 
Our Trip Report to Flinders/Holmes Reef from the 24th November-10th December 2006 is as follows:-
Click HERE for the Flinders Reef Dec 2006 Picture Gallery.
Click HERE to check out Flinders Reef on our location guide.
Summary - Unbelievable fishing action! Everything from 800lb black marlin at remote seamounts to double hookups on 50kg dogtooth while trolling for marlin bait through to a double hookup on the dory involving a 50kg GT and a 95kg dogtooth tuna, both landed and released. This area was one of the most spectacular fishing areas we have visited to date. We've also now landed dogtooth tuna over 200lbs and been hooked up to 50kg GTs at every Camp Kenn location this year. The one added attraction of Flinders Reef was the spectacular marlin fishing. Every full day spent marlin fishing resulted in at least one black marlin over 400lbs.
Report - Located about 220nm north of Hamilton Island, the Flinders/Holmes group of reefs held particular promise as a great billfish location, but having never visited this area we were all unsure of what to expect. Our first group of anglers had visited Kenn Reef in 2005 with great success and I think they were unsure if similar results could be repeated in 2006. Peter Holmes had organised this group and he was joined by brother Kym Holmes, with Darryl, Frank, Tony, Maurice, Perry and Ian making up the remainder of the group. The group arrived to a solid 20kn SE wind and a marginal anchorage. Fortunately the fish were well and truly on the job this week and there were some spectacular catches and many firsts for the trip. Tony started proceedings on Saltaire with a solid 30kg GT from around the reef edge and aboard Nomad we were into a solid bite of dogtooth tuna to around 20kgs. Scott was guiding a dory and also started well with some big coral trout, GTs and red bass from the shallow section of the lagoon. Certainly a solid start to the trip and things were looking very good on the GT and doggie front.
We ventured a little south on the second day and Nomad and one of the dories found some truly spectacular action with Kim Holmes landing a 45kg GT and Peter Holmes a 20kg GT, as well as some respectable 30kg dogtooth tuna on the troll. The dory was having great action in the shallows on smaller blue fin trevally to 6kgs, green jobfish, red bass and some big 10-12kg coral trout. The boys on Saltaire were also into the action with a big catch of dogtooth tuna to around 25kgs. Things were certainly looking good.
We headed north the next day to check out a different area of Flinders Reef and aboard Nomad we found a ledge on the western edge which was packed full of huge doggies and GTs. We got busted off 3 times in a row on 50lb trolling gear before stopping a couple of 35kg doggies. One of the doggies Tim watched eat a stickbait on the surface was was one of the biggest he had ever seen at well over 100kgs. We also got a glimpse of a 45kg GT which busted us in the reef. The same ledge later in the afternoon also saw us jump off a 350lb black marlin.
The lure of one of the remote seamounts was too much for us on the following day and we loaded all the guys aboard the 2 game boats and headed for the wide blue yonder. The seamounts in the Coral Sea are truly spectacular to say the least. They are home to dogtooth tuna of untold sizes and some very large black marlin at the right time of year. That's not to forget the big yellow fin tuna and wahoo that also call these places home.
Our first day at the seamount resulted in no less than 10 marlin sightings and 8 strikes between the 2 boats. There were a few hard luck stories involving some 500-700lb black marlin, but we managed to land some very respectable fish of between 400-800lbs during our first day. It was big marlin fishing at it's absolute best. There will be a feature in an upcoming Marlin Magazine with all the details on what we did and caught in the Coral Sea on this trip, so I won't go on too much about the marlin fishing other than to say it was exceptional.
Peter Holmes's group flew out late morning on the 30th November but they managed 2hrs fishing before they left and were rewarded with a 300lb marlin, quite a nice going home treat. The next group who flew in were greeted to dead calm seas and a spectacular landing site. One of the pics above shows a shot taken out the window of the plane with the mothership sitting in over 100m of water. It was a very exciting place to be anchored and it was only the calm weather which allowed us to do this.
We were joined by a group fishing aboard Black Samurai this week as well as 5 anglers fishing aboard Nomad and one of our dories. Bob and Jon Williamson from the USA, Betsy Gilbert and Jon Reeves from the USA, and Daniel Frost from Melbourne were in for a great week.
Daniel had one of the most amazing weeks fishing imaginable. I'm running out of space here, but he landed numerous 50kg doggies, so many he lost count, a 45kg GT as well as several 30kg specimens, got busted right near the boat by a GT well over 60kgs, had a day in the dory with Tim where they caught over 60 fish with the smallest a 15kg dogtooth and the largest a 90kg dogtooth. They saw more than 8 doggies over 120kgs on this same day, but the smaller ones got to the jigs before the big ones could get there. Tim said it was without doubt the most spectacular day's fishing he has ever seen, and that's a BIG call. It also happened to be mirror calm with 45m visibility into the water that day. We caught a 600lb marlin, several yellow fin tuna, wahoo and doggies to 40kgs on the same day, but it paled in comparison to the stories that Tim and Daniel had from their day in the Dory.
Tim and Daniel went back to the same place the next day and only landed 35 fish for the day with the biggest a 50kg doggie and the smallest around 20kgs. Scott took Bob Williamson and Jon Williamson back to a similar area the day after and they landed and released nearly 100 fish for the day in the dory with everything from red bass, coral trout, doggies, GT to a big red emperor thrown in. Bob Williamson nailed the big red emperor estimated at around 45lbs, a real monster. The number and variety of fish caught were truly beyond belief, and really beyond our wildest dreams. This day with Bob, Scott and Jon was the most fish we have ever caught in a day from any of the boats in the Coral Sea, a spectacular effort from our 2 anglers and guide.
We ended up for the week with all 5 of our anglers having caught at least one black marlin between 300-650lbs, and all having caught GTs, red bass, coral trout and doggies to at least 40kgs. The weather was flat calm all week and it will go down in all our memories as one of the most amazing weeks of fishing we have ever experienced. It really is a total privilege to even visit these type of places, and to have the fishing just get better and better is more than we could have ever hoped for. We'll be back there next year and we'll also be visiting the remote Diamond Islets next year so email us now to book in as places are filling very quickly. Email us at info@nomadsportfishing.com.au
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