Uhunt Mag Information

• Posted By : UHUNT APP - Jesse Farr
• Posted On : Feb 05, 2020
• Views : 2651
• Likes : 16
• Category : FISHING » STORIES
• Description : The great whites tend to travel along the southwest coast here.

Overview

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  By Troy Schmidt
  
  After some recent upgrades on the boat and with the weather starting to come good over here in Western Australia I thought I would send some pictures in and a bit of information on how we become successful on the water not just in the bush. I run a 6.5-meter Aluminum boat and do most of our fishing at 30 - 60 meters and most of our diving at 25 - 40 meters. Our main target species is the West Australian Dhufish and Crayfish, both some of the best eating seafood there is. In the last few years, we have moved more towards the soft plastics & jigs rather than just the baits, and it has been paying off.
  
  
  
  When we are running the soft plastics, we use a lot lighter gear normally 40-pound braid and 40-pound leader on Ocean Jigger rod and reels. We also use Saltiga reels, these are expensive reels, but they worth the money and do an excellent job. The Dhufish can get up to 25kg, but a fish over 20kg is a trophy fish. They are a sought after table fish here in Western Australia. We also get other species as bycatch such as Pink Snapper, Breaksea Cod, Harlequin fish, Baldchin Groper, etc. We are governed a lot by the weather over here because we travel long distances in the boat, so it has to be fairly calm to get out to where the big fellas are some days pushing as far as 40 miles. On a normal day we leave the boat ramp at around 6 am and get back in around 3 pm. Diving, on the other hand, is a lot less travel where on a good day we would be back at the ramp by 10 am with our bag limit of Crayfish which is 8 per person or 24 per boat. Most of our diving is done using tanks, and in 30 meters, we tend to get about 15 minutes bottom time.
  
  
  
  There also seems to be fewer sharks in this depth, well that’s what we tell ourselves anyway. There are some misconceptions about WA being worse for sharks than in other areas. I don’t think that this is the case, but every diver knows there is always a risk. In the winter months, it can get a little bit hairy as the Great Whites tend to travel along the southwest coast here. There is the odd attack on a surfer at this time of year so that keeps a lot of people out of the water. Generally, we dive for Crayfish, but we also do some spearfishing aswell. The ledges are normally loaded, and cray numbers are normally high, so it doesn’t take long to get a feed and our bag limit. 
  
  
  
  Everyone has different techniques, but we use a wire snare and place it behind the cray and put it over they tail before pulling it tight, or you can grab the crays by hand with gloves as well. A couple of times a year the smaller crays come to shore to shed their shells. Bringing them right up to shore and in my opinion, it is the best time for eating them. Freediving in 2 to 3 meters at this time of year is all it takes to catch your bag limit. We also do a bit of deep-sea fishing out in 200 to 300 meters of water using electric reels for fish such as Bass Grouper, Blue-eye Travalla and Bar Cod. Some of these fish push up to 30kg plus so doesn’t take long to fill the esky.
  
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