Fishing Reports

Well another week has passed an I hope everyone had a great long weekend, the weather gods must have been smiling down at us allowing for some awesome weather over the long weekend an I for one made full use of glorious conditions as I’m sure a lot of others did.

My plan was to get out for a fish early Sunday morning, my girlfriend Elise was super keen to break in her new Shimano Stella 5000 combo and one of mates was keen to try out his new Shimano Twinpower reel. So we were all up early Sunday morning pumped and ready to fish only to be met by howling 20 – 30 knt easterly winds it was not looking good, a quick check on the net and the forecast was for the easterly wind to drop off to around 7 knts by 11am so we decided to launch the boat at 10.30am and hope the weatherman had got the forecast right but as we all know he usually gets it wrong. Well we couldn’t believe it by 10am the wind had eased to around 15knts and the ocean was getting calmer and calmer so in went the boat with enough fishing gear and bait to sink a ship. I headed for one of my spots 12kms out in about 12m of water, once we arrived I did a quick sound around and my Lowrance HDS sounder lit up big time showing good size arches (fish) holding just off the bottom. I set the boat up to drift over the promising looking ground and fish and made the call for everyone to drop there baits down, first few fish to be caught were the old pesky Wrasse which we keeped for fresh bait, then next drop I was getting more Wrasse bites when…THUMP….THUMP…..STRIKE….I’M ON! My Shimano T Curve rod loads up and my Shimano Stella 3000 reel starts to scream in protest as the unknown fish heads for home, after a brief but powerful fight I had colour a beautiful orange/brown fish with a pale white chin appears, now there’s only one fish this can be a Baldchin Grouper. The baldy measured 51cm and was a keeper so into the esky he went, by now we had moved off the spot so another drift was in order. I repositioned the boat and everyone dropped there bait to the bottom with anticipation all wanting the next big hook up and just like clock work we all hooked up in secession, first was my girlfriend Elise she hooked onto something really good we turned around to the sound of her buzzing drag and majorly bent rod whatever she had hooked had massive tail beats and solid runs heading straight for the bottom. Elise called it for a big Dhu fish and she managed to break the fish’s spirit with a few short pump and winds after a tough fight she lead the fish to the surface and into the environnet and sure enough she was spot on landing her PB (personal best) Dhuie weighing in at 8.8kg. She was stoked with her catch so a few happy snaps were needed before the Dhuie was bleed an put on ice, a quick check of the sounder showed more fish so we all dropped again in a hurry an next in line to hook up was my mate with he’s call of…. I’M ON.. an no sooner had I looked over to see my mate hooked up and losing line when I was startled into action by a huge bite an I started losing a bit of line myself. I set the hook to make it a double hookup and this fish felt a tad better nice solid head shakes and strong runs I looked back at my mate as he was just getting his fish to the surface, my mates fish was a lovely little 50cm Dhuie that we released an finally my fish was ready for the net a 65cm Baldy which put up a great fight on my light tackle. Now I’m not one to hammer one spot to much so I decided on a quick move to some ground not to far away and first drop I nailed another Dhuie weighing just over 6kg and over the next couple of hrs we caught an released another 5 Dhuies a couple of nice Breaksea cod and had a few HUGE bustoffs but hey that’s fishing. All in all it was an awesome day out on the water perfect conditions a light sw breeze an the fish seemed to be everywhere we ended keeping 2 Dhuies and 2 Baldy’s, great days fishing and eating by anyone’s standards.

Beach/Rocks/Harbour

Tailor are still around the beach’s for those keen enough to wait for them to come through, one of our regular customers to TW Country Colin was fishing Southgates earlier this week catching plenty of fat Tailor between 35 – 45 cm. He also had a 4 – 5 ft reef shark follow a few of his hooked Tailor in so Colin threw out a big bait an was promptly busted off by the shark, oh well better luck next time mate. Also I bumped into the world’s best fisherman (Az) and he’s been having success fishing the local reefy beaches landing Tailor 75cm plus not a bad effort on the light spin tackle he’s been catching the Tailor on. There is still a lot of Herring hanging in close to the rocks at the back of the Lives if you are after a quick an easy feed there is also a few nice size Whiting down around the lighthouse area if you fish the sandy bottom with prawn/ox heart or squid as bait.

Offshore and Islands

Well the fishing is great offshore at the moment there’s bottom fish and pelagic fish everywhere, good reports of Dhu fish, Pink Snapper, Baldchin from some of the closer reefs. Shane a regular to TW Country was out fishing with his young son last weekend when his son hooked a 5ft Tiger Shark on his Whiting rod and a Penn 950 spin reel I bet that was fun. We also had a bloke come in with a couple of photo’s of a 22kg Spanish Mackerel that he caught only 2 miles out in a small tinny well done I say. The Islands are still firing with all the usual captures Dhu fish, Pinkies, Coral Trout, Baldy’s, Mackie’s, and Tuna.

River

Same as last week not much info on the Bream fishing they are there but they will be hanging in the deeper sections and shady snags due to the heat we’ve been having, a nice river Prawn lightly weighted drifted around some shady structure or down along some of the deeper drop offs in the river should see you connected to a few nice Bream.

South of Town

Well because I’m from Dongara I thought I’d add a new location to the fishing report, the fishing has been great as of late down Dongara way if you read my story earlier you would know that the bottom fishing has been awesome. Dhu fish and Baldy’s seem to be hanging out together on most of the off shore lumps between 8m – 22m and the Pink Snapper are out in the 30m mark. There’s heaps of Herring and Whiting being caught along the north wall with a few squid thrown in for a mix bag, the Tailor are coming through in small patches but seem to be a better size of fish on average. I heard a story over the weekend that a very lucky angler fishing the south wall reef side landed a nice 60cm Dhuie which doesn’t happen to often around Dongara so good on ya mate.

Send us in your Photos – remember that the fish report is for your benefit, and if you don’t tell us where you catch fish, we have nothing to talk about…!

This week’s funny… so lame it’s gotta be funny!

Henry took his fishing very seriously. One day his young son, David, burst into the house, crying. His mother asked him what the problem was. "Daddy and I were fishing, and he hooked a giant fish. Really big. Then, while he was reeling it in, the line busted and the fish got away."

"Now come on, David," his mother said, "a big boy like you shouldn't be crying about an accident like that. You should have just laughed it off."

"But that's just what I did, mommy."

THINGS OFF INTEREST

Shimano, Ugly Stik, Daiwa, Okuma, Penn and so much more all at amazingly cheap prices!!! Come in and check out the bargain bins before it’s all gone!

Times for IFISH with Tackle World to be announced on Lifestyle Channel on Foxtel.  If you get the chance when in Perth you can watch it on

 and

Check out Hooked ON Tackle World on the  on Foxtel. Screen times are (EST)
Tuesdays 7.30pm
Wednesdays 4.00am; 10.30am & 2.30pm
Saturdays 6.30pm

All Eastern Standard Times

FISH DISH

Chilli salt prawns

The Chinese word for prawns "har" has a laughter-like sound, and this seafood delicacy - a festive favourite in China- represents happiness.

Preparation Time 20 minutes

Cooking Time 5 minutes

Ingredients (serves 6)

• 2 tbs plain flour


• 2 tbs rice flour


• 1 tbs salt


• 2 tsp white pepper


• 2 tsp chilli powder


• 1 1/2 tsp Chinese five spice


• 2L (8 cups) peanut oil


• 18 (about 1kg) green large king prawns, peeled leaving tails intact, deveined


• 6 sprigs fresh coriander


• Lemon wedges, to serve

Method

1. Combine the plain flour, rice flour, salt, white pepper, chilli powder and Chinese five spice in a bowl.

2. Preheat oven to 160°C. Line a baking tray with 5 layers of paper towel. Place the oil in a large saucepan or wok. Heat to 190°C over medium heat (when the oil is ready a cube of bread will turn golden brown in 10 seconds).

3. Place one-quarter of prawns in the flour mixture. Toss to coat. Shake off excess. Add to the oil and cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until golden. Use a slotted spoon to transfer to the lined tray. Place in oven to keep warm. Repeat, in 3 more batches, with flour mixture and remaining prawns, reheating oil between batches.

4. Add the coriander to the oil and cook for 10 seconds or until crisp. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towel. Place prawns on a serving platter. Top with coriander. Serve with lemon wedges.