nickstock
16-07-2009, 09:21 AM
Cooktown Report 16/07/2009
G ‘day guys,
After Monday and Tuesday met Cooktown with glassed out seas, it was decided to head out on Wednesday morning with a mate. We left the ramp on sunrise heading out to chase a few Nannies from Tom’s spot. Fishing this place was going to be a new experience for me as I have not spent a lot of time chasing Nannies and the luck I have had are always a by catch whilst chasing other species on the reef. Tom is a bit of a ‘Red King’. He is one of the few blokes that I know that regularly bags out on ‘Reds’ of one species or another.
We were met with a slight chop and winds of approx 10 knots from the West. Trip out was quite good as we had the wind behind us the entire way. We had to keep an eye on the weather as we were fishing out of Tom’s 5 meter Tiller Steer Platey. The little 60 hp Yamaha Four Stroke hummed away silently and our cruise speed was approx 25 knots.
When we reached our first hang we were met with an impressive looking sounder showing 27 meters. The first baits over consisted of fresh Mullet and whole Cuttle- Fish which were abruptly smashed within seconds of hitting the bottom. My new 24 kilo Jig rod was doubled over and the 80 pound Rovex braid was humming off it at a great rate of knots. With a double hook up on the first drop I was impressed for a few minutes whilst fighting the fish. Tom called his for a Chinaman and I soon agreed when I saw colour at about 10 meters below the boat. The rest of the baits at this hang consisted of Hussar and Moses Perch with were hitting the baits before they hit the bottom.
We then decided to go for a spear as it was now about 9am and warm enough. We were spearing Bommies in approx 3-6 meters of water and speared 9 Trout around 2 kilos and Tom scored 5 nice sized Cray’s with 2 of the Painteds going over 4 kgs. Visibility was rather good (30 feet) due to the lack of rain that we have had over winter. No big sharks were seen which made me a happy chappie.
The day was getting on by this stage and we decided to have a troll. I picked up my PB Trout on lure, which snaffled a big Rapala in 5 meters of water. The Trout went 72cms and went straight to the kill pen. We caught a few Mackerel including a Sharkie that reached of a total length of 50cms lol.
We decided to fish a rubble patch the Tom pulled 12 Reef Jacks averaging 6 kilos, during his last session here a few months ago. To say the bite was hot would be a lie. With an amazing sounder display in 25 meters of water, in regards to reef species, all we could managed were more bloody Hussar, Moses and Grassy Emperor. Lucky for us we had some nice Mackerel around 8-10 kilos hanging around the boat. We landed a few of these fish on unweighted Garfish and Pilchards. We hooked a lot of Whalers around 5 feet that quickly became a pain in the arse. Some of these put on impressive aerial displays with one Shark that was approx 30 kilos jumping approx 3 feet out of the water more than 4 times. By this stage the weather had started to turn and it was no blowing 20 knots from the S/E. It was now just on dark and Tom made the call for last few bait’s down.
This proved to be a bad call as we ended up staying for the next hour. We landed our first Nannie at 6.35 pm and had reached our quota of Nannies by 7.15 pm. The fish were literally hitting the bait on the way down to the bottom and at one stage we had the school less than 3 meters under the boat. With a Frying Pan Snapper and a Robinsons Sea Bream taken on the baits that made it to the bottom, we had made our boat limit of 20 fish per person .
The trip home was long, wet and slow to say the least. The wind and chop made an uncomfortable ride with a top speed of 13 knots reached on the trip home. We made it back to the ramp at 8.45 pm and I was pleased to be back on land to say the least. As Wahoo & Dogfight could confirm, I have the build and metabolism of a Greyhound. I had not eaten since 11am and was absolutely starving to say the least. I often say it, but next trip out to the reef I am going to take a bottle of soy and wasabi for a backup plan if we stay longer than first thought.
A top day out with Tom where I learned a lot about picking fish on the sounder and a few tips on how to spear Tusk Fish (although I was un successful on this occasion) . The fuel miser of a motor that the 60 Yamaha Four Stroke is enabled us to use a miserable total of 48 litres of fuel all day after 14 hours at sea.
Chinaman
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff241/viridis1/China.jpg
Cray spot
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff241/viridis1/CraySpot.jpg
220 liter Esky by lunch time
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff241/viridis1/Cray.jpg
Trout shallows
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff241/viridis1/Glassedseas.jpg
PB lure caught Trout
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff241/viridis1/PBTrout.jpg
I will attach more photos once I go out to fillet the catch this morning. I dont have any photos of the Nannies when we were catching them as I did not want to get my camera wet from the chop and spray.
Cheers,
Nick
G ‘day guys,
After Monday and Tuesday met Cooktown with glassed out seas, it was decided to head out on Wednesday morning with a mate. We left the ramp on sunrise heading out to chase a few Nannies from Tom’s spot. Fishing this place was going to be a new experience for me as I have not spent a lot of time chasing Nannies and the luck I have had are always a by catch whilst chasing other species on the reef. Tom is a bit of a ‘Red King’. He is one of the few blokes that I know that regularly bags out on ‘Reds’ of one species or another.
We were met with a slight chop and winds of approx 10 knots from the West. Trip out was quite good as we had the wind behind us the entire way. We had to keep an eye on the weather as we were fishing out of Tom’s 5 meter Tiller Steer Platey. The little 60 hp Yamaha Four Stroke hummed away silently and our cruise speed was approx 25 knots.
When we reached our first hang we were met with an impressive looking sounder showing 27 meters. The first baits over consisted of fresh Mullet and whole Cuttle- Fish which were abruptly smashed within seconds of hitting the bottom. My new 24 kilo Jig rod was doubled over and the 80 pound Rovex braid was humming off it at a great rate of knots. With a double hook up on the first drop I was impressed for a few minutes whilst fighting the fish. Tom called his for a Chinaman and I soon agreed when I saw colour at about 10 meters below the boat. The rest of the baits at this hang consisted of Hussar and Moses Perch with were hitting the baits before they hit the bottom.
We then decided to go for a spear as it was now about 9am and warm enough. We were spearing Bommies in approx 3-6 meters of water and speared 9 Trout around 2 kilos and Tom scored 5 nice sized Cray’s with 2 of the Painteds going over 4 kgs. Visibility was rather good (30 feet) due to the lack of rain that we have had over winter. No big sharks were seen which made me a happy chappie.
The day was getting on by this stage and we decided to have a troll. I picked up my PB Trout on lure, which snaffled a big Rapala in 5 meters of water. The Trout went 72cms and went straight to the kill pen. We caught a few Mackerel including a Sharkie that reached of a total length of 50cms lol.
We decided to fish a rubble patch the Tom pulled 12 Reef Jacks averaging 6 kilos, during his last session here a few months ago. To say the bite was hot would be a lie. With an amazing sounder display in 25 meters of water, in regards to reef species, all we could managed were more bloody Hussar, Moses and Grassy Emperor. Lucky for us we had some nice Mackerel around 8-10 kilos hanging around the boat. We landed a few of these fish on unweighted Garfish and Pilchards. We hooked a lot of Whalers around 5 feet that quickly became a pain in the arse. Some of these put on impressive aerial displays with one Shark that was approx 30 kilos jumping approx 3 feet out of the water more than 4 times. By this stage the weather had started to turn and it was no blowing 20 knots from the S/E. It was now just on dark and Tom made the call for last few bait’s down.
This proved to be a bad call as we ended up staying for the next hour. We landed our first Nannie at 6.35 pm and had reached our quota of Nannies by 7.15 pm. The fish were literally hitting the bait on the way down to the bottom and at one stage we had the school less than 3 meters under the boat. With a Frying Pan Snapper and a Robinsons Sea Bream taken on the baits that made it to the bottom, we had made our boat limit of 20 fish per person .
The trip home was long, wet and slow to say the least. The wind and chop made an uncomfortable ride with a top speed of 13 knots reached on the trip home. We made it back to the ramp at 8.45 pm and I was pleased to be back on land to say the least. As Wahoo & Dogfight could confirm, I have the build and metabolism of a Greyhound. I had not eaten since 11am and was absolutely starving to say the least. I often say it, but next trip out to the reef I am going to take a bottle of soy and wasabi for a backup plan if we stay longer than first thought.
A top day out with Tom where I learned a lot about picking fish on the sounder and a few tips on how to spear Tusk Fish (although I was un successful on this occasion) . The fuel miser of a motor that the 60 Yamaha Four Stroke is enabled us to use a miserable total of 48 litres of fuel all day after 14 hours at sea.
Chinaman
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff241/viridis1/China.jpg
Cray spot
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff241/viridis1/CraySpot.jpg
220 liter Esky by lunch time
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff241/viridis1/Cray.jpg
Trout shallows
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff241/viridis1/Glassedseas.jpg
PB lure caught Trout
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff241/viridis1/PBTrout.jpg
I will attach more photos once I go out to fillet the catch this morning. I dont have any photos of the Nannies when we were catching them as I did not want to get my camera wet from the chop and spray.
Cheers,
Nick