Ram Road Trip Part 9

My Ram has taken me north of Cairns.

Where I’m using a stick-bait to get stuck into a trevally.

Then it’s blue and gold magical mahi mahi moments.

I’m at the end of my north Queensland Ram road trip. In total comfort and absolute style I’ve driven my RAM 1500 Laramie more than 1700 kilometres to just north of Cairns.

It’s marlin country up here and I’m going to be heading out with Rob and Wiz in my boat. It’s a pearler of a day to be pursuing pelagics. But even in these calm conditions I play it safe. By wearing my waist belt lifejacket.

And the signs are good Great conditions too. Rob and Wiz have an expert understanding of this territory.

Our Target species is one of the toughest Sportfish in Australia the GT or Giant Trevally.

We’ve pushed wide to fish along the coral reef edges in the tropical deep, deep blue waters. The idea is to use a good long cast and rapidly work the stickbait so it pulses across the surface.

Hooking up a trevally is the easy part. Now to keep it away from the coral clusters and turn it’s head back to toward me.

Hard going on heavy gear. Giant trevally are mean dirty fighters. In my opinion they’re the toughest adversary in their coral kingdom.

Rob is using a noose on the end of a short pole to lasso the tail. Trevally have sharp bony ridges along their tail junction which can cut hands. So this is a safe sure way to get the GT safely on board.

Our Target species is one of the toughest Sportfish in Australia the GT or Giant Trevally.

We’ve pushed wide to fish along the coral reef edges in the tropical deep, deep blue waters. The idea is to use a good long cast and rapidly work the stickbait so it pulses across the surface.

Hooking up a trevally is the easy part. Now to keep it away from the coral clusters and turn it’s head back to toward me.

Hard going on heavy gear. Giant trevally are mean dirty fighters. In my opinion they’re the toughest adversary in their coral kingdom.

Rob is using a noose on the end of a short pole to lasso the tail. Trevally have sharp bony ridges along their tail junction which can cut hands. So this is a safe sure way to get the GT safely on board.

A nice fish to start the day, we chase GTs all morning then head back to our liveaboard vessel moored in a coral lagoon for lunch.

The sashimi lunch aboard our first class mothership was first rate. And now Rob is taking us out to the outer edge of the outer Barrier Reef on the prowl for a pelagic or three, or four, or more.

We run some skirted lures and a couple of hard body lures out the back on our 4 Shimano Tiagra game outfits.

Baitfish school in the pressure points created by tidal flow around the reef edges or around the uprisings caused by coral growths further out. Anything that attracts baitfish will generally hold feeding game fish so trolling close to the reef points puts us in a prime spot. Not much action for the first hour. Optimistically we troll on and on.

A game boat skipper I know once told me that trolling for game fish boils down to hours of boredom interrupted by moments of panic. Finally my optimism bears fruit.

Now to concentrate on keeping the line taut. I’m hoping it’s a wahoo and they’re the cheetahs of the ocean. And like those spotted cats they can attain awesome speed.

The plan is to stay out overnight and fish again tomorrow on our beautifully appointed mothership.

Again we’re going to be targeting surface species. Tuna, mackerel, marlin and Wahoo.

This time we’re trolling skirted squid pushers and hard bodied lures behind my boat. And they’re doing a great job.

The squid head is crash tackled by one of the most beautiful fish in the ocean, Mahi Mahi are an incredibly active fish They can wildly thrash around and create havoc when brought in board.

So to save damaging this magnificent beauty Rob will unhook it in the water.

Mahi Mahi are fast growing and this acrobatic fish would be only a few years old. A large male Bull usually has a school of 20 smaller females with him but in this case the female grabbed our lure.

These tropical waters play host to oceanic travellers that swim fast and far throughout the vast Pacific.

A couple of brilliant days staying out on the reef wide of Cairns, and catching a mixed bag of great sportfish.

It’s really time to start making tracks back down the Queensland coast and explore more great fishing country. Doing it in comfort journeying in the beautiful Ram 1500 Laramie and fishing from the boat and Hobie Compass is a blessing on these long Road Trips.