wishing2Bfishing

Day three saw us a bit late out of bed, we ended up on the water at about midday and as we had used all our bait the day before and missed the tide change already we decided to just go squidding and then try for some whiting on the late change. we got about 15 squid before moving to try a small hole for whiting. we only got one undersized and a few tommies so we went back for some more squid. as soon as we arrived they were on, and big ones as well. we ended up bagging out pretty quick with 45. now today we gotta clean them all and the boat, its gunna take awhile but thats ok, it was a good weekend

Day 2 we were up at 3am so we could be on the spot fishing an for an hour r two before sunrise. there was some reasonable chop so we just cruised out there fairly slowly. it took us about an hour to get there through the chop. once we were there we dropped the anchor and waited for it to grab and see which way we swung. Well, this is where the dramas started. no matter what we did, the anchor just would not hold. it was a grapnel anchor with two of the prongs a bit bent but it just wouldnt hold. we tried at least 8 times t re-anchor, a couple of times we managed to hold but we always drifted within about 20 minutes. it was now about 7:30am and we were getting pretty annoyed by this stage about the whole anchor situation so we decided to drive over the the Pt Lowly rip for the tide change as we had heard that some big fish had been pulled from there the day before. with the waves still fairly large it took us about another hour to get to the rip where there would have to have been at least 30 boats already with more arriving for the 9:30am tide change. We suffered the same problem of drifting when we tried to anchor up in the rip. we only stopped moving when the tide went slack. i was getting a bit shitty about the whole anchor issue (the fact that it was raining didn't help) and placed a call to my girlfriends brother. he said he had a mate who wasnt using his bat and that we could borrow his anchor so we flexed it back to Whyalla to pick it up. the water had flattened off by this stage so it didn't take too long to get back and by 1030 we were back on the water heading back to our spot we were at earlier in the day.once we arrived out there we dropped the anchor and we were stoked to see that it held. we basically just fished through to about 5pm with 4 keepers coming aboard, my biggest being 51cm and i found out later when i weighed it in for the mystery prize that it weighed 1.6kg. the small snapper were like piranha's, stripping our baits before the bigger ones could find them. the only real excitement of the arvo was the arrival of the mexicans addicted to there sounder who, true to form spent 4/5ths of their time sounding around. they were out there with us for around 2 hours, must have just come out for the tide change. when we got back to the ramp we were gutting and gilling the fish and had an asian fella ask if we were selling our fish. i told him no because it was illegal but i wonder if anyone did sell there catch? anyway, on the subject of illegal things i know of one fisheries infringements, a guy got done fishing too close to the santos jetty, he was hit with a few thousand dollars of fines. he was only just inside the zone apparently.this was our catch for the 2nd day

i will write up Saturday and today a little later, im pretty knackered right now

My Snapper comp was an eventful time, on day one my mate and i launched at about 7:30am and headed out to a drop in the middle of the gulf that had been given to me by a member of this forum. We got there and within about 2 hours i had caught 3 pannies. To get them we had to work through quite a few snapper in the 32-36cm range. After that the tide started to run quite hard and the anchor started to slip so we pulled it up and re-anchored. whilst we were doing this a boat full of victorians rocked up and started sounding around. they continued to sound around for almost an hour before anchoring up about 10m away from us. An entire :c ing gulf and he anchors up there!Anyway, we were just fishing and watching one of the dickheads on the boat next to us flick a squid jag in almost 90ft of water when my mate Will's rod buckled over (right in the middle of the tide). He was on it like a flash and after about a 10 minute fight i netted his Snapper (we had only bought the net the night before after much ummming and ahhhing) which when weighed in was 7.88kgThis caught the attention of the vic's next door who promptly pulled anchor and went for about another half hour sound around. I swear, if they spent half as much time fishing as they did sounding they might of actually caught a fish! anyway, they anchored up again for a bit then left. idiots.We were then joined by some local guys who weren't in the comp, they were just out for a fish. they had not been there all that long when just came out of nowhere and started circling our boatIt was pretty interested in the propeller so the guys in the other boat yelled to us to put the engine in gear to stop it spinning. This worked and the shark left the propeller alone and kept circling, getting tighter and tighter. i wasn't particularly happy about it but after half an hour it vanished as quickly as it appeared.After that we fished on for about another hour but once again we were having problems with the anchor pulling so with the weather worsening we decided to head in, swinging through mudbanks on the way. there was at least 20 boats anchored up there so we tried to anchor but the anchor wouldn't still didn't hold. By this stage it was about 7pm so we headed in. No point being out there if we cant hold anchor. So for the day we ended up with three pannies and Will's 7.88kgWe cleaned them all up and went home, ready for a long Saturday

First things first, here is a photo of the winning fish, it weighed 13.36kg and was caught by Jack Virgo of Whyalla. He weighed it in with under 3 minutes to go.

hey, we did ok in the comp, biggest fish my boat got was 7.88kg. i will write up a report with photos tomorrow when i get the photos from my mate. it was an interesting three days though, thats for sure

10.5 hours lads, get keen! i know i am

what i mean is compared to last year where the winning fish was 15.26kg this year the winning fish will probably be smaller, based on what i have heard is being caught

yea, i reckon that the winning fish might be as small as 12kg this year. you never know though

we will definatly be checking the weather regually whilst out there, im not gunna risk the boat or mine and my crews lives for a fish but we gunna be giving it a red hot shot!

that would be wicked, when big fish arent playing the game you can still get your fix on small tommies, shitties, even puffers might go on a scorching run!

weather is shaping up to be fairly good for the comp which is good as we are planning on staying out for the whole 3 days or until we get a fish worth weighing. cant believe that no one on strikehook seems to be entering?! :dry:

tommies go fairly hard for there size as well, plus they jump like marlin!

not thatv ive caught one yet but you would have to think that samson fish would make it in there somewhere, they pull pretty hard i have heard. in my opinion if you dont stand up and fight the fish its not really proper fishing ie catching blue marlin from a game chair. just my opinion though, i understand that a 1200lb marlin pulls pretty hard but i would rather catch a 40kg kingfish and stand up and fight it

launched in whyalla this morning at 2:30am, thought we would sit on the wall and try and tempt some snapper, my mate had to be in for work by 9am latest so had a deadline. all in all we caught one dog shark, it was huge but still only a dog shark so i definatly wont be heading to the wall during the comp!

went out today at about 7am. started off looking for whiting but all my normally reliable spots came up with only one whiting about 20cm, if that. after moving round a bit we managed to slowly tally up squid and tommies which will be handy as bait next weekend in the snapper comp. all in all got 19 squid and 30 tommies. hopefully one of them becomes a 16kg snapper next weekend!

took my missus and a workmate out last night. we launched at around 6 and motored out the front where we tried for bait. ended up with 4 squid and 2 small tommies. went out to have a crack at some snapper, sat there for about 4 hours, moved once. hooked a smallish bronzie but he bit me off at the boat. a few dog sharks and my missus got one undersized snapper. not overly successful but thats fishing

nah wadey,i shold probably start though hey. i been doing some chatting, apparently barnacle bills has heaps of fish scraps, i reckon im gnna go there and get some then brley up a mark, ust gotta decide which one

nice one

thats a pretty nice whiting, how big was it?

a pelican on 6lb' date='peeled a heap of line and took flight on several occasions so i had to give chase in the boat.I eventually got it to the boat and got my lure back as well as a few spiteful pecks. cheers brenton[/quote']yea i caught a shag on my whiting rig last time i went out, i cast it out and the shag dived for the squid on it and copped a hook in the wing. i wound it in, unhooked it and sent it on its way, it swam about 100m from the boat and sulked after that but it was ok

i was out at leetons drop in Whyalla and we were catching small snapper flat out then all of a sudden pulled up a chow! chucked him down for live bair but didnt get a hit unfortunatly. first and only one i have seen there tho

No one at all from Strikehook will be in the comp?? :dry:

Whyalla is the same atm, they are EVERYWHERE