Well, where to start...
I used to remember when people were getting back from their GT trips and wonder why they didn't post up the report I was waiting to read on the day the got back...I now realise it's simply because they're too knackered! My hands are still sore and I still have gear to unpack and we arrived back at around Thursday lunch time. Back from Bugatti.
Myself and Warwick spent what seemed forever getting ready for this trip, lures, leaders, dry bags, lure bags - what to take, what to leave behind. And still when the time came to shut the door and jump in the car I felt like I had forgotten something for sure - that nagging feeling caused by thinking about what to take for the last month and never actually deciding on a set list of things to pack. In the end I had two bags, a large 120litre hiking backpack - this was filled with lures and terminal tackle and a smaller duffel bag for the non essentials...you know, toothbrush, clothes etc. Frankly I was glad we weren't taking the float plane out to the Odyssey, our mothership for the week - my luggage was pared to the bare minimum and there was no way I would have been allowed past the luggage weigher. Instead we were meeting the Nomad crew at the Mackay marina, loading our gear onto home for the week and powering out to Bugatti Reef overnight.
Besdies the small wait for some passengers who had been delayed in transit this all went very smoothly, the weather had been kind and we steamed out in 10 knots of breeze and small swell, arriving at approximately 7:30 the following morning.
We were a mixed crew - a few of us had chased GT's specifically, a few of us had caught them incidentally and relished the idea of mixing with some bigger specimens and the remaining few hadn't even tangled with a GT before but figured it looked like fun. One thing we all had in common though was that we were itching to get into the boats and tangle with some fish.
The weather was really pretty kind to us, the first two days were ideal, 5-10 knots maximum with no swell, no chop and just a slight ruffle over the surface of the water. The remaining mornings bought 15+ knot with occasional white caps but the winds generally died off towards the afternoons. We were also lucky to mix this good weather with good tides and moon phases, the full moon being the third day of the trip.
So onto the fishing. We had an awesome time, the main fare was GTs and Spaniards, the reefies unfortunately remaining absent since the cyclone earlier in the year. I don't recall a single red bass, trout or wrasse being caught on the poppers unfortunately, hopefully they return soon. The other action kept us all pretty busy though. I'm unsure exactly how the other boats fared but the boats Myself and Warwick were on totalled 53 GTs for the 5 days of fishing, our best day being 19 GTs plus sundries, we also managed to drop more than our fair share. I think the total for all boats would have been fairly easily over the 100 GT mark for the trip. There was a couple of notable captures - one being Warwick's 40kg fish on the first day that unfortunately got sharked. It was a pretty amazing catch, especially as we got it closer to the boat we could see that it was part of a school of about 25 GTs. The other being Mike's, one of a pair of ER Doctors from the States, 40kg fish - fairly notable as he had never caught a GT before this trip! A couple of highlights for me we the 30kg model I caught casting a Gunz Tailwalk in a small eddie that we were sitting in having lunch - the GT just materialised behind the lure and sat there as the line went tight. A couple of shakes of the head and then he was off towards the reef - pretty hairy considering we were sitting maybe 15 metres off it when it hooked up! The drag was cranked to pretty much full straight away and I managed to drag him out, pretty satisfying. The other was a nice spaniard I caught off the back of the Odyssey on the first night on a 5/8th jighead, 7" jerk shad and no wire trace...managed to hook it right in the front top lip and hold on for the ride, good fun
All in all we had awesome fun, the GTs were striking aggresively, the Mackeral were pretty thick and consitently took to the air on strike - on the last day Warwick turned his head away as his stickbait came to the boat - all of a sudden you heard the splash and jaws snapping shut and there was 15kgs of spaniard airborne about 3m off the back of the boat with his lure between its teeth! It hooked up very briefly but dropped the lure on re-entry, leaving just a bunch scars and a few embedded teeth as a memory. Put this together with a good bunch of people to fish with - good times!
A couple of miscellaneous highlights. The Lemon Sharks that come into the back of the Odyssey were pretty cool, they ranged in size up to 10ft or so and I counted as many as 13 at one stage. Cool to look at but even cooler to swim with! A few of us jumped in and it was pretty amazing, they were inquisitive and you would have to push them away as they came in too close - even then they managed to sneak up and brush against you every now and then. Another highlight was Warwick borrowing a Ripplefisher 78flex for the day - the day that we managed to land 19 Gt's. We were casting towards the end of the day, we were all pretty tired but still casting away trying for number 20. Warwick has gone the big cast just as we hit a small chop at strange angle - result is the Ripplefisher plus Stella being cast straight off the boat and into the water! Credit to Warwick though who in the same motion followed through and jumped out of the boat, managing to grab the rod in one hand before clambering back on board and continuing to fish! Another highlight was Jan who was having a serious bad run of luck trying to land his first GT. It came to the last day of the trip and he was on a boat with myself, Warwick, Toni and with Tim guiding us. Up until lunch his luck continued to run dry - dropped hook ups, missed strikes, line pinged off at the spool...nothing but bad luck. In the end Warwick hooked a spaniard and we drifted away watching him hook and land the fish - when we all looked up there a showering fusilier school just 15m off the bow...Jan cast, hooked up and landed his first GT of the trip, success! He was like a kid at Christmas. Another being a strike I got while casting and retrieving a 200g metal raider (it was slow going and we needed a change in tactics) - it was a fast retrieve and a GT has locked onto it like a guided missile - it must have been sitting just below the surface as its head made a bow wave as it chased the lure down over 15 metres before violently striking and hooking up!
All in all we had a great trip, the crew and guides were a great bunch who made the location and facilities at our disposal all the better. Awesome.
