Got the chance to go for a fish in Karratha over the weekend as i was up there for work.

Cousin of mine works up there as well and has his boat up there, so after being teased Friday and Saturday with sensational weather, we managed to get out on Sunday on our day off.

Purpose of this trip was to find some reds, since i have not caught any before.

Destination was 30 odd mile out in 50 metres of water!, bloody long way to go in an ally boat.

On the way out we were hoping to find some bait, and it didnt take too long so find a few schools of Tuna..(plenty around up there at the moment).

Was only about the 2nd or 3rd cast with a small slice and was on to a nice mac tuna... good bait and ready for the deep stuff!

The temptation to play around with good sized mac tuna on light gear was too much... Spent another hour or so playing with Tuna....being creamed by sharks more often than not!

off we set, a little later than hoped and getting closer to the high tide. Managed to get to our location 1 hour 15 min before high tide.

First drop resulted in my first Saddle tail, and a prett decent one at that!! was pretty stoked about it!

We landed fish pretty much every drop, Saddle tail in double headers, Rankin cod every drift.

Threw plenty back too, but just couldnt find any reds!.

So still not been able to pop my red cherry, but never the less, first on the saddle tails so cant complain there!! and they pull like trains! Can notice the bling in the back ground too, first time I'd used the saltiga's... and yep im a fan too!

Kept a few for a nice feed!
Was pretty hot out there too! and plenty of sharks, altho didnt lose any fish to them except tuna!

Given the light winds on Saturday it was almost compulsory to take the boat out. Launched at Mindarie but given the demersal ban decided to stay close and chase a feed of sand whiting. Found them in plague numbers behind Stagies Reef but had to pick through a lot of small ones to get the good ones. Didn't have any trouble getting a good feed though. Largest went about 30cm.

Was a great day on the water, calm winds, amazing water clarity, whales breaching in the distance, what else could one ask for! (well, maybe for end to demersal ban )

One thing of interest was some good echoes on the sounder about half way up in 20m of water. Did think about having a trawl but then had a sounder mulfunction (transducer bracket broke in half!) so decided to call it quits.

Hey guys/girls just wondering if you can help me out, I have just moved here from Melbourne and the truck with my boat on it will be here just before christmas and I was wondering if any one can point me in the right direction for some good fishing spots in Perth.  I have spoken to a few people and have been told to go to three mile reef or around Rottnest Island but I am sure ther are more spots than this.  Any information would be much appreciated.

Cheers.

Hey guys, been a while...can anyone give me the word on entering The above mentioned Creeks around Karratha? I have a 4.5m Barra boat, been wanting to get up into these backwaters, but had no time till recently...I know they are a bit of a secret, just want some advice on goin out through the 'back beach' rock bars, sand bars, neap tides things to know!!! etc etc ...

Cheers in advance!

Took out a fellow fishwrecked member out for a double dive yesterday. First drop was out in 25m where we had almost perfect conditions with good viz,   we got 3 crays between us with only 2 keepers. Headed closer in to dive in the 10-12m mark and saw a couple of crays but were really deep. Was pretty barren ground so came up with 100bar and tried shallower still. Plenty of crays about at this spot but only ended up with a couple as we had low air. Saw a heap of empty shells with some quite large. While pulling in the anchor we were greeted by a big sunfish which was a pleasant suprise and a good end to the day.

Went out this morning to the same spot and was greeted by dark clouds but the ocean was flat. Viz wasnt great and was a bit surgy but managed to bag out in half an hour. There still very soft with a couple like jelly.

Caught 7 salmon in cockburn sound yesterday arvo =) kept 4 , 3 shark bait haha

My son and I headed out into the Harvey inlet yesterday in search of the new season crabs.

Lots out there, but all too small. Most are still about 10 mm under the gauge size.

Another couple of weeks and we will try again.  The males out numbered the females 10 to 1 easily.

Still a great day to be out on the water.

12mths after moving down from Karratha and near on zero free diving since, has seen me having to buy a new set of scuba gear to chase those tasty cockies that inhabit our inshore reefs. So today I christened my new scuba set out from G.I with a mate "Blocka" so with no ramp pressure we set out to time our dives with the easterly dying & before the SW kicked in. We had 2 dives both between 8-12mtrs and whilst they weren't there in numbers we managed to get our limit without too many hassles, with mostly whites and a couple of reds. I tell ya after years of free diving up north and grabbing painted's with relative ease & coming down here trying to catch them with the loop it was a little challenging. Luckily ol'mate Blocka is a dab hand at it otherwise it could of been a lean day.

Cheers Fozz

hi i was thinking to go and spend the night in preston beach this saturday.

does anybody knows whats biting down there cheers

any results guys? 

Well decided to head out to my local rock wall for a fish with fellow fishwrecked member (Dicey) and another mate of mine, last night.

Got down there about 4.30 and got into the action first cast. With schools of fish below it was quite easy to get a good feed. Didn't have any luck with the whiting, but cleaned up on herring, tailor, skippy and snook.

While I was attending to my other rod, Dicey picked a lovely Skippy, which went a solid 50cm+ (ask for the pictures :p). Later on, as the sun went down, the tailor moved in. Got more than a fair share of them, all sized, with one decent one about 45cm which Dicey got.

Dicey also picked up 1 eagle ray and another banjo shark. He later headed home, so I set up a shark rig. Tailor as bait and no wind. Within 20 minutes the line peeled off my new Saragosa 18000/Tiralejo 1100S setup.

After a good fight, with solid head shakes, I landed my pb port jackson lol. Went a very solid 1.7m  (didnt know they got em that big) My estimate on weight, well over 50kg lol

All in all, a pretty good night

G'Day everyone, long time reader first time poster here!

Given the wind on Saturday I decided to leave the tub in the drive way and go for a wade in the Canning in the hope of snagging a flatthead or two. With the easterly behind me the conditions were perfect, unfortunately fishing didn't leave up to expectation, thanks to weed and blowies. Cast after cast my lures came back either covered in that snot weed, or chased down by dozens of blowies. Grand total for the day was a heap of blowies, I lost count! The flatties are definitely there, I spooked three good sized ones while walking around, but the weed made it almost impossible to work a lure past them. I think soft plastics would have been the ideal method to get through the weed, except they wouldn't get through the blowies of course!

If anyone has any ideas on how to get past the weed and blowies I'm open to suggestion.

Watching a horde of blowies attacking my lure made me wonder whether a flattie would actually come out of hiding to hit it even if I did manage to work it past it's nose!

Did see a few good size mullet around, also quite a few crabs. Should be a good crabbing season this summer.

Can't wait for the winds to back off!

Cheers

WM

Was a tad lumpy today and we didn't manage a full bag, but at least my mate from KL got a dive in and managed a few as well.

Got the chance to jump in as a fishing deckie with my brother and sister in law for the local club comp around the Mossman (FNQ) area last weekend.

The trip started well with Erica landing a horse Saddletail Snapper just on dusk on the drift before Mick nailed one slightly bigger. Both fish would have been over 8.5 kilos whole. A few Spangled also came over the side before we headed in to chase our target fish, the mighty Fingermark.

In a little over 2 hours of fishing we smashed 8 Golden Snapper and 2 Gold Spot cod. The big Cod would have been over 12 kilos and most of the Fingermark were over 5 kilos, the biggest would have been over 6 whole.

It was a good feeling to leave them biting. I caught the last one which would have gone nearly 5 kilos and we took Erica home who was decidely sea sick!!

Took the missus for her first fish in 10 months up the Daintree the next night. It would have been good to get her some big Goldies but with the weather not playing the game the river had to do.

We nailed 6 legal Jacks off one spot amongst a host of smaller Grunter and bream. We kept 3.

Mick weighed in 4 fish, the nanny, a Spangled and 2 Fingermark for something like 18 kilos I think and Erica weighed in the same group plus 2 Jacks for just under 17 kilos from memory.

Some quality fish. Note how sick Erica is in the Golden Snapper photo, it was the best pic I could get!!

We got some footage which I'll post on youtube in a couple of days time. It's pretty cool.

Headed up to Exmouth last Sunday for a few days fishing and my first real crack at spearfishing. Went with a good mate Matt. Both of us have runabouts but neither had a car that can really tow the distance so we opted for a mainly landbased trip. We got quite a few good fish, nothing spectacular but was still a lot of fun.  see below for the highlights, detail and pics.

Day 1 – up at 5am to leave by 6am for the 13 odd hour trek. We arrived in Exmouth town around 7:30pm so made pretty good time. Out to the lighthouse, checked in and decided to wet a line off the beach. Matt got the first fish – a nice red throat, soon to be followed by a 65cm spango on my rod I was pretty stoked considering this was the first night. Followed up with a few smaller spango’s and many small fingermarks and other reef fish which were released.

Day 2 – up early and out to do a bit of spearing. Being my first real time with the gun it took a while to get used to. Several frustrating shots and painfull reloads (the 1.20 RA with 20mm band hurts the chest a bit) later I had nailed my first fish – a gold spot sweetlip of about 40cm. In this time matt had nailed several fish including a 60cm gold spot trevally and a few painted sweetlip. In the arvo we went into town to hire a tinny as the weather was looking sweet for tuesday. Picked up a sweet tinny for $50 per day which is a bargain in my book. Heaps easier than towing a boat all the way up there anyhow.

Day 3 – up bright and early. Launched at tantabiddi. Headed out through the passage and trolled behind the reef where all the bird action was. Got a hookup almost immediately followed by a bust off – bugger! Spend another hour or two trolling with no success what so ever. Swapped lures over, changed speed, used bait and nothing. Apparently the majority of the action was mack tuna anyhow so no great loss. Tried a bit of bottom bashing out deep but using the chart and without a sounder proved very difficult. As a result we caught bugger all. Headed in closer to the reef and had some better luck picking up a nice cod and catching / releasing many small red throats and other emperors. Time to start spearing! We hung the flasher in and anchored in about 10m of water around the reef. Straight away I nailed a 70cm or thereabouts blue fin trev which fought well. Followed shortly after with a sweetlip of around 1 kg. The sharks rocked up but were pretty placid so we hung around a while, saw a few spango’s but they were too spooked to allow a shot. Anchor up and off to find more ground. Anchored up in approx 12m water over what at first glance appeared to be a lifeless weed bed. After diving down to the bottom a few times we seemed to attract a few fish, but nothing shootable. I swam further away and found a sand patch on the edge. I sat on the bottom for what seemed like eternity until out of the corner of my eye spied a school of spango’s. I nailed the biggest one and quickly headed for the surface as my lungs were burning for air. Got on board to bleed the fish which went approx 5 – 6 kg and was the biggest for the trip. I was stoked. Matt then returned to surface with a slightly smaller yet still good spango. he went back in to retrieve his float line which had somehow drifted away, on his swim back to the boat I saw a 3-4m tiger trying to nail his float, I yelled out and have never seen him swim faster back to the boat. The shark seemed to have gone but we decided to call it a day and didn’t take the risk of going back in.

Day 4 – went back to the spango patch of previous day but couldn’t hold anchor. The conditions were atrocious. Howling wind, large swell. Was a very wet trip back to the boat ramp. Dumped the boat off and went to a shore based location. Upon entry I nailed a 2kg sea mullet and narrowly missed a good Jack. Water was filthy dirty which was a plus as I managed to hit an approx 7-8kg queenie that was well over 1m. Took me for a decent run before I could subdue him and get him out before the taxman could have a crack. Also nailed a few smaller fish. We had a break for a few hours, knocked off a beer or two, had the customary arvo nap then headed back in for a few more fish. I managed a reasonable gold spot trev plus a sweetlip & matt got a large squid – dinner! Dropped the boat back at the hire joint and got stuck into the feed.

Day 5 – early morning session proved good with both of us spearing small 1-2kg gold spot trevally, squid and other smaller stuff, while matt also picked up a Spango. Back to a bit of lunch, rum and coke, 2 hr siesta then into the water for an arvo spear. I struggled for a while before managing to bag a few mullet and dart. Matt shot very well in water that was well dirty and a strong current. In no time he had a reasonable jack, big mullet, a couple of queenies and sweetlip. Went fishing after dinner and picked up a couple of spango’s which were a bonus.

Day 6 – drive back to perth. Can’t wait to hit the water again. Many thanks to the lighthouse caravan park, was very cost effective and comfortable. Also big thanks to Exmouth boat hire – got us out into some better ground.

After this trip for me spearfishing is so much more exciting than fishing. I hope to do a lot more over summer and will probably alternate between spearing / cray trips over the coming months. Have just ordered a smaller gun for cavy ground, always looking for others interested in heading out metro or other trips!

cheers and best

hey just wondering if anyone gets lower back pain when fishing off rocks or sloped beach??wondering if it was just me or just a thing that happens when standing, fishing for long periods

just wondering if the sailies have made it into the exmouth gulf yet?? .was there a fortnight ago and they were few and far between

Been looking over the site for a while now so decided to post my first report, But don't worry I haven't been chasing any Pink Bream!!

Decided after finally buying my first boat in April that it was time to lose my jigging virginity.

Hooked up with Fishnut, and after looking at the weather reports decided to head out and hit the wrecks behind Rotto, after cruising out in no time at all in some of the best seas and weather you could ask for ( had to mention that for all those still stuck at work ) we found eight guys out already, but it was quiet.... very quiet, fish on the sounder close to the structure but none interested in playing, jigged and fished but no one was landing or hooking up at all. Thought this jigging isn't that great and what was everyone on about, So decided to cruise around and head south to another spot, knowing that it was probably about to fire so if anyone else was out there let me know how you ended up.

Got there and were the only ones around, after a pod of about 6 Humpbacks finished checking us out we decided to have a fish, so worked out the drift and set off with the first drop, BANG double hook up, both on, two sambo's landed around 7kg each, not a bad start could get use to this, continued to jig and landed 20 over the day, picking up on nearly every drift, they were small but had a ball jigging for the first time. UNTIL THE END WHEN CRAMP SET IN f@$k this jigging gives you a work out.

Jigging ! yeh good fun will be doing it again for sure

Headed back to Woodies in the arvo, after the jigging went quiet, stopped off for a quick pick up of KG's and some of the fattest whiting for a feed that night.

I will mention that when going out jigging for the first time that day don't try and play indoor cricket that night muscles tend to be a bit tight ( even with all the extra beverages and yes beverages are before the game it's just not cricket otherwise )

I will try and work out photo's next time ( yes I'll use the search engine )

GRICKO

went out to the barges today stopped 6 mile out to get some bait and this little bugger tried to eat up a whiting

only 1 amberjack caught  about 10kg apart from that pretty quiet great day to be out on the water

Since leaving Coral Bay on 18 October, for Exmouth to start charters to the Montebello Islands, punters on the Mahi Mahi 11 have raised 16 marlin,

tagged and released 11 of them,  and at least 6 of them have been over 200k.

Hey Guys,

This is my first post on here and am pretty new to fishing. Went out on my friends boat on Sunday and caught my first silver bream. Tased pretty good with some garlic and butter. Anyway hop you guys like the report.

Thanks

James

Got spooled last night off the rocks near south beach any idea what it could be it had head shakes nearly pulled me in the water haha ??????

Launched the boat from woodies point boat ramp last night (Friday night), a few mates with a few drinks, couple rods and a bag of mulies, intention was to see what was around and have a bit of fun...

Just got settled into fishing and one of my mates, no idea how, cast his rod out and then went ass up and into the water haha, mind you this was around 9pm at night, funny as hell, not much of a swimmer so he got a bit paranoid as he scrambled back onboard and ran into the front cabin and started strippin down to his undies thinkin he was gonna get hypothermia lol (been watching too much Bear Grylls). After a couple minutes of beggin us to take him home, he realised he wasnt going to get hypothermia and after a change of clothes he decided to stay out and keep fishing. All in all a great laugh, apart from the fact that he dropped the fishing rod in the water and now we were left with 1 rod between 3 fisherman, not fun when theres a school of tailor swimmin around ya.

So we hung around and took turns catching fish, ended up with a nice feed of snook and tailor, biggest tailor at 51cm and biggest snook at 75cm, enough for a satday arvo BBQ sesh NICE!

The bad ending: Just got back to the boat ramp just before 11pm, as I walk to my car I see my car is the only one left in the carpark right under the light, the parking space beside me was full off broken glass and I shuddered... Walked around to my car and sure enough, the driver side window was smashed in and the bastards raided the centre console and took a jar of change that had maybe $8 tops. The space 2 cars down from me also covered in glass, so they hit atleast 3 cars in one go.

So remember guys, dont leave any valuables in ur cars, nothing in sight or even in the main compartments. And don't drink and fish, u might fall overboard :P

thought id give everyone the heads up, went out yesterday to the usual patches was a real weird day only us out the whole morning the sambo's/ aj's were all schooled up in 20-40 metres of water with heaps of bigger fish under them,  I can only assume these were sharks hangin below them as every fish i hooked got cleaned up landed 1 sambo about 18kilo. Moved on after a bit and got into some skippy at another spot.

good to see the fisheries down at cockburn ramps, theres a first for everything

cheers

Had a great 4 days off down South, chased the salmon up and down the beach for days, we finely landed some..

we caught, Bull Herring, Flat Head, Tailor and Salmon

TT ( karl )

Sometimes you are just in the right place at the right time. Ignored all the rules of tailor fishing. Went out at 9:00am, falling tide, light easterly...but the tailor didn't mind. Put back around 10 and dropped another handful.  Biggest went 47cm. Got a few squid on the way out while we waited for the easterly to drop.

Got out this morning for an hour and a bit around Pt Walter.  Managed to pick up this flattie on a Damiki Mu which was a PB for me at 45cm.  Spooked a couple of really nice sized fish too so things are looking good for summer.

Just wondering if any1 has hooked any nice tailor salmon or mulloway recently, and where around mandurah area ?