Huxstang

Charter Trip - Swains Reef on Big Cat Reality.
Gear Taken:
My primary rod was a Shimano Ocea Offshore 732 spin with Saragossa 6000 with 50lb Nomad Braid.
Secondary spin rod - Live Fibre 8-10kg spin with trusty old Penn Spinfisher 8500 with 20lb mono.
Trolling and heavy bottom - Live Fibre 15-24kg Overhead with TLD20, 50lb Daiwa J Braid
Jig Rod - Oceans Legacy Elementus PE2-3 with Ocea Jigger and Shimano Ocea PE4
Stickbait Rod, Venom Stickbait with Saragossa 14000 Shimano PE6
I had trolling lures, plastics, vibes, stickbaits, lighter poppers and the usual terminal tackle including @ 75 7/0 Gamakatsu circles.
My past charters on Swains were all bait fishing but the crew going were a mix of bait and sports fishing including my two mates who were all keen to mix it up - hence the variety of rods and reels taken.
Day 0, arrive at Burnett Heads and caught up with the group - 21 and we all were connected in some form so vessel was ours.  Quick lunch and a few sherberts at the Burnett Heads Lighthouse Hotel and we were on board for the 3pm briefing.  The ocean looked perfect and the crew were super excited with good weather predicted with nothing more than 15 knots expected. 
Big Cat (MV Coral Seatel) has a bit of age on her but the interior has had a full recent refit so its nice and clean and modern.   Tenders were the plastic 4.2m tiller steer dinghies fitted with Garmin 7” GPS/Sounders and 60HP Yammies.  I will share more about the boats later. 7 tenders and 21 fishers meant 3 to a tender and none left on mothership.
Departed @ 6.30pm after dinner on board.  Most of us had been up since early to get to the boat and after the usual banter it was time for the bunks.  Now at 195cm I am taller than most but they had enough bunks that long for us tall guys, sadly they were all on the top which was less than fun for my aging late 50’s body, but by the end of the trip I had a technique sorted.
 
Day 1.  Arrive at Lady Elliot Reefs and tenders all unloaded.  Sadly all of the weather predictions were off by miles, overcast and blowing a solid 15+ knots.  But out we went.  We boated a few nice red throat and a trout but it was a tough fish, we couldn’t fish light due to the wind causing way too fast a drift over shallow grounds.
A few disappointed boats with some guys recording zero legal fish.  There is a learning curve for shallow reef fishing.
Day 1 finished with tenders reloaded and an overnight journey to Swains.  And it was rough.  I either reacted to the pork curry for dinner or got seasick but I wasn’t the only one.  A sleepless night with the old girl working her way through rough seas.  
Day 2
Day 2 and we were anchored at Sweetlip Reef and another windy day - just a tad worse than Day 1….15-20 with gusts over 25knots.  Ohh and showers.  I was so happy I had bought a new Burke marine 3/4 jacket but regretted not buying the big and brace pants.  It was cold, rough and those plastic tenders were WET WET WET boats.   Hard work trying to find fish generally but the crew worked hard and saw a mixed bag of sweetlip, trout, cobia and a Spaniard.
Personal tally was lean, and getting the right weight to fish the bottom meant lots of practice tying SC knots with new leader on the braid.  What our boat experienced was not much quantity but good quality.
 
Day 3
Day 3 was again at Sweetlip - lots of discussion about moving on early.  Weather remained foul…shower and strong winds.  The tenders may be wet but even heading out to entrance of the reef with swells way over 1.5 m and we felt safe - just bloody wet.
Everyone was starting to find the tempo….it was still hard fishing but it was about finding the zone fish were holding in then setting a decent drift pattern over the ground.  We were averaging 1 keeper every 2 or 3 drifts so it was hard work.  Early on I got a decent bonito on a squid head….thought I had a nice eater - but instead got some nice bait.
Overall a decent mixed bag of job fish, mackerel, red throat and trout.but not really the quantity that people were expecting.
Day 3 debrief and it was decided we would relocate towards Gater Reef the next day with the tenders following the mothership.
 
Day 4.
Again foul weather, we had lost all expectation of easing weather and had to toughen up and do our best.
We trolled down following the mothership with one tender boating a 1m tuna and we got a hookup and drop in the same zone.  
Big Cat was sounding some ground as she went and found some nice holdings.  We continued to troll towards the ground and as we came up out of 30m to 8 metres I got a stonking trout on an Elliot’s Mackeral Mauler of all things.  The drifts over the sounding area was great with nice trout and BIG sweetlip right up until the taxman arrived.  After getting busted off a heap of times with sharks we anchored for lunch at a nice little reef half way to Gator, just in time to find another charter vessel had gone into Gater….so much for that plan.
We stayed at unknown reef for the remainder of the day.   Drifting off the reef edge was productive but not exactly a crazy bite, right up until the taxman moved in again.  Time for Guinness on the back deck.
Day 5.  
Windy windy windy.  A brisk 20-25 greeted us on deck.  
Day 5 and we worked around the reef and then followed Big Cat into deeper water and it was rough and big seas - one boat got a nice Red Emperor and a couple of  jobbies but then the taxman moved it and most of us had just gathered more bruises to bodies and ego’s.
Tough fishing but we got a decent tally considering the weather forcing everyone to fish much heavier than anyone would like in these reefs.    
Day 5 finished with tenders loaded up for an overnight transit to Fitzroy Reef.
A fairly rough night but no issues for most as far as I could see.
Day 6
Fitzroy reef.  Maybe the best weather day with the winds dropping through the morning down to 10-15 knots.  Yep that was a good day.  
We worked outside the reef on the western side and I boated a couple of decent sweetlip @ 50cm.  
Big cat went and sounded some deeper water in the 50m zone that showed fish.  We all went over but with the wind and seas it was hard to get down into the zone.  We retreated back to the northern reef edge after the taxman moved in again.
AS we did the weather eased and with the tide going out we were getting some relief from swell and wind causing the crazy chop of the morning.  We ended up doing a saw tooth drift from reef edge out to the 28m line which was producing hussar, iodine bream and juvenile sweetlip with the odd keeper red throat.  It was pleasant and relaxing after the previous days of getting a solid bashing out in the tenders.
After lunch we continued the same pattern just enjoying being out there with mates with a couple of after lunch beers.  And then I finally got what I was after - a nice job fish in the 20m zone and next drift a solid 8kg shark mackerel.  Then got badly taxed on a huge red throat landing a nice head and then mate had the same on a cracker parrot. 
Then we all got hook ups on sharks and with 4pm on us it was time to call it done.
 
Our charter tally was only 280 fish but with a few big fish in amongst them we all brought home enough fish to  get us through a few months.
Fish prep by Big Cat is first rate, nicely filleted and cyrovacced before snap freezing.  
 
As we all know the weather is one of those things you cannot control.   Did it affect our catch - for sure.  Did it affect what we hoped to do with sports fishing - absolutely.  The combination of wind and waves killed any hope of casting stickbaits across shallow water.  Could Big Cat have changed that - nope.
I was certainly disappointed to not get to do some more general sportsfishing but there are always other opportunities.
I fished heavily with the Ocea spin rod, it outfished the others in our tender significantly, it was a much lighter rod than most were using and IMHO the action converted more bites to hook ups.  Sadly the main shaft on my Saragossa 6000 was bent after mate and I both went arse up trying to get the anchor off the reef.  I was able to push it back to workable but it will need replacing.
The 6000 was IMHO perfect, it had more than enough drag and line capacity.  It balanced so nicely on the Ocea 732 and although I had it loaded up like a banana on the big Mack I never felt like it didnt have the guts needed to acquit itself.
My rig dropped from 60lb leader to 40lb leader which helped reduce the number of SC knots I was tying.  Most guys were running 50-80lb leader.  The Nomad Panderra 40lb was nice and supple and fairly resilient to the coral. 
I didnt keep a tally on fish, but was happy enough with my daily catch.  I was more than happy to get my first trout on a lure and a nice job fish which was my first.  We had a great crew on Big Cat with the guys and the team from Reality.  Seb (skipper), Frankie (#1 deck hand and as it turns out was a deckie on Grey Scout out of Gladstone back in the early 2000’s which was my last Swains charters) , Freddy (the chef), Barry (also a chef but working as deckie) and Kealan were all great guys to have around and shared a lot of laughs.
I will try and edit with some pics when I work out how to upload them on the ipad from One Drive.
 

Charter Trip - Swains Reef on Big Cat Reality.
Gear Taken:
My primary rod was a Shimano Ocea Offshore 732 spin with Saragossa 6000 with 50lb Nomad Braid.
Secondary spin rod - Live Fibre 8-10kg spin with trusty old Penn Spinfisher 8500 with 20lb mono.
Trolling and heavy bottom - Live Fibre 15-24kg Overhead with TLD20, 50lb Daiwa J Braid
Jig Rod - Oceans Legacy Elementus PE2-3 with Ocea Jigger and Shimano Ocea PE4
Stickbait Rod, Venom Stickbait with Saragossa 14000 Shimano PE6
I had trolling lures, plastics, vibes, stickbaits, lighter poppers and the usual terminal tackle including @ 75 7/0 Gamakatsu circles.
My past charters on Swains were all bait fishing but the crew going were a mix of bait and sports fishing including my two mates who were all keen to mix it up - hence the variety of rods and reels taken.
Day 0, arrive at Burnett Heads and caught up with the group - 21 and we all were connected in some form so vessel was ours.  Quick lunch and a few sherberts at the Burnett Heads Lighthouse Hotel and we were on board for the 3pm briefing.  The ocean looked perfect and the crew were super excited with good weather predicted with nothing more than 15 knots expected. 
Big Cat (MV Coral Seatel) has a bit of age on her but the interior has had a full recent refit so its nice and clean and modern.   Tenders were the plastic 4.2m tiller steer dinghies fitted with Garmin 7” GPS/Sounders and 60HP Yammies.  I will share more about the boats later. 7 tenders and 21 fishers meant 3 to a tender and none left on mothership.
Departed @ 6.30pm after dinner on board.  Most of us had been up since early to get to the boat and after the usual banter it was time for the bunks.  Now at 195cm I am taller than most but they had enough bunks that long for us tall guys, sadly they were all on the top which was less than fun for my aging late 50’s body, but by the end of the trip I had a technique sorted.
 
Day 1.  Arrive at Lady Elliot Reefs and tenders all unloaded.  Sadly all of the weather predictions were off by miles, overcast and blowing a solid 15+ knots.  But out we went.  We boated a few nice red throat and a trout but it was a tough fish, we couldn’t fish light due to the wind causing way too fast a drift over shallow grounds.
A few disappointed boats with some guys recording zero legal fish.  There is a learning curve for shallow reef fishing.
Day 1 finished with tenders reloaded and an overnight journey to Swains.  And it was rough.  I either reacted to the pork curry for dinner or got seasick but I wasn’t the only one.  A sleepless night with the old girl working her way through rough seas.  
Day 2
Day 2 and we were anchored at Sweetlip Reef and another windy day - just a tad worse than Day 1….15-20 with gusts over 25knots.  Ohh and showers.  I was so happy I had bought a new Burke marine 3/4 jacket but regretted not buying the big and brace pants.  It was cold, rough and those plastic tenders were WET WET WET boats.   Hard work trying to find fish generally but the crew worked hard and saw a mixed bag of sweetlip, trout, cobia and a Spaniard.
Personal tally was lean, and getting the right weight to fish the bottom meant lots of practice tying SC knots with new leader on the braid.  What our boat experienced was not much quantity but good quality.
 
Day 3
Day 3 was again at Sweetlip - lots of discussion about moving on early.  Weather remained foul…shower and strong winds.  The tenders may be wet but even heading out to entrance of the reef with swells way over 1.5 m and we felt safe - just bloody wet.
Everyone was starting to find the tempo….it was still hard fishing but it was about finding the zone fish were holding in then setting a decent drift pattern over the ground.  We were averaging 1 keeper every 2 or 3 drifts so it was hard work.  Early on I got a decent bonito on a squid head….thought I had a nice eater - but instead got some nice bait.
Overall a decent mixed bag of job fish, mackerel, red throat and trout.but not really the quantity that people were expecting.
Day 3 debrief and it was decided we would relocate towards Gater Reef the next day with the tenders following the mothership.
 
Day 4.
Again foul weather, we had lost all expectation of easing weather and had to toughen up and do our best.
We trolled down following the mothership with one tender boating a 1m tuna and we got a hookup and drop in the same zone.  
Big Cat was sounding some ground as she went and found some nice holdings.  We continued to troll towards the ground and as we came up out of 30m to 8 metres I got a stonking trout on an Elliot’s Mackeral Mauler of all things.  The drifts over the sounding area was great with nice trout and BIG sweetlip right up until the taxman arrived.  After getting busted off a heap of times with sharks we anchored for lunch at a nice little reef half way to Gator, just in time to find another charter vessel had gone into Gater….so much for that plan.
We stayed at unknown reef for the remainder of the day.   Drifting off the reef edge was productive but not exactly a crazy bite, right up until the taxman moved in again.  Time for Guinness on the back deck.
Day 5.  
Windy windy windy.  A brisk 20-25 greeted us on deck.  
Day 5 and we worked around the reef and then followed Big Cat into deeper water and it was rough and big seas - one boat got a nice Red Emperor and a couple of  jobbies but then the taxman moved it and most of us had just gathered more bruises to bodies and ego’s.
Tough fishing but we got a decent tally considering the weather forcing everyone to fish much heavier than anyone would like in these reefs.    
Day 5 finished with tenders loaded up for an overnight transit to Fitzroy Reef.
A fairly rough night but no issues for most as far as I could see.
Day 6
Fitzroy reef.  Maybe the best weather day with the winds dropping through the morning down to 10-15 knots.  Yep that was a good day.  
We worked outside the reef on the western side and I boated a couple of decent sweetlip @ 50cm.  
Big cat went and sounded some deeper water in the 50m zone that showed fish.  We all went over but with the wind and seas it was hard to get down into the zone.  We retreated back to the northern reef edge after the taxman moved in again.
AS we did the weather eased and with the tide going out we were getting some relief from swell and wind causing the crazy chop of the morning.  We ended up doing a saw tooth drift from reef edge out to the 28m line which was producing hussar, iodine bream and juvenile sweetlip with the odd keeper red throat.  It was pleasant and relaxing after the previous days of getting a solid bashing out in the tenders.
After lunch we continued the same pattern just enjoying being out there with mates with a couple of after lunch beers.  And then I finally got what I was after - a nice job fish in the 20m zone and next drift a solid 8kg shark mackerel.  Then got badly taxed on a huge red throat landing a nice head and then mate had the same on a cracker parrot. 
Then we all got hook ups on sharks and with 4pm on us it was time to call it done.
 
Our charter tally was only 280 fish but with a few big fish in amongst them we all brought home enough fish to  get us through a few months.
Fish prep by Big Cat is first rate, nicely filleted and cyrovacced before snap freezing.  
 
As we all know the weather is one of those things you cannot control.   Did it affect our catch - for sure.  Did it affect what we hoped to do with sports fishing - absolutely.  The combination of wind and waves killed any hope of casting stickbaits across shallow water.  Could Big Cat have changed that - nope.
I was certainly disappointed to not get to do some more general sportsfishing but there are always other opportunities.
I fished heavily with the Ocea spin rod, it outfished the others in our tender significantly, it was a much lighter rod than most were using and IMHO the action converted more bites to hook ups.  Sadly the main shaft on my Saragossa 6000 was bent after mate and I both went arse up trying to get the anchor off the reef.  I was able to push it back to workable but it will need replacing.
The 6000 was IMHO perfect, it had more than enough drag and line capacity.  It balanced so nicely on the Ocea 732 and although I had it loaded up like a banana on the big Mack I never felt like it didnt have the guts needed to acquit itself.
My rig dropped from 60lb leader to 40lb leader which helped reduce the number of SC knots I was tying.  Most guys were running 50-80lb leader.  The Nomad Panderra 40lb was nice and supple and fairly resilient to the coral. 
I didnt keep a tally on fish, but was happy enough with my daily catch.  I was more than happy to get my first trout on a lure and a nice job fish which was my first.  We had a great crew on Big Cat with the guys and the team from Reality.  Seb (skipper), Frankie (#1 deck hand and as it turns out was a deckie on Grey Scout out of Gladstone back in the early 2000’s which was my last Swains charters) , Freddy (the chef), Barry (also a chef but working as deckie) and Kealan were all great guys to have around and shared a lot of laughs.
I will try and edit with some pics when I work out how to upload them on the ipad from One Drive.
 

Charter Trip - Swains Reef on Big Cat Reality.
Gear Taken:
My primary rod was a Shimano Ocea Offshore 732 spin with Saragossa 6000 with 50lb Nomad Braid.
Secondary spin rod - Live Fibre 8-10kg spin with trusty old Penn Spinfisher 8500 with 20lb mono.
Trolling and heavy bottom - Live Fibre 15-24kg Overhead with TLD20, 50lb Daiwa J Braid
Jig Rod - Oceans Legacy Elementus PE2-3 with Ocea Jigger and Shimano Ocea PE4
Stickbait Rod, Venom Stickbait with Saragossa 14000 Shimano PE6
I had trolling lures, plastics, vibes, stickbaits, lighter poppers and the usual terminal tackle including @ 75 7/0 Gamakatsu circles.
My past charters on Swains were all bait fishing but the crew going were a mix of bait and sports fishing including my two mates who were all keen to mix it up - hence the variety of rods and reels taken.
Day 0, arrive at Burnett Heads and caught up with the group - 21 and we all were connected in some form so vessel was ours.  Quick lunch and a few sherberts at the Burnett Heads Lighthouse Hotel and we were on board for the 3pm briefing.  The ocean looked perfect and the crew were super excited with good weather predicted with nothing more than 15 knots expected. 
Big Cat (MV Coral Seatel) has a bit of age on her but the interior has had a full recent refit so its nice and clean and modern.   Tenders were the plastic 4.2m tiller steer dinghies fitted with Garmin 7” GPS/Sounders and 60HP Yammies.  I will share more about the boats later. 7 tenders and 21 fishers meant 3 to a tender and none left on mothership.
Departed @ 6.30pm after dinner on board.  Most of us had been up since early to get to the boat and after the usual banter it was time for the bunks.  Now at 195cm I am taller than most but they had enough bunks that long for us tall guys, sadly they were all on the top which was less than fun for my aging late 50’s body, but by the end of the trip I had a technique sorted.
 
Day 1.  Arrive at Lady Elliot Reefs and tenders all unloaded.  Sadly all of the weather predictions were off by miles, overcast and blowing a solid 15+ knots.  But out we went.  We boated a few nice red throat and a trout but it was a tough fish, we couldn’t fish light due to the wind causing way too fast a drift over shallow grounds.
A few disappointed boats with some guys recording zero legal fish.  There is a learning curve for shallow reef fishing.
Day 1 finished with tenders reloaded and an overnight journey to Swains.  And it was rough.  I either reacted to the pork curry for dinner or got seasick but I wasn’t the only one.  A sleepless night with the old girl working her way through rough seas.  
Day 2
Day 2 and we were anchored at Sweetlip Reef and another windy day - just a tad worse than Day 1….15-20 with gusts over 25knots.  Ohh and showers.  I was so happy I had bought a new Burke marine 3/4 jacket but regretted not buying the big and brace pants.  It was cold, rough and those plastic tenders were WET WET WET boats.   Hard work trying to find fish generally but the crew worked hard and saw a mixed bag of sweetlip, trout, cobia and a Spaniard.
Personal tally was lean, and getting the right weight to fish the bottom meant lots of practice tying SC knots with new leader on the braid.  What our boat experienced was not much quantity but good quality.
 
Day 3
Day 3 was again at Sweetlip - lots of discussion about moving on early.  Weather remained foul…shower and strong winds.  The tenders may be wet but even heading out to entrance of the reef with swells way over 1.5 m and we felt safe - just bloody wet.
Everyone was starting to find the tempo….it was still hard fishing but it was about finding the zone fish were holding in then setting a decent drift pattern over the ground.  We were averaging 1 keeper every 2 or 3 drifts so it was hard work.  Early on I got a decent bonito on a squid head….thought I had a nice eater - but instead got some nice bait.
Overall a decent mixed bag of job fish, mackerel, red throat and trout.but not really the quantity that people were expecting.
Day 3 debrief and it was decided we would relocate towards Gater Reef the next day with the tenders following the mothership.
 
Day 4.
Again foul weather, we had lost all expectation of easing weather and had to toughen up and do our best.
We trolled down following the mothership with one tender boating a 1m tuna and we got a hookup and drop in the same zone.  
Big Cat was sounding some ground as she went and found some nice holdings.  We continued to troll towards the ground and as we came up out of 30m to 8 metres I got a stonking trout on an Elliot’s Mackeral Mauler of all things.  The drifts over the sounding area was great with nice trout and BIG sweetlip right up until the taxman arrived.  After getting busted off a heap of times with sharks we anchored for lunch at a nice little reef half way to Gator, just in time to find another charter vessel had gone into Gater….so much for that plan.
We stayed at unknown reef for the remainder of the day.   Drifting off the reef edge was productive but not exactly a crazy bite, right up until the taxman moved in again.  Time for Guinness on the back deck.
Day 5.  
Windy windy windy.  A brisk 20-25 greeted us on deck.  
Day 5 and we worked around the reef and then followed Big Cat into deeper water and it was rough and big seas - one boat got a nice Red Emperor and a couple of  jobbies but then the taxman moved it and most of us had just gathered more bruises to bodies and ego’s.
Tough fishing but we got a decent tally considering the weather forcing everyone to fish much heavier than anyone would like in these reefs.    
Day 5 finished with tenders loaded up for an overnight transit to Fitzroy Reef.
A fairly rough night but no issues for most as far as I could see.
Day 6
Fitzroy reef.  Maybe the best weather day with the winds dropping through the morning down to 10-15 knots.  Yep that was a good day.  
We worked outside the reef on the western side and I boated a couple of decent sweetlip @ 50cm.  
Big cat went and sounded some deeper water in the 50m zone that showed fish.  We all went over but with the wind and seas it was hard to get down into the zone.  We retreated back to the northern reef edge after the taxman moved in again.
AS we did the weather eased and with the tide going out we were getting some relief from swell and wind causing the crazy chop of the morning.  We ended up doing a saw tooth drift from reef edge out to the 28m line which was producing hussar, iodine bream and juvenile sweetlip with the odd keeper red throat.  It was pleasant and relaxing after the previous days of getting a solid bashing out in the tenders.
After lunch we continued the same pattern just enjoying being out there with mates with a couple of after lunch beers.  And then I finally got what I was after - a nice job fish in the 20m zone and next drift a solid 8kg shark mackerel.  Then got badly taxed on a huge red throat landing a nice head and then mate had the same on a cracker parrot. 
Then we all got hook ups on sharks and with 4pm on us it was time to call it done.
 
Our charter tally was only 280 fish but with a few big fish in amongst them we all brought home enough fish to  get us through a few months.
Fish prep by Big Cat is first rate, nicely filleted and cyrovacced before snap freezing.  
 
As we all know the weather is one of those things you cannot control.   Did it affect our catch - for sure.  Did it affect what we hoped to do with sports fishing - absolutely.  The combination of wind and waves killed any hope of casting stickbaits across shallow water.  Could Big Cat have changed that - nope.
I was certainly disappointed to not get to do some more general sportsfishing but there are always other opportunities.
I fished heavily with the Ocea spin rod, it outfished the others in our tender significantly, it was a much lighter rod than most were using and IMHO the action converted more bites to hook ups.  Sadly the main shaft on my Saragossa 6000 was bent after mate and I both went arse up trying to get the anchor off the reef.  I was able to push it back to workable but it will need replacing.
The 6000 was IMHO perfect, it had more than enough drag and line capacity.  It balanced so nicely on the Ocea 732 and although I had it loaded up like a banana on the big Mack I never felt like it didnt have the guts needed to acquit itself.
My rig dropped from 60lb leader to 40lb leader which helped reduce the number of SC knots I was tying.  Most guys were running 50-80lb leader.  The Nomad Panderra 40lb was nice and supple and fairly resilient to the coral. 
I didnt keep a tally on fish, but was happy enough with my daily catch.  I was more than happy to get my first trout on a lure and a nice job fish which was my first.  We had a great crew on Big Cat with the guys and the team from Reality.  Seb (skipper), Frankie (#1 deck hand and as it turns out was a deckie on Grey Scout out of Gladstone back in the early 2000’s which was my last Swains charters) , Freddy (the chef), Barry (also a chef but working as deckie) and Kealan were all great guys to have around and shared a lot of laughs.
I will try and edit with some pics when I work out how to upload them on the ipad from One Drive.
 

Charter Trip - Swains Reef on Big Cat Reality.
Gear Taken:
My primary rod was a Shimano Ocea Offshore 732 spin with Saragossa 6000 with 50lb Nomad Braid.
Secondary spin rod - Live Fibre 8-10kg spin with trusty old Penn Spinfisher 8500 with 20lb mono.
Trolling and heavy bottom - Live Fibre 15-24kg Overhead with TLD20, 50lb Daiwa J Braid
Jig Rod - Oceans Legacy Elementus PE2-3 with Ocea Jigger and Shimano Ocea PE4
Stickbait Rod, Venom Stickbait with Saragossa 14000 Shimano PE6
I had trolling lures, plastics, vibes, stickbaits, lighter poppers and the usual terminal tackle including @ 75 7/0 Gamakatsu circles.
My past charters on Swains were all bait fishing but the crew going were a mix of bait and sports fishing including my two mates who were all keen to mix it up - hence the variety of rods and reels taken.
Day 0, arrive at Burnett Heads and caught up with the group - 21 and we all were connected in some form so vessel was ours.  Quick lunch and a few sherberts at the Burnett Heads Lighthouse Hotel and we were on board for the 3pm briefing.  The ocean looked perfect and the crew were super excited with good weather predicted with nothing more than 15 knots expected. 
Big Cat (MV Coral Seatel) has a bit of age on her but the interior has had a full recent refit so its nice and clean and modern.   Tenders were the plastic 4.2m tiller steer dinghies fitted with Garmin 7” GPS/Sounders and 60HP Yammies.  I will share more about the boats later. 7 tenders and 21 fishers meant 3 to a tender and none left on mothership.
Departed @ 6.30pm after dinner on board.  Most of us had been up since early to get to the boat and after the usual banter it was time for the bunks.  Now at 195cm I am taller than most but they had enough bunks that long for us tall guys, sadly they were all on the top which was less than fun for my aging late 50’s body, but by the end of the trip I had a technique sorted.
 
Day 1.  Arrive at Lady Elliot Reefs and tenders all unloaded.  Sadly all of the weather predictions were off by miles, overcast and blowing a solid 15+ knots.  But out we went.  We boated a few nice red throat and a trout but it was a tough fish, we couldn’t fish light due to the wind causing way too fast a drift over shallow grounds.
A few disappointed boats with some guys recording zero legal fish.  There is a learning curve for shallow reef fishing.
Day 1 finished with tenders reloaded and an overnight journey to Swains.  And it was rough.  I either reacted to the pork curry for dinner or got seasick but I wasn’t the only one.  A sleepless night with the old girl working her way through rough seas.  
Day 2
Day 2 and we were anchored at Sweetlip Reef and another windy day - just a tad worse than Day 1….15-20 with gusts over 25knots.  Ohh and showers.  I was so happy I had bought a new Burke marine 3/4 jacket but regretted not buying the big and brace pants.  It was cold, rough and those plastic tenders were WET WET WET boats.   Hard work trying to find fish generally but the crew worked hard and saw a mixed bag of sweetlip, trout, cobia and a Spaniard.
Personal tally was lean, and getting the right weight to fish the bottom meant lots of practice tying SC knots with new leader on the braid.  What our boat experienced was not much quantity but good quality.
 
Day 3
Day 3 was again at Sweetlip - lots of discussion about moving on early.  Weather remained foul…shower and strong winds.  The tenders may be wet but even heading out to entrance of the reef with swells way over 1.5 m and we felt safe - just bloody wet.
Everyone was starting to find the tempo….it was still hard fishing but it was about finding the zone fish were holding in then setting a decent drift pattern over the ground.  We were averaging 1 keeper every 2 or 3 drifts so it was hard work.  Early on I got a decent bonito on a squid head….thought I had a nice eater - but instead got some nice bait.
Overall a decent mixed bag of job fish, mackerel, red throat and trout.but not really the quantity that people were expecting.
Day 3 debrief and it was decided we would relocate towards Gater Reef the next day with the tenders following the mothership.
 
Day 4.
Again foul weather, we had lost all expectation of easing weather and had to toughen up and do our best.
We trolled down following the mothership with one tender boating a 1m tuna and we got a hookup and drop in the same zone.  
Big Cat was sounding some ground as she went and found some nice holdings.  We continued to troll towards the ground and as we came up out of 30m to 8 metres I got a stonking trout on an Elliot’s Mackeral Mauler of all things.  The drifts over the sounding area was great with nice trout and BIG sweetlip right up until the taxman arrived.  After getting busted off a heap of times with sharks we anchored for lunch at a nice little reef half way to Gator, just in time to find another charter vessel had gone into Gater….so much for that plan.
We stayed at unknown reef for the remainder of the day.   Drifting off the reef edge was productive but not exactly a crazy bite, right up until the taxman moved in again.  Time for Guinness on the back deck.
Day 5.  
Windy windy windy.  A brisk 20-25 greeted us on deck.  
Day 5 and we worked around the reef and then followed Big Cat into deeper water and it was rough and big seas - one boat got a nice Red Emperor and a couple of  jobbies but then the taxman moved it and most of us had just gathered more bruises to bodies and ego’s.
Tough fishing but we got a decent tally considering the weather forcing everyone to fish much heavier than anyone would like in these reefs.    
Day 5 finished with tenders loaded up for an overnight transit to Fitzroy Reef.
A fairly rough night but no issues for most as far as I could see.
Day 6
Fitzroy reef.  Maybe the best weather day with the winds dropping through the morning down to 10-15 knots.  Yep that was a good day.  
We worked outside the reef on the western side and I boated a couple of decent sweetlip @ 50cm.  
Big cat went and sounded some deeper water in the 50m zone that showed fish.  We all went over but with the wind and seas it was hard to get down into the zone.  We retreated back to the northern reef edge after the taxman moved in again.
AS we did the weather eased and with the tide going out we were getting some relief from swell and wind causing the crazy chop of the morning.  We ended up doing a saw tooth drift from reef edge out to the 28m line which was producing hussar, iodine bream and juvenile sweetlip with the odd keeper red throat.  It was pleasant and relaxing after the previous days of getting a solid bashing out in the tenders.
After lunch we continued the same pattern just enjoying being out there with mates with a couple of after lunch beers.  And then I finally got what I was after - a nice job fish in the 20m zone and next drift a solid 8kg shark mackerel.  Then got badly taxed on a huge red throat landing a nice head and then mate had the same on a cracker parrot. 
Then we all got hook ups on sharks and with 4pm on us it was time to call it done.
 
Our charter tally was only 280 fish but with a few big fish in amongst them we all brought home enough fish to  get us through a few months.
Fish prep by Big Cat is first rate, nicely filleted and cyrovacced before snap freezing.  
 
As we all know the weather is one of those things you cannot control.   Did it affect our catch - for sure.  Did it affect what we hoped to do with sports fishing - absolutely.  The combination of wind and waves killed any hope of casting stickbaits across shallow water.  Could Big Cat have changed that - nope.
I was certainly disappointed to not get to do some more general sportsfishing but there are always other opportunities.
I fished heavily with the Ocea spin rod, it outfished the others in our tender significantly, it was a much lighter rod than most were using and IMHO the action converted more bites to hook ups.  Sadly the main shaft on my Saragossa 6000 was bent after mate and I both went arse up trying to get the anchor off the reef.  I was able to push it back to workable but it will need replacing.
The 6000 was IMHO perfect, it had more than enough drag and line capacity.  It balanced so nicely on the Ocea 732 and although I had it loaded up like a banana on the big Mack I never felt like it didnt have the guts needed to acquit itself.
My rig dropped from 60lb leader to 40lb leader which helped reduce the number of SC knots I was tying.  Most guys were running 50-80lb leader.  The Nomad Panderra 40lb was nice and supple and fairly resilient to the coral. 
I didnt keep a tally on fish, but was happy enough with my daily catch.  I was more than happy to get my first trout on a lure and a nice job fish which was my first.  We had a great crew on Big Cat with the guys and the team from Reality.  Seb (skipper), Frankie (#1 deck hand and as it turns out was a deckie on Grey Scout out of Gladstone back in the early 2000’s which was my last Swains charters) , Freddy (the chef), Barry (also a chef but working as deckie) and Kealan were all great guys to have around and shared a lot of laughs.
I will try and edit with some pics when I work out how to upload them on the ipad from One Drive.
 

Charter Trip - Swains Reef on Big Cat Reality.
Gear Taken:
My primary rod was a Shimano Ocea Offshore 732 spin with Saragossa 6000 with 50lb Nomad Braid.
Secondary spin rod - Live Fibre 8-10kg spin with trusty old Penn Spinfisher 8500 with 20lb mono.
Trolling and heavy bottom - Live Fibre 15-24kg Overhead with TLD20, 50lb Daiwa J Braid
Jig Rod - Oceans Legacy Elementus PE2-3 with Ocea Jigger and Shimano Ocea PE4
Stickbait Rod, Venom Stickbait with Saragossa 14000 Shimano PE6
I had trolling lures, plastics, vibes, stickbaits, lighter poppers and the usual terminal tackle including @ 75 7/0 Gamakatsu circles.
My past charters on Swains were all bait fishing but the crew going were a mix of bait and sports fishing including my two mates who were all keen to mix it up - hence the variety of rods and reels taken.
Day 0, arrive at Burnett Heads and caught up with the group - 21 and we all were connected in some form so vessel was ours.  Quick lunch and a few sherberts at the Burnett Heads Lighthouse Hotel and we were on board for the 3pm briefing.  The ocean looked perfect and the crew were super excited with good weather predicted with nothing more than 15 knots expected. 
Big Cat (MV Coral Seatel) has a bit of age on her but the interior has had a full recent refit so its nice and clean and modern.   Tenders were the plastic 4.2m tiller steer dinghies fitted with Garmin 7” GPS/Sounders and 60HP Yammies.  I will share more about the boats later. 7 tenders and 21 fishers meant 3 to a tender and none left on mothership.
Departed @ 6.30pm after dinner on board.  Most of us had been up since early to get to the boat and after the usual banter it was time for the bunks.  Now at 195cm I am taller than most but they had enough bunks that long for us tall guys, sadly they were all on the top which was less than fun for my aging late 50’s body, but by the end of the trip I had a technique sorted.
 
Day 1.  Arrive at Lady Elliot Reefs and tenders all unloaded.  Sadly all of the weather predictions were off by miles, overcast and blowing a solid 15+ knots.  But out we went.  We boated a few nice red throat and a trout but it was a tough fish, we couldn’t fish light due to the wind causing way too fast a drift over shallow grounds.
A few disappointed boats with some guys recording zero legal fish.  There is a learning curve for shallow reef fishing.
Day 1 finished with tenders reloaded and an overnight journey to Swains.  And it was rough.  I either reacted to the pork curry for dinner or got seasick but I wasn’t the only one.  A sleepless night with the old girl working her way through rough seas.  
Day 2
Day 2 and we were anchored at Sweetlip Reef and another windy day - just a tad worse than Day 1….15-20 with gusts over 25knots.  Ohh and showers.  I was so happy I had bought a new Burke marine 3/4 jacket but regretted not buying the big and brace pants.  It was cold, rough and those plastic tenders were WET WET WET boats.   Hard work trying to find fish generally but the crew worked hard and saw a mixed bag of sweetlip, trout, cobia and a Spaniard.
Personal tally was lean, and getting the right weight to fish the bottom meant lots of practice tying SC knots with new leader on the braid.  What our boat experienced was not much quantity but good quality.
 
Day 3
Day 3 was again at Sweetlip - lots of discussion about moving on early.  Weather remained foul…shower and strong winds.  The tenders may be wet but even heading out to entrance of the reef with swells way over 1.5 m and we felt safe - just bloody wet.
Everyone was starting to find the tempo….it was still hard fishing but it was about finding the zone fish were holding in then setting a decent drift pattern over the ground.  We were averaging 1 keeper every 2 or 3 drifts so it was hard work.  Early on I got a decent bonito on a squid head….thought I had a nice eater - but instead got some nice bait.
Overall a decent mixed bag of job fish, mackerel, red throat and trout.but not really the quantity that people were expecting.
Day 3 debrief and it was decided we would relocate towards Gater Reef the next day with the tenders following the mothership.
 
Day 4.
Again foul weather, we had lost all expectation of easing weather and had to toughen up and do our best.
We trolled down following the mothership with one tender boating a 1m tuna and we got a hookup and drop in the same zone.  
Big Cat was sounding some ground as she went and found some nice holdings.  We continued to troll towards the ground and as we came up out of 30m to 8 metres I got a stonking trout on an Elliot’s Mackeral Mauler of all things.  The drifts over the sounding area was great with nice trout and BIG sweetlip right up until the taxman arrived.  After getting busted off a heap of times with sharks we anchored for lunch at a nice little reef half way to Gator, just in time to find another charter vessel had gone into Gater….so much for that plan.
We stayed at unknown reef for the remainder of the day.   Drifting off the reef edge was productive but not exactly a crazy bite, right up until the taxman moved in again.  Time for Guinness on the back deck.
Day 5.  
Windy windy windy.  A brisk 20-25 greeted us on deck.  
Day 5 and we worked around the reef and then followed Big Cat into deeper water and it was rough and big seas - one boat got a nice Red Emperor and a couple of  jobbies but then the taxman moved it and most of us had just gathered more bruises to bodies and ego’s.
Tough fishing but we got a decent tally considering the weather forcing everyone to fish much heavier than anyone would like in these reefs.    
Day 5 finished with tenders loaded up for an overnight transit to Fitzroy Reef.
A fairly rough night but no issues for most as far as I could see.
Day 6
Fitzroy reef.  Maybe the best weather day with the winds dropping through the morning down to 10-15 knots.  Yep that was a good day.  
We worked outside the reef on the western side and I boated a couple of decent sweetlip @ 50cm.  
Big cat went and sounded some deeper water in the 50m zone that showed fish.  We all went over but with the wind and seas it was hard to get down into the zone.  We retreated back to the northern reef edge after the taxman moved in again.
AS we did the weather eased and with the tide going out we were getting some relief from swell and wind causing the crazy chop of the morning.  We ended up doing a saw tooth drift from reef edge out to the 28m line which was producing hussar, iodine bream and juvenile sweetlip with the odd keeper red throat.  It was pleasant and relaxing after the previous days of getting a solid bashing out in the tenders.
After lunch we continued the same pattern just enjoying being out there with mates with a couple of after lunch beers.  And then I finally got what I was after - a nice job fish in the 20m zone and next drift a solid 8kg shark mackerel.  Then got badly taxed on a huge red throat landing a nice head and then mate had the same on a cracker parrot. 
Then we all got hook ups on sharks and with 4pm on us it was time to call it done.
 
Our charter tally was only 280 fish but with a few big fish in amongst them we all brought home enough fish to  get us through a few months.
Fish prep by Big Cat is first rate, nicely filleted and cyrovacced before snap freezing.  
 
As we all know the weather is one of those things you cannot control.   Did it affect our catch - for sure.  Did it affect what we hoped to do with sports fishing - absolutely.  The combination of wind and waves killed any hope of casting stickbaits across shallow water.  Could Big Cat have changed that - nope.
I was certainly disappointed to not get to do some more general sportsfishing but there are always other opportunities.
I fished heavily with the Ocea spin rod, it outfished the others in our tender significantly, it was a much lighter rod than most were using and IMHO the action converted more bites to hook ups.  Sadly the main shaft on my Saragossa 6000 was bent after mate and I both went arse up trying to get the anchor off the reef.  I was able to push it back to workable but it will need replacing.
The 6000 was IMHO perfect, it had more than enough drag and line capacity.  It balanced so nicely on the Ocea 732 and although I had it loaded up like a banana on the big Mack I never felt like it didnt have the guts needed to acquit itself.
My rig dropped from 60lb leader to 40lb leader which helped reduce the number of SC knots I was tying.  Most guys were running 50-80lb leader.  The Nomad Panderra 40lb was nice and supple and fairly resilient to the coral. 
I didnt keep a tally on fish, but was happy enough with my daily catch.  I was more than happy to get my first trout on a lure and a nice job fish which was my first.  We had a great crew on Big Cat with the guys and the team from Reality.  Seb (skipper), Frankie (#1 deck hand and as it turns out was a deckie on Grey Scout out of Gladstone back in the early 2000’s which was my last Swains charters) , Freddy (the chef), Barry (also a chef but working as deckie) and Kealan were all great guys to have around and shared a lot of laughs.
I will try and edit with some pics when I work out how to upload them on the ipad from One Drive.
 

Charter Trip - Swains Reef on Big Cat Reality.
Gear Taken:
My primary rod was a Shimano Ocea Offshore 732 spin with Saragossa 6000 with 50lb Nomad Braid.
Secondary spin rod - Live Fibre 8-10kg spin with trusty old Penn Spinfisher 8500 with 20lb mono.
Trolling and heavy bottom - Live Fibre 15-24kg Overhead with TLD20, 50lb Daiwa J Braid
Jig Rod - Oceans Legacy Elementus PE2-3 with Ocea Jigger and Shimano Ocea PE4
Stickbait Rod, Venom Stickbait with Saragossa 14000 Shimano PE6
I had trolling lures, plastics, vibes, stickbaits, lighter poppers and the usual terminal tackle including @ 75 7/0 Gamakatsu circles.
My past charters on Swains were all bait fishing but the crew going were a mix of bait and sports fishing including my two mates who were all keen to mix it up - hence the variety of rods and reels taken.
Day 0, arrive at Burnett Heads and caught up with the group - 21 and we all were connected in some form so vessel was ours.  Quick lunch and a few sherberts at the Burnett Heads Lighthouse Hotel and we were on board for the 3pm briefing.  The ocean looked perfect and the crew were super excited with good weather predicted with nothing more than 15 knots expected. 
Big Cat (MV Coral Seatel) has a bit of age on her but the interior has had a full recent refit so its nice and clean and modern.   Tenders were the plastic 4.2m tiller steer dinghies fitted with Garmin 7” GPS/Sounders and 60HP Yammies.  I will share more about the boats later. 7 tenders and 21 fishers meant 3 to a tender and none left on mothership.
Departed @ 6.30pm after dinner on board.  Most of us had been up since early to get to the boat and after the usual banter it was time for the bunks.  Now at 195cm I am taller than most but they had enough bunks that long for us tall guys, sadly they were all on the top which was less than fun for my aging late 50’s body, but by the end of the trip I had a technique sorted.
 
Day 1.  Arrive at Lady Elliot Reefs and tenders all unloaded.  Sadly all of the weather predictions were off by miles, overcast and blowing a solid 15+ knots.  But out we went.  We boated a few nice red throat and a trout but it was a tough fish, we couldn’t fish light due to the wind causing way too fast a drift over shallow grounds.
A few disappointed boats with some guys recording zero legal fish.  There is a learning curve for shallow reef fishing.
Day 1 finished with tenders reloaded and an overnight journey to Swains.  And it was rough.  I either reacted to the pork curry for dinner or got seasick but I wasn’t the only one.  A sleepless night with the old girl working her way through rough seas.  
Day 2
Day 2 and we were anchored at Sweetlip Reef and another windy day - just a tad worse than Day 1….15-20 with gusts over 25knots.  Ohh and showers.  I was so happy I had bought a new Burke marine 3/4 jacket but regretted not buying the big and brace pants.  It was cold, rough and those plastic tenders were WET WET WET boats.   Hard work trying to find fish generally but the crew worked hard and saw a mixed bag of sweetlip, trout, cobia and a Spaniard.
Personal tally was lean, and getting the right weight to fish the bottom meant lots of practice tying SC knots with new leader on the braid.  What our boat experienced was not much quantity but good quality.
 
Day 3
Day 3 was again at Sweetlip - lots of discussion about moving on early.  Weather remained foul…shower and strong winds.  The tenders may be wet but even heading out to entrance of the reef with swells way over 1.5 m and we felt safe - just bloody wet.
Everyone was starting to find the tempo….it was still hard fishing but it was about finding the zone fish were holding in then setting a decent drift pattern over the ground.  We were averaging 1 keeper every 2 or 3 drifts so it was hard work.  Early on I got a decent bonito on a squid head….thought I had a nice eater - but instead got some nice bait.
Overall a decent mixed bag of job fish, mackerel, red throat and trout.but not really the quantity that people were expecting.
Day 3 debrief and it was decided we would relocate towards Gater Reef the next day with the tenders following the mothership.
 
Day 4.
Again foul weather, we had lost all expectation of easing weather and had to toughen up and do our best.
We trolled down following the mothership with one tender boating a 1m tuna and we got a hookup and drop in the same zone.  
Big Cat was sounding some ground as she went and found some nice holdings.  We continued to troll towards the ground and as we came up out of 30m to 8 metres I got a stonking trout on an Elliot’s Mackeral Mauler of all things.  The drifts over the sounding area was great with nice trout and BIG sweetlip right up until the taxman arrived.  After getting busted off a heap of times with sharks we anchored for lunch at a nice little reef half way to Gator, just in time to find another charter vessel had gone into Gater….so much for that plan.
We stayed at unknown reef for the remainder of the day.   Drifting off the reef edge was productive but not exactly a crazy bite, right up until the taxman moved in again.  Time for Guinness on the back deck.
Day 5.  
Windy windy windy.  A brisk 20-25 greeted us on deck.  
Day 5 and we worked around the reef and then followed Big Cat into deeper water and it was rough and big seas - one boat got a nice Red Emperor and a couple of  jobbies but then the taxman moved it and most of us had just gathered more bruises to bodies and ego’s.
Tough fishing but we got a decent tally considering the weather forcing everyone to fish much heavier than anyone would like in these reefs.    
Day 5 finished with tenders loaded up for an overnight transit to Fitzroy Reef.
A fairly rough night but no issues for most as far as I could see.
Day 6
Fitzroy reef.  Maybe the best weather day with the winds dropping through the morning down to 10-15 knots.  Yep that was a good day.  
We worked outside the reef on the western side and I boated a couple of decent sweetlip @ 50cm.  
Big cat went and sounded some deeper water in the 50m zone that showed fish.  We all went over but with the wind and seas it was hard to get down into the zone.  We retreated back to the northern reef edge after the taxman moved in again.
AS we did the weather eased and with the tide going out we were getting some relief from swell and wind causing the crazy chop of the morning.  We ended up doing a saw tooth drift from reef edge out to the 28m line which was producing hussar, iodine bream and juvenile sweetlip with the odd keeper red throat.  It was pleasant and relaxing after the previous days of getting a solid bashing out in the tenders.
After lunch we continued the same pattern just enjoying being out there with mates with a couple of after lunch beers.  And then I finally got what I was after - a nice job fish in the 20m zone and next drift a solid 8kg shark mackerel.  Then got badly taxed on a huge red throat landing a nice head and then mate had the same on a cracker parrot. 
Then we all got hook ups on sharks and with 4pm on us it was time to call it done.
 
Our charter tally was only 280 fish but with a few big fish in amongst them we all brought home enough fish to  get us through a few months.
Fish prep by Big Cat is first rate, nicely filleted and cyrovacced before snap freezing.  
 
As we all know the weather is one of those things you cannot control.   Did it affect our catch - for sure.  Did it affect what we hoped to do with sports fishing - absolutely.  The combination of wind and waves killed any hope of casting stickbaits across shallow water.  Could Big Cat have changed that - nope.
I was certainly disappointed to not get to do some more general sportsfishing but there are always other opportunities.
I fished heavily with the Ocea spin rod, it outfished the others in our tender significantly, it was a much lighter rod than most were using and IMHO the action converted more bites to hook ups.  Sadly the main shaft on my Saragossa 6000 was bent after mate and I both went arse up trying to get the anchor off the reef.  I was able to push it back to workable but it will need replacing.
The 6000 was IMHO perfect, it had more than enough drag and line capacity.  It balanced so nicely on the Ocea 732 and although I had it loaded up like a banana on the big Mack I never felt like it didnt have the guts needed to acquit itself.
My rig dropped from 60lb leader to 40lb leader which helped reduce the number of SC knots I was tying.  Most guys were running 50-80lb leader.  The Nomad Panderra 40lb was nice and supple and fairly resilient to the coral. 
I didnt keep a tally on fish, but was happy enough with my daily catch.  I was more than happy to get my first trout on a lure and a nice job fish which was my first.  We had a great crew on Big Cat with the guys and the team from Reality.  Seb (skipper), Frankie (#1 deck hand and as it turns out was a deckie on Grey Scout out of Gladstone back in the early 2000’s which was my last Swains charters) , Freddy (the chef), Barry (also a chef but working as deckie) and Kealan were all great guys to have around and shared a lot of laughs.
I will try and edit with some pics when I work out how to upload them on the ipad from One Drive.
 

Van/Camping or hotel?
Its been a long time since I was up there - we always stayed in the van park as you head north towards the airport.   We stayed at one - for a night first time - it was sort of the middle of the town and it was hot - no breeze and had more big scotch greys than we could bear…..most hit you back when you slapped them.  I think the names of them have changed - we used to stay at the Sea Breeze I think.
Best hotel in town and location wise is the Sovereign.  
Good feed at RSL and Bowls club….. 
Mate is going up in July to build a airbnb on his block up near Grassy Hill, so next year I will have a better place to recommend.  He is taking up one of his tinnies to leave as well - so perfect for my next visit.

Van/Camping or hotel?
Its been a long time since I was up there - we always stayed in the van park as you head north towards the airport.   We stayed at one - for a night first time - it was sort of the middle of the town and it was hot - no breeze and had more big scotch greys than we could bear…..most hit you back when you slapped them.  I think the names of them have changed - we used to stay at the Sea Breeze I think.
Best hotel in town and location wise is the Sovereign.  
Good feed at RSL and Bowls club….. 
Mate is going up in July to build a airbnb on his block up near Grassy Hill, so next year I will have a better place to recommend.  He is taking up one of his tinnies to leave as well - so perfect for my next visit.

Havent been up for years, as the guys have said, hire boat in Weipa.  Cooktown and Seissa jetties.
 
Land based - Archer Point - south of cooktown - was an old jetty there for loading cattle but its rocky headlands. 
Also mouth of the Annan River - north bank accessible from the golf club - you can fish off the sand at the mouth just keep an eye out of large geckos.
Not going into Lakefield NP?  Cherubim on the crossing at Hahn Crossing camp area at night.  All you need is a torch and a scoop.  If Midway is open you can flick lures off the bank and dodge crocs
 

Van/Camping or hotel?
Its been a long time since I was up there - we always stayed in the van park as you head north towards the airport.   We stayed at one - for a night first time - it was sort of the middle of the town and it was hot - no breeze and had more big scotch greys than we could bear…..most hit you back when you slapped them.  I think the names of them have changed - we used to stay at the Sea Breeze I think.
Best hotel in town and location wise is the Sovereign.  
Good feed at RSL and Bowls club….. 
Mate is going up in July to build a airbnb on his block up near Grassy Hill, so next year I will have a better place to recommend.  He is taking up one of his tinnies to leave as well - so perfect for my next visit.

Van/Camping or hotel?
Its been a long time since I was up there - we always stayed in the van park as you head north towards the airport.   We stayed at one - for a night first time - it was sort of the middle of the town and it was hot - no breeze and had more big scotch greys than we could bear…..most hit you back when you slapped them.  I think the names of them have changed - we used to stay at the Sea Breeze I think.
Best hotel in town and location wise is the Sovereign.  
Good feed at RSL and Bowls club….. 
Mate is going up in July to build a airbnb on his block up near Grassy Hill, so next year I will have a better place to recommend.  He is taking up one of his tinnies to leave as well - so perfect for my next visit.

Havent been up for years, as the guys have said, hire boat in Weipa.  Cooktown and Seissa jetties.
 
Land based - Archer Point - south of cooktown - was an old jetty there for loading cattle but its rocky headlands. 
Also mouth of the Annan River - north bank accessible from the golf club - you can fish off the sand at the mouth just keep an eye out of large geckos.
Not going into Lakefield NP?  Cherubim on the crossing at Hahn Crossing camp area at night.  All you need is a torch and a scoop.  If Midway is open you can flick lures off the bank and dodge crocs
 

Havent been up for years, as the guys have said, hire boat in Weipa.  Cooktown and Seissa jetties.
 
Land based - Archer Point - south of cooktown - was an old jetty there for loading cattle but its rocky headlands. 
Also mouth of the Annan River - north bank accessible from the golf club - you can fish off the sand at the mouth just keep an eye out of large geckos.
Not going into Lakefield NP?  Cherubim on the crossing at Hahn Crossing camp area at night.  All you need is a torch and a scoop.  If Midway is open you can flick lures off the bank and dodge crocs
 

Havent been up for years, as the guys have said, hire boat in Weipa.  Cooktown and Seissa jetties.
 
Land based - Archer Point - south of cooktown - was an old jetty there for loading cattle but its rocky headlands. 
Also mouth of the Annan River - north bank accessible from the golf club - you can fish off the sand at the mouth just keep an eye out of large geckos.
Not going into Lakefield NP?  Cherubim on the crossing at Hahn Crossing camp area at night.  All you need is a torch and a scoop.  If Midway is open you can flick lures off the bank and dodge crocs
 

Havent been up for years, as the guys have said, hire boat in Weipa.  Cooktown and Seissa jetties.
 
Land based - Archer Point - south of cooktown - was an old jetty there for loading cattle but its rocky headlands. 
Also mouth of the Annan River - north bank accessible from the golf club - you can fish off the sand at the mouth just keep an eye out of large geckos.
Not going into Lakefield NP?  Cherubim on the crossing at Hahn Crossing camp area at night.  All you need is a torch and a scoop.  If Midway is open you can flick lures off the bank and dodge crocs
 

Yes that would have been frustrating.  The group is pretty much all hard core fisho’s from what I can tell, (one guy is did tournament fishing and has mates with him) so I think/hope we will be right not to have that experience.  We are getting together this weekend and the split will get discussed.  
If someone is seasick I think it is fine to share but if they aren’t fishing well faaark them.
 

Yes that would have been frustrating.  The group is pretty much all hard core fisho’s from what I can tell, (one guy is did tournament fishing and has mates with him) so I think/hope we will be right not to have that experience.  We are getting together this weekend and the split will get discussed.  
If someone is seasick I think it is fine to share but if they aren’t fishing well faaark them.
 

So pretty much need to get my head in order for what i will do the most of.   I am thinking something like a seajay 460 that can do estuary and bay plus take it up north once a year or so….if we can afford it with fuel costs!!!  Got a free house in cooktown i can use 😉
Probably do the boat show circuit next year and get a feel for things.   
Never fished a side console and wonder what they are like if you were coming back from Moreton with some typical afternoon slop…..in most boats it seems more comfy to stand and let the knees do the work.
I know what i will have on it an that is a decent sounder and electric.

What restrictions do you mean?  Isn’t it a 60 reef fin fish bag for trips over 148hrs?
This is a full group organised by my mates b-i-l, so everyone is connected to some extent, the even split of the catch was the same on past swains trips.  All my past trips we would bring home the best part of 35kg of mixed reef fillet search which is more than enough.

So pretty much need to get my head in order for what i will do the most of.   I am thinking something like a seajay 460 that can do estuary and bay plus take it up north once a year or so….if we can afford it with fuel costs!!!  Got a free house in cooktown i can use 😉
Probably do the boat show circuit next year and get a feel for things.   
Never fished a side console and wonder what they are like if you were coming back from Moreton with some typical afternoon slop…..in most boats it seems more comfy to stand and let the knees do the work.
I know what i will have on it an that is a decent sounder and electric.

What restrictions do you mean?  Isn’t it a 60 reef fin fish bag for trips over 148hrs?
This is a full group organised by my mates b-i-l, so everyone is connected to some extent, the even split of the catch was the same on past swains trips.  All my past trips we would bring home the best part of 35kg of mixed reef fillet search which is more than enough.