Nothing gets the heart of a fisherman racing like a big pelagic explosion on the surface. Watching a huge toothy critter zero in on a surface lure is right up there in the fishing highlight reel. Getting skull-dragged across live coral by toothy brutes is what takes many sport fishos to the Great Barrier Reef, writes Tim O’Reilly
Those true apex predators that patrol the coral reef fringes and drop-offs. The kind that tear fishing gear apart!
Forward march
Let’s take a cruise up the North East coast of Queensland and see how much gear we can lose on the way. Because even the best day fighting monsters out on the reef will normally leave a few casualties. Without getting caught up in what gear to take, remember that bigger and stronger is normally better.
SEE ALSO: Fishing guide in the Northern Territory
Big poppers, big stickbaits, big trolling lures, big baits, big jigs and big hooks are all pretty standard out on this eastern edge of the abyss. A place where lures go to die and melt into the sea floor. Their paint coating the razor-sharp teeth of big coral dwelling mercenaries.
There is nothing sexier in the tackle game then a large wooden popper with paint falling off and giant teeth marks down the sides! Most if not all of the fish mentioned below are fast movers and prefer any lure moving at a decent pace to invoke a strike. Using reasonably long spinning outfits to cast lures a long distance whilst having some leverage to pull up big fish. There are a thousand retrieves possible from high speed flat out to long sweeping strokes of the rod, winding in the slack.
Some of the vibes and metal jigs will require short sharp lifts of the rod tip, winding quickly in between.
Hunt or be hunted
Let’s kick this off with the most punishing thug on the reef, giant trevally. These things hunt in packs and relish nothing more then a wolf-pack attack on stragglers or strays.
On Queensland’s east coast, they grow to just about every size imaginable. From tiny little river dwellers the size of your palm, munching on jelly prawns, to huge offshore brutes pushing 50 kilos! As fishing styles and techniques have changed and fishing values systems have done a little backflip, giant trevally have risen from the doghouse to the penthouse.
With back-breaking power and dogged fishing ability, GTs have become a bit of mainstay for Bluewater casting enthusiasts. Wherever you find bait stacking up, there is likely to be a team of Gts nearby, looking for something to chase.
Dogtooth tuna maybe the only fish worthy of taking toughest bully on the reef mantle off giant trevally. These things were made under some pretty serious genetic conditions. For some reason, they are capable of absolutely blowing fisherman away. Especially as they grow up past 30kg! Doggies present a bit of a holy grail item for spear fisherman and everyone throwing surface lures on the outer reef.
Dreams of hooking a doggie up on top are more regularly counteracted by realised captures on trolled deep diving lures and metal jigs worked erratically up from the depths. Hang on!
No mercy
Wahoo are a razor-ganged blue water denizen, designed straight from a sport fisherman’s imagination. A big snapping beak full of the sharpest teeth imaginable, causing unfound misery on the flying fish population.
These speedy critters are likely only pipped by sailfish for speed. Wahoo will take fast trolled lures, cast poppers and stickbaits, whizzing off on a blistering fast first run. With gleaming iridescent flanks of blues and purples and flashy silver, they appear like a magical oil paining at first beside the boat.
Always on the lookout for an easy meal injured on the surface, coral trout are one of the most iconic and sought after fish on the Great Barrier Reef. Lucky they are so prolific and a good amount of giant bluespot trout can still be found on the outer reef edges. Any trout over 80cm long is likely a blue spot and should be returned unharmed as they are no take.
But imagine nearly a meter of coral trout appearing behind a big popper, engulfing in then turning back for a coral lair. Perhaps my favourite sight in all of fishing. Comfortable both up on the flats and down amongst deep reef patches, green jobfish are a wonderful staple of the outside reefs.
Aggressive on the take and fighting doggedly to begin with, green-jobbies have a wonderful set of dentures on them and glow a vivid blueish-green when fresh from the water. With laser like strikes, jobfish rarely miss their target, especially when feeding up on the flats. After crash-tackling the lure, jobbies lunge off in sideways arching runs, they look fantastic and taste just fine.
On your guard
The OG of the outer coral reefs has to go to magnificent looking Maori Wrasse. These fish transition from a dull assemblage of colours into a face tattooed spectacle of blues, oranges and greens.
A whole plethora of colours thrown together in a flats brute with big gnarly tooth pegs and a dangerous attitude. Lure fisherman don’t catch big numbers of these magnificent creatures and they must be released unharmed in Queensland. Of those hooked, many more battles are lost then won. Wrasse quite often live in the reef cracks and patrol the shallow flats rubble, resting amongst coral outcrops as the move about.
The huge powerful tail of these fish propels them down into structure. Once stuck behind a rock or under coral, these crafty wrasse sit sideways of upside down and use their fins to remain glued to the spot. Sometimes diving into dislodge them is possible but most lures never return from an encounter with the big wrasse.
Large spinning outfits with some decent length in the rod is required and consider using 200lb leader! Besides the odd mangrove jack that ventures out into the mid reef patches, it tends to be reds bass as the dominant lutjanid species on the outer reef.
Residing in packs and known for climbing all over lures as soon as they touch down, red bass are super powerful fish. A typical fight on medium spin tackle will often see them find cover multiple times. But with heavy leader they can normally be extracted.
Careful as they look just like a tasty fish but are a no take species, listed as a ciguatera (toxin) risk.
Barrier beauties
Another Ciguatera risk are Chinaman fish. Chinaman are an anomaly of a fish. Like a coral trout on steroids, these things can seriously pull line, scoffing at the claims other fish make as to the toughest critter on the reef.
Starting out young, they are one of the prettiest fish on the reef, high fins and a scattering of colours over light red. But as they grow old and gnarly, their teeth lengthening and rounding off into little pegs, Chinaman fish take on a deep red, angry faced appearance. Chinaman fish show up often where you least expect them.
Plenty get caught around the deeper reefs and shoals, often down at 30-50m. But I have seen some grotesque sized fish, hiding up under coral bommies in a couple of meters of water. A cast popper or stickbait disappearing behind a rock or a metal jig quickly getting tugged back to the bottom are sure indicators of a Chinaman fish on the end of a line.
Plenty of battles are lost and they will literally fish themselves to a standstill. Spanish mackerel are one of the mainstays for sport fisherman on the outer reefs and shoals right up the Queensland east coast.
They make an annual sojourn between north and south, shifting as a population but maintaining a few local residents right up the coast. The winter months tend to be the most productive, also producing a better quality of fish. Nothing beats the sight of a missile-like mackerel snatching a lure from the surface as they clear the water by many meters, jaws flailing. Sharky mackerel are a common enough capture as they terrorise bait schools around the reef edges and current lines.
They are responsible for plenty of snip-offs when casting small metal lures and offerings tied with mono leader. They don’t grow as large as their Spanish cousins and with a slightly shark-smelling skin aren’t as popular for the table either. Oceanic queenfish don’t exactly inspire terror, however these long thing queenfish have dazzling cobalt colours and tiny razor teeth and are responsible for eating more then their fare share of tiny baitfish on the outer reef.
Sharp competition
Giant barracuda are a little maligned up on the outside of the Great Barrier Reef. They tend to be an unwanted bycatch chasing more prized species.
But there is no denying the fierceness of a huge ‘Cuda.’ Smashing a popper on the surface before jumping clear, gnashing those fearsome teeth is a sight to behold. Not known for their staying power, barracuda can be bought quickly to the boat, but this is where the danger begins.
With last minute zippy runs and wild antics called up by their long slimy, slender frame, the danger usually comes trying to dislodge whatever lure they were caught on. If you take the chance to peer deep inside a giant Barracudas mouth, check out the insane fangs! The only fish with scarier dentures then a giant cuda has to be the oceanic gar fish, also known as the crocodile Long Tom (Tylosurus crocodilus).
These menacing little missiles grow over a meter long on the outer reef flats and present a seriously hectic task to anyone unlucky enough to keep a hook in one. They are masterful at dismissing a lure or fly, with a long bony, pointed snout, full of needle-like teeth. Affectionate called flats-marlin by lure casters as a joke, these fish cartwheel across the water’s surface when either giving chase or retreating.
A face only a mother could love and provider of more then a few scars on hands! Like all these fish, it is a good ecological reminder to treat all the same. Each species participates equally in the magnificent place we call the Great Barrier Reef. Just because you caught a Chinaman fish or red bass or a giant cod, try and give them just as much chance of survival as any other fish you come across.
Get them back in the water for release in quick time and attempt to plunge them off headfirst, it seems to make a huge difference as to whether they swim off strongly or not.
The great journey
The outer Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea presents some of the most rem arkable sport fishing locations on Earth.
There are so many big toothy critters we have only touched on but a few. Besides being visually spectacular when fishing within sight of the reef, there is simply so much structure and such vastness to the reef system that one lifetime could never see you fish it all. If ever you want to feel truly alive for a moment, pop over the side of a boat on the edge of any outer reef.
Watch an underwater city of activity unfolding. Barracuda and sharks: Lumped together because they are most often despised in equal amounts by fisherman of the outer reef. In Australia we benefit from having very healthy fisheries. In other places, the likes of humungous barracuda and sharks eating surface lures might get the heart racing. But generally we try avoiding both these specimens, along with the acrobatic and scary looking alligator garfish (long toms).