cooktown - reefs

[ric]

hi everyone,

I am up at cooktown at the monent with the boat and had a look out the point today but turned back with the 1.5m chop from the SE.

My question is, if i head out through the chop to the closer reefs, do they offer protection from the chop for some fishing? or can i expect the same chop all throughout the reef system?


Its very frustrating at the moment, we have driven all the way from brisbane towing our 18 foot boat, and the few times we have had a chance to get out we have only caught undersize fish. We then made a decision to head to cooktown for some decent fishing only to be greeted with this choppy crap.

any other help is appreciated?

thanks,
Ric

[scuttlebutt]

Any reef close to the surface is going to give some shelter though it still wont be comfortable in anything over 15 knots. Unfortunately this has been a very bad year for wind up here. And Cooktown is usually worse than Cairns.

Normally you could count on November for light winds but this year is all over the place.

I've bashed out a couple of times (540 Cyclone) in wind up to 20 knots and end up wishing I'd stayed at home.

[Daintreeboy]

Can you hold out until Monday onwards? it will be ok then.

[Shane Miller]

HI RIC, i live in cooktown i think i might of seen your boat in town today. the nearest reef if 5.7nm out and even then its only a small reef . your boat looks like it will handle a bit of weather?your best bet is to wait til sunday

[odes20]

Of all the places to be waiting on a drop in wind, Cooktown would be up there among the worst. But as others are saying hang in till Monday! In the mean time get as much local info as possible as if you get out you want to be fishing somewhere a bit useful. Sorry I live in Cairns and dont have much Cooktown reef info. Oh, and its bucketing down rain as I write. !

[odes20]

Can you hold out until Monday onwards? it will be ok then.

A live well full of livies then Daintree Boy?? Im hoping for a night trip either Sunday or Monday to chase Nannys but we will see.

John

[Daintreeboy]

A live well full of livies then Daintree Boy?? Im hoping for a night trip either Sunday or Monday to chase Nannys but we will see.

John

Unforunately I will be too busy to go reef fishing during the week so will be stuck up the river chasing Grunter!! Oh woh is me...:(

[ric]

Thanks everyone for the replies!

We are going to hang around next week too in the hope of some better wind. Not in any rush but it has been frustrating..

Hi shane, yeah you probably would of seen me in town yesterday. its a black alloy half cab. "Bend n Snap"

We were thinking of heading back towards port douglas or cairns but are better off up here i think at least because we have clear sky!!!

thanks again,

Ric

[Shane Miller]

when you do get out there head north, up near cape bedford it is very deep in close to the rocks , should be plenty of queenies and small tuna and maybe a mak or 2. there is a wreck there but that is a x spot .from there is plenty of reef out wide. any more questions 40695346

[ric]

when you do get out there head north, up near cape bedford it is very deep in close to the rocks , should be plenty of queenies and small tuna and maybe a mak or 2. there is a wreck there but that is a x spot .from there is plenty of reef out wide. any more questions 40695346

thanks shane, i appreciate the advice. I am heading out tomorrow so will let everyone know.

Ric

[Shane Miller]

hi ric how did you go ?looks like there the weather is good for the whole week.

[Rhinoc]

hi ric how did you go ?looks like there the weather is good for the whole week.

Yeah Ric let us know how you went. I'm curious now.

[ric]

Heading out again today, but yesterday was interesting. All in all we only ended up with 2 good sized trevally around 70-80cm.

Along the reef edges we could see the trevally working in groups of 5 or 6, at times i could see what looked liked mackeral darting under the boat around 1m long, judging when they came closest to the surface. Only managed one strike on the trolling gear for the day??? must be doing something wrong there???

Where ever we fished we could constantly see bait busting up with birds attacking, but trolling and throwing slugs came up with nothing.

Managed to land one coral trout to go 30cm, so way undersize, I am not to sure about fishing for trout so any help would be appreciated. send a PM if you want.

Today we slept in, but are looking to head a bit further out today,

To answer my initial question, the 15km stretch across the shipping channel is the worst part of the trip, once you are across into the reef area, i would guess that the wave size halves. You can sit in dead calm waters if you are fishing against the back of the reef if you wish to do so.

Learning from yesterday, it seems that the fish are more active of the southern sides of the reef where the wind is blowing the waves onto the reef. thats where we spoted the trevally and mackeral.

Will arrange some pictures once the weather turns sour.

Ric

[Shane Miller]

ric the southern ends of the reef might of been the presure point end, with all that bait around there would of been a lot of small mac tuna and little bonies, which is y thay wont eat big macy lures. try finding from reef close to the bait balls(any structure will do) also try fishing deep water 20m plus for your trout and use big baits,whole pilles, little live bomi cod or even better get some livies from the wharf first (gold).im not working on wensday (hint hint);D.

[Daintreeboy]

To add to Shane's post if you want to target those Trevally try throwing some poppers at them and at the fusilier schools on shallow bommies.

[ric]

To add to Shane's post if you want to target those Trevally try throwing some poppers at them and at the fusilier schools on shallow bommies.


I woke up late this morning and decided to head to the 'Lure Shop' before heading out. Met Nick from this site who works there and my wife had been nagging for a few days now to buy her a popper to try on the reef, since she has seen it done on TV. Well i bought her a popper and to cut a long story short i tested it after tieing on the leader and on the second cast.... GT. They fight harder and faster than anything else i have ever caught. We continued to use the same popper all day with aerobics being performed by mackeral chasing it. Not to mention sight casting to mackeral and GT's too!! Caught a bunch of other fish and a nice tea leaf trev too.

NO Trout yet though!!!!

posting pics in a moment

Ric

[ric]

couple of pics

dolphins are from whitsundays.

[ric]

couple more,

the first is of yesterday, i think they are 'bludger trevally'

the second pic is of the GT - and the net that it broke! the frame of the landing net snapped as we landed the fish.