AN invitation to join a Swain Reefs fishing trip is pretty hard to knock back, and to do a trip with essentially the same nucleus of guys from previous years that all get on well and love their fishing makes it even harder. We headed out from Yeppoon late in the evening on the Capricorn Star with owner/skipper Scott Wilson …

IT is that time of year when we are spoilt for species to target offshore. On the shallow grounds we’ve seen a lot of offshore mulloway or jewies as they are affectionately known. Most people associate them with inshore estuaries, rock walls and structure close to river mouths, but they certainly aren’t limited to those areas. The range of these …

The good news is the goldbands were still there, as were huge pearlies and big snapper. George made another spectacle of himself with a great double hook-up of the largest redthroat of the trip and a big snapper. We were impressed by the consistent size of the parrot and redthroat out deep and the quality of the pearl perch was …

We picked up great shows on the sounder and really craggy country to work over, but with time marching on and excellent fish in the box, the call was made to head towards home and fish a few more locations along the way. The fish cleaning is always a big task and a couple of big buckets of salt water …

Some of the fishing from the deck of the Capricorn Star was very good. Everyone was fishing braid, and with an experienced crew tangles were at a minimum. On a number of occasions the quality of fish was much better than I had expected, and it was surprising how quickly a good catch could be put together. Ivan Mapp landed …

But we were more than satisfied with the catch and cardiovascular workout and know the fishing will be even better when we get a few cold snaps and the water temperature cools a bit more.

AFTER arriving back in Melbourne on the Spirit of Tasmania, our intention was to work our way back to Brisbane via the parts of the Victorian High Country you can access with a caravan and then head across the NSW border and up into the Snowy Mountains from the west. These areas are totally off-limits to caravans in the winter …

If you like the easier approach, just drop down a livie and hang on to the rod, waiting for the tip to drop sharply upon hook-up. When the trag are on, double hook-ups are very common, with some big fish among them. Live baits have been excellent, as have bonito, mack tuna and large squid and octopus. When the trag are hungry …