Fishing Report June 2010
July 7, 2010 by Ron · Leave a Comment
Monster Fish, Monster Month!!
June has been somewhat of an interesting month for offshore and inshore anglers respectively, with a cold snap ushering in a host of new piscatorial opportunities.
On a social run with members of the Mackay Game fishing Club the Reefari crew were able to locate some truly awesome fishing despite a buffeting from 15-20 knot winds. The plan was to use Refuge Bay at Scawfell Island as a base to venture out to the surrounding rubble patches and rocky reefs.
Despite our initial efforts yielding fairly humble results, things began to pick up immensely. While a few of the crew were looking a little like Kermit the Frog in the complexion department, the fishing soon proved to be well worth it. 5- 6kg nannygai started coming over the side regularly, with an 8kg model falling to yours truly and a trophy 60cm grassy lipper being landed by Jason Horton.
Other highlights for the day included several solid coral trout and a chaotic five-way hookup that saw the boys ducking, diving and weaving across the deck, with some quality fish landed.
In other news there have been impressive, if isolated, catches of big knobby-headed snapper coming from the inshore patches. A few of the boys bagged out on these seasonal fish mid-month and added a few decent cobia to the haul. Fresh squid was the bait of choice, but all accounts point to a good season for those willing to persist with soft plastics.
Another cool water species, the blisteringly fast spanish mackerel, has started to appear in numbers as well, with Tony Kennedy reporting a few coming over the Mako’s gunnels. On that subject, make sure you sign up for The Mackay Game Fishing Club’s next big event, the Spanish Shootout to be held over the Weekend of the 9th and 10th of July.
There will be heaps of great prizes on offer, and not just for spanish mackerel, with Reef fin fish species also now eligible. Make sure you get involved with everybody welcome. Bring the kids and have a great fishing weekend. Reefari is proud to be sponsoring this event with some great mystery weight prizes up for grabs.
Also worth mentioning is an amazing capture by keen young angler, George Fitter who in a herculean effort, landed a 10kg red emperor while on one of our charters. His catch made an impressive addition to a day’s haul that also included a 10kg nannygai.
Inshore, there have been some standout catches of bream, flathead and whiting. According to the Zac Lucas-Hunt from Complete Angler, a few of the younger anglers have been really getting into using ultra-light gear and slightly unorthodox techniques like poppering and twitching small blades to attract these inshore species for exciting results.
On top of the bread and butter species, there have been some thrilling sessions on queenfish and trevally around the Pioneer River Mouth and under the bridges to be had. Anglers are finding that the first of the run-in tide is bringing schools of bait in and the predators are following. Try working small poppers, metal slugs and if that still doesn’t work, try feather headed jigs.
Well, that just about sums up the month. Next month will see some big changes in the Reefari fleet with the Raptor II out of the water to have 600hp placed on its rear and there will also be some new faces amongst the crew – more on this next month.
Till then though, fingers crossed for calm seas and big reds.
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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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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 Reef Fishing Charter Report August 2009
August 30, 2009 by Ron · 2 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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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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