fishing report by Reel-em-in fishing gear Australia these fishing reports are by our own staff on the spot the fishing reports contain photo's of the fish caught

We headed out 75km to Northwest island from Gladstone harbour on Saturday morning at about 6.30am after traveling for about hour and a half we stop on a patch of reef about 10km from the island and started catching coral bream one after the other ideal for flesh baits . After a few hours of fishing we had 11 nice fish on the esky and proceeded to the island for some lunch and a snorkel over the reef. In the afternoon we had a look around and tested a few new spots ready to do some night fishing. I landed one oversized chinaman fish the gave me a good work out only to be thrown back. As night fell we tied up the two boats ready for dinner and just as the sun went down the wind started to howl and did not stop, so we decided to anchor up and stay close in close to the reef to get out of the rough seas. The noise of the waves smashing over the reef during the night was a little freighting but we stayed safe by not moving and By morning the wind had died down so we moved the boats together and had some breakfast before heading out again. We started fishing along the edge of the reef and landed another 20 nice fish before lunch after a quick bite to eat we headed home with the esky's full. It was a great weekend all round.

Ian's boat caught about the same amount 32 fish giving a total of 63 fish for the two boats for the weekend. FISHING REPORT BY DES KENYON

Innisfail Fishing trip 25 04 09
What a day, what a trip, I've had some good runs in my time, but this one is going to be hard to beat.
We left Flying Fish point, Innisfail at around 6.30 am heading for the shelf to do a bit of trolling for Mackerel, Marlin, Tuna and hopefully pick up a bit of by-catch in the form of Red Emperor and Silvers (Saddle Tail Sea Perch).
With more than three meters run in the morning Dan, Wade and I decided it would be a good Mack tide on some of the wide shoals near the shelf, and with luck we might get the odd tuna and hope of hopes a marlin. Unfortunately the water out wide was 27.5 degrees and there was very little surface action with no tuna or marling on the menu.
On the shoals it was a different story altogether, when the tide was ripping with bait schools bursting through the surface in sheer panic as the mackerel were on the chew. We trolled up Four Spaniards and two sharkie (Scaled ) Mackerel, along with two Trevally and a barracuda in what was a wild one and a half hour session. One rig that excelled is the Bibbed bait rig loaded with a garfish and smoked through the water, you could almost hear the Mack's teeth chattering in anticipation. The strikes came thick and fast with many strikes failing to hook up and one large Spaniard lost just out of gaff range.
As the action died off we headed out wide in search of tuna and marlin for no result.
Back at the start I mentioned by-catch, with the low tide approaching 3pm we moved to a spot I had marked earlier in the day whilst trolling. It is a bit of rough country in 68m of water and had a good look about it with small bumps and the odd fish or two showing on the sounder.
After anchoring the first to hook up went to big Dan, a bloke from Canada now residing in Innisfail. He was dusted well and truly by a fish that I took to be a big Red, Dan reckoned he had never had a fish pull so hard, I reckon that is understandable cause he comes from a place where they have to bash a hole in the ice, and warm the beer up before they commence a fishing trip.
Next on was yours truly, using an Alvey Deep sea combo loaded with 80lb jig braid and 2 x 12/0 circle hooks attached. This was then rocket propelled to the bottom, fed a little slack and jammed in a rod holder to await the great moment. And it came sooner than later in the form of a 19lb head shaking, line scorching red that eventually succumbed to a wilting angler.
This was the start of on e of the best daytime Emperor runs I have experienced in some time. By 5am our 200lt esky was chokers with the Macks caught earlier that day, 7 reds averaging 14lb, 5 Silvers averaging 10lb and a couple of Spangled Emperor for good measure.
To finish the trip wade hooked the monster from the deep on the Alvey and looked like he would wilt under pressure after 15 minutes with no gain for the effort. I put on a pair of gloves and gave some assistance while Dan gave a running commentary on the gains were making courtesy of the sounder. This thing was BIG and I was hurting, my primary concern was getting as much braid back on the spool as possible. Fifteen meters from the surface we had a glimpse of what looked like a huge tail wrapped shark seconds before the line parted, thank goodness.

You know what I like about trolling so much? By-catch!

A great weekend had by all we headed out from Gladstone harbor at about 5-30am on the 14/11/2009 heading for Heron Island the trip took a couple of hours to arrive at our first fishing location and it was not long before I had landed a large king fish what a great start to the trip. But the space in the esky's was limited and they were full of ice and food and some cold beers so we had to fillet him straight away. We spent the next few hours searching for some good spots to fish on the sounder and just having a good look around as this was our first trip into the area. As the afternoon approached we headed into Heron Island as we had arranged to fill up the boats at Heron Island after filling the boats with 450 liters of fuel we were ready to go and do some night fishing. This is when we hit the big reds so it was a good night and well worth the effort. After a good nights sleep we had a quick dip near one of the reefs in the morning as you can see in the picture it's just beautiful out here the trip home so great with the ocean as flat as a tack can't wait for the next trip.

the weather forecast was for rain on Saturday but it arrived on Friday night we had caught

5 fish by about 6.30 pm and it was looking good but as dark fell the fish cleared out and

the rain and wind started. We fished until 1130pm and decided to call it a night as we had

I was on Cushy fishing charters. The floater went off. Pilchard as bait with about 6 ball sinker. It really wasn't really my turn on the "special rod" but no one else moved so Kyle the skipper said "Derek get that". I didn't have to be asked twice. grabbed the rod and straight into the gimble. Felt the weight and knew I was on a good fish. Hoping against hope it might be a cobia which is number 1 on my hit list. Has been forever, never landed one. 10 minutes into the fight I am gaining heaps of line but still feeling the weight, runs are dying from the fish. This isn't a cobia. We have colour after about 12 minutes, lift and wind. "Nice kingy". 'Bullshit" from the skipper, " big knobby". I saw the fish and the adrenaline really kicked in. I have never seen a Snapper this big let alone landed one. the fish is on it's side, it's had enough. pump and gently wind to the net. In the net and on the deck, the boat has erupted with cheers and I am over the moon, hands shaking. I have just caught possibly my once in a life time Snapper. The whole boat is cheering. What a magnificent fish. Estimated weight is 10 kg which is one hell of a Snapper with a huge knob on the head: the fish's signature. Back in harbour later the fish was weighed at 10.5 kg.

We had a day of quality not quantity. Also caught was a 4.5 kg Spangled Emperor ( yellow sweetlip), several large slatey Bream ( mother in law fishes) , and a few nice parrot and pearlies. Reel Fishn were fishing the same area and caught lots of Parrot and pearlies but nothing real big. Just proves that fishing has no guarantees but lots of surprises.great day out for me and 3 workmates. Am so glad my mate got the Sweetie.

We then headed down the coast to chase some king fish but they never turned up but

Kevin did land a small amberjack. As allways the weather was against us and the wind never

let up which caused us to drift in the wrong direction. After giving this an hour or two

we headed back to the nine mile reef where we started to caught some nice parrot fish

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Small snapper around green buoy at Mud Island and only 3 good sized sand crabs to report

We left Mourilyan harbor at 10am and headed out directly into ideal conditions in a 16ft

side console tinny, our first spot I had fished previously was the sunken trawler, offering

some protection to a-lot of fish, we then headed 27km out from home to the start of

the reef. After a bit of popper action we headed out to the 60km mark chasing some reds

what a weekend We just had a great weekend with Garry fishing out on the barrier reef. We

caught the last plane out of Brisbane and arrived in Cairns at 1230pm on Friday night we

arrived in Innisfail at about 1.30am in the morning and went straight to bed, after a few hours

sleep we got all the gear and the boat ready and headed out for a fun filled day testing all the

new gear. We left Mourilyanharbor at 10am and headed out directly into ideal conditions

in a 16ft side console tinny, our first spot I had fished previously was the sunken trawler,

offering some protection to a-lot of fish, we then headed 27km out from home to the start

of the reef. After a bit of popper action we headed out to the 60km off shore to the outer

reef in a 4.9m tinny and the fishing was fantastic. We caught lots and lots of fish using all of our

lures, and we tested the new high speed Medallist reels they are fantastic. We were hauling in

large sized bludgers one after another and double hooks up were common. The 7 ft pelagic and

the Shakespeare pink ugly sticks had a great work out and they worked a treat when matched to

the 10 ball bearing Medallist reels. Here are some of the fish caught on the weekend below. one

thing is for sure our range gear worked a treat we were using our 50lb braid with 80lb leader line

on the g50 and g40 contender rod and reel combo’s while bottom bashing for the reds and large

sweetlip.Here is a bludger caught on 33lb geisha with our 90g mackerel lures these were caught

jigging up from the bottom we also used the chrome dancers and had lots of fun until our arms were

I caught this one on the weekend using the G40l loaded with the green mono line from

Platypus mounted on an old game rod from my chartering days. I was impressed with the

drag system on the Pfluger, it didn't miss a beat although it almost killed me. My mate

grabbed it by the tail and lifted it aboard for photos before being released. I haven't

seen a yellow fin this big up our way. Normally they are around the 15 to 35lb mark. This

We had a great trip to the 24th Toyota fishing classic we headed up one day early

and set up camp. There were 15 guys in the Australian Capital fishing team in our

camp with 4 boats and 6 cars & one caravan. The weather was great and we fish every

Fishing Tackle Party