Clint:It was another day on the flats and yet again there were plenty of fish ready to smash the lures. Tony and John have not fished much before so it was great to see the excitement on their faces when big trout and bass were chasing their lures appreciating every fish they caught which was great. Tony hooked a big maori wrasse and did really well to stop it from getting back to the reef. By the end of the day we caught plenty of red bass and trout and yet again lost some big fish that we could not stop.
Glanville:- another great morning to wake up out on the Barrier Reef, once again we were blessed with good conditions and the 10-15knt breeze was nearly surreal, we headed off for the flats we started off with some decent action and were lucky enough to stumble into a shoal of brassy and bluefin trevally which was great fun they were destroying the small white bait and the metals slugs were the winners, we also managed to find a couple of oceanic queenies so we were ready for the marlin in the afternoon, we continued on the flats for a while and found a couple of redbass, maori wrasse and a few other mixed sorts before we headed out to the edge for a GT and in half an hour managed to get 3 decent GTs and a couple of bluefins before we headed into the shallows for lunch and a swim. Whilst I got the marlin gear ready, I had just started rigging baits when we had the call over the radio that Saltaire was hooked into a fish and we hurriedly got our things together and headed out there. We had been pulling baits for about half an hour before it happened the rainbow runner skipping in the left rigger got obliterated the size of the hole the fish left in the sea was big enough for a dory to go in, the hook up seemed solid and we had the fish on for a while, enough time to clear the deck get the harness comfortably on and get strapped in, the fish slowly and steadily peeled about 100m with ease and it seemed as though it didn't even know it was hooked before the hooks pulled, unfortunately apart from the hole in the ocean I never got to see the fish but the way it peeled line off and no jump I'm guessing that it was the big girl we were after, we pulled baits for the rest of the arvo and apart from chop off from barracuda and wahoo we never managed to raise another marlin, hopefully tomorrow is the day for the big girl....
John:- Today we travelled to the south west of the anchorage to some isolated reefs in search of some G Bangers and no one on the boat was disappointed with what we found, plenty of GT to 15kg with some nice sized trout up to 8kg and even a large Flowery Cod chimed in on the party to give the guys some tense moments, this took most of the morning before we moved to the outside looking for some dogtooth, unfortunately no one came to the party except for a lonely trout that beat the sharks to the boat, after hearing the noise on the radio about the Maloon getting caught and another one clipping a bait out of the rigger it was time to throw some skirts out and have a crack ourselves, we trolled for about 2 hours and had one solid bite on the skirt that got everyone jumping around the boat but no joy. To end the day we had another jig for a dogtooth and when I threw a curious cast out while the guys jigged and had an absolute keg of a doggie come and smashed the popper next to the boat this forced us to have another pop on the edge for one more bite from a doggie and then it was beer time!!!
Saltaire: Today we woke up to magnificent weather yet again. We started the day on the search for some bait for the heavy outfits. Catching Spanish, Sharkeys, Rainbow Runner, Scad and even a nice size GT. As we were on the way out we saw what looked to be a mobile bommie but it wasn't GTs it was a ball of Rainbow Runners packed up tight with heaps of predators all around them in the middle of the channel. We threw poppers in and they got attacked by Doggies, Barracuda and Sharks. We then dropped jigs right in the middle of it all and hooked a few doggies but only managed to get 1 to the boat the tax men strike again. With the sharks playing havoc on us it was time to chase a marlin. The baits just got let back when a 350 pounder jumped onto the swimming Queenie. It was the only one caught this arfternoon what a great way to finish the day!!
