The ramp was chockers 27 boats in front off us .So was not a quick launch .Still conditions were ok.Headed out to the 40m and picked up soom nice tuna ,Jesse doing well on the soft plastic in orange he got five.Then we got into some bottom fish little slow on the dhuies but baldies were going off.back at the ramp for 1:30. finished with  a tuna 5 good sized baldies 1 dhuie 6kg,and a couple of good fox fish .in all a good day ,and fresh fish for dinner.

hey hey

got to the ramp at 5 30 this morning for a quick launch and headed west with the intention of fishing far side of d bank

motored out and found some likely looking new spot's on the way. i fished jigs at first and mate fished bait just to cover all bases.

picked up a few BB's , small dhuey's and such before mate caught a 5kg dhu on bait. it had swallowed the hook deep so was into the esky.

i had a moments weakness and put down a skinned occy arm on driftbait . scored a half decent dhuey which was in good condition , so set off on her way back down.

continued out , fishing spots on the way to 85m , for numerous small bits and bobs including baldie and sgt baitkers.

saw a loads of birds and fish busting up so threw out a skirt on the way past for a little sbt.

out to 80meters and found some great looking ground and fish sign everywhere but little on the bite. mate got a nice red snapper that went 52cm on jig.

not a great deal happening so made our way back inwards , and found another likely spot.

jigs were dropped and mate picked up a cuttlefish. dehooked and released , but it only made it 10 foot down when something big came and took it. not sure what it was but we put down 2 jigs and a bait . line destroyed. frayed up to buggery. very pointy headed whatever it was. initial thought was it looked like a big tuna but couldn't of been as bite offs and not much of

an initial run , tho may not have realised it was hooked.

not too bad a day really. back in for 2pm

Team Gates headed out from Dawesville at 7am and went out to the same ground where last week, I scored my first dhuie. The winds were light but the sea was all of 1m, as was the advertised swell of 1m.

Didn't see too many other boats out where we went, but the ramp carpark was overflowing!

Had a quick drift over a couple of spots but nothing doing, so we headed out a bit further and straight away I boated a dhuie about 40cm and successfully released it. We were  seeing 'red' on the sounder and getting bites but nothing appeared too hungry but we ended up with 2 good sized blackarse and a plump sandy.....which looked a bit out of place with a 5/0 in it's mouth!!

Arrived back at the ramp around 1.30pm to see the fisheries throwing crabs back into the water. Over on one of the boats that had been retrieved was another fisheries officer with the book out! We then saw another bucket load of crabs being put back into the water so we're guessing they had a few too many. Don't know about the size, though.

The other interesting thing that happened was as we were slowly approaching the ramp, the boat in front of us was nearing the jetty, when all of a sudden he's grabbed a big handful of reverse, swung around and driven off......that's when we spotted the fisheries on the jetty returning crabs to the water.

One can only wonder at what made this guy behave in this manner 

Let's hope the weather is ok for tomorrow as I'm keen to get out there again before I have to head back to work on Wednesday or Thursday.

Hope you all had a good day on the water.

regards
rusty...

Hello All, After christmas at our place we headed off to Walpole on Monday and came back yesterday.  Fished every day either in the Nornalup Inlet or outside near saddle Island.

On Tuesday morning it was a bit blowy but we ended up in the lee of newdegate Island and fished baits for a while without much success so we shifted to the southern edge of the inlet and hooked into some bream, KGW's and yellowfin whiting.  Janes uncle also hooked an eel-esque thing it was silver about the width of my finger and perhaps two feet long.  It had a scissor like jaw, and had completely swallowed the hook so we cut the line and let it go.  Unfortunately no camera that day so no pics, any suggestions as to what it may have been? Janes uncle has fished there for more than 20 years and had never seen one before.

Wed morning it was over to the franklin side of the estuary for some more bream and Yellowfin Whiting.  Ended up straight out from Coalmine beach over a patch of ground where we could see huge schools of bream. We probably landed more than 20 bream, but only a few past 30cm.

Thursday and Friday morning looked pretty good on the weather front, so Janes cousin and I took the Stacer 4.5 outside to Saddle Island. Several drifts resulted in me being seasick, but I persisted and Simon ended out getting a 65cm Queen Snapper, then I hooked a 3ft shark, got it to the boat where it bit off my line.  More seasickness which came in waves and then went and finally I landed a 60cm Queen Snapper. I called it quits and we headed back in.

Friday morning was even more promising with light winds and I had got some travelcalm original so I was really looking forward to it.  After a few more drifts around the Needles I landed an 80cm Queenie and Simon got a 60cm one.  After this, we shifted spots to try to get a dhuie or something else.  We shifted to the eastern side of Saddle Island and set up a drift near where Hlokk and I got some Harlequins/Juvie Pinkies the year before.  One drift and I got a 40cm Pinkie which went back, and a bust off from something else which seemed decent.

We had seen a boat anchored up close to the island who seemed to be catching only small pinkies, and as our drift would take us down to them we had a chat as we went by and they had only got undersize pinkies, so we told them about our queen snapper spot, and they pulled anchor and headed over to try their luck.  Just goes to show not everyone is a pinger or has bad intentions when talking to other people on the water.

Went to the walpole pub for NYE and got shitfaced on Coopers Pale Ale, and had a good look at the fishing chalkboard and someone got a new walpole record for black bream on 30/12/10 at 2.5kg, just short of the state record of 2.719kg.  Top effort, but we didnt see anything like that in the inlet.  I reckon it was pulled out from snags up one of the rivers.

Hungover as a dog and also car sick from sitting in the back because we gave Janes Grandad a lift back to Perth yesterday.  Only comming good now.

Heres a pic or two from the lookout, the giant tingle tree and friday morning shenanigans.

Headed out late this morning for some play in cockburn sound. Casted the wash for some great tailor, all going around 50cm then out for some sand whiting, plenty there but the size was down then headed back onto the we banks for some xxl squid. home before the breeze. Nice short session with a good mixed bag!

Went out to Rotto to retrieve my cray pots yesterday (after them sitting there for a month without being pulled) and have a couple of dives to try get a feed of crays. The pots had been sitting there a while as hadn't had the chance to get out to pull them. The first surprise was that they were actually where I had left them ropes covered in slime suggesting they hadnt been pulled either. 1 pot had 1 cray - even more surprising. First dive in 25m we spotted about 10 berried or tar spot with no keepers.

When we hit the surface I decided to motor out to a spot we had marked a couple months back during the ban to see how it looked. We needed to pass some time and this spot was only 10 minutes from our dive. The sounder lit up like a xmas tree so back round to the top of the drift down goes the caprice kid within 20 seconds bang nice fight and a 5kg dhui hits the surface. Back to the top of the drift same again except this time a 10kg Dhui. All done in less than 15 minutes. 2 Dhuis in the esky. My first Dhui on jig and i'm now a convert. I have toyed with them before but never been convinced - now there is no going back. Was in 35m of water.

Back to our second dive in 17m and bagged a few nice reds for the esky. Breeze was just starting to build as we made our way back to Freo, back to the ramp by 2pm then I was sitting at work by 3pm.  A great way to spend the day and a nice feed to top it all off.

Hey guys, i've been a member for a fair while but have never made a post, so have made a start with some photos from yesterday's trip and a couple from the other week. headed out with a mate late morning yesterday rotto bound and found ourselves some nice ground which had us bag out pretty quickly. first drift produced a nice queen snapper for myself and nice baldy for my mate who was stoked to finally get his first sized one.

Second drift over the ground saw sonny on to his second nice baldy which put up a solid fight on light gear and another larger queeny for myself that was dropped near the boat.

Next drops produce amixture on different fish along with another queen snapper which were all released when a finally got what a was chasing with a dhuie of about 9kg

(the one more drift) saw us both hooked up to much larger dhuies which resulted in a leader rub through up near the boat for me and a good old reefing for sonny who was using much lighter gear, bagged out we decided to target some ytk's instead but after 40mins of berley my normally productive spot weren't producing so we decided to head in while the wind was still light.  The shots below are from our last trip out to Rotto, all on plastics.  

What an awesome Day.

Palnned to fish with my neighbour who taught me everything i know around ten years ago.  He still only uses mono and the only lure he has ever bought  is a squid jig. Although his combos only cost slightly more than a good quality spool of braid  he is known as one of the best fisherman in my area.

The presented the perfect opportunity to put my lures to the test. I would use my Madeye Lures        5 Inch double drift. While he would drift down unweighted mullies.

Lures Vs bait: New techniques Vs Old Scholl tech

Who would win.

We arrived at our first spot before sun up and a berley trail was dispersed.  And baits and lures were sent down. I tied on a supe glow double drift  (these babies glower brighter than any other plastic i have used) hoping this would attract the fish in the low light. The first run on bait had us jumping to our feet as line peeled off the large peflerger. I hadn’t  had a touch and began to worry i would be down 0-1.

I needn’t have worried as it displayed all the signs of a “flying carpet”. Sure enough we soon had an eagle ray boat side. No points there.

My mate tied on a new rig and another 10min later his reel screamed again. “This ones a dhuey decent size too”. You can pick a dhu fish run as they have shorter smaller runs than a snapper and not quite as strong head shakes. With the fight nearly over disaster........the hooks pulled (very rare as dhu normally engulf the bait/lure) “&*^&*^&*”  “great one you have spoked the fish now” I teased. I had dodged a bullet there.

My turn now. With the sun coming up i changed to a pink double drift. Good choice. 3 cast a few knocks then “yep im on” i could feel the tell tale head shakes though the braid/graphite combo of a little pinky. “I thought it was going to be small but not this small” i said. Even small snapper put up a good account for themself.

[IMG]http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz355/madeyelures/IMG_0695.jpg[/IMG]

A few minutes latter the bait rod SCREAMED OFF. And i mean screamed. Straight to the top and we knew we had a shark. The shark made light work  of the 25lb combo my mate was using. “turn its head its heading for the anchor” “Im trying”  my mate replied. No good PING.

“thats 2 fish you have lost now i teased” “Ill show you how its done” As i sent out my spare ombo with an unweighted mullie i remembered all the times we had fished together and i was the one loosing fish.

I didn’t take long before my Team Daiwa Saltwater 10-17lb Daiwa Seagate 3500 30lb braid combo was humming like it never had. “Its headed for the anchor turn it” My mate teased. If he couldn’t turn it how could I. Sure enough i began to feel the line touching the anchor. Luckily it turned and screamed off into open water taking 100m of line with it. A long fight began that seemed to take for ever although it was probably only 10-15min. I finally had a 2m hammerhead boat side. I was keen to get it on board for a photo but we both knew how ballistic these things go in a boat.

In fact only a few months ago a friend brough a slightly smaller bronzie onto his boat with hope of s feed. In his haste to dispatch the shark he lost control of his knife and in a freak accident the shark flicked it into his wife leg. They raced to the  hospital and she recived 9 stiches.

We cut the line and discussed how many hammerheads we had landed using only mono. In only the last 2 weeks we had landed 2 and lost 2  with a similar record in years past. For some reason you often lip hook them??? Dont ever keep one though as i have heard they have lost of ammonia plus they are a sight to behold as they swim on the surface on a hot day.

Damn the score was now 0-1 and it was my fault. Oh well i had a ball fighting it. Things had quietened down because of the shark and we discussed moving. Decided to give it another 10min. Im glad we did. As i jigged my lure back to the boat using a standard yoyo technique i felt a good hit and set the hooks.  About time.  After a short tussle i had a just sized black arse on board. Althoiugh it was it was legal we took a few picks and sent him back. 1 all

By now my mate also had a paranoster out but was getting harassed by pickers. I kept using the same technique and felt the rod load up. I attempted to set the hooks......no good....Wait im on.......No not again. ........Yep.... what the hell is going on. I held the lure mid water and felt the pulsating of a squid. I loosned the drag. Set the rod in its holder and set out a squid jig on a hand line that i always keep nearby. By now the squid realising my plastic couldn’t bhe eaten had let go. But has the squid jig sank i saw a dark blob come up from the depth and nail the jig. Its amazing how many squid we get out deep when chasing snaps. This guy was a nice size and we now had fresh baot on board. “Im calling that”  “but you didn’t land it on your plastic” “too bad” 2-1 Lures.

With things abit quiet and pickers smashing my mate bait i tied on a smaller 3ich double drift in pilchard colour to see what was down there. After losing 1 plastic to it getting chewed i was pretty sure it was wrasse down there.  They can be a pest but they are still good fun and they hit lures. The next lure hit its mark and a wrasse was onboard for a few photos. No points here though.

I changed back to a 5ich super glow plastic and changed up my retrieve. I began to “jiggle” the lure back to the boat. This involves keeping it on the bottom and giving the rod tiny fast jigs. This gets the tail wriggling like a octopus tentacle. A few Mins went by and my mate had fianly got past the pickers and with his heavy gear landed a 35cm skippy. Although it wasn’t as big as we often get out there it had broad sholders. Before i could get the camera out. My mate had necked it and thrown it in the esky (fresh skipy is very underated). “I wanted to get a photo” “well you still can” as you can tell he is as old school as they come. “not with it looking like that”. Oh well. The score was now tied at 2 all

I had been a while since i had a hit but i persisted with the same technique.  Something took a liking to it as it sat on the bottom wiggling its tail. “that looks a bit better” my mate pipped as the fish took some drag. “yeah but theres not much weight”. I had no idea what this was and by the time it was near the boat i had called it for every fish that lives in the ocean.

To my amazement i had cracked another fish on plastic........A whopping 48cm King George whiting. Only a few min earlier we were questioning if it had been worth getting up at 3.45 but with the monster Geordie on board it was all worth it.   

[IMG]http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz355/madeyelures/IMG_0702.jpg[/IMG]

With the score at 3-2 Things quietened off again so we pulled stumps and moved to another spot.  Fish on the sounder

“Are you sure we wont be to close to that cray rope” “na ill make sure ill put the boat in a good spot. Plus thats where the fish are”. I overestimated anchor skill and we ended up right onto of the pot.

 I was right about the fish though and my rod was soon buckled over with the tell tale head shakes of a snapper. I called it for legal as it was putting up a very good account for itself. As we caught the first glimpse of colour we were both in awe of haow beautifull they look. Its blue dots light up in the water as pink hues glistened n the sunlight. A we watched it get closer to the boat 2 dark shapes rose from the depths  before darting back down as they spied the boat. “we got Samson”. With the snapper on board it was clearly undersized and only went 46cm. A few happy snapps and back it went.

Less than a minuete latter my mates rod got hit but the fish missed the hooks. I sent out my floater with a fresh squid wing. It wasn’t long before my reel was once again screaming. I was under gunned as the Samson headed straight for the cray rope and i felt the line beginning to fay. “Crap its in the cray rope” Luck was on my side as the fish turned and headed for deep water. With no obstclaes i began to win the fight. Once again 2 samsons followed their mate up. “quick grab this” I handed the rod over and droped down my plastic. As my neighbour boated my fisrt fish one of the followers turned spied the lure and engulfed it. My plastic rod is lighter again and i didn’t stand a chance. Dejvu strait for the cray rope. This time i wasn’t so lucky. Ping.

By now my mates floater had screamed off and he was on as well. Once again the fish headed for the cray rope “**&*^ i  told you we were too close to the rope look its wrapped it self. I was now retying another leader and plastic. I poked me head over and could see the Samson 8m down wrapped in the rope. “it might come out” i said knowing full well the fight was over. I continued to tie my rig. “its out” “what no way” i said as i peered my head back over the side to see the fish in clear water. “that would be right i lose a dhuy to hooks getting pulled (which never happens) but manage to untangle this Samson”.

Even on heavy gear sambos go hard but with the fish now in open water it wasn’t long before it was boat side. By now i had my new rig ready and droped pilchard coloured lure right in frount of one of the followers nose. Gulp. I locked  up the drag but i still couldn’t keep it away from the ropes and within seconds my braid was flapping in the breeze. In all the excitement i hadn’t had time to get a photo and as we didn’t want to risk them going belly up my neighbour had measured my first one at 81cm and sent it back and necked the other at 75cm respectably.

I know this site is mainly catch and reaslse how ever Samson taste beautifull as long as they are under 90cm and cooked fresh. Samsons grow fast and arnt under threat like many demersals. I promise you this fish wasn’t wasted and we both enjoyed fresh deep fried Samson tonight.

Bait was now in the lead 3-4. And the school of sambos now went quiet. This allowed the baits to sink deeper and the undersized snappers came in thick and fast.  More fish were falling to bait at about a ratio of 4-1 however i belive this is because of the size of the fish and the fact i was using 5inch plastics. The wind had swung around and the cray rope was no longer an issue.

I was again to what i though was an undersize snapper.  “I got colour.....silver.......Crap look at these sambos”. 2 new fish larger than before at an estermaited 1.5m charged up and smashed into my fish. As  my fish neared the boat the Samson headed back down.  With my fish near the boat i could see it wasn’t a skippy like i thought, but a small dhu fish. To say i ws stoked was an understatement. “Im counting that even though its only 47cm.” “fair enough thats a good effort on a jig” replied my mate. Back to 4 all

Another fish on plastic cracked. I had caught them on lucanus style jig but never a plastic. With a big grin we quickly took a few photos (crap low battery) and put the fish on the release weight.

[IMG]http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz355/madeyelures/IMG_0714.jpg[/IMG]

Now if you don’t like sad stories scroll down to the next paragraph.

As i watched the dhu fish plumet back to the ocean floor. The 2 samsons returned. I watch as they charged my little dhu and smashed it knocking it off the release weight. The Samson charged again and we can only assume one of them devoured the little dhu fish. I flet a little guilty however thats nature.

I once again sent the plastic down and soon felt the tell tale suck of another dhu fish. “crap i got another one”. I had a decsecion to make. Crank it back to the boat and risk barotruamer or wind slow and rish the samsons returning. I decided to crank it in. Luickly it was smaller than the  first and with my mate hooked up to a snapper the samsons were kept distracted. No time for a photo. Realese weight was tied on and down went the dhu fish. This time it made it to the bottom safe and sound.

By now we were down to our last mullie. “Last bait you know what that means” chirped my mate. “i have never had luck on  the last bait” i said. My neighbour then began to recite the many times he had caught fish on his last few baits.

You wouldn’t belive it. After waiting about 2 min his line peeled off. This time the head shakes were larger and i laughed to myself knowing this was a sized pinky on the line. Sure enough it went 57cm. I reached for the camera. NOOOOOOOOOOO i had left it on after that little dhuy and now the battery was dead.

With all the good luck we had all day i couldn’t complain. And to top things off we were greeted with flat sea for the return trip home.

In the end the score was 4 good fish on lures to 5 good fish on bait. However the score no longer mattered. We had both just experienced a great day that wont soon be topped

Hi all,

I caught today my first good Dhui. After checking the forecast yesterday it didn't look like a great day for fishing. So we thought we just head out to check the pots. There were empty like usual... The weather turned out to be pretty good so we decided to head out further to see if we can hook in some Demersals.

We drifted over a few spots without much success. I think it was at the third spot where my mate hooked in a nice blue bone. That was about 55cm and 3-4kg. That started our Season of nicely. On the next spot then we put down some squid bait and it didn't take long for my mate to hook into something bigger. And after a few minutes of fight we spotted some colour. A couple of minutes later our first Dhui was on board. The size for this was about 70cm and 9kg That got us all very excited , my mate and his dad where still busy with the Dhui when my rod ( and that was my first bite of the day as well ) went off. I could feel straight away that this was something a little bit bigger. The fight was harder than I expected and after about 10 to 15 minutes my first big Dhui was on board as well. It weight 14.3kg and was 95cm long.  

I was stoked!!!

We managed to get 2 more baits down but no takers. Then the wind started picking up and we had to make our way back. As we came to 3 mile reef we stopped for a last try to drop some baits. No takers again . But then the sounder started to show heaps of Fish everywhere from top to bottom. A look over the side and we saw a huge school of bait fish. That looked pretty awesome. As I saw it later in the news that must have been the one which was at Trig and Scarb earlier today.

Hope everyone else had a good day too!

Cheers Seb

Took the forums advice and hit up the Gemini today. Managed to grab a decent sambo on squid quite a distance off the side of the wreck. Not much else around though.

Also managed to pick up a couple blokes about 4 mile off Quinns Beach after we first saw the bow of their boat sticking out of the water. They were drifting with their esky about 500m away, been in the water around 40 minutes they thought. Apparently the stern on the old glass boat let go and dropped the motor off completely, swamping the hull in seconds. They managed to dive for the epirb and activate it, and the rest remains in the hull I assume. I have marked the spot and will go have a dive on it when I am back from Albany and Busso in the New Year.

Do insurance companies try to recover a fully sunk hull normally? Will be a good cray spot next season I think. Best part is no one else has the co ords.

 Well im finally gonna sit down and right up a report for everyone on my 6 days of diving starting last monday (week before chrissy)

Left the ramp fairly early sunday morning with a very stiff nth east wind and no swell - decided not to head too far so just stayed local... visibility was average in the morning and got better as the day went on. a howling north current meant not a greaat deal spotted - small baldies small pinkies the odd baby dhu and small trout. Changed spots a few times and managed to bag a nice trout of about 4.5kgs mid afternoon and spotted a nice spaniard but proved too elusive.

Tuesdays forecast was look very nice - a late departure as i was going solo and flagpole was heading out so i decided to dive in his vacinity just to be safe - had a greeat dive - nailing a nice trout first drop of 6kgs. So much fish life around it WAS funny.... 2 monster sambos well over 30kgs came for a look , 2 western blue groper ( not often seen this far north) TROUT GALORE chasing bait along with dhuies and skippy. Some big parrots about aswell.... Tried a few different locations looking for that big dhu but ended up bagging a nice groper and calling it a day very satisfied...

Wednesday - Phone call to my regular dive buddy had him VERY keen to get out after being abit iffy to start with.... up nice and early and it was one of the flattest most beaut mornings ive been out on off gero... millpond conditions.... again fish everywhere! rob got some good video of me shooting another 6kg trout and we got some grreat footage hand feeding a sambo also... very friendly.... caught up with flagpole again and changed locations. proved a wise move shafting a lovely 8kg dhu and seeing a couple of others a tad smaller.... Rob didnt have the greatest of day having gun problems and also not feeling the best but he did shoot a very nice 7kg blue bar parrot and i added another small dhu to make our 4 fish limit.... another fantastic day....

Thursday - still bugger all swell but the winds where abit stronger today - the current had died right off which didnt help but today i dove the some local freedive legends. Antony and his dad Nigel Sercombe.....Tried many different places but struggled to consistently find anything worth shooting... I got a pb dive when i shot a 6.5kg trout in 16.5m altho i did need ants help to extract after 3 up and down attempts. end of the day showed a nice trout each a small groper to nigel a average yellowtail king to ant and a small parrot to myself.....

Friday i dove with ant again - today we decided on chasing macks hard again even tho yesterdays efforts drew a blank on the spanish front....

ant had a small 7kg fish before i was in the drink! it did have a friend with it (15kg ish) but it departed pretty quickly when 12ft of tiger came in all lit up like christmas looking for a feed... i stood guard while ant despatched his fish but the tiger stayed well away and didnt bother us.... it was one of a number of tiger encounters for the day..... Ant got some decent footage of myself nailing a 6kg baldie out of 13m also before we moved on to some other ground.... Again a wise move with ant nailing a lovely 7kg dhu and a small trout.... 1 more move showed some great looking ground and i dropped down to nail a twin of the mornings groper! stoked......

Christmas = a restttttt haha

Boxing Day = work

Today ant and i got one more dive in before he headed back to perth..... forecast was all buggered up but still very divable.... burlyed very hard to see 1 tiny spanish some small tuna and a small school mack before we went off after our bottom fish.... ant got a nice groper and 4kg dhu and i shot a nice 5kg groper and 6kg dhu to finish it off.....

Weather was variable but lack of swell helped considerably! Some quality fish taken for the table and a very satisfied group of spearos....

cheers poddy

Hey all,

After seeing yesterday's forecast saying it was going to stay windy and then deciding not to go. Leah and i headed for a swim down at the beach and saw some flat ocean. Got me thinking today may do the same, woke up at 5am windy so went back to bed. Decided to head out at 11 for a jig as it was starting to slow down and thought there may be a window of nice conditions. Left the ramp at 11 and headed norwest, found 2 lumps in around 35m about 12 mile out. Did two drifts and nothing so pushed on...my mark to fish was still another 7mile away so i thought i may look around a few pots. Found a group of 3 and nothing but on the 3rd pot i did a figure 8 and found some good ground about 12metres away, stopped the boat and jig went down.....hits the bottom well what i thought was the bottom but it pulled...lost it then a couple of tugs later bang! Was somthing hefty and got me thinking sambo as it had the stradic screaming. 10mins later a pb dhuie pops up still kicking and had me hooting for a while. Bottomed out my 7kg scales but will weigh it before i clean it on my big scales

So drove out 40mins fished 40mins and drove back in 40mins.... Sweet lil 2 hour sesh and beat the major crowds as the ramps carpark was still chockos with trailers.

Stoked..

ps sorry bout the pics it was on self timer

  hi all had a quick trip with the family today out for a troll ,

 we hit the 30m mark and trolled from south to north and got 1 spanish mac {10kgish}ok size fish ,but we lose a heap the kids just could not get them in fast enough,Alex had one fish on for about 8 mins and when it got near the boat a billy was wacking it and then the sharks started on it ,we got the head and the lure back thank god

 after losing so many to sharks it was time to go home ,i think we lose 6 on lures and i lost about 12 skipping gars all choped in half

 was a good fue hours fishing

 sorry no pics the kids wherent to good with the camera

   jeff

I just came back from 3 DAYS of wild fishing trip with an Italian couple to the dam (400km) drive away. Simon STRICTLY emphasis to me "NO PONDS FISHING" (take away Pilot 111) for him, only want to relax fishing in the wild dam with his wife. The hunting game & true fishing as a real fisherman. He has  NEVER fish a snakehead before in his life but always  amaze at the sudden attack on topwater lures and speed of this unique freshwater fish.

Simon was so happy & falls in love with the nature wild fishing with me that  he is planning another return trip to fish with me again in the month of May 2011. Next round, he is going to plan a even longer fishing trip-5-6 DAYS in the wild with me to 2 different places in Thailand .

Simon thanks you note to me:

" John thanks for this unique experience of fishing. magnificent scenery, a place where you are in contact with nature and with the people who live it every day. For me it 's important to have fished with a true lover of the true professional fishing: one made of the constant search for prey."

I'm always happy to see serious 'willing to learn ' angler migrate from  pond fishing to the challenging wild kind of fishing. Although you don't get as much bite rates &  hookups as compare to the well stocked  pond fishing but at least you get to enjoy the beautiful scenery and 'true fishing' what the mother nature offer to us.
Enjoys the beautiful & attractive scenery  of wild fishing in natural habitual surrounding.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni9eTGhM5Tc

[img]http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa221/888max/DSC07940.jpg  [/img]

fished my special spot again 2day only with soft plastics and was a bloody thumper of a day, first drop for both me and my mate ended in a huge line burning run and then bot got brilled in the pylons, I then put on a megabass metalX lure witch a mork mate of mine imported over from japan and gave me one, and I hooked a nice sambo which again drilled me in the pylons.

I then switched back to SPs and fished close to the structure, hooked up again and landed a nice little bream about 35 cm, I caught another 2 little ones arround the same size, then hooked a bid tailor that went 40cm.

contuinued to catch tailor and herring untill they bugged off and then targeted bream again.

hooked into a very nice fish and after lots of nice runs and manouvering him through the pylons, a BIG bream surfaced. He went just over 45cm..... and a good 1 1/2 - 2 kilos.

contuinued to catch some more nice bream arround the 30 cm mark.

hooked into another massive fish which when landed, again went over 40cm, about 43cm. and a good kilo.

had a awsome day with huge bream, none of the 8 i caught, went under 30cm!!!, If only It was the swan river WABT today!!!

over all, my mate got 5 flathead, 1 small bream and a herring,

and I mannaged 8 bream (2 Big blue lips), a nice tailor, multiple herring and unfortunetally lost that big fish and that Sambo which took my special Megabass lure!!!

will have to take you there somtime Marco...

cheers,

Tom

Merry Christmas to everyone

In upholding the family tradition of doing a spot of crabbing on Christmas day, Team Gates launched the tinny from the Dawesville ramp around 10.30am and headed across the estuary to find some shelter from the easterly winds. 

From 6 pulls of our 3 dropnets, we scored 2 sized crabs! Besides 1 being 1mm undersize, everything else was at least 10mm undersize. Even a spot of snorkeling didn't add to our catch....not that we saw too many, but the ones we saw were quite small. The encouraging aspect is that we'll have something to look forward to in the coming weeks/month as these undersize ones grow bigger.

The sun was shining, the water was nice for a dip and the family was all together...what more could you ask for.

I'm guessing the kid on the tube being towed round and around and around behind his dad's boat was having a great time on his Chrissy present!!

Have a great day

regards
rusty...

While dads gone (fisho-ron i believe he calls himself lol) i decided to take the tinny up to to river and go for some bream and flathead, never expected to pull in a blue manner.. This was all the way up near the old Ascott Water Park. just off tonkin hwy-grt eastern bridge. Thought it might of been a snap but i was anchored and not moving at all and the rod was bending more and more, thought it might of been a flathead or even a cobler.

Have you guys ever seen grabs that far up? Might have to drop some nets and see how many i can pull in, decent size one aswell.

As I've never actually seen people crab or drop pots around there i thought i might give it a shot.

How many pots are you allowed to use per boat? if there is a limit.

Whats a good crab bait, just a big bit of meat like a sambo head? haha

 headed out with a good bloke called Darren on his bream boat for a flick, a good time and to teach him Luke's technique of bream on mussels

had a awsome day heading to some of his and my spots throughout the river. Flicked arround SPs and HBs and mussels and hooked into some verry solid fish at A SPOT and got busted of nearly every time in the pylons by some huge bream.

In the end, I landed 2 nice flatties and 8 bream, biggest going just over 37cm. and unfortunetly my mate or Darren didnt land any throughout the day, but they they did hook quite a few.

Merry Christmass everyone, have a good one and hope to see you out fishing some time throughout the holidays.

cheers,

tom

Hey fellow members,

Decided to head out Tuesday with the weather looking good, 1st time out after the ban so we were after the elusive Dhui for Xmas... We Launched from woodies at around 9am and decided to look around the 40mtr mark south of rotto. After alot of sounding around we found an area with lots of nice lumps. 1st couple of drifts resulted in a couple of wrasse and couple of skippy and black arse, on the next drift my dad hooks up to a nice 60cm dhui. Followed by couple of undersize dhuis which was released well without the release weight. Good day out on the water!

Headed out wednesday, and hit up the barges plenty of large sambo's around didnt land any after loosinig 2 to sharks we decided to head in closer for some demersals. Sorry no pics

Managed

2 dhuis both just undersize which realeased well.

1 size pinky Released.

1 queeny, 

3 black arse ( 2 realeased) 

1 large ray released

and the odd crap fish

Thanks

Justin

.

freezer was looking a bit empty of decent fillets so close to xmas , so , with the winds looking ok today , i decided to head out from mindarie on a solo mission.

arrived at the ramp at 5 45 am and it looked pretty quiet. quick launch and headed due west to some previous marks. got to the spot with a few lumps in close proximity showing fish.

dropped down with the light jigging gear and .. nothing. bugger. worked the area for half an hour , but nothing on the chew.

the cray boys were west of me so dicided to have a sound around a pot. loads of fish sign but once again , nothing seemed hungry.  moving on , found a massive school of baitfish on the bottom to mid water , so had a drop and was rewarded with a little 3kg sbt on jig. nice.

didn't get anything else off the bait , so headed further west. saw another pot and had a sound around. there was sign of fish , but it wasn't lit up like the previous pot.

tied on the lamble jig that resembles the caprice. dropped it down and it was hit before it got to the bottom. some mins and a good fight later and the dhu popped up . weighed in at 10kg.

expensive jig but worth it already.

turned to head in quite happy , when i ran over a small 2 meter lump in a desert.

tied on a zest baitfish and had a drop. straight on with something better again. really giving me some stick when mid fight , i feel the knob starting to get all slack on the little stradic. uh oh.

finish the fight with just the handle , no knob.   interesting. see colour about 10 mins into the fight and ... oh no.    i've gone and done a jamie and foul hooked a sambo . (hehehe)

not sure on weight but would have to have been upwards of 15kg

headed home happy and out the water by 11

Well, after bearly a days fishing in the last 4 months apart from a few whiting sessions with the kids, it was good to get a clear day from work and a good weather forecast to coincide with one another.

Darryn and I headed out around 5-30am with visions of catching a couple of dhuies for Xmas, given that for the first time in as many years I can remember my freezer was completely devoid of fish and needed replenishing quick smart.

We trolled a few skirts at the back of staggies first up, in the hope of some SBT's but not a single bird in the sky, so we blew that off pretty quick and headed out to some spots in the 40;'s. We had to work hard for the fish and whilst we managed about 5 pinkies in quick succession (damn, didn't manage to pick up my tagging kit from Jody last week) they were mostly undersize with one just legal. All released well without the need for a release weight.

We moved out a bit further and with plenty of fish on the sounder it was proving difficult to get a bite from anything of substance,. A few Blackarse were landed one kept and the rest released and we managed a nice Harley which was also kept for the table.

With 2 table fish onboard we thought we should get at lease one dhuie between us so we headed out a bit wider and fished a few sopts I hadn't fished in years. Thankfully they came up trumps and I boated this nice little Dhuie, which went 60cm. However as I was bringing it up (nice and slow) Darryn hooked up as well, on a bigger fish. We kept my fish fresh as we landed Darryns in the net. Then a quick pic of mine before sending it back over the side with the release weight. (Damn, didn't have that tagging kit)

We then took a few pics of Darryns dhuie which was a fraction under 80cm (went 7kgs on the lie detector).

One more drift and I managed a very nice baldy to complete the bag limit. So we had plenty of fish for teh table between us.

We ended up the day with 2 dozen plump sandies, 5 dhuis (4 released), 6 Pinkies (all released), 4 Blackarse (3 released), 1 Harlequin, 1 Baldie, 1 sambo and a billion mini flatties as well, so all in all the drought was broken quite nicely. Weather was perfect (apart from the fickle drifts with current and wind creating strange angles that needed several drifts to master). All in all a great day on the water with a top mate, looking forward to the next trip now.

Merry Xmas one and all.

Today marked my first sesh amongst the demersals since the ban. Finally!

I agreed to meet John F & do a co-op effort around some unfamiliar territory. Tim (Timvb) was my deckie for the day & he was keen as mustard to nail some demersals on jig. He's been doing a bit of work overseas & has a short stint in Perth before he heads back - so, as you can imagine, he was frothing for a fish.

Within minutes of leaving the marina, we were joined by a little bird that called the boat home for the day. It was quite unreal - this bird would sit aerodynamically anywhere on the boat whilst we travelled at 20-25kts throughout the day. It wouldn't leave us & at times, would also sit on our shoulders!

Today was a day of effort. As mentioned, we were in unfamiliar territory & needed to do some sounding out to find some structure & fish. It wasn't easy. John scored a nice patch of ground 2kms away from me & we communicated over the radio about what was happening. He was scoring pinks, pup dhu's & sambos

Tim & I continued to search & after almost 2 hours of headless chook driving, I found a big patch of something special. We continued to sound around the area to get a feel of where we were fishing & I managed to punch in numerous new co-ords of fishy territory.

We chose to jig the area. Tim hadn't scored anything to talk about on jig so I coached him in technique & it paid dividends. He started off small but soon worked into some bigger models. We used IMA Ro's side by side scoring numerous Dhu's over a large area. Tim's effort resulted in PB's - and fair dinkum was he happy.

Boy did some of these fish go hard. Drag pressure was fundamental given the territory we were fishing & we did have a few nervous moments. I did end up losing one which went especially hard - would've been one of those dream monster Dhu's.

Early by-catch included pinks & a baldie (which is being carved up for dinner!).

We successfully released all but 2 Dhu's. We cradled these fish like babies & released the fish that were in good condition.

Gear we used:

Light jig rods

4000-6000 reels.

PE2 & PE3 mainline.

40lb leader.

John will be a happy camper with Dhu for his BBQ tonight. P.s. John - cheers for the beers!

It was great fishing with another boat - especially, when we needed to find ground!

Excuse the smudged photos - forgot to bring the good camera, but fortunately, I had the boat camera at hand.

Daz

Well with Jody out off town ,Bruce from up Ktown jumped aboard for the day Traffic was slow on the ramp so it made for a quick exit from 2Rocks.sea was flat and no swell things were looking great.The first few patches were quiet .But as we moved out deeper things started to fire. Bruce had never caught a dhuie so it was good to get him onto a good fish .His first dhuie was just size ,and had to be kept as it didn't release to well .His next one was around 5kg and ahealthy release .and his third pb around 10kg .also released .jesse and I had a double hook up a nice fish around 10kg (one in photo),double hooked I sould say .One side off its mouth Jesses SP and the other my baited hook.so we sheared the prize.the end result for the day was 9 dhuies 2 kept 7 tagged and released (between 4-12kg)all released well without release weight.2 baldchin kept 1harly and a blackass kept .Also 2 blackass tagged and released.In all a top morning on the water home by 1:30.

Just want to share another wild toman trip I did 2 days ago. Hand itchy and also to test out some of my rapala lures. The journey is rather  challenging, some 500KM from bkk city.

The day before I just have a fishing trip with a fella SG  angler to Pilot 111. I had  less than 5 hrs  of sleep , chop !! chop !!! packed  my lures and tackles and hit the road.

Left bkk city at 1.30am and reach there almost 5.30am. The weather was fine and less winds.
Landed 2 monster toman 8.02KG & 5.40KG and lost one really big one . Still falls short of my personal target of  > 10KG toman in order to submit for my IGFA World Record.

I will be away fishing toman for the next 3 DAYS (17th-20th Dec)  with SG anglers (father & son team) for another  attempt for the toman record purpose. Wish us luck !!!

Tackle  & setup use:
Rods: 10-20 Ibs Gloomis 6 ft &  Valley hills 6ft 7'
Reels: Daiwa Zillion 7.3 limited & my all time favorite Daiwa Ryoga 1016H
Lures: Rapala deep diver
Line: Power Pro PE 4
Shock leader: 50 Ibs super soft

I have trouble uploading my vid clip to youtube for the past 2 days. :(
Instead I've since uploaded my vid clip  to one of  the china hosting video site.

Enjoys the 'LIVE ACTIONS' in this clip. :)

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/gbuYoInsI6Y/

Highlights shots !!!

 Headed out with Marko (Hookt) for a bit of a fish. Got to the spot, to see a family catching (only) under size pink snapper around 15cm-20cm and keeping them. By the time they left they a bucket full, even after I had told them several times it was illegal. As for the report, picked up another 2 King George, slightly bigger this time though, around 45cm, and Marko got into a good feed of squid.

A few shots from yesterday.

Plenty of sambos to wrestle with and some great table fish as well.

Found some guy sleeping under the ramp which i brought out. He had some bling gear though!

have been hearing stories of tailor been caught as far as lilac hill is that true or is the water to fresh for them i know some have been caught at south guildford where ever that is >;)