Gone Fishing Day WA!
FREE family event –
Do you and your kids love to fish? Bring them down to Sir James Mitchell Park, South Perth on Sunday October 16. Registrations are essential. Register now by clicking the image below and go in the draw to win great prizes. For more information:
Metro Catches
Picture: Five Fathom Bank is a tried and true location for a range of highly rated species from large KG’s, schools of sambo’s to dhuies – all the more popular since the invention of GPS, as many of the older guru’s out there will attest to (Photo: Courtesy of Google Maps.)
Jazz Charters put its clients onto plenty of big pink snapper at Five Fathom Bank before the weather turned foul on Sunday morning. More pink snapper have been found near Carnac and Garden islands and within Cockburn Sound. Small boat and kayak fishers have also been catching pink snapper in the 5kg to 7kg range within a few hundred metres of Fremantle Harbour. The boats venturing out to the 30m and beyond depths have been doing fairly well on small dhufish, breaksea cod and baldchin groper. Samson fish have been found in 40m to 60m northwest of Rottnest.
Schools of small southern bluefin tuna have been appearing off Parker Point while the boats venturing out from Hillarys and Mindarie have been encountering yellowfin tuna to 10kg. Squid remain in good concentrations along the seagrass beds off Fremantle and in Cockburn Sound. Shore-based fishers have generally been picking up about half a dozen squid in a session from the moles and Woodman Point.
Herring and small skippy are the main bread and butter species being caught from the southern rock walls and jetties. A customer of Anglers Fishing World in Fremantle has been consistently catching his bag limit of tailor near Trigg Beach on mulies in the evenings during the past two months. There have been rumours of 4kg tailor and adult salmon caught in the Swan River recently. Maylands is a good spot to try for black bream at the moment.
Jetty, Set, Go!
Picture: Kent Street Jetty, Bicton.
Fishing in the Swan or Canning this weekend? Not sure where to fish or what facilities are close by? We will give you a snapshot of popular fishing locations to make your family fishing days more enjoyable!
Today, we’ll be looking at Kent Street Jetty in Bicton. A very amenable and quaint little spot indeed, which hosts a range of estuarine species – Read more about fishing the Kent Street Jetty and near by facilities here.
In case you missed last weeks jetty, Gazebo Jetty, Riverside Gardens, click here.
Mandurah & Surrounds
Picture: Pinkies usually bite best during the change of light, during overcast days the bite time can extend further into the day than regular feeding behaviour. Cheers once again to Jake (@Jakesfishtagram) for tagging us in this epic shot – no wonder they’re saying it’s been the “best ever” season for land based pinkies – Read more about it here. (Photo: Courtesy of Jake Atkinson).
MANDURAH:
Beach anglers fishing the beaches between Tims Thicket and Preston have been catching herring and some tailor and there have been reports of a few small mulloway up to 60 cm. The bigger fish are yet to turn up regularly, but it is only a matter of time. Weed has been a problem in some areas but there are sufficient clear patches allowing anglers to wet a line.
The Cut is still producing good fishing and the kids will have a ball during the holidays. Herring are the main catch but bags have also included a few tailor, sand whiting, King George whiting, tarwhine and an occasional big skippy. Locals in the know suggest that you fish the incoming tide for herring, with the tailor being caught at dawn and dusk. There are still some small salmon around. Tarwhine are also being caught in good numbers but they are a little on the small side. The Bridge has been turning on some small salmon and a few good skippy. Around the river mouth you can get a mixed bag of tarwhine, herring and whiting.
Bream anglers fishing the Murray and Serpentine rivers continue to catch and release good numbers of black bream. One angler caught and released one fish that was over 45 cm during the week. Small hard bodied lures and soft plastic lures are accounting for most of the fish. Bait anglers are also finding good fish where there is a bit of structure as well as in the canals.
SECRET HARBOUR / PORT KENNEDY / WARNBRO / ROCKINGHAM / SAFETY BAY
One spot that has been fishing well over the week has been Shoalwater Bay where there have been plenty of herring, garfish, whiting and skippy for anglers. Tailor anglers have found the beaches around Secret Harbour worth a try, but this is the only spot that seems to be producing these fish regularly in this region. The southern beaches have been turning on some tailor after dark.
COCKBURN SOUND:
Good catches of herring, sand whiting, garfish and skippy are being taken from the local jetties. Dinghy anglers in the area are finding plenty of yellowfin whiting and King George whiting at the moment. The King George whiting can be found in reasonable numbers on the southern flats and also out behind the Five Fathom Bank. Small samsonfish have been taken in and around the Sound and can prove to be a bit of a handful on light tackle meant for whiting. There are still plenty of baitfish in and around the Sound and this will provide anglers with an opportunity to collect and freeze some good baits for balloon fishing baits for use a little later in the season.
Remember that the season closure for snapper in Cockburn sound and Warnbro Sounds commencing on the October 1 and will continue until January 31 2017.
KWINANA / NAVAL BASE / WOODMAN POINT / COOGEE:
Anglers fishing from the jetty at Woodman Point are finding good fishing for scaly mackerel, garfish, herring, whiting and some tailor plus some excellent squid.
Just offshore, dinghy anglers are taking some good sized sand and yellow finned whiting along with plenty of herring. There are still some tailor out at the islands along with a few King George Whiting being taken from areas adjacent to weed banks on the sand flats
South West Catches
Picture: A solid West Coast Dhuie sent in by Paul this week: “in about 40m of water, 18 kg, always good pulling in dufish but when you’re pulling in this size it’s a feeling like no other” (Photo: Courtesy of Paul Scoty).
Squid are being caught in excellent numbers in Geographe Bay with the seagrass beds in 3m to 10m of water producing bag and boat limits of the popular cephalopod in less than a couple of hours.Herring and skippy are also about in good numbers in the bay with both species being caught in better numbers when a consistent stream of burley is introduced.
Dhufish to 20kg, breaksea cod and harlequin fish were among the reef fish caught off the tip of Cape Naturaliste and out from the west coast this past week. Mostly pink snapper have been picked up along the Four Mile and Eight Mile reef systems. Samson fish have encountered at the Artificial Reef at times. Small packs of salmon have been turning up along the bays and off the headlands in Geographe Bay. Blue Swimmer crab stocks are increasing between Quindalup and Busselton.
Albany Catches
Picture: Yellowtail Kings (YTK’s) are dynamic pelagic hoodlums, often making their presence known shooting up towards the surface, or preferably around your lure – as they smash through the bait balls with unmistakable fervor – and they make for a tasty feed too!
Small boat and kayak fishers are achieving bag limits of King George whiting in the most unlikely of places – King George Sound. The King George have mostly been in the 35cm to 45cm range and have been responding well to local squid, coral prawn and blue sardine baits. Sand whiting, herring and small skippy have also been picked up through the inshore waters, however squid have remained rather scarce close to town.
The seagrass beds out from Cheynes Beach and towards Denmark have fortunately been producing fair catches of squid however. The coral lumps in 60m to 85m of water provided fair catches of reef fishing including big skippy, breaksea cod, queen and pink snapper. Schools of big samson fish and a few yellowtail kingfish have been found in a range of depths and areas. The local beaches have been producing mixed results with some managing to pick up herring, skippy, sand whiting and the odd resident salmon and others struggling to bag a single fish.
Cables and Sand Patch appear to be the better performing herring spots while the beaches east of Cheynes are producing bigger numbers of salmon. The deep gutters at Bluff Creek seem to be holding some big skippy at the moment. Black bream are believed to be hard to tempt in the King and Kalgan rivers because of the high concentrations of fresh water in both systems and the likelihood that the local populations are engaging in spawning.
Esperance Catches
Picture: The ubiquitous squiddy – although being prolific in west coast waters, it appears larger hoods going 30cm and over have been more of a common catch in southern waters in recent weeks (Photo: Courtesy of Squid Hunters WA).
Salmon continue to be caught from the local beaches including Salmon Beach, Fourth Beach, Fourteen Mile and Roses. Herring and a few skippy have also been coming from these spots. Plenty of herring and fair numbers of squid have been picked up at the Taylor Street Jetty. King George whiting can still be sought at the Bandy Creek boat harbour as well as the inshore waters within a mile or so from there.
The small boat and dinghy fishers have been picking up their bag limit of 30 chunky sand whiting within an hour from the protected waters close to town. Mitchell Johnson encountered a dozen samson fish in the 15kg to 25kg range on jigs from 12 drops last Wednesday. He then went on to catch a nice feed of swallowtail and skippy.
Geraldton Catches
Picture: Sometimes these fish seem to get in the way out on blue water when you’ve got your heart set on other pelagics, but not too common a capture from the shore – a notable effort for Byron Johns.(Photo: Courtesy of @johnsyyyyyy).
The crews who braved the big swells, which persisted for most of the week, were rewarded with good catches of dhufish near African Reef, along the shipping channel and around the lumps 10 to 15 miles northwest of the marina. Pink snapper have mostly been coming from the waters northwest of town while coral trout continue to be caught along the back of Pensioners Bank as well as near Africans.
The small boat and dinghy fishers who managed to find a few hours calm enough to fish inside the reef did well on herring, skippy, pike, whiting, chopper tailor and the odd school mackerel. Similar catches have been coming from the back of The Lives and the new marina, but numbers have been fewer that inshore. Whiting are the main fare along the beaches close to town. The Greenough river mouth to Head Butts stretch has bigger tailor, school-size mulloway and, in the evenings, tailor and the odd mulloway have been landed from the coast north of Drummonds.
Kalbarri Catches
Picture: For a greater challenge inshore for ‘tings – or perhaps an excuse for another trip to the tackle store – leave your sinkers and circle hooks at home in the shed and pack yourself a few different styles of poppers.
Tailor have started to turn up along the coast in better numbers with good catches reported from the popular tailor spots this past week. Paul Wheatfill caught eight tailor at Shark Fin Rock last Thursday. This follows from Paul’s haul of eight tailor from the same spot about three weeks ago. Tailor between 40cm and 55cm have been turning up most mornings and evenings at Red Bluff, Wittecarra and Siphons.
Poppers have been working well on tailor to 90cm at Chinamans, where the jumbos have mostly been caught during the middle part of the day. Local angling gun, Rob Tang, who concentrated his shore-based efforts this past week along the coast north of the river mouth, landed several mulloway in the 10kg to 14kg range. Wayne Dewar scored pink snapper and a sand snapper from the shore at Wagoe last week.
An algal bloom adversely affected the fishing activity in the upper reaches of the Murchison. The bloom has reportedly killed dozens of black bream and mullet. The main jetty has been producing some nice catches of bream and mulloway while the sand flats near the entrance of the river are holding good numbers of yellowfin whiting.
Exmouth Catches
Red Emperor – An apt title for this icon of the North and a rite of passage for many a first charter experience up in that part of the world (Photo: Courtesy of Harry Tropiano).
Black, blue and striped marlin have been encountered off the west coast while sailfish have been turning up right behind the reef in depths starting at 20M. Bluebone have been picked up close to shore in some parts of the gulf along with some solid coral trout. A stunning 8kg bluebone was recently caught on fly along a west coast beach recently.
Some of the beaches and low rocky ledges along the west side of the peninsula have yielded some nice trevally for those keen enough to put in the effort. Bottom fishing off the west coast appears to be steady with red emperor and rankin cod coming from the deeper areas and coral trout picked up in many of the shallower spots.
Broome Catches
Picture: You never know what will turn up when stick baiting up north, like this cheeky brassy rocking up in the shallows off Broome for last week (Photo: Courtesy of Andrew Rowland).
Billfish enthusiasts encountered good numbers of sailfish and a few small black marlin off James Price Point during the past week. Spanish mackerel have been responding well to trolled bibbed minnows and rigged garfish off Gantheaume Point and Entrance Point and there have been a few fish appearing near the moorings situated in Roebuck Bay at times.
Tackle World Broome’s Jake Bazelmans has been picking up some nice threadfin salmon to a metre and the odd bigger fish through Roebuck Bay. Mulloway to 1.2m have been picked up in the holes located in the bay.
Shore-based fishers have been kept entertained at Barn Hill Beach with the hoards of bluenose salmon about. Barramundi have generally been hard to entice in the Fitzroy River, however there were a few fish between 70cm and 90cm caught during the recent competition.
