Today the goal was red emperor fishing wide offshore Cairns. In about 65 metres of water.
Of course, we chose heatwave conditions to head far offshore!
My partner’s in crime today are John Snell of John Snell Fishing Charters.
And Ash Cotter formerly of Jarvis Walker and extremely knowledgable about all things tackle.
Ash also gave his time freely acting as decky for our wounded warriors trip, and looked after the guys so well.
I haven’t fished with these guys for ages and it was great to catch up with old mates.
While Ash is no longer in the fishing game, Snelly specialises in fly fishing around Cairns and Hinchinbrook.
So the idea was to begin fishing wide offshore Cairns in the cool of the morning.
And call it quits once the heat got too unbearable.
FISHING WIDE OFF CAIRNS
Once we got out to the wide grounds, I found some interesting deep shoals, after studying the charts.
While rigging up, I checked the drift of the current and noticed it was fairly strong.
So we tied on the 100 g Levitator jigs.
After trying to spot lock with the electric motor, it was obvious that the current was stronger than I thought.
So drifting quickly across these marks, became our only solution.
This can often be a problem fishing wide off Cairns, or anywhere near the shelf for that matter.
On our first few passes we managed to hook up some really nice fish.
But unfortunately, they got us in the bottom.
Ash tussled with something huge, what it was we will never know.
That’s fishing!
MOVING INSHORE
After such a long haul out there and the heat rising, I decided to head back inshore and have a crack at some Wonky’s close to home.
As usual, Wonky Holes delivered.
Which just goes to show, that fishing inshore honey holes can be better than fishing wide offshore Cairns.
I did mark the area for another crack, on a cooler day with less run.
Some highlights of the day.
On this occasion, fishing wide offshore Cairns didn’t really deliver, but I had a great day with mates regardless.
Learn how to read your sounder to pick up mackerel and other fish in our Sounder Skills 1 online course.
At only $19.99 what have you got to lose?
For more great tips and a chance to win a trip for two barra fishing with Ryan Moody, enter your name and email to join our free fishing community.
