Fishing FNQ Reefs Part 1
Fishing the FNQ Reefs Part 1
One of the biggest mistakes southern fishermen make in far north Qld is that they fish way too light for the area and they also insist on using rod and reels to catch bottom fish because that’s the way they do it at home.
Of course you can use the rods and reels for casting poppers and for trolling but when it comes to hauling in fish from the deep and enclosed reef sections you can’t go pass that tool of the trade that most fishermen started off with – the humble handline.
Not that I’m talking about any old handline! It is best to fish with 80lb nylon, no trace and a bean sinker straight on top of a 9/0 hook and there’s some tricks to learn even after that.
The first has to do with etiquette on the deck.
Whilst fishing with a handline you should leave the spool on the deck of the boat and when you wind the line in this should fall at your feet.
You shouldn’t bother to wind the line back onto the spool until after the day’s fishing.
This has two impacts; it allows you to retrieve line quickly and it also saves you from losing your spool overboard if it is taken by a huge fish.
The next thing to remember is how to let the line out of the boat once you have it loose on the deck. The trick here is to throw the baited hook, line and sinker over the side and every 10 metres stop the line so that that the sinker can catch up to the hook.
If you don’t do this you will find that the sinker can run up the line creating twists and tangles.
So how should the hook itself be baited? I can assure you a couple of things. Big hooks require a substantial amount of bait. I would recommend that you first put on a whole squid and then on top of that half a pilchard or fish pieces to the bottom half of the hook.
The fish that you are trying to catch have very large mouths and are looking for a decent feed so it’s important to oblige them if possible.
As for the technique to use to hook the fish this is the most difficult part of the exercise but you can practice whilst on board.
When your bait hits the bottom of the ocean you may find that familiar tap tap tap on the end. My advice is to at first give a little bit of line and then with a substantial horizontal pull of line set the hook and continue to arm over arm bring in the fish.
This is why it is important to fish with handlines as opposed to a fishing rod.
The first one metre of fight is the most important.
The fish that you are going for live on the bottom of the coral reefs and are protected from predators in caves and holes where sharks and other enemies are unable to get them.
They take a huge risk in leaving their place of refuge to take the bait and you must win the battle in the first one metre. If you are too slow trying to reel in a fish with a rod and reel you may lose this fight.
Pulling the fish in an upward manner may extract the hooks from its mouth.
The art of pulling the line in horizontally causes the line to tighten in such a way that sets the hooks.
Next the arm over arm technique where either your left or right hand is pulling in line at the rate of between 1 to 2 metres at a time is necessary for a very good reason – sharks!
A fishing rod is not very effective in these parts of the Australian coastline because predators keep an eye out for every morsel they can get and none comes as cheap as those that are caught and skull dragged to the surface using a conventional fishing rod.
That’s not to say that you won’t lose good fish to sharks if you fish with a hand line – it is still possible – but you will win more fish than you lose using this method.
Using the thick 80 pound line and catching large fish can be highly damaging to your hands and fingers and one way to overcome this is to use a finger grip that wraps around the index finger. You can make one of these out of rubber tubing and slot it over your index finger.
In this way you can still use the tip of your index finger to feel the bites but when the hard work comes and you need to haul in a huge fish the rubber ring can save severe line cuts to your hands.
Anyway until next week…
Sea you later,
Skipper Meggs