Welcome to Recfishwest’s weekly fishing report, brought to you by Recfishwest’s fishing expert Joachim Azzopardi, John Curtis for his Mandurah and Surrounds report and Matt Cox for the latest in Kununurra.
Keep your eyes peeled for Recfishwest’s Tip of the week, see below!
Your Fishing Photos
If you want to see yourself or your kids feature in our weekly state-wide Fishing Reports, send your best fishing photos and a description to tim@recfishwest.org.au
Tip of the week banner images courtesy of Shutterstock Ruggiero Scardigno, Smiltena & Garry L.
Esperance Catches
Picture: Young Harry with this nice skippy. Also great to see him in one of our Crewsaver 165 life jackets!
Boats:
Dinghy and small boat fishers, who worked the inshore waters, caught flathead to 2.5kg, big sand whiting and squid. Offshore, nannygai to 2kg, queen snapper, breaksea cod and harlequin fish were common. Samson fish ranging from 5kg rats to 30kg back-aching brutes were encountered in a range of areas.
Shore-based:
The Taylor Street Jetty has been fishing well for King George whiting to an impressive 40cm, garfish, small skippy, herring and big squid. King George of similar sizes have also been caught along the foreshore together with other bread and butter species. Bandy Creek boat harbour has lots of herring, skippy, black bream and Geordies to 35cm. Surf fishers have reported salmon to be turning up at dawn and dusk and during the hour leading to high tide. Spots where salmon were caught this past week included Salmon Beach and the reef at Nine Mile and Ten Mile. Dunns has loads of small skippy and the odd juvenile and mature salmon. Rossiters produced plenty of mulloway around the 50cm mark. Bigger mulloway have been coming from Thomas River together with skippy to 2kg, and gummy sharks.
Albany Catches
Picture: Yellowtail kingfish are one of the powerhouses of the fishing world with superior pulling power. When they school up they’ll hit anything from stick baits to soft plastics to jigs and fresh bait such as squid. Some people catch and release YTK’s but as sashimi, there’s possibly no better fish to eat!?
Boats:
King George whiting have been somewhat harder to locate through the inshore waters. A drop in the number of squid has been attributed to a decrease in water clarity. Metal slices and small bibbed minnows trolled along the seagrass beds are producing pike and juvenile salmon. The bigger boats that worked the 50m to 80m depths encountered schools of pesky leatherjackets. One crew apparently ‘complained’ of the number of yellowtail kingfish in parts. Those who either escaped the leatheries and kingies or managed to find ground that held quality reef fish scored pink, queen and red snapper as well as breaksea cod and dhufish.
Shore-based:
Salmon seemed to have reappeared along the coast with plenty of surf fishers reporting catches of 4kg to 7kg fish during the past week. Spots where the popular sport fish were caught included the beach at Salmon Holes, Bornholm, Shelley Beach, Mutton Bird and Bluff Creek. Skippy catches have been increasing along the beaches whereby some of the remote areas have been producing fish between 1kg and 2kg. Big tarwhine have also been common at some spots while a feed of herring and sand whiting can be achieved with limited effort. The local rivers are starting to become more tannin coloured following the recent rain, but in saying that there were still some nice sessions had on black bream, mulloway, herring and juvenile salmon.
Missed Last Week’s Report? Click Below to Check it Out!
Attention to Detail
Technical Rating: Novice
There are some freaks among the fishing community who, no matter where they go, just seem to be able to catch fish and often these fish are big.
When you think about it, if you spend enough time on the water practicing your techniques on a certain species and catching small to mid size fish, then it is inevitable that you will eventually strike a big one.
When you do hook a big one, this is the time that everything has to come together and work so that you can stay hooked up and hopefully land the fish.
So the fishers that catch the big ones, are they just luckier than everyone else?
Recfishwest’s Position on Diving for Rock Lobster
In response to discussion on social media relating to the taking of rock lobster by divers, Recfishwest would like to put forward our position on the matter.
Have Your Say – Calling All Abalone Fishers!
Are you an Abalone fisher?
We’re calling on all 18,000 Abalone Licence holders to have their say about how their fishery is best managed to enhance fishing experiences but doing so in the safest possible manner. We believe every fisher should return home safe after a days fishing!
