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Nathan Tsao

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Fishing between GT's
December 31, 2012, 01:48:23 AM
Since GT may not always be available due to seasons or travel reasons, what kind of fishing does everyone pass the time with between GT trips?
Here in Hawaii we surprisingly have only a few species of other game fish to catch on lures. Unlike many other tropic locations, we have a lack of diversity of mid range size predators. Most of our "other" predatory fish consist of a few species of goatfish, few snapper, and bonefish. Other than that, we mostly have a bunch of algae eating reef fishes which can also provide good fun with bread and algae used as bait.
Here are some photos of some of the different species that we target in between chasing GT's. Anytime we go for a day of fishing, we bring along lighter gear to play with during the midday hours when the GT action dies down. A simple Kastmaster spoon, and some soft plastic grubs on jigheads will keep you entertained all day!

Some shoreline action:
 
My favorite fish to steam whole with cilantro/garlic/ginger, Blue Goatfish (Moana Kali)
 

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Many Bar Goatfish (Moano)
 

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Bluefin trevally (Omliu)


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Here is our version of a Threadfin, another prized eating fish (Moi)
I have grown this species commercially from wild caught broodstock through 2nd generation fish, love these fish!!!


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Wild caught Broodstock Moi and fingerling produced from them, grown at my workplace.


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Rare shoreline topwater catch, Jobfish (Uku)


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Another rare topwater shoreline bite, Almaco Jack (Kahala)


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Soul fishing at its best, BONEFISH!!!  (o'io)


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Surge Wrasse (Hinalea)
 

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Some boat action
Leadering a medium sized Blue Marlin, went 450-500lbs. Fun, but not my style of fishing. Boring as shit for days until one bites!


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Bottom fishing on my boat for a mixed bag. Goatfish, Jobfish, African Pompano.


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That was waay too much of a post, ugh :o. It's 4am and i've been drinking coffee all night while wrapping 3 rods, cant sleep at all. Needed to do something to waste time before going to work!
It would be cool to see what kind of fishing other guys are doing around the world too. Especially all you lucky guys who live in New Zealand and get to hunt massive trout in the mountains; fishing in its truly supreme form!
Aloha!
Last Edit: December 31, 2012, 01:54:44 AM by Nathan Tsao

Andrew Susani

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Re: Fishing between GT's
December 31, 2012, 09:37:21 AM
Nice pics Nathan, good to have an insight into the Hawaiian species on offer for the light gear.  In Australia we have a vast amount of species to chase, particularly in the tropics.  There are many more predators to target, but the fishing is not easy until you get used to understanding the big tides (4m-6m of variation between high and low in Mackay!!)

A few highlights from this year - note that a lot of time was spent chasing GTs!!!  Almost everything is released, particularly slow growing fish like the fingermark - even though they are delicious!

Small bar cheeked coral trout from a very close reef, right near the boat ramp


Small Grassy Sweetlip from a close reef


A visiting mate with a 15kg black jewfish only 20 mins after putting the boat in


Nice queenfish on a 7" soft plastic


Flathead from a shallow mudflat drain - they lay semi buried in the sand/mud, and ambush fish as they swim past.


Longtom on one of my GT stickbaits, about 65km offshore - these are common inshore as well.


20kg spanish mackerel taken trolling a Rapala xrap about 25km off Mackay - there are lots of mackerel around here, mostly between June - Sept each year.


Longtail tuna taken on a 7" soft plastic - normally we catch these from busting schools on the surface, with either 15-30g metal lures or 10 weight fly outfits.


Amy with a 92cm barramundi taken on a Transam in the late afternoon in one of our local stocked impoundments.  The dams here have a lot of barra and sooty grunter in them and are great fun to catch.  The barra grown really quickly in the dams due to the huge amount of food in there, and fish over a metre are common.  Usually they get quite deep bodied and obese once they get over a metre.


Small bronze whalers and black tip reef sharks are pretty common here but you don't get them on lures very often.  Sometimes we have bigger whalers or tigers steal fish, normally in the cooler months.


Small blue salmon (similar to your Moi) caught near the Townsville casino a couple of days ago on a small soft plastic.


Amy with a nice mangrove jack taken on a small soft plastic in a busy port this week - a lot of people overlook the fishing in close but it can be really good if you know where to look.


I caught this small fingermark from the same place - good fun on light gear, and quite a sought after species.

 
Focus on the pop

Nathan Tsao

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Re: Fishing between GT's
January 01, 2013, 08:08:54 AM
Awesome diversity of fishies Andrew! It's cool to see all the different things you guys have to play with over there. Someday i would love to go to AUS for a surfing and fishing adventure.
You should see the view from my workplace right now, the 8m cliffs are getting demolished by a massive northwest swell. Whitewater is getting blown up easliy +20m into the air. No fishing this week, even getting the boat out of the harbor would be suicidal!
Happy New Year!

Andrew Susani

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Re: Fishing between GT's
January 01, 2013, 08:34:38 AM
Aloha & happy new year!  I will definitely be back one day to check out these monster swells that I used to read about as a teenage bodyboarder, and also to check out some of those bone flats on the other islands  ;)
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