Fishing Swains

[Graham Scott]

Hi Warren,
We operate some boats from CQ, I think the weather has a good chance to be even better than seabreeze thinks. We are overdue for a big high to sit right on top of us. I think its likely that you'll get SE 15-20 on the way out but it should be pretty nice by Tuesday. Not too sure about the swains but we certainly think in winter that the peak fishing is later in the day, not so much early, or is just us whinging about the cold?
Make sure you get a seat in the dories for the last shift of the day.

[warren clark]

Thanks Guys,
             I,m in wind down from work just getting a few last minute things ready. You've all been there before. And how good does it feel.  Cheers Warren

[warren clark]

Hi Swain's was great,
            We worked hard for the first 4-5 days. Casting poppers and stick baits for what seemed to be a million times  with at best  one or two  hit/hookup a day (thats with 3 of us casting from a dory). It was a big learning curve on  having big drag set and putting the boat in the right spot ready for a hook up.The first 4-5 days we where dusted every time, except for 2 sharky mackerel and a Long Tom.
           But on the last day we got up and with 100 bruises under my left arm from ripping poppers through the water and we saw the birds working and bait fish breaking the surface.We hooked up on 3 or 4 good GT's in a couple of hours that morning, one good fish we got to see and another to the boat which we took a quick pic and let go. The trip took a bit of getting over but all said and done  it was a  hell of a trip.
                            Cheers Warren
           

[Graham Scott]

Warren,
Good to hear you had fun. Did you manage any reefies?
How was the weather?

[warren clark]

 Hi Graham
         The weather was near perfect. I think it was better that we where there last week and not this week. It  looks like it could be a bit bouncy.We did catch some reefies but it wasn't with poppers or stickbaits.We had some jigging and soft plastic sessions but had no luck with the pet rocks.
   We spent hours working the shallow reefs with small poppers and stickbaits looking for a coral trout and  could see the fish darting out from the reefs only to have a quick look and head back. We might have to work on our technique.  Cheers Warren

[Jay Burgess]

Any pics from the trip Warren?

[warren clark]

Hi Jay,
       I'm waiting for a few more pictures and if there is any worth showing I will post them later. The Boat was the Eastern Voyager and I would highly recommend it for a general purpose Swains trip.The Green/blue cone shaped popper was one that I made and seemed to work well. Have a look at this link --

[Angus Hulme]

Hi Warren, congrats on what looks like a good fun trip. A bit more info would be great if you can manage it......what outfit were you using there? To my untrained eye, it looks like a Spheros reel, and if so, how did you find it for GT's?  That homemade popper looks good, I am making some poppers for a Whitsunday trip later in the year, and any info on your methods would be interesting.

Cheers
Angus

Edit: just seen your post over on the other thread about the Spheros. 

[Travis Heaps]

Good work Warren.

Do you know the proper name for that fish in the 5th photo down?  The have a mouthful of ridiculously sharp blue teeth and they usually cranky buggers...your a brave man holding onto it like that! 

All the ones we catch now stay outside the boat!  (Ask Warwicks hand for the exact reason why  )

[warren clark]

    I,m not in the photos I was the one taking them. Simon was using a speros 14000 upgraded and it went well.Glen the guy in the UTube clip and myself where fishing with stella's. Simon didn't hook up on a GT so its hard to say if the drag would have been enough but 5 Spanish Mackerel's where landed on speros's on our trip one being my Dad and they defiantly do the job.
  I might start a post about making poppers I have been cabinetmaking for the past 20 years but have only made the one batch of poppers.I'm sure there will be guys that will know loads more than me and set the story straight.Though  the ones I made caught fish so it will be a start.
                               Cheers Warren