Shoalwater Bay 7/2/09 - 15/2/09

[Scott Maybury]

Hey guys,

I was lucky enough to fish Shoalwater Bay/Capricorn Islands area with Nomad last week. The trip was almost cancelled due to bad weather (as the week's before had been) but instead it was pushed back 2 days.

The fishing was slow for a lot of the week, partly due to bad weather and not being able to fish, or fish effectively, where we wanted, and partly due to the fact that the fish were there but not feeding aggressively.

In the 6 days we had 5 guys fishing for GT's pretty seriously (ie, most of the time) and we would have raised in excess of 60 fish. However, a lot of these were only follows with no strikes, or half hearted strikes more behind the popper than on it. We did end up landing 9 proper GT's with the best going 30kg or just over and the smallest probably around 17 or 18kgs.

I also landed a 7kg GT on a soft plastic and light tackle and some in the 2-3kg range on this gear. The 7kg fish in particular was a lot of fun.

I got one proper GT for the trip, my first, at aroudn 25kg. I was stoked, but disappointed I lost 3 other fish I came up tight on, at least 2 of which were substantially bigger than the one I landed. One of them snapped my 100lb braid virtually on impact. Tim (the head guide) called it for in excess of 40kg.

All in all it was an awesome week. Professional but relaxed guides, great all round service and great food. I will be back for one of their other trips either late this year or early next. I am tossing up between doggies at Diamond Islets or GTs at Bugatti...the budget may be the ultimate decider as I also am hoping to do a trip to Fiji in January!

Here are some pics of the GT's and a few other fish taken on light tackle.

[Scott Maybury]

Also I should say one of the coolest parts of the trip was that I went alone and got to fish with some really cool guys, including 2 other forum members Neale Bird (aka Birdy) who is clutching a GT in the 6th photo from the top, and John Campbell (aka...John) in the first 5

We all got proper GT's, John 3, Neale 2 me 1

[Neale Bird]

Here here for good company 

Sweet Scott, tanks for posting that up i've been having trouble posting it... could you possibly post my smaller GT too please?

[Andre van Wyk]

Awesome pics Scott, and great report.... obviously not perfct conditions, but you guys certainly made the most of it and looks like you ahd an awesome with some fantastic fish....

Love the 4th shot down... epic!!

Thanks for the great report!

[Scott Maybury]

Hey Neale, I thought I had put all the proper GT's up but yeah I am missing one of yours and one of Robs I think, I will check the photos at home tonight and add those. Sorry bro!

[Ewan Macleod]

Awesome pics Scott, and great report.... obviously not perfct conditions, but you guys certainly made the most of it and looks like you ahd an awesome with some fantastic fish....

Love the 4th shot down... epic!!

Thanks for the great report!

Is that the ripple GT79 Reversal bent over?

[Scott Maybury]

Hey Ewan,

The first 2 action shots (pics 3 and 4) are the Ripple Fisher 78 Power Fight, this is John's rod.

The other action shot, with the red rod, is also a Ripple Fisher. It was one of Nomads. They had 2 red rods and I think this is either a Power Fight or a Heavy.

Here is my 79 Reversal in action, albeit with more angle so not as impressive a bend!  Some of these rods were bent like parabolic jig rods, I was very impressed

[Graham Scott]

Hi Scott,
Great report, lucky.....  The boys this week have jagged some decent weather.
I recognise a fair bit of the background, did you stay around Island Head creek and the coast a bit north?  Your second fourth fifth photos are about the best spot I have ever fished for anything (assuming I've picked the background). At the tightest part of the passage entrance there is a big gutter that drops from about 3m to 23m and then back to 3m in about 30m distance. We used to have the boat at about 2000rpm and drop big weighted baits to the bottom of the gutter. All sorts of crazy fish in there. Unfortunately my next best rockbar up there is now green, never mind still plenty to do. Looks like the other end of the same passage in some of the other photos?

I can't wait to get back up there!!

cheers,
graham

[Scott Maybury]

Hey Graham, yeah the weather was just improving as we left, the second last day was fantastic weather and fishing wise...we started off at the Duke Islands but headed south on Day 3 to a better anchorage for the bad weather that was to come,  which was in Island Head Creek

Yeah that spot you are talking about where some of those pictures was accounted for a good deal of our success, even though most of the time it didn't particularly look much (in terms of current, bait etc)

[Peter Morris]

Some top shots there.

Looks like a sensational place to fish.

Well done.

Pete

[Brock Arifovic]

Atleast the weather was better for your group.

[Scott Maybury]

Yeah Brock it was fishable most of the time, though not pleasant. I hear the guys who start fishing up there, i think today? have got some nice weather coming.

Here are 2 more GT's I seem to have missed the first time around...sorry Neale!

[Neale Bird]

All good thaks Scotty

[Andy Rowe]

Good report, and good results considering the conditions. A couple of good sized arm stretching fish there too.

But hang on a second....was this a red heads convention? 

[Scott Maybury]

Yeah a few rangas Andy, I was a bit concerned at first, but they turned out to be the ok type....you know how all red heads are either totally mental or pretty cool?

I didn't get my target fish of 30kg+ but I was happy with raising 13 fish in trying conditions...bit of experience will make all the difference next time!