Cooktown Reds

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  • nickstock
    Ausfish Gold Member

    • Jul 2008
    • 728

    Cooktown Reds

    Hi fellas,

    With the recent crap weather that has not enabled me to get out for over six weeks I thought that I would post a report from my last trip. I have been flat out with work so I have not had a chance to post a report in a while.


    We closed the shop at about 2.30pm and were on the water heading out past the Cooktown lead markers at 32 knots in absolute pure glass out conditions. We headed to our normal Trout haunts up near Forrester Reef and quickly nailed half a dozen late arvo Trout to 64cms all falling victims to live Mud Herrings fished on 10/0 Gamakatsu SL12’s and a 4 bean sinker. A pesky Hussar about 30cms stole one of my Herring so I sent him back down to the bottom wearing a new piece of stainless jewellery in his nose. I put the little leaver drag Saltist in the rod holder and began to trim up the Trout and pack them into the new 270 litre esky. In typical form, the Saltist began to scream off at a great rate of knots and on setting the hook the P.E 5 braid began to hum. A few minutes later a 91 cm Chinaman was being released boat side after a quick photo. These buggers pull like freight trains and put up one hell of a fight in 15 meters of water. This was our cue to leave and head further north to our “never fail” Nannygai grounds.


    After finding this rubble patch one the way home one night, we have fished it 6 times and caught our limit (not kept) on every single trip. This country is text book Redfish ground and is approximately 150 meters of hard rubble and fern coral in 32 meters of water. Prior to this trip we had only fished it after dark and I was unsure how it would fish during daylight hours. Approximately 80 meters from our mark, the sounder ‘blacked out’ with huge fish shows getting us excited and the anchor was quickly deployed. Holly was the first to drop a whole Squid down and hooked up within seconds only to be absolutely smoked on a T16 Torsa / T-curve 400 combo. Rather than re rig her rod I passed her a Saragosa 18000 / Jig combo with a 6 inch Curl Tail Gulp and she was rewarded with a nice 78cm Large Mouth.


    I could ramble on for another million odd words about the fishing that we encountered however pictures speak louder than words.
    To sum the trip up, we filled our 270 litre esky with Red emperor and LMN and released 65 LEGAL fish!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Standout fish included a 135cm Cobia (released) that I nailed on a Small mouth Nannygai on the way back up and a thumper Large Mouth Nannygai that Russell landed at 91 cms and 10.3kilos gilled and gutted.
    Enjoy the pics fellas and hopefully it will get us through until the next break in Far North Queensland’s relentless trade winds!


    Cheers,
    Nick Stock
  • nickstock
    Ausfish Gold Member

    • Jul 2008
    • 728

    #2
    Re: Cooktown Reds



    Me with an average LMN for the trip at 81cms


    Holly with a 86cm LMN








    Comment

    • ON-THE-CHEW
      Ausfish Gold Member
      • May 2005
      • 525

      #3
      Re: Cooktown Reds

      Awesome fishing nick, cant wait until some more of the red fish start to show up down here in numbers. Sounds like a great trip.

      Andrew
      sigpic

      Comment

      • nickstock
        Ausfish Gold Member

        • Jul 2008
        • 728

        #4
        Re: Cooktown Reds

        Thanks Andrew,

        We also got stuck into some monster Red Bass and Chinaman but the action was too hot for pics which I now regret. I smashed my PB Chinaman by a country mile yet did not get a pic.

        This is Russ's big 91cm Large Mouth that won the ANSA lenght comp for the species for the 2009 / 2010 season.


        I am sure that there are bigger LMN's out there as we have lost some horses boat side that would have topped this big fella on previous trips to this patch.



        Comment

        • Alchemy
          Ausfish Platinum Member

          • Apr 2005
          • 1059

          #5
          Re: Cooktown Reds

          Yep. Think there is a strong possibility that I'll be dragging the new boat up to Cooktown Great fish and report Nick!
          http://alchemyfishing.blogspot.com.au/

          Comment

          • nickstock
            Ausfish Gold Member

            • Jul 2008
            • 728

            #6
            Re: Cooktown Reds

            Thanks Dave,

            I cannot wait to take Nic and yourself to this hang. Spangleds can be a real pest though as we had the buggers about 3 meters below the boat and they would hit most baits before you got it to the bottom.

            The Nannygai were all monsters with the average fish for the night going over 8 kilos. I have caught Red Emperor to 84 cms here but am yet to land any real monsters as most fish seem to be in the school size around 3 kilos.............

            Next trip I am going to persist with large whole dead baits (wish we got tailor up here), as everytime I put a whole Mullet fillet down it was molested by XOS Red Bass and Chinaman Fish.

            The best bait for the night was whole Spangled Emperor fillets rigged on 3 x 9/0 Ganged Tru Turns

            Comment

            • vertico
              Ausfish Platinum Member

              • Jul 2003
              • 2765

              #7
              Re: Cooktown Reds

              Nick, top stuff mate Id love to get up on those areas and use our techniques to try pull some big reds / nannys
              Sean
              sigpic

              Comment

              • Pazz01
                Ausfish Gold Member

                • Jun 2008
                • 713

                #8
                Re: Cooktown Reds

                Nick your killing me. I nearly forgot what they look like. Nice going, they all look like good fish. I'd reckon if you could get out from now the spangles should have eased off and the reds should be there. My family is from up that way and Dad reckons the spangles use to be really bad at the start of winter and would then die off and you'd only catch reds from about august onwards. Something to look forward to. Them bloody spangles go nuts and so do those chinaman and red bass. Red bass is also a great bait too i've found.

                They'd go like a freight train in 30 metres of water. All my spots out off cairns are in 50-70 metres of water and they go stupid in that. Would love to get onto a spot here in that sort of depth.

                If only this wind would stop blowing I might be able to re-introduce myself to a few nice big reds.

                Pazz

                Comment

                • blueline
                  Ausfish Bronze Member

                  • Oct 2008
                  • 165

                  #9
                  Re: Cooktown Reds

                  great report nick, wish this weather would come down so i can get out.

                  Comment

                  • scuttlebutt
                    Ausfish Platinum Member

                    • Jul 2005
                    • 1134

                    #10
                    Re: Cooktown Reds

                    Ripper trip there by the looks.

                    Hey Pazz, I'm sure no-one uses Red Bass for bait nowadays considering they're a protected species.

                    Comment

                    • Pazz01
                      Ausfish Gold Member

                      • Jun 2008
                      • 713

                      #11
                      Re: Cooktown Reds

                      Originally posted by scuttlebutt View Post
                      Ripper trip there by the looks.

                      Hey Pazz, I'm sure no-one uses Red Bass for bait nowadays considering they're a protected species.
                      Maybe, but I still reckon they have got the best flesh for bait going. Nice big fresh slab on a 12/0 suicide hook will make any red go nuts.

                      Comment

                      • Redhunter
                        Ausfish Silver Member

                        • Apr 2008
                        • 342

                        #12
                        Re: Cooktown Reds

                        Hi bloke some solid reefies there .Have you started ya build on ya boat ?
                        regards steve

                        Comment

                        • SWANO1
                          Ausfish Silver Member

                          • May 2006
                          • 274

                          #13
                          Re: Cooktown Reds

                          nice fish nic, thought you said it was daylight when you gotem
                          cheers swano

                          Comment

                          • littlemac
                            Ausfish Gold Member

                            • Sep 2006
                            • 734

                            #14
                            Re: Cooktown Reds

                            that's bloody great fish,

                            well done

                            cheers

                            brett

                            Comment

                            • odes20
                              Ausfish Platinum Member

                              • Sep 2009
                              • 1271

                              #15
                              Re: Cooktown Reds

                              Hey guys go to this link if you like to see the pics I put up last week from a good set of reds last August to encourage everyone about the Cairns wind at present


                              Cheers
                              John
                              "let not he boast who puts his armor on, as he who takes it off"

                              Comment

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