The start of September and it’s the peak of the season. Bluey and the boys hop aboard for some more Swains magic. With plenty of experience in the reef fishing scenario we know where in for premium weeks fishing. After the safety briefing where off and away.
Starting on the eastern side ,the first morning consisted of a nice cup of coffee , cloudless skies and fish going into the box. A Mix of red emperor , redthroat , stripey and tuskfish were the first on board. With breakfast on we lift the pick and head out into the open water to heavily chase red throat emperor and coronation trout. The bite was on and the weather was Pristine, slow to moderate drift patterns aloud us to sit on the feeding colonies of Lipper for longer resulting with a 90 fish 1st day. Arvo was upon us and everyone had a settled down night and caught up on sleep and eager for the rest of the week.
With such success on the eastern side we head out to similar grounds to target different species. On the way we set the lures out to see if the pelagics want to play the game. A rod on the port side goes off and then the short lure gets hammered and line is just peeling off out wide , first fish is landed a nice Spanish mackerel , the other fish still hanging wide but slowly losing the battle , coming towards the boat we could see the dominant stripes of a sizeable wahoo , with the gaff set the fish is landed , Rob was over the moon with his first Swains wahoo pushing up to the 14-15kg category. On the drift we started hitting different species on the bottom like Japanese sea Bream , ironjaw jobfish, trout cod and nice coronantions.
Whilst on the drift it is often that we float a ganged pilchard in the midwater column for any scavenging mackerel like wahoo, shark mackerel and Spanish . The rod folds and across the boat it goes , a Spanish 15+kg is victim to this technique , fish was landed and the bait was set out again ,the rod goes off but shakes the gang and is free. Bluey decides he ll take on the next fish by himself if it goes off , an hour later the rod pulls line then stops and Blue sets the hooks “ only something small” he quotes and 4-5seconds later a 50kg Black marlin jumps out the water 10m from the boat with the gang across his jaw , blueys eyes were the size of sourcers and everyone’s jaws dropped to the ground , this apex predator put on an air show jumping at least 20 times in a matter of minutes , motors start and the chase is one to gain some line. Keeping the fish out the back of the starboard side gave us the leverage on the fish and 20minutes pass and where slowly gaining line whilst manuvering Mikat , 30 minute mark comes up and Scotty’s been on rod after blue and started gaining some good metres and the hooks pull away from the fishes jaw and is set free 20-30m from the boat. An unreal event to break up the day. From there the trout came on the chew. That night no one could stop talking about the crazy day and the chain of events. To top it off , Darrin dishing out freshly caught coral trout and streamed mix vegetables topped with a secret specialty sauce.
With a change in the weather we travel over to the western side of Swains with Coral trout and red emperor on our mind. Battling the wind and the natural predators the boys still fished hard and got the results with trout upto 4kg becoming alot more common. Jim was on fire and was like he was shooting trout in a barrel , he couldn’t miss and was enjoying every moment of it. The back end of the week was near and we anchor at one of our favourite anchorages at Hixson Cay. Cubing up around the boat at night brought the lipper on the chew , although they were flighty we still managed to catch a few nice sizeable fish.
With Freezers full and beer esky getting empty it was time to head home . Rods stacked away and terminal tackle packed up , it becomes the sad part of the trip. Getting to know great people and catching them next time is the perk of these awesome adventures and always leaves us keen for next time , a big thank you to Bluey for organising this trip , a legend of a bloke and a great fisherman that will give anything a go.