Hook Up eNews - Perth Game Fishing Club

Season
2016
Perth Game Fishing Club Inc
Postal Address: PO Box 57 North Beach 6920
President: Tim Carson 0429 676 237
www.pgfc.com.au
contact@pgfc.com.au
© Perth Game Fishing Club 2016
14th January 2016
Locally,a striped marlin hook-up last weekend, wahoo, mahi, tuna and mackerel. FAD
problems caught just in time. Shark Bay – too often driven past. Fancy a weekend at the
Abrolhos – just do it. Thanks to Dylan Picken and Luke Ryan for items in this issue.
Fishing
Metro
Confirmed reports from last weekend were of a 70-80kg striped marlin free jumping
in an area north west of the PGFC FAD in around 1000m of water. The anglers, who
were not trolling at the time, set out a lure pattern after seeing the free jumper and
managed to hook up but alas broke off after the line became tip wrapped. Others
were of wahoo and mahi mahi being speared off one of the southern FADs, Kim
Meldrum picking up a 15kg Spaniard and Alex Smith’s small southern blues of west
end. Signs that things are starting to look good for the upcoming Marlin Cup.
The MaxSea chart below is quite encouraging in that it shows a strong circular
feature, or eddy developed north-west of the FADs, a reasonably strong south current
through the FAD field and a current shear line south of the eddy, which could be
expected to carry biillfish.
14th January 2016
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Lancelin
John Webber and Peter Babarskas fishing from Lancelin had a very successful few
days last week on bottom fish, being back at the ramp some mornings by 10 with
their limits of big dhufish, baldchin groper and breaksea cod.
Abrolhos and Cervantes
Member Luke Ryan and mate Zeb Konowalow took off last weekend, as seems to be
Luke’s habit. He has made the Abrolhos look like an easy weekend destination for a
Perth based trailer boat, in his own words “it’s all about timing”:
“With the weather being good over the weekend gone we managed to get up to the
Abrolhos for a few days. The fishing was really tough, although we were catching fish
it was a lot of hard work. We ended up coming back a day early and fishing Cervantes
on the way back. The fishing seemed to be a bit better there with more fish on the
bite. Here are a few pics”
14th January 2016
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Successful FAD Operations
Two short notice FAD operations were carried out by members on Sunday and
Monday of this week. Both saved the club significant expense and one left us
scratching our heads.
On Friday morning the club was notified that a diver on the PGFC FAD (which had
been inspected by the club on 28th December), had noticed the shackle pin connecting
the float to the top chain had lost its nut and appeared close to wriggling free.
Simultaneously we got a message through Fremantle Sailing Club with the same story
but the subject being the FSC FAD (it had been replaced on 2nd December). After
checking the images taken of the PGFC FAD only a week or so beforehand, it was
concluded that it must be the FSC FAD that had the problem.
After hurriedly getting the correct spares organised on Friday afternoon, Shane
Anderson and Rhyss Whittred took off on Sunday morning in Shane’s “Vanquish”
towards the FSC FAD in roughening seas.
The image above shows the precarious nature of the shackle pin, which in its correct
position has a nut on the right hand side and a split pin or wire mousing through the
shackle bolt (pin).
Long story short, Rhyss and Shane wrestled with the float and hammered the pin
home before spinning up the spare nut and installing the locking split pin.
The job was completed on Sunday afternoon, not before an experience in getting
bruised by the 50kg counterweight hanging on the bottom of the FAD. They then went
14th January 2016
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south to the All Marine Services FAD to check its near surface connections - all looked
fine.
About the time the lads were leaving the All Marine Services FAD, and without their
knowledge, its main mooring line chafed through on something on the bottom. This
has happened two seasons ago on this location, maybe it is has reef or coral on the
bottom.
Its movement
was identified
from the 8pm
satellite report
and steps were
taken
immediately to
find a volunteer
boat to pick it
up on Monday.
With an
excellent
forecast a
trailer boat
would be ideal.
By 10 am on
Monday John
Webber’s
“Mojo” was
ready to go at
the ramp and in
ideal conditions raced out the 31nm to the guided FAD positions in not much more
than an hour.
With Tim Carson as deckie, they
separated the float and mooring,
hauled the mooring aboard which
comprised surface chain, surface rope,
bob weight and another 20m of
intermediate rope. It was then time for
the float, which weighs around 60kg, to
be wrestled over the gunwale. All
loaded they set off for Woodman’s
Point where the whole shebang was
loaded into the club’s container. Neat
and tidy operation with some sore and
tired muscles.
The All Marine Services FAD is expected to
be replaced within a week.
Thanks to Shane Anderson and John
Webber for skippering and making their
boats available and to Tim Carson and
Rhyss Whittred for helping out.
14th January 2016
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Shark Bay
It started with a plan for Ashley Hicks
and Dylan Picken to go to Exmouth
chasing blue marlin out of Ash’s 6.1m
centre console boat.
Dylan’s description of the trip:
The forecast for NW Cape was looking
average so we decided to review our
options. The outlook for Shark Bay was
good so the decision was made to pack
the spin gear and some IGFA outfits.
Departing Perth early on the Monday
(4th January) morning saw us in Denham
around 2pm with the gear unpacked. A
late afternoon session on small school
mackerel saw us land a couple at the
beginning of what became an unreal 5
days above the 26th parallel. Shark Bay
is a relatively untouched place, which is
challenging to fish without first grasping
the concept of pulling large fish out of
ridiculously shallow water.
We spent three days fishing Steep Point
and surrounding flats where we
encountered masses of bait boils on the
surface being rounded up by pelagics,
birds and sharks. Whilst fishing here we
landed a grand slam of tuna - yellowfin,
longtail and striped; Spanish and shark
mackerel, cobia, golden trevally and
several demersal species including pink
snapper. The highlight was watching Ash
land a 3.30kg pink snapper on 2kg,
which took a sinking stickbait in 15m of
water beneath a ball of bait.
Fishing the flats in skinny water was
incredible, tailor up to 800mm in length
were seen cruising through and
demolishing baitfish, although we found
it hard to tempt the larger specimens.
We got pink snapper up to 6kg on
plastics and stickbaits, in less than a
metre of water, as well as mulloway,
blue bone, yellowfin bream, giant
trevally and Watson’s leaping bonito just
to name a few of the other species we
picked up on lures.
14th January 2016
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We also chanced upon a juvenile manta ray, dwarf minke whales and a dugong
enjoying the nutrient rich waters. Although not encountering some species expected
on this trip, previous visits have yielded relatively large sailfish, black marlin, wahoo
and barrel sized yellowfin tuna caught to the north, west and south of Dirk Hartog
Island, which also provides sheltered anchorages. There are many areas where game
fishing species are easily accessible to vessels of all sizes.
This expedition puts Shark Bay right up there with the best, and would make for a
great location for a competition for all line classes. (something to think about for the
future– Ed). Shark Bay is easy to drive past but affords anglers excellent sport fishing
for both light and heavy tackle along with the likelihood of taking home some quality
table fish.
For those who have not ventured to Shark Bay, it can be very hot in January and
water temperatures are typically right up there particularly in the bays. Sea conditions
can vary, but during our visit all was calm. Accommodation options are excellent
making it trailer boat heaven.
Scores
PGFC ANNUAL CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP SCORES 2016
EDDY MOSS TROPHY – CHAMPION ANGLER
PRESIDENT’S TROPHY – CHAMPION BOAT
John Holmes
1025
Southern Blue
1359
Dylan Picken
492
Whiskers
350
Glen Rattigan
334
Striker
229
Deon van der Westhuizen
229
Rock’N’Roll
185
Kevin Baker
185
NEIL PATRICK TROPHY
Darren Bowden
2
Kevin Baker
1
Brian Arnett
1
Club championship points are updated to 13th January 2016.
Members are reminded that whilst all care is taken, members are responsible for ensuring their points are
correct. No adjustments up or down, will be made after the final club year points have been awarded.
Members
New memberships continue to bubble along with around 20 new members so far this
year.
Members being recognised this year for 25 years of continuous membership are:
Bob Biernat, Peter Coote, Stephen de Courtenay, Barry Patterson, John Prince, Trevor
Scott and Phil Volich.
Those members who have not year paid their 2016 subs – now would be good time to
do it.
Website Interruptions
Some major reworking to the website are being conducted which may leave it
inaccessible for short periods. Please bear with us – it will be much more user friendly
when completed by around mid February.
All members are encouraged to join the club’s “Members Only” Facebook page. Click
on the Facebook logo on the web home page and follow it through.
14th January 2016
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Calendar
2016 is shaping up to be a big year for the club with many activities planned and
others not yet firmed up.
Wherever possible the monthly social nights have been scheduled for the first
Tuesday in each month, some have had to be rescheduled to tie in with tournaments
and to avoid public holidays etc.
Additional fishing, social and information events will be held during the year, please
check the club’s website http://www.pgfc.com.au/events/ for updates on all events.
January
No events planned
Tue 16
Social Night and Marlin Cup Briefing
Sat & Sun
20 & 21
Bluewater Tackle World Marlin Cup
Tue 1
Social Night and Marlin Cup Presentation
RPYC Fremantle
Thu 31
Shimano WA Open Briefing
Jurien Bay Golf
Club
Fri – Sun
1-3
Shimano WA Open
Jurien Bay
Tue 12
Social Night
RPYC Fremantle
Tue 3
Social Night
RPYC Fremantle
Wed 11
FAD Recovery
Date to be
confirmed
Tue 7
Social Night
RPYC Fremantle
July
Tue 5
Social Night
RPYC Fremantle
August
Tue 2
Social Night
RPYC Fremantle
September
Tue 6
Social Night
RPYC Fremantle
Tue 4
Social Night
RPYC Fremantle
Sat 15
Annual Presentation Night Dinner
RPYC Crawley
Tue 8
AGM and Social Night
RPYC Fremantle
Mon 14
FAD Deployment
Date to be
confirmed
Sat & Sun
26 & 27
Opening Weekend
RPYC Fremantle
Tue 6
Social Night
RPYC Fremantle
February
<BOOK PENS NOW>
March
April
May
June
RPYC Fremantle
Rottnest Island
October
November
December
14th January 2016
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Marlin Cup
Contact the Club at contact@pgfc.com.au to reserve your jetty pen now. CLICK HERE
or on the image to download the brochure, briefing notes and the fillable entry form.
14th January 2016
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14th January 2016
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