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Saumarez Reef April 2000

Saumarez sunset........thanks for the pic Jason

I have a feeling I owe the man upstairs....Bigtime. Two cyclones, then a week of strong southeasterlies had made me a little apprehensive about how the weather would treat us as our departure date of Saturday, April 15 approached.Incredibly, the wind abated, the weather pattern stabilised and we were treated to almost an entire week of blue skies and near flat seas. The sixteen keen anglers in my party had all arrived early,the skipper pointed the big cat 'Kanimbla' seaward, then before we knew it, Australia was a memory beyond the western horizon.

Sunday morning we rose early to a delicious breakfast before making preparations for our arrival at Saumarez, now only two hours away. On previous trips we had experienced interruptions to our travel as pesky dolphinfish and marlin feasted on our spread of trolling lures, however on this trip it was not to be. In fact the first couple of days trolling was disappointingly slow by Saumarez standards. Current was minimal which may have been significant. Reef fish were plentiful but the bluewater species were proving harder to find. By Tuesday the current had picked up and so did the fishing. Good numbers of pelagics such as wahoo, yellowfin and dogtooth were boated as well as the usual jobfish, barracuda,rainbow runners etc. Sharks were as thick as ever and made short work of anything that fought too long. They also made life interesting for those of us who did a bit of spearfishing.Simon, one of the keener spearos, managed to spear a 50kg dogtooth only to have all but the head taken in one gulp by a frighteningly large tiger shark.

From left: Bob with a nice blue maori cod and jobfish; Steve and a couple of Coral Sea bruisers; Geoff and Shane with barracuda and wahoo; George with a pair of yellowfin.(click to enlarge)

Each trip I make to the Coral Sea I bring back many exciting memories but there is always a session or two that are unforgettable. Monday evening, most of us were relaxing after a big day. The cards came out while the 'fishing' videos provided some laughs. Paul chose to throw a line in despite the distractions and promptly pulled up a pair of big white sweetlip. He boated several more which still couldn't create much interest from the others.It wasn't until his next fish, a big jobfish, came aboard that cards were eventually downed in favour of fishing rods. It seems the skipper had parked for the night near a patch of reef that was a Saumarez jobfish business district. Jobfish and sweetlip together with a few red bass and sharks bent rods for the next two hours until even the most diehard among us tired of the action and left them biting.

From left: Dave and a nighttime jobfish; Bruce with a red bass; Grant and his wahoo; spearos Tony, Simon and Stuart showing off their fine catch. (click to enlarge)

From left: A big coral trout on a lure by Jason; Tony holding all that remained of Simon's dogtooth; Ken with his 9kg jobfish; Geoff and a little dogtooth (click to enlarge)

A forecast weather change Wednesday evening prompted a return to the more sheltered waters of the Swains Reefs. Trolling while travelling was more productive than it had been on the trip out. A number of multi hookups on yellowfin,dogtooth,rainbow runners and dolphin fish caused occasional mayhem until dark when rods were stowed for the 60 mile mid ocean cruise. The Swains are the easternmost portion of the Great Barrier Reef and comprise hundreds of sheltered reef systems. The species are quite different to those at Saumarez and our catch comprised mostly redthroat,spangled and red emperor and also good numbers of coral trout. Pelagic fish were less common than Saumarez although we managed a few spanish and shark mackeral including a nice 20kg spaniard and 25kg wahoo taken by Jason. The divers supplemented their fine catch of coral trout with some excellent crayfish. The weather change was shorter and milder than expected and by the time we raised anchor for the last time on Friday the wind had eased and we enjoyed a smooth trip home.

The tired smiles all round were an indication that all had thoroughly enjoyed themselves. It had been very successful week in many ways. Exceptional weather, a very professional boat and crew and a great bunch of blokes to fish with had certainly made it a week to remember.

George, Bob F, Jason, Bruce, Paul, Bob S,Steve, Grant, Dave, Ken, Simon, Stuart, Tony, Shane and Matthew, thanks for your company.

From left: Bob and a nice dolphin fish; Matthew and Geoff with wahoo; Simon with entrees; Paul and a nice chinaman fish. (click to enlarge)

Jason with his 20kg mackeral from the Swains (click to enlarge)

As always, Captain Bruce and deckies Ash and Mark worked tirelessly,yet maintained a natural friendliness and helpfulness. An event which summarised the effort these guys put in was when Jason hooked and brought in a 2.5metre tiger shark. Ashley the deckie was standing by to help with the release when Jason asked him if he would mind taking a couple of close up photos with Jason's waterproof camera. I think Jason would have been happy with a shot of the shark boatside but in the blink of an eye Ashley was over the side, camera in hand swimming with the shark to get some underwater action photographs. Great work Ash!

Another fisho's account... Bruce's view of the trip