September 2010 Fishing Report
October 28, 2010 by Ron · Leave a Comment
Mack Attack Madness!
October already! Where has this year gone?
It seems like only yesterday that we were catching snapper, and now the water is warming and were are gearing up for the tropical species to start chewing their heads off.
It’s been a mad month of mackerel mayhem offshore with some calamitous catches being recorded, there’s been some top bottom bashing action with big reds biting strongly, and anglers have been getting their arms stretched to the limit by some barnstorming Queenfish and Trevally.
All in all folks, the fishing has been full on!
Probably the best catches have included red hot mack attacks. Reefari has been trolling up a storm with one charter finding themselves in the thick of it to the point where they literally had to stop and find something else to target.
Spanish and shark mackerel have been the most common with strong catches on every charter, unfortunately that means my lures replacement orders have been through the roof, but, that just means you’re in the thick of it, right?
One lure that has been good to us is the River2Sea deep-diving Downsider – a newer lure out that is getting down to where the mack schools are holding.
On that same note, jigging is working well with knife jigs finding the macks once they dive deep and a fast retrieve is producing some smashing hits and gut-punishing strikes. Now that’s good fun! As yet most of the mackerel we are getting have been offshore; probably due to the bait schools remaining out wide. Given some more northerly winds and a bit of luck though, and we should see them come into the range of the smaller boats.
While we are mentioning pelagics, there have been some herculean battles taking place. Glen Montgomery got a 9 kilo queenfish trolling the St Bees/Keswick Channel and after a taxing battle, he released it to fight another day.
Likewise, Graham Brake found a patch of bait in deep water and after jigging up several small 3kg-plus giant trevally, he put a Halco Crazy Deep lure out and trolled over the school.
Graham reports that as he ran over the school, which was 60 feet down, a 25kg-plus GT rose from the depths and gave him an almighty battle before being landed, photographed and released. These fish are awesome fun to catch, but do the right thing and release them, as the bigger they get, the poorer they are to eat.
In the deep water scene, our gun Reefari skipper Sally has reported a slowing of action around the reefs, but an influx of big reds. She reports that the guys willing to drop big baits are being rewarded and who isn’t happy with a trophy red emperor?
Other notable catches include some solid nannygai, with a seven kilo model falling to Han Ditzel aboard our special Dowden’s Pumping charter.
While other species, like the coral trout, have been quiet, it is only a matter of time before they come back on the chew. Usually we do find that the change of seasons slows down the fishing for a week or so until the temperature stabilizes and then it’s on for young and old alike! Bring on the big coral trout!
In other news, as I write, we are gearing up for our annual mother-shipping adventure to the outer reef.
As you read this, the Reefari crew, myself and a group of keen fishos will be either aboard the 80 foot mothership relaxing, or more likely, battling titanic GTs, dropping for monster reefies, or just exploring the untouched blue ocean that is the outer reef.
It’s a top week away and with the Raptor II trimmed out and hitting 34knots thanks to its new 300hp Suzuki’s, we won’t be going softly. No readers, this will be serious adventure fishing and is definitely not for the faint hearted. Keep your eyes peeled, because hopefully next month we’ll be bringing you a full wrap up!
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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.
Not Your Usual Double Hook Up
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.
Reefari Hardline 2009
December 30, 2009 by Ron · 3 Comments
Reefari Hardline Boat Charter 2009
After heaps and heaps of Planning, our Hardline Reefari 2009 has finally come around again, and it was once again with another keen group of Anglers uniting from locally and all the southern cities of Sydney and Melbourne. Also Jason Kennedy and film crew from “Fishin trip” on behalf of Southern Cross TEN as well, we were off on another fishing adventure of a lifetime.
With Centurion as our 80 foot Mothership, a 33 foot Cougar cat “Raptor” and 21 foot Centre Console, and three 15 foot dories, we had all bases covered and then some. Expectations were high with vessel’s in tow, for 7 days and nights of awesome fishing and exploring the remote sections of the outer Great Barrier Reef, not for the faint hearted with distances of up to 200 kilometres offshore, and even on the edge of the continental shelf.
Fishing nirvana with Giant Trevally, Spanish Mackerel, reef fish, and heaps more on the agenda, the following is a brief account of this special trip.
Boats were fueled up, with enough diesel to keep a small country town powered, and OPEC very happy, it was an early afternoon start, with Raptor and centre console in tow, and we were off at a cruisy 8 knots, No speed records, but time and distance wins out with a cruise through the night to arrive at Bugatti Reef, nice and early.
GT heaven or is that fisherman’s heaven, probably both with a massive Coral lagoon with Kilometres and Kilometres of Reef, Bommies and great fishing.
The Weather was unbelievable with a week of light winds to 15 knots, with only one day with 20 knots winds at the end of the week, we were truly blessed, someone upstairs was smiling down on us. Tenders and gameboats were dispatched, loaded up with an armament of tackle and off in pursuit of Fish.
Raptor II was off to Sharon Shoal, The guys from Fishin Trip chasing GT’s and the Dories assaulting the reef trip.
What a life, Some horse Red Throats were coming in thick and fast on the reefs and out on the wider shoals, and the film crew were getting a crash course in GT Fishing, definitely not for the faint hearted. Losing more than they could land for the cameras, it was time to beef up the gear and tackle and swing things in there favour.
Life takes on another pace having a week out on the Great Barrier Reef with none of the stresses of the real world, Great food, Company and plenty of amber fluids, everybody quickly settled into the rythym of the trip. Over the next week, we fished Whitetip Reef, Lipper Lagoon, Big and Little Bugatti Reef and numerous other unnamed and uncharted reefs, real adventure stuff, especially when we’re talking 200 kilometres offshore!!
Raptor II had a great week, trolling lures for Spanish Mackerel and Sharky Mackerel, Casting Poppers for Giant Trevally and bottom bashing with good quality Red throat on Tap, and Multiple hooks up on some quality fish. One of the Highlights was a quality 4kg Barramundi Cod caught by yours Truly to make my day.
Decky Adam Shields, did the honours and in the diving gear, dived down and released the Barra Cod, as Baratrauma can be a real drama for these wonderful fish and successfully released.
Some real nice GT’s were caught by the film crew with some phemonemal footage and a great TV Show for Sure. Check out Fishin Trip on Southern Cross on Sun 6th Dec, and Sun 13th Dec for some Phenomenal fishing action. Numerous fish were caught and released with the best going 26kg’s.
Other Giant Trevally highlights were a couple of 32kg monsters, one caught from the back of the Mothership “Centurion” by Adam, on a floating pilchard of all things, a battle royal with 80lb braid and the centre console was called into assist, check out the video on reefari youtube as Adam took off into the darkness to eventually return triumphant for the enjoyment of all watching, a heap of happy snaps and the GT was released to fight another day.
Another Monster GT was caught by Murray, trolling from the dories along the reef edge, and of all things was caught on a Murray Cod lure after a 45 minute battle. Not bad for his first reef trip. This great fish also went 32kgs and was a great introduction to the Great Barrier Reef for his Murray’s first time.
Cyclone Hamish’s damage to the outer reef was still evident with the reef badly damaged with coral littered on the ocean floor, plate and staghorn coral suffered badly and coral trout catches were well down.
Redthroat numbers were still good with Double Bag limits reached for all 20 anglers.
The last night was spent cruising into Scawfell Island for a bit of R&R, hard to believe I know, but a great way to wind down from a week out on the reef. Bit of snorkelling and a nice afternoon cruise back to Mackay.
Bookings and expression of interest taken for next year and also putting together a 10 day charter to Princess Charlotte Bay, Bigger and Better, so make sure you get in early!! Contact Reefari for More Details here Charter Bookings
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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
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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
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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…
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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.
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