Fishing Stories - Shore Catch

Shore Catch Fishing Stories

Shore Catch Principal, Mick C, has been writing stories about Perth Metropolitan fishing on a quality Western Australian fishing site (www.fishwrecked.com.au). A selection of recent stories are currently linked to the Shore Catch site and are set out below. Future stories will be linked to the Shore Catch Blog and Facebook Page - like the page to get updates on Shore Catch activities.

83cm Inshore Pink

At about 8pm Adam's gear went off. Now this was a quality fish and had all of the characteristics of a big pink – solid fast runs and the head shakes. The call was made to get everything out of the water as this fish would take a bit of landing and then disaster struck – no not a lost fish but Bryan in his haste dropped a combo over the side, bugger.

30kg East Coast Mackerel

Caught north of Moreton Island on a whole squid, 30lb braid with 5’0 snelled hooks on mono leader. WTF – one hook in the corner of the gob and one in the eye and a very lucky capture. The “photo war” is hotting up but I am not sure I could get close to that beast. Definitely a photo worth sharing.

The Shredder - Ultimate Burley Machine

We make and use a lot of burley. Having upgraded to the use of a commercial mincer we still had the hazardous use of a band saw to cut up the frames, etc to a manageable size that fit into the mincer. I don’t think it is a matter of if, but when a serious injury would be caused by handling wet frozen fish in the presence of a moving saw.

MAAC Comp - Big Tailor and Member's Huge Pink

When we trolled past a lump we have got a few off in the past my lure got smashed big time. This thing was peeling line off the light combo and when it jumped about 50m from the boat we could see it was a quality fish. I had to show a fair bit of “care” with the fight as this was one I didn’t want to lose.

Hillarys 13.5kg Southern Bluefin

What a first run this fish had on the relatively light gear! Don’t you just love the sound of a reel screaming in protest as the fish on the end goes hard. There was no doubt that that the fish was going to take the spool of line so “all hands on deck” to get everything up and start the chase.

Another Metro Pinkie Dash

After considering my pinkie baiting strategy over the summer, I really wanted to give the flesh baits a good crack. I like bonito as a pinkie or bream bait, and caught a few over the summer, so carefully preserved vacuum packed fillets came out. A good slab on the snelled rig, and within a few minutes a nice pinkie took it - about 650mm and 3.75kg of quality fish.

Back in the "Nearshore Metro" Pink

We fished a bit of “new ground” I sounded up when daytime conditions allowed. Untested for “dusk” pinkies but clearly hard ground with lumps and weed in 20+m of water. Headed out at 5pm and back by 8pm for a very nice few hours on the water.

Demersal Bag, Plus a New Minn Kota Technique

Headed out solo from Hillarys yesterday morning, as conditions dictated that you must. Always a little bit suspect of a complete “glass off” as experience suggests “no run no fun”. Worth a crack though.

Weekend Captures, Including the Great White (Sort of Capture)

We slowly started to lift the fish towards the boat after about 90 minutes. I couldn’t believe it when we finally got the leader back and the fish came into view. It was a massive shark. My mate who is a bit of a shark expert, came out with “that’s a white” due to its pointed head, huge pecks and thick tail structure. No way, this thing was 3+m, a couple of hundred kilos minimum and had a big cobia as its “companion”.

Western Rock Lobster Season Over - For Now at Least

Happily pulled the pots from the water today. Over the last 10-12 weeks we have been solidly “at it” with the pots in deeper water – I’m pleased we have a winch.

Over 200 nice big crays in the time, with at least as many berried, tar spot and setose females thrown back, and it has been one hell of a season.

Better Half's First Dhu, and a Hook in the Foot

It was then that Jill hooked up solid. This was a nice fish and my only part in it was telling her to trust the gear, keep positive pressure on the fish and be gentle. I called it for a sambo as it had nice strong runs and she did a really good job with it over 10 minutes or so. It was almost disbelief when the 7kg Dhu came to the boat but it was an awesome capture on light gear and a credit to her fishing ability to land it.

They're Big Close to the Shore in WA

After a weekend of big sharks, big prizes, big tailor (nearly really big), big sambos and a big jumbo the conditions last night and this morning allowed us to get out there again. Pleased to report a few more tasty big things.

A Couple of Trips Out with FW Members

Not long after I got another hit and this one was a bit bigger. 1.2m and 13.5kg of sport fish happiness came to the boat as well. Ricey did a quality job of tailing the fish aboard as it was a little large for the net. I am still surprised by the length to weight ratio of the sambos. The 27kg model that YPM got a few months ago was not much longer than this one but was twice its weight?

Visitor Catches some of WA's Finest Table Fare from In-Close

Have a good mate from over east (well he is a Seppo that moved here so it is really a long way east) visiting at the moment. He is another one that gets my photos on a regular basis so was keen for me to take him out and show him the wonderful WA waters. With the weather being good today we headed out from Hillarys around 5.15am – still a little late for the pinkies and I am cursing my laziness.

2014 Southern WA Fishing Experience from a 14 Year Old

That pretty much sums up how the fishing experience has been for me over the past year and I have people telling me on numerous occasions how lucky I am to have the experience I’m getting right now and I believe they are telling the truth. I was inspired by my dad (some of you may know him as Mick C) to write this post and I’m not sure if I have matched his writing skills or not. I hope you enjoy reading this post about my fishing experience in WA and I have loved every little bit about it.

Walpole / Nornalup Inlet Mixed Bag Fishing Story

What a great place. The fishing was excellent with a guarantee of a lot of action. Yes, the fish are generally small but for a family holiday with the boat, the young kids would have a ball. It is not hard to find the fish but perseverance is required to catch “keepers”. Fish light, change your baits regularly and burley up. Flathead, gummy sharks and herring were the most prolific fish of keeping size (at least when we were there) and these were caught trolling the shallow edges, fishing the deep holes at night and surface fishing in the burley trail.

Targets - Aquired and Captured

The second spot was more “reefy” and once the burley worked we had fish in abundance. We got 3 excellent KGs (biggest 520mm) and found the sambos – got quite a few but kept 3 for bait. Review of the Go Pro footage showed how diverse the fish were and the highlight was the big baldie that wanted the skippy carcass we threw out – he even chased off some sambos but ultimately lost it to a big ray.

Targets - Aquired and Captured Again

Downrigging live baits is something that I haven’t done before so I was a very interested observer. Even better, the downrigger ball was fitted with a Go Pro so after the trip we could download the footage and see what actually went on. We probably trolled for a couple of hours for only one hit that didn’t hook up and normally you would think that the fish were not around. Think again, the footage showed hordes of big sambos that followed the bait around but just didn’t take it.

80kg of Triple Minced Burley

I have written a number of posts about how our burley has undoubtedly increased our catch. I believe the key element is creating a burley “cloud” that the fish can smell but they can’t eat. Make your bait a food option for the “interested” fish and it seems to work ok.

Young One Cleans Up with Big Fish

Fresh from his unexplained absence last Saturday morning, due to late night computer gaming, where we had a really good day on the water, YPM bounced out of bed at 4.45am yesterday morning for the monthly MAAC competition. He has picked up the Juniors prize for the last 4 months and was pretty keen on fishing the last comp before the ban to see what he could add to his yearly points tally.

Last Pinkies, and the Final One was Quite Big + 2014 Pink Photo Selection

With the ban approaching, and a forecast light easterly yesterday afternoon, we decided to head out and see if we could pick up some last pinkies for the season. Conned the “rejuvenated” young one, after his marathon hauling in of the big angry fish the day before was softened by the heap of prize vouchers and the many hours of sleep, to come out again for the last pink hunt.

Baldie & Pink +

With the change of season, it was time to modify my fishing methods and start to get back out there in the early morning. I think I was probably being soft and only fishing dusk on suitable days and preferring to stay in bed on those cold winter mornings.

10/10 Big Pink, Dhu, KG, BA & Burley

A mate from the East that has been receiving my WA Perth Metro photos came West for work. I have copped a constant “barrage” of messages over the last month about taking him fishing in WA as his itinerary needed to be planned. No mate, you have to fish the conditions over here and when the wind is right, we can go – as long as it is dawn or dusk.

After the Storm Turns Pink

I needed to continue my part of the deal whereby I had to teach the “expert repairer” the techniques YPM and I have learned to catch the awesome WA pinks over the recent winter. I have had the most success when the water is still a bit “dirty” following storm events and has planned tonight from a week or so out.

Back on the Water - 25kg of Quality

Given the “desire to go” we headed out. Conditions were not perfect, as they rarely are, but a slow trip out about 5 miles got us to a spot I had marked a few months ago with pro cray pots on it. The rest is history. We had a great afternoon and pulled in 25kg of quality.

Hornet Still Happy - 40+kg of Questionable Quality

The tally was 5 sambos from 7-12kg, 2 pinks (495mm and 430mm), 2 dhu (530mm and 470mm), a couple of skippy (over 1kg) and a number of assorted non-desirable species, plus bust offs.

School Holiday Happiness

In my last school holiday post I mentioned that conditions looked good for the last arvo of the school holidays and guess what, they were. Went into work and dealt with my meetings and got away by 1pm. YPM was chaffing at the bit to get out there and we had asked a quality fisherman, and good bloke, from the MAAC if he would like to join us. The north easter was dropping as we headed to the ramp at about 2pm.

PB 3 Mile Pink Snapper

As per my previous posts we have been continuing to fish 3 Mile targeting pinkies, and any other by-catch available. We entered the MAAC Club monthly competition yesterday and were lucky enough to pick up a 8.48kg (18.7lb) pinkie off the 3 Mile – weighed in on certified scales.

Prizes, Pinks & Burley

As we drove back from the burley making extravaganza along West Coast Drive at 3pm, conditions looked great. Jill headed past us to the supermarket and I rang to enquire about her day without the kids, and the possibility of chasing sized pinks at our new spot. Unbelievable, a favorable response (something to do with taking the kids away all day I guess). Home to prep the boat with YPM and out we go.

Public Holiday Pink

Conned my favourite little deckie into getting up really early and coming out to the 3 Mile with me this morning. My regular (YPM) had mates staying over and couldn't leave them and the Friday night “ring in” had to study for exams – fair enough. When it is all said and done however, a day on the water with your young daughter is gold.

3 Mile Still Pink

On cue, the pinks came on at sunset. The first run was dropped but next cast with the floating pillie hooked up. After a solid tussle, a 77cm pink was netted skillfully by the “ring in” deckie. Following that, it was a bit depressing as for the next 20 minutes we lost 3-4 good pinks being “rocked” or dropped due to operator error – fairly amateur effort when I look back on it really.

Young Pinky Master??

He was however disappointed not to finally meet the member that had helped us and I PM’d this advice. We talked about all getting together for a fish one day and the member indicated his willingness to go fishing with the Young Pinky Master.

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