Reefari Fishing Report March 2010
April 28, 2010 by Ron · 2 Comments
Fingermark Fever
Hello Again,
Hopefully as you read this, Cyclone Ului will have been and gone and left your roof in place.
As a charter boat operator, I can’t wait to see the back of it, but in the mean time, let’s look back at the month that’s been.
The recent Barra Pro Fishing Competition held at Teemburra Dam proved incredibly popular with anglers. Tony Ballingal, from Yehah Boat and Trailer Hire took out the biggest barra of the competition, an impressive 1015mm fish that ate a trolled lure.
The overall winner was young Andrew Dixon, and Nicholas Moore was lucky enough to win the door prize, a Reefari Charters Day Trip. Overall, 140 competitors registered 45 barra and 50 sooties, with the continuous rain and cool water being the most likely cause of the higher sooty count.
Earlier in the month, the bigger boats in the Reefari fleet managed to make the most of some small windows in the weather and enjoyed some awesome fishing as a result.
The Tony Kennedy skippered Game Boat Mako had a corker of a start to the month with surprising, and very welcome, catches of fingermark (golden snapper). Tony said that the fingermark were all good fish ranging form about 3kg up to 5kg.
“We got most of them in the morning from patches of rubble in around 40m-45m of water,” he explained. “We’ve been really lucky to have consistent catches of reef fish like trout and grassy lipper and some good black kings too (cobia). The days that we’ve been able to get out have all been great.”
On the Glen Montgomery skippered Raptor II reports have also been phenomenal with clients enjoying nannygai by the esky-load and some above average lipper and trout.
Like Tony, Glen was surprised and pleased with the number of cobia being caught and revealed that his charters have been regularly picking up decent specimens. Most fish have been coming on fresh bait, but Glen has also been singing the praises of soft plastics and reported several reds and nannygai taken on them.
On the weird side, it’s not often that a fish comes over the side that our experience crew can’t name, but Glen had a strange one early in the month. I hadn’t seen one before so I posted a picture online and initial feedback has come back as ‘reticulated emperor’.
Check out the photo and feel free to drop me an email at www.reefari.com if you have any suggestions.
Inshore, there have been a few barra caught in the Pioneer River, around the bridges and up towards the brackish upper reaches. Try brightly coloured lures with flashes of pink to increase your chances amongst the dirty water.
The crabs are still on the march, and with the wind as it is, your best bet might be to head up the creeks, drop some pots and head home for a warm cuppa.
All in all, it has been a good month for flying a kite, taping windows and stocking up on emergency gear. Here’s hoping for a sunny April with many 5-10 knot days and a joyful Easter for you and your family.
Cheers, Greg Reynolds
Mackay Fishing Charters Report – February 2010
Hello Again, and welcome to our Mackay Fishing Charters Report for February 2010
What a great month February has been out on the water!
The afternoon storms and wet season downpours have made inshore fishing a very hot and cold affair, but offshore, small tides and low winds have meant that the bigger boats are reaping the rewards.
It has been the month for drift fishing with boats that know the right ground to fish having plenty of time in the strike zone with refreshingly little lead. This was exactly the technique employed lately by Glen Montgomery, skipper of Reefari Cat Raptor II.
Glen was absolutely blown away when I managed to catch up with him and proudly reported that on one of his recent trips the crew not only filled the esky, but did so by 9.30am.
Now that’s red hot fishing! Glen said that their normal marks were just alive with quality fish, with Nannygai over 5kg coming thick and fast. Amazingly, the quality of the fish was so high that the crew had to cut up legal Sweetlip for bait.
Don’t worry though, the fresh strip bait was transformed into even higher quality fish with a dozen big reds and some trophy sized trout finding the strip baits irresistible. The customers were ecstatic and adamantly declared the fishing the best they’d ever seen.
Earlier in the month, Reefari regular and fishing writer, Lee Brake was able to join a charter and proved that soft plastic lures have a real place in any deep water angler’s tackle box.
Lee not only found the 7″ biodegradable plastics to be prime nannygai attracters, but hard pulling Golden Trevally also seemed to climb all over them.
Lee said that the highlight for him was the repeated double hook-ups that broke out amongst the customers as teams of anglers fought reds, trevally, nannygai and trout. One such ‘double’ actually saw Lee and another angler hook the same fish only to have this greedy specimen grabbed by one of the reef’s gigantean cod, or groper.
Astoundingly, the cod busted off the other angler to leave Lee with one very chewed on nannygai, complete with two hooks in its mouth!
As for pelagics, the Tony Kennedy skippered, Reefari game boat, Mako has been getting amongst some rather unseasonal Spanish mackerel by trolling fast swimming minnows around the offshore islands.
Tony let slip that the pilchard-coloured and Qantas-coloured Halcos were his weapons of choice.
He also revealed that while bottom bashing the odd cobia is still being caught, even amongst the more regular catches of coral trout, sweetlip and nannygai.
On the freshwater side of things, the dams are enjoying the influx of rain and are not only full but fishing with renewed vigour due to the running water. Teemburra has bounced back after a long quiet spell and is now once more producing numbers of barra that test even the best angler’s skills amongst the timber.
Sooty Grunter however, are the real showstoppers with anglers finding rapids and waterfalls of fresh runoff, and then casting poppers, spinnerbaits and small minnows into any noticeable backwaters to snare these exceptionally hard hitters.
While on the subject of Teemburra, anglers should be readying themselves for the up-and-coming Barra Pro Teemburra Fishing Competition which with loads of prizes, including a Reefari charter, is sure to be a hit.
For anglers planning to hit the creeks, I recommend packing the cast net and crab pots as the fresh water seems to make these tasty crustaceans very active. A tip for crabbers though – work the mouths and flats at the front of creeks as the fresh tends to push crabs out and onto these more stable areas.
Failing that, try deep holes as saltwater tends to sit low under the fresh.
That about wraps things up again for our Mackay Fishing Charters Report for this month, so here’s wishing you a top month’s fishing.
Cheers,
Greg Reynolds
Reefari Boat Charters
Please Rate This Post – 
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ...
More Fishing Reports
Reefari Fishing Report January 2010
February 10, 2010 by Ron · Leave a Comment
G’day all, I hope everyone had a top Christmas and New Years. Fishing in the Mackay area has been somewhat restricted by the continuous 30+knot winds and the wet stuff falling from the sky. Those that have done well have made the most of every good day to be out there on the water.
On the offshore side of things, Reefari Charters has been making the most of the few windows in the weather to put punters onto some seriously trophy class Nannygai and metre-plus cod. Inshore, angler’s efforts have been hampered by almost constant wet season showers. Not only has this made fishing uncomfortable, but the fresh water runoff has discoloured the water a tannin colour and dispersed the bait schools that were prominent pre-Christmas.
Getting back to the bluewater front and it has been the Nannygai that have fired for the punters aboard Reefari’s long-range vessel Mako, with the skipper, Tony Kennedy reporting some massive specimens ranging up to one 15kg monster.
As an interesting note, Tony reports that the monster Nanny, and one just a little smaller, both had sizeable nicks out of their tails. This could either have been from a pursuing shark or interschool fighting amongst the dominant fish.
On the 34ft Cougar Cat, Raptor II, skipper Glen Montgomery has been able to report a bumper month for big cobia. These sleek, streamline pelagics are top eating and once hooked take off like a bandicoot in a bushfire.
Like most pelagics they stay close to the top of the water column, but are instinctive feeders, with the Reefari crew reporting many of theirs caught on intercepted dropper rigs meant for the bottom. Anglers should be aware that a circling cobia can look like a shark and many, many quality cobia have been cut free by overzealous fishos, so always double check before employing the knife!
Glen has been putting the punters onto some solid reds with a 10kg fish being the most noteworthy.
Reds are less prolific this time of year with most marks holding solitary fish, so for optimum results the boys have been keeping the boats moving to cover more country and are using only the freshest strip baits to give anglers a better chance. Tony reported that he is amazed at the toughness of these fish with almost all undersized models being easily returned to the depths.
He did mention one poor red which was looking a little tired, so being a responsible skipper, he did the right thing and swum the red beside the boat with a pair of lip-grippers.
Sure enough, the moment the red felt wet stuff it was away taking Tony’s lip-grippers with it! On ya Tony!
Worth looking out for in the months to come is the new boat in the Reefari fleet – Obsession, a 7.2m custom, plated alloy fishing machine that specializes in smaller group day trips running out to southern waters for more specialized charters, including snorkeling and spear fishing as well as intense pelagic action.
On the downside, Coral trout have unfortunately been more than a little quiet in the deeper water, but as the weather settles these to should come back on the chew. Speaking of settling weather the inshore anglers can’t wait, with the Pioneer River running with plenty of fresh and the local creeks having had a good flush.
On the upside, the rain has really brought on the prawns and crabs with good hauls being taken to the north around Seaforth and Saint Helens. Crabs will be starting to move around the mouths of the creeks so try stringing your pots along the mangrove headlands for best results.
The impoundment scene is still fishing strong, with local anglers consistently landing metre plus barra fishing Kinchant during the night. Slow rolled plastics, like Squidgy Slick Rigs, have on the whole, been the most lethal weapons.
Teemburra is uncharacteristically quiet with the usual numbers of smaller fish remaining conspicuous in their absence, though some excellent sooty grunter have been taken towards the tops of the main creeks.
Well, that about wraps it up, so here’s hoping for some good weather and a feed of prawns and crab.
Catch you next month, Reefari.
Mackay Fishing Report November 2009
November 30, 2009 by Ron · 28 Comments
Reefari Mackay Fishing Charters Report — November 2009
This month’s fishing report is brought to you by fishing writer and photographer Lee Brake. Lee is an avid angler, born in Mackay who has cut his teeth working in tackle shops from the age of 15.
He now spends his time fishing and writing in six national publications and writes as a columnist for the popular local publication North Queensland Fish and Boat monthly. Lee also did the interview with Greg Reynolds that you will find on the hompage.
G’day all from Lee Brake!
This month Mackay has seen some absolutely chaotic fishing. On the blue water, I’ve had the privilege of accompanying the team from Reefari Charters on one of their salt water sojourns. The boys have been having a cracker month with some truly impressive hauls of large and small mouth nannygai and several heart thumping, big reds.
Also worth mentioning were some rare and exciting captures including a passionfruit trout, barramundi cod and a thumping great bluespot trout!
My trip with the crew was somewhat of a specialty charter. The idea was to chase pelagics like monster GTs and Spanish Mackerel because the reef fin fish closure meant that those tasty bottom dwellers in red, orange and pink were off limits.
The plan was to use large soft plastic jigs to work bottom structure and cup-faced poppers to work the surface.
The plastics were of the 7” Jerk Shad variety in a Nuclear Chicken colour, rigged with a 1.5ounce jig head. These went off like prawns in the sun and we found that we couldn’t even get them to the bottom before the rods bent over like wilting leaves and the drags screamed.
The big head shakes that ensued made me hopeful for a GT but once off the bottom the fight left the fish and the crystal clear water revealed a trophy sized cod with the plastic firmly imbedded in its mouth.
This was quickly released and after two more drops for several more bucket-mouthed cod we decided to avoid further undue stress to these fish (which were released) and moved on to chase some shallow water species.
These came in the form of giant trevally; big dark shouldered, hulking brutes that would appear under our poppers, explode like a depth charge and inevitably drive us into rocky structure and into a sudden, brutal demise.
On the upside, I did enjoy seeing a quality flowery cod explode upon a beer can-sized, Cultiva cup-faced popper and dive around a rocky point.
I had to literally grab the spool in desperation, let me tell you!
On the blue water front, the tuna are thicker than pea and ham soup and are as prolific as I’ve ever seen them. They are, however, a little finicky and this is normally a result of boat traffic and bait size.
They tend to feed on schools of whitebait and hardyheads that can be as small as an unhusked peanut so don’t waste your time with giant metal slugs and surface lures, instead, try small white featherhead jigs and whitebait imitation slugs.
Gillies, silver Baitfish slugs in a 25grm are a good choice. Also worth noting if you want to target the school-calibre mackerel is a little trick when spinning – simply cast at a boil of tuna and allow the lure to sink under the school before employing a quick rip-and-pause retrieve.
Inshore, the barramundi are now off the take list, but that doesn’t mean they’re off the target list completely, with the local impoundments fishing unbelievably well. Kinchant is still producing barra of gargantuan proportion with many anglers taking fish well over the metre mark.
Mick Rethus from Pioneer Valley Fishing Tours has noted that Teemburra Dam has been producing plenty of quality barra in the high 70cm range but very few smaller fish, though as the water temperature rises into December, these should start biting as well.
For the best results, Mick recommends working soft plastics as slowly as humanly possible. Try bays and points that have the wind pushing warm water and bait onto them.
The estuaries are once again coming alive with the start of the wet weather causing an explosion of prawns in the creeks, especially around Seaforth. The size is still average, but expect some quality in time for Christmas.
Bream, salmon and small pelagics are providing entertainment for land-based enthusiasts and mangrove jack are biting hard on the night tides with live bait and fresh, dead bait being the most successful.
That’s it from me for this month, but I’ll be back after Christmas with more of what’s biting. In the mean time, for fishing fix check out Reefari’s channel on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/user/Reefari) or maybe even follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/reefari or for more information on the latest in tackle and toys, check out my Tackle Rat column in NQ Fish and Boat.
Cheers, Lee Brake
Proudly brought to you by
Please Rate This Post – (2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ...
More Fishing Reports
Fishing Report October 2009
October 30, 2009 by Ron · 7 Comments
Reefari Mackay Fishing Charters Hardline Report – October 2009
There is a place about 200km offshore from central Queensland that you only have to whisper in the ear of any reef fisherman and you can literally watch his eyes light up as you speak of it.
Due to the remote location, the Hardline Reefs that border the edge of the continental shelf on the outer Great Barrier Reef rarely get fished by those other than the pro trout and reef fishermen are home to some of the biggest, meanest, hardest fighting piscatorial critters that one can imagine.
So what does one think of when they start talking about the ultimate fishing adventure around the patio table over a few beers. The hardline is obviously the destination but what about the experience itself. I mean if you are going to spend a week 200km offshore you want to be comfortable, right?
So how about we organize Centurion – an 80 foot long, luxuriously appointed mothership, air conditioned cabins for up to 20 guests, 3 beautifully cooked meals everyday and a bridge deck that you could almost play a gamed of cricket on, this is the ultimate in Mackay Fishing Charters.
Sound nice?
Hows about we then take two fully optioned custom charter fishing vessels in tow, 3 dories and you are starting to get the idea of how we like to experience the hardline.
And so it began. Fueled up, provisioned to the gunwales and armed to the teeth with something like $20000 worth of rods, reels and tackle, we started the long steam to the hardline. As you looked back in the wake, Raptor II and Brute Strength cruise nicely along in tow.
The sun starts to set and the anticipation is boiling amongst all on board as we all settle in for the first night of the trip.
We will steam all night and when we wake in the morning, the hardline awaits us, as does a forecast for 5 – 10 knot variables for the next 7 days. It was almost like being a little kid again trying to get to sleep on Christmas eve knowing full well what the morning would bring.
This trip was also to be one to go down in television history. On board with us for the duration of the trip we had Jason Kennedy from Southern Cross and the Show “Fishin Trip”, John Bell from Pure Fishing Australia and their film crew. The aim for them was to get enough footage to shoot 2 full TV shows. So the pressure was on, for me anyway as GT’s were the target species for one of the shows and brute strength was the boat we would be chasing them on.
Now when these guys go on a fishing trip, especially one as big as this one, they come prepared. Crates full of lures, boxes of soft plastic, kilos and kilos of jigheads and the latest and greatest in rods and reels including some test prototypes from Penn that I had been instructed to try and break.
The plan seemed fairly simple. Do what we normally do and put these guys on some fish while their cameraman films it all. For the rest of the guys on board, reef fishing was the plan for the week with trout and redthroat being square in the crosshairs.
Upon sunrise we arrived at our first destination. White tip reef is the marked entrance to Hydrographers passage and has some beautiful big lagoons for the mothership and some excellent pressure points and dropoffs for fishing. Raptor 2 set out for the blossom bank some 10 NM to the east of our location.
The dories headed out to the reef edge and we powered over to the weather face to throw some poppers for GTs. After about 5 minutes of casting Jason’s popper disappeared in an explosion of white water reminiscent of a depth charge going off. Camera camera camera he screamed as the beast peeled line from a seemingly impossible amount of drag pressure.
The fish ran away from the reef and headed for the deeper water and started its deep circles. The fish was slowly but surely coaxed to the surface where the lip grips were applied and the fish was bought aboard. At 25kg he was a great first fish and the film crew couldn’t be happier. We continued casting into the afternoon and boated a few more quality GTs before heading back to the mothership for dinner.
The “Fishin Trip” guys were blown away and heaps of footage, the GT Show was already shot!!.
Apparently the red throat had been fiercely on the bite with about a third of the boats bag limit being caught in the first day. A great start to a promising trip. Dinner was served, beer was drunk and good times were being had by all.
And so we moved on from white tip to a place known only as lipper lagoon. It was only something like 3NM across the channel to Bugatti reef, which is known for its large population of GTs. So with a forecast of 5-10 knots and glassout conditions, we planned to steam over and try for some Hot popper action.
On this particular reef there is a pressure point that seems to hold a lot of big trevally. In the past I have been there and seen fish over the 50kg mark and so it earned the name Bustoff bommie.
Upon hearing of this place the film crews eyes lit up and by 7am we were chucking poppers at it. What followed was one of the most aggressive pack attacks that I have ever seen. It was like these fish had never been fed. The poppers were worked back across the bommie and it was like a massive gunmetal grey bomb went off. The GTs were big and numerous.
At one stage there was about 10 big fish fighting over the popper. Eventually the fish became spooked and moved away but while they were on we had 8 massive surface strikes, 4 explosive hookups and 3 bust offs that just left you standing there with your jaw on the ground.
Out of all that we manage to land one decent fish of about 25kg. Apparently 80lb braid wasn’t quite up to the task – good thing the boys came prepared. After this session, our lures were destroyed. The poppers we had been using had very little paint left on them, bent hooks, wire eyelets ripped clean out of the lure body and upon closer inspection we even found a large GT tooth embedded in the timber lure. The footage we got was incredible. Nature at its best and most brutal. Battered and bruised we headed back to the mothership.
Now I don’t really have enough column space to write about every aspect of the trip for the whole 7 days so I will do my best to focus on the best bits. We experienced several more hot GT sessions during the course of the trip with the best one being 6 hookups and 4 fish landed in about half an hour. There were countless more bustoffs and strikes.
The biggest GT for the trip was actually caught off the back of the mothership at night. The massive fish arrived in the burly trail of lipper frames and couldn’t resist a floating pilly. A quick hookup resulted in a dogged fight for the next 20 min by Adam Shields and the end result was a Monster 32 kg fish.
The dories and Raptor II got stuck into the red throat during the week and the bag limit was achieved. Surprisingly the Spanish mackerel were marked in their absence with only 2 decent fish boated for the whole trip. Spanish were definitely on the film crews’ list of fish to catch but unfortunately they didn’t really play the game.
Guess you can’t always win on all fronts. Coral trout were also a little bit scarce with about 40 for the trip. Big tides are thought to be the reason for the lack of trout.
The trip home saw our last day anchored at Scawfell Island. Now I promised the fishin trip crew a mad hot plastics and bait fishing session to fill the content for their second show. We once again blasted away from the mothership at 7am and headed for one of my local day trip spots.
By this stage of the trip the tides had dropped off to a nice gentle run and allowed us to get the 1oz jigheads to the bottom in the 40 meters of water that we were fishing in. What followed changed my view on plastics forever. We were jigging the 7-inch Berkley gulps on one of my favorite rocks.
Now I have had customers bring these things out on charters before and never really done any good on them, but these guys live and breath plastic fishing and as we drifted over the shoal the result was instantaneous. The first drop was a 6-kilo nannygai and a 6-kilo fingermark. I couldn’t believe my eyes when that big golden hit the surface. Back we went for another drift and bang!! On again, the next drop seeing a 12-kilo cod and a 7 kilo fingermark. This was just too good to be true.
What an awesome TV show this one was going to be. I swear to god these fishing show blokes just bring the luck with them. We continued fishing in the glassed out conditions and 2 fishermen armed with light plastics gear managed to boat 12 nannies, 3 big cod, 2 fingermark and a partridge in a pear tree.
We thought we would then have another go at ticking the Spaniard box only to pick up another 2 impressive GTs. Terrible I know.
All in all the Hardline 2009 was a massive success. 2 full fishing shows shot, an impressive haul of reef fillet to take home, perfect weather for the entire 7 days and great company is enough to put a grin on the face of anybody who was lucky enough to experience it with us.
Look out for the program “fishin trip” with Jason Kennedy on Southern Cross Ten, with the GT Show on Sunday 6th December, and the bottom Bashing show Sunday 12th December, Mackay’s fishing at its best!! We are now taking bookings for next years Reefari Hardline adventure so get in early.
Once again everybody
Tight Lines
PS More great footage of the trip on our Youtube Reefari Channel
Please Rate This Post – (2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ...
More Fishing Reports
Reefari Fishing Report September 2009
Reefari Mackay Fishing Charter Report — September 2009
Well hello again and welcome back to the September edition of on the chew. Once again we at reefari charters have been kept busy by all you keen fishermen and women who love to get out there and wet a line.
Weather wise, Mackay has probably seen its best month all year with many days barely getting above 10 knots.
I think there was only one rough weekend which happened to fall on the Cloughy’s spearfishing challenge.
Apparently the guys that got out managed some impressive fish but it wouldn’t have been for the faint hearted – good on ya for those that had a go. Other than that we have loved the flat days.
Our trips to the reef have once again been very productive with a wide variety of species coming aboard. As far as the actual reef fishing goes red throat have been by far the most prolific species closely followed by nannygai.
Large red throat emperor are one of the best eating fish on the reef and can be caught in plague proportions if you happen to locate a feeding school of them.
Try using a lightly weighted pilchard like you do when you fish for trout and always use some burly to bring the fish around the boat. Trout have also started to liven up a bit with the water starting to warm up a few degrees. Some beautiful specimens have been taken aboard our day charters with one hooter of about 6kgs taken on a floating pilchard in 5 metres of water.
Pelagic fish have also been making their presence felt this month with many GT’s and large Spanish Mackerel being boated. We had an absolutely massive trip on the GT’s and Spanish with some 9 macks and 12 big GT’s coming in. The smallest of the mackerel went 20kg and the biggest 25kgs.
The GT’s were all in the 25 – 30kg mark and they were all taken on poppers while sight casting and released. This form of fishing truly is one of the most adrenaline pumping forms of fishing that you can possibly imagine. Check our youtube channel to see what I am talking about.
These fish run on rocket fuel!! Also speaking of Spanish mackerel, the run of fish seems to be quite late this year with September being one of our best months ever. Double and triple hookups have been the norm aboard our sportfishing boat “Obession”.
These fish take massive long surface runs and as we troll over the schools of fish we get these “pack attacks” occur with all the rods going off and our customers ducking and weaving about the boat following the fish – no one knows where to look – awesome stuff.
As I am writing this article we are also gearing up for the Reefari Hardline adventure. This trip is 7 days of absolute fishing adventure in some of the most pristine unfished locations on the east coast, up to 200 kilometres offshore on the edge of the Continental shelf!!
We are towing out our 33 foot cougar cat – “Raptor II”, our 21 foot sport fishing boat “Brute Strength” and 2 of centurion’s custom dory’s for the fishing trip of a lifetime.
Behind the luxuriously appointed M.V Centurion Mothership. We are also taking out Jason Kennedy from “Fishin Trip” for Foxtel, who hope to take enough action packed sport and reef fishing footage to make a heap of fishing shows. It’ll be tough!!
Next month, I will do a detailed report of the whole adventure so be sure to grab the industry hub next month.
Tight lines
Until Next Month…
Please Rate This Post – (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ...
More Fishing Reports
Mackay Reef Fishing Charter Report August 2009
August 30, 2009 by Ron · 7 Comments
Reefari Mackay Fishing Charter Report — August 2009
Hello everybody and once again welcome back to “On The Chew” for all the August fishing info.
Yet again we have been run off our feet with charters on most days and many quality reef fish hitting the decks of our boats.
The weather has been beautiful for the most part with only a few windy days to make the calm days even better.
Big reds have again been the flavor of the month with some absolute ripper fish bringing smiles to the faces of quite a few of our customers.
Most of these fish have been averaging around the 8 kilo mark but every now and again a real horse around 12 kilo will turn up – much to our delight. The reef edges have also been producing large numbers of quality red throat.
On one particular trip we saw some of the biggest red throat that I have ever seen coming up.
They were all around the 60cm mark and seem to come in waves, where we would all hookup and then for 10 or 15 minutes the fish seemed to disappear then we would all hook up again. It was quite bizarre actually – usually they are either on or there not.
The coral trout have also been turning it on for certain trips but again they seem to have been a bit irregular as well. We will go a week where we will only get one or two a trip then all of a sudden we will brain them for a few days and coral trout will make up the bulk of the catch.
All I can put it down to is they do what they want, and when they want to do it. We just have to be there at the right time. I think all of us fisherman have our theories as to what is going on down there, but the day I hear one that works 100% all of the time – well, I don’t know what I’ll do, but I’ll definitely keep it too myself.
One species that never seem to let us down are the large mouth nannys, they seem to be as reliable as the sunrise and august has been another excellent month with magnificent fish up to 11kg frequently coming back on our day trips.
I have also been kept really busy with our new sport fishing boat – “Brute Strength”. Reefari charters made quite a few trips out to the outer islands chasing big GT’s, queenfish and Spanish mackerel.
Averaging around 28 knots, our custom-built 6.1 meter center console will have you skimming across the local waterways in search of some arm stretching action. With a maximum of 4 people, there is a mile of room and the personalized service that we are known for is absolutely assured.
On one particular trip we started off the day with a bit of mackerel trolling. August and September is the time for Spanish Mackerel, and within the first hour we had managed two decent Spaniards onboard. We decided to travel over to a small detached rock that is known for some hot GT action.
On the 3rd or 4th cast a good fish of about 18kg chased the surface popper all the way to the boat and he had us all yelling and screaming with excitement.
On the very next well placed cast he came belting back around and smashed the popper with an explosion of white water. A massive battle ensued and after about ten minutes we had the beast subdued in the boat. Pound for pound these things are without a doubt the hardest fighting fish in the ocean.
A few photos and we released him to fight another day. About 10 min later we got another one off the same rock around the 10 kilo mark.
Visit our youtube Reefari Video Channel to see the full video-. We hit several other islands and whilst trying for another GT we got absolutely smashed by a big trout on one of the poppers, a very nice consolation prize.
With a few quick drops throughout the day and some more trout and nannygai in the box for dinner it really was a great all-round day with awesome fishing and some great scenery as well.
Well that is just about it for this month. Remember to keep watching our videos on youtube so you can see what it’s all about and if you want to come out for a look, book early as seats fill up really fast.
Please Rate This Post – 
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
More Fishing Reports
Mackay Fishing Charter Report July 2009
July 30, 2009 by Ron · Leave a Comment
Reefari Mackay Fishing Charter Report — July 2009
Hello again and welcome to the July edition of “On the Chew”. July has been another sensational month for fishing in Mackay and with some absolutely glass calm days to compliment. Reefari charters once again had a very busy month with many day and 2 day charters heading out to the great blue beyond.
July has been a very diverse month species wise. This is often the case during this time of the year with the water temp changing and the winter species such as Spanish mackerel and snapper become ever increasingly active.
Winter is also the best time in central QLD to get amongst some of the hottest Red Emperor fishing that is available. At this point I would like to dedicate a substantial part of this article to a particular 3 day trip from early in the month.
We left Mackay at 9 am on the Sunday with only 4 guests aboard our 41foot Stebercraft – Mako. Anticipation was high as none of these guys had never caught a big red and I had assured them that there was a very good chance that we would get a few. As we steamed out of the harbour, we gradually watched the 25 knot SW’erly drop down to almost nothing and by the time we got to the other side of the islands the weather gods were definitely smiling upon us.
Upon reaching the reef, we dropped anchor on a couple of bommies that are well known to me as prime red country. Initially we were getting some big red throat and some yellow sweeties but as time progressed we started seeing half fish or no gear coming up almost every drop- bloody Sharks, time to move. With the sun setting we moved the boat to another place out in the open water. With barely 5 knots of wind blowing we knew that it was going to be a beautiful night. We dropped anchor and all sat down for a nice roast dinner.
Once again the gear was off to the bottom and the result was instantaneous. The first drop was a four-way hookup and every fish to hit the boat was an emperor of about 5 kgs. Immediately we were all back down and the same result repeated. My first thought was ok there must be a few here but for the next hour there was nothing but red emperor coming over the side.
I truly have never experienced fishing like it. I mean you hear stories from your old man about fishing like this but until that night I could only imagine what it would be like. After the first hour the reds started to move away and the nannygai and spangled emperor came onto the chew and once again it was as quickly as you could get to the bottom.
I was fishing with a handline and at one stage there it took me 6 drops to get a tangle out because the big nannies kept grabbing my bait (which by the way was the same bait for all 6 drops). As a summary for the night we nearly bagged out on reds up to 8kgs, we nearly bagged out on nannies and we got 2 dozen or so big spangles. It really was Mackay’s fishing at its absolute best.
The next few days saw even more big reds with the biggest one going 15kgs. With plenty of reef fish in the esky we did a heap of trolling through the deep channels and along the reef edges.
We got quite a few nice trout on the lures and then a massive run in the deeper water turned out to be a 10kg yellowfin tuna – just to spice thing up a bit. We spent the next night anchored up on a shoal in 25 meters and got stuck into the Venus tusk fish and yellow sweetlip.
We were also thoroughly entertained by a 12 foot long great hammerhead shark that our customers nicknamed Bruce. He would follow the fish all the way to the surface at high speed and then turn away at the last second with a massive power turn.
It was pretty awesome to see. We returned to the harbour with our freezer full of fillets and some stories that I will be able to pass on to my kids.
Day trips have also been popular with many happy anglers coming back with mixed bags of nannygai, coral trout, big emperor and many grass sweetlip. We also got another big goldband snapper, which I must reiterate is an extremely rare thing to see in such shallow water. Also plenty of Spanish Mackerel about, with most days, some great hookups and good fish coming aboard.
We also sighted Migaloo the white humpback whale off Chauvel reef on the 12th of July, He was southbound and was traveling at about 10 knots. There have been many whale sightings so far on our day trips with an estimated 10 000 whales migrating north this year.
Reefari Charters has also added yet another customized fishing machine to its fleet. The MV Brute Strength is a custom 6.1 metre center console that we are running specialized sport and game fishing charters all around the Mackay area.
Because boat is trailer able, many different locations can be accessed and with a top speed of 40 knots it is sure to get you to the fishing grounds quickly and safely. Available for a minimum of 2 people and a maximum of 5, personalized service is also assured.
Anyway guys and gals
See you next month
Please Rate This Post – (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ...
More Fishing Reports
Mackay Fishing Report June 2009
June 30, 2009 by Ron · 2 Comments
Reefari Mackay Fishing Charters Report — June 2009
Well hello again everybody and once again welcome to the June edition of On The Chew. June has been a sensational month for Reefari charters with the fishing leaving all who experienced it both lost for words and a tad sore. Once again we have been really busy and with the weather staying reasonable, perfect at times, managed to get about 95% of our charters out. There was even one stint there where we got 6 trips in a row and all of our guests went home with a big bag of reef fish.
For the first half of June, the mornings were the go with the run out tide fishing the best. If the tide was a bit later on in the morning and we had plenty of time, then we would pull a couple of lures around the islands and nail a couple of Spaniards.
June seems to be the first run of these fish and they will hang around until it starts to warm up again, with Humpbacks also showing up.
Catching them is a fairly simple exercise as they hang out in packs and are very aggressive feeders that will smash most types of lures or trolled baits.
We were picking them up on most trips and it sure is a great way of getting everyone on board pumped up first thing in the morning with a screaming mackerel run.
Remember also that the Mackay Game Fishing Club holds its annual Spanish shootout on Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th of July, with some great prizes on offer.
Now, I would like to talk to everyone a little about Giant Trevally, GTs, Turrum or whatever you want to call them. Please refer to the beginning of the article where I mentioned that our guests were coming home a little sore. Well these beasts are the culprits. Whilst trolling for Macks, Some Giant GT’s decided to get into the action, smashing our lures connected to a Calcutta 400 barra combo with 30lb braid.
As they passed over the mark we watched in awe as two truck sized Trevally came flying up and belted both of our lures.
One of these fish was easily 70lb and grabbed the TLD25, the other which later weighed in at 24 kg grabbed the Calcutta. There are few fish in the ocean that will attack a lure with the ferocity that a GT does, in fact the idea of Big Willie Mason tackling a midget could be something you might describe it as.
By the time I realized what was happening, the Calcutta was half empty and I found myself having to back down on it the way you would with a rampaging marlin.
The other rod was running so hard that the boys were struggling to get the rod out of the rod holder. When they finally did an epic struggle ensued – man against beast. Now we discovered a problem, with one big fish going south and the smaller one north.
We managed to hold onto both of them for about 10 minutes when the hooks pulled on the big one and we were left with the smaller of the two on the Calcutta. After a 25 minute battle, the massive fish lay subdued on the deck – beaten by a very determined fisherman and 30lb line – not a bad effort at all.
A couple of photos and it was time to release him and do it again – and believe it or not we got another one that went 17kg on the very next pass. The biggest one we ended up boating in June was by a bloke named Jacques and it went just under 30kgs.
Aside from all that the coral trout have been chewing their heads off on the falling tide with 28 fish taken in 3 consecutive trips. These were not small fish either, with most of them averaging 3-4 kgs. Big Grass lipper and nannygai have been prolific and there have been some very nice red emperor mixed in as always.
We even took out Beaconsfield mine survivor – Todd Russell for a fish and he got stuck into some quality nannies and trout. It’s probably worth mentioning too that Kevin Boyle- owner of our 41 foot steber– went for a fish and showed off his skill by landing 3 rather rare bonefish whilst on a trip to the islands, not one but three, amazing stuff!!
That’s pretty much it for this month, I hope everyone out there had as good a month as we did, and hound the boss to get a Christmas trip together for the boys and girls, but make sure to book early!!.
Ok guys and gals
Until next month
Stop wishin!!, Lets go fishin!!
Please Rate This Post – (No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
More Fishing Reports
Mackay Fishing Report May 2009
Reefari Mackay Fishing Report – May 2009
Well hello again all and welcome to the May 2009 edition of the offshore fishing report. May has been a busy month with quite a bit of decent fishable weather and both our boats have been making frequent trips to the reef and shoals.
Our new boat Mako has finally kicked off and she made her first 2 day 2 night trip out to the reef. We left the harbour at around 5pm on the Friday and made the journey out to Penrith Island to spend the first night. The boys all fished hard for most of the night and were rewarded with a good haul of large mouth nannygai, snapper, cod and red throat. In the early hours of Saturday morning, we fired up the big V8’s and roared off to go in search of those elusive red emperors out towards Kindemar reef.
By about 8am we were drifting one of my favorite little patches and was it going off. We fished hard until lunchtime when the tide turned and the fish went quiet, but, for the 4 hours that we put in.
We were rewarded with countless red throat, some 15 decent red emperor, about 15 or so good sized coral trout and quite a few others including a juvenile Maori wrasse and a big barra cod – both of which were immediately released.
While the fishing was quiet we went into the reef edge for an afternoon snorkel. Jeez there is some big GT’s out there around some of those reefs.
We had one that was at least 80 pound swimming around us showing absolutely no fear at all. We cast poppers and stick baits but he wouldn’t hit anything.
After our swim we proceeded to head out to our anchorage for the night – a beautiful little detached bommie that I call red emperor reef.
For the flood tide it was on once again and the boys just kept pulling them in. We actually lifted the minimum size for red throat from 38 to 48cm just to slow it down a bit. By the end of that session our freezer was getting very close to being full.
At 3am on the Sunday we once again fired up the engines and went searching. One more spot on the way home – why not. We visited a very secret little spot of mine that lies about half a mile from the edge of a massive green zone – so you can imagine what it can fish like. Again the fish just went mental with more big quality trout, emperor and XOS lipper hitting the decks.
With every conceivable cold space on the boat packed full of fish we decided to take it easy and troll lures for most of the way home. With the lures set and the autopilot doing a great job, it was a fantastic way to top off an awesome weekend.
Day trips have also been frequent with all trips returning with big hauls of reef fish. The LM nannygai are still chewing their heads off as are the big barcheek trout. In fact most of the day trips that we have done almost everyone went home with at least one big trout in their catchbag.
Snapper are stating to become more and more active with the cold weather and the specimens we are boating are getting bigger and bigger every trip.
Our fearless leader, Greg Reynolds took a few of the trips out this month too and proved that even though he hadn’t been out for a few months that he can still find the fish. Big reds were on the must catch list and Greg has been slaying them with several fish topping the 10kg mar including one Monster Nannygai.
A particularly different catch also came up on one day trip in the form of a 6.7kg gold band snapper. These are typically a really deep water species that are rarely caught in less than 80 meters.
At nearly 7kgs this was an absolute monster for this species and was a long way from home up in 37meters of water. They are a close relative of the rosy job fish and are superb eating.
Anyway guys and gals, that pretty much brings this fishing report to a close once again. Remember if you’re sick of dreaming about catching that big one and want to come out for a look, give us a call.
Tight Lines
Until Next Month
Please Rate This Post – (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ...
More Fishing Reports
