“It is a good way to fish when you are searching a new area, and in places where there is high reef and current can produce a wide range of species.”
eafari was a Tasmanian cray fishing boat that originally had a home port in Bicheno. When skipper Joe Wilkinson moved to Queensland, he started exploring coral atolls well wide of the outer barrier reef. Joe had a great sense of adventure and these pioneering trips were before the advent of GPS. He navigated with maps and a sextant. I went on many of the early trips and we visited places like Wreck Cato, Frederick and Saumarez Reefs. It was a long time ago now. The gear was relatively primitive, the fishing was outrageously good and most of our lures disappeared in the mouths of monster fish and sharks. It was a steep learning curve, particularly when it came to using hard bodied minnow style lures targeting large pelagic fish. I remember having a few Rapala CD18s in my bag and a single larger CD26. At that time these were considered state of the art blue water lures. When there are a lot of dog tooth tuna around, these lures proved about as durable as a pilchard! The bodies
