Another Wazza

Whilst fishing out wide, the skipper pushed south that afternoon to another reef where he anchored up for the night, we woke the following day to good weather, but there was some instability on the horizon.

We made the most of the good conditions working the eastern side of this reef where I managed to boat a solid Coronation Trout of about 65/67cm

The weather from the south got a touch nasty just before lunch, a squall came through which saw us don the wet weather gear, one of my mates had left his jacket on the mothership, he was sending a whole squid down on 6 O gangs when it hit, he stopped his drop midway down to find something to use as protection from the rain, when he got belted by this thing

He was stoked to get this one to the boat in one piece, as it was him who got sharked earlier, getting wet doesn’t bother you too much when your catching fish like that.

The weather passed through, and later that afternoon we pushed further south to a reef I had fished before, this reef holds a good population of GT’s, and I was looking forward to having a crack at them on stickbaits. Whilst having dinner anchored in the safety of that lagoon, the menacing weather from the south west rolled through

There were 2 solid storms back to back that evening, with the boat recording 55 knot winds, the skipper had his hands full that night, he kept the engines running in case we pulled anchor and made our way onto the reef. It passed through and all was well, the big rig handled it nicely.

The next morning at this reef the weather was sloppy, standing at the front of the tender pegging stickbaits was out of the question, fishing the eastern side of the reef wasn’t possible as there was a northerly blowing.

We worked the southern edge for a couple of hours, for no result, after each unproductive drift, I’d move east just a little more until we were at the south eastern extremity of the reef, it was a washing machine here, but we found the fish.

I soon realised soft vibes should be made illegal, they are like fish crack, they can’t get enough of them, the take on the drop is awesome, far more aggressive then I expected. We all caught good fish here, and I managed to lose quite a few also, sometimes we were out gunned, other times you would win the battle only to have the sharks rob you, 

That afternoon we could work the eastern side, having gone through my supply of soft vibes, I resorted to old faithful, a big pink grub, that plastic out fished both my mates with bait that arvo, with the highlight being a trout that took it mid drop, I was minding my own business just talking to my mate when I had to thumb the spool hard to pull it up, expecting a red throat, I was shocked to see a trout on the end, it was a memorable afternoon.

We left the Swains that night pushing south back to Sykes reef for our last day. We woke to more bad weather, with storms all around us, and the decision was made not to crane the tenders off the mothership, no objections from me here, we had gone hard the last 5 days and I was beginning to feel a bit rusty.

Speaking to the skipper that morning he told me that at 2am we went through some of the worst weather he has experienced, massive electrical storms all around us with the boat recording a maximum of 78 knots of wind, a deckie filmed some of it on his phone and took a screenshot

It shows 73 knots at that stage, all the while I should probably mention I had my best nights sleep of the trip that night, didn’t wake once during the 3m+ seas, testament to the boat really, with only some superficial damage done to the roof, and a lot of people losing clothes that were hanging out on the top deck rails.

The fishing was slow that day at Sykes, my mates got a couple of trout, and one of the other punters got a legal cobia which he caught on a prawn plastic, we headed to Lamont reef for a few more drifts before pulling the pin and beginning the journey back to reality. Having not caught a proper Gt on a stickbait yet, I feel obligated to do this trip, or a similar one again. Thanks for reading, and here are a few more random pics of the trip.

13 hours ago, benno573 said:

I hate being left hanging....

Sorry to leave you hanging benno, but I’ve been in therapy working on developing coping mechanisms to help me be able to fish the bay again, hahaha

Having recently returned from my 4th 7 day Swains reef fishing trip onboard the Big Cat, I thought I’d share a few highlights of the adventure. I’ll apologise in advance for the lack of photos taken by myself, but in reality, when the fishing is that hot, photos are the last thing on my mind, getting back in and trying to catch another was just too much fun.

We left Bundaberg on a Thursday night and woke up at Sykes reef to some average weather, the fishing from the 4.2 smartwave poly tenders was difficult at times with an extremely fresh northerly blowing, the drifts were quick , but we persisted, boating only 4 good Red throat for the morning session.

The afternoon session wasn’t much better, the wind increased a bit, and by now, myself and both my mates were completely drenched, it was very sloppy out there, however, I’m always amazed at how well the tenders handle it, they’re built like little tanks and politely do whatever you ask of them, we pulled the pin after 2 hours retirering to the mothership for a hot shower, and some fishing off the back, where we bagged a few trout in comfort.

Arriving at the Swains early on Saturday morning, we were greeted by what can only be described as perfect conditions, nice and sunny with a gentle breeze to keep us cool.

I hadn’t been to this reef before, and after a quick look at the charts we decided to head out a couple of miles to a small strip of reef to our north, the fishing here was some of, if not the best I have experienced. 

We got straight into some solid red throat, nice trout, tuskies, and a few other species.

My mate hooked up to a solid Green Jobby, only to have the tax man give it a haircut, it’s head is in the esky

We kept at it, doing drifts from around 20m to 45m, on one of the drifts I felt a few little bites, before the rod loaded up nicely with this on the end

he came in at 9.5kg, what surprised me though was I had a variegated emperor on first ( hence the little bites)  he then clobbered that little fella and sent the hook right through him, the little emperor was sliding freely up and down my leader, nice upgrade.

That day continued to produce, and between the morning & afternoon session we bought 60 fish onboard.

The next day was a little different, sunny, glassy conditions, with very little run, we still caught quality fish, but they weren’t chewing as hard as the day before.

A 5/8th jighead in 50m of water produced this little guy

I couldn’t manage to find any bigger models, but we all got toweled up by who knows what out there.

That afternoon the skipper told me of a spot out wide where if we buddied up and took my mates in another tender along, we could go out 5nm and scout out some goldband snapper, the skipper was bang on, we fished 80/90m of water and were all rewarded with solid fish.

I’ll leave part one here, 3 days in, and slightly knackered.

I decided after hearing Sam’s confirmation the other day that the schoolies were in the Rainbow, to give them a crack.

I managed to convince my mum to come along and enjoy a day on the water too, she wasn’t that keen to start with, she said I leave too early in the morning for her liking, so we settled on a 9am departure from Raby Bay, needles to say I had to park out on the road as the car park was packed.

We launched the super yacht and cruised towards the Rainbow in a very glassy bay, I pulled up just short of the Welsby light and began a drift back down the channel, unweighted pillies on 5 O gangs is what we used, whilst drifting we started a friendly competition of who would be crowned the mackerel master of the day, I got on the board early with a nice 68cm model, she soon followed with a 55cm, it was neck and neck there for a while, but I assured her if it went down to the wire, we would have to go by who’s catch came in with the longest overall length.

We ended up boating 4 on the first drift, then cruised back up for round 2, I got a breather as she got snipped twice, and dropped another, then I came home strong landing 3 in quick succession, the boat was looking more and more like a crime scene at the end of the 2nd drift, so we pulled stumps and headed for home.

I was pleasantly surprised when I got back to the ramp, the longest part of the retrieval was walking to the ute, It was a good end to a great day, and although my mum isn’t a keen fisher person, she thoroughly enjoyed the outing.

I feel better now knowing I’m not the only one with an outrageous amount of Z Man plastics and assorted jig heads, I too don’t have a problem, I can stop anytime.....

Well spotted Hamish, work the area thoroughly and you may get rewarded

1 hour ago, GregOug said:

In my defence, it was drawn electronically using a mouse, after half a dozen beers and by someone who was never going to be accepted to art school. 

Greg, if the above statement is correct & true, double shame on you!, what on earth are you doing giving a 4 year old half a dozen beers!, Hahahaha!

Greg, I’m going to call you out for not actually drawing that picture, I believe the credit should go to the 4 year old who did it, shame on you, Hahahaha 

11 hours ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

my mates all got me the same gifts - BCF gift cards)

Master stroke Hamish, , those mates are keepers, hahaha