Been back a week now so I thought it was time I posted a report from our Ribbon Reefs trip. A group of 4 of us: Brock, Jason, Scott and myself met up with Steve and Stretch from Australian Angling for 5 days of popping, jigging and trolling. The destination was the Ribbons, about 2hrs steaming out from Cooktown.
Jason had confided in me a couple of weeks before the trip that he had never used anything other than fly tackle before - he booked the trip because GT fishing sounded like fun and anyway, how hard can it be?? This had me a little nervous about parking him on the back of a game boat in the midst of a bunch of GT anglers, but as I had hoped he was a fast learner. First day he was all over the place but by the second day he was punching them out like a pro. I suppose it doesn't hurt that he is built like a tank either... At least he could keep his feet on the ground, unlike Scott who used Jason as a cushion while skating across the deck being dragged by a big GT (Crocs and 20kg of drag dont mix!).
First day was a blast with a quadruple hookup followed by a triple and so on. The GTs were all schooled up for breeding, so the general idea was cast for an hour with not much happening until a big black 'mobile bommie' of fish shows up and all hell breaks loose. The GT's in the schools ranged from about 10-30kg+. Steve was up on the bridge yelling directions on where to cast, although on some of the schools there were so many fish it didn't matter what you did just so long as a lure got in the water.
Second day was much like the first, but by lunch time everyone was a little shagged so a bit of trolling was in order for the afternoon. Steve's favourite bommie was loaded with 20-30kg spaniards. I'm not normally too fond of trolling but when it involves monster spaniards jumping 15 feet in the air with a stickbait between their jaws then why not!
On the third day the wind dropped out leaving us with glassy conditions, it wasn't too bad at first but as the day wore on it was clear that the current had stopped pushing up against the reef as well, causing the fishing to slow right down too.
The last couple of days continued to be challenging, so we tracked well to the south as far down as Cairns trying to find some more current, we also spent some time chasing marlin and jigging for anything that came along. I was hoping for a Dogtooth on the jig but settled for a high fin amberjack (almaco jack), a new one for me, while Scott specialised in hooking big critters on jigs that were in turn eaten by bigger sharks. Brock specialised in sitting on the bridge drinking beer and keeping cool then slipping down for a couple of casts, pulling the best GT of the day, then disappearing back up top with a beer in hand for the rest of the arvo. Jason (The latest flyfishing/GT convert)on the other hand just kept casting all day honing his technique and knocking off some good fish in the process. The heat was absolutely relentless over the last couple of days - every time we stopped someone was over the side cooling off or turning the deck hose on themselves.
On the last day we pulled up in a touristy snokelling area (green zone), which Steve reckoned had a good population of GT's. Nothing much seemed to be happening so Scott and I went off snorkelling. On our return there was a bit of commotion going on at the back of the boat. I soon figured out why when a pillie landed right in front of my mask. A second later all I could see was a bunch of 15-40kg GT's charging at me, swerving just centimetres from my face. This was a real highlight of the trip getting to swim with these awesome creatures.
All in all an amazing trip to a great part of the world. Steve and Stretch did a great job and as always some healthy sledging went on.
The pictures below are a mixture from Brock, Scott and myself.
