Mackay Game Fishing Club
July 7, 2010 by Ron · Leave a Comment
SCAWFELL ISLAND WEEKEND
The Mackay Game fishing club had a social weekend planned for an overnight fishing trip to Scawfell Island, which is one of the best and most scenic anchorages on the East Coast.
Scawfell island is located about 25 nautical miles to the North east from the Mackay Marina, an easy hour or so run. Scawfell is a large island with a large horseshoe shaped bay, appropriately named Refuge bay, and protected from our Prevailing SE Winds, with beautiful beaches and coral line bay, it’s hard to beat, plus of course some great fishing.
Reefari and Co, planned to fish the shipping channel, for the day, and come back to Scawfell for a bit of R & R, and spend the night, with a leisurely Sunday before heading home.
The weather gods must have known it was a Mackay Game fishing club event and the usually 15 – 20 knots forecast was standard, which of course makes things generally uncomfortable and the fishing difficult. So in Marginal Conditions we set off In Raptor II, for some of our wide fishing marks.
Yohan can attest to that, being rather Green about the Gills, he still held his own and courageously fished on, although he did let quite a few go, and got plenty of ribbing for his efforts. The tides were good, with not too much run, and the start of the build up to the full moon.
The fishing started slowly, getting some nice pan sized Nannygai, small and large, grassy sweetlip and the odd Coral Trout.
Luckily, things kept on getting better, moving to some wider marks and everybody getting their sea legs, some quality 5 & 6 kilo Nannygai now regularly were coming on board and everybody was enjoying the fishing, with the lumpy trip, now worthwhile. We of course were the only ones silly enough to be out there.
The fish kept coming nice and steady, with a 8 Kilo Nannygai to the Skipper, Greg Reynolds a great highlight for the morning to take the fish of the day. Jason Horton Landed a beaut 60 cm Grassy Sweetlip which pushed Reefari’s record of 63 cm, and everyone will agree is a quality fish at this size.
Yohan did finally manage to land a nice coral trout of about 3 kilo’s which was his first and was mightily impressed.
There was Plenty of Red emperor on the chew, but being of the smaller variety around the 40 – 45 cm, they all went back for another day.
The fishing was excellent working a few new marks with one spot erupting into a 5 way hookup and Kaos, ducking and weaving rods, to end up with a mixed bag of five quality fish, 3 Largemouth Nannygai, Large Grassy sweetlip and Coral trout coming to the boat.
A top way to end a hot bite, with us deciding to move on and we left them biting, the Spanish mackerel esky was 3/4 ‘s full and a good feed for everybody.
We checked out a few new marks and then worked our way back to Scawfell island for the night with seas on our Quarter. With calm seas, and a sheltered anchorage, the ice cold beers were very appreciated.
Definitely great fishing, great company and it doesn’t get any better.
The Mackay Game Fishing club’s next big event is the Spanish Shootout to be held over the Weekend of the 9th and 10th of July with heaps of Great prizes on offer, and not just Spanish Mackerel, with Reef fin fish species also now eligible, including Red Emperor, Nannygai and Coral Trout.
Make sure you get involved with everybody welcome, bring the kids and have a great fishing weekend. Reefari is proud to be sponsor this event with some great mystery weight prizes up for grab.
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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 Hardline 2009
December 30, 2009 by Ron · 2 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 · 5 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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Reefari Fishing Report September 2009
September 30, 2009 by Ron · Leave a Comment
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 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
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Mackay Fishing Report June 2009
June 30, 2009 by Ron · Leave a Comment
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!!
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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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