‘The Christou’ – Your New Limited Edition Member’s Lure
Recfishwest are now offering you this lure, simply by becoming a new Premium Member of Recfishwest or renewing your Premium Membership.
You can’t buy this lure in the shops or from anywhere else and is only available by becoming a Recfishwest Premuim Member or by renewing your Premium Membership. Premium Membership only costs $25 and you receive ‘The Christou’, a Recfishwest Members T-shirt plus much more.
Do Us a Favour and Get ‘The Christou’ Today.
Metro Catches
Pictured: Western Australian salmon
Salmon have certainly graced the metropolitan beaches, however the bigger schools have remained offshore. The Mewstone has once again seen the bigger concentrations of 4 to 7kg fish and there have been dozens of boats getting stuck into the action there at times. Schools are also present within Cockburn Sound and some of the shore-based spots there, including the Kwinana jetties, the Ammo Jetty and Woodman Point, are producing fish. Both the moles have had salmon turn up during the week while only the odd fish has been taken along the coast north of there extending to Cottesloe Groyne. A small school was spotted north of Cottesloe on Tuesday afternoon and there has been odd school passing by Brighton and Scarborough during the week. Apparently boat fishers have been finding salmon as far north as Two Rocks offshore.
Brothers Richard and Tim Pappas enjoyed an entertaining shore-based session at Scarborough on Monday night catching several tailor, some big herring and, to top it off, an estimated 10kg pink snapper. At least two more snapper were caught from the metro beaches this past week. The boats have been using burley to attract schools of snapper along Five Fathom Bank. A customer of Anglers Fishing World caught dhufish to 18kg in 40m of water off Fremantle last week. Luke Treby has been doing well on dolphin fish at the FADs (Fish Aggregating Devices). Striped and small southern bluefin tuna are schooling between West End and the FADs. Squid are starting to be caught in better numbers along the seagrass beds off Fremantle and within Cockburn Sound. Flathead are still being caught in fair numbers along the lower reaches of the Swan River.
Woodman Point ‘Ammo’ Jetty Clean Up
Pictured: Recfishwest Volunteers
Recfishwest needs your help to improve the standards at Woodman Point ‘Ammo’ Jetty.
If we are to keep this wonderful land based fishing platform we must all work together to improve its public image. Recfishwest volunteers were down there not only to clean up and try and set a good example but to try and educate fishers as well.
Remember to:
- Be responsible for your litter and dispose of it correctly
- Respect other jetty users and your fellow fishers
- Treat all marine life with respect
- Bleed and process fish thoughtfully and clean up promptly
- If keeping your catch, dispatch it humanely and put it on ice quickly
If everyone does their part it makes it easier for all of us. We are doing our best to have more bins allocated to the jetty urgently and trying to ensure they are emptied more often. We will also work on some educational material and signage.
Do your part by following the simple messages above.
Mandurah and Surrounds
Pictured: King George whiting
MANDURAH
The southern beaches between Tim’s Thicket and Preston have seen several salmon being caught along with some tailor. There are still good reports of plenty of herring from Halls Head to The Cut along with a few whiting. The Dawesville Cut is producing good catches of big sand whiting, herring, garfish and skippy along with a few small King George whiting. Chopper tailor are also being taken regularly. Around the Canals, Marina and Bridges there are plenty of herring, small tailor, whiting and tarwhine. The estuary is also fishing well for the smaller species with good catches of tailor, herring, garfish, skippy, and tarwhine and plenty of crabs being taken in deeper water for drop netters. Squid and an odd octopus have also been caught from the Old Traffic Bridge.
Black bream and small mulloway have been reported in both the Murray and Serpentine rivers. Fishers fishing soft plastics are doing well. Crabs and prawns are still being caught in reasonable numbers in the Estuary. Along the beaches to the North of Mandurah there have been good catches of tailor, salmon and herring along with whiting and tarwhine. It is still not too late to try and catch a reasonable sized mulloway along this stretch of beach. There have been reports of several big mulloway taken along here recently.
SECRET HARBOUR / PORT KENNEDY / ROCKINGHAM / SAFETY BAY
There have been good catches of salmon, herring and garfish from the Kwinana Beach, around Long Point, Penguin Island, Point Peron and Rockingham Beach. Whiting and squid are also being taken from these locations. People fishing the beaches to the south between Secret Harbour and Singleton around sunset have had some extraordinary success with very big mulloway. Several of these fish have been in excess of 20 kg. Other fishers report several fish just under the 18 kg mark. The local jetties have also been producing some big mulloway as well with fish of between 12 kg and 15 kg being caught taken.
South West Catches
Pictured: Southern bluefin tuna
Salmon have officially turned up along the coast between Cape Leeuwin and Cape Naturaliste and through Geographe Bay. Dave Cole, of Dunsborough Outdoor Sportz, said shore-based fishers have been doing particularly well on the salmon at Injidup, Smiths Beach, Bunker Bay and Eagle Bay. The boats trolling between Meelup Bay and Bunker Bay have also been encountering big numbers of salmon. Schools of bonito and small southern bluefin tuna have also been found inshore and, at times, among the salmon. Herring are plentiful along both sides of the cape and squid are starting to be caught in good numbers once again along the seagrass beds.
Albany Catches
Pictured: Western Australian salmon
The annual salmon season appears to be in full swing following reports of good numbers of the 3 to 7kg silver torpedos encountered along the coast during the past week. While salmon are frequenting many of the local beaches, as well as those east and west of town, Shelley’s has been regarded as the most productive area during the past few weeks. Nanarup has also been fishing well for salmon as have Cheynes Beach, Lowlands, Bornholm and Normans. When the salmon have not been present, big numbers of good size herring have been around and hitting just about anything thrown in front of them including bare hooks at times.
The boats targeting King George whiting through the inshore areas have been finding better numbers of bigger fish in the deeper waters. Squid and flathead have been a little hit and miss lately, but there seems to be a good supply of other bread and butter species around including sand whiting, snook, herring and juvenile salmon. Reef fishing has generally been productive along the 65 to 85m depths where pink snapper, queen snapper, breaksea cod, yellowtail kingfish and samson fish are regularly being picked up. Schools of small southern bluefin tuna have been appearing in a range of areas and depths. The bigger boats that ventured to the 140 to 250m contours scored big red snapper and hapuka. Beyond the 350m mark, blue eye trevalla have been caught on occasions. The King and Kalgan rivers have been fishing quite well during the past few weeks for black bream and small mulloway.
Esperance Catches
Pictured: Queen snapper (photo courtesy of Cowan Wise)
Salmon are about in excellent numbers along the local beaches as well as those east and west of town with Salmon Beach, Fourth Beach, Roses, Fourteen Mile and Thomas River among the spots to produce very good numbers of the 3 to 7kg fish during the past fortnight. Mulloway to 90cm seem to be running at the moment with quite a few caught at the cliffs, Poison Creek, Thomas, Forth Beach and Dunns.
Gummy sharks to 1.8m have also been taken in similar areas. Big herring, squid, garfish and a few King George whiting can be sought at the Taylor Street and James Street jetties while Bandy Creek Boat Harbour is mostly producing big herring and small King George. More squid and heaps of sand whiting can be found inshore. The boats that made it out to the islands and beyond got stuck into plenty of big nannygai, samson fish, yellowtail kingfish, breaksea cod and queen snapper.
Geraldton Catches
Pictured: Yellowfin whiting
Herring have been caught in good numbers along the Flat Rocks to Greenough River stretch in the evenings. Tailor between 35 and 45cm have been turning up some mornings and evenings along there together with mulloway, which have mostly been school size. Bigger mulloway have been regularly appearing behind The Lives where, on average, three fish in the 10 to 15kg range have been landed each evening during the past couple of weeks. The mulloway have been caught just after dark and until 11pm. Chopper tailor, pike and mixed-size herring can also be sought there. Geraldton Angling Club members caught dart to 50cm, tailor to 40cm, small mulloway and yellowfin whiting.
Kalbarri Catches
Pictured: Dhufish (photo courtesy of Josh Phillips)
Spanish mackerel numbers seem to be increasing with good catches of 8 to 20kg fish picked up on trolled minnow-style lures and whole baits during the past week. A group of three customers of Kalbarri Sports and Dive landed six spaniards on Sunday morning. It appears that most of the mackerel have been found near Sand Patch, along the Three Mile and within a mile of the cliffs.
Dhufish were found in as shallow as 8m of water last week while pink snapper, coral trout and red emperor have mostly been coming from 20 to 30m. Quite a few cobia have been also been caught during the past couple of weeks. Fishers near the rabbit proof fence have been catching tailor to an impressive 80cm, pinkies to 5kg and baldies to 6kg. Surf fishers have also been doing well on big tailor and mulloway along the coast north of the river mouth. A group who recently fished the third fence caught and released 13 mulloway and several 5 to 6kg pink snapper.
Exmouth Catches
Pictured: Spanish mackerel
Spin and fly fishers working the bottom areas of the gulf have been enticing golden trevally, queenfish and longtail tuna. Permit have been encountered along the shallow areas of the gulf while the lagoon waters of the west coast are producing some nice size bonefish. There are still a few blue marlin being encountered out wide while smaller black marlin continue to be caught in closer together with sailfish. Spanish mackerel are being caught along the reef line off the west coast in 18 to 30m of water.
Broome Catches
Pictured: Sailfish (photo courtesy of Broome Fishing Club)
Sailfish have started to show up off the coast in good numbers in what appears to be an early start to the billfish season. Schools of longtail and mack tuna have also turned up offshore together with spanish and school mackerel. A fair selection of reef fish including bluebone, emperors and coral trout has been picked up within Roebuck Bay and the ground farther out.
Threadfin salmon to a metre and the odd bigger fish can be sought in the bay and local creeks along with good size bluenose salmon, a few barramundi and mangrove jack. Shore-based fishers at Cable Beach have been getting stuck into the gatherings of whiting. Ben Lye caught a superb 1.1m queenfish at the jetty on Tuesday afternoon.
