Courtesy of Scott Forbes - EGFC - July 7th

Another perfect week of weather in Exmouth. With temperatures hovering around 27 degrees and near no wind there has been simply no excuse not to be getting out amongst the fish.

Renowned bottom expert Matt Niikkula has been having a great run of late fishing out of Tantabiddi. Matt has been fishing squid baits in 70 metres of water with great success on a mixed bag of delectable bottom grubbers including big red emperor, rankin cod, tomato cod, jobfish and various species of emperor. Matt has noted a marked difference in hook up rates on the bottom fish since swapping over to the owner super mutu circle hooks in the deep water. The circle hooks work super effectively providing you don’t strike at the initial bite and rather let the fish move off with the bait and it will hook it self. Once hooked the fish simply do not get off circle hooks and are nearly always hooked in the corner of the jaw.

Keen anglers Gavin “Pardo” Pardington, Cameron Yates and Jeff Ellis are up on holidays from Perth and enjoying the brilliant fishing on offer at this time of year. During the week they ventured out to the Muiron islands and had a glorious day sampling the various options available. Bottom fishing accounted for emperor, Charlie courts and a whopper chinaman fish whilst trolling a couple of minnow style lures provided excitement in the form of Spanish mackerel and then to top the day off on the way in they spotted a free jumping sailfish which happily obliged and took the first bait thrown at it. The Sail put on a great aerobatic display for the anglers before making it to the boat for a successful release after a couple of quick photos.

Spangled Emperor have been a consistent catch along the West Coast access roads during the evening high tides whilst whiting and yellowfin bream having been keeping anglers happy fishing along the shoreline in the gulf.

[img_assist|fid=28382|thumb=1|alt=Matt Nikkula's double header|caption=Matt Nikkula with a beautiful Exmouth double header]

Hey Guys, quick report on how we are going 4 days in.

1 8kg cobia, 1 6kg spanish mack, heaps of big longtail tuna, 5 yellow fin tuna between 8-10kg and one 14kg, 2 raised marlin and my first tagged and released at 45-50 kg with some unreal jump shots on camera. Lots of huge shark macks which we have been releasing, lots more small striped tuna, heaps and heaps of sharks. Landed a double header of chinaman today, one 9kg and one 4kg, with a more golden trevally than we could poke a stick at. Been jigging a fair few up.

We have been catching lots in the first couple of days even thou the wind has been strong. Lots more fish I have forgotten about that I will report in soon. Dinner is served at the pub and I'll be in contact soon.

Great fish btw Brenz and the rest of the boys, will touch base soon and reply to private messages.

Hope you all have an excellent weekend and get amongst the fish.
Cheers,
Adam

Got back from Exmouth on Sunday had a great time,but did'nt catch many fish.Brought back 3-4kg of snapper fillets which will feed us for a while.We fished mainly the bayside as the wife prefered the marina boatramp.Tried up around the NW cape where we caught all our Bluelined Emperiors and one Rankin Cod.Eric a mate from Mandurah stayed a week with us so we ventured out to Tandabiddi where we bottom bounced for reef dwellers.We fished in any depth from 10m out to 70m hooked up to some big stuff but they either pulled the hook or broke off,frustrating but always thinking I'll get the next one.I managed one Spangled while Eric boated and released two thumper Trevally.One day Eric managed to get a Cobia boatside only to lose it seconds later,thems the breaks.Reports from the locals and other fisho's told the same story not much happening.Good reports from behind the Muriens with good catchs of Reds,Rankins,Snapper and the likes being caught,too far to travell for me,but that's where it was going off.Will send some pics when I figure out how.

CHEER'S
KEV

hey theres been quite a lot of giant squid around out past rotto. i got a 11kg squid out in my 40ft boat. we were trolling 4 tuna and he took the lure, he must of been hungry if he took the lure. i think it was a fluke.

JUNE 17th COMPETITION RESULTS

A great weather day for the comp meant boats went far and wide, but a very cold night up river for the riveries and land based guys. This month’s sponsor is the Gorges Café down by the Post Office end of town.

Club sponsor this month was the Gorges Cafe; Thanks for the great vouchers, Jess and Romely.

The river is now well and truly settling down with good fish all the way up river, but of the 10 junior anglers only Amy Stewart managed to land a fish. Her .464kg live bream was tagged and returned for double points and won her the junior river section. Di Stewart’s 4 live bream and Gary Ivey’s 1 were not enough to beat Cheryl Eley who had 5 fish, 4 bream and a nice 3.27kg mulloway taken from Peter Dugan’s secret spot! Unfortunately Peter could not catch a fish at his secret spot and was fishless for the comp.

The Land Based Section was fished by the Tarasek brothers and Tristan Neumann again with day member Mick Horstman. Mick had 5 fish for a total weight of 5.4kg but was surprised as everyone else was by Tristan Neumann’s 7.25kg mulloway; Daniel Tarasek’s 3 fish which included a 4.75kg mulloway, and winning the section was Simon Tarasek who had 3 fish but including a monster 4.85kg baldchin groper and a 6.85kg shark.

Most boats went a long way and found the fishing a bit slow. Day member Matt Aldridge and mates fished out of Mzilikazi Roller around the Sand Patch and beyond picking up 3 fish one being the biggest to date coral trout of 2.6kgs. Laurie and Sue Malton went south to Wagoe for a try for mackerel only to find later that they should have gone north where the mackerel were. They ended up with their bag of skippy with Sue picking up a little coral trout to make it worthwhile. Ross Olsen was out with Koot Myburgh trying out his new boat, a 7.2m Caribbean, and christened it very well, catching 5 fish of 2 species, but the day went to Koot Myburg who showed us a 6 fish of 3 species among them two snapper weighing in at 8.25ks and 6.15kgs. His red emperor also made a show.

Paul Maindok with Peter Dooley‘s day out went well for skipper Paul aboard his boat Santa Barbara who caught 4 snapper to 1 for Peter to win his section in the over 7.5m boats.

The $50.00 Anzac award went to Simon Tarasek for his big baldchin from the rocks, while Gary Ivey won the $50.00 worth of scratchies raffle, the restaurant voucher went to Gary Ivey as well and the Mystery fish went to the biggest bream: Cheryl Eley. Laurie Malton won “Mug of the Day” while fishing with new soft plastics. With a big school of skippy under the boat he dropped a soft plastic bait over the side getting numerous hook-ups but with the hook pulling each time, only to discover later that the little plastic hook shield was still covering the hook.

Report courtesy of Laurie Malton
Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club

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[img_assist|fid=25815|thumb=0|alt=|caption=]

Exmouth Fishing Report #20 - June 8th 2006

Hooray! The rain has finally come to an end, although the warmer weather has definitely finished for the year, with cooler winter temperatures making the mornings and evenings a little brisk.

Calm conditions in the gulf allowed local residents Sue and Alan Bishop to get out and about in their Kayaks for some fun combined with exercise and gathering of some dinner. The two trolled and cast small metal lures not far from the shoreline and managed to land some sweet tasting emperors.

Peter Gates from Bunbury was house bound for most of his three week stay due to the rain, however her did manage to be rewarded with some big eye trevally along the beaches at the top of the cape. He also got blitzed by some bigger fish believed to be giant trevally on his light 14lb braid outfit.

Rob Madaffari and Kim Meldrum braved the rain and caught long tail tuna, Spanish mackerel and assorted other critters on fly gear just outside the Tantabiddi passage last week. Despite the weather the two were pleased with their trip and many fish they caught and released.

The shore based anglers are still being rewarded with some big queenfish as well the usual range of trevally species. Bundegi was firing earlier on in the week with a mass of baitfish in the area. The queenies would come in at high tide and wreak havoc on the shoals of hardyheads. The odd Spanish mackerel has been sighted amongst the baitfish as well. The west coast access roads have also been popular spots to try for the queenfish. Once again Trisel access has been the most consistent spot although it really is a case of finding the baitfish and you will find the queenies.

[img_assist|fid=25544|thumb=1|alt=EGFC report #20|caption=EGFC report #20 - 8th June]

Courtesy of Scott Forbes - EGFC

We decided to go for a late afternoon fish yesterday with the tide change, moon and sunset all working well together. The winds were light and variable and made for a silky smooth ride to the inshore spot. After a quick 10 minutes of berleying the first baits hit the water for near on instant success with a little rat sambo of 1.5kg swallowing my cubed mulie. Next drop was instantly back onto a 35cm dhuie that fought and released well. The 3rd drop then produced a beautiful and small, yet magnificently coloured harlequin that called for the icebox. After a great initial run I started moving onto the rock fish and reefies, whilst Mark pulled in a solid 1.5kg breaksea. After that the skippy moved in on mass, plague proportions of fish around the 1kg mark made it impossible to get a bait down, we decided to keep 8 and released another dozen and a half. After the skippy moved through the skipper managed to pick up a rogue pinky, not huge, but well over legal size. 20 minutes of quietness and all of a sudden Mark's little Avet loaded with 14 pound braid starts screaming big fish. All lines up, 4 50+m burning runs later he has a samsonfish easily 20kg and over the 1m mark into the boat, successfully landed and released. Just like me, forgot the bloody tagging gear too! Oh well, it was a great afternoon out there, hope you all had a great weekend. Cheers, Adam

Exmouth Fishing Report #18

The rain just doesn't want to stop this week, hampering anglers efforts to get out and about on the water. No doubt, the town will be very green in a few months.

Meanwhile the waters in the gulf have been rather muddy and the northerly winds have caused tonnes of weed to be washed up on town beach. Mackerel have been showing up in numbers around the west side with anglers reporting that the laser pro crazy deep lures have been working well. Colours don't seem to be making a big difference although the silver red head has been shining through.

Shore based angler Noel Wood has been getting some snapper, dart and golden trevally along the west side down towards Yardie Creek. His wife, Visitacion, has been pleased to see him come home with the small hession bag holding fresh fish for dinner.

Other shore based anglers Dot and Frank Warner have had success off the beaches around the lighthouse. The pair have been coming here for 19years and are pleased they can still fish off the beach in this particular area that is easy to access. Frank reported that they landed a good sized whiting and dart off the beach, while Dot is keen to get out and try her new Penn accord reel.

The Exmouth Game Fishing Club held it's Ultra Light Competition last weekend with only a handful of anglers braving the rain and rough conditions. James from Yardie Creek Caravan Park and friend Richard took out the top prizes with a couple of large golden trevally on 4kg line, while Matt Niikkula and friend Joel also took home some goodies for catching a mackerel. The keenest angler couldn't get out due to the weather, but received a prize for his enthusiasm and is pictured this week. It was Rhys Clatworthy and this pictured fish was caught prior to the event on his Dad's boat Reel Obsession.

[img_assist|fid=24864|thumb=0|alt=Rhys|caption=]

[img_assist|fid=24870|thumb=0|alt=Dirk's New Boat|caption=]

Exmouth Fishing Report #17 - Courtesy of Scott Forbes - EGFC

The red emperor seem to be showing up everywhere this last week with
reports coming in from all over the area. Whether you are south or
north of Tantabiddi, off the lighthouse or off the Muiron Islands, the
reds have come in biting hard. Depths have varied from shallow waters
of 20m up to deep waters of 140m, with octopus and squid the optimal
baits. A single paternoster rig with a circle hook is suggested as two
hooks can create havoc when you have a double hook up and generally
attract the sharks. I still haven’t had a report of one being caught
on a jig, although large rankin cod and other emperors have been taking
to these bait alternative options.

Meanwhile Frank Cross from Kailis was coming home across the gulf
approximately five miles off the Kailis factory, when he noticed a fin
cruising along the glassy water in the afternoon. On closer
inspection, it was identified as a marlin in just 11meters of water!
The fish was not spooked at all by the boat and turned on its side for
a closer look at the boat as it came close. It was not injured or
sick, but merely enjoying the afternoon in the shallow calm waters.

Reports of dolphin fish have come in this week as well, particularly
around Tantabiddi. There has been a massive amount of weed in the
water, making trolling difficult for those chasing billfish. The
dolphin fish seem to be taking refuge under the weed and schools of
yellowfin tuna have also been located in these areas around the 100m
mark.

Don’t forget that the Exmouth Game Fishing Club is holding its Ultra
light fishing tournament on May 27th and 28th. There will be prizes
for the highest point scoring fish on 1,2,3,4 and 6 kilo line classes.
It is $15 entry and juniors under 16yrs are free. Entry includes a
sausage sizzle on Sunday night at the Potshot Gantry. For entries, and
further details please call in to Bluewater Tackleworld on Maley Street
or contact secretary Jo Decker on 0408892018.

Kalbarri Offshore Fishing Club
[img_assist|fid=18095|thumb=1|alt=Kalbarri Offshore|caption=]

APRIL 20th COMPETITION RESULTS

Strong easterly kept the boats inshore but over night it was very pleasant along the river with bream coming from right up river. The biggish swell made it difficult for the land based guys but they still did well.

Club sponsor this month was Kalbarri Signs; use them when you need signs and graphics.

The river is back to normal now and running clean with bream being found all the way up river. 12 anglers fished the river but none of the juniors managed to land a fish. The Ivey family have found a good spot with Garry Ivey showing 4 live bream and winning the section twice in a row now! What’s happening Brett! Tracey Ivey also had 2 bream, Cheryl Eley 1 and Di Stewart 2, one being the biggest at 846grams. Still no whiting or mangrove jacks after the flood. All the bream were kept alive and returned to the river after weighing.

[img_assist|fid=23011|thumb=0|alt=Di Stewart|caption=Di Stewart's 846g fish]

The Land Based Section was fished by the evergreen Tarasek brothers and Tristan Neumann all landing good fish from Frustration. Simon’s mulloway at 3.5kg was not good enough and Daniel thought he was in with a chance with a 6.55kg mulloway and pink snapper but was knocked off by young Tristan Neumann with his 11.15kg shark.
[img_assist|fid=23014|thumb=0|alt=Tristan Neumann Shark]
[img_assist|fid=23017|thumb=0|alt=Daniel Mulloway|caption=Daniels Tarasek’s Mulloway]
Only 2 boats fished the ocean section. Laurie and Sue Malton had to borrow Peter Duigan’s dinghy as all of their’s were hired out and Paul Maindok went out in his over 7.5m boat “Santa Barbara” Both boats tried for a mackerel or two and ended up at the same place out from the Sand Patch.

Paul Maindok with Peter Dooley and Ron Neumann aboard “Santa Barbara” moved on further north and recorded a triple hook-up with Paul Maindok landing the only mackerel of 8.55kgs on 6 kg line, enough to win his game section. Peter Dooley had a very nice 4.25kg snapper to win the bottom over 7.5m section. Laurie and Sue sat out the strong easterly on anchor fishing with 2kg line hoping for a game snapper, but picking up odd fish like skippy, red throat, cods and the like on 2 kg line and weighing them in the bottom section. A very lucky hook-up at the end of the day resulted in a big 7.25kg snapper on 2kg line for Laurie! A pending State record winning him the game section and he also picked up the bottom section with the few other fish caught, just beating Sue who was leading all day.

[img_assist|fid=23020|thumb=0|alt=Paul's line class mackerel|caption=Paul's line class mackerel][img_assist|fid=23023|thumb=0|alt=Laurie’s 7.25kg snapper on 2kg line|caption=Laurie’s 7.25kg snapper on 2kg line]

The $50.00 Anzac award went to Laurie Malton for his big snapper, while Len Mitchell won the $50.00 worth of scratchies raffle, the restaurant voucher went to Paul Maindok and the Mystery fish went to the biggest mulloway: Daniel Tarasek.

Latest Exmouth Fishing Report - Courtesy of Scott Forbes (EGFC)

Whether you are chasing fish from the shore or from a boat this week, it’s all happening in Exmouth. As long as you are not chasing fish for the ABC radio of a morning in the marina! Yes, that was me last week before the Whaleshark Festival at the Exmouth Game Fishing Club house pad, talking fishing with Andrew from the ABC. The warm morning was absolutely sensational with no wind, no sandflies, plenty of fish busting up on the surface, an amazing sunrise with scattered cloud… but do you think we could land a fish? No, but the whole experience of getting out fishing is why so many of us enjoy it: catching a fish is really a bonus.

The WhaleShark Festival was a great success and we would like to make special thanks from the Exmouth Game Fishing Club to Des and Cathy Ryan for their help with the sausage sizzle. Jo Decker was there from start to finish and others that helped included Brian Snook (shame about the Eagles Snooky) and Scott Forbes. The winner of the Mako sunglasses raffle was Scott Forbes, which was well deserved after buying so many tickets himself! Trisel access car park has been loaded with cars of a morning as the regular anglers have been getting in to the queenfish along the west side.

Off shore the mackerel have been starting to show up in numbers. Directly in front of Tantabiddi passage in about 70-100m there have been plenty of billfish. Neil Endersby, Steve Marwick and other friends managed to tag five billfish on Tuesday. The biggest was a blue approximately 170kg and the smallest was a black around 15kg.

The boys also raised some sailfish and tagged two marlin on a double hook-up the next day. It is a week they say they will never forget and have made plans to return later in the year for the Betta Electrical Billfish Bonanza. I am pleased to say that I managed to get out for a reef fish with some friends recently and on the first drop landed a beautiful red emperor. We also landed rankin cod, gold band job fish, robinson sea bream, crimson sea perch and a rather cute looking long finned snapper.

sigh...
http://caranx.net/madagascar2006_report.htm

the power of a piece of lead.
a couple more months to get a bit of a taste of that...

Fishing Report #15 May 4th 2006 - Courtesy of Scott Forbes

The cooler mornings and evenings have started to set in, although the days are still reaching a pleasant 28-32degrees. The wind has been unusually strong for April and the water temperatures around the west side have dropped for those taking a dip. Whiting have started to show up in numbers along the beaches inside the gulf. Dave from the book shop is trying to get in as much fishing as he can before his property sells and he moves south. Last week he was fishing the beaches south from the Bundegi sanctuary along to the golf club and catching a bream a cast. He kept a few for dinner and enjoyed the rest of the time releasing the hardy little fish.

A few English guys aboard the boat Sticky Fingers have been having a ball up here chasing all sorts of fish. They managed to land a 25kg mackerel using a floating mulie just outside the marina which gave them a good feed for the week. The boys also landed some red bass and more mackerel off Tantabiddi during one of the calmer days.

Kevin Cotterel has advised us that over the last week he has caught and released over fifty various species of trevally on soft plastic lures along the west side access roads. Kevin is an eager angler who gets good results. He practices fishing for the future and is always happy to talk fishing with anyone. We welcome him back again to Exmouth for the cooler months.

Squid have started to show up in the waters around the marina. Favoured colours this week for squid jigs have been orange and pink. There’s plenty there, but make sure you leave some for the next outing. A fresh feed of calamari is delicious, especially if you grab some fresh prawns from Kailis, who have now opened up for the season.

Kath Ward and partner Brian Beard from Australind are on holidays in Exmouth and have been fishing the areas surrounding the Muiron Islands. Kath outfished her partner with a mixed bag of rankin cod, spangled emperor, mackerel, blue lined emperor and flathead keeping them busy. However it was the 80cm coral trout which Kath caught that really got their mouth watering!

An unusual catch of a 42cm mangrove jack outside the reef off the Millyering visitors centre was reported this week. The same guys caught a 9kg yellowfin tuna and have been enjoying catching and releasing many other species.

Another big story this week was the capture of a 12kg Spanish mackerel off Bundegi Jetty. The bait schools of hardy heads have moved in to this area, bringing large predatory fish with it.

APRIL 15th COMPETITION RESULTS - Courtesy of Laurie Malton

With the river mouth still making it difficult for some boats to get in and out, some have been launching at Port Gregory. However last Saturday’s comp fell on a fine day and a few boats went out wide and caught fish.

The river is still fishing well despite the dirty water with 13 anglers having a go. Gary Ivey was the star angler this month knocking off regulars like Brett Bain with no fish and Di Stewart with one fish. He must have found a good spot as the whole family did well. Gary had 4 bream; wife Tracey had 3 fish and son Lee picked up the junior trophy with 3 fish as well. Junior Amy Stewart’s 2 fish are worth a mention beating most of the other seniors. All the live fish were returned to the river.

Exmouth Fishing Report #11 - Courtesy of Scott Forbes

Peak Season is not far away now with the town filling up rapidly with tourists and regulars in the caravan parks over the last week. The Whaleshark boats are in full swing and the fishing charter boats have also been busy. The fishing peaked before cyclone Hubert arrived on the scene and anglers all around Exmouth were faced with hungry fish in a feeding frenzy.

Ok...here goes....

Not too bad start to the weekend......
Had a short fish at a local rock platform for the usual bread and butter.
Bream gear and bass minnows on 1/8th oz jighead......plenty of herring, gardies to the old men....no skippy which I hoped for.....bang....one bonito....hoping for more it was not to be......

there you go....tomorrow's gonna be even better weather wise.
Stay

[img_assist|fid=18095|thumb=1|alt=Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club|caption=Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club]

P.O. Box 350 Kalbarri W.A. 6536

MARCH 25th COMPETITION RESULTS

With the river mouth still closed to boats only the beach and river sections were able to fish. Some boats contemplated going down to Port Gregory but the weather was not quite up to making the long drive worth it.

There were surprisingly good catches of bream from the river with 5 adults and 2 juniors presenting fish to be weighed. Biggest fish of the day went to junior Jeb Duigan who had a bream of 1.02kg among his 3 fish just beating Dylan Ivey who also had 3 fish. Cheryl Eley had 2 fish and Di Stewart 4 but Brett Bain had 3 live fish giving him the edge on points. Garry Ivey and Peter Duigan both had 3 fish as well. All the live fish were returned to the river.

[img_assist|fid=18098|thumb=0|alt=Jeb Junior Winner]

Jeb Duigan accepts his prize.

[img_assist|fid=18101|thumb=0|alt=Brett Bain Senior Winner]

Brett Bain wins with live fish

[img_assist|fid=18107|thumb=0|alt=Daniel Snapper]

Daniel’s two snapper. And Simon with two species gave him the extra points to win.

[img_assist|fid=18110|thumb=0|alt=Simons shark n snapper|caption=Simons shark n snapper]

The Land Based Section, low on numbers again, was fished by the Tarasek brothers who had some good fish again. Daniel’s two snapper one going 4.5kgs were not good enough to beat brother Simon’s shark and snapper.

The $50.00 Anzac award to the best fish of the comp went to Daniel Tarasek for his very nice 4.5kg pink snapper from the cliffs.

[img_assist|fid=18104|thumb=0|alt=Daniel Winner]

Daniel Tarasek accepts his Anzac voucher from Cheryl Eley.

Peter Dooley picked up the restaurant prize while Peter Jones from Perth won the $50.00 worth of scratchies in the raffle.

Fishing Report 10 – 22nd March’06 - Courtesy of Scott Forbes - EGFC

[img_assist|fid=17793|thumb=0|alt=Gamex Marlin]

Everything’s has been steaming lately with all the recent rain and the humidity, lots of various fishing with the marlin absolutely firing. Other pelagics have also been firing despite the fact that the full moon is shining high. Usually the full moon is a slow time for fishing, but this latest phase has certainly changed the views of some anglers. Team “Waverider” from Broome, here for the tournament, did a few trial days out on the water west of the lighthouse and the Muiron Islands and consequently tagged 11 fish in three days. Most of these were small black marlin and one large girl estimated at 200kg also fell to a lure and was tagged and released.

The Knots and Rigging Session at the Yacht club had about 35 people show up for some tips on tournament tactics and information on tagging fish and other aspects of GAMEX. The session was very useful for some newcomers to the club and the Exmouth Game Fishing Club would like to thank the Yacht club for the venue and Matt Gates for his input.

Visitors to the area Troy and Julia Utan from Perth have been fishing in their Haines Signature boat off Tantabiddi for the last two weeks. They have had up to ten shots a day on various sized marlin, hooking some, dropping some and tagging at least two each day that they have tried for marlin. The two said to us that it was “the best two weeks of their life” and they can’t wait to return.

Learmonth has been teaming with baitschools of late, with queenfish, mackerel and trevally coming in for a feed. The occasional squid has also been showing up, particularly on the high tide.

Don’t forget that Friday night the auction for the EGFC numberplates starts at 8pm. The club would like to thank Gino Garbellini for his help with this auction. The debrief from the tournament is on at the Potshot gantry on Saturday morning at 10am and all input is welcome for comments on this years’ event and suggestions for 2007.

Gamex 2006 is underway and day one has produced some fantastic results;

27 marlin and 5 sailfish on the first day.

48 boats have entered this years competition and it's only just begun!!

More reports soon.........

Well, Gribbo's up at Exmouth for Gamex, hopefully we will hear some reports over the week of how they have been going.

Gully also went up to Exmouth for the 2 weeks, not fishing the competition. They got in at 10am today, were in the water by 1.30pm and landed a black marlin and a sailfish already. Looks like theres going to be some awesome photos coming in over the next few weeks.

More reports to come.

Was driving past the river yesterday and out about 200 meters from point walter there was a flock of birds working like they were onto a school of tuna. Similar frenzied dives and the surface alive and boiling. Was pretty suprised to say the least, looked like a big school of baitfish being herded by birds and bigger fish on the outside. The school would have been nearly 30 meters wide.

Heard that the first marlin, reported, for the season was caught last week, a 140kg striped on 37kg tackle that took 45mins.

Other news is that the derwent still has sambo's and pinkies on it, but if you like 200m jigging with a 4knot current then I wish you all the best.

The boys were meant to head out to the fads today, but looking at that easterly, i think they will have hid somewhere until it drops (if it drops). Most likely chased some tailor or anchored up on a shallow lump somewhere. Will get their report soon, not suprising that we had perfection weatherwise last week and its gone crap again this week, can't win!

With Gamex coming up next week, there should be some awesome pelagic reports and photo's coming in soon!!!! :)

There was some pretty good weather down south last week which gave a few boats the opportunites to get out.

Reports are that the dhuies are in close and seem to be aggregating - a couple of dhuie double headers being the story of the day, with most fish being in the 6-8kg range. Good bycatches of queen snapper and nannygai are also reported and big schools of salmon are just off the coastline. Look foward to easter, can't wait to get south!!!

KALBARRI SPORTS FISHING CLASSIC

20th ANNIVERSARY YEAR 2006

Courtesy of Laurie Malton

The Kalbarri Classic this year again hosted a record number of boats making it a very successful tournament. The final count of fifty boats (17 under 6m, 22 in the 6m–7m and 11 over 7m) spent 3 days fishing it out for $18.000 worth of prizes in 29 categories over the Labour Day long weekend, 3rd 4th and 5th March. 146 anglers fished the ocean and 19 fished the muddy and in flood Murchison River.

The river anglers had quality fish despite the difficult conditions of dirty water flowing from Cyclone Clair last month. As opposed to the mangrove jacks, cod, tailor, mulloway and whiting last year, only bream were weighed in this year. Last year’s River Champion, Daryl Fishwick, returned from Northam again this year to reclaim his trophy with his maximum of 4 bream each day totalling 43.75 points. Paul Allen did well again and picked up the “Skywest Top Gun Award” for the river on the third day, winning a return flight on Skywest to Perth. Paul only just lost to Daryl by 1.98 points.

The seven juniors were very competitive with the lead changing daily. On the last day junior, Chris Miller, brought in an impressive 1.028kg bream and picked up the Heaviest Bream trophy, and released it back live into the river. It was not good enough however to beat Jeb Duigan’s bag of 9 bream over 3 days to win the Champion River Junior. A junior, Riley Eley, whose big bream was only just beaten by 56 grams, weighing in at 1.028kg, won the Meritorious River. Well-done Riley! Runner up junior Mitchell Westlund just missed out with 7 bream.

There were a lot of contenders for the catch and release prize with Brett Bain, catching and releasing 10 of the 33 bream released over the weekend.

The boat section lapped up the better than forecast weather searching far and wide for big fish. A strong current kept most fish hiding on the first day but most boats found some fish to weigh. Barry Court started the ball rolling with a small samson fish but was soon knocked off by Kelly Westlund with a 14.5kg specimen to win Heaviest Samson Fish. Peter Maindok put his team ahead on the first day with an impressive mulloway from the end of the cliffs aboard brother Paul Maindok’s under 6m boat “Mofo”

Apparently the fads were firing for dolphinfish most of the weekend, with Monday being pick of the days. From stories it sounds like they were being caught on everything, even thou there was no real size to them. Out behind the fads there were yellowfin tuna and stripeys everywhere, couple of blokes got yfin that were over 10kg, which is pretty small, but good fun. Streetfighter80 also caught 5 southern bluefin and a couple of stripeys out at the South West Bank trolling the birds. 8 billfish were also raised over the weekend for the Blue Marlin classic, but there were no hookups.

Water temperatures were 24.5 degrees out behind fsc and the water was moving through at nearly 4 knots. The current has picked up its ferocity and hopefully will be moving the pelagics south. There were photos on another website of 6-8kg bluefin tuna free jumping down at busselton over the weekend. Indications of a good salmon season are about as well. Bit unfortunate for us as well trolled the north of the 5 fathom to westend and wider through several schools of baitfish but it appeared the current had pushed the bigger fish wide over the weekend. There were also huge levels of coral bloom and scum lines out from Ocean Reef which made trolling difficult. Reports of 2 spanish mackerel from divers over the weekend, one 12kg fish spotted south of the chicken run and a 15kg fish out from alkimos.

Adam

sunday night down at white hill 5 choppers 3 herring 2stingrays 1 school mully home by 10.30 great night

Lots of tunas round landed 5 sthn blues and couple of big striped ones too. the are feeding an very small bait fish, just follow the birds and you'll find them.

caught 2 harlaquine fish and the dhuies started to bite on the late breeze.

Question: I have only caught 1 pinkie out @ sw bank, andone else caught any out this way??

headed out to a couple of the fads on monday, finally great to see the water temp has finally come up. Club marine fad had a couple of large dolphin fish round it but turned there noses to our offerings, so it was decided that freo sailing club was next on the horizon. This turned out to be a desert with no birds working and no dollies in sight, so it was another cruise to the Yamaha fad which looked the goods on arrival plenty of birds working and dollies free jumping.So out came the soft plastics 1 got one hit but no hookup after watching the dollies follow the plastics but not jump on them was pretty fustraiting.So never less we decided a change of tactics was needed out went the trolling lures and we trolled for a while round the fad but had no hookups, it seemed weird the dolphin fish were free jumping and crashing bait schools but weren't interested in our assortment of lures, fish here were plentiful but still only in the 3-4 kilo class.
2006 fads season is here, do yourself the favour and take advantage of Perth's sportfishing hopefully the next trip will be more fruitful cheers bolts.

Poida has been up fishing Steep Point over the last week, here is the catch so far:
1 spanish mackerel, 2 dog mackerel, 4 pink snapper, 2 blue bone and a lot of fish have been lost to sharks and groper. Shark count has been 3 spanish macks and 2 have been lost at the gaff to groper. They have also managed to hook up to a couple of sailfish off the rocks but haven't been able to land them.
Hopefully they will have some photos to show when they get back on Thursday.

Fishing Report 23-02-2006 - Courtesy of Scott Forbes

Threadfin salmon have been the catch of the week lately with many reports of them up around the cape and along the west side; all from the shore. Most of them have been caught using small 2.25inch paddle tail soft plastic chartreuse coloured lures on light line with a heavier monofilament leader. Other species taking to these lures have been the ever present Charlie court and small trevally. The odd shark mackerel has even managed to stay connected to some anglers lines, even though they have sharp teeth.

Less than a month to go till Gamex and everyone taking part is getting ready. If you are a member of the club and would like to be more involved or contribute some help during the week with the event, please contact president Kurt Decker on 9949 4360. Don’t forget the Knots and Rigging Session on the 12th March at the Yacht club from 4-6pm and the Betta Electrical/NEC Introduction Day on the 19th. Also a quick reminder of the auction for the EGFC numberplates is on Friday the 24th March….. ARE YOU READY?? It’s going to be a big one! Even the marlin are getting a bit of practise in by feeding up on the acres of bait in the surrounding waters. Huge schools of flying fish have been seen scattering across the surface with predatory fish such as tuna, wahoo, and marlin hot on their tails.

Learmonth Jetty has been very productive this week with bait schools close to shore and predatory fish such as queenfish and even big cobia coming in for a feed. A rare sight reported was a small seal which was extremely friendly letting people get close and carefully pat it. The seal seemed to be heading in to the gulf and we hope it stayed well clear of the masses of sharks that have also been reported lately.