It has been another big week for the WA recfishing community with another big splash after two new sets of fish aggregating devices (FADs) were deployed – this time off Cape Naturaliste and Albany.
What’s more the first reported capture of a dolphinfish off our metro FADs, just three weeks after they were deployed has got WA fishing social media buzzing.
We said we would deliver a State-wide trial network of FADs and that’s exactly what we’re doing with FADs now deployed in four different locations in the southern half of the State (off the north metro, west of Rotto, Cape Naturaliste and Albany) with Geraldton, Exmouth and Broome to come in early 2020.
The FADs off Cape Naturaliste should open up some great new sport-fishing opportunities for boat fishers in the south-west of the State with dolphinfish and tuna to be the likely targets, while the devices off Albany are potentially a bit of a wild card with recfishing FADs never having been deployed off WA’s south coast before.
But the local fishers in Albany, with whom we’ve been closely consulting on the project, reckon tuna and potentially yellowtail kingfish could be the go – but can’t count out dolphinfish even that far south as they have been caught there before.
WANT TO FISH THE ALBANY FADS? FIND THE MAP AND COORDINATES HERE
CHECK OUT THE CAPE NATURALISTE FAD COORDINATES AND MAP HERE
This is partly what makes this three-year trial project so exciting – we’re not quite sure what’s going to turn up on the FADs.
What we do know is that the Perth Game Fishing Club has been successfully running a tremendous FADs program west of Rotto for the last two decades, FADs have been successfully used to create exciting new fishing opportunities in the Eastern states and all around the globe, and there is a strong community appetite for them here.
It’s another example of how recfishing licence fees can be used to create fantastic new sports fishing opportunities aggregating abundant schools of fast-growing, spectacular-fighting pelagic species and it’s already shaping up to be a really exciting summer of fishing!
And a big shout out to Chris and the 2 Oceans Tackle guys for all their efforts in getting the Cape Naturaliste FADs in the water.
We hope you can get out and give these new FADs a crack soon – drop us a line and let us know how you go. We’d love to hear from you.
CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE FADS PROGRAM
CLICK HERE FOR COORDINATES AND MAPS OF ALL THE PLANNED FAD LOCATIONS
