Picture: Western Squid Wranglers members have been doing really well on squid by drifting over broken ground in the Sound lately.
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 bronte@recfishwest.org.au
Demersal Jigging for Beginners
Jigging is a very effective, hands-on and fun method of fishing for demersals. Many fishers are reluctant to try it as they are not sure what to do or if their gear is right for the task. In this article we will show you how easy it is to get started with jigging for demersals.
Get up to speed with jigging for demersals, here.
Broome Catches
Picture: Cherabin, (giant freshwater prawn) are being caught in great numbers in the Fitzroy and are a local delicacy for both fishers and big barra.
Boats
The crews who set out to specifically target sailfish encountered good numbers of the majestic sportfish in waters wide of Barred Creek and near The Peanut. Spanish mackerel are also about offshore with rigged garfish and bibbed minnows working well on the 10kg to 20kg fish. Mike Reynolds landed a superb Spaniard that appeared to be about 15kg at the weekend. Reef fishing enthusiasts have been doing well on red emperor and saddletail seaperch in waters between 30 and 35 nautical miles out. A customer of Broome Tackle World caught and released plenty barramundi between 40cm and 50cm during an action packed session in the Fitzroy River recently.
Shore based
Threadfin salmon are being caught along Roebuck Bay and Cable Beach while their bluenose cousins are being found in dense schools near The Fingers. Medium size poppers and stick baits have been working well on queenfish to a metre and varieties of trevally at Cable Beach. Cherabin are being picked up in excellent numbers in the Fitzroy.
Circle hooks
Technical Rating: Novice
A simple innovation that both saves time and produces less unwanted damage to non-target fish is the circle hook. Various shapes and forms of circle hook are available with some representing more of a triangle shape but essentially what defines them is an inward facing point. Effectively what this does is when a fish swallows a bait deep in its throat, the point doesn’t catch deep in its throat. When the fish pulls back on the line the hook can slide up the fish’s throat until the hook settles around the hinge of the fishes jaw before exiting its mouth. Another small tug or a strike in the rod from the angler results in the hook rotating as it is caught in the corner of the fishes mouth, now exposing and coming into contact with the hook point which penetrates and creates a neat hook up in the corner of the mouth almost every time. The clean hook up allows easy release of unwanted or undersize fish causing minimal damage and means you don’t have to be digging a hook out from deep in a fish’s throat.
For more on catch care and releasing your fish properly, click here.
