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Hooking Up Anglers Since 2011.
William Bennett
RECFISHWEST FISHING REPORT WRITER
It's been a great week for Pilbara fishers with four FADs hitting the drink off Dampier and Point Samson! Click here for more info on the deployments of these FADs and good luck to all competitors in this weekend's Dampier Classic! The Recfishwest team will be present at the filleting table for our Fishing for Science program, so make sure you come on over and say g'day.
Conditions were good over the weekend, perhaps a little too good as fishers in King George Sound found that the glassy sea and lack of water movement made the fish shut down once the sun was high in the sky. The early birds did however manage to find quite a few squid and some King George whiting around the 35-40cm mark. Boats that went out to the coral grounds fared better earlier in the week with good bags of species including queen snapper, dhufish, pink snapper, nannygai, breaksea cod, harlequin fish and blue groper. Some boats picked up a few tuna on the troll between spots, so it's always worth having a skirt or deeper diving lure trolling 20-30m off the back of the boat. Some moderate westerlies will roll through this weekend with a swell of around 2m but the swell and wind will increase from Sunday.
Good skippy have come from Bluff Creek, some well over 1kg, while the sand patch has offered big tailor and a few salmon. Neither the tailor or salmon have been schooling and only a few fish are being caught from each session. At Emu Point and Gull Rock the edge of the clear and dirty water has produced King George whiting up to 40cm, while the town marina has offered lots of pickers and a few herring but also good squid on the afternoon tide change despite the water being very dirty. Squid jigs in bright green colours that cut through the gloom have worked well at the marina. Bream activity in the local river systems continues to be slow. Big thanks to the crew from Trailblazers in Albany for their tips!
Excellent conditions earlier in the week gave boaties plenty of options. King George whiting were heavily targeted and good bags were caught with sizes mostly around the 40cm mark. A few 50-60cm kidney-slappers were thrown in the mix and if you manage to catch one monster over 60cm, make sure you message a snap to the Recfishwest Instagram page. The 20-30m depths proved successful for the KG's and the better spots included off Mindarie and Ocean Reef along with the 10-20m depths around Rottnest and Garden islands. Squid were also plentiful with lots of sand whiting among them. Kayak fishers did well on squid in 9m depths off South Beach near Freo and up at Pinnaroo Point yak fishers added plump skippy to their squid catches. Good skippy have also come from waters around Rottnest and Garden islands. Windmills has fished very well for sand whiting. In the 40m depths off Rottnest's West End, tuna schools have provided lots of fun which ratcheted up when big yellowtail kingfish took a liking to the small skirted lures meant for tuna. Tuna have also been in good numbers out from Hillarys in 25-35m depths. In similar depths south of Rottnest Samson fish around the 20kg mark have been caught. All of Saturday and Sunday morning look great before the wind and swell spikes from midday on Sunday.
This Fishing Report was submitted on 8/18/2023 4:14:00 AM by Seamus and last updated on 8/20/2023 10:51:02 PM.
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