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
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Great fish and report Nick!
Originally Posted by scuttlebutt
