Page 51 - BNB Fishing mag

Epic Bundaberg offshore exploration
* from P50
to drift and fish.
some beautiful white bars.
If you’re in a likely destination to begin with, the wind and cur- rent will often push you across more good-look- ing reef or fish.
I was ecstatic, think- ing I’d done it, and when it finally surfaced I was deflated to see it was a chinaman fish.
During our most re- cent adventures off- shore, we’ve headed far and wide in search of the elusive red em- peror.
Equally beautiful but due to ciguatera toxins, a far less desirable spe- cies than an emperor.
I have not yet landed a legal-sized red em- peror, and after many hours of trying they’ve still managed to steer clear of my baits.
I was still stoked with the epic fight the fish put up, and sent it on its way to fool some other silly bugger!
Zane captured a cracking tusk sh.
Leeah landed a great-sized venus tusk sh.
I have, however, caught countless under- sized specimens, so I know I’m on the right track to landing one of these prized beauties.
Over the past couple of trips searching for reds we have racked up some serious miles – thank God for our Suzuki outboard and its insanely good fuel economy!
Throughout these occasions we fished everything from hard structure with pinna- cles of 5-10m to rubbly bottom in depths rang- ing from 30-100m, but still no big red.
Hopefully one day soon the fishing gods finally hand me that trophy red emperor I’ve been trying so hard for, but until then I’m hap- py catching every other line puller that gets in the way.
I cannot complain about our by-catch, landing a mixed bag of hussar, venus tuskfish, redthroat emperor and maori cod to name a few.
And why wouldn’t I – with so much water to explore, I’ve got lots of ‘work’ to do!
Finally, while fishing likely looking struc- ture in 70m of water, I hooked up to something serious.
With my rod seriously buckled, the fish did not want to come off the bottom and judging by the head shakes I quickly made the call that I’d hooked my de- sired red emperor.
After a tiring fight, I finally saw colour and it was indeed red with www.bnb shing.com.au
A maori cod brought up from the depths on a slow-pitch jig.
Bush ’n Beach Fishing, August 2020 – Page 51