Fishing Kaos
March 12, 2010 by Ron · Leave a Comment
With a slight breeze blowing, calm seas and the confidence through the roof a good day was on the cards, Paul Rochford and crew from South Walker Creek Mine, Nebo.
We arrived at our first spot in the shipping channel around 8 o’clock, the hooks were baited and on their way quickly to the bottom. The first two not even making it that far before they were engulfed and line started peeling off the reels.
This was the start of one action packed day, within 20 minutes everyone had caught at least two keepers and were sitting down for a breather and a hard earned drink.
All except one keen angler who stuck to his guns stating he wasn’t sitting down until he’d caught his first Reddy.
On one such drift it was non stop for about an hour as the skipper and I wondered why we hadn’t drifted off the mark.
I finally got a spare second I noticed we’d hardly moved at all the wind and the tide were fighting against each other making us do circles over and over our mark.
The Hot Steamy weather had certainly fired up the fishing and produced on hot session which no one will forget in a hurry.
With the esky starting to fill up, a change of spot was decided in the hope it might slow the boys down, Tuff I know.
This however was not the case with it being all systems go at the next spot with some good Grassy lipper and the first reddy being boated it was time for another breather and a bit of lunch.
I took this as an opportunity to put one in the esky for myself, so I swiftly dropped a squidgy to the bottom only for it to get smashed within the first minute, with another nannygai in the esky.
It was back to work with some of the boys soon reaching bag limits on the large mouth nannygai and healthy ones being released, with an hour left and the persistent kiwi yet to take a break from finding that elusive reddy.
I jokingly commented it was a a monster reddy on it’s way up only to my surprise when it did surface and was a quality 5kg model.
With the rest of the boys reaching their bag limits and a nice coral trout to top it all off.
It was soon decided the beer was running too low to stay out any longer, the lines came in and we headed for home for some hard earned tales of the ones that didn’t get away and a few happy snaps.
A day that will never be forgotten by all on board that fateful day.
Regards,
Brent Stephenson
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Mackay Fishing Report May 2009
Reefari Mackay Fishing Report – May 2009
Well hello again all and welcome to the May 2009 edition of the offshore fishing report. May has been a busy month with quite a bit of decent fishable weather and both our boats have been making frequent trips to the reef and shoals.
Our new boat Mako has finally kicked off and she made her first 2 day 2 night trip out to the reef. We left the harbour at around 5pm on the Friday and made the journey out to Penrith Island to spend the first night. The boys all fished hard for most of the night and were rewarded with a good haul of large mouth nannygai, snapper, cod and red throat. In the early hours of Saturday morning, we fired up the big V8’s and roared off to go in search of those elusive red emperors out towards Kindemar reef.
By about 8am we were drifting one of my favorite little patches and was it going off. We fished hard until lunchtime when the tide turned and the fish went quiet, but, for the 4 hours that we put in.
We were rewarded with countless red throat, some 15 decent red emperor, about 15 or so good sized coral trout and quite a few others including a juvenile Maori wrasse and a big barra cod – both of which were immediately released.
While the fishing was quiet we went into the reef edge for an afternoon snorkel. Jeez there is some big GT’s out there around some of those reefs.
We had one that was at least 80 pound swimming around us showing absolutely no fear at all. We cast poppers and stick baits but he wouldn’t hit anything.
After our swim we proceeded to head out to our anchorage for the night – a beautiful little detached bommie that I call red emperor reef.
For the flood tide it was on once again and the boys just kept pulling them in. We actually lifted the minimum size for red throat from 38 to 48cm just to slow it down a bit. By the end of that session our freezer was getting very close to being full.
At 3am on the Sunday we once again fired up the engines and went searching. One more spot on the way home – why not. We visited a very secret little spot of mine that lies about half a mile from the edge of a massive green zone – so you can imagine what it can fish like. Again the fish just went mental with more big quality trout, emperor and XOS lipper hitting the decks.
With every conceivable cold space on the boat packed full of fish we decided to take it easy and troll lures for most of the way home. With the lures set and the autopilot doing a great job, it was a fantastic way to top off an awesome weekend.
Day trips have also been frequent with all trips returning with big hauls of reef fish. The LM nannygai are still chewing their heads off as are the big barcheek trout. In fact most of the day trips that we have done almost everyone went home with at least one big trout in their catchbag.
Snapper are stating to become more and more active with the cold weather and the specimens we are boating are getting bigger and bigger every trip.
Our fearless leader, Greg Reynolds took a few of the trips out this month too and proved that even though he hadn’t been out for a few months that he can still find the fish. Big reds were on the must catch list and Greg has been slaying them with several fish topping the 10kg mar including one Monster Nannygai.
A particularly different catch also came up on one day trip in the form of a 6.7kg gold band snapper. These are typically a really deep water species that are rarely caught in less than 80 meters.
At nearly 7kgs this was an absolute monster for this species and was a long way from home up in 37meters of water. They are a close relative of the rosy job fish and are superb eating.
Anyway guys and gals, that pretty much brings this fishing report to a close once again. Remember if you’re sick of dreaming about catching that big one and want to come out for a look, give us a call.
Tight Lines
Until Next Month
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Mackay Charter Boat Fishing Report February 2009
February 27, 2009 by Ron · 4 Comments
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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