i can see cockburn sound closing a month earlier soon....and if we can protect snapper from these redneck idiots then I am all for it....

hense why i don't live metro.

you should have called sea rescue to call the water police if they where threatening you with those I'm sure they'd be interested in that.

Sorry you had a shit time out fishing mate, maybe next time head out a little further onto the 5, find a nice quite patch of reef all to yourselves and have a much better time.
I dont wana stir any crap but maybe a few can see why some people think that cockburn sound should be closed to the snapper a little earlier. This wasnt one of my points before but it is a good one haha.

Wasnt threatening me directly just a load of bullshit , back and fourth between boats. I can see people ALREADY anchored up and fishing out there for a few hours getting pissd of when new boats just rock up , specially when they are right at the back of your boat drop anchor right in your burley trail where you are casting your baits , your sitting there like are you F***ing kidding me bit of respect. i couldnt do that to someone else just bloody rude.

I got abused one night in the Mandurah River when I anchored about 100+ metres upriver of the old bridge to do some prawning (I was just shore side of the green nav marker for those that know the area). 

Some loud mouth drunken idiot walked up down the jetty swearing at and abusing me and trying to cast his hook onto the boat (I had my young son onboard as well), trying to tell me that I wasn't allowed to anchor there (I was outside the channel).  He was upset that I might be catching all the prawns.  Unfortunately I only had a 3 metre handle dip net, and wasn't able to walk the entire width of the bridge to pick off my prawns.  In other words, I was limited to my reach from the boat. 

He carried on demanding my boat number and name because he was calling the Water Police.  I told him I would be happy to tell the police my name if he cared to call them and I would discuss the legalities of my anchoring position with them.  Now my understanding is that you are allowed to anchor pretty much anywhere except in a channel, to a nav marker or in a boating prohibited area. 

Funny thing was that when he first started abusing me he was on the other side of the river absolutely no where near me?  and I certainly wasn't 'poaching' his prawns.  Anyway, for the record I caught six small prawns that night.  I think he consumed about four times as many beers!

This has been going on for years, it's the same madness every year just before the closure.

Thats why I, like a lot of others avoid the whole spectacle. All you need is one boat to stop and drop a line and the rest of the boats in the sound swarm in like seagull's fighting over a greasy chip.

IMO once they start schooling, even if their not spawning they should start the closed season, honestly its not hard to find a few pinkies between GI and 5 fathom bank.

Cheers Grant..

Wow, am going out tomorrow to have a crack at em but after reading this it doesnt seem as appealing, as for knives and tomahawks i'll let the 6'6 130kg dude who asked me to take him out deal with them ;) 

Yeah man, it sucks big time, but it's one of those deals where you leave your emotions at the ramp, as getting fired up isn't going to help anyone. You just gotta go with the flow and put up with people crossing lines and hooking anchors. No room for short fuses out there.

yeah it does suck. You go out for a good time , to fish and relax. Can't even do that !! Where is the respect from fisho's?

That's crazy man, no fun to be had there.

 the sound was a joke this arvo. never seen the carpark that packed. ended up trying for some squid instead of joining in on the circus. alot of people were comming in empty handed. i wonder why?

That pic is ridiculous, how anyone could catch anything in that is beyond me. Thats worse the Port Phillip Bay in Melbourne during the snapper season!

 WE headed out this evening too. Launched at around 630pm, and bloody hell that's the most packed i've ever seen the carpark on a weekday. There would have been about 80-100 trailers there i'd estimate. We just headed out to near garden island, didn't bother with all the fun and games of bumper boats at D9 etc lol. Only got one undersize pink at about 45cm though. Nothing much else around. Swung past the D9 on the way home just for a look, there was only 3 or 4 boats left, nothing much on the sounder. 

Only 4 trailers left in the carpark when we retrieved at about 12:30am haha :/ Pretty much a waste of 7hrs, but even though we didn't catch any fish sounds like it was a bit more pleasant then fighting with 50 boats for a fish. 

that pic is from like 5 years ago ?

I was in the sound yesterday, in my little tinny. I have never seen sooo many boats on the water at the same time.

What makes me laugh is that the water was like glass. All the larger boats could have gone out, past "the 5" & beyond. With all their top notch gear you'd think they'd rather be out there catching fish from their "secret" spots.

I have a limited area where I can safely fish, but I'm sure if I had a bigger boat & the conditions were like yesterday then I would be out of The Sound in a flash.

Just my thoughts

close it early is my vote,their doing laps, hteres plenty to be caught outside

looking less and less forward to this afternoon.

Start taking a few photo's of the tossers, that usually makes a few of them take note and pull their heads in.

Cheers

Dale

it was pretty average out there last night.  We hit the 5 in the afternoon and got a good feed, then pulled up on the patch.  I counted 23 boats when we pulled up and they kept coming.  I recon there was at least 40 there when we left

Seeing empty stubbies floating by in the water is so wrong.  We pulled stumps without anyluck at about half 7 to beat the rush at the ramp.

I won't be doing it again

This seems like a common occurrence all across the metro area especially for the snapper and also the tailor run in summer at local rockwalls is just a joke to. I've been threatened with knives and all sorts some people just need to learn some respect. Also another thing not relating to the snapper but I wish some people would learn to use the bin and take rubbish with them...

Fished d9 this arvo/night and i must say it was alot more pleasant than some people are making out, yes its a circus of 40 odd boats but to be honest i didnt see any of this antisocial behaviour, throwing stubbys in the water or even anchoring right behind someone.

Late start got to d9 about 3pm maybe 5 boats there.

Meet up with someone watch them throw the anchor out not attached to rope, stupid look on their faces quite amusing. (they head back to the ramp and get an anchor from somewhere and come back 40 mins later)

Steady increase of boats over the hours. (blue comercial boat included)

24 or so foot sea ray has trouble with anchoring/anchorwinch drift straight into us, inform them not to drive forward as they will cut our anchor rope, jump onto their bow pull their anchor manually for them then jump back onto my boat......

Watch as same boat does very similar thing to someone else......

Boats come, boats go.

Gets dark one boat rocks up anchors about 50ft from us and hooks and lands the first snapper we noticed of the night.

Boat about 70ft infront of us lands a fish.

First boat lands another fish.

Goes quiet and we leave about an hour later, about 8:20.

Only seen 3 fish landed.

Speak to a couple of young blokes in a tinny back at the ramp who say after 3 days on the water they got nothing.

Interesting day, no tomahawks, no snapper for us, will have one more shot at it before the closure.

I honestly agree its a joke.... but with out clowns in the world who would make us laugh?

THAT WAS ME :( IM WELDING them F8%^$%^&$ D shackles together :P

good day out on the water few kg and a flatie for breaky. Hope you had good time there jamos ! see you next time on the water.

That was me in the tinny that had no luck for 3 days out there, even fished from 3 in the morning till about 8pm on saturday with not 1 fish landed.

maybe its just my bad luck or me doing something wrong or maybe just because there was 40+ other boats out there.

any tips? put too much effort in to give up now without catching 1

yep was out Friday night too.

Checked out the D9 and the pinacles, for not much.

Funny thing is, we moved just off the pinacles to another small lump for a look when we got out there. Found a school straight up (sounder blacked out from fish, never seen anything like it!). lost a fish on the first drift, then couldnt get them to bite. (this was about 6.30pm).

Then moved over to the pinacles a little later (where all the other boats were). Got 1 gummy straight up about 8-9 kilos). 2 more runs all within the first 10 minutes. Then went dead.

Must say I've never seen so many boats out. Insane is the word I'd use. But everyone was pretty calm, when moving around a few boats asked if we'd found any fish, or had any luck, all seemed quite friendly.

didnt see or hear of any pinks being landed tho.

You guys who arnt having any luck out there realise that cockburn sound isnt the only place to get snapper at this time of year? They are all over the shallow reefs around perth, find a nice lump on the 3mile reef anywhere along the length of it or along the 5 fathom ban, burley up and u should come across a few, also beimg out of the sound and on the open reefs you have also got a good chance at dhuies, breaksea cod skippy sambos etc. And no other boats to worry about! Just a sugestion to the guys who arnt having much luck, when i was getting started in boat fishing this is what i did and never went out without atleast catching a heap of skippy and other odds and sods. Also gives you a chance to play with your sounder and understand it better. Ie, go out anchor up and catch a heap of snapper and a dhuie so you take a photo of the screen and study it so next tme you go out you know what kind of ground to look for. Just my sugestion!

ive never been yelled at or abused because ive got common sense on the water, eg dont anchor directly at the back of other boats or within 2mtrs of another boat lol like so many do ,or driving over ppls lines bla bla bla so on..... have some respect or listen to wot ppl are saying and you will find most aguements involving knives and tomohawks can be avoided thru common sense. its a big ocean, no one owns it but the person who was ther first deserves the right to fish without some a#@wipe dropin anchor and tangling lines etc

my 2 bob :)

 i headed out to the D9 for my first time ever yesterday morning at 7 am n fished there till 2:30 pm with only a few baby yellowtail. there were a few boats out there thou the most ive ever seen in one spot! most of them headed out to the channel markers infront of woddies thou. didnt see anyone catch anything. i headed back out to the D9 at 9pm and fished there till 1am n not even a bite! ten n a half hours on the one spot all up n not a bite with plenty of burley! only one other boat came n anchored up for half hour n then left was just me out there all night n morning. came in at 1 because it was getting pretty choppy out there !! i might head out wednesday morning im keen to catch a snapper at this D9 ive lived local for 25 yrs and NEVER caught a snapper!!! well one i can keep i have only caught the one of them it was 45cm just off penguin island. i have only been fishing on a boat the last couple of yrs thou.. but all the talk about this D9! i head out there and nothing!  i think its prob a glood idea to just find some nice ground anywhere round the north end of the island or the bank ect. i even tried the old abandoned jetty on the way in but nothing! So gonna have to head out wednesday for another crack to catch me first snapper!! 

thats is the most dumbest and more annoying pic i have seen, jesus pple are hungry for them eh!!

respect each other but thats a waste of time sayin that out there i supose.

A: fuck that

what prawns in the river!

Do you really think that the d9 and the pinnacles are the only place in the sound where snapper can be found. Where do you think they are when their not biting on these spots. Have a look around the sound and I would be surprised if you couldnt find a spot that would give a couple of snapper and you probably wouldnt see a boat for a mile.