J-DOG115

Hi all

bit of a late report as iv been away since I got back

headed up the reef for our annual north west island trip, after a shocker on the fish front and bad weather last year we were hoping there would be some more fish around this year, headed up to Gladstone all loaded up on boxing day got up there bout 2pm packed the stuff into the crates, loaded the barge and settled for a sleep before the 3am departure.

Day 1

Arrived at the island about 8:30am dropped the boat off the barge and made our way in to the island, anchored the boat and went to find a campsite after that we unpacked the barge and spent most of the day setting up the campsite

Day2

With the weather meant to deteriorate in the next couple of days we headed out to see what was around. Went for a shoot at some old mark to get some bait ended up with two trout, missed a few bigger ones and got a trev and rubber lip sweet lip for bait.

Day3

Headed out for look at another spearing mark, wasn’t much around only got two trout but once we saw a hammerhead shark bout 3m long one to many times haha we headed back to the boat and went to some fishing marks, sounded round found a few good shows ended up with four red throats and a couple of tuskies for dinner

Day4

The weather yet to get nasty and myself dying to shoot a decent trout we headed out to mark wear we got a couple the first day. Arrived there, suited up and jumped in the vis was pretty good, few trout swimming round in the end I managed three trout in the mid mid to high 40’s with the old man missing everything he shot at, we jumped back in the boat and found a mark on the GPS bout 2ks up the reef and thought we would check it out. We arrived there, I jumped in with dad deciding to just line fish while i sused out the area, the first thing I saw was a border line trout sitting mid water watching me as I load my gun and paddle away from the boat, saw a couple a bigger ones but they were very flighty and took off befor I could get close enough. Stared to head back towards the boat when I noticed dad was hooked up rushed over to find some random little reef fish getting pulled towards the surface but was amazed to see four easy legal trout sitting on the bottom watching this happen, told dad and that was enough encouragement to get in the water I went down and took a shot at one of them but missed and they all took off so both of us the paddled along the reef a bit we then saw a decent trout sitting under a piece of plate so dad went down to have a shot and actually hit it we both surfed and put the fish in the float by the time we reloaded and got sorted it seemed like every trout on the reef had come to see what we were doing at one count there were at least 9 trout sitting with in 10m of us we couldn’t believe I eyes, I didn’t know which one to shoot haha so we got a few more but with the current picking up we had to make way back to the boat along the way dad spotted a very nice trout he took a dive but it started to swim off before he could take a shot so he surfaced and the trout stopped so I dived down and it just looked as I lined it took my shot GOT HIM!!!!!! Good way to finish off still with calm seas we headed back very pleased with our haul.

Day 5

the winds picked up with nothing much happening got a few dart off the beach and lost half my line on ma 1-3 to a golden trev in the reef

Day 6

The weather looking better dad and I decided to take the 15k run to Douglas shoal (WORST IDEA) wasn’t a really bad run out but the weather went from average to BADD and myself getting sea sick for the first time on the trip we got to nice tuskies and headed back we sat on 8kts all the way back with bout 2m swell and waves breaking all over the place it was good to get into the lea of the island where the swell was almost none so we then headed up the the trout spot from the other day, wasn’t much there and vis wasn’t that good we ended up with two trout and a purple cod this was when the plague of the purple cod started

Day 7

Weather a bit better and the rest of the fam was keen for a fish so headed out to a reef mark just off the island, a little bumpy but still alright got a another feed of tuskie and two squid that popped up at the back of the boat. After a couple of hours every body had enough so we dropped them off and me and dad headed up to the fish tail (top end of the reef) for a dive got up there and jumped in to find a fair bit of current so only got one purple cod and three trout jumped out and after some discussion decided to have a troll round the deep bomies put the green hydro magnum out went bout 100m before ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (was hopping for a mackerel of some sort) quick fight and up come a solid purple cod so in the esky and back out with the lure went bout 50m before hooked up again, another purple cod and then another after that so we got three purple cod on the troll which was a first for us haha with the wind and swell dying it was a quick run at 35kt back to the island to start filleting

Day 8

We had more then enough fish in the fridge for dinner we headed out in search of trout for the freezer with no wind and swell we headed round to the ocean side the vise was amazing we were just ideling along in bout 25ft looking for bommies and then u would see two trout sitting on the top of the bommies from the surface so we just dropped the anchor jumped in dad managed a very nice fish which was only 2cm bigger then mine going 59 grr haha but after that most of then were in the mid 40’s so ended up with 9, a good effort for the last day

Day 9

Headed out on the morning high to feed the sharks come back and started the big pack up for departure the next day

Day 10

Slept on the beach for the night loaded the barge and boats without hassle and was under way and heading for Gladstone by bout 8:30am was a good run back got to Gladstone bout 2pm loaded the car and left Gladstone bout 4pm with a freezer full of fish

All in all was a very good trip heaps of fish and decent weather

Thanks for reading

Joel