A Fishing Bonanza Aboard the ‘Sir Reel’

OzFisher Robbie Porter is usually found doing the shell collection run for our Central Moreton Bay Chapter as they set up their quest to restore shellfish reefs in Moreton Bay. But Robbie recently embarked on the trip of a lifetime chasing a monster catch in North Queensland. Here’s what he got stuck into.  

The team and I landed in Townsville the night before we were due to set sail, spending the first night on the boat at the docks to get acquainted with the vessel and get a good night’s sleep, in preparation for the workout we would receive over the next few days. 

It was a 4am departure the next morning from the dock and 3-hour steam to the prime fishing grounds. As custom with any long steam on a fishing trip the tolling gear was put in the water and it wasn’t long before the lures were taken and we landed a couple of good-sized mac tuna, the perfects baits for some bottom bashing later in the day as well as a sashimi breakfast.  

Before long we arrived on the first mark and sent down 100lb paternoster rigs baited with the fresh mac tuna we caught earlier. Our lines were greeted with open mouths and everyone began pulling in large mouth nannygai (saddletail snapper). I landed the biggest for the morning going 84cm before the fish went off the bite. A change of spot was in order. 

The next few locations also held good fish although the men in grey suits decided they needed the feed more than us. The quality of the fish was confirmed by the size of a few heads that were brought aboard.  

On the drive to the anchorage the trolled lures went back in the water and this time hooked up to a great sized Spanish mackerel and wahoo followed by a plethora of shark mackerel. 

Day two saw us greeted by sharks from the get go. The skipper moved us to a few different spots with little success to try and escape our toothy friends. We travelled over an hour to another mark called “loads of huge fish”.  This got us all excited. The location lived up to its name, pulling up and hooking straight into a stack of large and small mouth nannygai before the sharks found us once again.  

We retreated to a shallow reef in about 25m of water for the afternoon pulling the odd coral trout. 

Just as the sun began to dip over the horizon a switch was flipped under us and the fish came on the chew in a big way.  

Red throat emperor, pink cheeked emperors lots of tea leaf and bludger trevallies hit the decks. I was busted off so many times. I was using hussar heads and big chunks of mac tuna and shark mackerel for baits on my Tyrnos 20 reel on a 5’5’’ ugly stick rod with 80lb line. Leader was 100lb mono tied with an FG knot and made into a paternoster with single hook and #8 snapper lead. 

Then all hell broke loose. Thumping head shakes buckled the rod. I had been catching big fish for 2 days (well hooking them and losing to sharks mostly) so I knew I had to get a few desperate winds in to get it off the bottom, but in the shallower water the fish takes on another dimension, running sideways and the short rod made it hard to stop the line from touching the boat.  

I had the drag set to STOP so lost very little line, but the head shakes thumped down hard, testing the already torched back and arms. After a few mins I started getting line back and soon the fish made it to the surface. The skipper yelled REEF JACK and sprinted for the gaff and it was on board. Such an epic fish. My first big jack and one I am very happy with. Shortly after the fishing died off and we settled in for the night.  

The next day saw a few more stops on the steam back to the dock but nothing remarkable was landed. Everyone onboard for the trip caught good fish but I for one was very sore. It was astonishing to see the number of fish that got eaten by sharks and it was a real workout trying to hold on, with the drag on sunset, to large sharks tearing off. 

Overall, we had a great trip with plenty of catches. I took home a nice haul of fillets and I will be doing it again. We live in an incredible country that gives us some much and we need to treasure that for now and in the future. It is why I’m part of OzFish so we get to enjoy fishing like this for future generations.