Headed out with a strong easterly behind us and it wasn't too long before a couple of black arse and an 80cm dhu were onboard.

The wind began to settle and I decided to make the most of it and push out to the 70s and search for new ground near where I had recently caught a 16kg dhu.

Heading west at 30 knots thru the 50's where it's usually quite barren in the corner of my eye I spotted a tiny bit of fluff on the furuno. Instantly did a u-turn and sounded up the area.

Nice small lump in 57m of water, no bigger than a car, perfect scenario for perhaps the holy grail that no one has been over or at least managed to spot it at speed.

No fish showing but I don't look for fish, I strongly believe in if you find the ground you will find the fish regardless of whether you can see fish on the sounder or not (unless the spots been flogged of course).

The wind was dropping and variable swinging around making a drift with the sea anchor not ideal and hard to get right. 

I made the call to hold the boat on top of the spot, with my left hand controlling the throttle and my Murasame rod with a saltiga LD40 in my right hand I dropped my bait down. Literally within 30 secs my bait gets hit by a Mack truck and my rod loads up nicely, none of the usual suck and spit and playing with the bait like I find dhuies like to do, this fish nailed the bait and then took off.

I could feel the big paddle tail surges with every run so I was confident I had a big dhu hooked up, took a bit to convince the fish to get off the bottom but once I did I backed the drag right off and let it run as much as it wanted to. It fought all the way up to about 15m from the surface, the water was green so I couldn't see any colour until it was about 5m from the surface, it looked big.

Classic big air bubble purge as it came up, it was a dhu, a big dhu, but was it the magic 20 kegga that I've been trying to catch for many years (previous best dhu was 17.5kg). The fish hit the surface and the first thing that stood out wasn't the length, yeah it was long and over 1m but what stood out was the size of the head, shoulders and girth of the fish.

I looked at my deckie and we both said at the same time that's gotta be 20 surely? Amongst some swear words. Of all days you forget the gopro.

It was a new personal best dhu for me, I had spent so much time on the south coast thinking that's where I would have the best chance of a 20 plus dhu but it turns out it was my own backyard that I would achieve the goal of a 20 plus dhu.

108cm long and weighed 23.35kg. Fish was weighed at the ramp with a small crowd of other fishermen watching including fisheries officers that inspected me, they didn't bother to measure it.

Photos don't do this dhu justice, first stop on the way home was a trip to see my dad, talk about a proud father/son moment.
 

 Two drifts same area!

 Up in kalbarri with the wife and young bloke for 3 days then heading off to Monkey Mia for 8 nights. 

Went out for a for a fish today to prove to the wife mackeral do exist Haha, had the lures out for a bit by sand patch for no luck, decided to drop a line and the missus hooked onto a pinkie but unfortunately was just under but she wall still stocked! Moments later I landed a nice sized one so that's dinner for the night

Towed the Reefrunner to Exmouth for her maiden Gamex, had our first Black at 80kg tagged at 10am Sunday so Monkey was off the back with no chance of Donuts for the competition. Monday nothing, than a Sail on Tuesday before an incredible 3 days of big fish teaching us a lesson. Was smashed by two big fish on Wednesday before finally tagging a beautiful striped Marlin Thursday. Friday morning was an amazing day going 8,8,3 with a smaller Black at 40kg a Blue at 120kg, and finally a solid Black at 140kg, Nor easter was savage all morning making it even sweeter in the 21 footer in amoungst the big boats. Now I know why you fish 80s with 37 kg as often we thought we had brought sticks to a gun fight, especially one fish on Wednesday that took a short corner and we all went F@ck how big was that as it smoked a 50w on 24kg before we could clear the deck. Last afternoon we were down to 3 outfits of 5 which worked in our favour.

Ended with figures of 19,19,6 with 8 big fish teaching us a lesson on 30w, 50w, and Talica 50. Towed bigger lures at 8-10knots with plenty of memories of some insane reel screaming hookups. Cant wait till next year as will be more prepared for the craziness that is Marlin fishing.

All fish were measured with tape from lower jaw to inside tail middle to estimate weights and called in conservative.

Big shout out to all the volunteers that make Gamex the incredible week it is.

 Went out with a boat company owned by Hervey bay Sportfishing. Easiest boat hire i have been own sounder full of spots and had a great day on the water. 

Landed 3 mack tuna one spotty 1 longtail.

Had a big golden trevally eaten next to the boat by a big shark.

Same with a few mackeral.

Lost about $200 worth of lures 

Alot of fun on the 3000 stradic nice to be back on the water after selling our renegade 490 6 months ago.

Highly recommend cost  $380 that inlcuded a minn kota with spot lock and fuel. You literally just hop on and off boat gets washed launched and cleaned for you 

Headed out for the monthly comp with Johno yesterday.  It was an interesting start given the Rotto swim was on and the ramp was quite busy.  One guy in a support boat decided that the best place to rig up was actually in the line-up to the ramps and probably had 50m of empty road in front of him, with the waiting boats starting to clog up the roundabout at Hepburn!  Nevertheless, patience is the key and it was a fairly uneventful launch albeit a bit slower than normal for 5.40am.

The plan was to visit a few inshore reefs first up to see if we could find some tailor.  We were hopeful as the start time coincided with around sunrise, the water still had the residual chop from the wind the night before, and was a little dirty.  We arrived at the first reef, and Johno noted that the water looked fishy whilst I noted that it looked a little treacherous with a relatively low tide, exposed reef, submerged bommies, craypot floats and ropes and the occasional bigger swell wave coming through.  This was not a place for larger boats or anchoring, but having a small boat we decided to get in and hold the relatively small position available with constant use of the engine.  The southerly around 10kn didn’t help our cause, but I have a bit of experience of “holding” with the boat and it seemed worth a crack, if only for a short time to see if they were there – it is always hit and miss with the inshore reefs as they all seem to hold the schooling tailor at some time but experience is that you have to be lucky to be there when they are.

We had some fresh scalies that I had got at market on Friday.  Johno had the relatively light 12lb gear and out when the fresh one on a 4/0 gang.  Well, it didn’t take long and it was smashed and a nice 2lb+ tailor came to the boat.  It was pretty entertaining seeing the fight as we were in nasty country with plenty of reef and tailor are such an angry hard fighting fish that will head for cover.  Johno, in his first 20+ years, never really liked fishing but now he does and it was good to see him tested in this way.

From there, it just kept getting better.  The school was in, they were feeding, the fish were good size and every bait was getting hammered pretty much as soon as it hit the water.  I had to catch my own fish, and Johno is not experienced enough to take the boat in those conditions, so it was a bit of a challenge to land my fish but no problem hooking them.  I got my 3 (2 over 50cm), and then Johno bagged out and we left them alone.  It was a fairly epic 45 minutes and a session we will both remember for quite a while.

We looked after our fish and they were placed in a salt ice slurry as soon as they were caught.  As I have noted before, I don’t really eat fish and tailor is certainly not on my list.  It was really pleasing that I managed to find “multiple homes” for the fish and they were all eaten fresh.  It was also good that WA Fisheries were at the club and they processed all of the tailor we had under the Send Us Your Skeletons program.  They even took the cheek flesh for genetic testing.  The biggest fish was 1.65kg, and they were all over 1kg.

We fished the rest of the comp for a fairly unimpressive return in increasingly windy conditions, but with the tailor session first up it didn’t really matter.  We are very lucky to have such a healthy fishery right on our doorstep.

 Caught my bucket list fish on Saturday at rfw5 fad. Landed 2 , dropped 2 before wind picked up and we called it quits. Large one measured 1020 , smaller one 850. Cheers 

After sitting in a huge queue for nearly an hour to launch we got to our spots around 8.00 am WNW on direction bank in the 30 -40m marks. First drop in and got an undersize pinky straight away, we all thought great gonna be good day then after that nothing till 11am. Fish all over the sounder, nothing big biting. Went out to the 70 -80's and found some good coral. Got 3 big baldies,1 big breaksea, a queen snapper (put back) a few undersize pinkies and small nannygai, small flat head. Went dead so we came back in to 30- 40m zone for a couple of hours for nothing. Fish all over the sounder but no takers. So in the end came home with 4 keepers between the three of us. How did others go out off two rocks ? slow for you as well?

How would that guy feel. Working on old ex military house. Digging stump out found 7.5 kilo gold bar in back yard. Be interesting to see how it unfolds

Hi all, gonna head out of two rocks to direction bank early sunday morning, haven't been out there since last summer, anybody got a recent report on where you found some fish ie what depths to have a look in - we usually hit up the 30's - 40's metre area just wondering if should go deeper this time of year cheers for any advice

 Got onto the Snapper with Heath on Tuesday morning on sunrise. All over by 7am. Boat went well, Snapper went hard, biggest 79 cm. All caught on Scalies and heaps of burley...

 Got onto the Snapper with Heath on Tuesday morning on sunrise. All over by 7am. Boat went well, Snapper went hard, biggest 79 cm. All caught on Scalies and heaps of burley...

 Bit slow to put this up, but had a fairly successful day with two of us fishing in the 40s from Hillarys on Saturday. Little bronzey for fish and chips, two good baldies and a decent breaksea. Surprise was a beast of a flathead. Measured 57cm. My biggest by far. Unfortunately no sign of the ever elusive dhu though!

bonus when pulling the pots on the way in. Total 16 crays. 4 undersize went back.

 Anyone had any recent luck in the Swan River catching Blue Manna Crabs?

I cleaned up late February 2020 & wanted to know if they are in earlier this year

Last year were big full crabs

 Got into a few early then had a visit from the police doing safety checks where I became aware our flares had expired and I was directed to return to base with a caution. Reminder to stay on top of this.

 Another Christmas holiday at Coalmine caravan park done and dusted. The persistent easterly blow made the water activities feel like a winter get away. We did manage to sneak out of the river mouth on the first morning (was pretty rugged out there) and get into a few fish including a solid Dhu which fed the hordes back at camp. I didn’t even get a yellowfin whiting flats session this year as the weather gods didnt play the game. Even with the wind the inlet mouth is one of the best spots for the kids to run free. The pic with the skippy was one of the windier days blowing 25- 30 knots making for a wet inlet crossing and a very sparsely populated quiet inlet mouth. Only a couple of glassy mornings this year for the early birds, but always worth getting up early to see. New years eve was the pic of the days on the water.

 Took the Mrs and the kids for a scenic trip on the morning of New Year's Eve.

Launched at Point Peron (Had to park out on the main road at 6:30am was so busy!) and drove around the point and into Seal Island to look at some Seals.

They put on a good show, me and the Mrs got in the water with them and they were darting around like clowns, coming up really close in the water and then doing big barrel rolls and racing around.

We anchored up there for probably an hour and the kids started to get a bit bored and wanted to go for a fish, straight out the back of the island found same sand and dropped some long shank red hooks with lamb heart (couldnt get oxe heart) and with one drift we had managed 14 nice sand whiting, that was enough, motor back to Point Peron and back home.

Got little miss to clean her first fish which she actually loved doing! Yes!

I finished up the filleting and the kids went down for a nap, then fish wraps for dinner.

I would highly recommend for anyone trying to get their young ones into enjoying the boat and fishing, we were on the water for no more than 3 hours and they loved it!

It can be a little bit dicey getting to the East side of Seal Island from the West but from my Sea Rescue days I remembered to get close to the North Side of the island and there is a rock that sticks out of the water on most days, to the North of this you're good for abour 50m wide I reckon.

Over the break also managed a couple of fish, got my old man out for a fish and got him onto the biggest black bum I've ever seen! Managed a couple of sized dhus too but I think the breaksea was the highlight for me (and possible for the old boy too).

for anyone local to the area looking to stretch the arms, Fished the beach just north of Portofinos (north of the netted off swimming area) early am on the 28/12/20 and was busted off by two sharks. had about 7 feet of leader and the tail rubbed through the mainline so im guessing it was about 7 foot. Hooked another one about 30 mins later, same thing happened.

Both took about 250-300m of line (40lb 4s Jbraid) before i was able to turn them around then pop!. I guess the funny thing is i was only using a single 8/0 circle hook and medium size mullet fillet and only casting about 30/50 metres at most. Seems like the sharks are really hungry and close in. Scary stuff.

Had plenty of sharks up at Eden Beach at sunset/sunrise but to think they're coming into a flat, near featureless beach like the one at Quinns is pretty wild.

Be careful out there....

Finally got out and caught a few nice Kg's. 5 crays also. Happy Days...

It has been quite a while since I lasted posted any catch report here.

This covid pandamic has caused many difficult times and problems for everyone around the world.

As the global flights ceased due to covid , all businesses which includes my own fishing tour business in Thailand are greatly affected.

Hope everyone of you guys here in fishwrecked are safe and good.

Let's hope everything will be back to normal soon after the vaccine is out in 2021.

I managed to sneak out and fish with my fishing buddy in Thailand for a 2 days days fishing trip for our annual goonch trip.

The water conditon was not in our favor as the yearly monsoon just ended. The water clarity was rather mulky. not good for casting and luring.

We cut short our fishing trip early but we still managed to catch the different species fishes what we came for.

We would have caught more if the water condition were much better than this.

You can watch the full video in my youtube channel below:

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiAx6JowwIY&t=21s

 Managed to sneak out yesterday morning with the the father inlaw behind FFB in around 30m and bag a nice few feeds of whiting and gather some quaility bait for when the ban lifts.

Thanks god for the scaler bags!!!

Headed out on Saturday with my eldest for a fish in the club comp.  Conditions were pretty ordinary early with the easterly blowing 20-25kn so headed close to shore and had a good look around Trigg Island (definitely going to go back and fish the area on dawn or dusk).  Just “rubbish fish” so when the wind dropped a bit we headed out a mile or so to find some whiting.

Anchored up in 10m, burley out and within 2 minutes John hooked a nice gummy on a small 40g Vexed Bottom Meat with mullet fillet.  He wasn’t that friendly when we got him on the boat but we eventually subdued it into the esky.

The bite was slow all day and we had to work pretty hard for fairly low numbers.  The classic was later in the arvo when we burlied up a bommie north of Hillarys and could see schools of skippy and herring around the boat but it was very hard to get them to take anything (multiple baits and multiple rigs tried).  We did get a few, but it took a lot of effort.  As is usually the case when the bite is slow, there were plenty of low quality fish and we got sick of taking them off and throwing them back.  John did manage 6 species on the list for the day (gummy, flathead, sand whiting, skippy, herring and snook), that tied for the most, in what was generally a pretty slow day all round.

The gummy weighed in at just over 6kg and around 1.1m in length. Thanks to Kev for showing us the right way to fillet it, and the flesh was as good as any fish when we cooked it up.  Might have to target them from now on!

Been  a few Sandy posts lately. One of my favourite fish and always keen to see how big people are getting them. I measure my biggest whiting on the bench and reckon anything over 310mm is a konker sandy. Generally lose a couple of mm after being in the scaling bag and the ice slurry. They where on the chew this morning with plenty around the magic 300 mm mark, never get sick of filleting a bag.

 Some nice Sand Whiting around at the moment. 

Got this feed with the wife out off Rockingham. 

 Few salmon hanging around the cut this morning. Was a bit of fun.

 Went out to the honey hole this morning and got a few Crays, have a look at the eye on this fella, anyone seen that before?

Pies no show!!! So many highlights where do we start. 

 Last night when I was starting to think about going to bed I flicked through my phone looking at this site and then Facebook I noticed a last minute cancellation on jazz and they were looking to fill it I thought I'd I'm lucky enough for it to be still available I will go 5 mins later I'm setting an alarm for 3:30 in the morning. The first hour or 2 were very slow fishing I think we saw 1 undersized snapper, well that changed very quickly I think there were about 8 people hooked up at once and then again when we dropped back down easily the craziest session I have seen. 

 Managed a couple of hours on Sat afternoon. Caught a few, this was the biggest. My new secret spot carefully chosen to be out of the breeze and in the sun. Fished about 6 spots and caught 15 or so fish. 

 Went out this morning in pretty crappy conditions for us to check our pots we were only able to get 2 pots up other 2 were stuck one pot had afew other was loaded.