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Recfishwest
Fishing Report
15/11/19
Bradey Paini had an epic session on the barra with Chris Cole out chasing barra near Broome. They pulled a number of beautiful fish during the session like these two barra pictured. Ripper fish guys, quality chromed up saltwater barra!
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Welcome to Recfishwest's weekly fishing report, brought to you by Joachim Azzopardi, John Curtis for Mandurah, barra master Curt McCartney with what's happening around Kununurra and Recfishwest safety ambassador Peter Fullarton from Tailored Treks for what's happening in Lancelin.

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Catch of the Week!

Catch of the week goes to this outstanding mulloway caught by Maxi Out Fishing that went 136cm long! Jampacked_Fishing_Adventures posted some ripper pictures of the fish and said: "A prime example of a Swan River Mulloway captured recently by the little brother @maxi_out_fishin, after a couple of pics Maxi spent around 10 minutes in the water with this fish making sure it was strong enough to swim off... no better feeling than watching one of these silver ghosts swim back to the shadows where it belongs!" Awesome work Maxi, great fish!

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Kununurra Catches
Curt McCartney with his 1.3m monster caught in the lower reaches of the lake on a soft plastic, what a horse!
Fishing around Kununurra has picked up last month as the place starts to soar temperature-wise. There have been excellent reports from Ord River, Pentecosts and surrounding waterways. The secret this time of year is to fish early morning, late evening and into the night if you can handle the bugs and big lizards. The fish tend to be super-aggressive so lure fishing can become quite effective.
 
Lake Kununurra has been the buzz of the town of late with the Apex Barra Bash holding a hugely successful fishing comp on its foreshore and the exciting event of another 100,000 fingerlings released in the past week. The lake has had 200,000 fingerlings released in 2019, and 2020 should see packs of roaming 350mm to 500mm-plus barra schooling up and feeding like piranhas! Three years back, it was not uncommon to head up the lake and have six to 10 fish sessions in a short period of time; these fish have all grown over the metre mark and wised up a bit. So the coming few years will present a great opportunity for recfishers and families to enjoy these great fish, thanks to these huge releases. Find out more about these most recent releases here.
 
Down the gulf, the fishing has been excellent as well, with big schools of golden snapper moving in on the rock bars in the bigger creeks. These fish, although not as big as their cousins out in the blue water, provide excellent sport on barra gear and are great on the table. The better schools hold fish from 450mm to 500-plus. A recent trip I (Curt) did down to the False Mouth area provided plenty of barra up to a metre, the bigger fish could be found stacked up out the front on ledges and rock bars, but stopping them was another issue!
Broome Catches
Brodie was surprised to see this bluebone come up from 50m of water while fishing out from Broome. A welcome addition to the esky none-the-less as these fish taste outstanding!

Boats

Reef fishing enthusiasts, who ventured to the 20m to 30m depths, scored bigger catches of saddletail seaperch, blue lined emperor and the odd red emperor during the neap tide periods. Some miles were required to be travelled for the few Spanish mackerel landed this past week. Longtail and mack tuna are in waters closer to the port. Crews who have been working the waters within Roebuck Bay have been picking up threadfin salmon, averaging 70cm, as well as fingermark bream, bluebone and mulloway. Tripletail have been responding to lures and flies worked near the moorings. Barramundi in the 60cm to 80cm range have been caught on soft plastic and hard-bodied lures within the local creeks while bigger fish to a metre were landed in the Fitzroy River.

Shore based

Some nice catches of threadfin and bluenose salmon have been coming from the entrances of the local creeks together with a few mangrove jack, the odd barramundi and plenty of catfish. Queenfish and varieties of small trevally have also been caught at the lower areas of the creeks as well as the jetty. Cable Beach and Coconut Wells are worth a try for yellowfin whiting and bream early morning before the breeze strengthens.
Exmouth Catches
@dusty_little_burls posted this great picture saying: "Our twin boys.. doing what they love... fishing! Tell them you need to be up at 4 am to be on the water at 5 am for fishing, they’ll be awake at 3.30 am ready and waiting even with no alarm set! They will not let up until they have a line in the water. Exmouth has become one of our favourite spots." Awesome picture catching the two in their element, and I love to hear the level of their commitment these die-hard fishos have!

Boats

Billfish enthusiasts have been encountering blue marlin out wide together with dolphinfish and yellowfin tuna. Smaller black and striped marlin have been raised closer in while sailfish are in the upper areas of the gulf. Manta rays within the gulf tend to have cobia in tow more often than not. Big queenfish, giant herring and brassy trevally are throughout the gulf waters. The 50m to 70m depths have been fishing well for red emperor and Rankin cod while goldband jobfish are in excess of 110m of water.



Pictured above is Clive Armand, who is up in Exmouth for a three-month work deployment. He headed down to the Learmonth jetty the other week and got stuck into some great fish like this golden trevally. Clive sent out his stick bait from his 8ft rod with 20 lb braid with the 30 lb leader as far as he could and it landed right in the zone. The lure needed just two twitches it was smacked! A huge explosion of water was set off as the golden scoffed the lure up and shot off. Clive said it appeared to be a lone golden and that it fought extremely hard for 20 minutes. Clive wore it out and then moved down the jetty and land him on the rocks on the upper third of the jetty whilst keeping him from wrapping around the pylons. Luckily he was helped land it by a local guy called John Sedecki who was fishing nearby. John also caught himself three great queenfish from the jetty while Clive was there. Awesome fish fellas,  good on you for helping one another out, and thanks to Clive for sharing the pictures and experience with us for the fishing report.

Shore based

A variety of species including golden and small giant trevally, queenfish and dart have been caught on lure and fly at the west coast accesses. The accesses north of Five Mile are worth trying for spangled emperor and bluebone. Mildura Wreck and VLF Bay are likely to have giant trevally lurking close to shore at dusk. Yellowfin whiting are common at Town Beach while the marina has squid at night as well as during an incoming tide. And of course, as shown above, the Learmonth jetty towards the bottom of the gulf has been fishing well.
Kalbarri Catches
The 'Mud Crab' ready to venture out across the Murchison River on a beautiful day.

Boats

A few boats are starting to put a spread of bibbed minnows, or skirted lures, for mackerel and tuna on the way out to, and when returning from, checking their rock lobster pots. The rock lobster are starting to come in better numbers, but unfortunately the same cannot be said for the mackerel and tuna. Jakes Bay is worth a visit during a calm day for yellowfin whiting. Crews anchoring just inside the river mouth have been landing some nice mulloway and quality tailor.

Shore based

Mulloway activity seemed to have increased along the coast this past week with dozens of fish in the 70cm to 90cm range caught at Wittecarra and Red Bluff. Bigger mulloway to 17kg were landed along the beaches north of Frustrations while small fish were found near the river mouth and farther upriver. Tailor in the 45cm to 65cm range, big herring and good yellowfin whiting were also picked up at Wittecarra and Red Bluff. Poppers and garfish have been working well on bigger tailor to 80cm at The Siphon and Oyster Reef.
Geraldton Catches
A beautiful shot of a gold spot trevally from Ben Svenson.

Boats

Kayak and small boat fishers have been picking up herring, pike, small skippy and squid in waters within the inshore reefs. School and sand whiting have been found in fairly good numbers off Pages Beach. Baitfish stacked up near the channel markers are likely to attract predators including mackerel, tuna and bonito.

Shore based

The seaweed that's built up along the coast has made the fishing somewhat challenging at most of the local beach spots. Mixed catches of chopper tailor, herring and pike have been picked up along the clear areas between the seaweed along the Flat Rocks to Greenough River mouth stretch. Bigger mulloway are occasionally being landed along there together with school sharks. Southgates provided tailor some mornings last week while evenings have been better for the popular surf fish north of Drummonds Cove. The northern side of the marina has been producing squid, some herring and the odd school mackerel.
Lancelin Catches
Peter Fullarton from Tailored Treks shared this spectacular image of a mulloway that was landed in the first 30 seconds of guided beach fishing session! Talk about lucky, the bait must have landed right in the zone to be chomped down that quickly! And what a ripper picture, it really captured the beautiful chrome of the fish and the purple and pinks of the sunset to help remember the ripper fish by. Great work, you can't complain about that!

Boats

Plenty of sand whiting have been caught from around the 20-22m depths. Northwest blowfish are becoming more of a nuisance on the whiting grounds, chopping off fish and hooks. There have been good numbers of squid along the seagrass meadows inside the white bank 10-14m. Bay fishers have been getting some good size herring most coming from the southern end of the bay. King George whiting have been difficult to find this week. Drifting along some of the broken ground of the bay has resulted in some very good flathead.

Shore based

Fishers chasing sand whiting have been finding it very difficult to catch any fish of a decent size from the jetty, bay or surf beaches. Fortunately, herring have been about in good numbers with some great size fish coming from the surf beaches and the jetty. Some nights there have been lots of small baitfish about the jetty. This has had the fish fired up, herring and small tailor have been quite abundant and feeding aggressively. Surf beaches have been fishing well for tailor with most fish around the 40-45cm. Some good size mulloway have been caught north of town at first light and school sharks to the south at night.
Esperance Catches
Blackjack Charters has been getting into some solid fish lately, check out the size of this King George, now that's a whiting! 

Boats

Dinghy and small boat fishers have mostly been catching whiting, snook and squid within the bay. Samson fish and yellowtail kingfish have been caught on baits and lures between the islands and the outer bombies. Nannygai to 50cm, queen snapper, breaksea cod and sea sweep were picked up out wide.

Shore based

King George whiting to an impressive 38cm, squid featuring tubes to 35cm, herring and garfish have been caught at the Taylor Street Jetty while the Jane Street Jetty has small schools of juvenile salmon appearing within casting distance at times as well as herring and squid. Bandy Creek boat harbour is worth a try for smaller King George, skippy and herring. Soft plastic lures have been working well on black bream to 44cm in the local lakes. Salmon have been appearing in their ones and twos as well as in small schools at Salmon Beach and Fourth Beach, especially near the peak of the tide. Roses produced skippy to a kilo, tailor, salmon and bronze whaler sharks last week. Poison Creek had bigger skippy to two kilos as well as tailor and salmon.

Albany Catches
Lewis from the Albany Fishing Instagram page landed this "kraken" of a squid just 500m from the ramp! The squids hood measured over the 40cm mark! Great stuff Lewis, that model would make some huge delicious squid rings.

Boats

King George whiting catches have improved through the deeper inshore waters; however, squid numbers seem to have dropped. There are a mix of bread and butter species including small King George, herring, small skippy and juvenile salmon within both harbours. The deeper inshore waters are producing some big sand whiting at times. The coral located in 60m to 80m of water off Cheynes Beach and Denmark has been producing better catches of queen, red and pink snapper as well as breaksea cod and dhufish than similar depths straight out from town.

Shore based

Surf fishers have been experiencing better catches of skippy in the evenings while there seems to be no pattern as to when herring and sand whiting are going to bite. King George whiting are occasionally being caught at Frenchman Bay and the old whaling station. Nanarup has tailor turning up some mornings and evenings while the deep gutters at Cheynes Beach and Bluff Creek are worth trying for bigger skippy and gummy sharks. Small black bream are common in both the King and Kalgan rivers. Mulloway of about 65m were landed in the upper areas of the Kalgan last week. Bent minnows and hard-bodied lures have been working fairly well on bream in the Pallinup.
South-west Catches
Mackenzie Sapier has been chasing the tasty blue barrels of fun out in Geographe Bay lately and came up solid on this model. Trolling skirts is one of the best ways to hunt these speedsters down, the skirts are more likely to stay clean and avoid picking up weed compared to divers. It's definitely worth trolling these around during these early summer months.

Boats

King George whiting catches have been improving through the inshore waters off Eagle Bay and Quindalup. Fresh squid and thawed coral prawns have been working well on the 30cm to 45cm Geordies. Squid are still about the seagrass inshore. However, the popular cephalopods are certainly not in the numbers they were in during the winter months. Schools of small southern bluefin tuna have been encountered off the west coast. Try the waters off Cape Naturaliste for samson fish, yellowtail kingfish and amberjack.

Shore based

A consistent stream of burley should bring herring, juvenile salmon and skippy around any of the headlands. The rock platforms near Hamelin Bay and Contos are worth trying for samson fish, yellowtail kingfish and big skippy. Expect yellowfin, school and sand whiting numbers to increase along the sand flats at Quindalup as water temperatures increase inshore.

Freshwater

Danny Bramwell shared his recent catch of a few reds he caught from his tinny during a quick arvo bash to the Redfin Perch WA Facebook page. In most systems, the reds really fire up when the sun isn't hitting the surface of the water.
The recent hot weather has pushed most of the trout and redfin to cooler deeper waters in the majority of impoundments. Kayakers and boaters who have been trolling deep diving lures set right back, to get them right down deep, have been landing some good fish and the technique has proven quite effective. Most of the trout action is during the early mornings and the reddies have been fishing right through the day particularly in the cleaner waters away from skiing activity. As far as streams go, right down the south, the Warren and Lefroy rivers have been fishing the best for trout and towards the metro area, the Murray around Lane Poole Reserve and lower Collie river has been fishing well for reddies in their deeper pools. The trout have been hiding in the shaded areas of the streams so by putting a cast in just up from the overhanging bushes and letting it drift down with the current has been a great way of presenting a lure into a difficult spot. It's worth gearing up for a good hike into the more remote areas lately, with the fishing best in some of these less visited locations, particularly in the streams. Hopping vibes or soft plastics in the deeper parts of the pools is the best way to get stuck into a redfin. And if you have no luck after a dozen casts around the pool, move onto the next. Remember to fish in the dams in the early mornings and late evenings as the trout really come on the bite during these lower light conditions, this works best for people camping at or nearby the water so you can still be in bed at a reasonable time and not driving around.
Mandurah and Surrounds
Tom Cleary from @smilin_tongue_fishing spent a beautiful day on the flats hunting down tings. The whiting are likely to be on the hunt in the warm water of the flats this weekend after these consecutive days of hot weather. Get out there and have a crack!

Mandurah

The beaches south of Mandurah are starting to produce a few nice tailor along with some small mulloway. The Cut is still the most reliable place to get a feed, with some big herring and some tailor being caught in the past week. There has also been some large squid landed in The Cut during the week. The area adjacent to the bridge has been producing some reasonable catches of whiting, herring, and there have also been reports of a few tailor, herring and whiting showing up at the By-pass Bridge. The beaches to the north of Mandurah have been a little quieter with a few smaller mulloway being caught. It shouldn’t be too long before larger specimens start to appear along the San Remo, Madora, Singleton section of the coast. There have been a variety of fish being caught out on the 5 Fathom and 19 Fathom Banks. King George whiting, big skippy and plenty of the ‘bread and butter species’ have all been caught recently. Anglers chasing black bream in the Murray report that some good fish have been landed, with good reports of fishers regularly finding some very large fish over 38 cm. Some fishers that have been wading for whiting are finding some good fish, and one landed a 45cm mullet on 2Kg whiting gear last week, putting up a great fight. Initially, it was thought to be a small mulloway as it pulled quite hard. Offshore reports indicate that the local divers are getting a few rock lobster, but for those pulling pots the season has started slowly.

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

Kwinana Beach, Rockingham and Safety Bay jetties have been producing an occasional mulloway for some fishing through the night from these platforms. There is still a few flathead being caught from the sand flats along the Shoalwater shoreline. These jetties are also producing a few herring and squid late at night. Don’t discount a fresh small squid as a great fresh bait for mulloway. There are still reports of herring being caught from the local beaches in the morning. Tailor are also being caught from these beaches of an afternoon when the breeze comes in and puts a chop on the water. There are a few small whiting on the sand flats between the mainland and Penguin Island as well as occasional flathead. Tailor have been landed from the beaches south of Long Point, where some nice mulloway have also been caught recently. The beaches from Golden Bay around to Secret Harbour are producing some good fishing for mulloway and tailor. A tip for catching mulloway is to use the freshest bait possible.
 
Perth Catches
Brendan Chua from Compleat Angler Nedlands snuck out for an afternoon session wading the flats of the Swan and came up solid on this ripper flathead. There's no better way to finish the day than unwinding in the warm sun, wading the flats and working the drop-offs making use of the great fishing that's available right on our city's doorstep.

Boats

King George whiting have been found in reasonable numbers along the ground north of The Windmills and in about 20m off Leighton and Cottesloe. Big sand whiting have also been caught with the Geordies together with flathead and some nice size skippy. Samson fish can be caught on soft plastic and metal jigs at The Barges behind Rottnest Island. Yellowfin tuna to 15kg have been caught in their ones and twos in approximately 100m off Rottnest and Hillarys while smaller southern bluefin are in depths starting at 30m. Rock lobster are expected to start being caught in bigger numbers during the next new moon period. Nick from the Recfishwest Operations Team looped a few crays on the weekend, see the pictures below, and a few were halfway through moulting so it mustn’t be much longer until the whites run begins, get your pots out ASAP. 

Shore based

Max Samson caught and released a superb 25kg mulloway at The Narrows on a trumpeter about a fortnight ago, as seen in the Catch of the Week section. Smaller mulloway have been caught at Freshwater Bay and Mosman Bay while the waters downstream of the traffic bridge would also be worth trying for the highly sought after trophy fish. Giant herring have been caught in the Swan River on spin and fly while both methods have been working on flathead to 50cm in the shallows. Small poppers and miniature stick baits are starting to get more follows from yellowfin whiting at North Fremantle and East Fremantle. Expect these follows to turn into strikes when the water temperature increases by a degree or two. Tailor in the 30cm to 40cm range have been appearing in the morning and evening at Cottesloe Groyne, Grant Street Reef, Swanbourne, Brighton and Trigg. Herring have been turning up among the tailor as well as at some of the metropolitan rock walls and jetties.



James Ako with a huge sambo from the beach at Sorrento, sweet fish mate, ripper effort landbased!

FADtastic news for WA fishers!

Check out the video of the FAD announcement here!
We recently launched a State-wide three-year trial Fish Aggregating Device (FADs) program that will see FADs deployed off Albany, Cape Naturaliste, Perth (in addition to the existing Perth Game Fishing Club FADs), Geraldton, Exmouth and Broome.

The new FADs will open up some fantastic fishing opportunities for medium-sized and larger boat owners for pelagic species such as mahi-mahi (dolphinfish), tuna, billfish and mackerel.

Funded by Recreational Fishing Initiatives Fund, we’ve developed the program in close consultation with fishing clubs, tackle stores and local communities.

We’ll be deploying the Albany, Cape Naturaliste and Perth Metro FADs in the next few weeks – watch this space! – with the Gero, Exmouth and Broome FADs due to go out early in the new year.

So, get out there and give them a crack – you’ll become a FAD fanatic before you know it!

For more details about the program and the locations of the FADs check out our website at https://bit.ly/2PUhG1D


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