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View Full Version : Cairns - Red Emperor fishin at its best



Pazz01
06-04-2009, 10:25 AM
Hi All

After planning to head out overnight all of last week, Saturday finally came around. After hitting the town on Friday night I was a little worse for wear in the morning, but checking the BOM reading at Green Island at 10am, all was forgotten when light winds and good forecasts where evident. After waiting for the old fella to finish work he called to advise that the wind had picked up in town from the SE, and a few discussion, a final decision was made to go for it, so Wayne, my brother Kent and the old man hit the road and we had the boat in the water at Yorkey’s at 1pm. A good steady SE was evident, but we headed out to a few marks for Reds and Big Mouth around the Tongue reef where the bro had caught 20 odd a few months back. The sounder had good readings in 40 metres. After having a few drifts and not getting a bite, the wind seemed to have eased a little, we decided to head north, up to a mark the old man found about 15 years ago.

After following the compass to destination unknown, the sounder came up from 57m to 50m with fish on the bottom. After having a few attempts to anchor up, we finally hooked up. A good steady 4 – 6 knots of current was there and the wind was about twice that. A bit of a berley was dropped and down we went.

At 5.30pm, first lines went down with two big droppers required to hold the bottom. First 3 fished boated where 3 Red Emperor, 2 around the 10 - 12 pound and Kent christened his new Torium with a 20 pounder (approx). What happened over the next 3 hours was absolute madness. One after the other Red Emperor were boated, all around the same good size (approx 10lb). Mixed in with the Reds where the occasional Big Mouth, big bludger trevally, Reef Red bream (or Reef Jacks), Spangled Emperor and rosy jobfish.

During the madness, Kent was killing us with his new reel, until he hooked up on another good fish. He got about 10 metres of line up and whack, something big out of the depths smashed it and slowly headed back down to the bottom and didn’t move. After trying to move the beast from the bottom of the ocean, it was decided to break the line. It was concluded that a big cod must have grabbed the fish. From this he then lost a few more rigs and sinkers to what we expect where barracuda or mackerel that have been caught here before.

Through out the night the wind was slowly picking up (15-17 knots per BOM), but we didn’t really notice with all the excitement going on. At 8.30pm a quick count of the Reds on board and the bag limited was reached, it was decided to call it quits and head for home. It took 3 hours to get back to yorkey’s bashing back into the seas at a steady 18 knots all the way.

The count in the next morning was 38 fish, with 20 Red Emporer, 6 Big Mouth, 5 Reef Red Bream and a couple of spangles and a rosy jobfish.

All in all, it was a great trip and a very memorable one, by the end Wayne, Dad, Kent and myself all caught some good fish each.

Attached is a couple of the pics from the next day, too much was happening during the night to even think about photos.

Pazz

bdaearth
06-04-2009, 11:01 AM
Mate we cant even get on the water down here in brisbane and you post a report like that !!! Your killing me! :) great fishing there must have been a blast.

Benno1
06-04-2009, 11:19 AM
great haul boys!!!...well done!!!...are the headless ones the LM Nannies and the RJ's???...what sort of bait were you guys using???...just out of curiosity what is Kents new reel???...what did he have it paired with???...i bet that the 3 hr trip home everyone smiled the whole way :D
thanks for the report and piccies :D

Mrs Benno1
Sunny

Pazz01
06-04-2009, 11:31 AM
Thanks Sunny, yeah all the headless ones are the LM and the reef Jacks. We ran out of room in the esky to the spangles etc were in the other food esky.

We started out with squid, and we cut up a one of the trevally and we also caught a medium sized red bass that we also cut up. Used a bit of squid and flesh bait each time.

Kent's new reel is a Tyrnos 12 (i think) with 80lb braid with a 37kg rod (not sure of brand).

It was smiles at the start, but cleaning fish on the way home in rough weather is not cool, was wrecked by the end of it.

Pazz

levinge
06-04-2009, 12:32 PM
Top effort guys

chop duster
06-04-2009, 12:48 PM
holy crap pazz!
wouldn't even think about keeping that many fish in one hit, too much filleting! hahaha
One thing I was suprised about on the weekend, was the lack of sharks, doesn't sound like you had too mauch trouble either huh?

disorderly
06-04-2009, 01:00 PM
Must have been a totally amazing session pazz....:o

What a fantastic haul...

Chopduster no sharks up there because they were all down here under my boat ...:(

Scott

Wahoo
06-04-2009, 03:33 PM
great night fishing Pazz, well done, were they hitting hard? i just found out why they did not jump on our baits Thursday, no current, looks like you had a few hrs of filleting, good effort mate


Daz

jarhead
06-04-2009, 03:40 PM
Top stuff, gotta love trips like that. Enough fillets there to keep you happy for awhile.

Cheers Wal

skipalong
06-04-2009, 05:15 PM
top fish mate, with a haul like that yo would be keen to do it again, not a moment to wait for the bite is awesome

cheers justin

jtpython
06-04-2009, 06:41 PM
Great colour you guys amazing effort ................. You lucky Buggars
JT

TimiBoy
07-04-2009, 05:44 AM
Good on you! Dreaming of a session like that.

Unfortunately down here God seems to be siding with the Greenies right now. Keeping us OFF the water in droves. Maybe that Feb/March closure was a good idea after all???:-X:-X:-X

Cheers,

Tim

backlash08
07-04-2009, 06:17 AM
quality fish, thanks for the report and as mentioned previously we would love some fishable weather down here in the south east
cheers - Craig

revs57
07-04-2009, 06:26 AM
Thanks for a great report Pazz, nothing like those Red fish! Certainly makes the 3 hr run home easier even though it was though rough. Sounds like you fellas in the north have really hit a purple patch at the moment, lots of fish around and on the chew. They are the sessions we all dream of.

Cheers

Rhys

Pazz01
07-04-2009, 09:28 AM
Thanks guys, it was a really good trip.

The old man reckons sharks have never been a problem there, we even had a blood trail out the back after cutting the throat of a trevally. When you see fish like that around, they've got plenty to feed on.

The reds were really on the chew at the start, but the big mouth and spangles etc really finicky, they took some catching.

There is plenty of fish in the freezer now, and after 3 hours of filleting, skinning and boning there should be. Won't have to do a trip like that for a few months. If I do any trips it will only be for a feed of trout.

Hope you guys down south don't think this happens every trip and decided to move up here ;) . We can go for months without getting out. This is the first break we've had for a while. The gods will turn around and give you good weather, winter is coming up here and we can go without a calm stint for 3 months.

Thanks again guys.

Pazz

WalFish
07-04-2009, 01:57 PM
Great session and top report Pazz. Those fillets will taste extra great considering the wait for some good weather up here.

WalFish