The above slideshow is a small sample of the images from the 1 week trip to Crab, Black and Bugatti Reefs from March 2010. You'll find these and plenty more in the full clickable photo gallery link to view all images at your leisure (you'll need to wait 20-30 seconds for the gallery to load, there's a lot of images).
Click HERE to check out more info on our 2011 Drive Out trips
Our latest trip report covers fishing from the 5th-12th March 2010, and is as follows:-
TRIP REPORT by Glanville Heydenrych. Glanville has been guiding with Nomad for nearly 2 years now, and is an accomplished guide, photographer and writer. He has fished many different locations around the world.
Drive Out March 2010 Trip Report - 1 week trip..
This last week of fishing that we managed to squeeze in between the weather was unreal and as good as any other week of charter I have experienced with Nomad, a total of 175 GTs were landed for the 5 days of fishing between the 4 boats and the variety of fish for this last charter was very exciting.
The trip started off like a dream, and the over night journey out to the reef was probably the calmest I’ve seen yet and the feeling of waking up to an absolute mirror ocean can be quite overwhelming sometimes as you anticipate the day ahead. Boats were loaded and the game was on, we all set out in different direction to explore the new area we have been looking at fishing for some time and it was far from a disappointing…
By 10am that morning I heard the excitement over the radio as Chris and Nick started off with Sparks and Flames, Chris had already managed to tame 9 GTs in the first 2 hours of fishing and by the sounds of things was fully occupied as it seemed the fish were trying to climb into his boat, the day continued in much the same fashion and by the end of the day the total count of GTs between the 4 boats was 56 and that’s amongst the other fish that joined in the party, Shark Mackerel, Gold Spot Trevally, Bludger Trevally, Longtail tuna, Spanish Mackerel and even some big Cod that were raised on the poppers, the ocean seemed to be going off and every spot presented us with some sort of surprise despite the lack of current over the neap tides, by late that afternoon it seemed as the ocean was boiling as the edge of the reef was exploding with shoals of Fusiliers which can only be described as GT chocolates.
The following day was nothing short of phenomenal as the sun beated down onto an ocean of glass, the fish seemed to have a little lock jaw unless they were just waking up as by mid day the game was on, I stopped at a new spot, a long ledge that the light trickle of current seemed to be running along perfectly, “Have a cast here guys”, don’t think the words were out my mouth as I heard the drag of the 10 000 Stella in reverse, bending, ah wait double bending as I waited for to retrieve the fish from the water I had a small chance to look under the boat into the windless ocean or what seemed like an aquarium at the time, Gold Spots, GTs, Mackerel, Sharks and a healthy population of baitfish just seemed to be cruising around in a fashion I could only describe as being on a holiday, a 7kg Gold Spot Trevally and a 20-25kg GT were brought to the boat for a photography session before being sent back to there holiday.
As we pulled up to the ledge to have another cast I watched only 30m in front as Nick positioned his guys for a drift, the small splashes made from the poppers seemed to be intercepted by an air strike of bombs as 2 GTs simultaneously exploded on each of the lures, watching from the distance as the rods started bending over the shouts of excitement was quite an entertaining sight. My guys sent their lures into flight mode and it wasn’t long before the line was cutting the water as an angry Spanish mackerel made a run for it, after an aerial display a healthy 20kg specimen was boated for some photos, the sport wasn’t over yet as Nick by this stage had successfully boated their 2 fish and were back in it for more action, it wasn’t 5 casts and there was a figure getting stretched out the front cage in the dory…bending again. About a 100m down this ledge there was a small current eddy and a shoal of Bludgers and Gold Spot Trevally had trapped some white bait tight in the corner, a quick cast with some lighter gear and the fish were all over it, like a fat kid on a smarty…the feeding frenzied Bludgers were eating anything they saw and on the 30lb gear there was non stop screaming reels.
50 GTs and a healthy variety of other species ended a great day on a good note with a lot to look forward to for the following days to come.
The wind picked up a fraction over night and along with a little rain for the next 2 days seemed to slow the bite down a little but that didn’t at all stop us from targeting the smaller fish in the shallows on light gear, where the guys still managed to get well and truly smoked by big GTs and some big Cod that were prowling on the shallow bommies within the lagoon.
After some social drinks that evening my guys decided on a nice relaxed, layed back day. Well that’s what they thought anyway! A late breakfast and delayed departure saw us in search of some final fishing action at 10am and after a slow warm up start it rapidly turned into game time as the last spot we stopped at that afternoon at about 2pm was on fire, packs of GTs had managed to ball up about 8 or 10 shoals of Fusiliers into boiling shoals of terror, it didn’t seem fair, every cast between or anywhere near the petrified baitfish turned in a froth of white water as a pack of fired up GTs started fighting over the lure, double hook ups and even the odd triple hook up was the game for the rest of the afternoon and we ended up with 18 GTs up to 35kg before we had to make a mad scramble to get back to the mothership to prepare for the departure back to Mackay.
The trip over all was a great success, we were lucky enough to have a range of Sebile Lures on the charter and they proved to be deadly for us, the 182mm stick shad is an unstoppable lure for GTs and the smaller size Stick Shads and Flat Shads are the way forward for casting around the lagoon for Shark mackerel, Spaniards, Gold Spots, Bludgers and Coral Trout. I was very impressed at how much thought and work has gone into the lures.
The bad weather we were unable to do the second week of charter but I am busting to get back out there and catch some fish again, thanks to the guests on the last charter and I’m looking forward to fishing with you guys again in the future.
As I write this report, we're heading back to Jewell for another couple of trips, so stand by for another report in a few weeks time.
See you out there.
Damon Olsen.
All material copyright Nomad Sportfishing Adventures 2009
