Fishing Report June 2010
July 7, 2010 by Ron · Leave a Comment
Monster Fish, Monster Month!!
June has been somewhat of an interesting month for offshore and inshore anglers respectively, with a cold snap ushering in a host of new piscatorial opportunities.
On a social run with members of the Mackay Game fishing Club the Reefari crew were able to locate some truly awesome fishing despite a buffeting from 15-20 knot winds. The plan was to use Refuge Bay at Scawfell Island as a base to venture out to the surrounding rubble patches and rocky reefs.
Despite our initial efforts yielding fairly humble results, things began to pick up immensely. While a few of the crew were looking a little like Kermit the Frog in the complexion department, the fishing soon proved to be well worth it. 5- 6kg nannygai started coming over the side regularly, with an 8kg model falling to yours truly and a trophy 60cm grassy lipper being landed by Jason Horton.
Other highlights for the day included several solid coral trout and a chaotic five-way hookup that saw the boys ducking, diving and weaving across the deck, with some quality fish landed.
In other news there have been impressive, if isolated, catches of big knobby-headed snapper coming from the inshore patches. A few of the boys bagged out on these seasonal fish mid-month and added a few decent cobia to the haul. Fresh squid was the bait of choice, but all accounts point to a good season for those willing to persist with soft plastics.
Another cool water species, the blisteringly fast spanish mackerel, has started to appear in numbers as well, with Tony Kennedy reporting a few coming over the Mako’s gunnels. On that subject, make sure you sign up for The Mackay Game Fishing Club’s next big event, the Spanish Shootout to be held over the Weekend of the 9th and 10th of July.
There will be heaps of great prizes on offer, and not just for spanish mackerel, with Reef fin fish species also now eligible. Make sure you get involved with everybody welcome. Bring the kids and have a great fishing weekend. Reefari is proud to be sponsoring this event with some great mystery weight prizes up for grabs.
Also worth mentioning is an amazing capture by keen young angler, George Fitter who in a herculean effort, landed a 10kg red emperor while on one of our charters. His catch made an impressive addition to a day’s haul that also included a 10kg nannygai.
Inshore, there have been some standout catches of bream, flathead and whiting. According to the Zac Lucas-Hunt from Complete Angler, a few of the younger anglers have been really getting into using ultra-light gear and slightly unorthodox techniques like poppering and twitching small blades to attract these inshore species for exciting results.
On top of the bread and butter species, there have been some thrilling sessions on queenfish and trevally around the Pioneer River Mouth and under the bridges to be had. Anglers are finding that the first of the run-in tide is bringing schools of bait in and the predators are following. Try working small poppers, metal slugs and if that still doesn’t work, try feather headed jigs.
Well, that just about sums up the month. Next month will see some big changes in the Reefari fleet with the Raptor II out of the water to have 600hp placed on its rear and there will also be some new faces amongst the crew – more on this next month.
Till then though, fingers crossed for calm seas and big reds.
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May Fishing Report 2010
July 7, 2010 by Ron · Leave a Comment
Signs are all Good for a Bumper Winter on the Water
Hello again. Well May has been and gone and while there were a few drops in the weather, all in all the wind and rain haven’t showed any signs of disappearing.
A cold snap is here though and that will bring big winter whiting, bream and flathead as well as more offshore species like mackerel, tuna and even those nobly-headed thumpers of the deep – snapper in the next few weeks.
Tony Kennedy, skipper of the Reefari Game boat Mako, revealed that the cold snap has brought larger numbers of the already prevalent reds and nannygai.
“We found that the nannygai have been of a better class since the cold snap and the trout have picked up too,” he reported. “The trout have been coming over the side quite regularly and range from three to four kilograms.”
As for the more winter orientated species, Tony revealed that the Spanish mackerel haven’t quite come through yet. The odd report of the odd fish coming in down south off Hay point, so they shouldn’t be far away.
“We think that the water clarity is getting better, which would explain the trout being on the chew, but it needs to clean up a little more yet for the mackerel,” Tony revealed.
Tony has had a few small snapper (squire) starting to show up around the inshore shoals, which bodes well for the coming cold season and shows the first signs of what has the potential to be a cracker snapper year.
In other news, the recent 2010 World Sooty Championships at Eungella Dam was a great success with record numbers of fish being caught. Daniel Grech won the competition for a record second time, but was faced with stiff competition from David Creffield who caught an equal 2519mm of Sooty, but came second in a count back decider.
“We used the Rapala Clackin’Rap in shallower water where their slower sinking rate allowed us to use a more constant retrieve and then switched to heavier vibes for the deeper water where we pulled our bigger fish, including a 46cm fish that pulled like a bulldog!”
The other major local competition which is rapidly approaching in time for mackerel season is the Mackay Game Fishing Club’s inaugural Spanish Mackerel Shoot-out on the 10th and 11th of July.
This is an extremely popular event that continues to grow every year. In 2010, for the first time there will be prize categories for reef fin fish species which should prove interesting and over $7000 in prizes.
Reefari is proud to sponsor this event and it would be great to see as many of you there as possible as it is set to be a top couple of day’s fishing. Tickets will available from June 1 from your local tackle stores, so get in early to ensure your place.
Well that wraps things up, so here’s hoping for a bumper winter on the fishing front and some calm, clear days.
Kind Regards,
Greg
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Reefari Fishing Report April 2010
Hello May, goodbye April.
It has been a hard time of the year for anglers and boaties with the wind and rain being less than kind. Offshore, the windows of opportunity have been few and far between, but the fishing has been red hot.
Inshore, the rivers are still running with a degree of fresh water and in the impoundments, the barra are becoming a little more difficult to chase, but at least the sooty grunter are firing.
On that positive note, Reefari Charters is proud to announce that at the annual Mackay Tourism Awards, held on the 25th of March at the MECC, the team was awarded the winner of the Transport, Tours and Cruises section.
It’s always great to get positive feedback and this is an excellent award that recognises the hard work which has gone into the last few years, establishing Reefari in a competitive industry, not to mention some truly awesome fishing and trophy quality fish.
Back on the fishing, getting the bigger boats out has been difficult at best, due to the rough conditions, but we did have one cracker weekend that saw the Reefari Cat, Raptor II blast out for some blistering piscatorial action.
The Raptor’s charter boat skipper, Glen Montgomery was all smiles when he returned from several trips and reported that the coral trout and sweetlip are back on the chew around the islands.
“We got a real mixed bag fishing the inshore spots,” he revealed. “On the first bait, of the first drift one of the clients hooked and landed a 120cm estuary cod and things just got better from there.”
“Further offshore, we hit schools of nannygai and some quality lipper.
The weather was phenomenal, but there was a slight westerly component to the wind and any old angler will tell you that that slows the bites down for some reason. Otherwise, I think we’d have done even better.”
Mark Kelly and a very young crew were aboard for one trip and were absolutely stoked with the weather and an esky full of fish, with Mark declaring the fishing amongst the best he’s seen.
The boys were all keen anglers and really got stuck into the red fish!
On that topic, the red emperor have been biting, but our skippers aren’t seeing the giants that characterised last year’s trips, nevertheless with legal reds being regularly landed, no one is complaining.
The best inland option at the moment might be to make the pilgrimage up to Eungella Dam for the up and coming sooty grunter championship held there on the May Day long weekend.
For those who haven’t chased these dark coloured pocket rockets before, try a mix of spinner baits, small poppers and bib-less vibes.
Just don’t underestimate the sooty, whatever you do, or it’ll have you bricked in the nearest snag before you can blink!
Next month is looking promising and the weather is even showing signs of dropping out.
With some luck, the rivers will continue to clean up through May and the whiting, bream and flathead should start coming through as the water starts to cool.
Fingers crossed.
Greg and the Reefari Crew.
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
March 8, 2010 by Ron · Leave a Comment
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
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Not Your Usual Double Hook Up
February 11, 2010 by Ron · Leave a Comment
You Need To Be Prepared For Just About Anything Reef Fishing In Mackay
Raptor II, a 33ft Cougar Cat owned and operated by Reefari Charters was able to make the most of a break in the turbulent weather to head offshore and target a host of tasty reef species along some deep-water shoals off Mackay.
With a crew of eight punters aboard, including national fishing writer and photographer Lee Brake, the Reefari crew were able to locate some top table fish for the clients including a school of hard fighting Golden Trevally, some trophy Nannygai, a quality red emperor and some thumping great coral trout.
Lee Brake Had This To Say About The Charter…
According to Lee Brake the highlight of the day was when he and one of the other anglers literally caught the same Nannygai only to become engage in a game of tug-O-war with one of the deep’s giant predators.
The Double Hook Up
“I was testing out some soft plastic lures called Gulp Jerkshads when I had a solid hook-up. It seemed like a quality fish, but after just a few strong runs my line suddenly went slack,” said Lee.
“Just as my line went slack, I noticed Bill Smith suddenly bend over like he’d been punched in the stomach with his rod bucking and bending to ungodly angles.
There wasn’t much we could do except watch and take photos because whatever had his line didn’t even look like stopping!”
Luckily (or unluckily) for Bill, the line broke under the pressure leaving him to rub his aching arms. The action however, didn’t finish there.
“I finished taking photos of poor Bill’s herculean battle only to return to my own rod and wind up the slack to reveal some weight,” reported Lee.
“The weight didn’t move much at first, but about half way up there was a small kick, so at least I knew it was a fish.
What I didn’t expect though was to pull in a very sizeable nannygai that was absolutely smashed! The poor thing had been in the mouth of a giant, probably a huge cod, as it had visible teeth marks around the neck, but had also been sucked clean of scales.”
Even The Deckhand Brent Was Amazed At What He Saw!
The Raptor’s deck hand, Brent Stephenson was then completely gobsmacked because as he went to remove Lee’s lure from the fish’s mouth he found Bill’s hook and line still in place and protruding from the Nannygai’s mouth.
“I’d never seen anything like it. The fish must have hit Lee’s lure then taken Bill’s bait as well, only Bill was winding faster than Lee; meaning Lee’s line went slack and he thought he’d lost the fish,” said Bill Smith.
When The Cod Attacks!!!!
After that, the massive cod must have smashed the poor thing which would explain why Bill was worked over so hard.
Once he was busted off though, the cod released its prize leaving Lee to wind up one very sore and sorry nanny!”
The other highlights for the day included a pair of double hook-ups one involving a pair of speedy golden trevally that made anglers hurt during a prolonged battle.
The other involved a very nice red emperor which came over the side first only to be followed by another golden trevally, proving that these bottom dwelling pelagics were well and truly on the chew.
Nannygai were a constant catch and ranged from just over legal to some serious specimens pushing the 7kg mark. A pair of coral trout was also taken by Tony Block who was stoked with such top quality table fish.
Most fish were taken on fresh strip baits and squid; however Lee did take an early lead by using Gulp soft plastics jigged on a four ounce jighead. His lead was quickly reeled in though, as a patch of sharks cleaned him out of jigheads and left him to man the camera.
Everyone onboard agreed that it was a very successful charter. It’s always a great day if you have top folk, good weather and the fish are biting, but add when the weather has been as harsh as it has been, everyone, crew included really relishes the chance to get offshore.
Everyone on board Reefari agreed that it was a real eye-opener and it became a top talking point for what was a very successful boat charter. It’s always a great day if you have top folk, good weather and the fish are biting, but add something special like that and you have a truly memorable Mackay fishing charter.
Check out all the great fishing charters we have available Boat Charter Rates.
Article written by Lee Brake
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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.
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Reefari Charters Fishing Report March 2009
March 30, 2009 by Ron · Leave a Comment
Reefari Boat Charters Fishing Report March 2009
Well as March’s go that sure was a windy one, 2 cyclones later and we still were locked up in the marina with 3 meter seas constantly pummeling the rock wall outside. Despite all this we still managed a couple of trips in the lulls between the storms.
To start with I would like to mention just how hot the barra fishing got out at the dams just after cyclone Hamish went through. The first day after it passed was very calm and muggy – perfect barra conditions. We made tracks for Kinchant dam at about 4 in the arvo and started trolling by 5 pm.
At first the fishing was slow but as the night went on we managed to boat 12 fish in about 3 hours. Most of them were around the 75cm with a few bigger and a few smaller.
While they aren’t the biggest fish they sure are great fun on 3 kilo line While the bite has slowed out there since that night you can still pick up quality fish by working the edges of the weed beds with lures like the big x raps and the RMG scorpions. Jump on our web site to view some of the impoundment barra video action.
While the trips offshore were few and far between, when we did get out the fishing was absolutely phenomenal. I know I wrote in February’s report that it was quote “the best reef fishing I have ever come across” – well if the few trips we got in this month were anything to go by I think March would have been even better. Every trip we did our guests came home with a massive 160 litre esky simply overflowing with quality reef fish.
The bulk of the catch was made up of Large mouth Nannygai to about 9kg but also many large red emperor were taken as well as good coral trout and large grassy sweetlip were in abundance. On one particular trip we filled the ice box in one 15 minute drift.
This drift was particuly strange because large amounts of the fish coming up were the southern knobby snapper. While it is not unheard of to catch them up here it is a very out of season catch for this time of the year.
Anyway when you bag out that quickly that quickly we were sort of left with very little to do so we decided that a celebratory swim and lunch at one of the local islands was in order. It’s a bloody tough life I know.
Stand out catches for March were a 10.7kg red emperor (along with quite a few slightly smaller ones), several 9kg nannygai, a 5kg trout and several 5kg snapper.
Initially we used the poor weather to put the final touches on our new 41 foot steber – Mako. The boat was in need of a slipping so for about a week we grinded and sanded and prepped and painted.
It turned out to be time well spent as our fuel burn has dropped considerably and the speed of the boat has increased by a few knots. 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.
The latest shimano fishing equipment is also supplied as is all bait and food.
Jump on our website for more info on Mako as well as prices and any other info you might want about reefari. Remember guys booking are essential as we fill up really fast, particularly the weekends so book early.
Anyway that just about brings this months report to a close
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
Tight lines everyone
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Mackay Charter Boat Fishing Report February 2009
Reefari Mackay Fishing Charters Report — February 2009
Hello 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.
Operator 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.
These 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
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