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Capricorn Islands with Nomad Sportfishing – Trip Report
Brandon Khoo

Well, what a trip!

There were just four keen customers along for this trip as this is the one trip in the year where Damon Olsen and his guides from Nomad Sportfishing actually get to fish themselves so they limit the numbers. The four of us were myself, George Pang (who is another of our members here!), Steve and Peter.

From Nomad were Damon, Tim, Ed, Jason and a new deckie, Liam.

We were based on the mothership, the Odyssey. The nine of us shared three dories and Damon rotated who fished with who each day.

We fished for six days in total – five days for GTs and one day estuary casting for barramundi in between. The reason for that was primarily driven by weather.

The first day of fishing was tough with rough seas. Two of the dories fished the vicinity of the mother ship while one more adventurous group (of which George was a member) went for a visit to an island some 40 minutes away. It was a rough trip for them but one well worth the effort as they certainly found more fish out there than the other two dories did fishing inside. They landed a number of fish up to 30 kilos.

The area the other two dories fished was tough – what we were doing was casting into bommies and rock walls. A hook-up saw the dories go into a quick reverse with the angler clamping down on the spool to try to pull the fish into more open country. Trying to go toe to toe with a fish without trying to get into more open water would be almost certain death as the GT simply dives straight down and cuts you off.

Our dory landed a couple of fish up to the 25kg mark in the morning and we had a few other follows but it was relatively quiet. I cast my arse off for one follow - such is life! Steve in the other dory in the area was smoked by a fish around the 40kg mark, losing his only Carpenter Sea Frog in the process! It was a shame as that lure was a real battle scarred warrior. In the afternoon, we set sail for the Capricorn Islands which was about an hour or so away.

Shoalwater Bay itself is enormous. I never thought that it was of this size but it is huge inside. You don't get this impression sailing into it but it opens up enormously. The tides in this area are also enormous with us experiencing six metre tides during the visit. The tides are so big that we saw a lot of stranded turtles inside the bay on the mudflats at low tide. They obviously can't get out quickly enough and get stranded until the next high tide.

Upon entering The Capricorn Islands and Shoalwater Bay, the four customers along with Damon and Tim went fishing whilst the rest of the crew took the Odyssey right into the bay. Unfortunately, it was on the incoming tide and that made for difficult fishing. It is really hard casting when the boat is being tossed around like crazy! George and I shared a boat with Tim. Tim still managed to hook a couple of fish losing a big fish around the 40kg mark when he had a terminal failure and landing another around the 20kg mark, not to mention a big coral trout. George and I caught zilch but it was an experience watching how hard Tim gave it to the fish. He is a BIG strong bloke and could really dish it out to the fish. George had a lot of fun at Tim’s expense back on the Odyssey by saying that Tim would point out where the two of us should cast, he would then cast in a different direction and catch the fish (it wasn’t true of course but why would you let that get in the way of a good story). Mind you, it left Tim completely and absolutely lost for words!

The next day, we decided to go fishing for barramundi. This was driven more by strong winds outside and a desire to explore Shoalwater Bay itself more than anything else. Between all of us, we landed only one barramudi (caught by Steve) but caught some big fingermarks and a host of other estuary fish. It was odd but some areas would produce primarily cod and others only fingermarks. Shoalwater Bay certainly has great potential for estuary fishing and you could comfortably spend weeks exploring just the bay itself. Damon’s boat spent some time trying to get a huge threadfin about 1.2 metres long to take a lure without any luck.

The nest day (3rd day), we left Shoalwater Bay itself to head out to High Peak Island. The trip out to High Peak took a few hours and we launched the dories about 10.30am. I shared a dory with Jason, a new guide for Nomad who was previously at Cape Don and their new deckie, Liam from Zimbabwe.

While the other guys sped off, the three of us who had no idea on where to fish in Shoalwater Bay decided to simply take pot luck and fish where ever looked okay! We raised a small number of fish without luck although late in the afternoon, I had a huge fish which would have been comfortably 50kg plus make three attempts at my popper without hooking up. This was a real shame because if it had connected on its third attempt, the fish would have been in relatively deep water and I would have had a decent chance.

This was a relatively quiet day from a GT perspective for our boat but again, I have to admit that the three of us could not resist casting plastics at the shallow bommies after about two hours trying for GTs and spent most of the days taking advantage of the amazing light fishing available around the island. We just couldn't resist it as looking at the fishfinder was driving us crazy! We didn’t land a GT but we didn’t try that hard either! If only I had hooked that 50kg plus fish……. On the other hand, we caught a myriad of other fish. The other two boats had a successful day each landing a number of GTs up to around the 30kg mark.

The fourth day saw myself and Jason sharing a boat with Damon. Damon decided to visit a tiny rock outcrop called Low Rock which was some 30 – 40 minutes away. The boat George was in headed off for Breadloaf Island. We found Low Rock out in the middle of nowhere. It was simply a small rock outcrop sitting on its own at least five miles from the closest island. The first cast of the day by Jason saw him connected immediately to a big fish around the 40kg mark. To put it simply, he got smoked in seconds. Considering he was fishing 100lb braid on a WV83XH, well, I think that puts into perspective the terrain we were fishing.

For the next hour, just about every cast into that rock got smashed. I was shocked at how tough the GTs were here as they were stronger for their size than GTs I had encountered anywhere else. The fish were generally really thick and were more heavily built than GTs I have seen elsewhere.

Damon landed the best fish from the rock which was around the 35kg mark. I landed my biggest fish for the trip here which a smidgen under 30kg. We spent some 2.5 hours around this rock and were absolutely amazed by the fish life around that rock. We were terrorised by spanish mackeral who loved stealing lures. After a short burst where a school of primarily black GTs came out of nowhere to attack all our lures (believe it or not, not one hooked up although my lure got grabbed three times), the GT bite shut down so we decided to test another location.

We tested a few other islands before returning to fish around High Peak Island. I am still stunned by the fish life we saw around the island we fished on this day. There were bait schools exploding all around, we got surrounded by longtail tuna on a few occasions, we saw pelagics slashing through the schools almost within rod length. During this day, we must have seen 50 GTs during the course of the day – just amazing. We though we did well until we spoke with George’s boat and they encountered even more GTs than we did! They had gone out to Breadloaf Island and had schools of big GTs chasing poppers and stickbaits.

Day five – I went out again with Damon, this time with young Liam. We decided to explore some islands close by. We found a small patch of bommies and found a good school of GTs there to about 25kgs. The bite continued for about half hour to an hour before the fish switched off so we moved. We then decided to fish against some cliffs. After a few missed strikes, Liam connected to a good fish and after a tremendously tough fight, he landed a GT around 30kgs. It was a great fish in a beautiful location. While Damon and Liam continued to land fish, yours truly was becoming extremely exasperated as I simply could not hook a fish!!

I had a number of follows and strikes but nothing would hook up. Well, little did I know my horror run was about to start. Around midday, we found a nice rock outcrop on its own. We had a very funny experience here as Damon had his stickbait snipped off by a big Spaniard – which then had a long tom try to snatch the stickbait from its mouth. Unfortunately (for the long tom), the lure hooked it in the back and the last we saw of it was it swimming off madly hot pursued by about a dozen other long tom who were trying to grab the stickbait!! The long tom were huge – abouty five long each. In fact, through the trip, we saw a lot of huge long tom.

About five minutes later, I cast my Orion stickbait into an extremely dangerous spot which was to the other side of a bommie. It was struck by a big GT which would have been at least 35kg plus. Damon put the boat into reverse and I really though we had the fish into deeper water when its lunge found the bommie. Damn it……….. I was really disappointed as not only did I lose the fish but I also lost my heavily battle scarred Orion Bigfoot.

The afternoon continued and both Damon and Liam continued to catch fish while I continued to see GTs chasing lures and missing. Grrrrrrrr – well, the day was about to get worse, much worse.

Late in the afternoon, we found a spot where the queenfish were going mad. They would hit anything that went in the water so we spent some time having some fun. I put on my smallest stickbait which was a Japanese model of some brand I cannot remember which was about 100grams. Anyway, we tired of the queenies and we found a area nearby littered with bommies. I sent a long cast across the area which was absolutely monstered half way back by a fish which we estimated around 50kg.

Damon charged the boat out and to cut a long story short, well, Damon and the fish played pinball with me at the front of the boat. More by sheer luck than anything else, we got the fish into open water and I really thought I had a good chance with the fish when the line went slack. I reeled in the line to find the twisted leader and half the through-wire of the lure. Either the GT broke the lure and then compromised the internal through-wire construction or the internal wire simply broke. Either way, I was shattered as I knew how lucky we were to get that fish into open water in the first place. On reflection, this was another amazing day and we must have seen some thirty to forty GTs during the day. I went to bad feeling quite deflated having lost two big fish. It got worst……..

I had bruises on my ribs from Damon and the GT playing pinball with me. I actually bent the rails on the dory!

Last day! I shared a boat with Ed and Jason and we headed for an amazing looking series of rocks early in the morning which they had fished with success the previous day. Ed positioned the boat and I do remember thinking “bloody hell, if I hook a good fish here, it has got the current in its favour to head straight down into the bommies”. In any event, two casts later, an absolutely massive fish around the 55kg mark ate my lure. I don’t believe I was ever a show, even with 100 pound braid. The fish simply turned side on and then dived down into the bommies to cut me off. Bloody hell, that made it three big fish in a row that had smoked me.

Twenty minutes later, we stopped for a few casts in a similar type of spot. I again thought “bloody hell, not again with the current” but of course, the temptation to make the cast is irresistible so what do I do? Cast it straight in, of course. We were pretty close so it was just a short lob in. I got one pop in when something of prehistoric proportions sticks its head out and devours my lure. This fish was absolutely enormous and the result was pretty obvious. It simply sounded and that was that.

I believe that this fish would be close to the biggest GT I have ever hooked and it was noticeably larger than the 55kg + plus I had hooked just twenty minutes before. I was pretty damn dejected after that and was even more so in mid-afternoon when I hooked a jet black GT around the 35kg mark. I have been after one of these for years and we got the fish into relatively deep water where I was pretty certain I was on top of it. Unfortunately, the braid parted inexplicably and that was that. I must have had a nick in it from a bommie earlier but losing that fish was almost heartbreaking.

Both Ed and Jason landed a few fish with the largest around the 25kg mark. Jason did get smoked by a fish that was about 35kg and lost his favourite lure. After that, we decided to go and have some fun and for about two hours, we had some amazing light tackle fishing for queenies and golden trevally. At one stage, we had a triple hookup in the boat on queenies and goldens.

I returned to the boat to find out Peter lost even more fish than I did on the day!!

Other Information

Territory we fished – it wasn’t really Shoalwater Bay itself. The fishing for GTs was primarily around the islands off Shoalwater Bay and was in absolutely stunning country. We were some 80 miles out to sea. We fished rock outcrops and against cliffs which were just so beautiful. The area is enormous and the GT potential there is amazing. Considering they will barely get three weeks in each year, Nomad could fish this area for the next ten years and still not fish the whole area. There were many places we fished for half hour and moved on because it was an exploratory trip. We fished some great spots we did not go back to.

Equipment – let me put it this way. Next year, I’m going back with 130lb braid. For this location, go as heavy as you’ve got. The fishing is extreme and is incredibly tough on gear. There were a few broken rods, ripped stripper guides, broken handles on reel, broken lures etc. All of us got smoked at some time or another but I got it the worst! In terms of rods, there is no subtlety here. Go for the strongest rod you can manage. The most popular among us were the Carpenter WV80/83s, SP78UHLs and the Smith Tokara. Personally, I used my favourite rod, my Komodo Dragon for most of the week and it coped okay. Next year, I will pick two rods out of the Komodo Dragon, the WV and SP UHL to take on this trip. We had heavy twisted leaders broken after being dragged over bommies.

Lures – although I was under the impression that it would be green water, the visibility was terrific and both poppers and stickbaits worked equally well. We used a variety of poppers with the most successful being the Heru Cubera and a lure stocked by Damon known as the Jai (which was arguably the most successful). I lost all my Cuberas so I know what I will be taking next time! For stickbaits, the Heru Wahoo was king followed by the Orion Bigfoot. I do not believe that this locations is suitable for calm water stickbaits like the Smith Runboh and Carpenter Gammas. I did try the Runboh but it as just too rough.

Fishing available – we focussed primarily on GTs (not surprising for a GT trip) but the light sportsfishing around the islands is stunning and as good as anything I have encountered. From a GT perspective, the fishing is terrific. There are a lot of fish there but it is a very demanding location to fish. The fish range in size from small to frightening as I found out. I is unforgiving which is evidenced by the fact that the largest fish landed was around the 35kg mark and we hooked numerous fish larger than that. Over the last two days, I lost five fish in a row with three of them in a row being 50kgs +. We were advised that the fishing this year was similar to what they encountered last year.

Damon as a host – I can’t say enough of Damon as a host. The quality of the food is just amazing and what makes Damon such an entertaining host is his passion for fishing and that he is simply just a great bloke. Considering his fishing experience is awesome, I was impressed by his continuing quest for knowledge. You really do get a full days fishing with these guys and you return exhausted to the Odyssey each evening. While all the guys are good, both Damon and Tim are amazingly good guides.

What I learned – I thought I knew a bit about fishing for GTs but Shoalwater is just a completely different kettle of fish. I know it may be hard for people to believe this but the fish there are just tougher than anywhere else I’ve fished. They’re thicker and stronger and I think it may have something to do with the current they have to live in. The locations we fished are also very unforgiving and are very tough on gear.

Would I go again? – absolutely! Based on the places I have been, I believe this is the ultimate GT location for the true believer. The fish are there – it comes down to whether you’re good enough to extract them. I'm pretty certain that I will be looking to organise a group for this location next year and we will be inviting Damon to provide details of the trips for next year when this becomes available. If anyone is interested or would like more information in the meantime, please feel free to PM me.

All material copyright Nomad Sportfishing Adventures 2009