queensland Coral Trout Love Tuff Prawns

[tugger]

 Went up to 1770 with my son Brock on Thursday afternoon and stayed the night before leaving the ramp at 1st light Friday morning. We headed for the bunker group with plans to stay out for 3 days on the outer reef after a average run up we were fishing our 1st marks by 8am.

I strugled with bait only landing the odd tuskie while my son tangled with coral trout for the 1st 2 hours i tried alot of different rigs and baits but Brock kept hooking up on plastics. I soon switched to plastics on the shads tuff prawn and we were both hitting trout along with a huge variety of fish.

 

We landed spangeled emperor, moarie cod, red throat emperor, coral trout, srtipies, honeycomb cod, hussar, tea leaf trevally, bludger trevally and long nose emperor. We found more ground as we went and the wind dropped right out to nothing through the middle of the day. The red emeperor were proving to be elusive so we didn't waste to much time hunting them Friday chosing to keep looking for trout.

It started to blow late in the arvo so we went shallow behind the reef and found plenty of red throat emeperor biting. These fish put up an amazing fight never giving up all the way to the boat and i would have to say pound for pound 1 of the strogest fighting fish on the reef. We got RTE up to 53cm and started to really get some colour to the box.

After sunset friday it was time anchor up and settle in for the night cook some dinner and get a good sleep. Saturday morning the wind was still atleast 12 knots but i was keen to target the reds early morning. The 1st mark was quiet but the next move we found fish on the sounder and new ground nearby on the drift.

It was this new ground where the reds were hanging and i got a little legal red emperor going 59cm on the ruler. Brock hooked up but lost a better red halfway up just spitting the hook then the bite shut down so after another 30 minutes we moved south looking for more trout etc.

We were finding new ground and pulling fish as we went and by 11 am the bite shut right down. We decided to go for a snorkle in the lagoon at fitzroy reef, we had the lagoon to ourselves and anchored up in front of the biggest coral bommie. 

It took us an hour to snorkel around it, so much colour in the reef here and the fish life was amazing even seeing coral trout lurking in the holes in the reef. After the snorkle we had a fresh water shower then some lunch before heading out again to the lee side of the reef to find more fish.

The fish were thick and in an hour we got another 7 fish to finish off our bag limit on the coral reef fin fish. The tuff prawns did outfish the bait by far and all the trout and most of the red throat fell for the prawn.

Then pointing the boat for home the throttle went down and 90 minutes later crossed the bar back in the creek at 1770 a day early. I stayed another night in town and drove home on Sunday morning , just in time as we had run out of fish at home so this should keep us in qaulity fish for a little while.

[Drop Bear]

Great trip mate.

[jon]

Nice work mark they are the solidest lipper  I have seen in a while. I’ll be sure to take a few tough prawns up on my next trip. What weight jig head did you mostly use?

[tugger]

7 minutes ago, jon said:

Nice work mark they are the solidest lipper  I have seen in a while. I’ll be sure to take a few tough prawns up on my next trip. What weight jig head did you mostly use?

Depending on depth and drift the red throat like it on the drop like floatlining but the trout you want to be hard on the bottom. We were using 3/4 ounce through to 2 ounce jig heads

[Brodie_S]

You seem to do a excellent job on the trout and sweetlip when I was in the Whitsundays I caught a decent sized sweetlip on bread I think those sweetlip eat anything 

[Old Scaley]

Holy snapping fin fish, @tugger. What a great trip. You and the family are going to grow gills and scales soon Mark. Thanks for sharing.

[Drop Bear]

So good to do a trip with your son mate. That will be a memory you can both treasure forever. 

Cracking Esky and well done doing it on the plastics. 

 

[kmcrosby78]

Wow, now that is how it is done!!!!  Awesome trip there Mark and some great eating to be done for a fair while. Don't tell me you use that dreaded br@%d stuff when you used the Tuff Prawns???

[tugger]

3 hours ago, Old Scaley said:

Holy snapping fin fish, @tugger. What a great trip. You and the family are going to grow gills and scales soon Mark. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Steve it was a great trip with Brock we will eat like kings again

[tugger]

1 hour ago, Drop Bear said:

So good to do a trip with your son mate. That will be a memory you can both treasure forever. 

Cracking Esky and well done doing it on the plastics. 

 

Yeah we both had a ball together 21 yrs old and still hanging with dad

[tugger]

38 minutes ago, kmcrosby78 said:

Wow, now that is how it is done!!!!  Awesome trip there Mark and some great eating to be done for a fair while. Don't tell me you use that dreaded br@%d stuff when you used the Tuff Prawns???

Yes braid and plastics but it proves you can teach and old dog new tricks Kelvin

[kmcrosby78]

1 hour ago, tugger said:

Yes braid and plastics but it proves you can teach and old dog new tricks Kelvin

Exactly my thoughts mate - more than one string to your bow  

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

G'day tugger

Great job on all the tasty reefies. How good is the timing to perfectly run out then restock. I guess with all the fish you catch you will have fish for months!  And it is sure interesting how you got most on lures opposed to bait.

Chers Hamish

[tugger]

1 hour ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

G'day tugger

Great job on all the tasty reefies. How good is the timing to perfectly run out then restock. I guess with all the fish you catch you will have fish for months!  And it is sure interesting how you got most on lures opposed to bait.

Chers Hamish

Thanks Hamish most trips its the other way round for most of the species up there except the trout which I have noticed they love the plastics over the times Brock has fished with me.

[tugger]

On 27/10/2020 at 7:05 PM, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

G'day tugger

Great job on all the tasty reefies. How good is the timing to perfectly run out then restock. I guess with all the fish you catch you will have fish for months!  And it is sure interesting how you got most on lures opposed to bait.

Chers Hamish

Had some red emperor last night and it was sensational the fish don't get any better than this IMO

[Drop Bear]

On 31/10/2020 at 12:27 PM, tugger said:

Had some red emperor last night and it was sensational the fish don't get any better than this IMO

Yep so good. We did a big nanny pasta on Friday. Quality fish handled well cant be beaten. 

[tugger]

4 hours ago, Drop Bear said:

Yep so good. We did a big nanny pasta on Friday. Quality fish handled well cant be beaten. 

Yes and that's the key Robbie look after your catch and you have quality fish the family enjoys.

[pancakes_and_haggis]

Awesome little trip away mate.. the old tough prawns hey I never thought I'd see you throwing rubber around. 

 

When are you going to try the jigs? 

[tugger]

5 hours ago, pancakes_and_haggis said:

Awesome little trip away mate.. the old tough prawns hey I never thought I'd see you throwing rubber around. 

 

When are you going to try the jigs? 

It either was watching Brock catch all the good fish or join him using plastics. I have tried the 50 gram shads metal vibes on the trout and they work to.

[tugger]

Looking at another trip in February or March next year need that red fix by then

[Drop Bear]

On 25/11/2020 at 12:52 PM, tugger said:

Looking at another trip in February or March next year need that red fix by then

I just checked my diary and it looks like I am free to be your decky........ haha

[tugger]

15 hours ago, Drop Bear said:

I just checked my diary and it looks like I am free to be your decky........ haha

Alright sounds good Robbie I have a bit of time off work then so we just need some good weather around February March