Took the boat up to Jurien for the first time over the last few days. Managed to get out Friday and Saturday. Both solo trips as the wife can't handle any swell. 

Trolled around a bit bit Friday morning looking for some ground, and didn't make it too far before a heap of fish started showing. Packed the trolling gear away and dropped some baits. About 5 minutes later got a nice baldie, and 20 minutes later a 7.5 kg dhuie. Trolled around a bit more but nothing happening.

Same plan for Saturday but it was pretty windy early on so the drift was too fast. When the wind died and the drift slowed I managed another couple of baldies.

Overall, nothing massive, but pretty impressed with Jurien. Hardly used any fuel or bait compared to metro.

 Hi

snuck out for a couple of hours this afternoon chasing some bream. ''Twas a warm afternoon" but the bream were on the bite. Landed about 20 fish, most between 25 and 30 cm a few smaller and a couple larger.  Using peeled prawn pieces unweighted. A little hectic a couple of times with two two rods and two fish. Put the second one away and then just focussed on catching after that.

As they say, no photo no fish. Fish solo and like to get them back in quickly so just one quick snap. My secret spot was the lower canning, in the section with the trees along the bank.

 Beautiful weather this morning. Out at sunrise, tried the edge of the dirty water--a lot of bait, scalies, feeding on the surface around the edge and north, but nothing going. Went further north and straight into them. Fishing alone, landed one , then a snip off a few minutes later ( no wire, might have to re-think that), then a double hook up--got one into the boat, other was still swimming happily, got him boatside then a big bronzie appeared, and that was that. Got the lure and the  head back. Got another, then another put out a single line with single hooks on the lure, thinking I might do a release, but an immediate bite off, so I gave it away.  Fish were a bit bigger than last week, 9kg for two and one a bit maller, the head I got back was the biggest of the lot. The Abrolhos hardbodies from Oceanside did the job, outfishing the brand name, and much more expensive, lures running alongside 4 to one.

Water temp down a bit, 23 point something, but nice and clear further north with a tide pushing down. Probably a really nice blue line out the front by now. Lots of bait on the surface but nothing hitting it apart from the odd patch of tiny tuna.

The missus and I did a session on Sunday near Rotto and managed to land a 147cm Sambo which picked up both our baits, one after the other.  We were thankful that it took both baits as neither ofus had the tackle to bring it in individually.  A story to tell the grandkids one day.

YouTube clip - https://youtu.be/ZRkbtHikUjc

 was a late solo start tonight, but still managed to get a feed of crabs and some mullet for bait... net was in the water by 7pm and out by 9pm (gave up at 9 as the big rays showed up) HEAPS of prawns kicking about atm so wouldn't take much to get a feed if that's your thing, also the sized crabs I caught had heaps of pink showing on their underbelly so should be packed with meat...

I know its a long shot but I am hoping for a sneaky bit of info if there are any dollies at the FADS as Saturday looks good and its a rare opportunity for me did not want to take a run out in hope, appreciate any info and may even drop a fillet off heheh.
cheers

A nice bag.  Dunny’s Dhu went 17.4kg.

 After looking at Little Johnny's swim posts, thought I better get keen and put on the snorkel and have a look, Occys where a bit elusive but was surprised by the numbers of Blue Manna crabs, saved a pretty windy morning with squid hard to come by. Ended up with the below and a bag of whiting. Thanks to Little Johnny for the posts of what is possible with a bit of knowledge and effort.

Whilst manning sea rescue today there was chatter on vhf of a broadbill lost out at the trench last night.....is it true and does anyone have more info 

Couple of fish from last night behind GI, snapper went 75cm and the flathead 42cm. Weather was awsome got the snapper around 6pm had another two runs which I think were rays (didn't get them to the boat). Expected the action to heat up as the sun went down but was very quiet just the flathead, lots of boats out for a Monday.

 with the best night we've had metro (last night) for a long time was only one day thing to do and that was fish! Arrived at hillarys at about 5pm and it was pretty busy, headed down to our spot and got set up. Was pretty slow for the first hour then about 6.30pm got bricked by a good fish. Just on sunset the snapper turned it on and we had good action for about an hour till the snook spoiled the party. 

Kept 4 fish around the 70cm Mark and released a heap just under 50cm. 

Spoke to a couple of people back at the ramp and both had fish. 

Nice arvo out of gracetown today 98cm and 1 m pbs for both  

Overcast, a bit misty,very light wind from the N, tide from the N, water temp 23.8, clarity looked Ok. Had the lures in the water for all of 3 or 4 minutes, and the centre rod went off, obviously a btter than average fish. My wife had the rod, gave her some curry. Eventually get a nice YFT of a good 18 kg alongside. I wish to release him, go for a tail grab---ambitious---he powers off out of my grip then suddenly the sharks were on him, lost the lot. Then one comes up and bashes the back of the boat and outboard twice.

So we take off for somewhere else, brief troll over one spot for nothing, go further up, see some boats where I was heading, get the lures in well before I get to them, double strike and one is immediately sharked. Stay hooked up on the other, also feels like a largish tuna, fight him for a while then snap off. So I am now down 3 lures for zero return.  

So keep trolling and eventually end up with 3 small mackerel, all the size of one shown and a small YFT. Dropped a few, returned a stripie. In at 9.30. Ended up 4 lures down for the morning, worst result ever here for me.

After hooking up only to be reefed 3 times in the last week at a local rock ledge it was nice to finally subdue the culprit. Went 125 cm a pb for me caught on balooned live herring

A bit late I know but was invited out on a mates ex cray boat to try and get an easy feed of skippy and kingis. Being doing ok of late mid week when the weather has been ok, which has been pretty much every Tuesday or Wednesday since Christmas.
The day before Oz day was great, plenty of skippy to 45cm and got onto a school of small kingi to ~65 cm. Those little buggers go hard in shallow water on the 4-8kg gear.
So we were thinking Thursday was going to be a cake walk and Tim who hadn’t been out in an age would be able to get a feed and have some fun. Best move was not taking the trailer boat to hillaries. Arrived at 7.45 to boats /cars backed up to the second roundabout on Hepburn Ave. Ive never seen it like that. Poor buggars…
Anyway we tootled out to a spot of Scarbs in 10m or so. Stunning day, burleyed up, but the bloody skippy decided to take the day off. Caught a couple eventually and a good kingi at 85cm on a drifting mullie, it played very nicely in the shallow for some reason which is the only reason I landed it on the 4-8kg. Hooked another and …well it just bricked me. Cracking good fun though.
Moved around a bit but stayed quiet for the rest of the morning. Unfortunately, the skipper lucked out, but took the fish home, so hopefully fed the clan and kept SWMBO happy.
A couple of shots of some Amberjacks (?) as well I think from the day before and a nice wee SBT from last week.

 Headed out with good mate Jack on thursday with the intention of getting in to some blueeye on jig and managed to smash a few good ones! All on slow pitch gear in 360ms.

 Put the tinny in at Bassendean but the river was muddy and no fish.I will try again when it clears up I am trying to get a shark 

First trip out with the old man since September last year ( He has been laid up due to injury) and managed to find a couple of fish. Started off in shallow waters south of Bunno figuring that there might be a few predators inshore chasing the crays but it was pretty quiet. Dropped a couple of solid fish early just after arrival at about 6.30 and then it went dead. Fish everywhere on the Furuno but didn't seem to matter what we dropped in front of them. Tried squid,occy,mulies,prawns,jigs and plastics but no go. Watched them on the sounder come up for a look at the bait then head back to the bottom without a touch.

Decided to cut our losses at 9am and headed for deeper water. Thought I would try out the 588's accufish feature having never tried it before (only had the unit for a few trips). Took the readings with a grain of salt but found an area with a "claimed" 50+cm fish so had a drop. Up came a 60cm Dhu. Nice!. Cruised along until the next decent reading - says 55cm fish. Dropped a couple of baits on it and soon landed another Dhu measuring a just legal 51cm. Thought about returning it as we were now seeing soundings on the drift that the Furuno claimed to be 70cm+ but we were pressed for time (had to do some work), and considering the Dhu's reputation for barotrauma we called it a day and headed for home. Big thumbs up from me for Furuno's accufish. I know most don't rate it but it was brilliant especially as I am still learning how to read the Furuno. Every little bit helps.

Also returned a few pinkies, the largest being 47cm, plus a couple of rays which gave us a workout.

Conditions were good, a great day on the water!

Was a nice night and home by 9.45pm, we would have stayed to get our 60 but we had a giant ray helping its self to our nets... 

i know it's not the best photo but you get the idea.

better than the other week! Scooped our 20 crabs in 15 minutes, good sizes and all hard.

now time to catch some fresh bait...

Does anyone know if there are any Mackerel in town yet?

 Fished Jurien on Thursday and Saturday. Australia Day was classic weather, but Northerly drift had sea anchor doing laps around the boat and lines heading in all directions, had out a lucky plastic that accounted for 2 Dhus on Thurs and one more on Sat, before I retired it. On retirement the next placky was taken by a small Sargent Baker, which in turn was engulfed by a big Dhu on a couple of occassions, but unfortunately did not find the hook, ended up with a couple of Baldies and Dhus on both days and the Reefrunner got to test her sea capabilities coming in on Sat in a serious Southerly blow from the bank. If your looking for a placky to try then this one was working in otherwise quiet conditions. Dhus went 8 & 9 kg both in great condition and fat. All in the 50's

Spent the last few weeks in Exmouth, First week was abit average weather wise which meant landbased was our only chance to wet a line. Fished the Marina a few times for no jacks which is abit strange and bundegi was quiet on queenies. Out on the boat we caught a few Billies (Blacks and Blues) with 1 being my first Blue around 100kg and lost a few larger models on 15kg. Came accross a few free swimmers also which is a good sight when throwing stickbaits and plastics at them to seem them light up and charge in but no hook ups unfortunately. Struggled on demersals with any good fish being hooked the noahs will swoop. Did manage to get a few though... Pearl Perch, Big Spangoes, Reds, red throats, dollies, chinaman and 8Bar.
Good to finally get out there and have a play on my new Raymarine ES128 also which Im very happy with.

 Water temps here finally look to have cracked the 23 mark, still tons of bait, but now a bit of action amongst it!

Big Longtail schools, but they don't seem interested in taking anything I can throw at them.

Australia day was a pearler with good weather ( praise the Lord!) for a change.

A nice trifecta of Spanish early and then we jumped off a beautiful Marlin somewhere around 200lb ( naturally it grabbed the 6Kg rig, my guesstimate is based on me being an ex Deckie  from the Cairns Marlin fleet)  it went ballistic, busted off, and then danced all over the ocean to toss the lure ....Adrenaline plus!!!

Saturday looks great as well, so we are having another crack in the morning....report to follow.

Land based mob.....I would be planning a WAgoe trip soon.Thats where we saw and landed most of our stuff.;-)

 Stumbled across some solid washed up mulloway the past few weeks around sandy beach reserve as pictured, also several discarded filleted mulloways along the river bank so they're pretty far up river! Most days I walk along the river I see bait fish jumping around so maybe some tailor have cruised up too!

Launched very early doors with uncle this morning for various reasons, firstly to beat the crowds and the heat and ultimately to troll up an early morning mack. No luck on the mack front but there was some good bait balls on the sounder so they hopefully wont be far away if the bait stays and the water warms a bit more. Another good sign was the lack of surface weed behind the three mile.

Heading back to Ocean Reef we came across a good school of SBT's giving some small bait a hammering. Managed to winkle one out on a 1oz leadhead but the rest had lockjaw. Finally cracked the code when we dropped down to 1/2oz leadheads. Good fun on the light gear.

Back home and in the pool by 10.

Happy Australia Day all!

 Gday fishoes 

has anybody got the latest model 150/175 hp Suzuki motors

just wondering if any one has had any issues with them and how they would rate them

am looking at buying 2 end of march

ive heard they are a very god motor so any feedback would be appreciated 

cheers 

DWAYNE 

Did a dawn run down to Mullaloo beach this morning with a few mates. One of the guys had seen someone doing ok on the Herring a few days earlier just out the front of the clubhouse so we set up there and had a play.

I was amazed at the different species we caught in a few hours. Herring, Whiting, Flathead, Silver Bream and a few baby Pink Snapper. (as well as the must have, a blowie)

All bar the herring was released with a couple of whiting going out as bait. Had a few hits on the whiting but no hookups so there must have been a chopper or two cruising past also.

Bluey with a little Silver Bream

Must have been the smallest snapper i have ever seen.

 Well our yearly run upto the Ningaloo area has been and gone. This year was a little different as we normally take the Tinny into Ningaloo Station. We left at 3am Boxing Day & stayed at Carnarvon on the way up and were in Coral Bay at about 10:30am the next day. Got a ripper tailwind up there.

The ripper tail wind wasn't so good when we got there though. New Years day was looking promising, so a few days on the beach with the kids was in order. Got out on New Years day a little rusty but keen. Went out the north passage and trolled out to the 70m area looking for fish on the sounder. Found a few healthy looking shows and dropped on them. The only thing I got past the sharks was a small Cod. The wind picked up, so I shot inside the reef for a Squid. Got the biggest Squid I've ever caught, it actually took off around the front of the boat and had me chasing it around the anchor line. While this was going on my unwaited bait got nailed by a nice Spango, so dinner was sorted.

Next day I did the same thing, out to the 70's this time I managed to get a nice Rankin past the grey coats. His mate on the bottom dropper wasn't so lucky though. Trolled back in as the wind had picked up and managed a nice little Spanish. Woo hoo finally got to test out my new Madfish Bag. Awesome bit of kit!

The 3rd of Jan. was looking to be the best day, I had promised the young fella a run, and so it was, the bay was glass. I trolled just outside the reef where I had picked up the Mackie the day before, no luck this time and with the youngun' on board I decided to go back inside the reef and target some Spanglies. I stopped the boat to rig up a couple of lighter rigs. I had only just finished his rig when a massive Whaler turned up at the back of the boat with about 6 or 7 Cobia hanging with him. So out goes an unwaited Whiting head and I watch a nice Cobia slurp it down and I'm on! A pretty quick fight really & we've got a nice Cobe in the boat. High fives allround, so I say to Scott "you keen to catch one?" he's all for it. So another bait in the water and bang he's on. His is fighting a lot harder than mine did. So Dad takes the rod thinking the shark had grabbed his. No just a better sized one, so I hand him back the rod and help him catch his best fish to date. Woo Hoo!! more high fives. I'm sweating like a pig by this stage so we left mister Sharkie with 2 less hangers on.

We came back inside the reef and picked up 3 more nice Spango's. Another fish added onto Scott's growing list of catches, he's got a bit of a knack. The wind came up again for a few more days. So back to the beaches, it's a hard life. I went out solo again on the 9th and got 3 more good Spanglies. My mum was keen to get onto the Spanglies so the 10th was our last day before leaving for home on the 11th. Mum and Scott joined me for another session on the Spanglies inside the reef. It was a bit quiet at the first spot and the little terns and fish smashing bait only a couple of hundred metres away was getting the better of Scott. He practically begged me for him to have a cast at the commotion. So we idled over to what I thought were small Longtails. I cast out for Scott as he couldn't quite get the distance. Handed him the rod and told him to wind as fast as he could. Got smashed on the first cast in about 4m of water, turned out to be Shark Mackeral, another new species for him. Loved watching him pinned in the back corner grimacing as these little speedsters took off! I let him catch & release 2 then went looking for another spot to try. I think we ended the day with 6 Spango's a Red throat and another nice Squid.

So even though there was a fair bit of wind about up there, we still managed a few nice fish. A few red fish would of topped it off nicely. Great spot, might have to try and talk the missus into going again next year.

Cheers

Chris.

Not much being posted lately so thought I would do my first ever after being a long time reader here.
Not a post about big duhies or sambos sadly but a few fish none the less.
I mostly fish the 3 mile off and around Hillaries targeting Skippy on light gear (and anything else I can get) which is awesome fun and not bad to eat too IMO. Had a few good trips in the last few weeks when the wind has allowed it.
Anyway have just been burlying up in 7-15 m along the reef in a few spots and waiting for them to turn up. Was having a ball with my adult son 2 wks ago catching 40cm skippy when amongst all the excitement a few Kingis turned up. Not sure who was more excited me or the kingis chasing the skippy, me I suspect haha.
I didn’t have any live baits to throw out so just lobbed a half mulie on my 4-8kg gear, hoping for the best and hooked a couple amongst the skippy -who were now getting full of burley and going of the bite. Managed to land one kingi (see attached movie -75cm) and got smashed by its bigger brother.
The movie is the last bit of the fight, unfortunately missed the first long runs, but he played nicely and kept out of the reef. Man they go off!
The trip last week I was lucky enough to have a small school of SBT ( I think) moving into casting range. Ive seen them working on previous trips but can never get close enough to them to have a cast. Well these ones did it for me and my first cast was hit immediately, not big fish (55cm) but on my bream gear was almost out of control. It was turned into very delicate sushi and sashimi over the next few days. The skippy played the game as well and got a feed of them.
Funnily enough ½ dozen 60-80cm kingis were following the tuna around at the boat. Of course they had buggered off by the time I got it in the boat!
Each trip there has been plenty of good sized skippy as well, I thought they were mainly a winter target in close but has been a lot of fun lately. Maybe the cooler water has kept them around, although noticed it was 22.5 last week so warming up a bit. Anyway bloody good fun and made more enjoyable during the week when the ramp is not so ridiculously busy!
Hope you enjoy the vid -if the link works- maybe copy and paste if it doesn't. Sorry the photos are crappy :(

Cheers

https://youtu.be/ewkO7afvYQQ