Cooktown Plastics Report

[nickstock]

G'day,

Excuse the brief report.



Thomas and I left Cooktown late in the arvo last Monday night. We then headed to a few Trout marks in 25 meters of water. We scored a few Trout around the 55 cms mark and then started to flick 5 inch curl tail grubs around the surface for Spanish. 3rd cast secured me a small Spanish around 85cms. I was surprised to land it on 40 lb mono leader.



Night fall was setting in so we headed out to a mark in the paddock to chase a few Large Mouth Nannies. About 5 miles from our mark we run over a little wonkie hole in 35 meters of water. Not much of a show on the sounder but we decided to throw the pick out and have a crack anyway.



The next 45 mins was chaos with big Chinaman Fish to 12 kilos, LMN to 5 kilos, Spangled Emps to 5 kilos and Red Emperor to 9 kilos coming aboard. We lost some absolute ripper fish on 50lb braid that we had no hope in stopping. There is some big Chinaman up to 20 kilos on Thomas's other mark so I am guessing that they were the culprits.



All fish bar the biggest R.E fell to 7 inch Gulp Jerk Shad's in Orange Tiger colour. The run picked up and we could not get out jig heads to the bottom so we called it quits and started the slow run home in a tiller steer tinny across 18 knots of S.E slop. Long, wet and cold run home but the fish made it worthwhile.


Thanks for looking,
Nick

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff241/viridis1/Thomasfishing001.jpg


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http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff241/viridis1/Thomasfishing006.jpg


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http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff241/viridis1/Thomasfishing007.jpg


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http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff241/viridis1/Thomasfishing008.jpg

[whatscracken]

Plenty of quality there mate, nice work

[Alchemy]

Great fish there Nick, gotta love getting them on SP. At times when the current is running we have used a paternoster rig with the SP on a single hook. Not as much fun as wafting it down on a jig head, but it works.

Regards,
Dave.

[ON-THE-CHEW]

Nick,
Awesome catch, wish the miss's would let us move up north, you guys get some awesome fish up there all year round.

Andrew

[Benno1]

arent those chinamen buggars!!!...they pull like a red...you think youve got a quality red...then you see it...*damn it*... :P
Good trip out tho mate...came home with a good haul. Cheers for the piccies and report.

Mrs Benno1
Sunny

[nickstock]

arent those chinamen buggars!!!...they pull like a red...you think youve got a quality red...then you see it...*damn it*... :P
Good trip out tho mate...came home with a good haul. Cheers for the piccies and report.

Mrs Benno1
Sunny

Don't get me wrong,

I love a good feed of Red Emp as much as the next bloke but I don't mind catching the Chinaman!:o I am yet to find a harder fighting reef fish in Australia. I reckon a big China runs rings around the same sized Red Emperor in the fight department.

Chinaman Fish, Giant Trevally and Red Bass are a sportfishers dream I reckon!!!!!!! The beauty of Cooktown is that 99% of fishos up here hate catching all of them. I saw photos last week of 90cm Red Bass caught out wide. I cannot wait to try and land one of those horses on a popper this year!!!!!!!!!

Cheers,
Nick

[nickstock]

Another thing that I forgot to mention was that we had a large Hammer Head around 3 meters swimming around the boat for the entire first hang. We did not loose a fish to sharks that night which is a very welcome suprise.

Water temp was 30.1 degs cel and felt like a bath!

[levinge]

Well Done there Nick, top effort and a good feed to boot.

Agree those china's certainly test every skill in the box....

[indy]

Nice fish there mate well done.

[Spot82]

Nice work mate, sounds like a good session!! Nice work getting a red on the plastics too!! What technique were u using? bottom bouncing or just drifting them down?

Thanks for the report and pics :)

Anthony

[vertico]

did you give those flys a crack mate ?
thanks
sean

[Wahoo]

Great report Nick, cant wait

Daz

[Jeremy]

great report Nick, what a plastics session!

[Richard]

Great fish,

What size jig heads were you getting away with ?