Slashers Reef Report - By Ryan

The following report is compiled by Ryan Krause of Ryan Catholic College. Thanks Ryan.

It was an early start last Sunday morning, waking up at 3am, packing the boat and getting organised before heading to fuel up and make our way to Slashers (Braggs) Reef. We managed to beat the mad rush to the boat ramp, getting away easily into what could only be described as perfect conditions. The calm weather shaved a fair bit of time off our trip and we arrived to Slashers Reefs at around about 6am. We were keen to get into the trout. We tried a few different spots in about 30-40m of water, but weren’t having any luck. We then decided to try our luck in closer to the reef. We tried 20m of water and this proved to be where the fish were. We managed to pick up some nice Red Throat Emperor as well as some nice trout off this one spot. Then things went quiet again.

The trout continued to be on the bite, feeding best on pilchards, whereas the squid seemed to be attractive the Red Throat Emperor. A bit of excitement towards the middle of the day, was a run on the floater we had out. The fish was fought for about 5minutes when it managed to cut the line, mackerel for sure, so we re-baited and put the line out again.

In the shallow water, we could see schools of cobia swimming beneath the boat. Trying to get them excited enough to take the bait just wasn’t working. The metal splices were brought out and after about 50 casts, we managed to get a bite but it didn’t take it. The cobias were not playing the game. About 5 minutes before leaving the reef, this nice Spangled Emperor was caught on squid.

We then headed for home, but to break up the long trip we decided to stop off at Shark Park and try our luck for some bottom fish or mackerel. We had hook-ups before too long but they, as the name suggests proved to be sharks. With no success at this spot we decided to head for home after a successful trip to the reef.

The cod and red emperor were caught last weekend on a shoal of John Brewer Reef; I just added it because their big!!!!