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View Full Version : Brawling In The Bommies - Fishing The Swains



BR65
18-08-2008, 06:54 PM
A quick report on my first trip to the Swains last week, 6 days of fishing some unique country based from the mother ship Eastern Voyager, sister ship to the Tura.
My mate and I spent the majority of the week fishing the gin clear shallow lagoons, hanging the 4 meter dorrie off a bommie and laying back to fish the base of another, a handfull of berley, an un-weighted bait on screwed down 30lb spin gear, 55lb Schneider leader and a 7766 7/0 were the weapons of choice, the street thugs we tangled with were mainly 2 to 3 kg red throat swetlip, trout and parrot, with the odd oversize mowie, reef shark, cod and various un-seen unstoppables. One of the un-stoppables that was stopped was a 23lb blue spot trout, taken out of 4 meters of water on a 6' alvey and 20lb fireline, yes Johnno still has all his fingers, that fish was successfully released as per DPI slot limits.
This really is awesome fishing, red lineing the gear in an effort to stop the fish gaining even half a meter of line, cause if you didnt turn their heads real quick in the shallows you were gooooone, all done in 6 meters of the clearest azure water you have ever seen, surrounded by huge coral bommies, waves crashing on the reef edge on the horizon, mind blowing stuff. A hot bite up there makes a good day down here pale in comparison. When we tired with the bait fishing, a quick swap to 7" gulps kept us keen to see how many species we could rack up on SP, I think we reached the even 10.
At night we would fish off the duckboard for big spangled emporer, more red throats, some un-stoppable cod, sharks, big big big squid and the odd handy size spanish mackeral, sipping bundys, talking B.S and generally fishing our selves into the ground.
We finished the trip on the last morning session fishing out of the dorrie, working an isolated bommie in 20 meters of water, drift fishing down its ledge, getting smashed by big red throat, trout, parrot, cod, chinamen and being bricked by some absolute un-stoppables on 40lb gear with 70lb leaders, a full fish box that session was a great hurah to this amazeing place.
Those who stayed on the mothership nailed plenty of nice trout and lippers, but no keeper reds, but they comforted themselves with the thought of the keg beer on tap only a short stretch of the arm away, talk about doin it tuff.
The food was great, hot brekky every morning, cold meats, seafood, burger or salads for lunch, and steak, fish, roasts for tea, plenty of cold beer, hard working deckies, sturdy dorries with 30 suzukis and navman sounders.
When am I going back??
Cant bloody wait.
cheers
brian

pics attatched arent the best, I was to busy fishing, sorry bout that, but can you blame me;D

BR65
18-08-2008, 07:00 PM
a couple more

big_steve001
18-08-2008, 07:06 PM
well done brian sounds like and unbelievable trip. its looks like you got some good weather to and plenty of fish to go with it congrats.cheers steve

whatscracken
18-08-2008, 07:14 PM
Looks like you had an unreal trip Brian and hows the bend in that blokes rod!

How big did that Spanyid go? Looks like an absolute horse

TonyM
18-08-2008, 07:20 PM
Great report Brian, and it's fantastic to hear you had such a good trip!

Looks like the Eastern Voyager is a sweet setup - will have to look them up

Cheers
Tony

Fishing_Freddy
18-08-2008, 07:20 PM
Great looking weather, it looks perfect in the pics. The fish look quite impresive as well. Good report, I'm looking forward to going back next year.
Ken :beer:

NAGG
18-08-2008, 07:34 PM
Hey Brian ...... I was looking forward to seeing how you went & by the looks of it ...... you had a good time! some nice fish there!

Good stuff!

Chris

OldManRiver
18-08-2008, 07:36 PM
Great report mate, I'm going in 3 weeks on the Australiana.First time for me.I've been sweating on a report from someone and yours is just what i wanted to hear. I'm going loaded for bear with jigs,poppers,sp,lures and bait. The restless nights will go into overdrive now.

Cheers Phil

skipalong
18-08-2008, 08:02 PM
awesome mate looks like a great trip

ronnien
18-08-2008, 08:16 PM
if i could go to a place like that i would call it heaven!!!!!!!

ron.

BR65
18-08-2008, 09:17 PM
cracken, that mackie went 55lb on the deckies rusted out scales, I thought it was a bit bigger, but still a great fish, caught on a live Iodine Bream out the back of the mothership under a baloon, we lost one at the duckboard a couple of nites earlier that would have eaten that one for brekky, it was a huge spaniard, almost made me put down my rum for a minute!!

Tony, check em out, the group I went with have been useing Tura charters for a while now, first time on this boat ad they were very happy over all.

Old man river, sent you a PM with my email if you want any "heads ups" on gear and stuff mate, only to happy to help.

Chris, not the same as Mondy, but jeez, not a bad alternative if you get the chance mate.

cheers
brian

Benno1
18-08-2008, 10:31 PM
it just dont get no better than that... (well cept if I caught the spanish macky :P )
thanks for the report and fantastic pics Brian...good to see the weather gods made it a pearler of a trip :D

(Mrs Benno1)

Angla
18-08-2008, 10:47 PM
Thanks for the great read and better pics. Gotta love the bend on that rod. The setup onboard looks better than home. What were the sleeping conditions like.

Chris

BR65
19-08-2008, 06:44 AM
Chris,
two berth cabins, bunk style, 1 x toilet/shower + 1 x shower below, 2 x toilet/showers up top. Crew had their own seperate accomadation/bathroom.

cheers
brian

backlash08
19-08-2008, 07:15 AM
Brian, looks like a great trip, good weather and fishing, dory fishing the swains sure is exciting!
thanks for the report - Craig

FISHAWN
19-08-2008, 12:44 PM
Looks unreal, thanks for the report. What was th ename of the charter and how much would something like that cost?

Thanks

SgBFish
19-08-2008, 03:13 PM
Brian.
I can tell by the tone that you hard a cracking trip.;D ;D ;D

It’s just the most amazing place and it sounds like you had a good boat and crew which makes all the difference out there. We had a spiro on our trip out there…he earned his trout fillets!! :o

Now that you have flown first class coming back to Wide Cal will be like flying economy.

I will be in touch for my next lesson.;) This weekend looks out. :(

Scott

BR65
19-08-2008, 03:28 PM
Hey Scott, gods country mate, so hard to describe, the best I could come up with was "redlineing your gear". Ive fished the reef before, includeing out of 1770 in my own tub a few times, but that dorrie fishing in the shallows just blows it away.
Mind you, nothing wrong with getting smashed by a big snap on the drop back in 60 meters of water at the local either, yeeha.
Yeah, looks a tad blowy this weekend, Im off to Mondy to flush the seawater out of my ears tomorrow for a few days, see if I can find a big lazy winter barra, should be interesting.
catch up with ya

cheers
brian

indy
19-08-2008, 05:34 PM
Great report mate nice fish and what a boat beer on tap, i no a few of my mates wouldn't have left the mother ship

cheers pete...

jtpython
19-08-2008, 07:01 PM
Mate that swains is an amazing area and you had a ball awesom stuff
Quality after quality fish Good onya
JT

Obi _ Wan
19-08-2008, 08:11 PM
G'Day Brian, that's a beaut report mate.

Looks like you had very good trip plus all the comforts of home, well almost.

Some bloody good fish too, you have made me envious.

Well done mate.

Cheers,
John.

Horse
19-08-2008, 09:07 PM
That is certainly magic country. A trip of a lifetime for most of us. You certainly painted a great picture of the bombie bashing

scoota
19-08-2008, 09:55 PM
You are absolutely right Brian, it is the best fun on water trying to stop the sometimes unstopables, Dory fishing on the Swains.

Have been going for many years and got to admit I am now a 80lb hand line fisherman in the dories or locked up drag on the 50lb stand up gear and still loose but love it;D .

Scoota...