Fishing Swains Reef - Great Barrier Reef - Part One
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- Опубліковано 21 лип 2019
- Fishing Swains Reef - Great Barrier Reef - Part One
Something a little different from my usual Jetski fishing posts!
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I have just returned from a magic week of fishing aboard the MV Night Crossing. We fished the Swains Reef region, approximately 200 km from the east coast town of Gladstone, in Queensland, Australia.
We (a group of 16 friends) had 7 nights on this specialised live-aboard fishing charter, and had a fantastic time fishing numerous reef systems in the Swains. The reef here is really spectacular, and the fish variety- and sheer numbers -are amazing! Blue skies, crystal clear water, and generally mild temperatures made it a week to remember again.
This is the first of a few highlight videos from the trip, and covers only the first two days of 7.
Fish shown in this video:
- Coral Trout (min legal size is 38cm)
- Red Throat Emperor (min legal size is 38cm too)
- Red Emporer (min legal size is 55cm, so the one in the video went back in and swam strongly away)
- Mac Tuna (Bonito) (no limit)
As always, the reef and the sharks played a huge part in losing other fish! Check out the large sharks in the underwater shots midway through the video to see the "groupies" hanging around the mother ship!
Please note that although we brought home a LOT of fish to eat, we always adhered to strict government regulations on minimum size and bag limits, leaving plenty for future fishermen to enjoy! We of course always fish way outside of the government-regulated Green Zones. These are scattered all over the Great Barrier Reef, ensuring not only fish stocks and diversity are maintained for future generations, but also that the inhabitants above water- the birds and turtles- have a safe place to nest and not be disturbed by any human activities. We in fact never stepped ashore on any reef or sand quay in the entire week.
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Thanks for watching! Please feel free to comment or ask questions.
Additional aerial photography:
benjaminedmondsphotography - Спорт
nice trip at 8:14 the guy is using a spin rod with an overhead reel, something i have not seen before
That silly guy was me! Broke my overhead rod tip just before the trip but had this one lying around! Seemed to work for most of the trip until I busted it on a large Mac Tuna! 😂 you know at the time I had no idea it was actually a reg rod!
Yes mate absolute it worked great catch we have booked the trip november 2025 looking forward to it
@@teamjawsaustralia Hope it goes well for you guys! Great boat and crew every time Ive been out there.
What a beautiful boat and another awesome video. Well done. Some beautiful fish there too. Bet they tasted great.
Thanks. I have enough fish for 3 months!
We loved the Night Crossing (did a 7 day Swain Trip last November) and nailed the magic weather for 6 days too. I noticed that the reef closures and forcing charter boats to anchor up in limited areas and the resident monster sharks are very savvy and were following the dories out on their daily ventures- I have a couple of drone vid's showing this. Cody, Marie and the crew ( Olly and Gus at the time ) were fantastic the meals and service were amazing as was the Night Crossing spotless and it showed in the trip. We are planning a return this time to fish off the Mother boat more to target BIG Red Emperor something that was missing from our charter. Oh did you take way too much tackle as we did too? Thanks for sharing.
Yeah sharks are never too far away. Outside the lagoons it's bull sharks, and inside it massive lemon sharks. Tackle? Our group took the whole tackle shop! We all took some spare rods, and lucky for me I did as I broke two! One guy however manged to break a VERY expensive rod on one of those lemon sharks! We did get to go for big emperor on the last day and got a few. I didn't though! Thanks for watching the videos.
nice video n nice boat.👍👍
always my dream to have a boat like that.. huhhuu 😭
Thanks for watching!
Great vid guys very enjoyable what time if year was this
Thanks Josh, this was June
So pretty
What overhead Reel are you using ?
The overhead reel I am using is a Shimano Talica 10 single speed. Quite happy with it, but maybe next time a 12 or 16 might have been a better choice for the reef. But for all-day fishing or what I normal do (jetski fishing) its great. Shimano just released a low cost OH reel that looks a lot like these called a Speedmaster LD II. It's available in 12 and 16 sizes. Wonder what the "LD" stands for ? But the Speedmaster are two-speed , so could be a good and cost effective option. 18Kg drag (vs 9Kg for Talica 10) means it's still going to be a reasonable reel! Thanks for watching.
What pound line did u have on
Hi Ryley. On the overhead reel it's 40lb braid with 40 or 50lb fluorcarbon or "tuff trace" leader; The larger Stella has 65lb braid. Don't really need it that heavy but it's what I had on the reels. But the 40lb braid is a good mix of strength and thickness. I have 350M of braid on that little Talica 10 reel. Thanks for watching.
Everything looks great - but why are so many small reef fish being kept? Surely more than enough to eat.
I hear you Mark, however let me tell you the lengths the charter company goes to for abiding by current laws: Each dory has a fish ID chart and state legal minimum sizes, plus a measuring stick. All fish kept are of legal size ,and undersize are returned live. There are no exceptions. The numbers and sizes kept are carefully monitored by crew so that they are under the per-person and charter boat legislated trip quotas. The deckies (and captain) keep an exact fish and species count each day in a log. They clean and fillet the catches from all fishos. Sometimes they get to the quota towards the end of the trip on fish species like Red Throat Emperor, and the crew instruct the fishos not to bring any back. Before a line is even dropped they also brief everyone about what they can and can't keep (for example protected species), and warn them that if anybody does the wrong thing and a fisheries inspector turns up, they will be responsible for their own (heavy) fines. Fisheries Inspectors can launch from a mothership some km away over the horizon and send officers using very fast inflatables! All fish are filleted and snap frozen on the ship and distributed at the end of the trip. Most of the customers share a lot of their fish with family and friends when they get home, and the frozen fish lasts many months. The difference on these trips to rec fishos like myself is that most of these people only fish once or twice a year, so I guess they want to get their money's worth. It's a $4K week after all. You also have to remember that on a 5 day offshore trip, you may strike bad weather for some of the time (last trip we only had one good day), making the fish catch numbers far lower.
We are lucky in this country that we do have a managed fishery. Many places just north of us have no such regulations. The rules are always changing to keep species sustainable for both commercial and rec fishos. We always do our best to fish to legal quotas.
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Is that an spinning rod on your overhead reel. If so how does it go
Yes, well spotted! It went quite well until I broke it! I did something stupid on a snag and snapped it in two! Suffice to say, I wouldn't recommend using a spinning rod with an overhead. I also took a longer and cheaper overhead rod , and that lasted the rest of the week without any dramas! I also didn't realise it was just a spinning rod until someone pointed it out to me after it broke! So please note I don't claim to be an expert. .Intermediate? Maybe! But Swains tests your gear. I also broke an Abu Garcia rod (with a spinning reel) while bringing in a fish. The fish got hit by a shark and simply bent the rod suddenly beyond its' capability. I got that on video too. It will make it on one of the next eps!
Jetfisher hahaha that’s not so good hear. Oh well you got some of the best eating food and the ocean and I’m sure that will out weigh the two broken rods.
Do a void about fishing in southern Queensland .
Hi Howard, all my others videos are based in SE Qld. I fish anywhere from Tweed Heads though to Fraser. Or do you mean boat fishing vs jetski fishing? Either way the locations and techniques are really much the same. Check out the rest of the videos in my UA-cam channel “Jetfisher”. Thanks for watching this one! Hopefully I’ll get back to Swains in 2021!