Coral trout at Bowen, NQ.

TR by sunshiner

07Aug17. Location: Bowen inshore, during a road trip Noosa to Cairns and back over three weeks.

As you can see, launch was a doddle. Photo by Mary from our balcony.

It was my fourth launch at the sheltered beach just below our accommodation at Bowen. The previous three launches over two days had been useful for reconnaissance and for whale excitement but hadn't produced any noteworthy fish.

So for the last time I headed out to the rocky island just over one km away which marks the northern tip of the peninsula. These looked like fishy waters but so far the pelagic predators which I hoped might be hanging around hadn't appeared.

I trolled a HLP around for an hour without a decent hookup so I then decided, as a last option before heading in and home to Noosa the next day, to target the upcurrent side of the reef at the island with a white curly tail SP on 10kg line and a half ounce jighead. The E-W current was causing upwellings on the surface as the water pushed through from 12m depth to around 7m. On the sonar it looked like ideal reef predator habitat so I cranked up the drag on the basis that in that cave-filled territory I'd get only one chance to turn any decent fish which darted out from its refuge to smash my offering.

It was right on noon. Having selected a start point for my drift in the gentle current and calm conditions I fed out about 7m of line, allowing the jig to sink pretty much vertically then started to jig it gently. On the second lift it got smashed and the fight was on.

After the initial whack it took me a few seconds to turn on the chest cam and in that time the initial gentle take turned into a bare knuckle scrap as the fish went straight for the bottom and I upped the drag a teensy bit more in desperation. I could feel the leader rubbing on the coral and rock but kept the pressure on and eventually won out (see the movie embedded in this post).

What a fish! My first coral trout from the yak and my biggest ever, I think; certainly the most memorable coral trout given I've forgotten about the others.

The freshly caught fish. Magnificent, eh? That white spot on its flank interests me. It faded away after death.

54cm on the well travelled Noosa Yakkers brag mat.

The trout made it, in great condition, the 1200km back to Noosa. You may be interested in the process:

(1) Within 90 minutes of capture I took it, whole and intact, to the local fishing co-op store where Terry, the owner, advised me to pack it immediately in a foam cooler box ($4 at the store) with ice. He explained that he routinely processes boat loads of commercially caught fish and doesn’t bother cleaning the fish before packaging it in ice-filled boxes. Stored and transported this way he said his fish are “good for at least a week”.

(2) I took his advice and left the box (with fish, packed in free ice they provided) on their premises overnight before picking it up the next morning on our way out of Bowen on the seven-hour road trip to Rockhampton. Total charge: $4.

(3) Our motel in Rockhampton had a restaurant and associated cold room and were happy to store the box overnight for no charge. Before putting the box to bed for the night I checked the ice situation and was pleased to see that it was still viable and in fact was hardly melted at all.

(4) On departure the next morning I again checked the ice (still good) and we left for the seven hour road trip to home, where, on arrival, I placed the box into my spare downstairs fridge (ice still viable).

(5) Gutted and filleted the fish the morning after arriving home. The fish looked and smelt as fresh as when first caught nearly three days before. It yielded one kilogram of skinless, boneless fillets. Coral trout fillets are sold to the restaurant trade in Rockhampton for $50 per kilogram (source: the motel owner in Rockhampton, who told me that never offers coral trout on the menu any more because it is too expensive “these days")

Hope you get one too, one day!

Happy fishing

Kev