Bluewater Road Trip - Giant Herring Bonanza and GT Cameo

Bluewater owner Hal Harvey and Bluewater Melville store manager Nick Bailey drove to Dampier this week to do a presentation to the Nickol Bay Sportfishing and King Bay Game Fishing Clubs. They were showing the latest and greatest in giant trevally tackle, and some new products from Richter Lures and Pakula Tackle.

That's about a 16-hour drive to get there, so given that it had to be broken up a bit, what better place to break it up but where you might find giant herring, spanish mackerel and big tailor on the bite.

The midwest was the first stop, and Nick scored his first giant herring (right) in a busy session that saw dozens of fish caught and released. Hal also landed his personal best giant herring (below). 

The next morning was a session throwing poppers and stickbaits from a deserted beach for tailor, but they weren't about in such numbers. Nick did catch and release his biggest-yet tailor in Western Australia (left), but he still has a bigger one from a Victorian location to better.

Spanish mackerel from the rocks was next on the agenda, and while the spaniards were definitely abundant, the sharks were fast and furious and it was obviously going to be a matter of luck to beat them. Rather than lose lures and feed sharks, the boys headed north to Dampier.

After a good night with the club members, local angler Len Vertigan took Nick and Hal out for a session on Wednesday around Legendre  and Hauy Islands to test out some of this GT gear. Nick had a difficult day you might say. He dropped two GTs and only staying connected to one fish which proved to be a shark mackerel - an unusual catch on a big popper.

Hal had a better day. He dropped two GTs and succeeded with another two - one of which came on a Black Jack Cubera popper (below), and the other on a Black Jack Wahoo stickbait.

Thanks went to Len, and the boys were back in the truck for a run back to Perth without a fishing stopover, though the turnoff to Quobba was very tempting on Wednesday night. Would have been perfect conditions for a morning spin session at the Boundary too. They report there are plenty of cattle on the road at night if you happen to be travelling around Carnarvon, all of which they avoided, although there is one less kangaroo than there used to be.

***

Sea Surface Temperature Presentation

The Perth Game Fishing Club is pleased to welcome the Founder and owner of the Seasurface.com website, John Payne.

John will be doing an audio visual presentation centred around the benefits of satellite derived SST and water colour images and their relevance to game fishing. His experience includes many years dealing with professional and recreational fishers across the country.

Another good reason for going along is that there will be a 1 year unlimited access subscription to SST offered as a door prize, along with several free trial subscriptions and Strikezone DVDs and caps.

As usual there will be food provided and a cash bar.

Members and guests free, others $10.00.

To assist in catering please RSVP to Rhyss Whittred on 0400 122878.

The Marlin Cup presentation will be made during the evening

Venue - Royal Perth Yacht Club Annex - Mews Road Fremantle from 5:45pm.

***

In Pursuit - Special Edition (Ranfurly Bank)

New Zealand charter skipper Rick Pollock flicked through this invite for anglers keen to join him on a trip to the Ranfurly Bank...

In early July we have a three day Ranfurly Bank trip which is several people short. Traditionally this is an excellent time to visit the bank for all the abundant bottom species (hapuka, bass, bluenose, trumpeter etc) as well as kingies with the outside chance of a large albacore trolling. There is a four day window to run the three day trip starting on Monday evening June 29th and ending Friday July 3rd. We would select the best three days according to the weather to ensure the productivity of the trip. It's also an excellent lunar phase - half moon to minimize tidal movements.

If any of you are keen to join in, it's ideally suited for individuals or small groups. Please contact us for further information if you are interested. Hope to see some of you onboard "PURSUIT" then.

Rick & crew  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

***

Here's a preview of this week's Sunday Times fishing report:

 METROPOLITAN

Swanbourne Primary's Steve Logue read the column on Sunday morning before heading out in the boat. As a result he tried for squid first - they were going nuts! His trusty old, extremely sad looking jig had 4 hits straight away.

His crew then came across a school of undersize snapper with our fresh squid bait - good fun to catch and release. They encountered about 13 species all up including yellow tail, pike, herring etc though mostly small.

Topped it off with a couple of KGs - one was an absolute ripper. Great day to be out and thanks to the column for the help!

Garfish and herring have been around in vast numbers. Cottesloe and City Beach have been herring hot spots with mornings best. Woodman Point and North Mole were among better garfish sites. Trigg and Brighton Road are holding a few tailor with small schools of small salmon hunting these areas as well. Just the odd salmon nabbed off northern rock walls. Bluewater Scarborough's David Holbery has bagged flathead and cobbler from local beaches while his colleague Jared Lofts boated some nice size bronze whalers while fishing out from the northern marinas.

Rottnest is still the spot for salmon with plenty around. Smaller kings have been near Rottnest's West End with some lunkers not far away, Peter Riley trolling up a half dozen to 15kg.

 Deep water fishers are finding jewfish scarce. Some are coming from fairly close to shore in around 20m of water with others from 50m and deeper. Breaksea cod are more prolific with many of them excellent size fish. There are heaps of small pink snapper close in. Direction Bank was just one place to turn up baldchin groper with others reporting catches of them right down into Cockburn Sound. Herring, garfish and squid have been plentiful in the sound shallows. There are also harlequin fish offshore. Mat Johnson and Clayton Els had a good day when they found a small drop-off 500 metres out from Mindarie Marina - catching several good size skippy.

Fishmarket Reserve is suggested as the best spot for chasing black bream in the Swan.

MANDURAH

Mandurah has been a similar story to Perth with garfish abundant. The Dawesville Cut a hotspot with no shortage of herring there too. Odd small schools of salmon are popping up at the mouth of the Cut, White Hills and Tims Thicket.

A few jewfish were coming in from well offshore wuith skippy a terrific target on reef country. Five Fathom Bank and James Service Reef have been worth a go. 

Neil Grant and Corry McCarthy won a local Pirtek Fishing Challenge by catching some fair sized bream in the Murray. Crabbing around the estuaries is quiet although some king prawns are about on the run-out tide at night.  

JURIEN

Bottom bouncing has been a bit quiet but whole fish baits are doing the trick. Jurien Seasports' Matt Low bagged a 10kg pink snapper by using a whole mullet. Jewfish are well offshor with an 18kg fish caught from 100m of water. Baldchin and breaksea cod are widespread. So too tuna are in good numbers with big eyes to 20kg and striped tuna everywhere. Craig White reckons the spanish mackerel continue to go "troppo" with one weighing 21kg.

Squid are a highlight with Shingle Avenue and Planets Jetty worth a try. Tailor are biting at Island Point with herring and sand whiting reliable. Yellowtail kingfish are another exciting species in the area. Snook to a metre plus were caught behind Bollinger Island.

White and friends ventured way out to try for marlin, catching an 8kg dolphin fish and seeing a marlin free jumping right near them.

EXMOUTH

The Exmouth newsletter is back, and can be viewed here.