Hi all

Just got back from a week in Walpole with the family and thought I would post a small report unfortunately didn't take any photos.

Spent first few days chasing flathead on plastic's and ended up with 6 fish the all around 38cm, it was tough finding the fish with each spot taking multiple casts before finally getting the fish to show interest. Caught the odd herring, one bream and a salmon about 60cm long which was good fun on ligh gear before it finally busted me off.

After the first few slow days using plastics I decided I would try and target some yellowfin whiting on bait after a bit of local information from a guy at the Walpole boat ramp, he mentioned that they were showing up on the flats near the mouth of the Nornulup inlet. He was fishing on the boat ramp jetty using a small slice and getting alot of herring, that isn't really my thing but I thought I would mention it incase anyone else was interested. I headed out to the mouth of the inlet and did try fishing the flats with know real sucess it was about 10am so trying to catch whiting in shallow water with the sun almost over head probably required more stealth than I was capable of at the time so I decided to give skippy rock a look. 

Caught some keyring sized skippy at skippy rock and overall was a little dissapointed with the days effort, decided to make a move and as I passed the small jetty near skippy rock noticed some shows on the sounder so decided to give it a go a see what they were. After anchoring and setting up I casted my double hooked whiting paternoster in the general direction baited with some coral prawn and had immediate interest. Winded it in and ended up with a double header of king george whiting not monsters but at this stage of the day I was pretty chuffed. The next hour or so was a really good session on king george catching 30 or 40 fish and ending up keeping 8 legal fish between 28cm and 32cm like i said not massive fish but the made a greed feed for the family. 

Headed back the next day with the hope of getting my 2 year old onto his first king george and the same spot produced for both him and my wife, they had fun but its hard work with a young child on the boat so we pulled in at a small beach right near the mouth of the inlet. If you haven't been to Walpole and in particular the mouth of the Nornalup inlet then I think you are really missing out this particular spot is only really accessible by boat and there is 4WD track to get to the beach on the opposite side of the mouth but we had this little protected beach all to ourselves and it really was an amazing setting.

I walked along the hedland side of the inlet mouth and noticed thick schools of juvenille snapper right in the channel only meters from the waters edge which was amazing to see, I also watched a boat coming in from sea and  for those who know that stretch of water the mouth is almost closed. The channel out usually runs along the rocks on the hedland side however at the moment the way out veers away from the rocks by 150m or so if you are going down over christmas it would pay to be careful and maybe follow someone who knows the way out. Its doable but it is quite shallow, while I was there I saw a small commercial boat do it and he seemed to be getting stuck a bit.

I have been going to Walpole for nearly ten years and I have had some great bream sessions on plastics and some trips were just non stop fishing action the last couple of times were a little slow and plastics don't seem to be the go, I didn't really fish far up the Frankland River this time around but in the past i haven't had to get action. I was just wondering if anyone else who go's to Walpole has noticed the action drop off over the last 5 years or so or is it just me. I did catch a blowie for the first time while at the mouth of the inlet and was also wondering if anyone else has caught them, I hope this is note a sign of things to come.

Overall we had a great time and really enjoyed the time spent in the two inlets.

Cheers