Mackay Charter Boat Fishing Report February 2009

Fishing Report From ReefariHello fellow fisher folks and welcome to our monthly Mackay fishing report. Well as February’s traditionally go, its usually hot and windy, and at the start of the month the weather pattern was starting to look frighteningly like that 6 week stint of strong wind warnings that we got this time last year.

But luckily we only got about 10 days of bad weather and then an unseasonal stint of some of the most stunning weather that us fisho’s could ask for.

On top of that this weather coincided with the neap tides and all this translated into some of the best reef fishing that I have ever encountered.

We were busy – very busy in fact with something like 9 full days in a row and some 17 odd trips for the month. We started off fishing the usual haunts. Typically the mornings were a bit slow but getting closer to the turn of the tides the fish were really turning it on for us.

As the month progressed and the tides got smaller, We found ourselves with no anchor down on a glass calm day parked right over the top of a big school of very hungry large mouth nannygai. One of our best days on the nannies was with our charter from Komatsu.

nannygaiOperator John Rodden bought his work colleagues and his young son Cooper out with us. As is usually the case, the little bugger put us all to shame bagging out before anyone and nearly disappearing over the side several times under the weight of some horse nannies.

These magnificent schooling fish fight hard, taste great and will chew their heads off for hours on end if you get them at the right time.

On several occasions this month we managed to fill our Spanish Mackeral ice box in less than an hour and on one particular occasion the guys had so many fish by 1.30pm that we went to Scawfell island for the afternoon and went swimming for an hour.

Now that’s what I call reef fishing!!

With this long stint of beautiful weather, I had plenty of opportunity to have a really good look around and it really did pay off with quite a few new spots found and quite a few boat records shattered.

On one such occasion we beat the record for red emporer 2 days in a row with the guys from Drillpro boating a monster fish of 10.7kgs only to smash it again the following day with a mammoth specimen of 11.9kgs.

Red Emperor FishThese big reds are often alone but at the moment we have been getting them amongst the smaller ones of around 6kgs – awesome fish guys congratulations. The Grassy lipper have also been going mental with many big fish around the 4kg mark taken.

Some of the other stand out catches were some ripper bar cheek trout to 5kg, some big Spaniards and some of the biggest chinaman fish I have ever seen.

Although you can’t eat them and now protected, you definitely know you have pulled one in when it finally gives up.

Reefari charters has also entered into a new era of charter operations with the maiden voyage of our new 41foot Steber “Mako”. This luxuriously appointed boat is now available for up to 3 days of non-stop reef fishing action. She is equipped with a really hot shower and can sleep up to 6 in comfort.

To top things off she is also fitted with an oven and big freezer so you can enjoy one of my famous roasts on the great barrier reef while you sip on your beer and watch the sun sink over Australia.

Anyway guys, that pretty much brings this months report to an end. Don’t forget to check out our website at www.reefari.com for more info. Or jump onto youtube for some awesome video action at our Fishing Channel

Until Next Month

Reefari charters