The annual trip to Coral Bay proved to be a success with all factors being in our favour. The week turned out some amazing weather and the fishing was on from start to finish.The week prior to our arrival produced a ripper marlin of 220kg and regular catches of sailfish were all the talk at the cleaning tables, especially by the bottom fisherman who were hooking them on their bait rigs.

The inside of the reef towards South Passage was fishing well on the light gear for small shark mackerel and gold spot trevally. The only issue was when fish headed for the bommies which usually ended up with lost lures. Occasional spangled emperor also smashed the metal lures but these were all relatively small in size.

The water immediately outside South Passage was producing vast numbers of tuna which were easy to spot as they smashed baitfish on the surface and the birds dived from above. We caught dozens of these guys using Richter soft grassy and soft oscar skirts, along with the old faithful Halco laser pro 190DDs in the chrome pilchard colour and Yo Zuri deep diving minnows in the green. A few spaniards were also kicking about in the same area but not in any great numbers.

Out wide there was good numbers of red emperor, rankin cod and big spangled emperor being caught. Mixed in with these species there was also some good numbers of cobia, both on the bottom and on the surface. The ones we landed ranged from around 10 to 17kgs.

Shore based fishing at the marina was quiet, although I did manage seven spangled emperor one morning, with only two of those being of any reasonable size, and the fisho near me got busted off twice on some bigger fish.The surface fishing out wide was also producing some billfish action.

Although it was reasonably quiet during our week we did come across some sailfish. The tuna proved to be the main catch of all our trolling efforts though.

One morning out saw us fish the reef on the outside of the North Passage. Here we managed numerous trevally, spangled emperor, a coronation trout and sweetlip, along with one big cod which was tagged and released after about 20 minutes of reviving the beast.

All in all a really good trip.

Laith Rickman.

Bluewater Tackleworld Melville. 

Text and pics © 2010 Bluewater Tackle World