Big Fishing Adventures

[LostPiker]

Hi,

to cheer myself up from my outboard woes I have started to plan a once in a lifetime fishing adventure. After watching big cat reality on Amazon me and my boat mate have been talking about it. I have a little bit of inheritance so we are going to go for it unless we can find something better. 

Big Cat Reality is a 3/7 or 9 day trip on a big cat with a number of smaller tenders aboard, we are looking at the 7 day option. You sail out of Bundaberg Marina in Brisbane to Swains reef where the big boat anchors up and they put the little tenders in the water and you spend the days exploring the reef and fishing off the tenders, pop back for lunch then out again. There is a chef on board and you can fish off the main boat at night. Looks amazing and like nothing I've done before. I've not seen anything similar on offer anywhere else, does anyone know of any? Either in Australia or elsewhere? 

[Saintly Fish]

I bet @JDP would be able to inform you of something! 

[Geoff]

Sounds great, but must be very expensive - a  new OB could cost less! Geoff. 😉

Edited August 23, 2023 by Geoff

[JDP]

Those mothership trips are used here in a few locations and Ive had friends who done them over the years. There are also some where you you can hire various sized house boats yourself which work out good value when you have a group of anglers. These can be from houseboat style from the cooler bottom parts of the country to the crocodile and barramundi rivers in the top end. 

Back on track with the fully catered style as you mention, then yes the can often be trips of a lifetime where you catch fish until your arms can't handle anymore. The voyage out is a long distance and weather can be against you at times, so plenty of seasick piles would be advised. Some of the fish species are brutal, so taking your own lures and terminal tackle can save you a heap of money as the operators will charge you for lost lures etc most of the time.

There are also charters running from the west coats up above Perth which have similar species on offer.

These sorts of trips are what appeal to me but in my case I do them with my own 15ft boat. There are parts of the country where its simply to far for mother boats to get to but with my small 15ft boat I can reach so far by land then so far by boat. I have a trip coming up in three weeks where I tow the boat 4300km to the north of the country which takes 4 days. From there I launch off a river bank and head 45km down river then another 45km to remote island where two barrels of petrol will of been dropped off for my two week adventure. From where I base I will head another 80km offshore on days weather allows, where the fishing is pretty much untouched. I also do these up the east coast at the southern end of the barrier reef. However the east coast trips are only 80-100km offshore so heavily fished in comparison to the sort of trip you are mentioning. 

Im not sure about your age or fitness level but those trips can be as hard core as you want them or pretty relaxing if you prefer. However you will surprised how hard even small tropical fish can pull, so to make the most of such trips most people do gym work before going.

Oh yes, there are also such trips in New Zealand where you live aboard but there are also good day trips done from most places here and NZ

Cost effective ways I fish is by using soft plastics as much as possible as these are much cheaper than hard body lures. I find white plastics in the 4-5in will catch most species.

[suzook12]

I think the most cost effective way to go would be to hire JDP as a guide/consultant 😉

[LostPiker]

15 hours ago, Geoff said:

Sounds great, but must be very expensive - a  new OB could cost less! Geoff. 😉

lol, its expensive but not that bad. Also I won't have the money for another 6 months and can't wait that long to use the boat again

[LostPiker]

8 hours ago, JDP said:

Those mothership trips are used here in a few locations and Ive had friends who done them over the years. There are also some where you you can hire various sized house boats yourself which work out good value when you have a group of anglers. These can be from houseboat style from the cooler bottom parts of the country to the crocodile and barramundi rivers in the top end. 

Back on track with the fully catered style as you mention, then yes the can often be trips of a lifetime where you catch fish until your arms can't handle anymore. The voyage out is a long distance and weather can be against you at times, so plenty of seasick piles would be advised. Some of the fish species are brutal, so taking your own lures and terminal tackle can save you a heap of money as the operators will charge you for lost lures etc most of the time.

There are also charters running from the west coats up above Perth which have similar species on offer.

These sorts of trips are what appeal to me but in my case I do them with my own 15ft boat. There are parts of the country where its simply to far for mother boats to get to but with my small 15ft boat I can reach so far by land then so far by boat. I have a trip coming up in three weeks where I tow the boat 4300km to the north of the country which takes 4 days. From there I launch off a river bank and head 45km down river then another 45km to remote island where two barrels of petrol will of been dropped off for my two week adventure. From where I base I will head another 80km offshore on days weather allows, where the fishing is pretty much untouched. I also do these up the east coast at the southern end of the barrier reef. However the east coast trips are only 80-100km offshore so heavily fished in comparison to the sort of trip you are mentioning. 

Im not sure about your age or fitness level but those trips can be as hard core as you want them or pretty relaxing if you prefer. However you will surprised how hard even small tropical fish can pull, so to make the most of such trips most people do gym work before going.

Oh yes, there are also such trips in New Zealand where you live aboard but there are also good day trips done from most places here and NZ

Cost effective ways I fish is by using soft plastics as much as possible as these are much cheaper than hard body lures. I find white plastics in the 4-5in will catch most species.

thanks for the info. It will only be the two of us going so I don't think a self drive thing will work out, also I like the idea of the fully catered style so we can just fish and be lazy the rest of the time. The big cat reality trips you have to supply all your own tackle so any tips on the sort of things to take rod and reel wise?

[JDP]

22 hours ago, LostPiker said:

thanks for the info. It will only be the two of us going so I don't think a self drive thing will work out, also I like the idea of the fully catered style so we can just fish and be lazy the rest of the time. The big cat reality trips you have to supply all your own tackle so any tips on the sort of things to take rod and reel wise?

Starting at the safety side which will make your trip far more comfortable. Seasick pills in case. full head buff for sun protection. Wide hat with a cord so it doesn't blow away when racing about in the small boats. Full arm and leg sun protection, either from the loose light shirts which dry quickly or the stretchy black out arm and led sleeves. Ear plugs, not kidding a night of listening to your buddy snore all night can seriously stuff a days fishing. Electrolytes to add to your drinker water, these will greatly help you keep your fluids up and hydrated. All of these are available from here without any issue.

Tackle. First to come to mind is halco which is an Aussie company that make good value lures. Halco hard body diving lures are very dependable lures with the red head white body being one of the best all round trolling lures you can get. With most of my lures I tend to choose shallower styles over deep lures, I figure having them closer to the prop wash works for inquisitive fish. Shallow lures also work out a bit cheaper than loosing deep divers into sudden shallow reef. 

A hard body which has been working extremely well for me is the samaki pacemaker in yellowfin colour. I haven't gotten around to trying the other colours as the yellowfin has been catching fish so well, though I do have the red and white to try soon. The action from these lures is so life like when you drop them over the side, just like a live mackerel. If I had to choose just one I would pick the smaller size in shallow diver, though my friends have been doing well on both yellowfin and bluefin tuna with the deeper version. 

I have a variety of Nomad lures but have found them to not be very effective compared to the above lures. 

Shimano waxwings aren't available here but are another very effective lure for me so I buy them from the USA.

Repala Xrap lures are ok but I find the fish destroy them but I still use them regardless.

Halco do a small twisty lure from 5g up which northern bluefin will take, personally these in the 30g -40g allow me to cast light line class into the schools of these smaller tuna when they are feeding at the surface. Any small metal whitebait looking lure should work on these tuna and other small pelagic's.

You may want some jigs but ask the company what weights or what depths you may be jigging in before we go down that path as deeper water will obviously require bigger jigs and if dogtooth tuna are around you will be looking at seriously heavy tackle.

Plastics (soft). For me these are the best lures for saving money as they don't cost to much and tropical fish love them. They can also be worked relatively slowly in a far more relaxed style of angling. Again white is a stand out favourite but a few colours you like the look of are worth taking too, one being pink which is another many species seem to love. On my last trip up north I found the 5inch was the best for better hookup rates, where the bigger plastics were getting tails bitten off to much. The Curley tail or paddle tail are my pick as they give such good action with very little angler effort. Better off saving that effort for when you hook up as you will need it. Jig heads need to be up to the task too, so heavy gauge hooks are the go to for the fish up there.

 

Mono for traces may vary from 20lb on the bluefin up to 150lb + on some of the bottom species of cods and grouper. On my plastics Im using 50-80lb and heavy drag settings to try and get fish away from reef.

Rods and reels is species dependant. Where you are heading you have the option of very large marlin species and sharks of 1000lb if thats what you like. For me I like the smaller species bellow the 50kg size.  Tackle will also come down to the depths you are fishing. so obviously if you're dropping jigs 80m to dogtooth you will need big outfits. Personally I like the 4000, 5000, 6000, 8000 sized spin reels. With a 8000 Shimano saragossa there's very little I can't take on when I head up that way. I can load 400m of 40lb braid and fish drag settings at full depending on the rod I have the reel on. With the small boats you will be using, chasing down things like sailfish on light line and a 4000 spin reel are a fun way to catch such fish. Even a 4000 spin reel can handle drag settings over 10kg and the lighter line used on these allows for casting smaller lighter lures.

 

Shimano grappler travel rods are extremely good, so good the friends I fish with have now bought each line class after being onboard when I landed my 70kg yellowfin on mine. Even the lightest in the range handled a decent 20kg+ trevaly on last years trip by one of the kids. For dropping straight under the boat those 8ft rods are obviously too long but for surface lures or plastics over shallow reef with locked up drags they are great. I use a variety of rods for dropping lures and baits bellow the boat but again the grapplers have a range to cover that. I do take a small talica 12 loaded with 65lb drag on a light saltiaga rod to try and bully up heavy fish.

This is most of the lures I’m taking but where I’m heading there will be no water depths deeper than 40m and less of the bigger species that you will have on offer. Obviously there’s the terminal tackle of hooks, swivels and sinkers that I will be taking too. 

 

Edited August 25, 2023 by JDP

[JDP]

Z-man are my pick in plastics, the savage ones worked ok but the plastic was prone to getting badly damages to quickly, I bought them as the store was selling them off cheap at the time. Some plastics are very soft and stretchy so seem to handle toothy reef fish better. You will be amazed how hard some of the reef species pull for the size they are. Even a 2kg coral trout will demand heavy drag settings and more effort than you would put on a 20lb cod or conger, you will be amazed by some of these species.

Edited August 25, 2023 by JDP

[LostPiker]

WOW, thanks for taking the time to give me all that info, its very useful. 

In your opinion is it worth bringing any terminal tackle from the UK or should we just bring rods and reels and buy the lures etc there? I don't have any lures the size and weight you're talking about here so would need to buy it anyway? Is there an Aussie equivalent to angling direct I can compare prices on?

[JDP]

2 hours ago, LostPiker said:

WOW, thanks for taking the time to give me all that info, its very useful. 

In your opinion is it worth bringing any terminal tackle from the UK or should we just bring rods and reels and buy the lures etc there? I don't have any lures the size and weight you're talking about here so would need to buy it anyway? Is there an Aussie equivalent to angling direct I can compare prices on?

There are lots of large tackle store franchise's here, many do online stuff and almost every store will price match, so if something is on sale and in stock at a another store they will match the price. 

https://compleatangler.com.au

https://www.tackleworld.com.au

https://www.motackle.com.au

https://www.wellsystackle.com.au

https://www.rayannes.com.au

https://www.bcf.com.au

https://www.anacondastores.com

There are more but these are the common ones. 
I can't comment on the gear you have as I don't know what you have but generally the UK lures I had tended to have very light gauged hooks but some were certainly up for the task over here. If you check out the likes of Motackle to see how prices compare with the UK you will son get a better idea if its worth it. Also any of your UK rods and reels would probably manage ok, its more that we have specialist gear to handle the fish we have here better. I often use a kids $20 rod and little 2500 just for fun and manage some great captures on fish that aren't living among rough ground.

If you did buy gear here I would recommend staying towards the lighter end of rods and reels as these will still perform extremely well flicking lures for bass and pollack etc. The light grappler rod with a stradic or saragossa in the 5000-6000 would work well both sides of the world. Also those soft plastics in the 3 to 5 inch would work both sides as would hard body lures around 5 inch. 

Often when I travel I will take just two outfits, the light one is a Bone voyage travel rod with a 4000 stradic loaded with. 20lb braid. 
The second would be the grappler travel rod with a 6000 saragossa loaded with 40lb depending. Both of these are very light to cast lures with all day, however both would struggle on many of the reef species on rough ground. Bullying stubborn fish with heavy drag settings is far easier on short parabolic rods which alow heavy drags without punishing the angler to much.

I still have redgills from my wrecking days which work pretty well here as many pelagic species go crazy for small garfish species, which the redgill lures replicate pretty well. Ive caught various tuna, sailfish and even marlin have taken the biggest redgills I have.

Something most of us did and many still do in the UK is high stick rods, which will end badly on many of the species here. A 45' angle short pumping action will get the job done way more efficiently on the angler and far less chance of breaking a rod.

Im not sure with the charter you mention if you will be along the continental shelf. When I head north to take my boat to QLD (Queensland) I tend to base myself at islands close to the shelf drop off which allows me to fish shallow coral reefs out to drop offs that  are almost vertical drops hundreds of metres. These drop offs are where you would more likely encounter big dogtooth tuna and very large marlin etc. If you plan dropping jigs in deep water a parabolic action rod is the best way when working big heavy jigs.

The area I head in QLD with my boat is very similar to where you will head, only differentiations is there are more reefs and the fact they are to far range for me. Also I can do the Herald patch islands and reefs on about 140lt of fuel for 4-5 days and pay just $7.50 for a permit to camp on a remote island. However in my boat its a long run even to these islands in open water and Ive been caught out twice running back in 30kts + which is why I have two bilge pumps as one is running for almost 2 hrs non stop.

This is Lady Musgrave island which is a good base for, as you can see I’m close to the shelf drop off. Depths are in meters.

 

This is further out where you will fish, again close to the drop off but also way more shallow reef to fish.

 

Edited August 25, 2023 by JDP

[JDP]

In comparison, where I live south of Sydney the continental shelf is much closer. The water is also much cooler, so fishes well on different species, in fact we have better variety of big game here but I still love heading north to tropical waters. 
See in this screen shot how close the shelf is with big sea mounts with 4000m drop offs. All within reach of my 15ft boat on good days. 
 

 

[Saintly Fish]

Somebody's in their element today ⬆️⬆️⬆️

[JDP]

13 hours ago, Saintly Fish said:

Somebody's in their element today ⬆️⬆️⬆️

When I was at school as kid in the UK I was fascinated with the Azores and how the water dropped off so deep so quickly. The fishing stories back 45yrs ago were amazing, simply a dream to one day be able to afford to go and do a charter there. Never dreamed of actually living somewhere like that where I could just jump in my own boat or friends and head offshore to fish seamounts that rise to around 1700m bellow the surface and drop down to 4000m deep. Like I mentioned above there's such variety here and species such as sharks which I once targeted in the UK are a pest here, even mako's which were once the holy grail to me. 

Im already struggling to sleep with excitement on a trip coming up in 3 weeks which will be a couple of weeks or remote living and fishing. Last year I did the trip and we battled a sawfish in the shallows after dark which was well over 5m long, something I had never seen in my life before. Diving for crayfish with sharks in areas crocs can eat you is an adrenalin rush even at my age on those top end of the country trips, however its the small jelly fish that are deadly. 

As for the trip Lostpiker is referring to, these were always something I had wanted to do also as you can take your own boat on those trips. However there have been times where they've lost boats they are towing out there in big seas and the price of the trips are to high for me. The food provided on those trips is often next level gourmet class and you don't have to lift a finger to help out, simply fish and relax with a beer or two.

I could still be back in the UK laying bricks on a freezing wet building site not knowing if the contractor is going to pay up for the last month again I suppose!!!!!

Some of the coral sea offshore adventures fly people out to the mother ships by sea planes to save the long run out there. Have a look at some of the coral sea offshore fishing 200nm + trips on YouTube.

Edited August 26, 2023 by JDP