Shipping Channel Reds

[Redgy1]

G'Day All,

Long time browser - first time poster so bear with me.

My brother and I had been planning a trip out all last week to tackle some new ground near Penrith Island off Mackay.
Thought we would get to the ramp early and after a quick load in be on our way before dawn, got to the Harbour Ramp at 4:45am or "Peak Hour" as we were calling it!!
Boats and trailers everywhere, we later heard an estimated 2000 boats were launched with only a third checking in with Coastguard.
Seas were pretty choppy on the way out and for a moment we were worried that the weather man had got it wrong. That was until we made just south of Penrith and all of a sudden it glassed out. What a way to start the day!!
After a quick sound around the island itself we decided to have our first drop, 40m of water and a rubble bottom just what we were looking for. Unfortunately the first fish was not, a huge bloody leather jacket! Not what we were expecting and not the way I wanted to christen the new Tiagra. After a short move and a few more drops we became a bit frustrated. There were fish all over the sounder we just couldn't get them firing. By mid morning our spirits were fading so we diecided to run over to the shipping channel about 5 or 6 mile north of Calder Is. We had some succes there last time with plenty of grassys and a legal red. Once we got there I thought we were in for the same fate as Penrith with fish all over the bottom but none playing the game. A couple of good size grassys lifted spirits momentarily and when the skipper hooked on to good Large Mouth Nanny I thought we had found something special. A couple more drifts for some poor results saw a move to the top of a ledge we saw close to our mark. Baits were dropped and the waiting began. Just as I started to daydream and ponder the days events I heard the Skips drag going full noise and turned to find him buckled over the side over the boat trying to gain ground on his monster hook-up. Before I could say anything nasty to him I was also seeing line disappear from my reel and hunched against the side of the boat. For what seemed an eternity all I could do was watch the line peel off as I struggled to get the rod back to horizontal. Once the initial run was over I was able to get a little bit of ground on him but all I could say at the time was 'Wow this is Big!!'. I was half way up and the skippers red was sitting boatside, now the problem was how to land one while the other was still struggling. Well I kindly told him he was on his own and it wasn't until his was in the boat that I understood why he didn't want to lift with the leader. Once his was on the deck I picked my jaw up and went to work on the beast still in the water. I remember thinking that if what was connected here is half the size of his it'll be a great day. Well once we got colour we confirmed that yes, it was indeed a red and that this thing was in fact bigger than the previous. Once it surfaced the Skip was straight in there with the gaff (thanks Champ) and coming over the side was a 10kg specimen!
My first legal Red Emporer.
After yahooing and carrying on like pork chops for a few minutes we decided to get some photos and get them in the kill tanks. As for the rest of day, the bite seemed to shutdown after lunch and while we caught a few undersize fish nothing else made it to the esky. But you couldn't wipe the smiles from our faces!

Final Result = 2 Grassy Sweetlip, 1 Large Mouth Nanny and 2 Reds.
Skippers went 70cm and a touch over 6kg
Mine went 81cm and 10kg on the nose
Sorry for the long post but it's a day I wont be forgetting any time soon!

Cheers, Reg

[STUIE63]

10 kg red you gotta be happy with that . and the report was not too long
Stuie

[Reefmaster]

Congrats on your first legal Red and a good size to start your count also. You now have the red bug.. be careful it's addictive

Regards,
Greg

[Redgy1]

Thanks Greg,
Hope it was more than just beginners luck!
I've read alot of your stuff mate, so time to start putting it into practice.

A big thank you for taking the time to put up tactics and techniques to help the average bloke get amongst it, you are a legend.

Addictive - Bloody Oath!!

Reg

[rugbymick]

Nice report, might have to move to Mackay.

Stuie, is that a galeforce in your avatar??

[STUIE63]

Nice report, might have to move to Mackay.

Stuie, is that a galeforce in your avatar??

yeah Mick it's a 5.5
Stuie

[dfox]

Congrates Redgy, it sounds like those reds gave you fella's a good workout. Keep hunting that area there's probably more around ... foxy

[jtpython]

Some good rubble patches that produce some good reds right the way thru the shipping canals
Congrates mate nice reds
JT

[whatscracken]

Nice work on the Reds Redgy

[SWANO1]

great opening report mate
gunna be a hard act to follow from here on in
cheers swano

[pickers]

there's also some good ground around pine peak and hot spur Islands too.
pickers