Mark Rochfort skippers Shorefire Charters from Xmas Island, and every now and then teases us with some of the great fishing not far from his island home. Having seen some of the latest catches on our website, he sent us this through the week - 

Dave Nielsen is an extremely keen angler. He works for the local shire during the week, but on weekends you can bet that Dave will be out on the water before the sun rises.

It was on one such Sunday that Mark, just arriving at one of his favourite jigging spots, watched Dave battle what both men thought was a really big shark. To their mutual amazement, this gigantic dogtooth finally surfaced. Dave has commendable fishing ethics and he was keen to try and release the beast. Mark jumped over from his boat and the two spent an hour trying every method they knew to get the "big guy" to swim away. Now anyone who has caught big doggies in deep water will tell you, it is virtually impossible to revive such a large specimen and unfortunately this proved to be the case. Finally the fish was hoisted aboard for some photos after which Dave promptly returned to the boat ramp and handed it to local Malay families.

For the records, Dave stands in at 6'4", just to give you an idea of the size, and Mark estimated the fish to be around 85kg. Details of the capture are also extraordinary. It was taken trolling a Halco 2m diving Laser Pro 190 in a Bonito pattern. It obviously took the lure near the surface, swam around on the top for a while before taking a massive dive towards the bottom. It was at this time that Dave thought the small fish he had hooked had been sharked. We do not see big doggies like this taken trolling, especially not at this time of day.

Now, we don't usually post reports of fish here that aren't caught on "Shorefire", but I'm sure that you will agree that a fish like this deserves acknowledgement and we thank Dave for letting us be involved in his spectacular effort.

To see some of the other great captures from Xmas Island, check out Mark's website here.

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Blue Juice Charters have now arrived at the Abrolhos Islands and there are still a few spots remaining on upcoming charters.

The current available dates are as follows:

April

* Tues 14th - Thur 16th (3 days) - 1 place available

May

* Sun 3rd - Tue 5th (3day) - 2 places available
* Tues 12th - sat 16th (5 days) - 4 places available
* Tues 26th - sat 30th (5 days) - 4 places available

 June

* Mon 22nd - Wed 24th (3 days) - 8 places available
* Tue 30th - Thur 2nd (3 days) - 10 places available

 July

* Sat 4th - Mon 6th (3 days) - 2 places available
* Wed 8th - Sat 11th (4 days) - 6 places available

The Abrolhos Islands are an amazing place to fish, and the3, 4 and 5 day fishing trips are fully catered. The only requirement is to bring sleeping bag, pillows and toiletries.

Freezers below deck keep your catch fresh for the trip. Blue Water is also fitted with outriggers which should be put to good use  this year chasing spanish mackerel, tuna and sailfish. Bottom fishing is also on the agenda.

Blue Juice Charters can be contacted on (08) 9203 5111 or via  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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Heres this week's Sunday Times fishing report...

METROPOLITAN

Bread and butter fisherman are enjoying a bumper year for chasing garfish and herring with both species prolific right along the coast. Cottesloe's Grant Street Reef and northern marina walls are working especially well. Tailor fishing has been better from beaches to the north. One fellow fishing North Mole for smaller fish spotted a couple of pink snapper and changed gear to land a 4.5kg pinkie. Samson fish are joining the fray from the back of the Three Mile and are being frequently hooked from among pink snapper schools. The sambos are up to 10kg, Some of the pinkies have been caught quite close to shore while bottom bouncers after jewfish are having to move further out to find fish.

Small boat anglers basing themselves off Fremantle are coming back with terrific mixed bags with king george and squid prominen. The quantity of squid in Cockburn Sound has also improved and a few of them are mooching about East Fremantle . Garfish and smaller herring featured for dinghy fishers towards the bottom of Cockburn Sound with heaps of them buzzing about spots like the Grain Terminal. Big storm garfish were a hit from the North Mole.

Try a whitebait on a small gang of hooks for tarwhine in the lower parts of the Swan such as Mosman and East Fremantle. Bigger bream seem to be hanging around Bandyup/Guildford waters.

MANDURAH

Hopefuls after crabs will have their work cut out with poor reports coming from the region, but fishing is going especially well for tailor, herring and garfish from virtually all beaches to the north and south of town.

Offshore jewfish chasers have located good fish in only 20m of water and around the Five Fathom Bank. Smaller boats fishing closer to shore found herring and garfish. 

Bream are hammering baits and lures in the lower parts of the Murray River.

GERALDTON

Members of the Geraldton Angling Club joined fishers from the Northampton and Champion Bay Clubs for a combined fishing/social outing and a range of species were caught. The catch included mulloway to 6kg, herring, tailor, threadfin salmon, flathead, cobbler, yellowfin and sand whiting, small sharks and two species of dart. Some fishers ventured to Wagoe where excellent conditions allowed most to catch Spanish mackerel up to 12kg. Many tuna were also about - the best of those around 20kg.

South of Wagoe tailor and mulloway also featured in shore catches. Halfway Bay and Sandalwood both working well for those species with plenty of whiting and dart around too. Port Gregory yielded herring, chopper tailor, whiting and squid from the jetty.

Reports indicate that Coronation Beach and Drummonds are firing for whiting, herring and tailor while closer to Geraldton herring are prolific behind the Live Cray Factory. The bigger fish are biting on and after sunset. There are also some tailor, skippy and whiting about and the odd report of mulloway. A few whoppers have been landed, both south of town and near the Lives. Pages Beach and Sunset Beach are other mulloway hotspots. There are numbers of blue manna crabs around town with shore fishers pulling up some as they retrieve baits.Boat fishing around Geraldton has been patchy with a few jewfish and coral trout in close. Around the Abrolhos outstanding baldchin action has been found with many baldies over 7kg. Mackerel were active all around the place with fish from 8kg to 20kg caught. Many tuna schools are in the area and coral trout are providing good sport on surface lures.

Michael Triantopolous from Geraldton Sports Centre was one of the lucky ones to fish the islands and used large bibless minnows to jig for coral trout. He also took  baldchin and mackerel.

 
EXMOUTH

This week's Exmouth newsletter can be viewed here.