Series 22 - Ram Road Trip Part 2
ADVENTURE 2
My Ram Road Trip always starts in Queensland. The tropics are where I like to start filming a new Series. There are so many great fish species to target but you need to plan your journey well.
Having my powerful Ram 1500 Warlock towing my Surtees boat up to Rockhampton and on to Kepple Bay made the trip easy. With the 5.7 litre Hemi V8 the Ram hardly knows there is a Surtees Game Fisher boat sitting on a Dunbier trailer behind it.
Dropping the boat into the water at one of the many ramps is simple. I have all the gear in bags and it’s only a matter of taking them out of the Ram and loading them into the Surtees 650 Game Fisher for the Fishing adventure ahead.
After a terrific fishing session on Black Jewfish out of Port Clinton this trip found us heading away from the coast wide out past the southern Whitsunday Islands to drop a line in deeper water. The aim was to locate and land one of my favourite tropical species known as the Large Mouth Nannigai.
These fish are big and powerful with crimson sides and love to feed along the coastal reef fringes. We
had sounded them out on our way north and were hoping they were still in the area.
It was a sunny day, but the wind was up and the swell choppy which can make for an uncomfortable fishing session. Thank God the team at Nile Pharmacy help me with some great Seasick Tablets so whatever the conditions I’m always feeling great out at sea.
These tropical Nannigai eat mainly Squid, Prawns, live baitfish and cut fish baits so they are not too fussy.
It’s all about using your Garmin sonar and GPS mapping System to find where the fish are hanging out.
Large Mouth Nannigai are spectacular looking fish. They fight extremely hard and getting one into the net is hard work. But these delicious eating fish are well worth the effort.
Once you have located a school usually in water from 15 metres to 50 metres deep you can mark these on your Garmin gps chartplotter and go back to catch more.
With strong winds blowing us about my good mate Graham would slip the Honda 200 into gear and keep the Surtees 650 right over the school. This made it easy for me to drop down and land another.
It’s important to be fishing with the right gear to land a big Nannigai. My Shimano Rod was a Revolution 8-15 kilo overhead stick matched up with a Shimano Torium 30 reel that was able to put loads of pressure on the fish when needed to get him away from the soft coral ground he liked to call home.
Its always loads of fun targeting these fish. Preparation is key so get all the right tackle at your local Anaconda store and plan your next adventure.
Another successful Ram Road Trip Adventure to tropical Queensland.
Join me for another Ram Road Trip where next time we hook up to some Mighty Barramundi.