Townsville Reef

[scorpionNQ]

Hi Guy's

What near perfect weather this weekend has been. Have been waiting many months now to take the big longboat for a run to Centerpede reef (91kms from the ramp). Arrived at 4.30am Saturday morning to secure a park at our undersized facility to find only 6 parks left. Launched and headed out to our mark in perfect glass sea's. Arrived about 7am with only one other boat on site. Water was very clear, with no swell and no wind, was a hot day. Drifted and fished around many bommies for half a dozen trout and a few red throats. Plenty of live bait around, but no surface action to be seen all day. Threw poppers-nothing, trolled - zilch. Night anchored on a mark near the reef in about 40m. Caught plenty of small stuff and a few more red throats. Cooked a few steaks, had a few beers and called it a night. Up at 5am, boiling a brew and discussing our options for the day. Decided to fish here where we were for an hour, have some brecky and start our moves. Well, we started to get some trout, then some more trout and red throats, and before we knew it it was 9am. As the hot bite slowed, we decided to have a feed, and as I had a big livey out swimming the last few hours with not a touch, decided to drop it 6ft off the bottom hoping for a nice fat cod. It was only down about ten minutes when this horse of a trout decided to woof it. Did it give me some curry. Anyway we pulled it into the boat for a photo and quickly released it (after piecing it's air bladder) and watched it swim strongly back into the depths. No weight, but was 120cm. :D One of the biggest I have seen and a PB for me. We continued to fish for trout and by about midday we had reached our bag limit.
Cleaned up and headed home in still great conditions. The whole weekend was a pearler. Here is a pic of the horse......I mean trout.
Cheers
Lee;)

[PBass]

That is a bloody horse Trout mate well done!! Cheers PBass

[WestOzDesertFisher]

Freakin' horse allright! Congrats mate. What would it have weighed you reckon?

[Gazza.Boyne]

Lee,

That is a monster trout. Good to see it go back to grow some more

Cheers Gazza

[geeb]

Monster fish - congrats !!.....Geeb

[vertico]

yerh i would have probably release it as well mate
very nice catch
sean

[Angla]

I didn't even know they grew to that size. Excellent to see you released it to take the more normal sized ones. It's good carma I reckon and hope that helped towards the great catch for the trip.

I would like to think I would have done exactly the same. Now you have a photo of the big one that you released which should make a good story for the kids and their kids..........

Cheers
Chris

[ronnien]

sounds like a very good trip indeed!
& i bet he gave you some curry.

ron.

[jtpython]

Thats is a great PB trout
Top Notch effort mate
JT

[whatscracken]

Awesome mate, well done

[Alchemy]

G'day Lee,

That is a great fish. What tackle were you using? Also any pics of the other trout?

Dave.

[Dr_Dan]

sore after that one?

[twotins]

OMG WOW What a horse congrats good on you for the release I have heard at that size there is a possability of sigatera. Cheers Shawno.

[tfish]

woah!!! thats an animal! congrats on the pb and release. greeeeeat fish. cheers trav

[goggles]

mate hell of a good fish, well done on releasing it. Wayno

[pilchardjones]

thanks for the report lee - top work.
there was a lot of good fish caught over the weekend (none as good as that horse that i heard though)
steve

[ozbee]

well done i reckon that one will be a pb for a long long time. great to see it released , not worth the risk that size . gee its a beauty.

[Fishing_Freddy]

What a great specimen, I bet it gave the arms a good stretching.
Ken :beer:

[scorpionNQ]

Thank you all for your comments;)

Westoz - we estimated it to be about 20-22kg. Ok, change that, after looking at some pics by Wahoo (in trout photo section) , it may only have been about 16/18kgs. Only had lip scales and didn't want to risk injuring this fish.

Dave - as you requested, a few more pics. I have never been good on the camera, however I will endeavour in future to take a few more. I was hoping no one was going to ask about the tackle, as it was a dirty old hand line with a runnung sinker, 9/0 O'shannty hook and a good size live bait. Those bait jigs are a great thing. Mate you should have gone out, I was nearly going to PM you to see if you wanted to join us. Postcard weather. We are doing a full on reno to our queenslander (4 years now) work EVERY weekend on this damn house, and this year I said when the weather drops, stop what I am doing and go out for a fish. Over Christmas was having many evening drinks with the wife, and in a moment of weakness, I said to her if I don't use the boat much this year, I may as well sell it and shout her a new kitchen. Being self employed, renovating and a lot of crap weather, she thinks it is looking good. My moto now is try and go once a month. We shall see.

Steve - with the amount of boats out on the water this week end, there should be plenty of repots. I haven't seen too many yet.

Ozbee - Yes I don't think I will ever catch a trout as big as that again, but I have a photo which will last a lifetime. Mate I should fish where you go. Reds are by far my favorite fish, and having just seen your report, very jealous. I have never caught or targeted trout before, so I am extremely happy with my effort. Next month I will be chasing reds.

Cheers
Lee

[nickstock]

Not a bad start to targeting Trout Lee!!!!!!!!!!!!
Somehow I dont think that you will top that fish for many many years to come.

In regards to the tackle, getting 20 odd kilo of Trout turned off the bottom is a mean task even on a hand line

Thanks for the report mate,

Nick

[Alchemy]

Thanks for the extra pics and tackle tips Lee. I haven't used a hand line yet, but suspect you would have been better off with that than rod n reel on that monster trout. What ever you do don't sell the boat, rather stick to your plan to use it once per month or when weather allows.

Regards,
Dave.

[ozbee]

scorpin trail along the edge of the shipping channel if you get a few mackerel so be it but more importantly mark any bottom patches that have fern rise on the sounder from there its only a matter of time you will have a few reds each trip . if the weather fine maybe a group outing from down here sometime would be the go.

[levinge]

I'll be in that, sounds like a plan there Ozbee.

Shipping channel, you talking about the shipping lanes out wide???

[scorpionNQ]

Sounds good Ozbee. I am sure some of the Townsville boys would be keen to fish your stompin ground. As Brett said, the shipping lanes would be what you would be talking about. ;) Possibly sometime in June/July.

Cheers
Lee

[Spot82]

Mate that is a horse trout one of the biggest i have seen, I did see one caught the week before fraser fishing comp ten or more years ago that went 55pound, but that is truely a fish of a lifetime and very well done to land a trout that size!! Good on you!

Thanks for the report

Anthony

[Fishin_Dan]

Cracker of a fish mate! Well done!

[Ripples]

Hi to all in N/QLD

Its good to see some great weather conditions up your end of the state,just hope that you can send the good conditions down this way as all we have had lately is crap weather for months down the southern end of the state. :-[ :-[

That is a fantastic trophy trout for the photo album ( well done)
Next time more pics please

Thanks Ripples

[vertico]

awesome trout welldone
glad you released it to breed some more little trout
sean

[seapup]

That sure is a Horse of a Trout!! Well done!
Benny.

[coraltrout68]

Wow - what a fantastic fish.

Don't know if they get much bigger than that.

I bet the resident fish would have liked him removed from the reef - you wouldn't (as a fish) feel safe with him around, unless your at least 50-60cm long.

Well done on releasing him - many a fish that size would have ended up on the wall in the catchers home.