Catching GT's from land

[Jay Burgess]

That's also interesting how the bigger fish around 50kg are caught with live baits. They must eat some big live baits?

Hi Cy & Kerrin, the only monster class GT's I've heard of being captured around my local area over here in WA have been on live baits (that's not to say they can't be caught on popper). One particular fish of well over 130cm fork length took a big spanish flag intended for mackerel. The only problem if you manage to hook a fish this way is it inevitably has a long fight time which can be fatal for the fish.

[Cy and Kerrin Taylor]

Hi Jay, wow, that sounds like a huge fish! What's the GT fishing like over in WA at the moment? We've heard of a GT around 44kg caught on a trolled ribbon fish for mackerel as well. It's interesting how some very big GT captures are caught on natural or live baits.

Maybe the biggest GT's are slightly wiser? All of the experience they have built up of watching baitfish and seeing them move through the water must give them a good idea of what they really look like. A surface popper or stickbait may look unnatural to some of the biggest and oldest GT's.

[Graham Scott]

Hi Brandon,
I used braid for a while as leader when lure fishing tropical estuaries. The advantage was the lack of memory and stiffness in braid meant the lure action was alot better. Abrasion was OK mainly because the braid was very lightly loaded, 30kg braid leader 6kg main line (mono at the time...how things have changed)
What I didn't like was handling aggressive fish on the braid, too many line cuts.

[Arturo Zambarrano Jr.]

Hey there everyone!

I FEEL VERY CONFIDENT NOW!!! I only do land-based GT popping and yes, its very hard to land them gorillas, but i don't own a boat and never got a chance to fish from one yet...Im from hawaii, and theres actually not much people that do popping for GTs here...But im simply love it!! Even though theres like thousands of casts in between strikes, i gotta love it....my thoughts on braid cutting on reef - i usually make my leader like 15 ft. long just for security and i use braid to mono (better abrasion)...I hope i can post pics soon...THANKS AND MAHALO GUYS!!!

Art

[Mark Gonsalves]

When popping from the cliff areas here in Hawaii we have a specialized type of landing apparatus called a "barrel gaff".  Google it with quotes to see a picture.  Basically it is a butterfly valve that is sent down your main line and "captures" your leader swivel, minimizing the trauma to the fish.  No gaff hook involved.  Haven't had a chance to use my barrel gaff but I sure hope to use it soon.

[Arturo Zambarrano Jr.]

Hey mark, which island are you from??

[Mark Gonsalves]

Oahu.