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James Moran has been on several Nomad trips. This is his trip report for Marion Reef October 2006. You can Click Here to go to the Marion Picture gallery for this trip.
Brief outline
Marion Reef is a large coral atoll 200 odd miles of the coast of QLD. Further out than most fishing or charter boats venture it is a drab and wretched place. There is nothing good to do. No McDonalds, no movie theatres and no TV. Not even a playstation on the boat. What can I say. Just miles and miles of untouched coral atoll teaming with a wide variety of fish and bird life. Prisoners who have committed horrendous crimes against humanity should be sent here to learn their lessons. I had to suffer this for two weeks.
Fortunately I was not alone. Andre who I had only recently meet came alone as well. We had emailed back and forth a few times as he was also coming out on the trip and was looking for advice as to what to take. What tackle, how much etc etc. Andre is 70 years old and I was concerned that he would not be able to hack the pace. I was wrong. He fished like a demon and had a host of interesting stories which helped past the time between bites. The perfect gentleman, he needed to be drawn out a bit but the stories were well worth the effort. Having retired from his business 20 odd years ago he has a deal with his wife. He is allowed to fish or hunt for only one month in three. The rest of the time he has to spend with her. What business where you in I asked " we owned a chain of stores " he said. "like seven eleven" i said, "no, more like David Jones" he replied. I gather he had enough $$$$ to indulge his passions and had been almost everywhere you could fish or shoot. His best story involved a DC3 crash in the Desert in Sudan in about 1969. While waiting to be rescued the local villages asked him to shoot the Lion that had been killing their cattle. This he did and he still has the skin in his study. He casually mentioned that he had shot 8 lions and 14 elephants. I suggested that to get that many in one go he would have needed an air strike. He saw the funny side of this but said he had been on twenty odd safari's over the years. Now before we all go boo hoo about the animals, I must say that shooting isn't my thing but really it's no worse that fishing. The locals ate 90% of what was shot and got the only decent meal they probably get all year. Also the massive fees you pay go to the upkeep of the game reserves. As space is limited you need to cull the animals anyway.
Andre was a hoot and has invited me to his Jungle retreat in the Amazon Jungle. You can go fishing in the river (thats the Amazon) or just lounge on the veranda and watch the monkeys. Way cool. The property also has many Jaguar which I gather are a pain in the arse as they eat the dogs and the chickens. He also fears for his Grand children as Jaguars look on them as little happy meals with legs. I gather that any that hang around the house meet tragic ends but the rest roam his jungle doing what Jaguars do.
My three Thai mates were also there and that was like old times. It was great to see Jai, Ek and Tik again. They were, as always, very generous with there expertise and time. I am looking forward to spending some time with them later this year.
One of the great things about these trips is the variety of people you meet. Some you may not wish to meet again but most are fantastic and passionate about there fishing. Excellent to chat and swap stories as the sun goes down. Unfortunately everyone owns a computer and everyone has a computer problem. In future I am going to have to come up with another job.
The reef was beautiful. You will see the pics in the powerpoint and alas it doesn't really do it justice. Crystal clear blue water. You could look over the side and see 60 foot straight down. Some of the clearest water I have seen in the world. Tim who works on the boat and is a good mate of mine was keen to go spear fishing or lobster hunting every morning. getting up at five was hard but well worth the effort. I had been out to Marion some 15 years ago on another spearfishing trip and was keen to spear a dogtooth tuna.To do this you need to attract them. The best way to do this is to get in the water and make burley. Thats chopped up fish that floats away in the current and attracts many fish. Unfortunately it also attracts the sharks of which there are many in all shapes and sizes. On the first day we burled in the deeper water and both got shots at dogtooth. Only a few sharks appeared and kept there distance. Cool. The next day we tried in the shallower channel with more burley. Opp's, big mistake. A shitload of sharks appeared in all shapes and sizes. Mostly little white tip reef sharks but also some whalers and grey reef sharks. They were all very excited about the Burley in the water and curious about what we were. When one had a chew on the end of my spear gun and another swan between my legs I decide there was enough Burley in the water and breakfast was a good idea. The next day Tim shot a Dogtooth and the day after a big tiger shark appeared and chased us all back into the boat. You have no doubt seen the footage of the seals or penguins leaping out of the water and onto the land. Think of three blokes in wetsuits doing the same thing. The Tiger shark just swam up to the back of the Boat, ate the tuna that was hanging in the water and disappeared. Very Nature Channel. We wondered if it had gone and I stuck my head back in the water to look. It hadn't gone and was swimming straight back to the boat. It was about six foot away and if I had stuck my head in 10 seconds later would have stuck it straight into it's mouth. Ha Ha very funny. Apparently I pulled my head out fairly quickly. As we were in a rubber boat and the shark has lots of teeth we buggered off. Very boys own adventure stuff. I never did spear the dogtooth but as i didn't get eaten we can call it even.
Fishing was excellent. Caught lots of different types and different sizes. Best fish was the Dogtooth Tuna at 65 odd kilos which was the biggest for the trip and as I had been trying for awhile to get a big one was very happy. Also the GT was a big size and fun to catch. It was fairly shallow but reefy where we caught it and Scott did some great stunt dory driving in and out of the reef to enable me to stay attached. Coral trout came in one size at Marion and that was massive. Some of the biggest trout I have seen. Great fun to catch.
Food on the mother ship was excellent as always. Last time I was out with these guys the chef was Alane and French. This time it was Rob and Australian. I must say that although Alane was excellent Rob had a better idea of what the average Australian fishing bloke liked. He even managed to do me a mango Sorbet although we only got creme burlee once. Tough gig.
I could crap on for another ten pages about how good it was but you guys get the general idea.
My next trip is still pending as I have a few options. I am running out of money and Holidays and may need to get a second job and a serious medical condition if I want to keep getting the time off.
 All material copyright Nomad Sportfishing Adventures 2007
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