19 August 2016 – Full Report

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Metro Catches

Metro Eightbar Grouper

Picture: A nice catch of eightbar grouper caught by deep dropping. This exciting fishing method will be explored in the September Broadcast. (Photo courtesy of Nicholas Drummond).

The boats that have been venturing out in search of pink snapper have been finding reasonable numbers of 3kg to 8kg fish along Five Fathom Bank, inside Stragglers and out from Hale Road. Some nice catches of dhufish, breaksea cod and baldchin groper were picked up off Rockingham, West End and Hillarys at the weekend.

A group of customers of Anglers Fishing World, who took advantage of the pleasant conditions on Sunday, and travelled to the 350m to 400m contours off Point Peron and Fremantle scoring blue eye trevalla and eight-bar cod.

Squid remain abundant along the seagrass beds within Cockburn Sound and out from Fremantle. Some nice catches of squid have also been coming from the southern rock walls and groynes including Woodman Point, South Mole and along Capo D’Orlando Drive together with herring and skippy. Dutch Inn Groyne, Grant Street Reef, Swanbourne Drain, Floreat Drain, Trigg Point, Two Rocks Marina and in front of Club Capricorn were among the spots where tailor were picked up this past week. Plenty of black bream and tarwhine seem to be hanging around the E-Shed.

Jetty, Set, Go! Keane Street Jetty

Keane Street Jetty

Fishing in the Swan this weekend and not sure where to fish or what facilities are close by? Check out our new ‘Jetty, Set, Go!’ Series: A snapshot of popular fishing locations to make your family fishing days more enjoyable!

Today we’ll shine the spotlight on Keane Street Jetty. A very accessible jetty with playgrounds, public toilets, open parks and great fishing! Read more about the Keane Street Jetty and near by facilities here.

Last week we looked at Como Jetty, in case you missed it click here.

Mandurah and Surrounds

Squid Jigs

Picture: What is your favourite jig? If you ask 20 people what their favourite colour of squid jig is you can almost be sure you will get 20 different answers. To find the find the best jig for different conditions be sure to check out the How to Catch Guide for squid.

This week’s weather has brought a lot of weed ashore and has choked many beaches. Finding a spot that is clear has been somewhat difficult. Also with seas averaging 2 metres and swells up around 4 most boaties have stayed home.

MANDURAH

Almost all of the beaches around Mandurah have been producing some fish. Most of the fish have been the smaller varieties such as herring, whiting and yellow-eye mullet (pilch). Fishers at White Hills through to Tim’s Thicket report good tailor early morning and late afternoon on a couple of days with fish of 1.5 – 2 kg not uncommon. Small mulloway are also becoming a regular catch from this area with fish between 7 and 8 kg being taken.

It’s been mainly just herring, whiting and garfish in the Dawesville Cut along with a few tailor earlier in the week. The herring have been huge – to 40 cm with several fish of this size being caught, also included in the catches have been yellow-finned whiting, skippy and King George whiting. Tailor have been turning up at dawn and dusk at either end of the channel. Earlier in the week at the western end, the fish went mad for a period and one angler took home a bag limit of tailor around the 60 cm mark.

The estuary has been producing skippy, small yellowtail kingfish and small samson fish. The beaches to the north have started to turn it on with tailor and whiting being caught at places like Madora Bay, Silver Sands and San Remo. Mulloway will start to make an appearance around these beaches over the next few weeks, starting with smaller fish and then increasing in size and numbers in a couple of months. Fishing in the Murray and Serpentine rivers has been good, particularly for black bream in the Serpentine. Fishers chasing black bream have been finding better fishing in the upper reaches of the Murray River. Most bream have been around the 36 cm mark.

SECRET HARBOUR / PORT KENNEDY / ROCKINGHAM / SAFETY BAY / WARNBRO SOUND

Warnbro Sound has been producing some good catches with some very big sand whiting, skippy, tarwhine and some good snapper. There are still plenty of squid being taken from both the shore and by dinghy anglers. Point Peron has been producing tarwhine, herring and some nice sized tailor. Pink snapper are being taken around Carnac Island. Most spots around Rockingham are producing the usual run of herring, pilch, whiting and skippy. The beaches from Long Point down through to north of Mandurah have been producing some good tailor fishing of a morning and evening.

South West Catches

SouthWest King George Whiting

Picture: Steven Jones with his nice King George Whiting. One of many Whiting species found in WA and definitely the largest, growing to an impressive 72cm and a whopping 5kg!
Margaret River King George Whiting

Bob Gregson caught this beaut on a 6/0 hook with a fillet of fish. Caught near Margaret River WA.

Pink snapper continue to be found along the Four Mile and Eight Mile reefs while King George whiting catches have mostly been coming from the reef areas within three miles of the coastline. The seagrass meadows between Eagle Bay and Siesta Park have been fishing well for squid and cuttlefish, especially when the water has been clearer.

Salmon have been appearing along the west coast and the Geographe beaches and there are still plenty of herring around. Expect tailor to start turning up in better numbers as the warmer months draw closer.

Albany Catches

Albany Pink Snapper

Picture: A nice pinkie caught on a pirate jig

Reef fishing enthusiasts, who managed to pick a break in the weather and headed offshore, reported stocks to be generally fair along the coral ground in 55m to 80m and this seemed to be the case whether they ventured out from Cosy Corner, Albany or Cheynes. Pink, queen and red snapper were about in reasonable numbers. There weren’t lots of the snapper varieties, but apparently enough for the punters to take home a feed.

A few dhufish were also found in places together with skippy and breaksea cod. A couple of the bigger boats reported scoring the shelf without drift late last week. As expected with these conditions, they had little trouble dropping onto hapuka and blue eye trevalla schools. Shoals of samson fish and yellowtail kingfish have been found near Mauds Reef and Vancouver Rock. King George whiting still require some effort through the inshore waters of the sound and harbours. Most of the King George have been in the 35cm to 45cm range. Skippy of mixed sizes, plenty of sand whiting and a few flathead have also been coming from the inshore areas.

Squid catches have been better along the seagrass beds east and west of town. Mostly herring and skippy have been caught from the local beaches. There have been salmon picked up, but most of the 3kg to 7kg fish have been caught along the Bremer Bay beaches. An estimated 10kg mulloway was landed in the Kalgan River recently. Black bream to 35cm can be caught with little difficulty in both of the local rivers, however the fish north of 40cm require some searching.

Esperance Catches

Esperance Samsonfish

Picture: A samson fish was tagged south west of Rottnest in 2006 and recaptured off Esperance in 2014, 8 years later. It had traveled over 1000 km’s and had grown 27 cm making it 1.5 m and 30 kg’s (Photo courtesy of Brian K Norton).

The Taylor Street Jetty is continuing to fish well for bread and butter species, including herring and squid, while the Bandy Creek Boat Harbour has been providing some good sessions on King George whiting. Mixed-size salmon schools have been appearing at Fourth Beach, Salmon Beach, Fourteen Mile and Roses.

With the winter weather being as bad as it has the opportunity to fish in deeper waters has been limited, but those who took advantage of the recent good weather managed to pick up a of nannygai, pink snapper and small samson fish. There are large numbers of tuna out wide, both southern bluefin and bonito however the larger sized fish are few and far between.

Alexander and Thomas are worth the drive following reports of big skippy and plenty of salmon caught there recently. The small boat and dinghy fishers have been satisfied with the quantities of sand whiting and squid that are occupying the waters close to local beaches.

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Geraldton Catches

Geraldton Skippy

Picture: Winter Skippy are a great catch on lures, and are a good fish for kids to experience a bit of a fight on the line.

Tailor and small mulloway have been common at Flat Rocks and the beaches just north of there while West Bank has slightly bigger mulloway. The first and second points at Greenough are worth a visit with tailor of mixed sizes and plenty of herring caught at both spots recently. Skippy, which have been just shy of a kilo, can be sought from the rock wall in front of the Sail Inn together with a few small golden trevally. Herring have been appearing there too – especially early afternoon.

Big schools of suspected longtail tuna that appear to be around 1m in length have been turning up in waters west of the Greenough River mouth. The areas south of town, including the ground near African Reef, have generally been fishing better for dhufish, pink snapper and baldchin groper than the areas north the shipping channel.

Kalbarri Catches

Kalbarri Red Emperor

Picture: Did you know? Red emperor are not actually a true emperor! They are a member of the tropical snapper family (Lutjanidae) and are closer related to mangrove jacks.

Dozens of mulloway to a metre and the odd bigger fish have been caught at Frustrations and Chinamans, however the sharks have been problematic at the latter spot in the evenings. Early mornings and evenings have been good for tailor averaging 40cm at Red Bluff and Wittecarra. Garfish are still about the Red Bluff area, but in lesser quantities than in previous weeks.

Ash McClintock got among a few pink snapper near the cliffs last week. Some nice baldchin groper have also been coming from around the cliffs while dhufish and red emperor have mostly been found in depths beyond the 30m contour northwest of the river mouth. Small mulloway have been caught near Paradise Flats and there have been quite a few black bream picked up near Murchison House Station.

Exmouth Catches

Exmouth Chinaman

Picture: Although Chinaman fish are consumed in Western Australia, they are known to cause ciguatera poisoning in the Northern Territory and Queensland. Luckily ciguatera is not a real problem in WA waters, so feel free to keep your next chinaman fish catch (Photo courtesy of Dan Elkerbout).

On Strike Charters put its clients, Mark and Jessica from Kalgoorlie, onto some nice red emperor, spangled emperor, spanish mackerel, shark mackerel and trevally on Monday. The local charter operator also managed to find some nice coral trout, pearl perch and wahoo last week. Chinaman fish have been encountered over offshore reefs being picked up as by catch when targeting coral trout.

Big poppers and stick baits retrieved from the white water behind the reefs have been working well on giant trevally to 20kg. Smaller trevally have been common along the west coast while queenfish to a metre and giant herring have been found by fly and spin fishers through the lower areas of the gulf. A variety of species including yellowfin bream, trevally, queenfish, estuary cod and mangrove jack can be sought at the marina. Try Learmonth Jetty on a full tide for squid.

Broome Catches

Broome Tripletail

Picture: Young tripletail float on their sides near flotsam (floating debris) to try and imitate dry leaves. Tipletail are found in warm waters world wide and can grow to one metre and 15 kg.

Billfish enthusiasts have been encountering black marlin averaging 50kg and sailfish in waters wide of Barred Creek. Spanish mackerel have been found in a range of depths and areas and there seem to be quite a few cobia around. The boats targeting reef fish have been picking up good catches of black snapper and bluebone in Roebuck Bay.

Schools of threadfin salmon have also been turning up within Roebuck. Tripletail have been found near the moorings and the flotsam located within a mile of the coast. The local creeks are worth a visit for some early season barramundi while bluenose salmon can be sought at Willie Creek and Demco Beach.

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