Mulloway, Dhus, Sambos and Snappers!

13kg Mulloway from the west coast of Australia.  It took a while, but will hopefully be the first  of many!

After dreaming of it for a while, I finally landed a big Mulloway a few days ago. This great looking fish, that pulled the scales down to 13kg, had put up an incredible fight despite the heavy tackle for which I had opted. The previous sessions had been fairly eventful, but  luck hadn't been on my side whenever I'd hooked into big fish. Either the line parted on the sharp rocks or, for some reason, the hooks pulled, which on every occasion, left me a little unhappy to say the least.  

Waiting for a big fish to take the bait.  luckily, on this occasion the wait was only thirty seconds!

Using fish fillets as bait I was fairly surprised when the rod pulled around hard just a minute after the bait had settled. The fight was on as the big fish tore off, even though the drag was set pretty tight. Ten seconds later the hook popped and I felt that sinking feeling again. I knew a big Mulloway had just given me the slip! Next cast and another quick bite resulted in a 'soapie' that had gobbled down the huge bait. Then, with the third cast, my luck was in as another solid fish picked the bait up after 30 seconds and also tore off towards the horizon. Using my Shimano beastmaster, some serious pressure was exerted on the fish and, after a solid scrap, the big silver Mulloway rolled on the surface close to the rocks. Without any assistance the next couple of minutes were pure mayhem and, somehow, the fish, me and my rod ended up reaching the safe spot where I could take some photos. Luckily for me, Lloyd came to my rescue and clicked off a few good shots and helped me carry the fish home because, unfortunately, after ten minutes of trying for a release it, I found that it wasn't to be.

The Jig strikes again! 13kg West Australian Dhufish that inhaled a 55g  vertical jig dropped 45 metres. Happy days indeed!

Like the Mulloway for inshore fishing, the Dhufish is the number one target for offshore anglers. And, also like the Mulloway, a few big ones had previously given me the slip. Last time I was in Dongara, fishing with Lloyd, I  hooked and lost a big Dhufish. And lately, with the weather conditions being unfavourable, fishing out in the boat has been hard, to say the least, and a few trips have been relatively unproductive. But, finally, a perfect day arrived and we were able to get far enough out to find cooler water where Lloyd expected the fish to be shoaling up. And he wasn't wrong because as the jigs and soft plastics started touching the sea bed over 40 metres below the surface, fish started hitting the lures.

Lloyd with a great looking Pink Snapper that also nailed a vertical jig

Elise fished soft plastics, while Lloyd and I dropped Shimano jigs and both baits were eagerly accepted by the many fish below. Dhufish, Pink Snapper and, after a while, Samson fish got in on the action, at which point it became hard to hook another species.

A big Dhu for the Dhu master himself! Amazingly, people around  this area still doubt the effectiveness of jigs and soft plastics even when they see photos like these!

And another quality Dhufish, this time for Elise!

From the word go, the Dhus hit the lures and we soon all had a superb specimen. Lloyd lost a big fish, but then made up for it by landing one of around 12kg, after a strong fight. Elise landed a beauty too - finally, after five or six session, things had come right! After landing three good Dhu fish in a row, Elise hooked up to another big fish which seemed to be the same species and, even when it rolled onto the surface, it looked like a Dhu. However, it was a monster Pink Snapper, the biggest so far to grace Lloyd's boat. It seemed the day couldn't get much better, but it soon did!

Elise's massive Pink Snapper that nailed a Macarthy soft plastic!  Nice!!!

Strangely, the Samson Fish that Lloyd almost always hooks while out on the boat had also been absent on previous sessions. Rising summer water temperatures had either put the fish off feeding or sent them into deeper, cooler water. And, it seemed that we had found a shoal at last;  small fish at first, but increasing in size as the day went on until, eventually, fish of up to 12 kg were nailing the lures every drop.  It was frantic fishing that left our arms burning and wrists aching, but it was still impossible to resist just one more drop!

WA Samson Fish taken on the vertical jig!

A good fish for Lloyd on a Shimano vertical jig

As the fish shoaled below the boat, it seemed that more were joining the group as the action picked up and the size of fish increased throughout the day, eventually peaking at 10 to 12kg.

Two good Samson Fish

Double hook-ups happened most drops and, when Elise dropped her lure between filming, it was usually triple hook-up mayhem!

A bigger Sambo for Elise, taken on a soft plastic lure

Pink Snapper

While the Samson Fish were on the bite, it was hard for other species to get a look in, but occasionally, if the jig was bounced on the sea bed, a quality Pink Snapper would bite.

As soon as the wind picked up, the fish decided to shut down and that was it for the day.  The next day we were back out, but things were very different and the fish didn't want to play ball. It was still worth it because, on a long drift, Lloyd's jig got absolutely hammered by a large fish that turned out to be a big Malabar Rock Cod.

Malabar rock cod taken on the jig

Next trip out and the weather had changed hugely; temperatures were up to 45 degrees and water temperatures were also soaring.  Lloyd declared that Tuna would be on the cards, with a chance of Spanish Mackerel as well. A huge bush fire was burning south of Dongara and, as we cruised out to sea, the size of the blaze became clearer as a massive mushroom cloud of black smoke crept skywards. A troll was in order to see what was about, so we chucked a couple of lures over the back and drove around for a while. And it wasn't long before Lloyd's deep diving x rap got smashed.  The culprit was a big Samson Fish that came to the boat with a few of his mates in tow. Seeing four large fish swim around the boat made good viewing, but none of them would touch the lures we frantically threw their way.

Big, trolled up Samson Fish for lloyd

After the Samson Fish, a double hook-up resulted in two, small, but strong and fighting Bonito and then things went quiet. So we went jigging over some good looking ground and, while we jigged, some Tuna started to show on the surface around us. A horizontal vertical jig got nailed pretty fast and a Tuna of around 5-6kg came to the boat a little too fast. Lloyd was right that the Tuna would be feeding! And he would also have been right to let the fish tire a little more, because when I was about to pull it aboard, the gears seemed to engage and the fish took off at super high speed like it suddenly realised what was happening. 

Hard-fighting Tuna that nailed a jig cast in its direction

For the next hour we chased the flighty shoal of Tuna around without any more success. They were feeding, but not hard, and it seemed there were not too many fish in the shoal. A large group of Dolphins also fed close by over the rough ground. Soon, through frustration, we went back to jigging and a couple of small fish, including a Silver Trevally and a Sand Bass, graced the boat. After a while, something solid nailed my lure and a strong fight ensued for the next five minutes with the first 30 seconds feeling as though the big fish might gain cover of the rough sea bed. Lloyd called it for a good Dhu Fish and, sure enough, a beautiful big Dhuie was soon beaten.

Dhu fish that hit my jig hard, but note the almost non existent hook-up ... LUCKY ... very lucky!