Well, got back from the Abrolhos on Saltwater Charters early on this week and had a great trip.

Ah, the Abrolhos, where practically every sunrise and sunset is a work of art

On the first day we started a bit of trolling and soon picked up a triple hookup of mackies. A few more passes around similar areas and we got a few more. Good to tick off (and got one on my lighter trolling gear which was fun).

and my biggest, on a chrome head richter waaaay out the back. Took heaps of line and burnt my thumb. Excellent!

We were getting too many mackies, so decided to head off bottom bouncing. Basically we spend the trip moving between bottom fish lumps, chucking poppers and stickbaits at busting up birds or trolling lures around. 

Heaps of great trout were caught, with pretty much everyone getting at least one over 3kg. Damn they pull hard. A coronation and a few tomato cods too.

A fair few pinkies were pulled up and some reasonable sized ones (but no pics on my camera). Last drift of the last night we managed to pull several pinkies off from a spot barely 100m away from the mooring.

Managed to get into quite a few spanglies with them popping up over the place like this one that smashed my plastic

and another patch on the third day where we just got spanglie after spanglie after spanglie.

Got lots of opportunities to cast at the bait being herded up against the shoals, or just birds diving at bait. We'd all have stickbaits ready and as soon as we saw bait schools, four of us were up the front chucking away. Several sharkies pulled out of them, as well as mackies and tuna, including a few YFT pushing about 6-7kg

Fish of the trip was this biiiiig kingfish out of one of the bustups. Must have been pushing almost 20kg and on 30lb line too.

Lots more fish out of bustups but didnt get pics of everything. Had one bustup with bronzies and birds smashing it. We cast a few lures but nothing hit until the bronzies swam off. After that there was a tightly bailed ball of whitebait clinging to the boat and hundreds of tuna smashing it. Lots of little mack tuna, and a few bigger stripeys to about 6kg (damn they go hard on light gear). Everyone had fun catching tuna for over half an hour as the bait school balled up against the boat. Some catching over 20 mack tuna, while others hooking into the bigger stripeys. I have some awesome footage of the baitball getting smashed but for some reason my camera sped it up parts of it when i went to view it on my computer. Weird (and annoying).

I didnt end up doing much jigging myself as for most of the days the drift speed was up a bit due to the wind (but still quite fishable) and I mostly had 80-150g jigs (really needed 200g+). Did manage to get a coral trout, a good tuna hookup that dropped me, a few mackie snips and a this dhuie though.

Oliver however, decided to try jigging for the first time and didnt take long to be rewarded with a great sized dhuie.

His jig was on fire, landing a total of 9 dhuies over the trip (and a small coral trout and pinkie). Biggest was this niced sized one of 12kg (biggest of the trip).

Oh, and i also managed to finally pick up a dollie for this season from a pack that came a marauding while we were bottom bouncing. I know its a small fish, but I love dollies so was very happy to catch one.

Oh, and the Russel Coight moment for me. Was walking up to the front of the boat to do a bit of jigging on the last day. Not the best conditions with a few whitecaps around (but still fishable at least). Stepped up on the gunnel and grabbed the rail at the front, rod and rail in one hand when a perfectly timed wave hit the boat just as i was shifting my feet, slipping over. I managed to grab onto the rail with both hands though, toes dangling in the water, rod fallen but resting safe on the walkway. Pulled myself up no problems and got on with jigging, haha. Wave coulda been a fraction later or a fraction earlier and wouldnt have been a problem, just unusual timing. Yay for reflexes though, hehe.

Not a huge number of really big fish caught, but heaps of great sized mackies, spanglies, coral trout, pinkies, dhuies, etc with pretty much everyone getting multiples of each. Geeez its tough when they're the most common species
Quite a few tuna, sharkies and good sized skippy caught too. As for crap fish, I think we got a single sargeant baker, a single scorpion fish and a few charlie courts and redthroats (which arent bad fish but went back as they werent big) and a few sambos here and there, so quality fish outweighed the others by a nice big margin.

Overall, although I didnt get many fish on jigs, I still got a heap of fish, including a fair few on plastics, and spinning surface lures. Went pretty well with the pelagics though getting a fair few species (mackie, shark mack, stripeys, YFT, sambos, dollie, skippy).

Everyone got into some decent fish (and a fair few fillets brought back) and everyone had a great time when fishing and when not. Awesome trip!

Cant wait for July!
(one spot still left )

Well, its been a pretty full on week.  Ended up going out three times for work and ended up with 1 x whale shark, 2 x sails, 2 x dollies, 30 x striped tuna in not bad conditions and also dropped one black on thursday.  Jeffo hadn't been for a fish in a while and wanted to get out there and with an arvo glass off forecast, that is what we did.  Got out there about 1.30 and trolled around for 3 hours with no joy and things were starting to get a little disheartening.  All of a sudden we found a baitball that was getting worked, upon closer inspection it had a massive shark on it (we think it may have been a white) but didn't get close enough to examine before it went down.  Seeing as it was on a current line we decided to troll along it and see what was there.  Within 10 minutes we had what we think was a billie come up and give the shotgun a smack, less than 2 minutes later we both watched an eruption on the purple shotty and bang, we watch a solid black erupt in the distance and peel off some serious line.  Waiting to get a few shots the billie decided to sit below the surface, after about 20 minutes we got a couple of small jumps, but just enough to get some evidence before it spat the hooks. We estimate it at about 110kg, but it could have been easily more than that.

Continuing on trolling we had a couple more hits, a nice hookup on a dolly and had his mate sit under the boat for 10 minutes watching the commotion (released) and then hooked up a couple of 3kg stripeys.  We had planned to do some bottom bouncing but seeing as the surface had some action we gave it a miss and focused on trying for another bill.  Unfortunately we couldn't find one, but headed in just on dark to a beautiful sunset with a school of spaniards chasing flying fish in an airborne frenzy, was a top way to finish the arvo session!  Hopefully this sort of billie action will keep up for the FW comp next weekend.

Cheers,

Adam

Well we have arrived at groote safe and sound. 4wd has arrived, and boat should be here thursday on the barge. Last 3 days have been calm, and the rain has stopped..im itching to get out for a fish. Been and checked out the boat ramp, and come across this bag limit sign. I must say they are generous up here..no more 3 month bans, yipeee!

Coupla pics from wednesdays outing. Good sized sharkies on sub-surface, goldens on plastics, and a fiesty lil black to start the morning off!

we hit the back of the islands yesterday and came up with the goods. first drift Amanda got a 45cm Red and a big Rankin double, I got a Crimson. Second drop I pulled up a 63cm Red. After that I decided to throw a jig down and scored a Coronation Trout, A first for me on jig.

It was a lucky catch as something big grabbed the trout a few metres off the bottom, after a few mins it let it go and I pulled it up just in time to get it away from a shark that was chasing it

We headed out for work today looking for dollies but all we could find were these pesky buggers.  We ended up hooking 6, landing 3 and seeing 2 freejumping sails and had one free swimming marlin cruise under the boat.  I handed over my first billy to Richo to try and get a few photos and then the lucky pink took care of the rest.  The water was cobalt blue and near glass for most of the day, awesome viewing conditions.  As I was the deckie for the day I sat and watched every billfish come in and attack the lures, was awesome to watch with the last billy absolutely smashing the lure.  We also landed 3 striped tuna and dropped a yellowfin tuna.  We were only out for 4.5 hours, it was unfortunate not to get our target, but theres always next time. :)

I managed to get a few good shots before my camera battery died.  Hope you enjoy.

They were pretty close in today.

was over rotto over the long weekend and decided to leave the boat at home as a mate was coming over for a few days anyway.

fished westend on the sunday and landed 21 salmon up to about 7 kilos and 2 ytk about 6 kilos. wearnt really schooling up just random small schools, had to troll real slow about 4 knots and were using river2sea trhio's and bombers, then casting lasers back when we hook up.  We wernt really prepared as it was a kind of a spur of the moment thing but was a bit of fun for the boys that havent really fished before.

doubt they will be hangin arround for much longer as they have broken out of there schools

cheers

Gday

Just got back from a 4 day annual trip to Wagoe. Thought it'd be a good chance to post up my first comprehensive report on the site. :)

A decent weekend weather wise was forecast, as many of you know this place can be unfishable if the weather and swell are intolerable. So we were happy to have timed it right this year.

Arrived 10:00am on the friday, settled in at the chalet had a big barbeque for lunch then headed down the track to the beach to find the wind blowing its box off with a South Easterly and a large swell. Decided it would be safer fishing from one of the sandy openings in the reef south of the reef at wagoe. Not much happened all afternoon with only a few dart finding their way to the sand.

My brother Dave (fellow fishwrecked member) decided to drop down to a smaller outfit... threw out a mulie on his 9' starlo shore spin and 20lb seido combo in order to have a bit more feel in the wash and immediately come up trumps with a 58cm 2.5kg personal best tailor. Happened to be the only one landed that evening.

Dave with a 58cm 2.5kg Tailor.

Me and my 60cm 1.75kg Swallowtail Dart.

Got to an early start 4:30am Saturday morning thought we'd fish a structured spot for a few hours off the reef at the entry to the beach. Seemed to be going slow with not alot happening off the reefs. Mulie were coming back untouched, the squid baits we casted out were only accounting for a few to many different species of cod and a small spangled emporer. Feeling hungry the guys made the choice to go back for a feed of our own.

With a large bacon, sausage and egg breakie in the stomach a few of the older blokes decided to head into Kalbarri. The younger guys took up an oppurtunity to head back down to the beach and wait for the wind to swing from a south easterly to a more capable ballooning breeze. Come 10:30am the breeze had finally changed to an eastern direction and out and about like fleeing ants we get our setups ready for the unknown. Both myself and my brother being complete novices at ballooning for macks we didnt know quite what to expect.

With immense anticipation i start to let out my helium balloon from my shimano tyrnos 30 / tiralejo combo and finds its way out about 400m offshore. Having not ballooned for mackies before on prevoius trips to wagoe we were there to primarily learn just how to go about it. Dave started letting out his skipping gardie from his daiwa sealine/ live fibre lbg combo no further than 100m-150m. A half our in his balloon hits the water and his line goes limp. Not knowing whats going on he begins reeling in profusely. Immediately after he starts retrieving some limp line we see the balloon snap and sail off into the distance and thus realises he has missed a chance to strike as the fish has already taken the rigged gardie and the hooks from his trace. A steep learning curve, undiscouraged we now have some vital knowledge for the next day.

My gardie remains untouched for 2 hours so we decide to pack up and head out to see if any one else had any luck with the easterly. A few blokes camping the north side of the reef faired well with 2 spanish mackerel landed that morning half an hour apart.

Sunday morning we are greeted with a lightning show as we hit up another spot on the reef. Flood lights glaring out onto the reef and what felt like a terential downpour we realised the flat yet stormy conditions allowed us and many other weekenders to produce fish from the reef this early morning. With a soft easterly all morning conditions looked favourable for a great days fishing. Immediately from the get go our squid baits were getting hit after hit every cast. A few small tailor were landed, huge skipjack trevally put on a great fight on the rocks as did the painted sweetlip, large spangled emporer, and another thumper dart of 61cm. 

Bruno with a 61cm Swallowtail Dart 

With all this unexpected great fishing commotion going on i forget to keep an eye on the water. As a large swell comes over the ledge and sends me floating a 1m or so back over the oysters on the reef i suddenly realize i have simultaneously hooked onto something worth my attention as the 50lb braid starts screaming from the spool of my spheros. This unexpected suprise was putting my 12' tiralejo under some major stress. Everytime it would stop running and i thought i had the upperhand in the battle it would see the reef and decide to run further. After a good 5 minute tug'o'war and a 100m dash along the side of the reef on rockhoppers in the limited morning light, i catch a glimpse of a tail slapping the surface of the water. A quick dash over and a hand around the fork of the tail and i had captured my first ever amberjack. What a thrill.

 Captured 86cm 5kg Amberjack

A mate of mine finally hooked another species we had been unsuccesfully targeting all weekend. With big bust off after bust off during the weekend he finally turned his luck and persisted with his light 10' spin setup. Managing to outsmart an over aggresive head shaking fish of considerable weight, he dangled at the risk of his own life in the whitewash of a dangerous rock dropoff. Out goes a large shout "PINKY" he finally landed that pink snapper everyone was after.

Daniel with his 46cm 2kg Pink Snapper

Come 8:00am my old man sends out the 1st of 3 balloons we have in the tackle box. Before the gardie has a chance to venture out no more than 100m the balloon takes to the water. This time he gets a head start and started retrieving line fast as he makes sure we wont be made a fool of twice. The rod loads up, with a bit of weight he sets the reel to strike and off flys the balloon with the drag screaming for the deep blue. After a short 10 minute tussle of drag screaming and short bursts he finally gets the fish to the reef only to discover the fish has one last dash left in him and makes for covered ground amongst the reef. Another failed attempt at gaffing and landing our first land based mack. While this had been happening i had setup my outfit ready for another assault only to find my earlier fortune elude me as my baloon some how gets dragged into the edge of the reef and bursts leaving the group with the one and only last balloon.

My old man once again decides to take control of the situation and sets up the rod and balloon. We all watch as the gardie starts to skip out further and further from the shore line. Once again no more than 100m the balloon takes to the water. STRIKE!! We're on.... Having never experienced anything of this sort before he decides that we all take turns to fight the mackie and gain knowledge for next year as the fight lasts an exciting 15 minutes. Before the mack gets to the ledge of the reef, i decide to hand the rod back to my father as any responsibility for losing this fish would then be placed on him. With a laugh he takes the rod... 5 or so minutes go by as he attempts to wear it out. Around the reefs ledge taking extra precaution not to miss out on this our last attempt, my brother manages to gaff it first shot.

My old man with our 8kg Spanish Mackeral

Success! Our first capture of a Spanish Mackeral from the land. What an eventful weekend. Surely an unforgettable expierience and another fishing story to be shared between a few coldies in the future. Excuse me if i have ranted on a bit, but as you can probably tell experiences like this fills the average fisho full of exstatic emotion. These experiences are no doubt what keeps myself and you so involved in the recreation of fishing.

Thanks for reading.

Rob

Hi all i have lived here for a few years and the family has come up for 2 weeks. 
they got here saturday arvo and out we went.  in 3 hours we managed to raise 4 billies, lost 1 marlin and landed 1 sail. 
day 2 we got a few goldies out in 150m and raised 1 billy and in all got 10 stripe tuna all reliest. 
day 3 up to the islands we got 4 snapper and a 7m whale shark that swam around the boat for about 40mins. 
so far they are loving exxy and booking for next year already.  today is a lay day out in the gulf squidding. 
sorry no pics just yet, getting them soon. 
jeff

We fished Yallingup Beach for Salmon this weekend. There were a number of nice salmon caught in the 5 to 7 Kg range, with the vast majority of captures around sunrise and sunset. A few schools came in close, and twice we saw dolphins herding the schools.

On sunday evening the beach was packed with fisho's, and a few nice fish were caught. We managed to land two nice salmon after dark. Photo's attached.

We also fished from the boat out of Canal Rocks in around 10m of water and the variety of fish caught was impressive.
Flathead, Herring, Jewfish (juvenile), Scaly Mackerel, Samson Fish, Skippy, Pink Snapper (juvenile), Ray, Whiting, Wrasse.

The highlight was a 7Kg Sambo on light tackle (7' Daiwa rod, Shimano FX2000 reel and 12lb PreTest mono (no leader)) landed by a first timer !

went out wide yesterday to try our luck in 300-350mtrs but didnt have much with only a few unwanted species being boated and one horse of a fish being dropped half way up! went in to fish the derwent and boated a few pinkies and a leather jacket then moved on to jig some ambers. Unfortunately we werent the only ones interested in the ambers with several being lost to the men in grey!! after several attempts to skull drag a fish up we gave in and headed home. was a slow day on the water and being hung over with an hours sleep didnt help.

Went out on Friday night for a river dive with my mate, Matto. After a false start on thursday night, when we got down to the spot, right on time to realise that he'd forgotten his weight belt! Guess it wasn't to be that night and we decided on a dive for Friday after work.

We packed up the car and got down to the spot about 6:45pm, the traffic was pretty shocking on the freeway. Anyway after a quick scope of the area we suited up and waded into the water about 7:15, just after dark. In true form Matto had forgotten his big UK torch this time - lucky he's so quick on the prawn net and at grabbing those crabs - so I lent him my spare UK MiniQ. Surprisingly those little torches put out quite a bit of light. Once in chest deep we put our masks on and decided on a path to follow, that would hopefully have us surface close to the exit point. It's a lot harder to navigate in the dark at the bottom of the swan than you would think...

Anyway, we hit the bottom after a short swim in about 7 metres and the visability was remarkably good. I guess this would be due to the break in dredging out of Freo, cause that seemed to really make it murky. We worked off Matto's compass for directions and started to scout the river bed for dinner.

There were heaps of star fish on the bottom and a fair few nice sized whiting. Within 5 mins I spotted a nice sized blue manna, already waving his claws at me asking for a fight. That's all the invite I need and snatched at him, bracing for those claws. The little ones can barely nip you, but the big blues, well they are a different story. Even through my kevlar diving glove he gave me one hell of a nip on the wrist but he was too good a size to drop. Man was I relieved once that catch bag closed with him in it.

I had stirred up the silt on the bottom a bit and could just make out Matto's tank about 5 metres to my right. I swan over to find that he had been busy picking up some prawns, all great size too! He's definately still refining the technique, but hell he was doing well for a first try. He tapped me on the arm and pointed into the distance where I could see the raised claws of another big blue. They are funny and ballsy creatures these crabs, a giant bloody human can swim right up to them and they just hold their ground and raise their fists. Or claws as it may be. Unfortunately he didn't stand a chance - I swam around behind him and before he could turn I had picked him up and shut him in the bag. I almost felt guilty. lol.

Matto came over and started indicating that we were off course and to follow him. We went off on a bit of a prawn reccy and picked up a few scallops along the way. Such beautiful shells the swan river scallops have I thought, my eldest daughter is going to love these. After grabbing another couple of crabs we decided that we had pleanty for tea, especially considering the size of the crabs, and we headed for the exit point. We checked the depth it - was about 12 metres so we slowley made our way to shallower water to surface. We got to about 9 meters and Matto signalled to surface. I thought that we were way off course, but he was pretty certain. We surfaced nice and slowly and to my surprise and delight, we were right on target.

A short walk out of the water and time to pack up the gear and dry off. Once we got home the seafood platter was placed out on the back patio for a couple of quick pics and then the crabs hit the boiling water straight away. The prawns fried up nicley with the scallops in some garlic and olive oil and some ice cold beers were opened. With that there was a breif cheers and we dived into the fresh local WA seafood platter before us. I don't care what people say about the dredging ect - I rekon that seafood out of the swan is still bloody lovley. I might even grow an extra finger or two....but that would probably come in handy cause I rekon one day the bluey will have to win...

The ingredients for Friday night dinner

The size of the prawns was great as you can see

Decided to go out for a quick flick down at palm jetty on Friday night. Ended up staying for 4 hours haha. I caught about 25-30 salmon trout and around 10 herring and a couple of choppers flicking some shallow diving minnows around. Bloody good fun on light gear. All fish were realeased

Popped out this morning and got a few Reds before the wind picked up. Amanda won the day with a 7kg & 6kg Red

hey guys,

been keeping an eye out on salmon reports, but all the reports seem to be coming from West End.

I'll be heading down to dunsborough this weekend with my boat in tow, what are the salmon reports like at the moment?

how hard is to find the schools.

quick question for all the boaties out there, will be launching at quindalup and heading towards bunker bay in search for these salmon.

are there any obstructions of reef that i should be careful of, reefs etc? i have a gps but my map only extends to busselton...so i just want to be sure

im sorry if this sounds like just another salmon question

Went out this morning and got into the Reds Was done by 11am. Amanda only put the line down 4 times for 3 Reds and an undersize spanglie, 1 of the Reds was dropped 1m from the boat .

I got a 7kg and a 5.5kg Red and a nice Rankin. Amandas bigger red was 5kg. 

Not bad for a windy choppy day.

Fished South Beach this morning for the second time. I'm new to this board and new to fishing in Perth having immigrated from Canada and ocean fishing is basically all new to me for this formerly land locked boy. Had some success at local groynes for bread and butter fish and swung by SB around 430am. Twenty minutes in I pulled in a 31 cm King George, wasn't even sure it was KG to be honest until I looked it up and read about the distinct spotting. Extremely tasty for brekky this morning.

Also pulled in a half dozen herring, all of nice size and kept a couple. Pulled in a small Port Jackson, a small skippy and a single Garfish, my first of this species. The old fella next to me pulled in a dozen or so garfish in a couple hours, and his grand daughters pulled in a half dozen or so fish each.

Overall fun morning for a newbie like me and a mixed bag of catches.

Went for a mission out to Tantas yesterday and was greated by some average conditions, luckily it started to calm down as the day went on.  I couldn't find a deckie for the day so did the solo mission, luckily the dslr got some ok shots.  Within 10 minutes I had a double of hookup of dollies, thankfully one got off and I managed to land the other one (released).  After 20 minutes I had another hookup, not the billfish I was hoping for, but still some fun as this dolly was a lot more acrobatic (released). 

I then did a bit of bottom bouncing and got 1 small goldband before the sharks moved in, which was quite unfortunate as there were some solid fish down there.  As my next spot was quite some way away and the conditions still werent good, I trolled down to the next spot and picked up a small striped tuna.  The next spot was in 168m, after landing 2 pinkies I was then sharked again right on the bottom, after fighting him 166m to the top the hook busted off (got my braid back atleast, but the back didn't enjoy it).

After that I trolled around aimlessly for a while with no luck and tried drift bait a few spots but everything had shut down with the tide change.  I called it quits and was back home by 3, not a bad day, but if I'd managed to get a few of the goldies up to the top without the sharks it would have been great.  Ahhh well, still good to get out there and wet a line as it had been about 3 weeks.

hey there pp i went down to eagle bay yesterday to do some salmon fishing with my partner an boy she was rapped when we got there an two cast in 10 mins resulted in her catching the first salmon of the trip then half an hour later after feeding bubs we got  double hook up an resulted both of us gettin them both in. Thanks to the lady that kept our son happy while we faught the fish. We ended up with three  salmon for the trip an one herring. 

The action down that way is still good but it has slowed down since the easter break but it was still nice to see ppl catching fish. I have never seen so many salmon lost though due to ppl not know how to up keep there gear an paniking when they have a fish on an try to skull-drag the brutes in something has to give an the fish will usually win but all in all it was still fun to see

took the tinnie out to cow rocks off hillaries on sat night got around 30 herring - had a bit of a fish under the lights in the marina and got busted off by a big tailor on a mulie tail - peterb also managed to land one at 32cm and another at 30cm - the one that busted me on 4kg mono would have been 40cm easy - alsogota nice squid and stocked up on yellowtail for bait

Want to try fishing from the North Mole this weekend but not sure of the dredging that's going on down that way

Any info appreciated

Started uni at 12 today so decided to go for a quick fish in the dinghy before, hit the ramp at 6;30 and was chucking lures at mewstone and straggies half an hour later. Was hoping for some tailor and mabye salmon however we just couldn't get past the herring that were thick as everywhere we went. We then decided to see if we could find some KG's. We drove around for half an hour or so trying different spots until I found a school on the sounder and dropped down some fresh herring and seconds later ollie yells I’m on, he was quickly losing his 20lb braid until the fish spat the hooks, he then re drops and quickly brings up a small pinky, it was then my turn, I baited and dropped and seconds latter was on to a pretty serious fish, my tierra was screaming and I managed to lift the fish till it was half way up unfortunately it spat the dam hooks. At this stage we were devastated and I quickly dropped back down which resulted in me immediately hooking up again however this time to a much smaller fish, after a couple of minutes I had color and a nice pinky of 55cm in the net. We then struggled without a GPS to find the school and buzzed home to go to uni. It was the first legal pinky in the dinghy so although we missed some nice fish we still managed a feed.

The weather was looking sweet for a run to the islands on Thursday so the day before I put the net in to score some fresh mullet for bait. It went in at 0800 and I pulled it in at one oclock for a grand total of 3 mullet, not a good start, having to swim and check it every twenty minutes or so, oh well one needed the exercise.

A quick run a round and I found a decky for the day and we were off at 0700, destination, a dozen or so little patches of coral about 5nm north of Koks island, I'd found on a trip 6 months back.After much looking and going round in circles all of the little patches couldn't be found, nothing even looked like coral so we headed south to the ever reliable Koks patch.

Stopping at a couple of marks we did a quick drift over one resulting in a just size pinky[released, must be better fish there] and an undersize spanish flag. Another drift and I got a good bite and a hook up straight away and off it goes straight in to the reef, a bit of jiggling and it comes free only for what ever it was to be sharked half way up. Bushy, my decky for the day brings up an undersize pinky. We motor over to the other mark and the first drift results in a reasonable pinky and another lost rig to a shark.

Not content to feed the sharks we head on to the Koks patch. After 2 drifts over the patch we have picked up another 2 legal pinkies and decide to anchor before the tide starts to crank up. Once the pick is in Bushy gets a legal pinky and I get a mulloway, long and skinny guesstimated to go 6-7kg. Next drop I pick up a golden trevally and a spanish flag for a double header while Bushy gets another under size pinky. We managed to get our trip total of keepers up to 5 pinkies, a spanish flag and because Bushy loves then a mulloway and the golden trevally otherwise they would be still swimming before the sharks found us again.

Sorry again,some how submitted the entry twice and deleted the one with the pics in it---Murphy's Law strikes again,will put them in
As "Murphy's Law" goes a couple of times while we both had our lines on the bottom twice we had schools of what looked like biiiggg tuna smashing baitfish right along side the boat and by the time it takes to grab another rod they disappear.

Apologies for the pics, not as good as I would have liked.

Murphy's Law strikes again,accidentally submitted the entry twice and deleted the one with the pics.Will submit them under the latest images section

Caught it this morning just off the rocks :D

90cm

[center] Here's a quick pick of me, the mate and the 32 foot Ocean Master named 'Stress Reeliever' we fish and love! Fishing Reports: April 11, 2010 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGP6K_VDc0U&feature=channel

Sorry this took so long to post, but I have had a big problem trying to get Costa Rican government run internet to mesh with video files and You Tube. But this was an aweomse day of fishing. Wehad heard of Tuna in the area, so we went way out and we found this huge school of Dolphins and Tuna and had it all to ourselves! At first, as you can see in the first video, the school wasreally moving as the Dolphins were chasing huge schools of small Sardines. It was neat because the Sardines were only 2 inches long at most and it just looked like a dark black cloud moving through the water. at high speeds. Finally the Dolphins got them in a big dark ball and that's when we started pulling out the Tuna. We hooked up with 7 in all and they were all pretty nice sized ones, no footballs! We finally left there in search of a sailfish and ended up hooking one (but it escaped before we got it all the in)and a 300 pound Manta before going towards the house. It was the first Manta I have ever hooked, and the way it hit the bait and fought I was sure it was a Marlin. He pulled out part of his body when he took the bait that looked like a giant Dorsal Fin and then started ripping away at line. I had to turn the boat and chase him just to keep from getting spooled! Well, anyway, I'm sure people will ask why i put videos of Dolphins up on the site. Well guys, here's your chance to sell the Costa Rica trip to your wives! All women love Dolphins! And the whales is just icing on the cake! Below are two of the Tuna, and some sails from this week. Great day fishing, I'll keep those Quepos Fishing Reports coming!

April 7th 2010 We've been off the last week putting in a new sonar, and steering system, so it was nice to get back out on the water. We had a pretty good day today, releasing 5 Roosterfish, a monster Barracuda and a Big Eye Jack. We hooked up about 100 times but today the Roosters were tricky! Luckily there were so many shots we got quite a few to the boat. We had a great day cruising around the tropical islands right near the beach. I think the customers had more fun today seeing the exotic scenery than hooking in to the fish! There are a couple of islands we fish on that have the caves near the water, and blow holes that violently shoot water up in the air as you pass by. It makes for some awesome scenery and I am truly blessed to call this my office! Another great day fishing in beautiful and sunny Costa Rica! March 26 2010 Had a great day fishing offshore. The fishing was really far out, but well worth the trip. We hooked 4 out of 5 sailfish that got behind the boat, and also got a really nice Dorado. The highlight of the day was when we had a younger girl, about 13, reel in her first sailfish. And once again, with her dad and Rudy coaching her, she got it all the way into the boat by herself, just like a seasoned veteran! The first picture is of her, her proud father and Rudy! Another great day on the water, looking forward to April and May. Here's some pictures from beautiful and sunny Quepos Costa Rica! March 19 2010

Gday Guys,

Just a few pics of the fish ive been getting inbetween work over the last coupla weeks.

Surface Spangoes

Light tackle Rankin in 12m on plastic

Metre + Queenies by the hundreds

Boga Queendog

THE Rat of all Rats Black on my Hyper 4000 ~20kg

Jigging Ambers up to 12kg non stop

Ive got the tinny marlin bug and have been doing really well as of late. ~40kg

More tinny action. (sorry about the shit pic, its hard to contain a marlin boatside and take a photo while solo) ~30kg

One of my lumps are littered with Goldens...

And Blackspot Tuskys

Light gear Lonngtails to 8kg in the Gulf

Plenty of other bits and pieces suchs as good Brassies, Spaniards, Sharkys, Trout, Jacks, Diamonds, Goldspots etc etc..

Peace,

Sam

Well Easter has come and gone for another year and with it my annual trip to Walpole has also finished. We headed down there on the Wednesday day before Easter with my 4.85 trailcraft in tow, new boat cover firmly in place keeping all my camping gear dry. We set up camp in bright sunlight though the wind was blowing 20 knots from the south east (not good for offshore down there). I have been camping at Rest point at Easter for the last 35 years and you take the good weather with the bad. As I like offshore fishing it was looking like there would be plenty of time to sit around the fire and drink a few cold ones.

Apart from a few runs in the inlet with the tin lids (2 and 4) catching herring on lures there wasn’t any chance to get outside until the Monday. We headed out through the mouth and headed a few miles east to a spot that had been very productive in January, not a bite. Moved around a bit before ending up back near Saddle Island (for those who know the area) and did a few drifts over some lumpy bottom and got a good feed of black ass harlequin (see photo). I also got bricked by something rather large, got it about 5-10m off the bottom before wham strait back to the bottom and ping, not happy Jan.

On Tuesday I took the wife out leaving the kids in camp with friends. The seas were even calmer but with the wife being prone to sea sickness we didn’t venture too far past saddle. I set up a drift over a large lump that I had picked up a dhuie last Easter. The wife got a fox fish first drift then on the next drift she got another then we both hooked up together, she was working hard on landing the biggest sergant baker that I have ever seen while I was working even harder to land my biggest dhuie to date, a nice fat 14kg.

To say that I was stoked is an understatement. We ended up being out for about 3hrs with the wife out fishing me number wise 3 fox fish and a Black ass vs dhuie, queenie and fox fish. Since I can’t seem to catch a feed when I fish up here in the metro area it was great to be taking a few feeds home as we all love fish.

All too soon it was time to pack up and head home, don’t you hate the idea of work.

As I sit here typing this I am thinking of the next trip away, 8 weeks up north with the last two in Exmouth as well as another trip to Walpole at some stage. I just love the offshore fishing down there.