cant believe no one has givin ya a heads up yet. 40m+ you will find them but saying that they are sometimes in 8m. Same rig for snapper, i always found a cocktail of squid or occy and a mulie was the bait of choice. Hope this starts someone else up north to help ya out

If you can find some bombies that's a start. You don't need to go ultra deep. We were getting them in 40m. spikey coral bottom is the go.

that gives me something to start with.

dont look for massive structure! small corally out crops as small as 1mtre rise are great for reds! i like to fish 40 metres plus!

 40 m + 

Big fish baits are unarguably the. Best bait for big reds if anyone tells you different don't believe them shark mackerel is one of the best. Baits I have ever used especially when salted

The shoals to the south of turtle bay hold bulk loads of trout under 25 meters along with black and pink snapper look for broken rubble type bottom and use whole fillets of the small red throats you catch down there

I fished this area professionally for 5 years caught 27 trout in a day one day and 24 the next day

17 meters of water and even shallower don't Be afraid to get Into 8 meters of water

Caught a 43 kg Mack at dampier reef and 28 kg wahoo on the next run yes you do get reds there on the 50 meter side and trout and baldies on the 25 m side be aware it breaks like a mofo In swell safe on the deeper side 

Hope this helps

Dan

Ps loads of reds in 40 - 70 m along the back of DHI I got a 14 and 12 kg red in 70 m out from Charlie's bay which is about halfway along the western side of the island I thought I was a legend and started. Ragging until my mate pulled up one that went 17.5 kg

Caught a couple at crayfish bay also got big dhu and cod and snapper at crayfish

Coming back around into shark bay from crayfish bay is the only time I have ever been seasick and I have been working on boats since I was 15

one of the blokes i work with heads to shark bay each year and hires one of the charter boats.

He's told me they have no issues bagging o9ur on reds, but its very similar to Exmouth, Little structure, so only coral and deep water. They fish 60-100m for reds. You wont find any trout in these depth, and if you do its lost!

From my experience on both species, Trout are shallower water fish, and the catch rate using plastics and jigs is much higher than baits. Trout are a preditory fish, and like the chase. quite often located on larger lumpy ground.

Reds however like big dirty baits. As someone said, the best bait you can use to Mackeral of any kind, followed by Tuna.

On another note, you find any Rankin cod, your in with a good chance of the reds, both fish go hand in hand usually.

time to sit down with the skipper and get a plan together.

not sure about shark bay but don't overlook the shallow water for trout, i often get them as shallow as 6ft, have to find the right ground tho

another great red bait=NW blowie fillet

Ive caught heaps of trout at Dampier reef.... They tend to like moving baits, so a slow drift works really well also...

Definitely need to get the skipper to change up his attitude and get into the 'funner' stuff 

 I've got reds out from Steep Point in 60-70m. Just look for fish flare ups.