Well,
I finally managed a trip for myself rather than helping everyone else on the charter boats.
The plan was to head about 50nm North towards Shoalwater Bay but well offshore to prove up some deep reef fishing for charters later in the year, then head west to the coast around Island Head Creek and chuck a few poppers at likely looking spots along the way home.
Weather was great and we found a lot of new country for reef fish, mainly nannygai. We would do 1 drift, see what was there and move on. Unfortunately we were very slow moving towards the coast as kept running into more spikes on the bottom.
Finally headed to the coast about 2:30, much later than planned. It was a 3 hour run home and I was trying to be back by 5:00!
So we aimed for the coast a lot further south and thought maybe get 10mins in somewhere.
First spot looked good with current over rockbar. First cast saw queenies everywhere, and every cast was shadowed by at least 5 or 6 queenies, a few hook-ups, flying poppers etc. After about 15 mins tried casting AWAY from all the queenies, which was pretty difficult, and hooked up a decent GT. Only had 50lb braid so was a bit worried, but the current took us both out onto the sand and slugged it out for about 15 mins. finally lifted the GT onboard, quick photo and back in the drink, looked maybe 20kg to me, but you guys would know a lot better.
So now absolutely stuffed and late, headed home.
Next headland looked too good to pass so call was to have just a couple of casts as we passed...only took 1 cast, didn't really see the hit but looked long and silver so called it for a big queenies, also started zipping around like a queenie and headed away from the rocks, after a couple of minutes I was winning easily and the fish was rising to the surface just behind the boat. Then it saw me and I saw it, a much larger GT than the first with a mate right with it. That resulted in dour battle for about 15 mins before a tail and line lift into the boat. Managed a quick photo and a measure before release. It went 118cm, so not sure what kg's. It swam away strongly and I think it was doing better than me. Now VERY late, took off for home, didn't risk another cast and ignored the next 4 good looking spots.
A fantastic day and some pretty good GT popping for less than 1 hr fishing.
