After having a week to digest and collect my thoughts, I’m now able to piece together some of the memories worth sharing. I did write a daily journal of what we did before I went to bed so that i didn’t forget. It’s a bit of a long read but hey, it’s got no advertising.
About 18 months ago a few guys on my swing asked if I’d be interested in a 7 day trip to swains reef. I said “lock it in, Eddie.” Before I consulted with my wife, who replied “I love you very much, spend as much as you like and I hope you nail a big dogtooth?” Or something like that.
Quite a few others were keen but then when it came to pay the deposit, everyone seemed to have tennis elbow or rusty wallets. Doesn’t matter, I was still keen.
Fast forward a year and a bit.. I’ve basically bought 3 of everything I might need, lures in multiple colours, every accessory I might need and not have; with my prized possession being a fish flogging bat that I was reserving for a shark - those who know me know how much I hate sharks; if I were prime minister I’d dedicate one day a year where families can flog sharks, a public holiday, like the Simpsons whacking day. Anyway..
The trip date lined up with when I was due to finish my swing, and they planned the swing to be in Queensland. One of the boys lived in Bundaberg so the plan was to finish work, hang at his for a few days, fish on Big Cat and then head back to Perth after the trip.

Day zero - Full steam ahead
- We were all staring at our ceilings when our alarms went off. Nobody was missing this trip. Packing the car with the excitement of a group of teenage girls in line to see Twilight.
- We made a deal of no work talk before 10am or you have to buy a round at the bar.
- Practice casting, knot wars, dreaming of our hit list while the bant-wagon was full at full speed.
- The plan was to steam out for 15 hours and stop at the south eastern end of the Swains reef system.
- Inspired, determined and well equipped we all went to bed to the 60 decibel lullaby of a big diesel engine.

Day 1 - Leaving the Shire
- After barely a wink of sleep, we heard the captain had decided to steam an additional 5 hours out to some further ground due to a favourable weather forecast. This system receives a lot less fishing pressure and we were all excited.
- Tenders in at 1pm
- We had an afternoon session about 4 hours. I started with plastics and jigs as I had comitted to a lure only trip but it was very light on the fish.
- Scorching heat unlike anything I’ve ever felt before and I’ve worked in the Simpson desert for a number of years. It was just relentless. No wind, no shade, sunscreen didn’t seem to be doing much.
- Out from the horizon, the Absolute best rain I’ve ever felt. It had already started evaporating before it landed on us but Iy felt amazing.
- Feeling pretty deflated as we only managed to capture 4 fish for the session, time to head in at 5pm. After a decent dinner, we caught a few squid in the lights of the boat and all went to bed earlier than a date night with Bill Cosby.

Day 2 - Into the groove
- Change of plans - fuck the lures
- Got onto some deep fish on the leeward side of a bump but instantly getting sharked every time.
- Hooked a few sharks and one managed to stick until it got boat-side. The GoPro must have stopped recording or something but the shark swam off fine and for the record, no shark was struck with a bat 30 times.
- A few fish in the bag but not a great deal. In for lunch
- Afternoon session we got redemption. Red throat & coral trout. A couple of tusk fish. I got a small red emperor
- Bit of time trolling through the day but didn’t see any birds working, no bait balls, no pelagic activity.
- In for dinner with a decent bag of keepers. I had never caught a red throat emperor before but they were in plague proportions out there.
- I’ve never been to a chainsaw convention but putting 11 guys in bunk beds in one berth wouldn’t be far off. I’d never heard snoring like that in my life. If you were an earplug salesman you could have paid for your trip.

Day 3 - Just like the magazines
- game plan - get some fish in the bag and then switch tactics in the afternoon.
- We drifted a lot early and put a lot of good coral trout and red throat in the bag.
- Decided to troll for a bit for no success but we were sounding some amazing structure that went from exposed rocks to 30-40m in less than 10 meters of distance.
- We pulled around to the west side of Beacon reef and worked a few poppers on the exposed reef holes/flats for GTs. We had an epic session of coral trout top water lures. Every isolated bommie had a coral trout guarding his little castle that had a hatred for rattles. After about 6/7 good keepers we headed in for lunch.
- The special thing about all 7 tenders coming in to lunch is the storytelling. Everyone’s swapping spots, tactics, hanging shit. We told a few of the other guys about our top water success and by the afternoon session a few boats decided to head out together and work the same reef system for coral trout. The reef had completely changed as the high tide had come in. We still managed a couple of fish but nothing like we had got earlier.
- I put on a Halco Sly dog in pink (my 3 year old daughter picked it for me) on my ‘08 Stella 5000, 8ft 30lb casting outfit. We were working some different sort of structures, casting deeper into the reef itself due to the incoming tide.
- I had a little bit of a strike but missed it, then a few casts later the water exploded and I got absolutely monstered. An epic fight where I was giving it my all. Disaster, the fish got my line around some bommie and I could feel braid rubbing, I could hear the dreaded braid violin. Sully says fuck that’s a HUGE TROUT on the other side of the bommie. I tried working different angles and tried my best to get it off the rocks when it suddenly got free. I was still connected and gaining ground!A horse of a trout comes boatside and I’m saying “GAFF GAFF, please.” We boated it and we were all on cloud 9. We measured at 79cm and it was a fat brute, battle scarred and angry.. High 5’s and thank-yous to the fish gods. I was more than happy to hang up the gloves for the day.. the problem was we still had 4 hours to go.
- Coomber hooks a double header of red throat, one on each treble on a 150mm stickbait
- We trolled for a bit and hooked two small mackerel but lost them both, one boatside and one spat the hooks after a while.
- Bottom bashed on a hot tip and got a few trout, red throat and then finally sharked. - time to call it a day before the bat has to come out.
- The skipper of the boat said we had made a mistake and the fish actually measured 81cm which means it was oversized. I measured it 3 times so I’m not entirely sure how we made that mistake?

Day 4 - Recon & The Gaff
- The weather was the best they’ve seen in years. So far the worst day was 10knots wind and a complete glass off by the afternoons.
- We decided to hit some unknown ground east of the mothership, no data as no other group had fished there before us. We were the British and there were unexploited new lands to the east. Exciting
- There was a strong north to south current, we were thinking we could troll around some big upwelling as the current would hit these decent lumps where it went from 70-90m up to 30-40m
- Spanish Mack’s landed on every tender that came out wide. One of the boats missed a sailfish. The banter on the radio was top notch.
- Still no bird activity or any signs of pelagic fish other than hooking them.
- Bluetooth speaker on full noise playing that ol’ reliable crowd-pleasing dad’s rock playlist.
- My workmate hooked a good one and I lost it at the gaff too. I sunk the gaff into the Mack and with my “slippery girly engineer hands” the gaff just pulled straight out of my hand.. still hanging from the fish. The fish shook the gaff off and then shook the lure off and both were to never be seen again. It was very silent trolling after that.
- Came in for lunch and worked some reef close to town
- Hooked a monster fish on the steep rise on heart reef. Baitfish splashing around and a medium stickbait cast near. Explosive top water hit and a really good fight before being snipped off as the fish was nearing the boat. Thinking a decent Spaniard?
- Trolled the rest of the afternoon for about as much excitement as the Jake Paul/Tyson fight
- Time to head in and go to bed. Fishing 9-10 hours a day in a tender and only getting 4-5 hours sleep was really getting to everyone. There were some real characters on board the boat.. some real storytellers and knowledgeable fishermen. There was even one guy who had only been fishing twice before and joined the 7 day, $3600 charter to “learn how to fish”. Right o

Day 5 - Tensions
- My workmate and I had a spit less than 100 meters after taking off from the mothership. Both of us unable to talk to each-other without things escalating, one hand on the bat and one on the tiller. With our mutual workmate just being the 17 year old child of a nearly divorcing couple, smiling into the sunset.
- It was my turn on the tiller for the day and I really wanted to get the boys into some decent trout or GT on top water lures similar to the session the previous day. There wasn’t a sniff on this reef with multiple casts. Decision to change tactics.
- Coomber decided that while we were motoring out of the reef system, why couldn’t he just put a 150mm stickbait out the back, on troll. Ok no worries, do your worst. Believe it or not, he pulls a coral trout at 7 knots on a stickbait skipping along the surface.
- I got the boys into the north side of the reef and could see some fusilier darting around every now and then. I got nice and close so they could cast over the reef in 1-2 meters of water and then the lure would work back towards the boat where it was 70 meters deep.. yes 70.
- Chris got a massive top water explosion and this fish went south, fast.
- Coomber busts out the GoPro and we’re being towed/motoring into the sketchy bombies while Chris fights this monster. After an 11 minute fight on video, we have a monster GT boatside and I don’t whiff landing the fish.
- Bear in mind Chris and I still aren’t talking to eachother at this point but once that fish came overboard it was High 5’s, fuck yeahs, yeah the boys and hugs. Argument over, thus solving the problem forever. The friendship saver fish.
- A few more casts but we’re all shattered and we got the fish we came for.
- After lunch we decided to hit a little sand island between heart reef and half moon reef. Once we landed on it we found it wasn’t actually sand, but a mound of dead coral.
- We hit a spot called “Cock and balls” with crazy drift and swell. You can just imagine the radio banter with some of the groups hitting the tip, some having more success on the shaft and one boat working the gooch.
- Trolled the afternoon for hours for stuff all. A chair next to Troy Buswell would have got more sniffs.

Day 6 - Winding down
- The boat steamed through the night and it was the first night I’d actually slept due to the snorers being drowned out by the beautiful hum of the boat.
- The boat anchored at Heron Island
- For us, it was a wind down day. The plan was to troll for a while, half heartedly.
- Everyone’s hands were covered in braid cuts, fish spines, nicks & cuts. You could see the general energy of the boat winding down.
- We found some nice ground in 30 meters that were showing fish and we were hooking up straight away on strip baits, only to be sharked 5 drops in a row. Fuck I fucking hate fucking sharks.
- After losing 5 rigs to sharks and having to tie a couple of new leader knots to snags, I spat the dummy. Time to listen to music and enjoy being cooked alive by the relentless sun. God only knows how the British felt when they first landed in some stupid thick red coat but we were suffering with full long sleeves, gloves, wide brim hats and buffs.
- After lunch we wanted to get coomber onto his first Mack tuna. Coomber is a western Queensland farm boy who’d never seen any fishing other than yellowbelly in dirty creek that would either cost you a finger to eat or gain you one.
- After chasing tuna for ages, he finally got one boatside. We had a different third guy on the tender today and he beat that tuna senseless with a pair of ganging pliers. I was impressed and disgusted.
- We used the tuna as bottom bait and worked some ground 15-25meters for a few coral trout, red throat and tuskfish.
- Time to have our last cast(s) and head back in, knowing we wouldn’t be back for a very long time, if ever.

Day 7 -
- After a lot of drinks the night before, we woke up to a gentle motoring into the marina.
- I’ll never understand how organised everything is in tackle bags and boxes on the way out to a fishing trip.
- When the trip ends there are loose hooks in pockets, swivels in wallets and soft plastics in cup holders. Somehow none of my gear managed to fit back in the way it came out. A true mystery.
- The boat docks and we unload all our gear. The catch comes out and we managed to keep 569 fish between 21 fishermen. Mostly red throat and coral trout, but there was a mixed grill of tusk fish, Cobia, Spanish Macks, red emperor, mahi-mahi, hussar, sweet lip and whatever else I’ve forgotten.
- We could have easily caught 750+ if we just wanted to bottom bounce and kill fish all day. For most, it wasn’t that kind of trip but a a trip of making memories. We spent a lot of time trolling and casting, chasing ghosts of magazines pages.
- It’s goodbyes and handshakes. A few Numbers were exchanged. We had 21 fishermen on board and by the end we were all mates.

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