3 Days On The Reef

[tugger]

Left on Thursday arvo to head up to 1770 with the boat in tow nearly got there then 50 minutes from town my car broke down and we had to get towed to a workshop where we camped out for the night. Instead of getting on the water before 6am Friday my deckie Aaron and I had to wait till the mechanic turned up to work and it took about 3 hours to fix before we were on our way again where we finally got to 1770.

 

After leaving the ramp we crossed the bar at midday and stretched the boats legs opening up the throttle we found no wind and flat seas out side we set our course for a reef system 90km out i  kept the throttle down for the quickest trip to the reef. Conditions don't get much better if at all it was mint and we dropped baits down immediately when we pulled up my mate Aaron got a huge hit on his 2nd drop and fought a big trout up to the boat as I was about to net it the line parted right at the hook and the fish swam slowly away. Aaron was devastated but we kept on fishing catching fish like red throat emperor, Tuskie, Hussar then I hooked a beast it felt like a big trout again and I got it up to the boat it was a big spangled emperor.

 

 

About 4pm we left to find a good anchorage and do a bit of snorkeling looking for crays in amongst the coral bombies we snorkeled for about an hour but couldn't find any crays this time but it was still a good swim. After a fresh water shower back onboard it was beer o'clock time to chill with the sun setting over the reef and dinner to organise or should I say fillet sum fresh reef fish.

 

 

 

Saturday we woke cooked breaky and went fishing it was slow going as a northerly wind had kicked up early and got windy through out the day it was still easily fishable but the fish were shut down. We slowly added to our box with more of the same as yesterday and lots of just under red emperor then I got hit by a big red he thumped away on the end of the line and made some strong runs he reefed me in the end adding to more heart ache.

 

 

By late arvo we called it a day and made our way to the opposite side of the reef to lay up on anchor it gave us good protection so over the side again but no crays spotted again. Back in the boat we floated a pilchard out over the reef edge in to the deep water and just as the sunset we hooked a good Spanish mackerel Aaron had not caught 1 in a long while so he enjoyed bringing in a good fish going 1.2m long.

Time again to have a few coldies listen to some music and relax in a surreal setting amongst the southern great barrier reef, by the next morning the wind had dropped to nothing and it was another glass out. This was our last morning so we made the most of it getting up early and cooking breaky gain when we spotted some Spanish jumping right out of the water behind the boat so we threw some slugs getting 1 follow and bump on the slug. We moved to some reef where we drift in about 40m and found the fish were on and biting hard, I hooked a brute and finally got my 1st trout for the trip onboard going 72cm.

 

 

We hooked a few more big trout and I managed another 1 in to the boat going 60cm but there were a few lost to being to slow these fish get you back in to the coral very quickly. The bait ran out just after 9am which was when we said we would head home so the boat was pointed back towards 1770 and the throttle opened up again with the seas flat for about the 1st 30km then we ran in to a light head wind which slowed us a bit but in the end we still made good time back to the ramp.

 

We ran in to a few fellas who had been out around the same time and they said Friday was the best fishing day which we all but missed because of the car breaking down still had a blast and found some new ground. Here are our best fish for the trip

 

 

 

 

 

[kmcrosby78]

Nice one Mark, good solid trout there.  Shame about the lack of crays - have you got them at this time of year before?  What was the car issue?

[Madmic]

What an awesome trip Tugger and a great read. Pity about the crays, would have been a great way to top off dinner one of those nights.

Madmic

[tugger]

16 hours ago, kmcrosby78 said:

Nice one Mark, good solid trout there.  Shame about the lack of crays - have you got them at this time of year before?  What was the car issue?

The car was an EGR valve on the diesel we were just lucky it could be fixed the very next day, the crays were not in the area we looked in but we never found exactly where we were earlier this year I thought I took a gps mark but there was no mark near there that showed. Next time as soon as I find the area again I sure will mark it, the trout were good size got a fair bit of fillet from them and we had some with the family last night. My mate Aaron lost a bigger model than these fish right at the boat he was spewing because he has never got a legal trout before.

[tugger]

16 hours ago, Madmic said:

What an awesome trip Tugger and a great read. Pity about the crays, would have been a great way to top off dinner one of those nights.

Madmic

Yeah earlier this year when we went up we had 6 crays between 2 boats 1 night along with some fresh coral trout for dinner do, we love rafting up a couple of boats for dinner and drinks up there it doesn't get much better.

[Luvit]

The photos get you day dreaming about being far away. 

Great trout, pity about Aaron losing his.

[tugger]

2 hours ago, Luvit said:

The photos get you day dreaming about being far away. 

Great trout, pity about Aaron losing his.

Already dreaming of being back up there Wayne hopefully I get a chance towards the end of the year again

[Angus]

Woot. Solid troot!!

Count down is on for me. Drive starts straight after Tanya finishes work next Friday. Cannay wait!

[tugger]

Good luck up there Angus my best suggestion is get you hands on some mullet fillet it stays on longer for the big boys to find