Who has been to the Reef?

[Squidnation]

THE GBR that is. I want to do this in the fall. So whoever has been please post up details of your trip. Live aboard. Mothership or transient. whats best? where? with who? expectations, seas, amenities, food, cost etc. Give me the lowdown please. Its time to give the sails a break and go giant hunting!!!!

[frankypettolina]

Bill, i went in 2007.

fished on a live aboard with Capt. Ross Finlayson. Boat was comfy enough, but the one night we went and hung out on the Mothership showed me how much more comfy it could be. I didn't see the bill, but I think we were 2500 or so a day, and i think the mothership is quite a bit more than that.

the seas were anywhere from flat to balls ass rough over the 5 days we fished. i understand the flat days are rare.

Flew from BWI to Houston, to LA into sydney then to Cairns. Spent the night in Cairns and flew to cooktown. met the boat in cooktown. fished 5 days, returned to cooktown, spent night, flew to cairns, then to sydney then to La, then to houston, then to BWI.

In cairns be sure to go to the **** and Bull- home of the Big Game Fishing and hunting Club- great place for fishing folk. Walking around Cairns is cool, lots of little shops, lots of eye candy at the public pool and beach. Some neat things to see.

In cooktown it is really low key (read boring). We ate at the "bowls" i think they were called- and at their version of a VFW (forget what that was called). Home style cooking and pretty cool to see and do.

I ate croc, roo, mudcrabs, you name it- had to be adventureous. Mudcrabs were like an oversized blue crab, without the oldbay and not AYCE.

I think the flying time is something like 31 hours each way.

When I was there fishing was very slow. Raised 10 or 11, got bites out of 7, caught 3- 200, 700 and 800. Broke off a fish that Ross estimated at 1300 when a 300 pounder got tangled in the main line.

Catching bait in the morning was cool (the deckies take it very serious, better to spectate than paticipate.)

i would love to go again sometime, truly impressive big fish fishing.

[tetepare]

I would love to say that I have fished it for marlin (but I havent). Done plenty of light tackle up there and it was insane.

check out www.blackmarlinblog.com you will find a full list of boats that work the reef plus you can read who caught what and when.

As for weather, she blows hard SE trades at that time however later in the season (November) your chances of better weather increase as the monsoon aproaches.

As for boats if I was going I would look at Askari, Kekoa, Shaka, Kalira, Castille 3, Calypso. I picked these as I like the boats or skippers have good rep.

Cairns and Port Douglas are nice for a day or 2. Cooktown is basically the last real town before the Cape and there is not much to do other than drink beer, though you can hire a small boat and head up the river and chase Barra, Queenfish etc on baitcasters + look for crocs and catch mud crabs.

Rattle and Hum is a great pub in Cairns with great bar girls.

Chilli Mud Crab is perhaps the greatest meal on earth followed by chilled mud crab. Coral Trout, Red Emporer and Mangrove Jack are the best eating fish on the reef though there are plenty of good ones. Give the roo a miss.

Spend a day or 2 in Sydney. And if you are coming all this way why not stop over in Fiji for a few days chasing dogtooth tuna and GT's. (You can get flights from LA with the stop over) some one like www.goldeneaglefiji.com comes to mind.

[cbillfish98]

i am the crew onboard the tradition, and cant wait till its time to go back to the reef and pull on black marlin of biblical proportions....i have fished all over the world and it is by far the best place on earth.send me an email and i can give you all the info you need as well as a dvd of our 2009 season
cbillfish98@aol.com

[cbillfish98]

also check out www.traditioncharters.com for info about us and the boat

[fish4fun]

also check out www.traditioncharters.com for info about us and the boat

God Damn! How big was that black marlin on the leader on your webpage? The one in the 1st page of your photo section??? That looks like a huge mama...holy chit.

Just went back for a 2nd look, the one with the 3 photos (mate has a blue tradition boat shirt on)

Wow, great fish

[JFT]

also check out www.traditioncharters.com for info about us and the boat

I fished with Capt. Tim Richardson and mate Chris Weeks on Tradition in November 2009.Flew from Fla. to LA then V Australian flight from LA to Brisbane, then flight to Cairns. Rented a car and drove up to Cooktown to meet the boat.
5 days on the reef staying on the game boat. Me and Doc along with the crew. Very comfortable.You must have Coral Trout for dinner. Doc released one around the magic number !Great boat and crew. I loved everything about Australia. People in Australia were wonderful. Everyone who loves fishing should see the GBR at least once.

[Carson Mac]

This one is kinda big. Not sure anyone ever answered the when???

[Captain Fred Archer]

Been there many times, experienced some world class big black marlin fishing. But haven't been back in many years, so I can't add much, except to say that Australia is one of my favorite places ever and that the black marlin game is expensive as hell. I consider fishing from a mothership the best way to do it.

If you can afford it, GO!

[Anthony of the ARK]

world class fishing and people. good enough for me. along with a place to stay and one of my 4 favorite bar tenders in the world, the idea of going there with in the next year and a half sounds good to me.