Just back from an enjoyable day's fishing at Batu Abah in Bali with John Cahill on Adhek's boat, the aptly named GT1.
Although the bite window was disappointingly short (about 1 hour on the incoming tide) we did manage a raise a good fish and a couple of smaller ones.
About 20 minutes after arriving and seeing the current not quite doing what I hoped it would be, John sent a cast out of the wrong side of the boat in the opposite direction to the strike zone. First chug and he was smashed - so much for Adhek and myself having the local knowledge of where to cast! A long fight ensued and I reckon John was within about 30-40 metres of being spooled. Anyway it ended well with a very grunty and huge shouldered GT on board. Weight was called at 35 kgs with the provisio that is gets hard with such broad shouldered fish. It was 126 cm fork length with a massive 96 cm girth. May have been a bit closer to 40 kg, but I will stick with Adhek's call of 35. A PB by a country mile for John and a very happy boat all round.
I then picked up a healthy 18-19 kg fish and John a while later a smaller specimen. Then it died, and aside from a few follows from Barracuda and Rainbow Runners, we saw no more fish action.
The Batu Abah site is so like that - the window is often short and highly current dependent, but when you hit it right there are quality GTs to be had.
Successful lures were Adhek PomPom 160 (2 fish) and Craftbait GT3 150 (1 fish).
Also, Adhek's long awaited large cupped 180 gram chugger is now close to release. Really enjoyed using the final prototype of this today. For such a large popper it is surprisingly easy to get chug from and I think this one will go down well when it finally gets released.
John with the biggest fish, 126 cm fork length, 96 cm girth, caught with a PomPom 160:
Me and 18-19 kg fish:
John with a little one:
John, Adhek and a bent GT Special
I love this pic, it is very evocative of the site. That's Lombok in the distance:
