An Uncommon, Common Coral Trout – By Will Kitching
Here in South East Queensland, we are blessed with an exciting mixture of both northern and southern species both in the estuaries and offshore. Inshore we have big mangrove jack, threadfin salmon, and even a solid population of barramundi these days, and on the offshore grounds we get a good run of pelagics moving down the coast over the warmer months. In terms of demersal reef species though, it’s quite hard to find prized species such as legal sized red Emperor, coral trout, and red throat Emperor that are more prevalent further north.
The reefs off Noosa have a solid population of trout these days, however south of there it is much harder to find and catch them – especially on rod and reel. After seeing photos of spearfishers and a few line fishers catching big trout every now and again off the Sunshine Coast, we had been keeping our fingers crossed that we’d cross paths with one sooner or later. Well, it finally happened, but not how we were expecting!
Solid grassy sweetlip and pearl perch were the flavour of the day.
With snapper on our mind, we dropped the Haines Hunter V17C into the water and made our way out through the Mooloolah River bar in the dark. The wind was blowing just hard enough to make the trip out slightly bumpy, and we arrived to a completely blank sounder screen. This patch of reef is situated in 40 metres of water, with scattered lumps and rises surrounded by rubbly reef. We couldn’t see any sign of bait or fish life, even on the bommies. After a couple of drifts for nothing, we moved a few kilometres in search of some action.
After three hours of tough fishing we only had one grassy sweetlip in the esky, and our hope was fading. We knew there was a moon rise at around 8:30am, and at this time fish started to show up on the sounder. We got pestered by small fish, but at least there was some action starting to happen. It was time to search for some larger models, and we decided to make another move. Funnily enough, we had to drive back over our original spot on the way, and this time it was absolutely packed with bait and fish!
It’s amazing the difference a few hours can make and goes to show that solunar charts are worth looking into. We have had a few hot bites during moon rises and moon sets since we started paying attention to them! Keeping a fishing diary helps to learn different bite times and factors that effect how fish bite. I’ve found the website tides4fishing.com to be good for checking solunar bite times.
One last look at the trout before we took the fillets and wings off!
After seeing the massive, balled-up shows on the sounder, we floated down pilchards on our two-hook snelled rigs. We were expecting some snapper to be hanging around, but only ended up catching one all day! We thumb our spool to slow down the descent of our baits as snapper love to feed higher in the water column, but most of the action was happening close to the bottom this day. Using a sea anchor will slow your drift down and ensure your lines are as vertical as possible, and that your baits are getting to the bottom.
Almost every time we sent a bait down amongst the show of fish, we were getting a solid whack. The first few fish were grassy sweetlip which put up a real battle close to the bottom. I’ve found that a lot of bites have been coming when our sinker bumps into the structure, with some strikes coming instantly when our bait hits the sea floor. My guess is that this makes some noise and stirs up sediment which in turn attracts the attention of grassies. Sometimes if the sounder is showing fish, I’ll even wind up a few metres before dropping my sinker back down into the structure again.
The next species that turned up was also a highly desirable one. Pearl perch started emerging from the depths, hitting our baits on the drop as they wafted below the thick school of bait. I think some people are unaware how aggressive pearlies truly are, and how hard they fight! While floating down baits for snapper lately, these fish have been engulfing our baits with their bucket mouths and giving us a good battle on our 20lb setups. Pearl perch don’t suffer from barotrauma, so the larger models fight all the way to the surface.
Hopefully coral trout like this one continue to grow in numbers on the Sunshine Coast.
We were already happy to be putting a few of these regular South East Queensland reef species in the boat, but our excitement levels were about to skyrocket. It was around lunchtime that the thick school of bait had dispersed and the bites slowed down again. “One more drift and then we’ll head in,” Dad said to me. My brother Matt was also in the boat, however he’d been dead asleep in the cabin for three hours straight. Remember that detail, it’s part of the story! We decided to line up our final drift over an area where we had never driven or fished over before.
I put a big flesh bait of bonito on a set of three 5/0 ganged hooks to go for glory. Well, I didn’t end up getting the glory personally, but the ‘big bait’ tactic worked. While floating that down, dad hooked up and the soft plastic that we had dangling in the rod holder got hit too. I grabbed that and left my bait rod in the holder, dropping down in free spool. While fighting the fish on the plastic, I turned around and noticed that I had a ‘bird nest’ due to a fish grabbing the bonito. I didn’t realise how big it was until I sorted out the tangle, clicked my reel into gear, and the rod cranked over!
Sleeping beauty – I mean, Matt – was called out of the cabin, but by the time he grabbed the rod he couldn’t stop this brute of a fish from diving back into the reef. With only 20lb leader, it was a miracle that we hadn’t been busted off instantly. After dropping the reel into free-spool and taking all pressure off the fish, we got lucky and it swam back out of its’ hole. While this technique doesn’t work every time it often allows the fish to think they’re free, causing them to swim back out. Matt turned the freight train towards the surface, while I landed my fish – a spangled Emperor.
Only one snapper was caught all day!
As this mystery fish first rose into view, we looked on with confusion as it wasn’t a colour we are accustomed to seeing. The round, orange mass moving towards the surface had us guessing nannygai at first, before the head of a huge coral trout popped out of the water. As I said earlier – trout are quite rare this far south, and hard to land as our setups and techniques generally aren’t ideal for targeting them.
I’m calling this the ultimate ‘Bradbury moment’ – Matt comes out from the cabin at the last second and lands one of our best fish ever! Oh well, I was just happy to have one on the boat! This common coral trout was our first one ever, and it was a monster. This extremely fat fish came in at 75cm and 6kg! So much had to go right for us to land this trout; from deciding to check our first spot again, doing that one last drift, fishing over new ground, somehow pulling it out of the reef on 20lb line, etc. Even on a tough day you have to be in it to win it, and you never know what awesome fish you might come across next!
Often when specifically targeting these trout on the Sunshine Coast, you need to find very gnarly ground such as large bommies or areas where the reef rises with ledges and cracks where the trout hide. Dropping live baits on two large, snelled hooks and keeping the bait close to the structure seems to be the most consistent technique. Heavy tackle is usually needed to prevent being reefed on the initial run, with at least 40lb mainline and 50-60lb leader seemingly required.
While Matt fought the coral trout, I landed a spangled Emperor. I know who ended up with the better fish!
Sunshine Reef off Noosa is renowned for a good trout population, and isolated ground around the close in reefs off Mooloolaba also holds the odd trout, although the numbers aren’t as thick. I’ve been informed that the local spear fishers have been noticing increased numbers of trout on the close-in reefs further south lately, which is a trend that hopefully continues.
After the thrill of the fight and delicious feeds which this fish produced I’m keen to go and target them specifically one day. People aren’t lying when they say that coral trout are delicious! Hopefully this opens the eyes of a few anglers from Southern Queensland that are willing to get some live baits and try their luck on their next trip off the Sunshine Coast. If you’d like to see the full video, head over to my YouTube channel ‘Will Kitching’ and watch it all unfold! Until next time, tight lines.
