Noosa Fishing
It's a beautiful morning, and we're moored off the tip of Fraser Island with the boys from Nomad sportfishing charters. We're heading out about 30 miles off Fraser. Chasing big stuff. Hopefully big amberjacks or GT's... the boys are ready to go, the sun is about to come up so let's go.
Nomad is a 9 metre kevlacat set up for serious sportfishing, so heading offshore is a breeze. Our skipper Damon Olsen is quick to find a great patch of baitfish down deep.
Damon reckons the key to bagging the biggies is to jig down deep. So we're dropping heavy Jigace jigs into about 300 foot of water right through the baitschools.
The whole idea of jigs is to make it look like fleeing or dying baitfish. There's certainly technique to it.
This rod made by bluewater in WA is rated to 30-80 pd,. Ten kilo drag pressure on shimano reel, it's important to have top quality stuff to do battle with big fish.
Amberjack often prey on pearl perch, so these pearlies mean there could be a school of ambers here too.
Amberjack crash tackle your lure and swim straight to the bottom, and they'll often take line faster than you can wind it in. And they don't like coming to the boat.
This is more like it - Triple trouble!
Amberjack can reach more than 60 kg. The trouble with angling this deep is if the fish doesn't cut you off before it reaches the boat, something else will.
Before long, the Noahs are notching up more catches than we are! Some of these ambers are close to the thirty kilo mark, but all we end up with is a few fierce faces. Talk about head hunting!
Damon soon redeems himself with a close relative of the amberjack - a yellowtail kingie. More double trouble - but Damon's line gets wrapped around mine, so we sacrifice my fish, to land another nice amber.
These fellas get their name from that long amber line along their body.They look like kingfish too, very similar.
We decide to head further inshore to troll the shallow reefs with hispeed Halco lures.
Another species that hangs on the reefs is the cobia. Cobia look a lot like remoras, and they also swim close to sharks. Cobia are also known as black kingfish. As Damon's Dad John discovers - they're fiesty fighters as well.
We're back out aboard Nomad fishing the deep waters north of Fraser Island. This region is known as Capricornia.One of the great things fishing out wide from Hervey Bay, is that there are plenty of whales about, so we've got free whale watching along with our fishing trip.
Long thin jigs seem to be attracting the big predators - so gentlemen, choose your jigs.
When you're
jigging this deep, you don't need a big move - as long as it's
sudden.
Number one technique is sharp action, not how fast or how far
but sharp motion gets jig from side to side, which is what attracts
the fish…
These smaller amberjack swim in schools and we're onto a good patch. We've also landed a close cousin - the Almaco Jack or Highfin Amberjack.
It's not only big predators down deep. Reef fish also love the jigs. We've just landed a purple cod. There are over 55 species of cod.
Neil's at it again - and this looks more like an AJ. I tell ya, these ambers can absolutely torture your tackle and gear. This fella would have to be close to 25 kilo - though Damon reckons that's far from their biggest.
On our way home, we return to the shallow reefs for another session - and I hook into a real speedster. A nice spaniard caught on poppers.
We've caught a big selection of predators and reefies. A sensational session on the Nomad. Good one to finish the day !
Nomad Sportfishing Adventures can help you chase everything from amberjack to marlin. They do 2-5 day charters - so give them a call or look at the website.
Don't forget
to pick up all your sportfishing gear and tackle at your nearest
Big W store.
