Exploratory Drive Out 26 Jan 2012:
Alex- Woke up to a millpond this morning. The weather was stifling but luckily the fishing was just as hot. We hit some shoals on the outer edge of the reef first up and had some good GT action but none to the boat. We then had a troll around to check out the country and get some breeze flowing. Trolling along we saw some nice bottom so had a jig. For the rest of the day we had an absolute ball catching all sorts of critters. Heaps of big trout, jobfish, redthroat, rainbow runner, mackerel and lots of big critters that beat us. Some outstanding captures today were in consecutive drops, Warren nailed a nice 12kg doggie followed by a 18kg GT on a tiny slug jigged on the bottom. We missed some big fish today but had some really good action most of the day. It was such a welcome change to see what else the reef has to offer rather than strictly chasing GTs. We finished fishing and had an hour's run to where Odyssey moved to and it was one of the most enjoyable boat rides I have had. Complete glass out, slight swell and awesome sunset.
John:- What a way to spend Australia Day! A group of true blue aussie lads fishing the outer barrier reef in glass out conditions, we ventured to the outer edge to fish a couple of reefs but the current was raging so we tucked in behind the first reef and nailed a couple of solid GTs before the fish went off the chew, we put some minnows out to try find some new dogtooth ground which was really successful except for the sharks beating us up, it was unbelievable the amount of dogtooth that we hooked up on at these shoals watching them come up and eat jigs before destroying us 40m below. Two standouts from today where watching a 40kg dogtooth teasing us in about 11m of water following and snapping at our poppers but not eating them and a huge GT swim underneath the boat and cruise over to the nearest bombie in crystal clear water - a great days fishing with a top crew
Clint: With glass calm conditions todays it felt like something from the movie the perfect storm. We headed out wide in a small dory trolling skirts looking for marlin or sailfish.We did raise a beaky and also fished some awesome shoals getting some doggies, mackerel and job fish. When the run out tide hit we headed south and fished some great water for GTs having 2 hours of not stop action. The surface strikes and fights in crystal clear calm conditions would make any man's mouth water. It was sensational out there today
Damon: incredible calm conditions to start the day, and with Graham, Dave and Mick onboard we headed East in search of new ground. One of our first stops produced a spanish mackerel not far short of 40kg for David on his stickbait, and it went seriously hard. From then onwards the GTs were playing games with us, and we would have had 25 bites before we boated our first GT, a few more GTs on the board and we moved to a couple of sand cays around lunch and saw some incredible bludger trevally action, with bait stacked in the shallows, literally boiling on the surface. There were sharks, rainbow runners and all sorts of chaos going on in the shallows. After lunch, things went quiet for a few hours before we found another reef stacked with bait and ended the day with a great 2hr GT session, where all the guys caught a couple of fish each, and lost a lot more. The best GT landed for the day was a 35kg specimen by Dave. All up an awesome day on the ocean.
