Australian endings!

After an Epic year of fishing and cycling around the Western half of Australia it's finally time to leave and start preparing to the next big trip at the end of 2012. It was a memorable trip indeed; the people, landscape, nature and fishing were all above and beyond my expectations and will be sorely missed until I can return down under. A big thanks goes to all the people that helped me along the way, specially Lloyd and Elise for their kindness and Suzy and everyone at Dongara backpackers where I was made to feel very welcome for my stay. And of course everyone I fished with along the way including Graz and Graham for having me to stay in Kunnunura and Darwin and Jamie for helping me out in Darwin with the fishing. I posted my trip on Fishwrecked.com so thanks to all the guys that followed my progress and commented on there. Mitch and Dion were an inspiration with their filming and stories of crocodile catching and thanks to my good mate Nick for coming to fish back down the coast with me on the return to Perth.

Unfortuntanely a few weeks before I left  a low life scumbag stole my laptop and camera taking with him most of my photos and videos from the trip. It was a valuable lesson in backing up data and now regrettably I won't be able to add some very exciting video footage to these pages.

In a few months time I'll be setting out on another big adventure but until then there could be some updates from the fishing in the UK so keep an eye out. But for now some photos from the last month or so in Australia.

While jigging with Lloyd and Elise o the west coast of Australia at the Kalbarri classic fishing competition a solid fish  grabbed hold of my 55 gram shimano jig and a memorable fight ensued. Hopeful of a very large cod we were surprised when this good sized sandbar shark surfaced near the boat, the jig neatly tucked into the corner of a toothy set of jaws. Although not a fish that could be entered into the competition it was a good result on 20lb line and a 30lb flourocarbon leader.

Keen for a photo of the sandbar, with the help of Lloyd and after a fair bit of antics and  fast movement  around the boat  a couple of photos were recorded before the fish was released.

Some good cod made an appearance while we fished with the Kalbarri cliffs  in the background. Small areas of coral that took time to find threw up a few decent fish including some big sand snapper.

After Lloyd started the cod ball rolling Elise landed this beauty which looked like a competition winner  but was outdone by a fish slighty larger.

While searching out some good ground to jig a solid bite mid-water had us wondering what was chasing the lures mid-water. The answer came when Lloyd coaxed this beautiful cobia from the depths. It was the first big one I had seen and so wished that my bite had resulted in a decent hook up. To make matters worse ten minutes later I watched  good cobia follow my jig to the side of the boat before turning to vanish into the deep blue sea.

The sand snapper in all its glory! Apparently not the best eating fish but great fun to catch and a new species for me.   It was a great shame that to participate in the Kalbarri classic competition all fish had to be killed for the weigh in meaning samson fish and sand snapper that would undoubtedly usually be released were brought in to boost the teams points.  It reeked of fishing 20 years ago when no one knew any better and was a great dissapointment for me. With so much media attention and younger anglers seeing and learning from the competitors actions it would make so much sense to introduce  a catch and release measuring system to record each boat's catches. At least then there would be the option to release fish that probably won't end up on someone's table. Seeing photos of dead fish spread across the newspaper made me cringe. The organisers of the kalbarri classic seem to be stuck in a time warp and I know I won't be competing in another competition like it again.

Back down in Dongara Elise once again hooked into a solid fish on a soft plastic that proceeded to give her a good run around first thing in the morning.  The best samson fish of the day was the result and not a bad start to a very good day of fishing.

They say your eyes can be bigger than your stomach which  seemed to be the case with this little  specimen  who  managed to become hooked on a jig weighing ore than him! This result shows the effectiveness of vertical jigs.

After Elise caught her big sambo a jig didn't have  good chance making it out of the strike zone which suited  me fine and this was the fist one to win it's prize.  On pe2 tackle it was touch and go fishing and certainly started to wake me from my morning trance brought on by staring at the sea on the 30km trip out. 

The day kept getting better and better as more big fish slammed into our jigs and soft plastics. One minute  all was relaxed and there was time to admire one of the large brown auks that would follow the boat about all day and the next minute the rod would be straining as line emptied from the reel at a dizzy rate. The question always was whether the fish would make it to structure and cut the line. luckily most fish were coaxed fast enough to see them landed and released.

I was itching to get a good coral trout on the jig and finally my reward came with this solid hard fighting fish on the 55 gram shimano jig. From the word go the situation looked decidedly dodgy as the powerful fish held ground, not budging an inch from the coral sanctuary below the boat, but slowly it was overcome by the fully bent Daiwa demon blood that slowly brought it away from the jagged outcrops. When I saw it surface I was one happy angler indeed!

Not a target fish but surely one of the most beautiful to hit one of my jigs. A sergeant baker!

With a very similar body form to a barramundi but occurring in more southerly waters the sand bass was  a nice surprise on the jig.

Lloyd and Elise aboard Lloyds trusty boat holding two good samson fish

The scourge of the sea; a northwest blowie much to the dismay of  Lloyd . I though it was a pretty decent capture but  understood that novelty wears off very very quickly indeed. When a shoal of these are below the boat there is only one course of action and that's to move  a long long way away.

The dhu master himself; Lloyd and a solid west Australian Dhufish taken on a  jig

A good Dhu fish that hit a vertical jig

Elise has good reason to smile with this solid dhu fish taken on a soft plastic.

Lloyd does it again, this time on a squidgys wriggler soft plastic.

An evening session in the boat after mulloway produced this good estuary cod that was quickly tamed with Lloyds Shimano Terez. The real test for the rod came later on when not a mulloway but a big ray picked up my tailor fillet bait and played hard but nothing the rod couldn't deal with. We ended up getting a good soaking when the ray woke up by the side of the boat while we tried to retrieve the hook.

A greedy soap fish that must have been hungry or possible not impressed by my jig bouncing around in it's  face!

Dongara kite stock festival 2012

Geraldton Guardian newspaper

Geraldton Guardian; 50 dollar prize winner! whohoo!!!

The mangrove jacks were growing fast while I was in Dongara and a session on the river would always produce a bunch of these aggressive hard fighting little fish 

A juvenile mangrove jack that might one day move out to the offshore reefs to join the coral trout and other  demersals found off the west coast

Beautiful and peaceful surroundings for a session while the sea is having it's gut blown out!  Mangrove jacks, mulloway, bream, bony herring and the odd tailor are the main targets, all small but very enjoyable to catch on light enough tackle.

Lloyd with one of the better mulloway that came to small sardine chunks freelined on jig heads.  These soapies and the jacks aren't shy when it come to biting compared to the bream which have a habit of moving the bait  a long distance before finally taking it.  On the other hand, the bony herring don't mess about; they are high speed hit and run merchants. A tight line suddenly scooting off up the river means a little pack of these slender fish have moved in and are nail any bait falling or moving through the water; the problem comes when the hook is set, which usually it isn't because of the hard mouth doubled with instant aerial acrobatics of  this fish that is known as a springer in South Africa.

Another Dongaran mangrove jack that gobbled up a sardine section.

On the return trip to Blighty I once again had the chance to visit Nick in singapore where a spot of peacock bass fishing was slotted into the weekend. It was as usually humid and very hot and the fishing not easy but Nick came through and landed the second bass he hooked, using a little sebile hard shad. Not one of the monsters but a truly good looking fish that made the day.