The trip opened with everyone finally getting out on the water, and it didn’t take long for the fish to show up.

Jen backed up a lovely coral trout with a mixed bag of her own. Suzy went two coral trout deep plus a nannygai. Belinda pulled three coral trout and lost count of the different emperor swimming past her line. Elaine’s pick of the day was a sweetlip, and Lisa rounded out a mixed bag with a couple of trevally.

But the real headline came right at the death.

Bec had already put together an incredible sixteen species for the day, everything from red emperor to a hussar to an opportunistic remora, when Anna hooked the very last fish of the session: an absolute unit of a coral trout. It went straight to the top of the leaderboard as Catch of the Day, and straight into the esky, earmarked for a very special dinner down the track.

Day two split the group across two boats.

On both boats, the bite was slow until lunch, then things turned.

Belinda spent ten minutes convinced she’d hooked the biggest fish any of us had ever seen on a boat, only for it to turn out to be our own Minn Kota trolling motor.

Bec worked hard for eleven fish and only kept one, a tea-leaf trevally she wouldn’t normally take home. Suzy added a squirrel fish to her tally, and Tania put the first fish of the day in the box, a Moses perch, before getting bitten off later by either a Spanish mackerel or a wahoo.

Then there was Lisa.

Right at the end of the day she hooked into what would turn out to be a 150-kilo shark, and fought it for the better part of an hour and a half, towed around the boat three times in the process while calmly directing everyone else like she’d been doing it for years.

Over on Jake’s boat, Karen landed a couple of Spangled emperor and heaps of nannygai. Anna found the biggest nannygai of the trip at around fifty centimetres, hooked but lost a big shark of her own, and spent most of the day filming everyone else instead of fishing. Jen and Elaine both put in the work chasing nannygai, most of it undersized and released.

The final day took the group down the coast in the morning before everyone swapped tactics completely, chasing creek species in the estuary through the afternoon.

Jen backed up a grass emperor with a bronze whaler shark and a mangrove jack. Belinda added three more coral trout to her tally. Suzy had the day of her trip: a shark, a mangrove jack, and a massive coral trout that would go on to win her the day’s Champion Catch. Elaine’s coral trout ended up the biggest of the day. Bec, over on Jake’s boat for the day, had a ball with nannygai, coral trout, a decent sweetlip and a couple of species she’d never caught before, plus a small stingray for good measure. Tania had a tougher day, everything undersized and released.

Then came the story of the trip.

Karen hooked a mud crab on a fishing line in the creek, undersized, and released it. Ten minutes later, on the same line, up came the exact same crab, easy to pick thanks to an injured claw. Still undersized. Back it went, for the second time.

Lisa closed out her own huge day with the only mangrove jack kept all trip, hooked just inches from the bank; we genuinely watched it try to climb out from under us.

That evening, the whole group sat down to dinner at Wrasse and Roe Seafood Restaurant for the coral trout Anna had caught on day one. Full circle, three days later.

No FTWS trip ends without an awards night, and this one did not disappoint.

• Champion Catch of the Day went to Anna on day one
• Karen on day two for her back-to-back Spangled emperor and Suzy on day three.
• Catch of the Trip honours went to Lisa for that 150-kilo shark.
• The Species Award was a genuine contest: Bec took it out with an outrageous nineteen different species landed across the trip, Karen close behind on eighteen, and Suzy and Lisa tying for third on seventeen apiece.

And then, the trip’s favourite tradition: the biggest F#@K UP award.

Nominees included Bec for pocket-dialing her boyfriend mid-conversation, Anna twice over for filming herself instead of the fishing and for smuggling bananas onto the boat, Jen for casting her line straight into another boat, Lisa for accusing a very confused stranger of trying to steal our van (identical to ours, and entirely his), Tania for trying to invent her own fish species, and Belinda for that unforgettable run-in with the Minn Kota.

The trophy, though, went to Karen, who stood up on the very first night of the trip and put a chair straight through a window.

Karaoke ran late that final night, and by the time we packed the van for Cairns the next morning, Port Douglas had well and truly adopted us.

We were “the fishing girls” all over town by the end, and it felt like it.

Huge thanks to Jake at Exceed Sportfishing Port Douglas and Shawry at Hook Up Charters, Port Douglas, who put us on the fish all trip and looked after us brilliantly.

And the best part?

We’re already planning next year. Five days instead of three, four days fishing with a rest day in the middle, and most of this year’s crew are already locked back in.

It will be October 2027 – if you want in, don’t wait too long.