Marion Reef

In August, 1996 I joined a charter aboard 'Kanimbla' an 82' motor catamaran ex Gladstone for Marion Reef, about 200 miles north east.

The trip was arranged as a spearfishing charter and I found myself the only serious line fisherman aboard. This was fine by me as I was also keen to do some spearing and by having a mothership with five smaller dories, there was plenty of opportunity to do 'my own thing'.

There is a special excitement just being at such a remote, virtually unexplored locality. I was awestruck by the incredible water clarity and numbers of big fish. There were many 'hot' sessions.Trolling the reef edges produced regular strikes from jobfish, red bass, barracuda, small dogtooth tuna, big coral trout and various other tropical reef dwellers. Many times 10 and 15 kg gear was hopelessly inadequate!

One of my more memorable experiences was "the day of the doggies". Sam, one of the spearos, was bottom fishing with my 10kg outfit while the rest of us ate breakfast. I wasn't tempted to join him..until he commented that large dogtooth tuna were following his sinker and bare hook as he wound them to the surface. I replaced Sam's bottom rig with a jig, suggesting he drop it to the bottom, then crank it up fast. The jig was walloped on the way down and Sam was just hanging on as the big doggie headed for the horizon. I was too busy rigging another outfit to offer much support and when I finally dropped my jig in the water, it too was crunched in seconds, my fish going just as fast in the opposite direction.

A dory was launched, Sam had lost more line than me so he jumped in the dory with the deckie, Matt, to give chase. I lost my fish when a snap gave way. Several of the spearos had geared up but were patiently waiting their chance. With my fish gone and Sam a mile away still playing his fish, they took their cue and entered the deep blue water behind the boat. Three dogtooth in the 30 - 40 kg range were speared and landed before Sam returned with a victorious smile and a 42kg doggie, an excellent capture on 10kg gear.I was more than a little envious but I upgraded to 15kg gear and eventually hooked and landed a 32kg specimen myself.

 

Pictured above- 4 nice dogtooth (Sam's fish 2nd from left) - Me with a 10kg coral trout - Me and a 7kg jobfish. (click to enlarge)

 

Visiting great places always leaves me saying, "I will return". Nowhere typifies that like the Coral Sea. The fishing was awesome but I had only scratched the surface. For months I would reflect, thinking, " I should have done this" or "What if I'd tried that?". I had to go again....