Nomad Marion Reef "08"

[ON-THE-CHEW]

THE WAIT THEN, IT WAS TIME
Almost 18 months ago Duncan from Fish Head hit a few of my mates up about going on a NOMAD sportsfishing trip to Marion Reef in May 08. We decided it would be an awesome thing to do (hopefully more than once) and signed up. The next eighteen months was talking up the trip to anyone who would stand still for long enough and spending hours in Duncans shop deciding over what tackle we would need what would be strong enough and how much we would need.

Duncan managed to organise a group of seven out of the total of 12 fishermen allowed per week Duncan, Lanks, Mark, Matt, Cougar, Brock and Myself. Finally two weeks out it was time to start getting ready, we had organised to get some of our tackle sent up earlier as there is a 20kg luggage limit on the sea plane per person. With 18 months of getting ready this was never going to be a chance. I sent up 20 kgs before hand and still ended up taking 25kg on the sea plane (I know that is a lot of tackle).

We had been told previously that depending on what was biting one week you could loose 30 poppers or on another week you could loose 30 jigs. My theory was if I had 30 poppers, 30 jigs, stickbaits and soft plastics I should have it covered.

Finally it was time May 10 flew up to Hamilton Island for one night (with very little sleep) and then sunday morning took the 1.5 hour 300klm sea plane flight out too Marion Reef.

Below are a few photos of the sea plane, which felt very small with seven guys, a pilot and a shit load of tackle and rod tubes plus a few ariel shots of the reef.

Andrew

[ON-THE-CHEW]

IT WAS TIME
Finally we where there, it looked awesome. A reef that just appeared out of the ocean in the middle of nowhere. It was supprising actually how big the reef actually was.

Once we where on the boat no time was waisted, we where the first plane of two so we had a head start on the other lot of guys. Straight up stairs and we started getting all of our gear ready and there was a lot of gear.

We didn't have the best weather for the first few days but we made the most of it. We had probably a day of 20-30knots, 2 or 3 days of 15-20 knots a couple of days of 10-15knots and of as usual the last half day was about 5 knots.

Below a few photos of our surroundings (on the better days)

Andrew

[ON-THE-CHEW]

Below a few more photos of our surroundings plus a few of the local wildlife. There was plenty of bird life around, the odd large sting ray and heaps and heaps of sharks.

We have no problem with sharks in the bay compared to there, you could put money no matter where you went fishing on the inside of the reef with in a minute or two of stopping the boat you would have five or six little grey men swimming around the boat.

Now the real challenge was getting your fish up through this invisible or sometimes not so invisible force field to the boat before it would magically dissappear. Sometimes even as the fish was getting pulled out of the water. Sometimes your fish would amazingly become about four times bigger and dissappear with your lures.

[ON-THE-CHEW]

The Odyssey was an 80 foot cat, this is the place we called home for the week and was where we ended up every night to relax for the night. There was also the new centre console Contender which we got to test out as well as the tri hull dorries.

Every day we where assigned a different guide and a different boat, which worked out very well, as every day you learnt something new or a different trick of the trade depending on who you had.

It was a tough week for the guides, they said it was one of the quietest weeks they had ever had, there was a lot of effort put in to get the fish to bite. Some of the quides actually got a bit stressed out about the lack of fish we where catching, but in their defence they tried every location, every method immaginable to try and get them going. You cant make fish bite if they are not intersted.

One thing to look forward to every night was Rob's (the chef) three course dinners every night. His meals where excellent every night and amazed some of the variety of meals that we got considering our location. I was not looking forward to leaving after getting spoiled like this for a week.

[Flex]

Geez thats awesome. Hope your arms haven't fallen off:) What sort of fish did you mainly catch? I know sometimes the GT's dont play ball out there, and on rare occasions even the best fishing places in world shut down for a few days:(



Did you lose much of your tackle?:)

[Frank OO]

Come On guys where are the Photos of the fish!!!

This trip is a dream come true... A $12,000 dream!!! There must be fish...

Frank OO

[ON-THE-CHEW]

TIME FOR THE FISH
As mentioned earlier on some days fish where few and far between so we got pretty excited when we did get something decent.

Over the week best fish per species, 50-60kg sail fish, 12kg red bass, 20kg Dogtooth tuna, 30kg Giant trevally, 12kg coral trout, 10-12kg yellowfin tuna, 3-4kg green job fish, 4-5kg blue fin trevally, 3-4kg spangled emperor plus other cod and reef species.

I will try and group photos of species where possable.

Below are a couple of sail fish that where caught.
The 2nd and 3rd fish are of Ausfish member Lanks first ever sail fish. Need to say he was bragging a bit that night.

Andrew

[ON-THE-CHEW]

Next up are the Red Bass
This was the first red bass I had ever caught and it was 12kg. Best of all it was caught on a soft plastic with an Egrell s10H and a certate 4000. The next one I caught was on a nomad stick bait. Plus a few more red bass caught during the week.

Andrew

[Legend82]

trip of a lifetime!, did you think it was worth the $, am thinking of doing the nomad trip too next year, any pics of the fish?

[ON-THE-CHEW]

Next up the Dogtooth Tuna.
Another first for me, a 20kg doggie on a nomad "dogtooth" stickbait trolled behind the contender. Plus a few more doggies I think where all on the troll they where not too interested in jigs for some reason.

By the way doggie tastes awesome and i really hate tuna, this just shows how good a cook Rob was.

[ON-THE-CHEW]

Next up GT's

This was a target fish for a lot of us, I had three days in a row of non stop casting for not one. Had a few follows and other fish through out the day but none of the Gt's. On the last day I even got to the point my shoulder and elbow felt like there was something ripping out. I know every one is going to tell me to harden up but when you do so many casts for little return you really start to feel it. But amazingly every time you had a follow or got a fish all the pain would go away.

Pictures below, the biggest one was caught on the troll, stick baits where much more successfull than poppers. There where a few others caught on other cameras but where unable to be put on disk with the rest.

[ON-THE-CHEW]

Speical Mention "OJ" The GT
OJ was a black Gt that was seen every day not far from the Odessy and every day he would follow lures but never actually hit one. He would swim under and around the boat but never took anything. He got the nick name after OJ Simpson, every day he would drive one of us crazy until the last day. Duncan and Carl lured him up with a popper and found his weakness was an unweighted soft plastic. OJ was a fugitive no more.

[ON-THE-CHEW]

CORAL TROUT
Coral trout had a liking for soft plastics jigged around the bombies, also took a particular liking of stick baits, most of the time actually keeping them.

[ON-THE-CHEW]

Mixed bag
There was also a variety of other fish caught on the trip. My first ever green job fish. Lanks also got this awesome blue fin trevally the fins are such a bright blue colour.

Also night fishing of the back of the odyssey was a lot of fun using 2-5kg spin gear catching 3-4kg spangled emperors or red bass or the usual sharkies that where lurking around. The trick was to once again get them in before you got reefed or sharked. Lots of fun on light gear having a couple of drinks.

Andrew

[ON-THE-CHEW]

More varieties

[ON-THE-CHEW]

Finally the trip was over, it was a good week, not as many fish as I had expected but still had a great week away. If this is the worst trip anyone could have I would still highly recomend it. Just being out in a place not to many people in the world will ever see, doing something you and everyone else there really love doing made the week very enjoyable.

In the end I only lost a couple of jig heads and one stick bait, which is now my new arguement with my wife that I have to go on another trip to use it all up. $5000 for not a lot of fish is a way some people may see it but I would pay it again just for the experience.

All of the guys on Nomad did a first class job and did everything possible to get the fish we where after but after all we enjoy a sport called "fishing" not necessarily called "catching".

Andrew

[-spiro-]

Andrew thats a awesome report! Top pic's and some great fish.
Just one question-do you get bundy rum on there to was your dinner down or do you have to supply your own? This could be the decision maker

[Liberty]

Brilliant report. The fact the fish can be testy just makes the pursuit all that more worthwhile.

I have definitely got to do this trip!

Thanks for the report.

Nigel

[whatscracken]

Awesome pics and a great report On the Chew.

[revs57]

Excellent account OTC,

Certainly mapped out a great week, to pull of a trip like that certainly all comes down to the planning.

thanks for your report

Cheers

rhys

[ON-THE-CHEW]

Spiro,
They had beer on tap as part of the package I think it was XXXX, not possative not a big beer fan. But I know every time I had finished my scotch Tara (the hostess) had already got the next one ready.

Andrew

[Outsider1]

Great report and pics Andrew. Much appreciated that you put in the time and effort to properly chronicle the trip. We've been waiting for your return. Like many, have long dreamed of a trip with the Nomad crew.

Cheers

Dave

[Tangles]

great report, many thanks and great photos

mike

[Pistol_P]

Great report On-The-Chew....8-)

I heard this year the fishing was surprisingly slow compared to most years...:-/

The GT action was down consideraby according to Brandon.
Did you meet Brandon...?

Still some VERY nice fish caught though.

Great stuff.

Pete

[business class]

awesome report, awesome fish and what an awesome place.

Cheers
Matty

[gogetter]

looks great, what was the total cost as my understanding is that you pay for all lost takle including line?? would have to come in around 8 to 10k ??

a few mates and i were looking at doing it but thought it we would be better off hiring a boat and heading out to the reef off the whitsundays towing our smaller boats behind.

whats your thoughts?

[Frank OO]

Thanks Andrew,

I just knew there had to be some great fish caught. I have been dreaming about that trip for years but can not justify the dollars at the moment. I live the dream by watching all the videos. I know it is not the same but that's all I can afford at the moment.

Thanks again

Frank OO

[Reel Nauti]

Absolutely fantastic report and great pics. Thanks for sharing this incredible experience!

Dave

[black_sheep]

AWESOME!!!

I'm mortgaging the house!!!!!!!!!!!!

[scoocer101]

Awesome trip, great fish and read report, well done!!

[bdowdy]

awesome stuff been watching afew dvds with nomad charters, huge fish, looks like atrip of alifetime ,congrats,thanks for the great report.cheers bdowdy..brett

[jackextracter]

Nice report mate its deffently on my to do list one day, how awesome are the red bass hey, anyway thanks for sharing your pics.cheers

[pelican]

well done nice pics
CHEERS Craig

[ffejsmada]

It's brilliant isn't it???

Same species as we got at Wreck and Cato, but I notice there was no Wahoo???

Was there any Wahoo caught????

By the way, Dogtooth is great on the tooth, did you know it's not actually a Tuna?
They're from the Bonito family.

Great photos mate, glad you had a ball!

Jeff.;)

[The BeaR]

Hi Andrew...

Awesome fish, sensational read and a dream that looks like it was well worth the money by the faces in the last photo.

Eric&Deb...

[Silent]

Gave you 5 star for awesome report & pic's....;)

[NAGG]

Spiro,
They had beer on tap as part of the package I think it was XXXX, not possative not a big beer fan. But I know every time I had finished my scotch Tara (the hostess) had already got the next one ready.

Andrew

Well now , thats gotta be added to my must do trips ::) ;)

Great stuff OTC

Nagg

[BR65]

top shelf, Im saveing the coin up now, bugger the cost

[ON-THE-CHEW]

Thanks guys for all of your replies.

Pistol P,
Saw brandon up there when we changed over but didn't really get a chance to say G'day. Heard they had an even more quiet week than us but someone did get a 50kg GT.

Go gottor
There was a few guys that didn't take up any gear at all. Trip was $5000 plus I think the most a guy spent was $1000 on board but that included a $570 pair of sunnies. I think I might have lost $100 of gear all week.

Frankoo
You catch more fish on your trips than we did up there. Just start charging people for trips on your boat and you would have the money in no time. Im sure you wouldn't have a problem finding someone to go.

Jackextractor
The red bass are awesome, and to catch him on the Egrell I was stoked.

ffejsmada
We lost a few wahoo but none landed, we had a an occassion where they hit my lure and bit my mates clean off but ten minutes later we found the lure floating on the surface. Its a pretty good thing to see when they are $80 a pop.

The Bear
You can add a 12kg RedBass to the list of of fish the S10H has conquered. The guides where really impressed how it handled.

Andrew

[Horse]

Great report Andrew. Its one of the best I have read and it seems to have been well worth the effort being able to experience an area most of us will only dream about

Cheers

Neil

[Mtx]

absolutely fantastic.
There is still a puddle of drool under my chair...

[Fixation]

Hi Andrew,

Excellent report mate. Loved the read and the pics too. They are massive trout. You guys must have broken your backs pulling those out of the reef?

Thanks for sharing your adventure with all of us.

Regards,
Craig.

[lumox]

top work andy couldnt have done it better myself, was a great time and enjoyed yours and all the othert guys company. how have you gone going back to work and cooking your own dinner? did you do any good when you got back? gotta catch up.

[bluefin59]

Great read mate sounds like an outstanding trip ,if i caught half of what you got i would be happy . Maybe the wife will have to buy me one of those trips for my 50th birthday ...matt

[sangan]

Great report and pics mate. Looks like it's going down on the To-Do List.

[ON-THE-CHEW]

Matt,
Haven't had a chance to have a fish since we have been back, starting to get withdrawel symptoms already. Duncan has already hit me up for another trip which Id love to do but the finances are saying other wise at the moment but it deffinately wont be my last.

Andrew