Cato Island

[Flanno]

After ticking off Taupo Sea Mount, there is a slim list of places I wanted to fish and Cato Island, equally as far at 200nm east of Bundaberg was at the top of the list.

Steaming out at 8kt the trip was 24hr, with the troll out seeing us raise a large Dolphinfish a 20kg Wahoo and a striped mackerel. 

Arriving at Cato early, we continued the game fishing and my God it was constant action. Trolling divers and stickbaits, we raised fish after fish with Wahoo averaging 15-20kg to bigger 35kg fish and good sized yellowfin to hundreds of jellybeans. 

Next up was light jigging along the extensive shallow reef system, pulling in some incredible fish such as Coronation Trout, Robinson Sea Bream, Purple Cod, Red Bass, GT, and many others using a range of lures and dead bait.

Staying a total of 7 days out in the reef, we mixed it up with as much as we could. We deep dropped with electrics and heavy knife jigs and managed to pull several monster Barcod out from depths ranging 150-400m, Flametail Snapper, Ruby Snapper, 40kg Dogtooth Tuna and many other fish. Have to say the deep drop rigs from https://precision-tackle.com/ held up nicely to some monster fish.

This was easily one of the best fishing trips I've ever been on, with constant action on any style of fishing with new species constantly coming up. The place is truly a pristine water wonderland and I'm lucky to have sat foot on such a remote island. 

Edited August 21, 2022 by Flanno

[Isaac Ct]

Sounds like an amazing trip, those fish would’ve been amazing to catch.

Well done

[masterfisho7]

Thats a top report well done 

[Yowie]

A long way to head off shore, but, obviously well worth the trip out.

[bessell1955]

Sounds like a fishing trip of a lifetime.  

[Rebel]

Great story.

Well done.

[Pickles]

A trip of a lifetime - Cato reef is on my bucket list, (but not sure it will happen).

would love to see some pic’s. Thanks for the report.