Catching reefies the easy way by Kim Bain

I've spent a few trips over summer fishing the deep water at various locations, from the Sunshine Coast to the Gold Coast. On all of these outings at some time during the day, when conditions were best, we stopped off at a deep reef and caught a feed of 'reefies' for the table.

But instead of reaching into the esky and thawing out a block of pillies or a chunk of squid, we just reached into the tacklebox for those Japanese-style deep jigs which are now all the rage. Another option is to use Aussie lures such as 125-200g Raiders (whatever weight it takes to get to the bottom) and, if the water is shallow enough, lighter metal lures of around 60-75g, such as Snipers and Bumpa Bars.

There isn't much to catching reefies on metal lures. As long as the basic principles are in place you stand a very good chance of catching a feed of 'prime reef' for the family. Our regular catch on metal lures this summer has included pearl perch, tuskfish (blue parrotfish), snapper, along with various cod and other mixed reefies.