North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Hi all,
just did a trip to evans shoal over last weekend & going by local reports glad we did
left Thursday morning & trolled south gutter for a couple of hours for zip, thought it would be ok as I was out there on the same tide on day 1 of the billfish comp & did ok
got to fourcroy for the tide change & only managed 3 small jewies & heaps of Powertail, not a good start, but fingers smoked jewie made up for it
overnight on the way out to Evans which is approx. 100Nm from Cape VanDiemen, conversation turned, to what to look for for on the sounder for fish. I said this looks ok as we passed over a very small ledge(1.5m high) with small amount of growth in 100m for a respectable 8 good goldband snapper on the drift
not used to the 100m bottom bashing that's for sure, 30m round here is deep.....
On to Evans shoal, picking up a few tuna on the way & start drifting the northwest corner from 18m on top to 125m
best fish came from 60-80m depth range,
Weather was about 10-15kt easterly with about 1m swell & crystal clear, easily see coral at 25m
up on the shoal were a lot of smaller fish like coronation trout, tomato cod, blotchy emperor( related to tricky's), rainbow runners
sharks were a problem on the pressure side of the shoals
only got a couple of good trout but plenty of everything else, red emperor, red bass, chinaman fish, dark tail perch(look like a mangrove jack) green jobbies, more goldbands, couple of huge cod & numerous other species. we were floating little bits of bait out on a baitcaster for long toms, runners & Trev got a nice mahi mahi
this continued for 2 days with one drift on the southern end of the shoal lasting for 3 hours, constant fish all from 60-80m, which by now is considered a doddle....
On Staurday lunchtime Rado comes out from inside & says its his birthday & so it was a fitting way to spend it
on the way down to Tassie shoal something grabs Tony's lure, I hear someone say wahoo, so I come down from bridge to see tony holding 24kg rod, leaning back with both arms locked straight & surprised look on his face, hmm, think its bigger than a wahoo, then an 80kg black starts jumping around, about 15mins later he's successfully released
more fishing at Tassie shoal but wasn't quite as good as evans & more sharks that were harder to get away from
overnight to parry shoal & next day troll west of Bathurst trench for a 100kg black on Greg's lure, very acrobatic this one & again successfully let go
more trolling for zip & made the run home back for 1900 lock
great trip, lost 70 sinkers & hooks & sore arms by all'
we ate like kings from what we caught
weather brilliant, no heatwave out there....
sorry if pics are not much chop
cheers & thanks to all who went
Geoff

I hate you all. That looks like one hell of an awesome trip.

Sounds like a ripper trip. That job fish is a ripper

good trip.

What a trip, some unreal fish there

What a trip. Well done

Looks like an Awesome trip mate, well done.

Great trip, great report.

Cheers

Great trip mate, well done.

Nice trip, nice boat too!!!

yep boat's awesome
I brought it up from Brisbane when new in 2010 but don't get to go much these days but tend to make it a good one when I do
forgot to mention the electric fishing reel
Greg had one & nothing better for 100m deep fishing
they are now on everyone's christmas/birthday/fathers day list....

The kind of trip that ticks all the boxes! Well done.