North Queenland Montes Here we come

[RAGINGBULL]

GDAY ALL

Just to let you all know that we will be heading off to the Whitsundays area, to a little spot called Montes.
Myself, my 17yr old son and 4 mates
I will try and keep you up-dated on catch stats.
Any help would be appreciated, on how to fish the Coral bommies where to get red emporer, Coral Trout, big Spanish and a GT or 2 thrown in
We leave next week 12th and return via 1770 on the 25th or later.
We are also fishing the elliot river area

Cheers Mark

[Benno1]

sorry ive only fished the area around Hook Island (some 8 yrs ago)...on a charter boat...Dave picked up a lost spanish mackeral(caught on a livebait...fusilier)...everyone was pulling in iodine bream...a few coral trout...enough of the reef species to keep everyone happy tho
Good luck to you and your mates up there tho...fantastic part of the country...looking forward to your report

Mrs Benno1

[Scott nthQld]

I haven't foshed the Whitsundays, but can still offer some help with techniques for the species you wish to target.

Fishing the coral bommies, first you want to have a drift over and find out where the fish are. Once you've done that, anchor up (if you can) with a reef pick (anything else, and you better take several spares, because you won't be getting them back unles you feel like a swim) and drift back so you will be fishing the run on side of the bommie, that's where your trout will be. Over shallow reef use very minimal weight, just enough to let the bait slowly drift down, trout and cod don't give you anything and as soon as they hit the bait, they go straight back down to their hole, so you need to try and tempt them to come off the bottom. Be prepared to lose a lot of tackle. You'll get trout on just about any sort of reef structure. Give any particular spot 15-20 min or so and then move on when the fish stop, more than likely they've cottoned on to you and moved on, or in the case of trout, each bommie will only support a couple of fish.

Emperor, you want to fish something a bit deeper, anywhere from about 20m plus, look for shoals of soft coral or rubble bottom, and any slight bumps between reefs are well worth a look, even if the floor is a flat as a pancake, any little micro shoals are a sure fire fish magnet. On these you'll get your reds, trevally, redthroat, and mackeral will probably be hanging around as well.

When trolling for macks, keep your eyes glued to the sounder, and if/when you spot on of these shoals, mark it and pay a visit and a proper look around after your troll. whenever you move, chuck a lure out the back for the macks, and scan the bottom because you just might find something of great interest on the way to your next spot.

As for rigs, just your standard paternoster with 2 droppers will do the job fine, but when fishing shallow ground opt for either a single or 2 snelled hook rig, with a small ball sinker running straight to the hooks if required.

make sure you get your green zone maps from any good tackle outlet and cut a pectoral fin off any coral reef fin fish, including spaniards. Also don't forget that CRFF have a mixed species bag limit of 20 fish per person, no matter what species it is made up of, even though the fish have their individual possession limits the total limit must be followed. For example: Nannygai has a bag of 9, trout is 7, red emperor is 5, and red throat is 8; you might have 7 nannygai, 4red emperor, 6 trout, and 3 red throat, since you have a total of 20 coral reef finfish, you cannot take anymore, even though you have not reached the bag limit of each species. Cobie, trevally and mackeral are not included in this bag though, a full list of CRFF can be obtained from the DPI.

[RAGINGBULL]

Thanks for that Scotty
Another mate told me the same story that you told me about trolling and then marking the bumps to fish later

Are there permitts required there and are we allowed to take Crayfish

Cheers Mark

[Scott nthQld]

no permits needed for saltwater fishing, though if you fish any stocked impoundments, such as Peter Faust, you will need one.

You will get the painted crays on the reefs, and they are the only crayfish species I am aware of that you can spear....apparently they don't go into pots. Not sure on the regs for the painted crays though, but that can be found on the DPI website

[RAGINGBULL]

Thanks Scott.
I will keep you posted.
Cheers Mark