Well we've clocked 10 hours since we've had the boat. Most of that time has been in search for some new ground. Luckily, today we stumbled across a nice patch whilst trolling for SBT's.

There was a reasonable show of fish, however, they weren't responding to soft plastics nor jigs. The bakers however, wanted anything.

So I decided to down size the gear & float some mulies on the drift whilst continuing to jig & flick plastics.

The light gear paid off. Sam scored her PB snapper taken on a floating mulie on 10lb, whereas, I was rewarded with a Dhu whilst also floating a mulie on 6lb squidding gear.

The Dhu had been tagged so we recorded the number & we'll call it in tomorrow. Unfortunately, we weren't carrying an esky as we didn't plan on taking any fish... more of another exploratory day on the water.

Daz.

Just gathering everyone's thoughts and opinions. In the market for one

Well had a bit of a sleep in this morning to 7am, then went and slipped the boat in. Headed north to Bartalumba Bay. Heaps of nice ground thru there, which everyone normally speeds past, on there way to the top of the island, to catch the big fish...so they say! Was a great morning once again wind wise, with just a 3 knot nor easter blowing. Went dark for a while, as the winds were pushing the fog from inland out to sea. Was weird seeing this out on the water, as it looked like some kind of super cell thunderstorm coming!

Casted plugs, poppers and slices around some likely looking spots. Had a couple of good hook ups from trout, but they smoked me into the coral a couple of times. So there is a couple of fish now with new halco peircings swimming around, hopefully they will not start a trend with there mates!

After a while i had had enough of casting, so i headed out to the middle of the bay. Cranked the tunes up and started cutting bog laps up and down some contour lines, until the sounder lit up with some action. Had a couple of drifts on this spot, which produced a nice saddletail and a golden snapper. I was amazed that the goldy had lost its spot already, as it is smaller than the ones i have caught in the past, which all had spots. Maybe..male/ female fish are different. Anyway headed home at 10am..time to clean the house up, after 10 days of fending for myself !

What does one do when he has some spare time on a saturday... go fishin! Well, the forcast was for bugger all wind and thats what we got. Was a great day on the water.

Went back to my goldy spot, to see if there was any action...but zip..nothing ..not a thing. Headed 6 mile north to Bustard Island. Lots of great ground around, but you just have to find a spot out of the current. Caught a couple of nice sized saddletail, but the fish were not biting very well on bait. So i reached into my tackle box..and pulled out some plastics. Now i have never fished plastics, so i was keen to give it a try. First up i hooked on a sp lure Ben Derecki, sent up to me with some knife jigs. I found some nice ground to drift over and sent the plastic fantastic down. Twitch here..couple of lifts there..let some line out....bang i got a fish!

Well it wasnt the biggest of fish, but it was my first on sp..and lets face it, things can only get better...and bigger! Unhooked the monster and sent the plastic fish attracting device down once again. Worked that sp like nothing you have ever seen, and bang i was on again...but it was bigger this time. Got the fish to the surface, which turned out to be some kind of trout/ cod ...if anyone knows what it is, please let me know. Anyhow had mint day on the water... tommorw im thinking ritcher plugs and trout!

Last Sunday we headed up to Jurien Bay to fish with Whitey and super deckie Matt. Our crew consisted of Chulditch (Adrian), Tiimmbo (Tim), Jiney (Ben) and a novice but mad keen Canadian mate of Tim and myself. Quick feed and a couple of beers down at the local resulted in a nice kip at the caravan park (basic caravan slept up to 8 and was cheap as chips) We also met up with Auslobster and his two young blokes down at the boat, unfortunately SE winds were strong, big swell and a strong current wreaked havoc for the day so its only a shortish write up.

The jiggers had to work over time to even keep close to the bottom, fish were there on the sounder but just didn't want to play due to the current most likely. Jiney took BOG efforts for the day with some nice baldies and a just legal dhuie, John's eldest son was red hot on the snaps but unfortunately they were all about 1cm off legal. Adrian hooked up to a thumper which took a scorching first run calling it initially for a sambo until he worked it well off the bottom then the characteristic dhuie lump of weight battle took place, mysteriously the leader gave way in the middle possibly gill raked or hit by another fish half way... poor bastard it was big!

Plan B was to piss off the Sambo's and that worked a treat, they were smashing us everywhere. I hooked up a decent one and thought I would really put the pe 3 outfit to the test locking up hard, wrong move she did a 90 degree turn under the boat as everyone else was hooked up. I could feel the braid rubbing despite backing off quick and ping she went, however it gave me the chance to run around with the camera and take pics whilst tying on a new leader.

Tiimbo, Auslobster & The Canadian hooked up

Whitey and Matt were kept busy taking good care of these beautiful fish for release, a few that looked too knackered were revived super quick with the deck wash and went down strong

John with one Sambo off a double header

One of Timbo's efforts

Loaded Up

Matt gave me one of his wind on leaders to punish that he has started making so I was back down quick after these pics locking up hard for a good battle

Jiney ya handbag can't you even lift up the Sambo up for a quick pic? even wearing the muscle tee? time to reapply your lip gloss sweetheart   don't ever outfish me again

Cheers to Whitey & Matt as well as being top blokes it's a very professional outfit they run. The boat is geared up for fishing, big attention to detail that I haven't seen elsewhere. Pity we didn't score an 'Epic' trip but that's how it pans out and looking forward to heading up there again after discussing some other charter options with Matt.

Also thanks to Chulditch & Auslobster for coming along, again top blokes and it was great to meet you both

Looks like tonight and saturdays gonna be the day to try fishing the rock walls for the big fishes cause tonight the wind will be SW 10-20mph and sat it will be more chilled out.

Hi Guys,

Was out fishing last night in the meto area off a certain rock wall, when at about 7.30- 8pm my line went off!, I had a dead scaly mackerel as bait. After 3 short runs the fish came in and was gaffed. It was my first mulloway - was definately alot of fun and am looking forward to eating it.

To all the doubters out there (and there seem to be many on this site) the fish was WEIGHED at 13kg, not just some estimation.

Went up to Cervantes and Hill River and Thursday night / Friday morning to celebrate the arrival of my first child - Daniel James. ("wetting the mulies head")

Arrived at the Cervantes service jetty to fairly murky water and a stiff southerly. Pretty typical conditions, however with the murky water the fish seemed to be off the bite. Burleying hard bought the herring and yellowtail on although it was patchy at best so after an hour or so we decided to head up to Hill River to setup camp for the night.

The gutter I normally fish had been drastically altered in the six weeks or so since my last visit. A massive amount of sand had been pulled from the beach creating a gutter close in, sandbar and another gutter at the edge of casting range. It looked fantastic for a fish with minimal weed around.

We fished the low tide until around 11:30pm with no joy. Not even a nibble from the pickers, despite plenty of burley and oil in the water.

4:30am greeted us with icy cold conditions, mist over the ocean and promise of a big mulla. The early hours of the morning had always produced the tailor at this spot - so I knew it was just a matter of time. 7am high tide and sunrise arrived, and still we had not had a single bite. After talking up this spot so much to Simmo Ryan, I feared the worst.

With first light I flicked out a few small mulie cubes on the little rod to see if the bread and butter fish were coming on. I was soon onto a juvenile flathead, one of the most beatiful fish I have ever seen - although it could not have been more than 15cm long. Soon after a decent mullet and hezza.

Simmo Ryan was getting increasingly dirty - more out of frustration having driven a few hours, fished many more and not had a single bite. Then all of a sudden the big rod went off and he was on. Line peeled off and he knew he was into something decent and after 10 minutes of patiently playing the fish, the knot gave out in the wash. If Simmo was dirty before...well, I reckon he was ready to kill now.

We were both ready to throw it in when the sun hit the water and there was a tap on my rod. Tailor! I knew it wasn't a big one, and this was confirmed with a bit of taildancing close in before shaking the hooks. Seconds later Simmo was in to a chopper and it was smiles all round.

Just moments later and another call of 'fish on!' from Simmo, then seconds later 'me too!'. A couple of 40cm choppers. We ending up landing 5 and dropping 3 ranging 36-42cm.

After a year or so of beach fishing, this was the first time I had got into multiple tailor so a big milestone for me and a great way to celebrate the birth of my boy! None of the big tailor we were hoping for but good to get away and catch a feed.

A quick reccy up to the river mouth where we flicked lures for black bream. Simmo had a run on the ecogear lure, which after being left on the roo bar now lies somewhere between Ellenbrook and Hill River. The rivermouth is currently closed and there is a lot of weed around. No blackies landed though.

Cheers,

Buschy

Me and my mate benjo (goatlobster) headed down to mandurah with our rods and surfboards and bagged out on tailor and skippy off the rocks by midday. Drove 100m up the road to check the surf and while we were looking out at the waves something in the shallows caught my eye. A school of mullett, bout 15m out were flying out the water with what i was sure were salmon not too far behind their tails! We grabbed the rods out of the car and i was casting a richter plug and benjo was using a slice but after about 5mins with no more sightings we called it quits and grabbed the boards and paddled out.

In between sets i noticed small fish on the surface only 10m away and called them for gardies but wasnt 100% sure. Not too long after the water bubbled up bout 20m away and there were schools of gars flying everywhere and a school of salmon absolutely smashing them! We couldnt believed it, the salmon chased the gars so close to us, probly only 5m away!

After a while, a guy rocked up and started casting from the beach and after a couple casts his rod buckled over and we couldnt quite tell if he was onto a fish or snagged on the reef. While we were watching the fisho, this huge wave sneaked up on us and both of us got absolutely buckled! Thats when i saw the guy pull up a hefty salmon over the ledge and then we made the call to paddle in and grab the rods..

As we were running to the cars, all along the beach there were schools of salmon hitting the gardies and they were flying everywhere, every now and then a coulpe of salmon would cartwheel clean out of the water. Benjo hooked up not too long after on a slice but busted him off on the reef after a couple seconds. I had no hits on the popper and the other guy ended up getting another one.

I went back down to the same stretch of beach the next day, and couldnt see any schools. So went over to the groyne and the choppers were around in plague proportions. Caught about 15, 20-25cm fish in an hour, all on a gold 30g twisty. Went back to the beach and after a couple casts i hooked onto a good size salmon, around 5kgs, and got it right in until the very last ledge of reef snapped my 18lb line :( Ended up getting quite a few hits on the richter popper but couldnt hook-up as the whitewash was throwing the lure around all over the place.

Cant wait to head back down when the swell is 2m smaller maybe i'll actually be able to land some! 

Couldn't help myself haha, went for another fish, for a few hours, from the metro rock wall. Landed my pb skippy on sp 

Hi all,

Went down for a fish last night down at my local spot, was pretty chuffed to pluck out yet another snapper for the year.

spent the last 5 days in exxie . bloody towns full to the bream. got out fishing for two half days targeting bills on the west side ..... managed to raise only half a dozen with 4 hook ups and zero landed.. had a fat time with friends up from the yallingup area...so more grog was consunmed than actual fishing .. got a nice cobia of a whale shark and a 10 kgish yellow fin tuna while trolling for beakies as the only fish kept .was a great few days with old friends .
looking at the moon and tides for this week coming ..its gonna be a stoinka !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!GET OUT THERE
water temps still in the hight 24 c and got 6 good squid in the gulf in about a hour,,, ate them with a couple of local prawns and a few chunks of yellow fin YUMMO
cheers mitch

Friday again proved to be a perfect day to have off as the wind was forcast at 12 knots SE easing by lunchtime to 5-8 knot easterlies so I again headed off to chase some metro dhuies with a mate along for company and as payback (forward) for house sitting for me in a couple of weeks time.

We again went and explored new territory again finding hard coral / limestone bottom in less than 50 metres showing clear evidence of caves - first drift resulted in a specimen black bum and several very large sargeant bakers which clearly indicated we are in the right sort of territory - well so we thought - the next few drifts resulted in umpteen cuttlefish takes, several hookups and even one lighting up next to the boat whilst trying to grap the legs of a mutton bird.  Now that's something you don't see every day a brick brick red cuttlie almost grabbing the bird - pity would loved to have seen the outcome. And with the plague of cuttlies were a plague of sand flathead which despite their small size managed to hook themselves on just about any bait offered.

One really solid hook up had us calling it for a big dhuie but the speed and running ability had us calling for a sambo - wrong - a one and a half metre bronzie hit the surface after a spirited fight and, with the cuttlie plague just getting worse as conditions improved it looked like the dhuie hunt would draw a blank.

We made the call to head back to around 37metres to a spot we had marked in the way out as having a large aggregation of fish - checking it out they were still there so with little drift we positioned the boat over the colour and waited - one rod quickly took off and we called it for a dhuie only to reveal a pesky banjo shark - urrgghh what a disappointment - only to have the second of my rod's indicate some light attention - tightning up the fish went ballistic with strong runs and a never say die attitude of a typical sambo ( we were having one of them days in calling the wrong fish ) it even went and gave one final run when it saw the boat - had to be a sambo - wrong again - my run of metro dhuies continued as this one came aboard - around 8kgs but very satisfying all the same.   So  the house sitter finished up with fresh fish as well - a very satisfying end to a great day on the water

Put in about ten this morning and headed out to the first set of channel markers and the contour just west of the mole. Berleyed up for a while but nothing so we moved over to the bank, still nothing! Pretty quiet all round, and after some unsucsessfull spots opted for a squid out front of the power station. Three nice ones and one lost at the side of the boat.

By that time the doctor was in and after two more unsuccessful drifts, back to the ramp. With all the work done at the boat ramps retrieval was a breeze, the weather was great and even with a minimal catch we had a great day! Thanks Troy (blueboner) Yr a gentleman.

Decided to go down and fish for stingray but no luck, started to berley up big time and a school of mullet came in and after that it was one of the best sights i seen 10-15 salmon going nuts ramming the mullet school in the air(like popping for GTS), they left as fast as they came unfortunately otherwise for sure would of got 1.

Got to the boat ramp or should i say beach to launch the boat at around 6:30.  Headed out through the south passage towards one of my favourite spots in the 40's. First drop saw 2 little BB's come up, i quickly de-hooked them and let them swim another day. Second drift saw me get smoked by something big (problly a dhuie or baldie). So after a quick re-rig i was down again and hooked up straight away to a 55cm dhuie, he was in good health so i let him swim away aswell. The next drift i was on big time to what i first thought was a bigger dhuie only to be slightly dissapointed to see a 12kg sambo and a few of his mates coming up from the depths.  After seeing the 4 or 5 other sambos coming up with him i got my light plastic rod out for the next drift and before i even hit the bottom i was on solid to a nice sambo. After landing another 6 sambos (and getting busted up by a few more) on the plastic i decided to try and find a table fish or two.  I was at my next spot in no time thanks to the glassy conditions. I dropped my paternoster rig with 2 smallish squid on each hook to the bottom. Once again i was hooked up solid to a good fish that was peeling line of my tld. After a spirited fight i could see colour and a nice baldie was safley in the net. After dispatching him into the ice box i re-baited and set up for the next drift. This drop i had to wait a bit longer, maybe 30 seconds to get a decent bite and a good hook up to a fish with alot of head shakes. After a few minutes i had a good size pinkie on the surface, after a quick net shot he was bleed and put into the ice box with his mate. I then decided to leave that spot for another time as i had my quoter of 2 demersals. i headed to the back of the reef to do a quick troll before i made my way through the passage again. not long after i had the lures in the water the X-rap was hit solidly by a smallish mackie that was relesed quickly. i set the lures out again and after about ten minutes the X-rap got hit again by a good size fish. The ratchet was kicked into over drive as the fish took off, i grabbed the rod and was set for a good fight. after about 15 minutes i could just see colour but the fish had other ideas and he took off for another run. I managed to turn his head and slowly pump and wind the fish back to the boat. After a few more minutes the fish was splashing around on the surface and with a quick tail grab the 20kg+ samson fish was lifted on board. After dehooking the fish i speared him back into the water and headed for home. All in all it was an awsome day on the water, the weather was glassy all day and the fish played the game. Cant wait to get back up to Cervantes soon

I am taking applications for a regular deckie.  The current one has abused his privileges twice now and is now under probation. 

The first time he abused it, was the first time I took him out.  I let him off the hook then as he didn't know better. 

I told him "We were going to the FADs, it's the end of the season, the Mahi are big - 120-130cm - bring appropriate gear."  As most of you know, I am usually a school hours fisherman, I do the school run, go fish, wash the boat and gear, then have to pick the kids up again, so my fishing window is some what limited and if I am heading out to the FADs, I usually have no more then 1 1/2 hrs out there due to travel time.  So what does he do?  He has the cheek to sneak on, a gazillion piece, 9 foot travel toothpic rod and a reel spooled with 6lb line.  Lucky for me I hooked up and boated my fish first.

I then set the boat and bite up for him to have a go.  As planned, he hooks up and spends the next 45-50min kidding himself that his 9foot travel toothpic would get the job done.  I end up having to chase the fish from Hillary's FAD to the Furuno  FAD to prevent him from being spooled several times, then he has the gaul to break his rod, loose the fish and make me late getting the kids from school.

After that, I told him, minimum test is 15lb if he wants to fish with me.

Well, today we went for a fish again.  When we were loading the boat, I noticed in addition to his two rods that he normally fishes with in the metro area, he had an additional rod bag - when questioned, he muttered something about a spare rod and I let it go as that.  Anyway, the bottom fishing was crap, so we decide to troll abit to see if there were any tuna around.  We were just chatting when my ratchet started screaming - "Fish On!"  I kept the motor in gear and we both picked up a couple of SBTs.  We set up the troll again and I notice that he is fiddling with his outfit, he kept mumbling something about changing gear and I just took it he had some gear issues.

Anyway, we hook up again and I got my fish to the boat quick smart, turned around and noticed that there was this  look of sheer panic on his face, then he said - "I am down to backing."  I jumped up leaving my rod and fish on the deck, got the boat in gear, turned around maintaining some angle on the fish and the chase was on.  It must have been a monster, the fish kept taking line, we kept chasing and managed to eventually get some line back.

At this point, I need to highlight something that has been happening recently, the following pictures show how he has been hooking fish.



and another couple





As we all know this type of hookup usually produces blistering, unstoppable runs.



I asked "what's taking you so long?" and he mumbles something about 6lb test!  It is at this stage, that I notice the bamboo skewer that he was trying to pass off as a rod and this tiny egg beater that he was using.

After about 40 min we finally get to see the fish and "Guess what?" 



Yup, you guessed it. 

The Jagg Master does it again.  From the pictures you can see that he is able to jagg bottom fish, mid water fish and even surface fish while trolling!!!

By the time we landed the fish, I was late getting the kids again.

Will consider all applications.

Got sick of the missus nagging me on how long its been since she has had a feed of whiting so I chucked Her new rod in the boat, the dog and a handfull of prawns and put the boat in for a run down the channels for the bottom of the run out tide.

Anchored up at a junction of two channels and lobbed the first cast into the shallows on the far side and slowly worked the bait down over the edge into deeper water. Hadn't moved the bait more than 4 feet when bang and off it went, number one whiting on its way in to the icebox. Got another one after 3-4 casts then those mongrel spiky yellowtail bloody things moved it.

Upped anchor and moved to the next junction and in no time had 4 more in the box, enough for us for a feed so it was off home.

6 lovely big whiting in less than one and a half hours since leaving home, can't complain about that.

Just got back in.  Till's and my catch on display (mine on the right).

Vis down from last week.  Temperture was up...well for me with socks in booties and two hoods

Still a few prawns about and the crab size is down.  Had little cuttle fish follow me around toward the end of the dive..which was something different.

Steamed crab and fresh prawns on the menu tomorrow night now.

Cheers Pete

Has anyone been brave enough to hit the beaches around secret harbour golden bay and singleton to target Mulloway recently.

If so has anyone had any luck with in the past two weeks?

cheers

godders

went to the gemini wreck on saturday. theres a fair few sambos there at the moment. I hooked up to 6 sambos but got smashed into the reef everytime. so i switched to chucking smallish sp's at the tuna that were hitting the surface, ended up landing 4 good size tuna before i had to head back in. all in all it was a good day on the water. i will be heading back out there sometime this week

hi all a quick report.  we went out in the gulf for a little session to catch a few fish for tea,.  after about 45 mins of not too much we seen a few birds working so over we went.  alex was fast to get a floater in and 5 seconds later he was on for the fight of his life.  just over an hour later he was done {Alex that is}.  i took up the chase til about 1.8 miles, 1h 35mins later we had him beat.  Alex was so proud of his effort 20/25kg on 6kg.  it was a great catch well done Alex.  jeff

Hi all! Am going to wet a line on wed at the three mile reef and was wondering if anyone had any recent news. Great website!!

Just returned from 2 weeks in Germany early saturday morning, and was hanging to get out for a fish.

Called Scano and another mate and had organised for an early afternoon run out towards rotto.

On the water and moving by about 2.30pm and stopped off in the sound to see if there were any squid, managed only 2 in about 20 minutes.

so we moved on out towards our rotto location which has been growing everytime we head out with more and more ground found. the 2 metre swell made for some fun in the console getting a bit of air on the way out.

Yesterday was no different with the drift in a slightly different direction. We reached our spot then began to rig up and prepare the boat. By the time we had finished the sounder had lit up and we had drifted onto a new lump.

So down went the lines, and it was an instant hookup, albiet only smallish pinks around 35-40cm, swallowtails, small BB's and 1 small dhu.

So a few more drifts and things were still showing smallish fish. By this time we had setup a small comp onboard, which 2 of the guys still using mono for bottom bashing, and scano and myself using braid....this was a mistake!!

As it panned out the mono bashers did well, all in the space of 20-30 minutes.

Mick with his first dhu up around 10-11kgs. This thing took a whole freaking slimey mackeral with a small 5o pinned through its eye!!! all ass if you ask me!!!!

Mick again i think of the next drift with his 2nd fish a nice pink....and would you believe it another whole scaley pinned through the eye!!!!

Then the other bloke using mono who had been out with me a few times before had struggled to get into any fish. Well he did manage a nice little shark which he was stoked with and gave him a good run around.....even if it was on mono!!!

Few more smaller pinky's more swallow tails, and another small dhu saw out the end of the day, nice way to spend a saturday arvo on the water with good conditions, especially in metro waters!

Went out for a solo on Friday having been let down by a mate at the last minute.

The last few trips out, despite all the dire reports of the poor to non-existant state of metro dimersals, have all resulted in
numerous dhuie catches, sure many are undersized but plenty have been over and slow retrieves and the use of the release
weight have ensured most ghet returned successfully with only the occasional fish for the dinner table.

Friday was no exception, being by myself I didn't stray too far beyond the bank, instead carefully focussing the 585 on the
bottom five metres ..........my target was hard coral evidencing fish traces rather than large structure.  Finding a new area
with what I was looking for I noted a thick band of deep red with what appeared to be cave like voids - this type of structure
had produced before but the first drift only produced a few tentative touches but at least allowed me to deternine drift speed
and direction - more seaward should put me where I want to be so second drift set up perfectly.

Fresh eating quality occy and mulies were dropped on the lightest bottom bouncing outfits the speed of drift would allow.

Within minutes one rod was almost ripped from the holder and I struggled to get it out under great tension and rapid line loss.

The fast and powerful lunges had me calling it for a big sambo as it just wouldn't give up and kept repeatedly taking line in the
relatively shallow water - I managed to manouvre the fight to the other side of the boat away from the second rod which suddenly
also bent double with the reel screaming  in protest at being abandoned to it's own devices - hmmmmmmm interesting dilemma !

My fight continued but I was finally gaining back some line and then in the crystal clear water I sighted the silver purple colours
deep below the boat - that aint no sambo - but  surely a dhuie cant have that much power - well it can as it hit the surface
away from the boat, it was a big fish and was clearly tangled with the other line and the small 2/0 hook was clearly wrapped in
the other rod's braid. Ever so gingerly I applied pressure to get the fish back to the boat but it's progress was painfully slow.

Finally my no 5 iron golf club gaff hook was able to reach and pin it's jaw and, as I lifted it onto the transom the braid cut through
the trace but it was mine.  Trouble was on the small gaff I couldn't lift it over the back to  I opened thre transom door ands slid it in.

Turning now to the other rod given the braid was now under and around the motor I felt I should sort that out as a priority -
after lifting the engine and playing unknot the tangle it finally came "free"well sort of because whatever had bent it double was still
there.  Another dogged fight ensured much shorter this time as it had worn itself out pretty much without my assistance.

Again out of the clear waters apppears that distinctive silver purple and a dhuie or around 10 kg hits the surface away from the
boat, corner hooked on the occy circle.  Perhaps because of the long "fight"and slow ascent though the water column I had little
trouble in quickly unhooking and releasing this fish and it swam away strongly back to the depths.

The other fish on the deck was much larger - over a metre and would feed family and friends for a good few meals.

Bled and into the kill tank I thought I would try one more drift over the country I was now sitting over well over a km from where I started

Result - a specimen breaksea and three more dhuies of 7, 5 and a little one of 48 cms

The photo attached was taken back at CPBA so I apologise for it's quality - I much prefer shots of just caught fish but couldn't hold it
and take a pictures at the same time - my best metro dhuie and a truly memorable fish.no

Till and I finally pulled out of my drive way at 1.30pm Thursday arvo with the Trophy packed and in tow.

5 hours later it was 2 wood fired pizzas and a pint in the main drag of Gero.  Well the pint was just killing time while the pizzas cooked.

With hot pizzas in hand, we escaped the backpackers for the short drive to the marina where we setup the boat whilst consuming pizza.

We launched and motored around to dock up with 3 other boats from the WAD( WA Divers) brigade.

Introductions, a few brews and it was time to sleep.

The morning forecast was for 15-18 easing Easterlies and that was what it was.  No hurry.  The winds eased at about 9am and it was time to push off.

The loaded Trophy bogged down in the easterly troughs every now and then.  It was slow going but doable – a combination of too much weight and not enough HP.

I can drop some water and 50L of fuel for the next trip and I’m sure Till could cull another 10kg of jigs…hell I only needed 2 for the trip, not two bags.

 2.5 hours later we rounded the starboard marker into the protected water of the Eastern group.  Hmmm, looked good.

We anchored up, had lunch, rigged up and then headed off to find some fish.

Not 2 minutes away, small tuna were busting up bait.  A quick cast and I was onto a small stripy.  Too easy, first fish released.

We found some likely ground and started working SP’s in 8-20m.  First up a 7kg dhuie caught on a McArthy 7" Jerk Minnow in Orca.

A few more drifts resulted in another two more dhues, with the smaller being dispatched for the nights dinner. 

 I believe Jamie was busy with Charlie courts for the arvo.

The wind died right off and it was time to raft up for the evening near Morley Island.

Come morning, we moved around the Island for some protection from the howling NE and have some breakfast.

A bit of seal interaction til the winds subsided.

The day was spent jigging and working SP’s and a little snorkelling, oh and we did a dive on some likely ground.  Till shot a nice Baldie for dinner whilst I did some filming.  The vis was down but there was a bit of life around with the highlight being schools of big shark mackerel cruising by for a look.

Sunset was approaching fast and we met up with the other boats at the moorings North of Rat Island.

It was a beautiful night with no wind and calm seas.

In the morning we headed north looking for another dive site whilst the other boats did the same and then packed up for the trip back to Gero/Perth.

We found a likely spot and DECO rocked up claiming that we were on his spot..hahaha Trout city apparently;

More sharkie action;

Late in the arvo we found bait schools being smashed by bigger fish. One bait school had at least 3 big sharks feasting on the surface.  I lined the boat up and Jamie cast at the sharks.

The result – it ain’t no albacore;

Our last night was again at the moorings near Morley Island, Easter Group.

YFT belly sashimi for entree, prawn and squid laksa and brew.

In the morning we headed off for Hummock Island which was about 10nm to the ESE.

Half way there – is it a boat, island, oh no a whale tail.  He or she had been like this for at least 15 minutes as we approached.

It was very quiet jigging and working SP’s.

Jigged or jagged Shark Mac....of course by the jag master;

About 11am it was time to head back to Gero and then the short drive home....what a long weekend.

Special thanks to Mick (DECO1100) of WAD for allowing us to tag along with his motley lot – great company and we will be back again.

Kudos to Jamie for being an excellent deckie bitch...the best in the business.

Cheers Pete

Hlokk called me last week and informed me that Craig of Saltwater Charters was bringing the boat back from Gero and was hoping to get a small group together for a charter and the idea was to fish Turtle Dove Shoal on the trip back.  I had my hand up straigt away as I have been wanting to do that for the longest time.  The trip wasn't confirmed yet as he needed to get a few people interested first.  Getting the interest wasn't much of an issue, but the last minute notice made getting time off a bigger problem for most of the folks that wanted to make this trip.  In the end Matt, Brody, one of his mates (sorry the name slipped me!) and myself were the only four that could make the trip.  I almost couldn't make it, as I couldn't get a sitter for the kids, but when Craig said bring them along I confirmed immediately.

The weather forecast look fantastic and after a few minor hiccups, we left Gero at about 12.30pm and the ride out took abit longer then expected as the swells started to build.

We reached TDS just before sunset and Craig slowed the boat down and shouted "lures out" and a mixed bags of lures were launched off the back and we started trolling.  About 2 minutes in, Craig shouted back "Hey guys what's happening, it's been two minutes and we haven't had a hit?" and as if on que, we had a triple hookup and I was surprised that the first three fish on board were Yellow Fin Tuna, I thought the water would have been to cold and that they would all be further north already, but the 3 YFT on board definitely indicated that they were still around.

The first three were bled and put into an ice slurry to ensure that the fish would be in prime condition as we weren't sure if we had spooked the school and would get any more, but I am glad to say that this was clearly not the case, as within 30 seconds of the lures hitting the water, we were all on again and this pattern just kept repeating itself!  I don't know how many we returned to the water, but I would say it was a fair number.  It actually got to a point, where we told Craig,"Okay, enough YFT, let's catch something else!"

I was particularly pleased as I was chasing my first Australian YFT and had cracked it with not just one, but several, one after another - you can tell by the silly grin on my face.  Even though this first one was tiny, we did get into some larger ones later, only problem was the fishing was so fast and furious that we didn' get any pictures in.

As we moved on around the shoal, we started to get into Pinkies and Dhuies.  The first few were small or just size, so all went back in, the small pinks were around in plague proportions, almost like catching blowies at Hillary's

As we were landing at Hillary's, Craig said we will only keep those over 50cm.  As luck would have it, most were just size so we released them, but finally a 55cm fish came on board and by the end of the trip there were several more.

We were getting Pinks and Dhus at about the same time and we released several which were over 60cm.  Below is a pic of my first Dhu of the trip, which was released.

and another, also released

On a side note, this was my first no bait trip.  Every fish was on a jig or lure and Ima Ros did most of the damage for me.  Like the YFT and Pinks, multiple hook ups of Dhuies were common.  We often had two or three on board at the same time and were fighting for the release weight rig.

Here is one we ate for dinner, was a decent size and it was a shame that we could not finish it.

I also managed my PB dhuie on a jig on this trip, not a big fish but  am not complaining. Sorry no measurements (but it would not go straight into Craig's 90 or 100 cm fishbox ) or weights (but say about 7-8kg).  A 120gm Fanky from the Fishing Shop where Brody works did the damage on this one.

All in all, I am a happy camper!  Thanks Matt for putting this together and Craig for being an excellent host to me and my kids!

Headed out yesterday for a fish with ol'mate Gary aka "SavDefender" (the blokes who's posts pics of his kids out fishing him), anyway the cockburn sound was our only real option with prevailing weather conditions.

Having not lived here for a few years, didn't really have any spots to try so we anchored up on some likely ground & set a berly trail to see what we could coax in. We must of got something right, as we managed to land a dozen KG's that hit the esky pretty smartly, not monsters thou, a monster flounder & a few herring that hit frypan onboard for breaky.

We then hit the inside of GI for some squid, but it was very quiet.  not sure if the weather has much to do with them as the vis was good to 4mtr, but stormy all day?? Managed 1 squid, 30+cm tube, he was loaded too, I took a hit on the shoulder & Gaz a hit on the back. We then moved to north & again set up over some sand in the attempt to land some sand whiting or skippy, but only managed a couple more decent kg's to 35cm, gardies were plague proportion, nailing baits on the bottom.

Overall a pleasant day considering the weather, with some KG fillets for dinner, gardies for breaky & herring for the smoker. Cheers again Gazman

The one & only

Sure beats vegemite on my toast

Well after last week the wind has been blowing hard, i hadnt been out in the boat for a week, so i was starting to get fishing withdrawls. With a low coming into the bight, i was looking forward to some better fishing conditions. I have just started my 4 days off, mrs has gone to work..no lawns to mow...what is one to do??

Slipped the boat in at 0630, and was greated with some nice flat water. Pointed the traily north and headed to one of the islands. With a full moon at the moment the current is up..and the grey suits are out. So i decided to fish in close, to help my bait spend some time on the bottom, and get any fish up quick..before they got sharked. After around 40 mins of watching the sounder, i found a nice bit of ground.

By this time the bloody eastly had started kicking in already. I set up a perfect drift over this spot, but first pass produced nothing. MMM.. maybe nothing here. I had just loaded my Tekota overhead up with some new sufix braid, and im glad i did.  As i drifted over this spot again, i had a solid hook up. It was a good fish, and it took a good run at first. I gave the drag a couple of clicks, and the fish took another run. But this time the barstard just about pulled me over the side of the boat....i backed the drag off again. I then wound up quickly to reveal, a nice Golden snapper on the end of my line. I was happy, as it was my new pb.

I then did another drift, and once again had a solid hook up...shit another one i was stoked. But half way up, my line went limp....and i had lost my fish. what ever it was, had cut threw my my 80lb leader. Now im glad there wasnt anyone around for miles, as i had a dummy spit and said a few words i didnt learn at kindy!  The wind began to get stronger and i then decided to call it a day... and mr snapper had a appointment at my filleting table!