Strange, unlikely fish caught when popping for GTs

[Mark Harris]

There must be a wealth of these amongst the membership here .

So, please post details of the most unlikely fish you have caught when popping for GTs. Photos would be nice of course.

[mark kyriacou]

well i will let you know when i get back from fiji about any strange captures mark

[Jay Burgess]

Foul hooked a milkfish once, didn't boat it though.

Besides that, nothing out of the ordinary really comes to mind.

[Travis Heaps]

A mate seriously struggled with getting a GT interested to start with and his first two fish using big GT poppers were Mac Tuna?

[Ben Furness]

I have heard a rumour somewhere about a garfish being caught.....?

[Peter Morris]

I had a thread along these lines once before about 'Popping By catch'....

Probably the Triggerfish I got in Fiji was my most 'out of the ordinary'...??

Pete

[Warwick Joyce]

I have heard a rumour somewhere about a garfish being caught.....?

Like this? We call them long toms, not really strange as we have got a few before.

[Travis Heaps]

I have heard a rumour somewhere about a garfish being caught.....?

Like this? We call them long toms, not really strange as we have got a few before.

And a few of them have got you before 

[Mark Harris]

A mate seriously struggled with getting a GT interested to start with and his first two fish using big GT poppers were Mac Tuna?

Yep, I have had Mac Tuna on Poppers and stickbaits as long as themselves. Aggressive things.

[Mark Harris]

I had a thread along these lines once before about 'Popping By catch'....

Probably the Triggerfish I got in Fiji was my most 'out of the ordinary'...??

Pete

Sorry Pete, did not intend to duplicate an existing thread. 

Triggerfish is an excellent one!  They are of course notably aggressive (ask any diver)  and I would not mind betting yours came and gave the popper a good bunt to get it out of the way.  Do you know what species of Triggerfish it was?

[Peter Morris]

Sorry Mark....I didnt mean it to sound like I was complaining about the topic coming up again.

I like threads like this.....chance to discuss what we all love doing.

and see pics.... ... I will dig up the triggerfish pic shortly...

Pete

[Mark Harris]

Here are two offerings from me.

A Sleek Unicornfish "caught" by a friend on a Cubera 150 (!) as I stood and watched.  This poor thing is of course a plankton feeder and I can only assume its curiosity got the better of it.  The ST76 5/0 went straight through the side of its tiny mouth. That had to be an accident! I must say that watching how it pulled, these would be popular small game fish if they were targetable.   Released and it happily swam away.



The other one is a jigged fish (OK, I know as I said popping but this was such a gorgeous looking thing). A little Red and Green Wrasse which attacked a long 400 gram jig. Sadly this one did not survive piercing by a massive SJ41 13/0 - in my defence I was fishing for Dogtooth!.

[Al Morrison]

Mark,

No pic available cos the fish wasnt landed, but the best "almost bycatch" i saw on my last trip to the Maldives was a substantial sailfish (40kgs plus) - that hit a Yozuri bull GT the skipper had lobbed out, in about 10m of water. It was a classic shallow bommie laden fore reef in front of surf, not where i would normally expect sails to be lurking. Surprised the "carp" out of us when a long nosed GT launched itself skywards after smashing the popper.

[Mark Harris]

That's a true quality "bycatch" Al and very well done.  And certainly unlikely in such shallow water.  Would have been quite some shock I am sure.

[Jean-Marc Maujean]

There must be a wealth of these amongst the membership here .

So, please post details of the most unlikely fish you have caught when popping for GTs. Photos would be nice of course.

Goodaye In the Early Nineties I was deckie on a popper fishing charter out of Cairns fishing and we were fishing the gap between the two sections of Opal Reef and were monstered by a Mauri Wrasse around 35kg. It was unreal behind the popper bow wave and everything