The Hewitt clan joined us once again. Fine weather at the beginning of the week resulted in perfect fishing conditions.
1st cab off the rank for 2010! Richard’s crew enjoyed some awesome fishing in the Coral Sea. Whilst ‘Freddo’ was unusually quiet , a move and a few days of spectacular weather at Saumarez paid great dividends.
Local fishing club extraorinaire - YarrallaFC had a great week of fishing.
Bruce’s Salty Sailors and Superseamen once again made their 10 day pilgrimage to The Coral Sea. Here’s Bruce’s report:
Super Seamen and the ten day challenge – 22 November to 2 December 2009
Ten days in the Coral Sea always lead Super Seamen to speculate on the number and size of fish they will encounter. The ever growing masses of gear on the top deck of Kanimbla left no doubt that our anticipation had been in overdrive for the months prior to the trip. More than a few new rods and reels had been purchased to supplement the armoury of tackle that some had previously amassed.
At 1700 hours we left the confines of the marina in a 15 kt NE wind and received the mandatory safety briefing before a meal as we crossed the harbour prior to heading into the open ocean. The seas were kinder than we anticipated and it was easy to sleep into the night. Occasionally most of us woke as a slightly larger wave slapped between the hulls and when the sun rose lures were let out.
It was not till we reached Zenobia Rock [NW Saumarez Reef] on Monday 23 November that Gordon caught a small yellowfin tuna, and then Huy got a 8 kg wahoo, and TJ a 25 kg dogtooth tuna. As we headed over the contour lines towards the NE Cay, little of interest was hooked. It was a quiet day in paradise and the fish were on holiday. Fish of the day was clearly TJ’s doggie. Over the second night we continued east towards our destination of Frederick Reef.
Very early next morning the occupants of the front cabins were rudely awakened by the rattle of the anchor chain, but the rest of us awoke some hours later to see the lagoon at the southern end of Frederick Reef and in the distance the fabled Frederick Lighthouse – also known as the rocket ship. The wind was 15 kts from the E and after a short travel over breakfast Kanimbla was anchored west of the light. All dories went out with only a few going through the washing machine to troll east of the light. Dave caught a 28 kg yellowfin tuna, however it soon became apparent that the wahoo had departed for reefs to the south. On the western side of the reef we caught white lipper and green jobfish. Following lunch George hooked up to a 30.5 kg yellowfin with a pilchard off the back of Kanimbla and this was on what appeared to be a whiting outfit. On closer examination it was a 50 lb outfit in miniature form – a Saltiga Hiramasa 63S rod and a Shimano Stella 8000 reel with 24 kg braid. The fight was long and arduous with both sides tiring by its end. There was discussion whether George or the fin was most exhausted, however as George had not been gaffed, and the fin was bleeding it was consigned to the fish tub and George was allowed to recuperate. TJ then caught a 3.6 kg blue spot coral trout while various green jobfish were caught off Kanimbla. The night was spent near the light where we got numerous large jobbies, however the squid, while in residence, were very shy. Fish of the day was George’s fin
Wednesday 25 November saw a 15 kt SE wind and it was the day that Dave, after many trips, caught his first wahoo. It was only 7 kg, but after so many trips it earned him fish of the day. Rassie caught a lovely 9 kg jobbie, a number of fin were caught, and choppy seas with two dory sessions saw a number of exhausted seamen by 1700 hours.
Thursday saw reducing wind strength and a lot larger number of fin in the early session with numerous multiple hook-ups. Most dories unloaded their catches at about 9 am before going back to catch more. The back deck of Kanimbla was laden with lovely tuna. Those who remained on Kanimbla caught white lipper and jobbies. Gordon got fish of the day by almost beating George’s fish with a 29.9 kg fin.
Friday saw us heading to Calder Bank where only one wahoo was caught – a 14.7 kg fish by Paul. The wind was lighter however the fishing was not good as we got a few fin, and sharks tended to show up at inopportune times. Amongst the better sized fin was one of 30 kg which Gordon got by jigging. Later in the session Gordon was fighting a small fin which was consumed by a large shark, and this ended up providing one of the more epic struggles of the trip. With mediocre results we opted to return to Saumarez Reef. We had previously considered a trip to Wreck Reef however the weather forecast was not hopeful for that destination.
Saturday 28 November saw us at Zenobia Rock where Reg caught a 16 kg wahoo, Gordon a 10 kg jobbie, and one dory caught a 5 foot dorado – only to have it jump back out of the dory and swim away while it was being photographed. The weather was great as the ocean glassed out due to the donation of a Saltiga rod and reel to the weather gods – by a generous angler who should remain anonymous. Fish of the day was an excellent red emperor of 15 kg by Russel, with runners up being Josh and Daniel with a GT in excess of 20 kg. They had fought the fish for about an hour on fairly light gear and both taken turns with the rod.
Sunday saw us move to the SW Cay due to a return of the usual 15 kt wind. There were a few doggies to 15 kg caught off Kanimbla, and some jobbies. The afternoon was fairly quiet. Daniel got fish of the day with a 5.7 kg blue spot coral trout. We decided to leave for Swain Reefs for some better table fish and pulled the pick at 1 am.
Monday was spent at Hickson Reef where we fished shoal country. We got a good number of red throat emperor, parrot fish, and coral trout. Dave caught a 5.5 kg red emperor which became fish of the day.
Tuesday saw the wind at 15 kts from the NW with trout and lipper being the main catch. Todd got fish of the day with a lovely 2.8 kg red throat emperor. On a smooth sea we left the Swain Reefs at 1 pm and headed back to the mainland and the real world.
George was awarded the perpetual trophy for fish of the trip – his 30.5 kg yellowfin tuna. Fisherman of the trip was awarded to Gordon. , TJ caught the best dogtooth tuna of the trip at 25 kg. Gordon got the prize for the best green jobfish at 10 kg, Reg the best wahoo at 16 kg, and Russel the best ‘other fish species’ for his 15 kg red emperor. The Arnie Award for the greatest display of angling muscularity was awarded to Gordon for his battle with the shark at Calder Bank. Various other significant catches were made on the trip including a large number of ‘personal bests’.
We arrived at Gladstone Marina at 4 am, had breakfast divided the fish and left for home. We ended up with 57 packs each and a few whole fish. The trip had been good to us despite a lack of wahoo and billfish.
As usual the crew and captain were thanked for their unceasing efforts at making the trip most enjoyable, safe, and memorable. Kanimbla remains as the charter boat of choice amongst discerning fishermen.
Next year we plan to visit Wreck Reef and possibly Cato Island. That is, if the Pew Foundation don’t get their way and lock out all fishermen from 1 million square kilometres of the Coral Sea – read up about this and let the Federal Government know your views.
The charming fellows from Manly and Sydney once again joined us on their yearly visit – fishing the Swains reefs.
“Ring Ins” Kevin and Laurie and friends from Parkes; Mike, Pat and Friends and our old mate Adam, Wayne and Archie pulled together to make a charter at the last minute – Turned out a brilliant week! great weather, great company and great fish!!
1st timers to kanimbla under the great leadership of David had a brilliant week and we’re glad to have them return again next year.
Here’s Steve’s article from the charter as published in Bush N Beach fishinjg magazine:
The target species were red emperor, coral trout and sweet lip and there were plenty of them caught. The location was The Swain Reefs, a few hundred kilometres off Gladstone. It was a boys’ trip, with 17 guys in total. The mini bus road trip from Brisbane to Gladstone began just before 4am on the Saturday morning. We arrived in Gladstone about lunch time, before boarding the boat mid-afternoon. The vessel was the 25m Kanimbla. It had a crew of five. Dinner was served early, and we set off for The Swain Reefs about 5pm. It was a 16 hour boat trip to get to our destination. The weather conditions were favourable, so the skipper took the opportunity to travel a little farther than usual to try to put us in some good territory. In fact, it was great territory. Our first fishing session in the dories, was probably the best for the week.
The week-long trip comprised sessions fishing from the Mother ship, but most sessions were conducted in the six dories. So with two or three fishing in each dory, which were powered by 30hp Yamaha’s, we had the flexibility of fishing the shallow reefs or fishing the deep water adjacent to the reef shelves.
The fact that there was flexibility and we fished in different areas ensured a good variety of catch. Looking back on the week, the variety of fish species caught was one of the things I enjoyed the most. The largest fish caught was a 9kg cobia. John Torluccio actually brought the fish to the surface, but then lost it, and as it turned out, Jimmy Griffin had his bait going down at the same time and the cobia then took that, and finally, with John’s hooks & busted line still in the cobia’s mouth, the fish was landed. The cobia was filleted shortly after and some went straight to the chef who prepared some amazing sashimi.
There were a few good red emperor caught as well, with the largest weighing in at more than 8kg. It was caught by Carl Licastro. I had the good fortune of fishing with Carl in the dory for the week. Carl had done this trip 6 or 7 times previously and his experience was invaluable. I am sure that I would not have caught half the number of fish without Carl’s advice.
This trip was a first for everyone, except Carl, so there was other advice sought before the trip as well. The recommendation from others who had been before, to David our coordinator, was the Live Fibre rod, matched with the Shimano Bait Runner reel. The Live Fibre rods were great and when we were casting and catching big fish the rods stood up to the test. Using a Live Fibre rod, John Carmody had something monstrous on, most likely a big shark, which he was never going to land, but the rod stood up to the test. We’ll never know what was on the end of the line, but after the trip, John took his Shimano reel in for repair and found that it had actually melted the drag system. He had fun while it lasted though! The only alteration I would make to my gear would be to add a couple of overhead rods & reel combos to complement the couple of spinning rod & reels I took. The overheads have the added advantage of slowly lowering the bait and having the constant feel of the line on your fingertip. By using all Wilson, SureCatch, Mustad and Shimano gear, we knew we were using quality rods, reel, tackle and line. And at the end of the day, you look back on a trip like this and see the amount of fish caught, and the quality gear certainly does play a crucial role.
I had a couple of lures in my tackle box and when we were cruising around the reef system looking for a suitable area to fish, it provided the opportunity to troll these lures. Using the Halco Laser Pro 160, I picked up a Mac Tuna and Grey (Shark) Mackerel which was returned to the water. It didn’t take long for these shallow diving lures to be snapped up. I also caught fish on the SureCatch Crystal Ball Squid Jig and speaking of squid, some were caught on the squid jigs at the back of the boat. SureCatch have the SureSquid which has a luminous effect in the water. One night for dinner we started with calamari, followed by crayfish which had just been speared by Steve the chef and Neil who was in the fishing party, followed by coral trout which we had just caught and washed down with a Sauvignon Blanc from Liquor Legends, it was an amazing meal. In fact, it was a meal that started an amazing party…it was a long, fun night with plenty of singing and even a few moon walks thrown in!
The majority of fishing was done with bait. Pilchards, squid and flesh bait were used. We used a double gang of Mustad size 6/0 hooks on 40lb SureCatch Mono, with a 50lb or 80lb leader (the 50lb was much easier to tie) when fishing the reef areas and 50lb SureCatch braid when fishing the deeper water. Both rigs had the size 3, 70lb Crane Coastlock swivels. At the end of the day, I actually preferred using the braid over the mono, even though I got busted off on the coral a couple of times. I found I had a much better feel for the fish and I resorted to virtually no drag. It was a matter of keeping the fish away from the rough coral edges. The key element to the bait fishing was to fish as light as possible and use only enough lead to get to the bottom. This meant that mainly a three-ball to six-ball was being used. One advantage of fishing light was big fish would take the bait on the slow descend and there seemed to be less snags whilst drifting.
One morning I woke up early and cast a pilly at the back of the boat and picked up a good sized Spanish mackerel. I also caught red emperor, giant trevally, parrot fish, sweet lip and a couple of big Chinamen, which fought incredibly hard from deep water to the surface. As much as I enjoyed catching a variety of species, coral trout was the main target species for the group, and we caught them in deep water, around 25 -30m, and we caught them in a metre of water, as we coaxed them out from the bombies. A bombie is basically a patch of reef. Casting an unweighted pilchard close to the bombie saw coral trout come out from the reef protection to feed. It was a matter of having no drag and getting them away from the coral as quickly as possible. In the clear, crystal blue water, you could see your unweighted bait slow drifting down and then the fish would come out and hit it hard. It was great fun pulling in fish employing this technique. The different colour patterns of the trout were amazing. The ones pulled from the deep were a deep orange, but the ones pulled from the shallows were the light shade of blue/grey, which resembled the water colour. The largest coral trout of the trip was actually taken by a shark on the way up. Damo was the unlucky angler and at the start of the fight, his drag was a bit loose and the fish had plenty of run. In the end, Damo only pulled up the head, but the size of it indicated that it would have been a good 5kg trout. But the ones that get away are the ones that get you back!
Everyone on the trip was great company and there was plenty of fun had. There was also plenty of planning involved in this trip. A special mention must be made of David Cotelli from CJ’s Pasta in Fortitude Valley for coordinating the trip. He did an amazing job and everyone greatly appreciated his efforts. We also had a few sponsors on board too. A huge thank you to Liquor Legends, Corona, Pure Blonde, XXXX Gold, Bundaberg Rum and Coca-Cola. Also special thanks to L. Wilson & Co. and Shimano for the quality gear which was used on the trip.
Our regular Parkes crew lead by Mike had a quiet week but lots of great company and some good catches.
Powered by WordPress
