Fishin the Tropics

"Hey Shaun, the weather looks good for tomorrow, are you in", Shaun replies, "sure am, what time". I said "lets go about 3am", (there's a rather lengthy pause), then Shaun says" ok, see you at your place at 3am".

We launched the boat at some rediculious time in the wee hours of the morning and headed for an area about 8nm east of Fin Reef. This is about 32nm east of Cairns. (about 60km for those not wanting to do the conversion).

Well the weather man got it all wrong. Variable winds 5-10kts my ar*e!!. It was blowing about 15-20 knots, not too bad but definately not great. Anyway, we pressed on and 1 hour and 40 minutes later, we arrived at the fishing spot.

With the conditions so dreadful, it was difficult to fish. The depth of the water out there ranges from about 70 metres to 90 metres. However, it wasnt long before Shaun caught his first Green Jobfish. These toothy predators put up a good fight and are very good eating, they are real bruisers on the end of a fishing line. Smiles allround.

We continued with the difficult conditions and persevered for a little longer when Shaun caught his first Red Emporer. These fish were also known as Government Bream in the early days. A highly sought after and very good eating fish.

After a short time, we began taking the odd wave over the bow of the boat (thank goodness for a high flow bilge pump) and decided to head back in toward the shelter of the reef.

We punched our way back to some relative shelter behind Arlington Reef and fished there for a while and only caught small reef fish not worthy to be placed in front of a camera lense. It was now about 3pm so we decided to call it a day and headed back to the boat ramp.


Until next time....its a reef adventure