John Willis visited our Scarborough store before a trip to PNG, and reports he has been putting his new gear to good use on some tough sportfish.

He has been giving his baitcaster a flogging on black and spot-tail bass, and christened his Daiwa Dogfight reel and Shimano T-Curve rod on a nice GT.

With such tough fish to test out the gear, we are expecting a lure order soon to replenish John's tackle box!

***

Perth Game Fishing Club member Dave Gray encountered a very silly kingfish at Rottnest recently. 

He was berleying up some nice skippy on a close in lump when he first hooked the little king and noticed an old tag in its back. Inserting a new tag, he let the fish go - only to catch it again after moving 200 metres.

But Dave's encounters with the little fish weren't over, because two weeks later he brought it to the boat for the thrid time!

***

Duncan Brown had some great weather and equally good fishing up at the Monte Bellos recently, with a variety of reef and billfish. Here's some pics from his trip...

***

Those who watch the news on West Australian rock lobster will be well aware that there has been some disturbing news on the research fron this past year. The measure by which future seasons are predicted, three and four years in advance, is the puerulus settlement index, measured at various points along the relevant coastline. This past season, the settlement was startlingly low; which logically meant that the cray season in 2012-2013 was going to be a tragedy.

Maybe not: consider this conversation in Parliament recently, while examining budget estimates for Fisheries for the next year...

Mrs L.M. HARVEY: Have any inroads been made into the cause of the low numbers of puerulus this year?

Mr S.J. Smith: A lot of our research effort is going into the explanation for it, and not just in Western Australia. Others have had input as well. At this stage we do not know definitely what the reason is. The past couple of seasons have been down on the average. The collection levels were not a surprise, because we had relatively poor Leeuwin currents, which traditionally indicates relatively poor settlements. This season the Leeuwin current has been strong, and a good current, so we were expecting a much higher collection level. The most plausible explanation at the moment - I say "at the moment" - is that there were two events. One is an Indian Ocean dipole event, and the other is a La Niña event. I do not know the details behind them. Dr Fletcher can probably elaborate on them if necessary. These two events coinciding in one season is most unusual, in that it tends to occur once every decade or few decades, if I am correct. Dr Fletcher will correct me if I am wrong. However, it is a rare occurrence when those two events coincide. When they do, we typically get very strong easterly winds and storm events, as we did during the past season, at the same time as the puerulus are at the top of the water column. So, instead of going some hundreds of kilometres offshore, they probably went thousands of kilometres offshore - too far to return back to settle in inshore areas. As I said, that is the theory at the moment. It is consistent with past low collection levels in Western Australia and with events in other states around Australia also where those sorts of conditions occur. As I said, it appears to be the most plausible explanation. We will have a good idea by the end of this year, we expect, for next season. It is certainly more plausible than some of the other theories that have been put forward.

Dr K.D. HAMES: Does Dr Fletcher want to add to or subtract from any of those comments?

Dr R. Fletcher: For clarification, it is the first time in the 30 years that we have been monitoring both those events that they have occurred at the same time. I suppose that is the major reason why that is one of the most plausible events. With La Niña, El Niño, Indian dipole and non-Indian dipole - the various matrixes - there is only one measurement in that matrix. That is one of the areas where we are looking to see whether that is consistent in the future. We also have a new research project to look at the other things that settle on the puerulus collectors to see whether those same environmental effects are affecting other animals that settle back onto those collectors. The anecdotal information from our people who collected it suggested that there were not many things at all on the collectors this year, not just that there were not many rock lobster puerulus. It could be that all or a number of species were similarly affected.

Dr K.D. HAMES: I have to say that that is the first sensible possible explanation that I have heard.

***

Here's a preview of this week's Sunday Times fishing column...

METROPOLITAN 

Ben and Joff Weston had both a good fishing day and quite a unique marine experience out from Hillarys on the weekend. Ben boated some quality jewfish with Joff's best a 12.5kg jewie. The pair added breaksea cod, baldchin and a very nice king george to the catch. While in water 35 to 40m deep, the pair were visited by young minke whales and at one point four of the inquisitive creatures were around the boat. Even after motoring away, the whales followed. Quite a few sharks have been encountered by boating groups well offshore and samson fish have created a stir with the back of the Three Mile holding a few. Yellowtail kingfish are adding to the mayhem at times. Country around the Gemini Wreck out from Mindarie has been a samson fish and yellowtail king hotspot. Skippy fishing is excellent near offshore reefs including the Three Mile.

Garfish abound for shore fishers with fair skippy activity adjacent to rock walls. Pilch are appearing at northern suburbs marinas with squidding a feature at the likes of Hillarys and just offshore. The Fremantle area is also yielding terrific squid from rock wall spots including South Mole. Cockburn Sound is holding plenty. Yanchep beaches gave up the odd tailor and mulloway while sand whiting were everywhere.

Bayswater is among the better areas to pursue black bream in the Swan.

LANCELIN 

Hardy souls are fishing way into the night well north of town - soaking large baits and picking up fair sized mulloway for their efforts. Most of the mulloway are around the 5kg mark.

JURIEN

Beach fishing is excellent for herring and sand whiting with a few tailor about reef spots just offshore. Squid are worth a try around the marina and jetty with the odd skippy at the jetty. Boat fishers are enjoying a bumper season for baldchin groper, but breaksea cod, pink snapper and dhufish are coming in consistently as well.

EXMOUTH

Matt Garwood from Bluewater Tackle World Melville has just come back from Exmouth, where he and mate Marco Piviali explored inside reef country around Tantabiddi with a variety of soft plastic lures and poppers. On one day they covered about 10 kilometres on foot with a number of trevally caught and released and the odd follow and one hit from giant trevally leaving them wondering about the outcome of a hook up from monsters of those proportions.

With large swells their 4m dinghy confined them to fishing within the reef. The pair  found spangled emperor everywhere with other members of the emperor family widespread. Coral trout were another prize catch with baldchin and a large permit also caught. Garwood and Piviali were astounded at the size of the squid with monsters guessed at around 75cm long following their hooked fish. Nic Bailey has been catching squid to 2kg on popper lures from shore.

This week's Exmouth newsletter can be viewed here.