Went down to mandurah on wednesday night, thinking of getting some nice yummy crab for dinner and upon reaching there just found out that the season was closed. So, thankfully i brought my rod along so i rigged up my line with long shank size 12 to see what's down there. Manage to catch a few herrings, whittings and silver bream and suddenly bang...my rod was so heavy...cant be another herring, might be a bigger silver bream...lo and behold it's a SALMON. What a good fighter they are!!! First time in my life i caught a salmon and it's the biggest saltwater fish i caught other than stingray. How amazing, it's about 9pm at night, no.12 long shank baited with cut prawn pieces.

Amazing night...

Just saws this on the Perthnow site, hope I copy/pasted it right

FINFISH possession limits could be changed as the fisheries management focus broadens to include the Pilbara and Gascoyne regions.

Much of the attention recently has been on managing demersal species in the West Coast region (Augusta to Kalbarri) but at a recent Recfishwest information seminar, a Department of Fisheries spokesperson confirmed that possession limits were one a of a number of areas under review, due to concerns about overfishing in the North-West.

The spokeperson said that the possession limit review was in response to some community concerns about the amount of fish being caught by visitors to the Pilbara and Gascoyne regions, with some local stations considering introducing their own reduced limits linked to the accommodation terms and conditions.

He stressed that no decision had been made and it was just part of an overall review of the state’s fishing regulations.

While I very rarely bring back more than 10 kilos of fillets from a fishing trip and therefore any potential change to possession limits probably wouldn’t be an issue for me, a split limit of 10 kilos of pelagics and 10 kilos of demersals, for example, would be a contentious issue for many anglers.

Anglers who enjoy annual trips to places like Steep Point, the Mackerel Islands and Exmouth would find just one large spanish mackerel would exhaust their quota.

It would be a real issue at land-based rock fishing spots like Steep Point, where catch and release is not an option.

While community concern may be the spur for the review, surely sustainability of fish stocks is the crux of the issue and such a change should only occur if Fisheries has scientific evidence of a problem caused by possession limits, which does not appear to be the case at the current time.

In good recreational fishing news this week, Fisheries Minister Norman Moore unveiled the new four-wheel-drive fleet to be used by mobile compliance patrols that began operating in the middle of this year.

The six new land-based mobile patrol units will enhance education and enforcement and were deployed in July as part of Western Australia’s revised recreational fishing management arrangements.

With 13 new Fisheries and Marine officers also employed this year, the State Government has effectively quadrupled the number of mobile compliance units available across WA to monitor recreational fishing activity.

This will help with general monitoring of fishing activity and also help speed up responses to illegal fishing reports.

Meanwhile, Fisheries has also dismissed as totally inaccurate a recent media report that suggested bag limits for tailor and herring were likely to be further tightened.

The report in a local newspaper, which ran on September 3 under the title “Fish study may force tighter limits”, and claimed “stocks are lower than 20 years ago, with preliminary findings from a Department of Fisheries' report - to be released in November - showing that recreational fishers are putting more pressure on herring numbers than the commercial industry.”

It went on to say: “(Senior research scientist) Dr (Kim) Smith said commercial fishing pressure on herring was low, but recreational fishing pressure was still significant and "something of a concern".

“It has revealed that between 70 and 80 per cent of herring caught during the spawning season were female, a quota Dr Smith said was unusual and unsustainable.

“She said tailor stocks were "not where we'd like them to be" but the health of the stock had improved in recent times.”

However, The Sunday Times understands that Fisheries contacted the writer before the piece went to print disputing the accuracy of the draft article and warned against pre-empting the report, which is yet to be completed, but that the journalist simply ignored their concerns.

In some final Fisheries news, data on how last year’s changes to demersal fishing regulations have worked with regards to cutting the catch by the required 50 per cent in the West Coast region (Augusta to Kalbarri) are close to being finalised and released.

The noises coming out of Fisheries suggest the initiatives, including the two-month seasonal closure, are working towards achieving the desire result.

hey all

well i don't really spend that much time targeting dhufish or any of the shallower water species in fact, so i thought last week i would pop get out and target a few before the ban comes in for something different. The weather was quite rough going out and it wasnt until about 10:30 that it calmed off, there was bait all over the sounder, literaly blacking out half the screen, i thought to myself that there would have to be dhuies all over it. To my suprise we didnt even get a touch, all we caught off it was a handfull of southern blues and bonito. We spent most of the day driving around finding fish on the sounder and dropping on it, the great thing we found about using softies and jigs is how quickly you can cover ground which at the end of the day gives you more time fishing new areas. For most of the day i was using a 100g daiwa pirate jig which i could now fault, the great thing about them is you can use them in so many different ways and still catch fish, we also used 7in mcarthy bullhead minnows with great success!!! At the end of the day we ended up with 10 dhuies with the biggest going 10kgs, we also caught a heap of small pinkies, blackass and tuna. Hopefully we get a gap in the weather before the ban comes in because the dhuies are absolutely going off at the moment!!

gear i used:

smith kgs68

daiwa certate hyper 4000

daiwa tournament hyper 8 40lb

mcarthy 7inch bullheads

mcarthy 1.5oz jighead

80g daiwa pirate jigs

enjoy the pics

had a quick bash at the murry this arvo pretty quiet but managed one of about 39.5cm just short of the 40cm mark

Thought I might share a few pics of my then girlfriend (now wife!) on her first ever fishing trip I took her on. This was a little while back.

Starting from the fist Pic:

In the background my brother is holding up a trout she just caught on a handline hence me being up the front ready to take a photo. Mick's line went though so I managed to get her nailing another great trout. Quick learner!!

Who says handlines aren't fun.

But that was later in the day. Her first ever bait down produced a small rock cod which I released and tossed the bait back in. She immediatley hooked up under the boat and landed one of the biggest Mangrove Jacks I've ever seen. I reckon it followed the rock cod up to the boat. What a start.

It was the first of 5 Jacks we got to go with the 21 (bag out) Coral Trout and a few Spaniards to boot. Needless to say I got her hooked. And now she lets me spend money on as much fishing gear as I want.......

My mate and i had a cracking morning today in the upper reaches of the swan.
Started early at 6:00 my mate had 4 fish ranging from 24-28cm before i finally hooked up bringing in a 28cm
I hooked up soon after and with some good runs and a cespreate run at a snag got out my equal pb bream at 33cm (650grams).

After  a good hour at that location we changed it up and first bait my mate was on, this one looked very decent and afte tanglining 3 other lines finaly landed him/her.
This one was my matess new pb of 37cm and we where super happy and weighed 980grams

Got total 14 bream and very happy with our efforts went throu 3 packs of prawns in 3 and a half hours.

Cheers Duffman

Hey all, thought I would put this up.

I loooove K Town !

took one of the guys from work for a fish on saturday.
the run out was a bit lumpy so it was a steady cruise out.
the sounder showed a lot of promise just off bald head so i set up for a drift.
once the boat stopped Cale started to feel a bit unwell (understatement of the year)
with the burley flowing freely we dropped down,it wasnt long before i hooked into something very lively,after a few minutes work it came to the surface,
lovely queenie measured 89cm a new PB for me..
had to head home then as cale was getting really crook so only the one fish caught, still well happy with the result.
cheers

Well, after hearing all the rage and good reports on the Mcarthy SP's, decided to buy some from All Boat Business and headed out today to 14m just behind 3 mile from Hillarys. First drop and up came a 48cm dhu, not big, but a good start. Released this one, then dropped down again and didnt even get a chance to Jig it. Dropped it straight down the throat of a 4kg dhu. Man, they are a lot of fun in shallow water on light gear! Landed this one, then as i was about to spike it, it gave a kick and was released back! But not before we took a couple of pics! Not on camera though, on the phone by my mate! Oh well, at least I got to see it, and I know its there for next time. Wind then blew up, so we headed in! But I am very impressed with these placcies, and will def be buying more of them in the future! Great fun, and well worth the money spent! will be heading out on thurs night to chase some pinkies off hale rd, so hopefully the placcies will do the goods agian. Colour was the baby elk 5 inch! ABSOLUTELY LOVE EM! CANT RECOMMEND EM ENOUGH!

My mate tim and I headed out into the sound on the jetski last Friday and ended up with 10 squid. Some of them were the biggest we've ever caught. Tim got blasted by squid ink on his very first squid. Rookie. As you can see, he was very pleased about it! Cooked them up and they were awesome, soo tender!!

Hi All, just got back from 14 days at McGowen Island near Kalumburu. Caught many nice big reef fish including many of these big Fingermark. This one measured 85cm. All released to grow bigger! As you can see, the weather conditions were pretty rough!

Quite a few months back I decided to build an outdoor bar. I had visions of it being decked out in old fishing lures, nets, floats etc and having a bit of fishing character about it, but after building the brick shell just before Xmas last year it sat there with planks of wood as a bar top, for quite a while. Whilst we made the most of it at Xmas it was pretty piss weak in terms of function and aesthetics.

Earlier this year I finally got my cousin to do the top and the cupboards (he is a carpenter - I am not!) and the semi finished product looked way too "upper class" for me to ruin with old lures etc, it just wouldn't go.

So I came up with the idea to turn it into a fishing based bar, but a bit more stylish and clean cut. So I installed a LED TV hooked up to foxtel (EPL and Fishing shows on high rotation) and bolted a few fishing pics on the wall and on the bar surrounds. 

Basically the cover for the first 7 Issues of the mag are around the bar and a few pics of me and my various regular deckies up on the wall.

The back wall is going to be changed to hide all the wires and downpipes etc and allow more pics up there etc. Everything is lockable and the tv comes inside rather than staying out. We may also put up a false ceiling so we can change all the lighting too. Right now it has led lighting under the black facia so it lights up nicely at night when its in party mode.

Once its fully finished I'll post a few more pics. But needless to say I am pretty pleased with it so far. Looking forward to summer with a few beers and bourbons and a few mates watching live sport and fishing shows on TV. C'mon You Spurs!

sorry guys i swear this is the last one

had a morning bash at warroona today a few people fly fishing in the main dam so we walked up the feeder creek and found the fish schooled up around a waterfall must be the cold water the fish were not feeding very aggressively but i manged 3 and my mate 1 dusk seems to be the better time to go check out the size of the head on this one way out of proportion to the rest of the body

Me and my mate Ben (goatlobster) headed out into the sound on my ski and caught these puppies. We both caught one and lost one within 45mins of dropping a line. The fish were a first for us both, and probly our best captures ever, considering the jetski, shallow water, and awesome weather conditions. Fish went 81 and 82cm, but the 82cm fish was nearly a kilo heavier.

* Thanks to JR JETSKI who has helped with advive for fishing off the ski*

had another great session tonight on brood stock trout had to bush bash a bit further up stream but found them again and hungry all these fish were taken on celtas when i made it back to the main dam we found the fish rising but couldn't tempt any into biting

Hi fellas, here's a few photos from the weekend before last me and the missus went out for a Sunday fish and jigged up a few more Dhu's on placcys.

First and second photos are off my missus new PB Dhu going 10.5/11kg caught on a Fireblood 4000 and 3-6kg T Curve pe2.

Third photo is off a small Dhu I caught.

Forth is a 6/7kg Dhu the missus caught.

Fifth is a little Sambo that smashed the placcy half way up nearly ripped my rod out my hand lol.

Great day on the water hardly any swell and just enough SW wind to drift slowly over some new ground I've been exploring, and yes the missus out fished me on this day... lol

that was the best week fishing ive ever had, i loved shark bay and i recommend getting up there and trying the fishing for them self!!

hi guys

i made the decision today to make the short 40min treck to warroona dam for the sunset bite and see if i could tempt some redfin or trout to play nice

after 5min of walking the bank me and my mate stuart found a deep pool with a water fall feeding ice cold water into the dam i thought wat an awsome spot as i got closer to  the bank i couldnt belive my eyes when i spoted no more than 30 big ex-brood stock rainbows sitting in the current as i was busly rigging my fly rod with a green wolly bugger stuart had beaten my to it and had the tiny celta i lent him smashed by 1.5 kg of angary trout after a short fight i helped him net the fish and quickly took a couple of pics.

i quickly finished rigging my fly rod and send a quick 2meter cast into the waiting fish for instant hookup after a spireted tussle i banked a beautifle 2kg rainbow

we went on to land 6 more fish around the same size before we left them biting and left the dam whilst there was still a bit of light around for the drive home

Went out on Saturday with Too Ezy charters from Mindarie. Sort of a Father's day for a few of the lads - 4 adults, 3 kids (12yo+). We had the boat to ourselves $900 all in - $150 each, with one of the kids not wanting to fish but go with his Dad.

Had a really good time, smaller boat than your average charter but much better being with people who all knew each other and Irish Kev the skipper was a top bloke as well.

We could call the shots on what we wanted to do so we pretty much hit some marks they had on the GPS and then stopped in between when something looked decent on the sounder.

Pulled up one average BA and another very impressive one, drifted onto a bit of sand and pulled up the biggest sand whiting I've ever seen - 44cm.

A few undersize pinkies went back and just near the end of the day when things had slowed down, now before I tell the next bit please bear in mind I am someone who only shore fishes and from the only 2 charters I've been on before the best I've got is some big skippy and the best from shore are some bull herring, a big gardie and some decent skippy and I've only lived here for 20 months - then you'll realise that this is a big deal, no, it's a huge deal, this is a moment that will live with me forever and the whole thing will keep getting played over and over in my mind 'til I die - anyway I digress - just as things had slowed down and the 3 kids were asleep after being sick, the second set of whales of the day popped up about 10 meters from the boat to have a look at us. I thought I'd take a few snaps for the album, got the camera out, booted it up and sure enough the whales had buggered off down below and just as I was cursing them my rod bent over double and the reel made a noise that I couldn't replicate from my keyboard.

Anyway, after a few minutes and a few short runs up pops the fish of my dreams, Kev duly dispatches a dodgy gaff shot and gets his hand in it's mouth while trying to get another gaff shot in and I'm preparing to jump in - just in case he let's go - let me tell you, this fish was not getting away.  The second gaff shot is well placed and finally we got it on board.

I have to say I've never felt anything like it, it was a better feeling than watching Newccastle lift the FA cup, better than winning the ashes , hell it was nearly up there with the birth of my 3 kids. I've caught fish before and even if they are small you still get a buzz when the fish hit, but this was something different entirely, I felt proud, I just could not stop staring at it and smiling, I'm even smiling thinking about it typing this. I actually didn't think fish could get as big as this and what a creature of beauty it was.

On with the pics, now I know this will be average stuff to some of you on this site as I've seen some very impressive fish on here, but I don't think I'll ever get anything like this again.

It went 13kg

Thanks for reading

hey all

after not going out on the boat for over a month yesterdays weather was just to good not to go out. I really wanted to get out and do some jigging for amberjack sambos and big skippy with the new lamble bait range of jigs that we have in.

I left the boat ramp at 6 and caught a few squid and whitting because i needed bait for some deeper water. I headed out to a few spots out in 200mts that are absolutely covered with sambos at the moment. I was trying to get a feed of pinkes but just coulded get past the hordes of sambos that where 30mts thick on the sounder, i did however find them when jigging to be quite fussy with the better quality smith, fisherman, lamble bait jigs seeming to get alot more hookups and hits then the cheaper swlab and searocks.

After having a bit of fun out deeper we decided to come in around 120 to get into a few ambers and skippy, it wasnt long before we boated quite a few of each species. The skippy we found werent the size we were looking for but they where still great fun. The ambers that we got into seemd to be quite fussy like the sambos only taking jigs with the better actions ect. after mucking around for a while we decided to head home when i looked over the side to see a massive sunfish under the boat, i have never seen one before and was amazed at the size of the thing. We mucked around for the next 10-15mins taking photos and just admiring this great creature, it was awesome to see and i dont reckon ill ever see one again

heres just a few cool pics

here is the progress shots taken friday only 3 days left of build to go the off to the painters yipppeee its gettin closer

A few pics of a trip i did last weekend out off Dongara all fish were caught on SP's and bay rubber style jigs and all caught in under 25m.

First pic is off a 12-13kg Dhu I caught on the surface as it chased my placcy up from the bottom in 12m, amazing stuff watching a big Dhu surface and eat ya plastic right in front of ya less than a meter away.

Second pic is 50cm Pinkys on bream gear great fun.

Third pic is 3-4kg Dhu's on bream gear more fun.

Forth and fifth pics are 50cm-65cm honk Skippy on the light stuff it was a great day out.  

Well, it will be my first Father's Day and our nine week old boy Daniel has been saving up his pocket money. The little champ went out and bought me a new tackle box, squid jigs, halco lures and a bunch of much needed terminal tackle to replenish supplies.

What an amazing, beautiful and simply brilliant thing it is to become a Dad. A big shout out to all the Dad's out there - who else will be celebrating their first Father's Day tomorrow?

Now to get the boy fishing...

Well being my last day off, one has to get in there last fishing fix. Left the ramp at 6am, should of been earlier, but someone had a few to many wines..coronas last night. Started of with some bottom fishing and after a few drifts picked up a nice goldie and some big emporer. The bait schools where coming in closer and at last the tuna had showed up.  We chased some schools of tuna around for a while, caught and released a few and one for the esky...bait.

We then went to another spot by the channel and started bottom bouncing again. We hooked a few more fish, but all was very quiet in fishtown today. I hooked up a nice slab of tuna and sent it to the bottom. After no bites for a while, i began to start bring my bait up to the boat, when bang something grabbed my bait and took a big run. I turned to my mate and said "Bloody sharks" but all of a sudden what ever was on my line was coming back to the surface. Alarm bells sounded in my tiny brain....that this well could be a Mackie. After the fish doing 2 laps around my boat..just about taking out my two way antenna... and my mates head. I finally got the fish to the surface..and to my surprise i was alot bigger mackie than i expected.

We got the fish boat side, and after slipping a few discs, we managed to pull it into the boat. We took a few snaps measured him up around the 150cm mark...and released the big boy to fight another day!

Just thought I would post this scanned pic of a big Mackeral I caught over 20 years ago at Quobba just off the island at Point Quobba. It pulled the Salter scales down to 40 kilos. It hit a huge Nilsmaster lure that we were trolling around early in the season and have a good account of itself on heavy mono.

Weather was looking good for Saturday and since we had not been to Two rocks for a while, decided to get up early and head up.

Up at 4am, packed the last of the stuff in the boat, Mick, Nath and Sean rolled up a few minutes later and we were on our way.

Met up with Scano in Joondalup and headed the rest of the way to Two rocks.
Arrived at the ramp around 6.15 to find only 6 or so boats trailers in the car park, so no waiting to launch. Set off by 6.30am

Quick trip out, weather conditions were pretty much perfect and made our way out to the bank in 35-40 minutes.

Now before i continue, let it be known that i was somewhat annoyed that all the deckies of late seem to be catching all the fish....and the skipper is left with didderly squat!!!

Mick was threatened to be thrown over board due to his recent 'luck'....... and now he'd be lucky to get another invaite at all!@#$!@#$@#

This was the 3rd installment of the 'Mono VS Braid competition. Decided to stack the odd's in Mine and scano's Favour and my cousin sean came out which made 3 on team braid and 2 on Mono.

Anyhow setup all the gear, ready for our first drop, then started sounding around. Probably took about 10 minutes to find a bit of ground (all new areas) that looked half decent.
the drift was crap, slight winds one way, current another, boat doing donuts!!

any how first drop resulted in a legal dhu of 57cm. He was sent back on the release weight as he was in good condition. Not a bad start first fish within 30 seconds!!! the dayw as looking good.

Did a couple more drifts through this Area, and Scano managed a cracker of a cuttle fish!!! probably one of the bigger ones Ive ever seen.
Seemed to be a few about, as we could feel them sucking on the baits at times. This oen was dispatched to the Ice box!

Moved a little bit, and Sean managed a nice BB, and then things started to heat up a little.

Scano was on to a heavier fish, and up came another smallish dhu

He was sent back on the release weight too.

Next thing Mick hooks up big time.... Now you need to picture this (also the pictures will tell the story)... i was calling for a sambo the way it did some blistering first runs. Mick was sitting on the bow of the boat, legs over the side, with his Ugg boots on, Fag hanging out his mouth. Fought this thing for about 7 or 8 minutes i guess, and to our amazement a nice 13.5KG dhu hit the surface..... To say team braid were pissed was an understatement!

Cracker of a fish tho.

Ohh I'll Just lean my rod on the rail while i have a rest and a puff!!!...........bet he wouldnt have done that if he knew what was on the end of his line!

And this was the end result!

bastard!!!!!

Anyhow after the high 5's finished and the bragging stopped, we headed back for another drift.. This little ledge we found must have been loaded with dhu's. We must have caught another 4 or 5 dhus from this location, all between 45-55cm! and all were released.... mick doing most of the damage.

Mick also got a nice little BB to go another with his horse of a dhu!

So we moved again, basically trying to get away from the dhu fish as we already had 1 big male in the eksy, and the main reason we went to Two rocks, was to try target some badlies, but just couldnt find any.

So the next spot, again new ground, lasted all of about 5 seconds before Sean was loaded up on a solid fish.... Gave him and his fancy Saltiga a bit of a work out, again called it for a Sambo... and again amazed at what floated up the last few metres!!!

This one came in at 16.5kg's, and another big male!

first time i can remember 2 fish filled 2 eskys!!!!

Well that was plenty for us, i think we may have caught a couple more smaller dhu's which were released on the release weight, and called it a day and headed back in at a smooth 31 knots.

Ended the day with 12 Dhu's boated, all really healthy fish too.
3 BB's kept to go along with it.

As for the Mono Vs Braid competition...well that has ended a bit like the election really.... Both teams claiming Victory with no real standout winner.

Ohh and just to add in how bloody bad my day was.... my catch of the day was 2 bloody rays while bottom bashing 20 miles out!@$%@#%^@#

got this guy last week on a black bread fly on my new 4weight

it was just  a matter of picking through the small ones

hooked one that was a bit bigger but it spat the fly on his second run around the dam

Hi all we got runners up for tag and release Sail fish, which i thought was pretty cool because i didnt have a tagpole, {i wasnt targeting bills so i didnt have one on board silly me }we got a sail on day 1 and released it and lost another 10 mins later,we all so lost 4 mac and caught 1 small trev on 3kg which didnt go line class Day 2 we beached it and i lost about a 4kg mac on 1kg off the beach ,so not to good on day 2,it was a great weekend fishing thanks Alex and Uncle Simmo jeff

who says theres no macs in the middle of winter

got this big fella at lancelin on saturday 21 st of agust 2010 in 19 degree water

he tipped the scales at 25 kg

Went out today with the crew from Saltwater Charters

Ended up with a 56cm Dhuie (First Dhuie ever)
And a 67cm Queen snapper (Also my first queenie ever)

Got new fish species off my checklist and one very happy customer.

Cheers Duffman