levinge
29-12-2009, 08:52 AM
Made some quick arrangements with Ronnien to fish the reef.
All sorted we hit the ramp at 5am for an early start. The carpark was already getting full, with a number of boats still rigging and readying for a launch.
We wait our turn and then drop the boat in and away we go. Looking out to sea, all we could see was a wall of dark grey, this is going to be ugly. The prediction for the day was E'erly's with a moderate swell. Leaving the shelter of the rock wall Ron and I steer in the direction of West Point to the North and away from the storm front (all the other boats headed straight out, poor bastards). 15 minutes later we are rounding West Point with cloudy skies above, but no rain clouds.
Steering NE we head out to John Brewer. We arrive about 7:15am after chasing some Tuna without any luck. We anchor on a spot I fished a few weeks earlier and drop down the baits. 10 minutes into the fishing and I am onto a fish, 1 Trout into the esky, 15 minutes later his mate comes up. This is looking good, well it slowed down a little after that. Talking to Ron, I mentioned he might want to put out a pillie under a balloon (Good Call!!!). Ron rigs and sends the pillie out the back and in less than 10 minutes he is onto a nice spaniard. 5 minutes of a solid fight and his Spaniard is in the boat (Ron lost 4 more to bumped hooks during the day). Flesh baits were hard to find on arrival, but we managed to raise enough Fusiliers throughout the day to keep the bait board busy.
We moved a few times with really good country and visibility of 18 metres under us, but the fishing was slow and hard work, with Ron bringing up 1 more nice trout. We were a little frustrated at seeing no more Trout, Reds or Spangles taking the baits. We did account for some nice pan size Moses Perch (biggest I have seen on the reef in some time). Over the course of the morning we managed 2 sharks, 3 remoras, numerous trigger fish and a dirty big catfish.
We also had a resident whale cruising past the boat for the hole day, closest run would have been about 25 metres from the boat, it could've been either a Minke Whale or a Fin Whale. He was about 7 to 8 metres in length and not frightened of the boats.
Over all, not a big catch, but a nice mixed bag and a good day on the water, we surmise that the Live Trout Boats had recently hit this reef as the structure we were fishing should've had good numbers of fish, but alot were devoid of good fish (18 metres out to 35 metres). We headed back to Townsville around 2:30pm as the winds were freshening and as usual Cleveland Bay was absolute crap yet again...
A good day and both of us were early to bed for a good sleep...
All sorted we hit the ramp at 5am for an early start. The carpark was already getting full, with a number of boats still rigging and readying for a launch.
We wait our turn and then drop the boat in and away we go. Looking out to sea, all we could see was a wall of dark grey, this is going to be ugly. The prediction for the day was E'erly's with a moderate swell. Leaving the shelter of the rock wall Ron and I steer in the direction of West Point to the North and away from the storm front (all the other boats headed straight out, poor bastards). 15 minutes later we are rounding West Point with cloudy skies above, but no rain clouds.
Steering NE we head out to John Brewer. We arrive about 7:15am after chasing some Tuna without any luck. We anchor on a spot I fished a few weeks earlier and drop down the baits. 10 minutes into the fishing and I am onto a fish, 1 Trout into the esky, 15 minutes later his mate comes up. This is looking good, well it slowed down a little after that. Talking to Ron, I mentioned he might want to put out a pillie under a balloon (Good Call!!!). Ron rigs and sends the pillie out the back and in less than 10 minutes he is onto a nice spaniard. 5 minutes of a solid fight and his Spaniard is in the boat (Ron lost 4 more to bumped hooks during the day). Flesh baits were hard to find on arrival, but we managed to raise enough Fusiliers throughout the day to keep the bait board busy.
We moved a few times with really good country and visibility of 18 metres under us, but the fishing was slow and hard work, with Ron bringing up 1 more nice trout. We were a little frustrated at seeing no more Trout, Reds or Spangles taking the baits. We did account for some nice pan size Moses Perch (biggest I have seen on the reef in some time). Over the course of the morning we managed 2 sharks, 3 remoras, numerous trigger fish and a dirty big catfish.
We also had a resident whale cruising past the boat for the hole day, closest run would have been about 25 metres from the boat, it could've been either a Minke Whale or a Fin Whale. He was about 7 to 8 metres in length and not frightened of the boats.
Over all, not a big catch, but a nice mixed bag and a good day on the water, we surmise that the Live Trout Boats had recently hit this reef as the structure we were fishing should've had good numbers of fish, but alot were devoid of good fish (18 metres out to 35 metres). We headed back to Townsville around 2:30pm as the winds were freshening and as usual Cleveland Bay was absolute crap yet again...
A good day and both of us were early to bed for a good sleep...