Big Cat Reality Swains Trip 2023 Review
by Fisho's Tackle World 6 May 2023 22:53 UTC
Garry with his new PB gt measuring in at 123cm FL with an estimated weight of 36-38kg. Well done mate © Fisho's Tackle World
Introduction
We apologise that there will be no local weekly fishing report this week as our trusty scribe is away on a well-deserved break and wetting a line himself. Therefore, I (Dane) have decided to write a post trip report on our EPIC adventure out to the Swains Reef system aboard the mighty Big Cat Reality Fishing Charters.
This trip idea came about due to the volume of customers that frequented the shop and had previously booked a charter not knowing who they were booking on with and having an underwhelming experience due to various factors. The idea was born to book the boat out exclusively to Fisho's Tackle World customers.
This trip is all about learning how to read the reefs based on conditions and tides (where to be and when, which is so vital even out in these remote destinations) and knowing how to target the different species, utilising various techniques and lures as even out in those waters the fish don't just jump into the boat as many perceive. This trip was about bringing likeminded anglers together, learning along the way and in turn catching more fish whilst taking that knowledge back home and applying it to their everyday fishing.
Day one on the reef is always the most anticipated and exciting out of the whole trip, as all of your preconceived ideas and planning are now becoming reality, which can all come unstuck once you see the reef for the first time as it can be so overwhelming. We knew prior to the trip that we were leading into a new moon, therefore we were on building tides which is great. This knowledge gave us the ability to structure our fishing for the trip and our game plan was to focus on the deeper water species and respective techniques for days one and two, before incorporating more topwater fishing working both pressure edges and the flats on days three and four which then gave us days five and six to pick and choose what we wanted to do to end our trip. Let's get into it.
Swains Reef Day 1 - Working the deep for reef species
Day one we were met with typical Swains reef weather which consisted of a 10-15knot blow from the SE, making it a little sloppy in the tenders although still very fishable. Given that we had a run out tide which pushes from the SW we chose our desired reef and headed in that direction. Upon arriving at our location, I like to take a good look at the reef and look for that crucial pressure edge which is so vital to catching big numbers of fish.
Given the conditions were pleasant we located the pressure edge with ease and started sounding out the area for any sign of bait and fish life which is made quite easy nowadays by the advanced sonar and charting systems we have access to. A quick note I always opt to start out wide and fish my way into a reef edge, thus not spooking the fish up in the shallows.
The reef system we were fishing had quite a few shoaly bits of bottom sitting wide of the reef edge in 25-40m of water and after sounding over the ground and marking some likely structures holding good fish life, we set up our drift to go directly over the desired structures and worked our lures over them. In this scenario we opted to choose 3 main lure types that could be fished comfortably in the conditions and at these depths. The jig rods were rigged with 80 & 100g Mustad Wingman slow pitch jigs, whilst the soft plastic outfits consisted of Zerek Live Shrimp 127mm prawn imitations & Zman 7" jerk shad soft plastics rigged to 1 1/2oz & 2oz 7/0 TT Headlocks jig heads, Zerek Fish trap 110mm and Nomad Vertrex Max 110mm & 130mm soft vibes were also part of the arsenal.
The first drift will usually be your most productive, often producing the better quality reef fish from an area and this trip was no different, landing our better quality trout, red throat & job fish. After multiple drifts over the one area and the fish life and catch rate noticeably dropping, we determined that we would be better off spot hopping, covering fresh ground and only giving an area 2-3 drifts max. This decision dramatically increased our catch rate of better quality fish for the entire trip. Note each day's fishing is broken into two sessions, the morning session 7am-11:30am a short break back to the Big Cat for lunch by 12 and then back on the water by 12:30pm-1pm to fish into the afternoon to 4:30-5pm.
By the afternoon session the wind had dropped out and we were faced with a run in tide which pushed from the NE direction. I have always found the run-in to be the less productive of the tides fishing in and around the reef edges so we opted to swing for the fences and hunt out some deeper water away from the reefs out in the paddock looking for reds and other prized reef species.
Utilising our bathy charts, it was very easy to mark out some likely looking pinnacles and ridges for areas to start looking and after some sounding we managed to locate a small isolated structure holding plenty of fish life. In this scenario we were faced with 60-65m of water and a little current influence so we opted to fish heavier 150g Mustad Staggerbod jigs & Nomad Vertrex Max 130mm & Squidtrex 130mm soft vibes.
On our first drift across we pulled two solid tomato cod, second drift a nice blue maori cod and then got blown away. Upon resetting the drift, we noticed that the fish life had increased and we managed to hook some quality fish however couldn't keep the hooks in a few and the sharks that had been absent took their share. We then moved onto a larger ridge line in search of some harder reef structure which produced a few trout, job fish and we even got to watch our mate land his first ever dogtooth tuna of around 10kg.
With our tail somewhat between our legs we decided to call it quits from searching in the deep and hit one pressure edge on the northern side of our home reef and target a trout with the prawn soft plastics. After 3 drifts working the 25-30m line, which on a lot of the reefs is where the reef meets the sand, we put 13 trout in the box and unfortunately we had run out of fishing time and it was time to head back to the mothership for showers, dinner and of course more fishing off the back deck of Big Cat.
Read the full review here...