FISHO has spent the past few days on board Port Douglas-based game boat Amokura. The tackle testing trip saw us fishing with a range of gear from Penn, Abu-Garcia, Sebile, Berkley, Gulp, and Fireline.
The Great Barrier Reef between Cairns and Port Douglas is the perfect spot to put new tackle through its paces on a variety of tough fish. And as we found out, it also offers alternate fishing options when the weather turns bad.
We set off from Cairns and trolled a spread of skirted lures for small black marlin. It’s a great time of the year for small blacks and it sounded like great fun on the light Penn spin gear. Fifteen minutes in and Penn’s Marc Huisken hooked and landed his first marlin, an acrobatic little black weighing about 10 or 11kg. Not a huge fish by marlin standards, but he had a ball using Penn’s 5000 size Conflict spin reel, Regiment rod and 20lb braid.
Check out those seas in the background…
A 25-30 knot wind drove us closer to the lee of the reef. We trolled a number of Sebile lures and landed a good number of shark mackerel. Again, not huge fish, but it’s great fun when you’re using light spin gear. Later on a few brightly coloured coral trout were taken on six inch Gulps before we anchored on the reef for the night.
Shark mackerel taken on a Sebile.
The weather dropped a few knots on the second day and we spent most of our time trolling, casting plastics, and fishing bait for a variety of reef species.
Nothing beats fresh bait and no one on board had any hesitation swapping their plastics for bait when we saw what was on offer. Using 4000-6000 size reels seemed a little ambitious and some of us switched up to some heavier Penn gear, while others held onto the light gear. The heavier gear included a prototype for a new Torque spin reel, a seriously ballsy bit of gear.
For a good 30 minutes it was carnage as a bunch of big red emperor, spangled emperor, mackerel, and more were landed. The gear was tested to its limits! There were screaming reels and double bent rods for everyone on board!
There were plenty of hard pullers around the reef including coral trout.
We also had a couple of Abu Veritas micro jigging outfits to use. Micro jigging is very popular and equally effective. The Veritas accounted for plenty of small fish and a few big ones too. There was even a good sized red emperor caught on the micro jig set up after the same fish was lost to a cod. Somehow the jig caught the busted line and a seriously unlucky emperor made it on board.
The Amokura is a 57 foot Assegai with unbeatable sea keeping qualities. At rest its stable and under way, even in a 25 knot wind, it’s very comfortable. Skipper Brett, together with deckies Jake and Damon, really know their stuff and operate a professional service.
Two full days on the reef with an experienced crew and loads of tackle wasn’t hard to take. Best of all, it was a great opportunity to put this new gear through its paces in a real life scenario. The fish were tough and no concessions were made for inferior tackle. Thankfully, the tackle was up to the task.
Read more about the trip in an upcoming issue of Fisho and stay tuned for a video showing the gear in action.
More about the range of Penn tackle here and details on Amokura here.
