Nick:- We went light tackle fishing this morning which I was pretty excited about. During the week we have watched the bludgers and longtail busting up everywhere but have been hunting GTs so it was a good day chasing anything that swam. We started off this morning getting stuck into some trout and sharkies. We tried some jigging but were only picking up hassa and stripes so we decided to go through some light casting gear up on the flats. We had non stop action from here on....bluger mania and good size ones as well. While getting hooked up with bludgers a 20 kilo GT joined the mix but Paul's drag was only set light for the bludgers so we didn't manage to stick the hooks in. This created a bit of an adrenalin rush for all of us so we put some small poppers on casting at the bludgers schools hoping for another GT to come back but no luck. Not to worry as we drifted over some bait on one of the edges and managed to pick up one anyway. As the day went by we managed to keep adding to our species list which consisted of trout ,stripes ,long tom ,gold spot ,bludgers ,wrass ,Spangled Emporer ,Red throat Emporer, GT , Threadfin mirror fish ,mackerel , long tail,and a nice 7 kilo Job fish! The highlight of my day was definitely when Tak hooked up to a 25 kilo GT in the shallows where we managed to chase him into the deep and finally land him nice fish for the light tackle.
Tim:- Well today was not my day as we hunted high and low for the GTs and came up short with 4 into the boat for the day. However we did see a lot more than that and frustratingly we lost around 15 after solid hook ups and peeling drag off. Puzzling as to how this happens at times and ultimately frustrating but that's fishing and, for me, this is what keeps you coming back so that hopefully next time you can improve and get the ones you lost. The highlight for the day would be Jeanna's Gt she caught single handed and did a fantastic job on it with her small Stella 8000 with 65lb braid on it. The Gt weighed in at a whopping 36kg! I was so happy for her as she has been fishing hard all week and persisting till the very end, literally as it was the last fish for the day just before we called it quits. Well done Jeanna!!!!
Damon:- Brandon, Greg and Sam were onboard today for what was looking like a windy day, but the wind never came, and it was a very pleasant day on the water. Brandon had a 45kg GT come out of a blue hole and try to eat his Goby, but missed hooking up, it was a seriously big fish. Sam landed a GT around 25kg, and then every other GT for the day was either missed or had the hooks pulled. We had 12 other bites and hook-ups for the day, with every one missing shortly after hookup. We landed a few nice longtails and bludger trevally on the light gear, but we did it tough on the GT fishing, and the lack of connected hooks did not help. Aside from this, it was a fun day on the water, and the weather held out quite nicely for us.
Glanville:- The last day of fishing and I had Malcolm, Brendon and George who were all really keen on catching some GTs with the hope of a big one!!! The weather wasn't all that great to start the day and I got the guys to kit up in their full wet weathers cause we were on a small tour in the dory which possibly involved a little moisture. We left for our journey with spirits high and afterterwards I think the guys were ready to go back to the boat for a cup of coffee and a movie, not until they casted their lures... first cast and Brendon had a quality fish erupt on his lure, George quickly followed with a skipping popper and the game was on, we were bending...so much for the cup of coffee...the morning continued really well and we had 3 fish to the boat quick sticks, we made a short move and second cast Brendon was yet again bending the beast ate the lure only meters from the boat and I called it a fish over 30kgs straight away, straight away on the controls I pulled the fish away from the reef with the boat and with a little huffing and puffing Brendon subdued an awesome fish of 40kg, (124cm/FL and 94cm/G) that put us all in a really good mood and we were straight back to it after a couple of good pics, it wasn't 5 mins later and Malcolm was hooked up to a freight train...I think the fish is still running away with Malcolm's stickbait, it was a real mammoth and I can't remember when last we got smoked so badly by a giant GT, Malcolm had his drag cranked up full and he glanced at his spool and then across to me before I barked at him, "STOP THAT THING!!!", we were at this stage, literally, running out of line and my attempts to drag the fish away from the reef had to be put on hold, sadly it didn't last long before the GT made it home, Malcolm turned around looked at me and with a laugh said, "That was Awesome!!!" and with a massive smile on his face proceeded to repair the damage. I, on the other hand was devastated and could not stop thinking of how big that thing must have been, and calling it 50kg+ nearly seems insignificant. We prodded along and about half an hour later it was George's turn, we were fishing in this shallow bay and I made a statement to the guys, "This is where Damo got a fish over 40kg last year!!", as if to say pay attention we need to catch that beast, and with the memory of the previous mammoth still fresh in my mind George let go his 220g Orion Bigfoot, it got smashed and the prop wash the fish left in the water was something scary, PE12, Custom Ripple Fisher 78XH and the drag cranked up something stupid this fish peeled line as if George's tackle were a child's toy, I tried my best to pull the fish away from the reef but the fish was simply too strong and made it over the reef to the other side, my only option was to change plan and try get to the other side before this animal bust us off, with a lot of shouting and some interesting driving we managed to get there, boat full of water and all but this didn't matter the feeling inside that we might get this beast was clearly evident, the fish by the way was now peeling line off as though it had just been hooked and poor George was parallel to the deck holding on for dear life, but it was a GT, a giant GT and these fish don't get that big by being stupid...needless to say we got beaten in the reef again yet again. We lived the rest of the day on thoughts of those 2 monsters and everything else we caught just seemed like a toy...30kg GT...ah don't worry just release it in the water, no need for photos... we had a great day in the challenging conditions and managed to boat 9 Gts and a couple of solid Red Bass.
