MOORE RIVER

Herring, Mullet, Whiting

Baby Black Bream

 Moore River

Packed up the car with fishing gear, mozzy repellent and headed out to Moore River for a few days of quality fishing. Moore river is a wicked little spot to go to if you want to get away for a few days. The river is packed with many things to do you can hire a canoe, kayak, picnic or go on a river cruise down the river. There are many walk trails to choose from surrounding the river where you can simply enjoy the natural environment and all it's hidden wonders. The views are truly captivating at Moore river and will definitely lure you in. It's a quiet, peaceful little place to go to where you can fish for black bream, Mulloway or head out for some beach fishing and the best part about this location is that it's only an hours drive from the city. I got there nice and early and set up my camping chair in a nice secluded spot along the river for a bit of fishing caught lots of baby black bream the first day but not any big 25cm plus ones that I was hoping for lol... so it was a catch and release day, the bait I used to catch the black bream was prawns and I must say the baby breams loved the bait :). The peak period for catching black bream is usually in summer time and I would recommend sticking to light spin rods and reels if you do decide to head out for a fish there. The following day I went to the mouth of the river where it joins the ocean and did some beach fishing and boy the herring and whiting were running wild at the crack of dawn. I managed to land a couple of beauties. This little fishing spot is definitely on the favourites list :)

Mouth of the river joins the ocean

   

WOODMAN POINT

Woodman Point

Juvenile Snapper (Pinky)



 

Mini blowfish, Pinky

 
 
 

                                                                                     

 

 

 At the beach life is different.

Time doesn't move hour to hour, but mood to moment.

We live by the currents, plan by the tides and follow the  

   sun.   

Unknown

 

 

 

Woodman point is a popular fishing spot for catching a wide range of bread and butter fish. Personally I like the more remote places but it had been a while since I had fished there, so I thought I'd get out there and check out the fishing scene. Fish mainly caught there are usually herring, Gardies, snapper, tailor and plenty of blowies....lol

Winds were pretty strong when I got out there at 3.30pm for a fish and I must say, I got off to a rough start. Lots of little nibbles and the pesty blow fish kept eating my bait. Wasn't till 4.30 that I felt a decent bite on the line. First catch came in as a trumpeter. Which I filleted on the spot and cut up into square pieces. The fresher the bait, the better the catch and being determined like I am hail, rain or shine, I simply had to catch something. They say persistence pays off and it did, although my fish was, well.... undersized and not the big, gigantic, hudge snapper I was preying for. I still managed to land a juvenille snapper and get a happy snap of this beautiful creature. Put pinky back in the water after it's modeling shoot so it can grow to become a decent plate sized fish...:) 

When Northwest winds blowing, woodman point can be an amazing spot as the fish will come in for protection as there are plenty of rocky, hidy holes for them to choose from. I always aim to get out 2 hours before a tide change as thats when the fish will feed. The hook size I used to catch my juvenille snapper was two size 3.0 suicide hooks dropper paternoster reef rig set up. Snapper tend to go for just about anything ranging from fresh bait, plichards, squid, prawns, mussels and worms. Although some people prefer to use lures like Bucktail or soft plastic tipped jigs. I seem to prefer the use of real bait. These fish are opportunistic feeders and they tend to travel in schools of similar sizes, the bigger ones tend to become increasingly solitary. This is an excellent eating fish and would have to be one of my favourites. Tally at the end of the day was not that spectacular given the conditions, 1 trumpet, 3 juvenille snappers and a whole lotta blowies. I ended my fishing trip at 6.30 as woodman point can be a bit of an unsafe place at night time and the areas renown for breakins so don't leave any valuables in the car if you do decide to go fishing there.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                           

FREMANTLE BOAT TRIP- WESTERN KING WRASSE

 

Fremantle departing Leeuwin Barracks

 

Northwest Blowfish

From Top: Whiting, Butterfish & Western King Wrasse

                          

'With every drop of water that you drink,

every breath you take,

you're connected to the sea.

No matter where on earth you live'

Unknown

 

We docked off at Fremantle (Leuwin Barracks) at 7am in the morning for some serious fishing. The winds were blowing westly and conditions weren't the best as the water was a bit choppy, but we didn't care we just wanted to get out there and have a fish :). We had plichards as bait and I had my trusty, lucky, red fishing rod for the occasion. We journeyed out for 25 minutes until we arrived at a nice fishing spot which had some reefs so we decided to drop anchor and have a fish. I decided to rig up for herring I used size 1/0 hooks and did a running beam sinker. First cast in and we had many bites but the fish just weren't going for the bait after about 30 minutes into fishing I still seemed to have no luck and neither did my friend for that matter. So I decided to alter my rig set up and reduce the weight of the running beam in hopes of catching any fish. I changed the hooks to bloodworm hooks and did a double hook set up I recasted and bang this time I got Lucky. First fish for the day and I was pretty chuffed as I reeled up my fish in anticipation as to what it could be up popped a  Western King Wrasse fish. These fish are mainly found in offshore reefs close to sands and seagrass spots. These fish are interestingly cheeky in my opinion because they travel in groups and the group consists of 1 male and a school of females.....Thats a lota work for 1 male fish!  Like other reef fish they have the ability to change sex to female at any time. So if the male dies the bigger female of the group will change gender to become the new male of the group. This condition is known as 'protogyny'. Wrasse fish are not what anglers normally would go for but they are edible. I personally don't like the flavour of the fish but some people love eating them. The best way to eat these fish are pan fried with skin on. Two wrasse fish to nil later my friend decided we should travel further inshore and try our luck there. We found a nice sand patchy spot and not even 8 minutes into our fishing and I had hooked something huge I didn't know what it was but while I was battling to reel up my line the fish completely severed my line and I had lost my entire rig set up. I was spewing. As I quickly tried to re rig my line my friend spotted a Northwest blowfish also known as a pufferfish. These buggars have horse like teeth and can cause some serious bites. They are pretty aggressive fish and will pretty much go for any food on offer. We encountered 3 Northwest blowfish on our fishing trip and they are definately not shy. The blowy circled our boat for a period of time in the hopes of getting a free feed. It would flick it's fins out of the water as if to say 'Hello, I'm here, feed me'. The northwest blowy that circled the boat would have been about 60cm long but they can get as big as 88cm. We didn't stick around to fish when these buggars popped their ugly heads up. :) And I think that was what cut my line. We journeyed a good 10 minutes away from the location and sourced a better spot. This time I managed to land a whiting, as I went to soak the bag to put the fish in it. The fish slipped through the clenches of my hand and threw itself off the boat. My friend was indeed spewing our only whiting, one minute on the boat and the next minute....gone! But it wasn't all bad my friend finally caught a whiting which we managed to contain in the boat. :)  All up after catching many butterfish and one baby snapper which we had to throw back because it was well undersized, we finished the fishing trip with 2 Western King Wrasse, 1 whiting and a butterfish.      

 

  

 



PROTECTING SHARKS AND FISH FOR THE FUTURE!

In W.A they have put in place a new culling shark program releasing drumlines across the coast.  Sharks are the top predators of the marine food pyramid. They play a vital role in the oceans ecosystems as they regulate the natural balance of the ecosystems. The removal of these species which are on the endangered list would alter the ecological dynamics and thus be economically devastating. An example of the ecological domino effect would be fewer sharks would increase the octopus population which would decrease the lobster population. Decimated shark population would also decrease shellfish populations and since shellfish actually filter water the quality of the water would also decrease and the dominos list goes on. It takes 20 YEARS for a shark to reach sexual maturity and produce young ones. To me it's simply messing with the food chain. To put another funamental point across when we go diving, swimming or snorkelling we are going into their territory we are choosing to swim in their environment. So why must we set out to distinct an animal for being in their own territory. Every year more people die of car accidents and bee stings than shark attacks. Does this mean we should stop driving cars on the road and cull bees?
Maybe we need to be more aware of where and when we go swimming to reduce our risks of encounter and be more responsible? Some Anglers might think it's not a big deal but heres a thought to ponder on....If they continue the culling of sharks program into 2015. How much is this going to effect future fishing and the future generation....dissapointed Angler???  
Another issue that has popped up is the approval for coal companies to dump 3 million cubic metres of sludge into the Great barrier reef . A world heritage site which could well be on the 'dangered list' this year.

BLACKWALL REACH BLUE SWIMMER CRABS

Blackwall Reach, Bicton

 



 

Blackwall reach is a hidden Jewel spot for crabbing. The bushland and cliffs that surrounds you and the peacefulness makes you feel one with nature. We decided to head down there at 6pm for some night time crabbing. Upon arrival we noticed lot's of scuba diver groups heading out for a night time dive and some local Anglers. We set up the crab nets on the jetty and threw them out. The bait I used was chicken drumsticks tied down with a clip. The wait was on, an hour into crabbing and we had caught nothing. Meanwhile a scuba diving team were heading in and they had caught some monster sized crabs, so I knew at that they were definately there. After relocating to another spot on the jetty we decided to launch the crab nets out further and much to my excitement this time we were lucky, 2 female bumper sized crabs. All up I was pretty impressed with our catch. I had hoped to stay longer but our crabbing venture was cut short, my friend was getting eaten alive by mozzies and I was beginning to feel sorry for her :) yes we had indeed forgotten to pack the mozzy repellant. I presprayed before leaving however failed to mention that there would be mozzies where we were going to my poor friend :). So we decided to call it a night and head back to her place. My friend placed the crabs in the freezer and we sat down for a nice cuppa coffee. After about an hour we decided it was time to cook up the crabs. I opened the fridge to find no crabs. It was when I opened the freezer did I realise she had placed it accidently in the freezer and the crabs were frozen stiff....It's claws had launched onto the railing and it was indeed stuck. After much laughing and many attempts to pull the crab from the railing, We finally had to cut the claws to free the big buggar for tea :). So my big tip here is if you decided to put your crabs to sleep in the freezer put them in there for a short period of time as you don't want to spend another hour trying to defrost your crabs.   :)   

Penguin Island

SHOALWATER

Blue Manner Crabs

Shoalwater is an awesome spot for catching a variety of fish but on this fishing occasion I decided to hunt down my favourite, blue manner crabs and since at the moment it's crabbing season I simply have to make the most of it.  :) I used 3 crab nets and on this occasion I decided to use lamb necks as my bait, but you can also use tuna heads or chicken wings/legs which is also good crabbing bait. I secured my bait with a wire clip, some people like to use cages to stop blowies from eating the bait but I just let it free flow in the water, plus if there are other people crabbing on the jetty you've got that advantage of luring the crab to your net and not theres :) . I decided to crab just off the jetty so I secured my crab nets round the posts threw them in and checked the nets every 10 minutes. Doing the pull is always the fun, exciting part of crabbing, there's always a few seconds of suspense as to whether you've caught a crab or how many are going to be in the net. At times when I did pull up my nets I would sometimes find 2 crabs in there. I caught a lot of undersized crabs which I put back in the water straight away as you want to preserve the stock for future crabbing, however I did catch 4 big male ones which was enough for me. When measuring my crabs I used a crab gauge, however you can place a small indent in a coke can and use the can to measure the crab. The blue manner crabs have to be a minimum of 127 mm carapace width. It's best to always measure your crabs as the last thing you want to cop is a fine from the fisheries​. The catch limit for catching crabs are 10 per person per day. Whenever I go crabbing I always fill up a big container with sea water and take it home with me, as the best way to cook your crabs is in natural sea water. I put the crabs to sleep on ice or in the freezer, prepeel off the back, degutt and clean them out, bring the sea water to a boil then put the crabs in the pot for 7 minutes. Take them out of the pot and cool them in running cold water straight away, as you don't want to over cook your crabs. Serve it on a plate with your favourite summer salad. Delish!!  :)

Albany

                                                                            Albany

Breaksea Cod

Sargeant Baker

Packed and ready to go me and my fishing companion headed out at 5 am for some deep sea fishing we drove down to Albany marina and set out for king george sound and what a beautiful day it was for fishing. A bet had been made on this fishing expedition and I was pretty sure at the time it was going to be a challenging battle of the genders. Although my fishing companion had ...dare I say...more fishing experience than myself. I knew that in general I was pretty lucky and I did have a different fishing style, so maybe I could swindle a win in my favour :).  As we set out in search of a good fishing spot my companion noticed coral sprawls across the waters, but little did I realise at the time just how much this would effect our fishing. After a good 40 minute journey we finally anchored and got set up for some serious fishing. I moved quickly as I wanted to land the first fish there was no time to waste, we used pilchards for bait and some mullies, I dropped the line over as quick as I could and bang... first cast in and the lucky buggar had caught something, first fish for the day Break Sea Cod also known to many as a 'black arse cod' because there arses are black. These fish I must say are great eating, they make nice white fillets and go down well in a beer batter.
While he took the cod off the line I was quick to re bait and get my line out there but to no luck, the fish seemed to be nibbling at the bait but not really going for the bait. I couldn't understand it at the time I mean I didn't pack a banana with me so what was going on down there in desmersal lane! Then bang he got lucky again... another Break Sea Cod. It was Two to Nil... I knew at that moment the pressure was on and I had to pull up something or I would never live this fishing expedition down. Then it hit my line, the excitment set in and I could feel the adrenaline rushing through my veins as I was reeling in my line... preying for a snapper, up it popped and fish slapped the boat. It was a Sargent Baker. At the time I didn't actually know what it was but the fish looked exotic and interesting, when my companion told me it was good bait fish my interest in this fish quickly diminished. But bait fish or not I was glad I had finally caught something :)
What I did learn about the Sargeant Baker is where theres a sargeant there normally are snapper and they are excellent bait fish for Dhewi fish and you can eat them, but they are not good eating fish, probably only good for fish stock or fish soup.
By the end of the day we decided to end the fishing expedition the winds had changed and the fish weren't biting. 3 Break Sea Cod and 1 Sargent Baker, I did indeed get my arse kicked! Since losing the bet I have come up with a few new ideas that I will have to try out next time. Yep I think I will have to call a rematch on this one!  But it was still an exciting day, I just enjoyed being out on the water doing what I enjoy doing the most....fishing!!  Hands covered in bait, the fresh sea breeze hitting my face and the warmth of the sun. Simply paradise  :)

Albany

Sting Ray at Middleton beach



 

Kalgan River

                                                                         
       
                          Trumpet                                                          Black Bream

Albany would have to be one of my favourite fishing locations and what a pearl of a place. Everything is close, convienient and the scenery is simply breath taking. On my first day there after a 4 hour drive from Perth I decided to have some rest and relaxation time, but the following day it was all about exploring the coastal sides and river banks for some hot spots. I took a drive to middleton beach where I spotted a massive sting ray feeding just off the rocks then I drove to Kalgan river and went down an old dirt road, the views along the river banks were spectacular there were so many good fishing spots to choose from. But after a good drive down the river banks I decided to park up and head off on foot. I followed a track to a beautiful fishing spot which I called the 'mouth' of the river. I decided to fish off the rocks, the location I chose had deep holes, there were submerged trees and weed beds which was a perfect location for bigger bream or mulloway because there was plenty of cover. I used size 1/0 hooks to begin with as I wanted to catch some bait fish and sure enough the first fish I caught for the day was a trumpet which I filleted and removed the skin to make it easier to place on the hook, nothing beats fresh bait. :) The bait I took with me was mullies and I also had some red meat which I had pre cut into small pieces, placed it in a container and added burley and fish oil to premarinate it. But I have also in the past used chicken leg meat which I have cut up into small pieces and added burley and soy sauce this also works a treat.
When I threw out my line I would not stick to one spot, I would throw it out across the river at varying depths to try and source where the bream were travelling. The burley I had marinated on the bait would entice them to come out from their hiding holes, plus it increased my chances of catching a big one :) 
I did catch a lot of bream but I decided to do catch and release as I was really hoping to catch a big mulloway, I did have another fishing rod pre-rigged in the hopes of catching a big mulloway I used size 4/0 hooks with about a 1m monotrace and a running bean, when I casted out the line I made sure the line was tight and just left it there for a good 10 minutes, when reeling in my line I did it very slowly, unfortunately I didn't catch a mulloway.... but I knew they were there. However I did have fun catching black bream, which are a big target for fishermen because they really like to put up a good fight on the line....lol Plus it is a nice, tasty, high quality fleshy fish. I personally would have to admit it's not my favourite fish to eat, I find that the bream caught in the river tend to be courser in flavour with a slight muddy after taste as opposed to the ones caught in coastal waters. The best way to cook bream is whole baked or pan fried. All up it was a fun filled action packed day. I broke a thong in the process and I even slipped and managed to fall in the drink....:) so my advice is if you end up going fishing there wear enclosed footwear, take your mossy repellent as the mosquitos are notorious there and enjoy the scenery because it truely is a beautiful place to fish.  
  

DAWESVILLE DINGHY FISHING

    

Tailor

On the weekend I headed down to Dawesville for a fun filled day of fishing with Grandpa. When I got there the Dinghy was packed and ready to go with prawn bait and mullies. Armed with my trusty old fishing rod and old weather resistent clothing I was ready for a fishing challenge. We were on the water by 4.30 winds were blowing south westly and it was a gorgeous hot sunny day. We did a bit of trowl fishing to begin with down the esturary and through the bridge but we didn't have much luck. So we decided to find a nice fishing spot and drop anchor. The visibility in the water was murky, for about 2 hours I was pulling blow fish like there was no tomorrow. After about 25 blow fish catches I had earned the title of Blow fish Queen in the Dinghy and I was beginning to wonder whether I was actually going to land one edible fish in Dawesville. Grandpa was becoming increasingly keen on the idea of throwing me overboard and making me swim to shore. 7.30 hit the sun was setting and we still hadn't caught one edible fish as I was telling grandpa that we might have to source a seafood place ...hint hint....fish n chips for dinner. Bang grandpa's line got slammed by something and it definately wasn't a blow fish this time. The tailor were in, it was night time by this time so I had to act quickly or I was going to loose my opportunity and my reputation. I re rigged my line. put on my head torch and used mullie as my bait. I casted off and slowly drew the line in. The blowies had completely dissappeared by this time and the bigger fish were out. The first tailor I lost off the line as I was pulling him in much to my dissapointment, but the next one I made sure, it landed in the Dinghy. It was an exciting, intense hour of bite after bite, we even had a few dolphins swim by the Dinghy. By 8.30 the tailor died off and so did the bites. We caught 13 tailor but had to release 6 because they were undersized. Grandpa caught the most tailor but I had the biggest tailor catch for the night so we were pretty much even square I reakon. I was just glad that we caught a good feed for the night.   :)   

buggar another blow fish!

Preston Beach

Bella Boo soaking up the sun

                                                             

Preston Beach

                                                                       

Mullet

                                                                            

Preston beach is a pearl of a fishing location, especially for catching shark. Unfortuately I was out of luck that day :( the best time to attempt to catch shark is around 12 o'clock as it's there feeding time or at nightime as thats when the bigger predators come out. I usually use mullet or scalies which are a small silver blue fish to try and catch shark. I did however manage to get a few big bites on my beach rod, so there was definately something big out there toying with my bait. The catch for the day was some monster sized herring and mullet, which are a great fishing bait for the bigger predators out there. I got there at 5 o'clock in the morning and spent a lovely, relaxing day fishing and enjoying the fresh sea breeze. The water was calm early in the morning so it provided a good opportunity to catch some Mullet. Mullet is a tricky one to catch, so make sure you keep the line tight when fishing. The best way to catch this fish is using small hooks with worms or bread which I usually pre prepare a few days before an outing, I get some slices of bread and leave it in the sun, don't forget to turn them over. I blend the stale bread in a blender and place it in a container to take with me. So before a cast I usually throw some bread mix out to attract the mullet and I place a small cubed bread on the hook. Personally I don't particularly like eating this fish as it has a strong distinct taste, this fish contains high omega 3 and is best eaten pan fried or grilled but I usually fillet and keep it for bait as they are bottom dwellers. But if your a mullet lover then the best way to improve the flavour of the fish is to make sure you remove the black stomach lining before cooking this fish or it will taste bitter and spoil the flavour of the fish.  

BLUE SWIMMER CRABS

Bond relaxing on the jetty

Blue Swimmer Crabs

Mandurah has some great spots for crabbing just off the jetty. I use crabbing nets which I tie to the end and middle of the jetty. The best bait to use is tuna heads but crabs also will go for spleen or chicken wings. Some people like to secure the bait in a mesh cage so the blow fish don't eat all the bait, but I usually just let the bait free flow in the water and I use Metal wire to secure the bait in the middle of the crab net. Crabbing is definately my favourite seafood the meat is the best and nothing beats eating fresh crab. I also find that I prefer the taste of male crabs compared to female crabs. Now how can you tell the difference between male and female crabs? Its easy, if you turn them on their backs the male crab has a thin mountain shape flap underneath and the female crab has a broard, round, cloudy shaped flap. The male crabs also have bigger claws and more of a blue colour in their shell in comparison to the female crab. I usually throw the net off the jetty and pull the net in every 20 minutes. Make sure you pull in the nets hard because if your too slow, they will swim out and you'll loose the crab.
It's always handy to carry a crab gadge and measure the length of the crab to make sure that you have the legal size. Crabs must be the size of a can in length which used to be the way I measured the crabs. There is also a catch limit you can't catch more than 10 crabs per person. If you get caught with more than the legal limit you will be fined for it by the fisheries if you get caught. If you catch a female crab and she's pregnant you can tell cause she will have produced a huge amount of tiny orange eggs in her abdomen, the eggs go from orange to black as they mature. Make sure you put her straight back in the water for the preservation of future stock. Crabs are basically scavengers of the ocean, you will normally find them either offshore or commonly in estuaries. When I catch them in the net they have powerful claws so be careful not to get nipped. I tend to grab them from behind and I grab hold of both arms at the same time so they don't get the chance to nip me, sometimes I have had one really grab hold of the net, so if they grip onto the net too hard and you can't pull them away turn the net over and hang it over the bucket, give it a shake and they will loosen their grip and drop in the bucket, a handy trick for the stubborn ones. Half fill the water with sea water to keep them fresh. Before you cook crabs you can put them to sleep on ice but I usually just throw them in the pot.
The best way to cook crabs is in their natural sea water, I usually boil the crabs in a pot of sea water for about 8 minutes or until they turn orange, then pull them out of the water and cool them down in cold water so the crabs don't over cook.

                                                                         Bluey's

North Perth fishing

North Perth catch

Biggest yellow fin whiting I've ever caught

Flathead

We headed back to the same spot the following day for an early morning fish, this time I walked along the beach to find some nice reefy drops and sandy spots. I used prawn and whiting bait to lure in the fish.

I have never caught a yellow fin whiting the length of a 2 litre bottle of coke before, you can imagine my excitement when I reeled this big boy in. This was indeed my catch of the day, whiting is one of my favourite eating fish because the meat is sweet. As I casted out the line anticipating what species I might catch next not even 8 seconds in the water and chomp, something took the bait with a mighty big pull, it was a Flat head. Although these fish are in my opinion ugly and evil looking they are a great tasting fish. When you handle them make sure you wear a glove or use a towel to hold them as Flathead's are very spiny. Flatheads love whiting bait and sandy spots as they are bottom dwellers they will bury themselves in the sand and camoflage their skin to match their environmental background. I usually like to let the bait drop to the bottom and very slowly reel the bait in making frequent stops for a few seconds then very slowly reeling the whiting bait in. This keeps the bait on the bottom and lures the flathead to attack and suck up the bait. As soon as you get a hit it's important to maintain a pull on the line but don't pull your line in too quick cause you don't want to loose the fish.
Yellow fin whiting like shallow water. These fish are timid so keep the line light and use size 4 hooks with a small sinker. when fishing you can cut a drinking straw or put a red bead above the hook to attract the fish. Whiting love prawns or worms but remember keeps the line light a big splash with a huge sinker will scare away the fish.
I was pretty happy to catch some Herring that day too. Herring normally like to stick together so if you catch one there's bound to be a school of them swimming around. Herring like deeper waters they only come out to more shallow parts at night time. These are the silver fish of the sea, they're tasty!  I usually like to put butter and garlic in the herring and wrap them up in alfoil and straight in the oven to bake.
I did catch 4 rock cod through out the morning also, cod like the offshore reefs the bait they like to eat are prawns and fresh filleted fish. Personally I don't go for the texture of the meat, it's mushy and bland. These fish are slippery little buggar's when you handle them as they feel slimy. However they are a beautiful fish to look at. I've tried eating it fried in a pan, battered and grilled. Each time I've cooked it I've always ended up  with a dull flavoured, mushy fish, but if anyone's got a great recipe they want to share, post it up, maybe there's something I've yet to learn about the art of cooking cod.

Herring

                                                   

Rock Cod

 

Fishing trip North Perth

Went on a 2 day fishing trip North of Perth. I drove along Marmion Ave past the Mindarie suburb and the newly developed areas until I came across sand dunes with tracks on the left. So I turned left off the road and followed the tracks towards the beach which was only obtainable via four wheel drive. I parked up in the sand dunes and walked a short distance to the beach. What we stumbled on was a perfect secluded beach fishing location, not a soul in sight. You could see a few reefs out in the ocean which told me that we might catch a variety of fish here. The fishing bait I used was prawns and chicken heart. I started fishing at 4pm and stopped as soon as the sun hit the ocean in the horizon. Caught 14 whiting which was a reasonable effort for 3 hours of fishing. Whiting's just such a beautiful textured and tasty meat. Early in the morning the following day proved to be the best time to fish. The tide was high which proved to be great fishing conditions for what we caught. I filleted and pre cut up my bait so I wouldn't waste fishing time. This time I used prawns and whiting which I cut into 1 cm pieces. I used size 4 and 8 hooks and rigged up my line 3 hooks 10 cm apart and a sinker on the end of the line. I started fishing at 6am in the morning, at first there were little nibbles here and there then bang the fish really started to bite. I caught a range of fish that morning, herring, whiting and a Dart swallowtail which put up a sensational fight, these fish are from the trevally family and they will Dart through the current with such power to try and avoid capture. Most fishermen don't go for them but personally once the fish is filleted it is a great tasting fish. Dart fish are also not common around here so you could imagine my surprise when I realised what it was. If your targeting Dart fish they normally go for worms, prawns or whiting and they love surfing waves. Over all I was pretty impressed with my catch 24 fish in total that morning, which I later filleted and cooked straight on the pan.

Some whiting catch

Whiting, herring and Dart Swallowtail

Filleted fresh fish straight on the pan

One tip I've learnt about cooking whiting let it chill in the eski and place it skin up so it doesn't curl while you cook it :) !

In pemberton on the way to windy harbour we set off on a little bush track and came across a small dam which had some yabbies, we caught some and ate it for dinner that night. I always carry vinegar with me when camping, so with the remaining ones we pickled them in vinegar and kept it in a sealed jar for the following day. We then continued our trip to windy harbour where we caught some herring, whiting and silver breme.  Windy harbour is also a great fishing location for whiting.

windy harbour

Caught some mighty big marron when I went fishing down south. The river had perfect living conditions for marron. Marron love nice loggy terrain and flowing water.  I spotted some nice loggy spots as I was walking along so I thought I'd use my snare and see what pops up, used a bit of red meat as bait to lure him in the marron snare, It took  2-3 hours to catch 6 for the day.