Troll along the back of the reef, should get something....at the same time watch the sounder for fishy signs....but keep your wits about you when out there....inside head down past five fingers south passage try for some fish in some of sand gutters from the reef....see how you go

If you want macks troll behind the reefs and zig zag between 8m and 25m and do that early morning and try not to troll into the sun, if you want bottom fish get out to about 48-70m and find some ground/fish and drop some big fresh baits down. I havnt fished there but that will work 

 I started Fishing Coral Bay a few years ago and had early success in 60-70m. Fresh fish baits always seem to do well as we'll as good quality squid. The ground is generally lat out there so I would sound around looking for Fish rather than structure. With the boat you have you could also head straight out to 110-120m from north passage which isn't that far and you should find Gold Band, Reds and Robbos out there without much trouble (it's really not far out at all!). Had plenty of success trolling in around 70m as well (billies, wahoo, yft, dollies). Wish you good luck!

Luke

About 7km southwest rom the south passage there was a decent drop of running north-south. Sound along that. we got cod, red throat, big spanglies and red emperor. 

We find much greater variety of fish out from the North Passage, but more reds and rankins out of the South. I've never understood why, but it seems to happen every year. As a general tip, if you're chasing reds, don't stop unitl you're in at least 60m of water. Will you find them shallower? Of course, but a vast majority of ours come from 60+. We have slightly more success with longer droppers on our rigs (up to about 40cm each) but that brings more tangles and twisted line too. From the back of the south passage, heading almost due west, perhaps a little south), for about 12kms tends to have us in the general vicinity of some good ground. It can take time to find the fish, but it's so worth it when you do. We had many trips up there in the early days of going were we would come back in with one or two fish, but, over the years, we stumble across more and more good ground.

EDIT - oh, and for trolling, as mentioned, 20-ish meters is a good depth. For more hookups, head out the North Passage and follow the reef south for a couple of km. Right around in there is where we get most of our macs - however, it's can also be plagued by sharks. Just south of the South Passage, we tend to get fewer macs, but have a higher % landed, due to fewer sharks.

 cheers for all the advice I think we might troll north first thing in the morning then work our way out from there cheers