Port Douglas trip results

[beatle]

Just returned from a great trip to Port Douglas. Did three seperate fishing charters .First outing was with Jamie Bietzel on the Daintree river we tried lures,livebait,trolling in the river and caught a varied selection of fish although most were small. Jamie then tried outside the river and we fished alongside a reef near Snapper Island. We were advised to try poppers and had some great fishing ,we caught Queenfish to 15lbs and a Giant Trevally of 60lbs. Our next charter was a reef bottom fishing trip on the Dragon Lady this boat would have to be one of the best set up boats I've ever been on and is run by a very proffesional crew who really know what there doing .We fished 30miles out of Port Douglas around the reef and caught loads of fish -Spanish Macs.,Red Emperor,Spangled Emperor,Coral Trout,Nanagai,Trevally and others. The crew kept a strict size and bag limit and any fish that were brought up and were to small they were spiked in the airbladder and sent back down. All fish that we kept were spiked in the brain (this kills fish instantly and prevents them flapping around and improves eating quality) this particular charter was possibly the best days fishing I've ever had. After our days fishing the crew informed us of their concern as to what happens to the fish that inexperienced tourist type anglers bring back from the charters as the charter operators are not allowed to fillet the fish onboard ,only gut them.They advised us to take our fish to a certain seafood outlet and have them fillet and pack our filets in an airline approved box and pick them up when ready to return home ,some trust of the seafood outlet is involved here but it worked well for us.I returned home to Tweed Heads with all my fillets still frozen solid. Our next charter was a game fishing boat .We headed out to the same general area and trolled around for Spanish Macs. then Marlin but unfortunately nothing was interested. After catching a few Shark Macs.and a troll over the Continental Shelf(seabed drops away to 1500ft.)we headed back to Port Douglas.Will try to post some pics. in the saltwater photo section when I learn how to do it..-Beatle