Red Medicine - Tastes so sweet!

[Spot82]

Sean and I had being hanging out for another 1770 trip to chase those red creatures since about a week after are last adventure and had been waiting for some decent weather to allow us to make the journey to try our luck again as well as the opportunity to try and find some new ground at the same time.

In the time that the weather kept us off the water we had done some modifications to Sean’s boat including a t-top roof to try and provide a bit of shade, as three days in the sun with no shade and often covered in salt is a very long time! With everything coming together and rods, reels and tackle all prepped and ready to go the weather finally looked like it would play the game from Monday to Wednesday lunchtime. The bite prediction was not favourable but you don’t know if you don’t try!

We left Brisbane at 4am Monday morning, stopped in Maryborough to meet my parents to get some eskies, 30kg of mullet and a deck winch and continued on our way to 1770 arriving at 10.30 with us on the water around 11.30. Trip out was still a bit bumpy from the SE’er which had been blowing for a couple of days but it wasn’t too bad. Live bait was once again scarce so we didn’t waste too much time chasing it.

Just on the inside of the reef we run across a nice bommie and quickly turned back to have a better look. It was loaded with fish and we set up a drift and lines went down, two trout quickly made their way into the esky, Sean getting his on a plastic and mine on mullet with a PEtackle fly. Next drift Sean is onto a good fish on the plastics again but this time it was a nice red about 5kg, a first for him, and the first I have ever witnessed being caught on a plastic, something which we had been planning to try and achieve on one of our trips. We decided on one more drift before moving wider, we were just about to up lines when I got the tell tale peck of a Red Emperor, I kept feeding slack line, and by the time of hooking up I had nearly 120m of line out in 40m of water. With Sean already up I was barking the orders to slowly back the boat up while trying to keep the solid fish off the bottom, a short while later a beautiful red appeared from the depths and was swum into the net, put on the scales the fish went 13kg! The biggest to be landed in Sean’s boat to date and once again the PEtackle fly with a whole mullet fillet doing the damage.

Moving to the spot we found last trip where we got most of the Reds, we were greeted with a great show but they certainly weren’t on the bite, Sean boated one more red , we moved around the area but only managed a few nice red throats, maori cod and spangled emperor. By 7pm it was a complete glass out and we didn’t even bother going back to sleep in the lagoon. We cooked up some snags for dinner and went to sleep at about 11.30pm.

Tuesday we awoke at 4am and started fishing, again it was very slow from the beginning, we did a lot of moving only pulling one or two fish on each spot. On top of that with there being basically no wind, the odd light breeze 3-5knots, and little current, getting the drift right became very painful at times, drifting back over the para anchor or drift line changing 90 degrees mid drift, it was too calm! We searched east of the usual haunts and found some nice ground. Sean once again helping out calling 5 more mins before the move and pick, pick, pick this time I only had to give the fish a few metres of line before my bait was slammed. It felt like a red but as we hadn’t pulled any others on that spot I wasn’t 100% sure until I got colour, another nice Red, pulling the scales down to 12kg. The Petackle Slimey Mackeral Fly with a whole mullet fillet again producing the goods.

Moving north we pulled up on a spot which was loaded with fish and the sounder showed what typically is a lot of bait with Reds feeding on them, or hanging just off the edge of the structure. Lines went down, Sean and myself got slammed almost instantly, double hook up on reds, one 5kg and one 8kg. Lines quickly went back over, I dropped the winch as my leader was gone, again it wasn’t long before we were both on again, Sean with a nice Blue Maori Cod and I had another Red around 4.5kg. Things were looking promising but on the second drift we did not get a fish and the spot shut down. We travelled north up to Sykes finding bommie after bommie along the way but not pulling many fish only having a quick drop on the best looking ones before heading back to anchor for the arvo bite. We anchored up and all was quiet until Sean’s line screamed off, but alas it was a shark and busted him off not long after. We moved back to another promising spot and anchored for the night, again it was like a millpond. What followed made for an interesting night.

The fish were there but very timid, and I had landed a white tip reef shark that was about 2.5 metres long, which did nothing to help my aching back. We thought what the hell, out come the plastics combos, and down when some baits on very light leader and small single hooks, in the hope to a) get some reds and b) do it on light gear. Sean hooked up and was then slammed by a shark. I hooked up and was skull dragging a half decent fish, my ‘light’ gear putting some hurt on the fish but being very buckled over, although about halfway it got a bit easier. When I got to the top I realised why, I had half a legal red, mr grey suit had the other half for dinner. Try again, round two and I was successful a Red which went 60cm and in the 4kg range. Sean got a spangle, which managed to flop around the boat and onto my rod, next drop that was the end of it, bang, it was now in two pieces! On that note it was time for food and bed for me and we started snoring around midnight again.

On waking at 4am Wednesday the SE’er had lightly started to blow but there was some big rain clouds around, and it seemed like the wind was sucking into these. Back to the spot which produced the three Reds and Moari the day before and first drift I was onto a good red, this one going 8kg. Second drift produced nothing and on the third Sean hooked up to a very, very good Red, only to have the hooks pull when he had the fish over half way up, he was not happy and it was very disappointing even for me to see him drop such a good fish when he had done everything right.

We tried a couple more spots, trying to get the one last red we needed to complete our bag, but not much was happening. By this time we had been soaked by two very heavy showers and the wind was picking up, knowing that it was supposed to get up to 25knots after lunch we headed back to the first mark we fished on the way out for one or two quick drifts.

Sean got a good trout straight up and I got busted by a much bigger one! Trout fishing in shallow water is some of the best fun you can have, even if you are losing fish. Next drift produced another two trout and on the final drift Sean put the last red in the esky in the 4-5kg range. However by this stage it was midday and the wind was now howling.

The trip home was one that won’t be forgotten anytime soon, on coming out the western side of the reef we were greeted with 2 metre swells with a metre of chop on top which were breaking left right and centre, and we were headed into it at about 45 degrees. I would have been less wet if I had gone for a swim, and that was while wearing a heavy duty raincoat. We could only travel at 15-19km/h and I don’t think any trailer boat would have been going any quicker in the conditions. Both of us agree it is some of the roughest weather we had ever been out in. After 3.5 hrs and many mouthfuls of saltwater we made it back into the creek. In any other boat of that size I would have been scared sh!tless but the Stabicraft handled them extremely well besides the drenching factor, which any open boat has.

We ended up with 10 Reds, 10 cod, 8 Red Throats, 5 Trout, 6 Spangles, 1 Parrot after a lot of hard work and 320kms of travel on the water.

I also got busted off by a big red on the winch and I was using an 80lb 49 strand wire leader! Shows you what these fish are capable of and why they will find any weak spot in your tackle.

Sorry for the essay but I hope you all enjoy it. Until next time tight lines.

Will post another video in the video section after the weekend

Thanks to Sean for a great trip, I'll help you catch your 5 reds anytime

Anthony



13kg Red on PEtackle Slimey Mackeral


again


12kg Red on PEtackle Slimey Mackeral


8kg Red on PEtackle Red neck


Sean's first Red on a Plastic (Gulp)

[Spot82]

60cm Red on Plastic Outfit


Sharks Dinner - Legal Red 60-65 if not bitten in half.


How we use the flys - 2 or 3 hook snell rig with a big bait.


Trout on Slimey Mackeral


Sunrise Tuesday


Shocking Conditions on Tuesday

[Spot82]

Red lawn of death


Lunch


Getting soaked on the way home and looking very happy about it.


I sent Sean to the naughty corner on the way home for making us stay out to late to get the final red to complete the bag out.


My two big reds

[vertico]

Top trip once again Anthony, always good when you have some good crew to bait up your hooks and wind in all the big reds
till next month
Sean

[trueblue]

very well done Sean

what size circles were you using? Those flys are working out an absolute treat

cheers

[Spot82]

Seems a couple of the pics won't work in the posts, any ideas?

[vertico]

10/0 cirlces mick PEtackle Recurves.

[tropicrows]

Great report and top pics. I'm still dreaming of catching my first red.
How big was the Stabicraft ? and how does it handle to conditions up there.

[vertico]

5.29 mate and its simply an awesome rig for its size.

[Goldfinch]

Bravo...a classic report fellas. All the makings of a great fishing trip. I love the raincoat pics....very funny!!! Any video footage?

Might have to try some of those flys you keep raving about.

Awesome work.

Cheers
Dave

[indy]

Good read guy's some top fish there, naughty corner lol got to hate that.

cheers pete...

[Ratman]

Great work men, thanks for the report, well done. Mick

[Fishing_Freddy]

Great report and some quality fish well done
Ken

[perko]

Well done again fellas, you are a tough pair of buggers.

[jtpython]

Great report and amazing effort you guys defineatly put in the work for a great result
JT