Got out over the weekend for an overnighter up the coast a tad.
For the weekend I was taking a mate from work out who was into his fishing but had not fished for GT's before. The plan was to do some popping but also explore an estuary up the coast for some barra and muddies and also jig some marks on the way home for the chance of a putting a feed or two into the esky.
Weather when we left was spot on and we didn't touch the throttle until 50 minutes later when we stopped and commenced GT Casting and Retrieving 101 at a practice spot rather than our main destination. Jay clued on pretty quick and we headed on north. Tides were very small which didn't help and the first exploratory casts revealed no interest but we moved on to where I knew we were in with our best shot. Straight away we missed a big slashing strike from a GT and this was quickly followed by a queenie hookup and release. Jay then came up solid on a GT but dropped it. We were getting consistent follows but no GT's in the boat as yet. I then got a bit dangerous and lobbed my new Bigfoot over to the other side of the rock bar
...immediately knowing it wasn't my brightest move to date I commenced a flat out retrieve to get my baby back...this only proved to excite the biggest GT in the area into smashing it about 1m this side of the rock bar
As Jay was fishing as well and he was new to the game the boat didn't move and I attempted to lock up a fight him while stationary. It wasn't long before I felt that tick tick of line on rocks though and it was all over as quick as it began. We then mucked around a bit more before I again came up tight on a solid fish - I could feel the weight in the strike immediately. Unfortunately the same happened but at least this time I managed to get my lure back. That strike was a good lesson affirmed as it came on an identically placed cast as what Jay had just done except maybe 2m off the edge of the bommie rather than the 10m off the bommie where Jay had cast just 15 seconds before...he got no interest and I managed to get the strike.
We then moved north popping as we went but the distinct lack of current meant usually good looking spots were dead. We had some nice scenery though and the good weather was hanging around. We then continued into the estuary with high hopes of a mud crab dinner. It wasn't to be though, the whole area was suprisingly dead and we managed a tiny moses perch and some strikes from long toms but that was it. We did see some dolphins over a shallow mudflat though which was interesting - there has to be some good fishing to be had up there but it seems we need to do some work to get it sussed.
We then camped for the night, not a bad spot and with a prime GT ledge out the front. The whole estuary funnelled past this point and the water jump from 16m to 1.6m almost instantly...which was a bit of a suprise as the water was murky and we couldn't see the rocks, just a faint current line.
Next morning we had some nice weather again and headed off in anticipation of some Gt action. We had a new plan for our spot from the previous day and this time we were fishing very heavy drags stright off the bat and only one person casting, the other stationed on the throttle of the boat. We were into it straight away with some solid queenies to the boat. Then Jay hooked up on his first GT - he did a good job and got a fat fish to the boat, my guesstimate was 22kg or so. We then had more Gt and queenie strikes before I repeated my dangerous cast of the day before and came up tight again
We were ready for him this time though and Jay motored around perpendicular to the bar and we coaxed him out. He came suprisingly easily and made me exclaim that it was only a smaller one. This was followed by ZZzzzZZzzzzzzZZZzzzz of the drag. He was a dogged fish, i haven't had a GT fight so hard within such a short distance of the boat, he just sat there and couldn't be budged. We got him up though and took some photos. I was stoked as it's the best fish i've caught for some time and he gave me a good working over. The lure was an ebipop 120. I'm not sure on a weight but i'm thinking 32-33kg?
We then played with the queenies on some light gear, they were thick, and then took off for some jigging. We hooked a few denizens of the deep but were busted off at one spot and the other had some sneaky mackeral that made short work of most things sent down. So we went home feedless but it didn't worry us at all, was a great trip.
