Hopetoun (WA) Easter Fishing Comp

**Omsk** · 23-03-2008, 00:53

Beach fishing section, we had a blinder. Landed 1 bronzie 25kg, 2 stingers each 15kg. Awesome fun trying to get them up onto munglinup beach. Very steeply shelving with a high tide swell running meant lots of fun for the guy with the gaff.

Hooked up with another bronzie that put up with my lame attempts for 40 mins before biting through 150lb wire trace right at my feet. Dont know how heavy it was, but looked a fair bit longer than the one I landed.

Hopetoun, southern coast of WA, between Easerance & Bremmer Bay. Theres a lot of worse places to live.......

By the way, came 1st in beach fishing section. Almost got the heaviest fish of the day too. Pipped by 2kg by a 27kg gummy caught off a boat n all!!!!!!

**Spitfire66** · 23-03-2008, 08:16

Well done Omar!

congrats on taking the prize (what was it btw?)

**Omsk** · 23-03-2008, 09:35

Hocksh, prizes were pretty good. Got a beach fishing combo (rod n reel) to go with my other 10 beach rods, massive fish smoking device (them salmon go alright smoked; make me cough a bit but & thye skins get all soggy), bottle of whisky and a 50$ voucher for the local fishing tackle shop (200km away.....).

Can't believe that I was only beaten by 2kg. Boaties should surely have a handicap. If Í'd gone boat fishing we'd have chummed up for some massive makos. Plenty out there. Maybe next year I'll get out in me kayak & av a go......

Still as you can imagine, a hugely awesome night on the beach; hamburrrgers n all.

**Spitfire66** · 23-03-2008, 09:45

Originally Posted by Omsk

Hocksh, prizes were pretty good. Got a beach fishing combo (rod n reel) to go with my other 10 beach rods, massive fish smoking device (them salmon go alright smoked; make me cough a bit but & thye skins get all soggy), bottle of whisky and a 50$ voucher for the local fishing tackle shop (200km away.....).

Can't believe that I was only beaten by 2kg. Boaties should surely have a handicap. If Í'd gone boat fishing we'd have chummed up for some massive makos. Plenty out there. Maybe next year I'll get out in me kayak & av a go......

Still as you can imagine, a hugely awesome night on the beach; hamburrrgers n all.

lol nice one

didnt know youve got a kayak (had anything off it yet?) - i swear youre gonna get eaten by a shark one day (still beats seeing pics of you standing in the shark infested surf)

wish boy was a bit older so we could visit (or that aussieland was a bit closer)

**Omsk** · 23-03-2008, 09:48

PS: Heres another piccie. Bit messy but there we go. Big fat fillets for tea tonight.

**Omsk** · 23-03-2008, 10:13

Don't really have a kayak, yet. But its all I could afford if I was to go in the boaties section.

These guys dont av a clue. 10m boats going 10kms offshore n all they can rustle up is a 27kg fish. Them tharrs some mighty fishy waters out wide.

**PanamaJack** · 24-03-2008, 12:17

Originally Posted by Omsk

Hopetoun, southern coast of WA, between Easerance & Bremmer Bay. Theres a lot of worse places to live.......

Um ..... I really hadn't realised it was that far south. And is it really 500 odd Ks from Perth?

Any rate, the fishing. Well done with regards the competition success.

Don't know though whether you've had a chance yet to look at some of the shore catch reports (and images) in the site's African forum from Namibia and South Africa for Bronze Whalers. Some big fish there! And as well there're also some shore caught juvenile Great Whites.

Presumably since the demise of the Sperm Whale processing at Albany you no longer encounter Great Whites (I know they're a protected species) in numbers off that coastline? But I understand that your scientific community have monitored, using satellite tags, the migration of them from South East Australia to places like Exmouth. (Somewhere in the site there's a bit about that migration linking up with fish that have also come from South African waters.)

I know the bit about 'yaks' was somewhat tongue in cheek but have you seen this bit - http://www.worldseafishing.com/forum...ighlight=kayak - about Yanks pushing things to the limit with Salmon Sharks off Alaska?
Dave

**Omsk** · 25-03-2008, 06:09

Hi Dave,
Hopey is a fair trek from Perth. Its a good 6 hr drive. 5 of those hours yr unlikely to see another vehicle (at least the route I take...).

Those bronzies & stingers were great fun to catch. Not the biggest fish in the sea, but 20lb main gives them a fighting chance. Only problem with that is getting spooled once in a while when something more substantial takes off with the bait.

There are some huge whalers as well as makos caught off the shore down this way. Couple of months ago I saw a guy on the beach by Esperance jetty with a 3m whaler on a handline. Fishing for them with great chunks of tuna. Turned out he worked for fisheries dept and was getting rid of 2 problem sharks from the swmming area. Landed them both as well. I was suitably impressed. I'll see if I can dig out some photos, got them floating around somewhere.

The pointers turn up from time to time too. 1 yr ago, a sickly southern write whale got served up by a group of pointers 100m off Town Beach in Hopey. Pub landlord watched it happen by telescope from his 2nd floor balcony. The backbone of the whale is still on the beach, and gets exposed during each storm (see piccie attached).

I for one am a wee bit too chicken to surf in these waters. Feet firmly anchored onto the beach with a rod in one hand and a beer in the others more my bag.

Cheers
Omar