Rich and co left and we had a day window with no charters .. i wasnt going to look a gift horse in the mouth so i spent an evening rigging up a few rods and tying some knots which in itself these days is a rare thing with knot guru's Yassir & Mohammed around. Our captains from Lamu Kenya have been such an excellent addition to No Boundaries and after spending a whole season in Shuwaymiah with them it is actually quite lonely now without the boys around.
I was going out rigged with 3 rods - Ripple Fisher GT78xh/Stella 18k/Craft Bait 190g Popper, Black Hole Cap Cod 8'0/Stella 10/16k spool /Gamma nemo and a Temple Reef GT78/Stella 18k/FCL LABO CSP.
In season 1 we had some incredible fish off a bommie between the big island Al Hallaniyat and the second biggest island As Sowdah, it quickly became known as Monster Rock having never landed anything under 40kg from there. The legendary location had slowed down through season 2 but i still felt it needed a proper session. Guests seem to loose patience quickly on this spot as the bommie is only 3m long perhaps and 2m wide but it sits in a great surrounding area and the Geets like to cruise from this holding spot to the others between the islands. Patience and lots of casts is key when there is no particular 'zone' so we switched off engines and casually drifted.
I completed the first and second drift without even a distant Gar/Green Marlin dancing across the top upon hearing the lure. I was starting to feel the pull of the islands and shallow white water reefs but Mohammed encouraged me to keep going so we started drift 3. I was switching up rods every 20 casts or so and must have completed near 150 casts through the 3 long drifts.
Sat in 25m of water and firing off casts with the Black hole rod/Gamma i was still managing to really concentrate on my lure and prepared for a hit any moment. This is such an important factor when chasing these monster fish, if you let your mind cruise off and just get into a thoughtless cast after cast then you can guarantee this will be the time Goliath comes up and destroys your lure leaving you a second off the mark. With every crank i am anticipating the hit and aggressive strike in return.
I was getting some great distance on the long rod and i had worked my lure to within 20m of the boat when time suddenly stood still. It looked like someone had dropped a car behind my lure .. in fact it looked like a bloody bus had just fallen from the skies! Just an enormous mushroom of water was suddenly where my lure was and i got a great view of the beast ruling reef with its huge head clamping on the lure.
I was ready and an instant injection of mega adrenalin left me hitting the fish .. 1,2,3,4,5 hits, keep reeling in any slack till this beast smashes me to the gunnel i reminded myself, tight again strike number 6,7,8 followed with Mo' starting the boat quickly and putting both engine into reverse. This is a big help when hooking the big fish that dont necessarily peel line instantly .. i was tight on the fish but it had not taken any line yet and i wanted to put as much pressure as possible on the giant keeping my barbless Gamakstu under a constant force.
It finally started pulling the Varivas pe10 from the 16k and I moved to the gunnel to brace myself on the boat. Mo' started talking to me about where he was moving the boat, depth etc and thankfully we had total control of the fish from strike due to hooking it in deep water. It wasnt all smooth sailing with some big runs and the final stage where the fish went deep and sat in the current but i powered on knowing this could one of my best ever fish.
Color soon followed and then shouts of disbelief when we saw just how big this thing was. It was hooked up on the middle treble with 2 ends of the treble in the mouth but considering how hard/number of times i hit this thing i half expected the hooks to be buried. Mo' bottom lipped the dinosaur with the gaff after laying out the GT sling. I used the last of my strength hauling the fish into the boat then marveled in its size and beauty.
I pulled the hooks with my fingers and with no tension they pretty slipped out and grabbed the tape measure. 155cm lip to fork and weighed in sling 64.5kg! We moved the sling to the front of the boat saving dragging the fish on the deck and took some quick snaps and added a tag to the fishes bling bling. When we released the creature it immediately righted itself in the water and casually swam next to us for 30 seconds. Neither of us spoke we watched this once in lifetime fish cruising so magnificently calm next to us, it eventually swam down and we sat and talked for about 20 minutes before heading home .. how could i top that, a truly ancient beast and P.B
I have also included the fish from the very last day the islands were fished this season. Yassir, Mohammed and both house boys joined me on a rough day but mega fishing. The previous fish is my personal heaviest but i was still after a hatrick of monster Geets in a session this season. All fish that day were landed on the Ripple Fisher rod/Stella and 4 of my incredible 5 GTs took the WCP Delambre.
The biggest of the day weighed in at 51kg and i hooked it after taking off all hooks except the Assist off the front. It took 3 huge attacks to hook the fish up but i was stoked with the little experiment working and landing a big fish using just 1 single hook on such a big lure.
Mohammed also landed hefty 42kg on the Temple Reef Sunny and co from Singapore left him which was a nice touch, thanks again to that group whose fish are still to follow
