg resets the lure the fish erupts on the short corner lure and a chunky blue jumps through the middle of the spread. The long corner reel starts screaming and were all looking at each other dumbfounded whether we’ve got two fish or if its been fouled up on the jump. I was on strike first so I pulled the closest teaser in and.grabbed the first rod, harness on, let’s do this. Sam and Greg clear the rest of the gear, sams in the other harness, game on. We settle in but both lines are going in the same direction and feel like theyre rubbing so off comes my harness and after a little bit of dancing and rod sewing we get them untangled. Straight after sams line goes slack we then figure it mustve been foul hooked on the initial jump. The fight goes on and about 40 minutes later the fish comes up without too much nonsense. First fish south of exmouth for all of us so was bloody satisfying .

Dodged the Valentine’s Day commitments and managed to get out and enjoy the near-perfect conditions yesterday.

Bit of quiet start with plenty of fish seen on the bottom but not a lot on the boat, but things turned around mid-morning and we ended up with a decent mixed bag of 1 bluebone, 3 black arse and a my first dhuie on the new boat (3rd trip out so didn’t have to wait too long!). Not a monster by any means (7.8 @ 80cm) but was a nice end to a good day! Added bonus was that I caught every keeper with the other two instead catching me dhuie bait (wrasse and Srg. Baker ).

All done and back in to OR by 1:00pm which was nice too (the beauty of being able to 32 knots both ways on days like that )

 Headed out early on Friday. Very sloppy conditions, boat handled it great. May be he first time ever I started to feel just a teeny bit crook. Luckily didn't last long. Fished in the 40s. Mate got a 51cm baldy, and a 44 blackass. And I picked up a good snapper and by bigger dhu yet at 71 cm. Dhu was the last fish caught, and sounder was lit up but we left, as hate when people play the upgrade game, and not interested in catching dhu for fun given their poor survival rates. Cooked up the heads, wings and frames for din, and fillets in the freezer for later. 

Had another crack today . All big . Different spot . Bit Deaper . 26 to 32 feet . Used 105 duos .

Moking got us on to them today. They were really aggressive and some of the best overall bag size I have seen. I think I would have done a pb today. I even got a double header on the 1 squid jig. And I nearly did it twice. If anybody can catch squid it’s Moking. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll turn a couple of those little lollipops into Dhuie’s. 

 Quick run in the swan yesterday started slow then picked up caught some stonking crabs, biggest had a carapace of 180mm and wingspan of almost 700mm, only took 11 because they were all so massive we didn't need any more, cheers

 Nice little bully in the swan

Was down in Busselton last week for the annual holiday with the extended family, went out to 20km to 30m of water and looked for some ground. Being the first time out there with a bigger boat, took some time to find some ground, finally dropped on a spot and pulled up some small pinkies , then the wife hooked on to something a bit larger. Pulled it up and its the biggest fish she has ever caught at 75cms. To say she was excited was an understatement. Not much else caught was worht mentioning, but a great time was had.

Cheers Joel

Took my two boys out in the morn and anchored up in the 15kn easterlys and caught a stack of big herring after our berley trail brought in about 4,000 of em.

Once the wind died down we headed out to the 30s but the bite was off and the wind was pushing us on different drifts directions for an undersize blackarse.

Tried dropping the pick and ended up way off my intended spot so back to drifting and bang my oldest had a fight on his hands and got these two up without needing help. Couldn't wipe the smile off his face all day!

He's been learning how to fillet with mixed resuts and joined me with his xmas pressie, a Swibo filleting knife (thanks Mick C for the suggestion) and did an awesome job of filleting, skinning and deboning the herring.

Took the nephews out crabbing in the river this morning. Wind was up a bit initially but a cracker of a day. Got our 10 pretty quick (2 licenses). And was stoked with the size of them! Didn't catch a single female or undersize crab, got 4 on our last run so had to throw 2 of them back.

cooked up tonight for dinner! Full of meat and tasty! Tried steaming them for the first time, as had cleaned them prior to cooking, and reckon will always do it this way from now on. 12 mins was perfect, thanks for the tip jackfrost! 

 After finally manging to align decent weather with a break from work, I managed to take the new bathtub out with a few mates yesterday for her first run. Weather wasn't quite as Hollywood as Tuesday (always the way) but still decent enough for a comfortable day out.

Punched out north west if Rotto in a little under an hour and was straight into a few in the 40's. Managed to land a decent mixed bag of 2 X good size blackarse's and a KG that wouldn't have looked out if place wearing a saddle in the Perth Cup. Mate also got an undersized pink and Dhuey (both released well).

Boat ran sweet as a nut, so all in all a great first venture out on the new rig.

Took my daughter and a mate and his three young ones out for their first crab sesh yesterday in the river. They weren't thick but boy are they big.

Did 5 runs on 5 nets for my bag and got back to the picnic area to discover Lachie had spotted and scooped a monster in his bare feet.

They weren't full but got a good feed out of the three I kept and broke in the new crab steamer I made over Xmas

Took Moking out with the young fella and he cleaned us up all day. His smile said it all. Me and Moking felt like all we were doing was keeping the bait up to him while he gets all the bites. Nah well. 

Got a good feed anyway

 Caught, out there!!!

 Couple fish from today. Happy New Year

 Got out wide yesterday and the with the big moon it was on ,even  with the north wind blowing like mad and having to use big sinkers as the drift was super fast, 2 nice bangers and two nice baldies , back at the ramp by just after 10 am. Hope all you fellow fishos have an awesome 2021.tight lines.

 advice sought on boat trailer - rust inhibitor , heard Inox is the way to go , does it work on an already rusty springs - hub axle  , how often do you need to spray , or is it just a sales pitch ? any advice would be appreciated .

 Quick trip out from Rockingham yesterday to beat the heat and hopefully find some fish. In no time landed Snapper, KG and finished off with 2 nice Dhuies the skipper bringing up a nice 90cm fish and caught on an occy out of last weeks cray pot.

 Waited for the wind to drop off late this morning and shot of for the first Dhuie bash of the season.

Picked up a nice feed , couple Dhuie’s, KG , Gernard , and the prize of the day was the Harlequin.

The son in law of a work colleague recently reached out to me on facebook, asking if I could help him out with some guidance as he was just getting into fishing. He had been heading out on his mates newly purchased boat and they had no idea where to start, so I flicked him spots around Garden to start with. With no luck still, he asked if he could jump on board with us just to see how we do things. Plan was to throw him straight in the deep end and get stuck into some kings.
We started the morning grabbing some livies on plastics to which he said "this is more fish than all the trips ive had with my mate." Good start.

When arriving to the area I wanted to fish we noticed a good patch of birds diving about 200m further out so we putted over while rigging up the live baits. Only took about 30 seconds before a pack of kings was on the bait, harassing it with their backs out of the water until one finally engulfed the bait. After a really good tug of war on locked drag we had our first fish on board, a nice metre long fish to start the morning. Box ticked.

With the sounder lit up like a christmas tree we stuck around for a few hours but they were playing silly buggers and had wised up to our offerings, only landing one more on a popper.

With the wind really starting to drop out we got in nice and close to the breakers and watched this wave for a good 15 minutes. Water was crystal clear and you could see straight through the wave and all the fish cruising along the reef.

Next spot my brother was on first cast with the popper before we even had our baits rigged up. Not long after we had a nice fish up on the livebaits, in only 3m of water he was acting very cautious, after playing a bit of cat and mouse we finally got the bite. After an epic fight I finally sunk the gaff in to a really solid fish. Anyone that catches kings out of Perth will know how skinny the fish usually are around here(much like the first picture) but this one was really filled out.

We caught a few more smaller fish on plastics and stickbaits but just took home the 4 for old mate Goodz.

Took the old man out for a bash after the school ruand got straight onto the big sandies.... well I did. Old boy brought a bazooka to a knife night and struggled feeling the bites with his broomstick.

I was working two rods hooking both up whilst the old man blamed his hooks, sinker, leader, bait, spot on the boat bwahaha.

Gave the new winch a test and put us straight over a patch of big boys and Dad started pulling a few in then she went dead quiet. Spewing I left the pellets at home.

We pulled stumps and headed deeper in search of the elusive KG but the wrasse were thick and we were hungry so headed in happy with a feed and some bait.