Topwater Caranx Ignobilis: Giant Trevally (GT) > Reports & Expeditions
Hawaiian GT Action
Aaron Arizo:
Here's one I got a while back. My biggest from shore so far. 42in to the fork of the tail.
Nathan Tsao:
This fish marks a milestone for me.
After a wild two days of insane plugging action, this monster came up at about noon time today and took me on a crazy ride.
Frank, Josh C, and myself took off on another exploratory mission to new grounds for us and raised over 20 uluas on plugs in 1.5 days of fishing, many of them being monsters!
At about high noon today, we were all tired but still wanted a few more fish, so we started walking to a far point that we hadn't reached yet. On the way over, the guys stopped at a big island to fish some shallow water while i walked up a large cliff to see what was on the other side. Looking down, i saw a decent looking point with over some deep blue water with a shallow ledge on the left side. about 10 feet below the point was a limu covered flat that was just barely getting washed over by the waves.
I scrambled down to the point, and while standing on it i was thinking to myself " no frikken way can i fish off this". There was no realistic way down to the water to fish, except maaaybe right off the tip of the point down a waterslide looking type rock about 10 feet tall.
After standing on the point and watching for about 10 minutes, and waiting for the guys to catch up, i said F it and threw out a cast from on top of the point.
My GTFC Mango Skipjack 150 hit the water and after 2 pops a big boil formed underneath the plug. OH SHIT. I definitely didnt want to hook up from that high with no way down to the water, so i reeled the lure in as fast as i could so the fish couldn't get it; so i thought...
About 30 ft away from the limu covered flat below, i slowed the lure down to get ready to lift it out of the water when an absolute BUCKET of a mouth came up and swallowed the lure. OH SHIT. Bad, bad, bad, bad situation!
The fish took off into the deep with me teetering on the edge above. OH SHIT. i had no choice but to loosen the drag and reposition my feet, and then tighten back down to about 30lbs of drag, which the fish was still stripping hard. After it took out about 25 yrds of line, i pushed the lever to full drag, locked that fish down, and turned it! At this point i started to pry on the fish and gain some line back as it swam slowly to the ledge on the left side. Luckily it made it around the ledge, but then it swam into the next deep pocket with shallow reef on either side. I gained a bunch of line when it came back to shore, but not enough to keep it from going under the deep rocks inside the pocket.
For about 5 minutes the fish and i were at complete stalemate. He would take a few feet, then i would gain a few, all the while with my leader rubbing hard on the rocks. The fish felt like it got stuck a few times, so i would freespool the drag with my thumb until it popped out. THen after a few times of free spooling, i felt the fish pop out of the rocks and locked the drag down and boosted the living hell out it. The fish came up into the center of the pocket and started to swim over the shallow ledge and back into the deep water on the right side.
This was when i finally got a visual on the fish. OH SHIT.
I knew i had to get down to the water, so as the fish made it over the ledge and into the deep, i said "fuck it, i'm going" and slid down the front of the point with one hand on the rod, one hand slowing me down on the rocks, and both feet skidding down the smooth rock until i hit the limu 10ft below. Regained both hands on the rod, cranked hard, and went into a vertical dogfight with the fish.
Apparently Josh came over the cliff just as i was sliding down the rock, and for the next 2 minutes he watched from above as i tried to pull the fish onto the rocks. He was looking for a way down to help me out and yelled "Dude, you are fucking CRAZY, howd you get down there?".
The vertical part of the fight is murder on your back and JEEZUS HE WAS HEAVY, with the tail hook was in the mouth, the belly hook was in the pectoral fin, and my leader was shredded to ribbons.
Finally a large enough wave came along so that i was able to skate the fish up onto the flat limu rock. GAME OVER.
Josh slid down the rocks, i puked, we took pictures, and released an ulua that was well over 70lbs (Ladd and Blaine say 80, but i'm not sure).
It was a fish that put my long leader/conventional technique to the absolute test, and came out on top. Without the long heavy leader, this fish was history.
Gerhard Delport:
Nice report!!
Awesome fish.
Congratulations!!!
Mark Harris:
Very well done Nathan. That is an epic capture land-based for sure.
Your report with the slipping, sliding and falling reminds me why I like it on boats :) .
Simon Bomholt:
brilliant report.. first time i have seen fuck so many times in here ;)
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