Great Barrier Reef, Australia
September 2013
Just got back from a fantastic trip with Nomad Sportfishing to Bligh Reef at the northern end of the Great Barrier Reef. Caught over 30 different species all on artificials; topwaters and jigs. Getting there was an adventure in itself. I flew from Los Angeles to Cairns, Australia via San Francisco and Auckland. I overnighted in Cairns (caught a few fish by the hotel while they were preparing my room including a Queenfish and a Mangrove Jack) and then caught a flight the next morning to the small Aboriginal town of Lockhart River. From there Nomad arranged a van to take us to the tiny town of Portland Roads (looked like it had about 6 houses) where we overnighted again in a guest house. In the morning, we met up with the sportfishing boats which took us to the mothership Odyssey. We got the orientation and then headed to the outer reef to begin fishing.
Once out on the reef in the mothership the routine was to wake up around 7, eat breakfast, board whatever smaller sportfishing boat you were assigned that day, and then fish all day until 5 pm or so and come back. They had 4 boats so we fished 3 per boat based on what type of fishing people wanted to do. It was lure fishing only- no bait. You could cast heavy lures on heavier tackle outside the reef for large Giant Trevally and other fish or cast lighter lures on the inside of the reef for smaller fish. Every day I did some of each. You could also mix it up by jigging plastics on the bottom which was pretty successful most of the time.
On the first day the GTs were biting hard and the three of us landed 8 for the morning with about that many getting away. I landed the biggest one which was over 50lbs. It put up a tremendous fight and actually bent the 8/0 Owner Jobu hook in my lure. I did not know those could be bent. Another fish broke my rod (it was a two piece and I hadn't inserted the top part far enough) so I lost that one and some others. The outside popping was sometimes slow and other times full of action. I mixed it up between poppers and stickbaits and overall had more action on the stickbaits. I actually landed two large jobfish on the same stickbait at the same time which was a highlight for me. The strikes on the big poppers were tremendous, especially from the GTs. A lot of times they did not hook up, but it was still fun to watch them come out of the water. We also got a lot of strikes from Red Bass and Coral Trout. I had a Dogtooth Tuna hit my stickbait right next to the boat and bite through the line; that was the only Dogtooth I had. Some other guys got some while trolling but I didn't really want to troll. When you hooked a fish the guide would gun the motor and head away from the reef to prevent the fish from burying you in the rocks. The guides were very fast and once out in deeper water most fish were landed except for the occasional one that got eaten by sharks.
When the tide was done running in we would typically fish light tackle on top of the reefs in shallow water. This fishing was extremely challenging as even small fish could bury you in the many coral heads that were everywhere. When fishing in shallow reef it was almost impossible to prevent some of the larger fish from getting back to their rocky homes and once they got there the coral almost always cut your line. Luckily the fish were very adept at unhooking themselves once the line cut and if you were using a floating lure most of the time it would float to the surface in a minute or two and you could get it back. One guy had been using the same lure for 3 years and been broken off countless times and always got it back. Of course on this trip he lost it.
There was a huge variety of fish that would hit lures in the shallows, including a couple species of barracuda, many species of snapper and grouper, many species of emperor fish, and juvenile versions of all the larger fish on the outside. There were also many adult versions of the bigger fish in the shallows, and when they bit it usually resulted in an exciting 3 second battle ending in a cut line. There were so many coral heads that even if a fish did not pull any drag it could still get into the rocks. I did see a couple of 25lb fish landed in the shallows on light gear which was really a superb effort and required a lot of luck. I think the biggest thing I landed in the shallows was around 15lbs and anything over 5lbs was something to be proud of. There were some 100lb+ Maori Wrasse in the shallows that were impossible to land on even the heavy gear. One came out and tried to eat a 10lb Bluefin Trevally I was reeling in. A few nice wrasse were landed but all the ones I hooked busted off.
The light tackle stuff was a real highlight for me. I mostly fished with a topwater Zara Spook and watching all the strikes on top was awesome. After I lost all my Zara Spooks I switched to Sebile Stick Shads which also got crunched. Luckily when I lost all of those it was time to go.
Jigging in 100ft of water with soft plastics was very productive but resulted in a lot of fish burying you in the rocks and cutting the line. Actually, all of the fishing resulted in that happening a lot. I did manage to get some nice fish off the bottom. Lucanus jigs worked surprisingly well; I had never used them before but broke 5 off on big fish and became a believer. I learned about halfway through the trip that if you tried to horse the fish up they would usually just break you off as most could not be stopped from getting into rocks. However, if you played them relatively gently a lot of them would not realize they were hooked and would not power towards the rocks. I used that technique several times with some success. Sharks got some of the fish we got off the bottom though.
The swells were pretty big most days outside the reef and it was pretty hard to keep your balance and cast big lures on the outside if you were up in front. Between the sun, wind, and swells it made for a pretty tiring day in the little shadeless boats. Everyone was pretty beat at the end of each day and were chugging painkillers. I don't know how many Advil I took but it was a lot. Back, shoulders, and hands were the worst. My back adjusted by midweek, but my hands were so sore from having fish try to rip the rod out of my hands all week that i could barely make a fist the last day. It was not until four days after the trip that I was able to get my wedding ring back on because my fingers were so swollen. Good times.
September 2013
Just got back from a fantastic trip with Nomad Sportfishing to Bligh Reef at the northern end of the Great Barrier Reef. Caught over 30 different species all on artificials; topwaters and jigs. Getting there was an adventure in itself. I flew from Los Angeles to Cairns, Australia via San Francisco and Auckland. I overnighted in Cairns (caught a few fish by the hotel while they were preparing my room including a Queenfish and a Mangrove Jack) and then caught a flight the next morning to the small Aboriginal town of Lockhart River. From there Nomad arranged a van to take us to the tiny town of Portland Roads (looked like it had about 6 houses) where we overnighted again in a guest house. In the morning, we met up with the sportfishing boats which took us to the mothership Odyssey. We got the orientation and then headed to the outer reef to begin fishing.
Once out on the reef in the mothership the routine was to wake up around 7, eat breakfast, board whatever smaller sportfishing boat you were assigned that day, and then fish all day until 5 pm or so and come back. They had 4 boats so we fished 3 per boat based on what type of fishing people wanted to do. It was lure fishing only- no bait. You could cast heavy lures on heavier tackle outside the reef for large Giant Trevally and other fish or cast lighter lures on the inside of the reef for smaller fish. Every day I did some of each. You could also mix it up by jigging plastics on the bottom which was pretty successful most of the time.
On the first day the GTs were biting hard and the three of us landed 8 for the morning with about that many getting away. I landed the biggest one which was over 50lbs. It put up a tremendous fight and actually bent the 8/0 Owner Jobu hook in my lure. I did not know those could be bent. Another fish broke my rod (it was a two piece and I hadn't inserted the top part far enough) so I lost that one and some others. The outside popping was sometimes slow and other times full of action. I mixed it up between poppers and stickbaits and overall had more action on the stickbaits. I actually landed two large jobfish on the same stickbait at the same time which was a highlight for me. The strikes on the big poppers were tremendous, especially from the GTs. A lot of times they did not hook up, but it was still fun to watch them come out of the water. We also got a lot of strikes from Red Bass and Coral Trout. I had a Dogtooth Tuna hit my stickbait right next to the boat and bite through the line; that was the only Dogtooth I had. Some other guys got some while trolling but I didn't really want to troll. When you hooked a fish the guide would gun the motor and head away from the reef to prevent the fish from burying you in the rocks. The guides were very fast and once out in deeper water most fish were landed except for the occasional one that got eaten by sharks.
When the tide was done running in we would typically fish light tackle on top of the reefs in shallow water. This fishing was extremely challenging as even small fish could bury you in the many coral heads that were everywhere. When fishing in shallow reef it was almost impossible to prevent some of the larger fish from getting back to their rocky homes and once they got there the coral almost always cut your line. Luckily the fish were very adept at unhooking themselves once the line cut and if you were using a floating lure most of the time it would float to the surface in a minute or two and you could get it back. One guy had been using the same lure for 3 years and been broken off countless times and always got it back. Of course on this trip he lost it.
There was a huge variety of fish that would hit lures in the shallows, including a couple species of barracuda, many species of snapper and grouper, many species of emperor fish, and juvenile versions of all the larger fish on the outside. There were also many adult versions of the bigger fish in the shallows, and when they bit it usually resulted in an exciting 3 second battle ending in a cut line. There were so many coral heads that even if a fish did not pull any drag it could still get into the rocks. I did see a couple of 25lb fish landed in the shallows on light gear which was really a superb effort and required a lot of luck. I think the biggest thing I landed in the shallows was around 15lbs and anything over 5lbs was something to be proud of. There were some 100lb+ Maori Wrasse in the shallows that were impossible to land on even the heavy gear. One came out and tried to eat a 10lb Bluefin Trevally I was reeling in. A few nice wrasse were landed but all the ones I hooked busted off.
The light tackle stuff was a real highlight for me. I mostly fished with a topwater Zara Spook and watching all the strikes on top was awesome. After I lost all my Zara Spooks I switched to Sebile Stick Shads which also got crunched. Luckily when I lost all of those it was time to go.
Jigging in 100ft of water with soft plastics was very productive but resulted in a lot of fish burying you in the rocks and cutting the line. Actually, all of the fishing resulted in that happening a lot. I did manage to get some nice fish off the bottom. Lucanus jigs worked surprisingly well; I had never used them before but broke 5 off on big fish and became a believer. I learned about halfway through the trip that if you tried to horse the fish up they would usually just break you off as most could not be stopped from getting into rocks. However, if you played them relatively gently a lot of them would not realize they were hooked and would not power towards the rocks. I used that technique several times with some success. Sharks got some of the fish we got off the bottom though.
The swells were pretty big most days outside the reef and it was pretty hard to keep your balance and cast big lures on the outside if you were up in front. Between the sun, wind, and swells it made for a pretty tiring day in the little shadeless boats. Everyone was pretty beat at the end of each day and were chugging painkillers. I don't know how many Advil I took but it was a lot. Back, shoulders, and hands were the worst. My back adjusted by midweek, but my hands were so sore from having fish try to rip the rod out of my hands all week that i could barely make a fist the last day. It was not until four days after the trip that I was able to get my wedding ring back on because my fingers were so swollen. Good times.
