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Topwater Caranx Ignobilis: Giant Trevally (GT) => Reports & Expeditions => Topic started by: John Campbell on October 18, 2009, 03:43:19 PM
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Hey guys
With the weather gods smiling on us and the chance to blow a day at work on friday
we decided to spend the day throwing poppers at some of the local reefs to see what we could russle up. with the trip taking about one and a half hours there was plenty of time to work out a plan on how we were going to attack the reefs and even some bets were made as to how many we would catch for the day varying from 8 to 20 !! anticipation was running high
once arriving the bait was packed up and we had immediate success pulling 2 nice fish in our first 4 casts, well in a nutshell the next 8 hours was pretty hectic with the fish count pulling up at 32 GT, 2 tea leaf trevally and a red bass. the GT ranged between 10 and 22kg with the average fish 12 to 14kg, we did see a few bigger fish follow some of the smaller hooked fish to the boat, but couldnt say just how big.
some of the highlights was one of the boys pulling the red bass off the top of the reef in about 1 meter of water, also watching a maori wrasse of at least 100lb swim up and casually look at the popper without eating it and then just cruise back to his bombie, there were plenty of mackeral swimming around but they seemed to stay deep and didnt really want eat any of our offerings of floating and sinking stickbaits or poppers which was frustrating, there were numerous double hook ups during the day which was fun.
all in all we had a phenominal days fishing with brilliant weather good company and plenty of fish to be caught, we started off fishing 100lb on ripple fisher and yamaga rods but downgraded to 50 and 80 lb outfits to get a little bit more enjoyment out of the size fish we were catching,
just a few pics to add
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Bloody hell John, sounds like a ripper of a day. I am sweating on us getting out when I am up there (please be good weather gods), I haven't been for a fish in nearly 6 weeks! I hope this is some of the action I can look forward to!
Can't wait to see the pics
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Nice work john,
I've been looking out the window at the eastury and i think i may have to chase a flathead or two, :(
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Great work John! It would have made a great day into an unbelievable one if the Maori Wrasse had been landed.
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Thanks guys
hey scott yeah i am sweating on some good weather when you come up, i have been trying to find some spots for us to fish when you get up here and this was our first
serious full day trip focussing on popping the whole time and it was well worth it.
we have found some spots that are regularly holding fish but this particular spot was insane
hey neale at least the flathead taste nice ;) would be great to get you over this way for a fish sometime
that big wrasse would have made things interesting brandon, i have found them to be very good at finding there way back home with a popper for there trophy wall and thats with fish half the size of this beast !! they are an awesome creature so powerful
i am having trouble with pictures on my computer so i may have to wait till i get to work to post the pictures but i will keep trying
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John, if you let the big fellow get his head down, you're a goner. You've got to be quick to load up and try to hold it. If it gets its head down and that awesome tail going, I think you will need to be very lucky.
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your dead right there brandon we usually hook them in about 5 or 6 meters of water with some big bombies and its sudden death as soon as you hook up, we may have had a decent chance if we hooked that big one as we had some deeper water and he was about 30m away from home. talking to some spear fisherman last night they told me about a few spots were they see quite a few really big wrasse so that might be our next trip. will fish 130lb if i go there incase i need to give them some serious curry !!!
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I agree - go PE10 and go really hard!
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Sounds good John, I'd love to come over that way again!
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sounds like you had a top day john, plenty of action(gota love NQ reef popping), we took off from townsville on fri also and had perfect conditions also.
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Hey Tom
yeah weather was magic wasnt it, was just texting rob this arve and he said you got a nice one on fri, i had never seen bait so packed up and it was so calm you could see them moving from a couple hundred yards away !!!
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we had football size bait schools at one stage, look in the back ground of one of my photos-can see a large school. good to see we wernt the only ones out there getting in on the action
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gotta love having magic condtions and be part of it fishing,great work mate,looking forward to pics..
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Finally some pics
(http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/uu204/jcfish_bucket/DSCF1179.jpg)
(http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/uu204/jcfish_bucket/DSCF1183.jpg)
(http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/uu204/jcfish_bucket/DSCF1187.jpg)
(http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/uu204/jcfish_bucket/DSCF1192.jpg)
(http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/uu204/jcfish_bucket/DSCF1194.jpg)
(http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/uu204/jcfish_bucket/DSCF1191.jpg)
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great report and some nice fish caught.
I would of really liked to of seen a photo of that big Maori Wrasse had one of you caught it, hopefully you will get it next time.
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Thanks Guys
we will get him one day, no doubt hook him casting 30lb gear for little trout and blueys :D
Murphys Law runs ripe in our boat ;D
here are a couple of more pics, my favorite pic is that river to sea, we actually caught another fish on it
after casting it out like that for shits and giggles !!!!
(http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/uu204/jcfish_bucket/DSCF1182.jpg)
(http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/uu204/jcfish_bucket/DSCF1185-1.jpg)
(http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/uu204/jcfish_bucket/DSCF1193.jpg)
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Good photos John - I love reef popping, nice work.
That R2S is classic :D Note how even though it's full wire construction you will lose your fish if it's hooked on the rear and it pulls out like that as the rear wire loop doesn't secure the hook in any way.
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Nice pics John, they may not be monster fish but they look to be in good shape, some nice colours too
That R2S is too funny, why the hell am I buying hammerheads and fisherman lures again?!?!
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Your dead right Travis, i had that happen earlier this year around one of our jettys when trying to put the hurt
on a decent fish and it had only caught a couple of fish before that, i really like the cuberas as i have a couple that have almost lost all there paint and they still catch fish fairly consistently, also not overly expensive
Hey Scott its because your an addict :D :D
wise man once said to me " i will stop spending it when they stop making it " money that is ;)
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Go the R2S dumbell...still my favourite lure
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Hey Scott its because your an addict :D :D
wise man once said to me " i will stop spending it when they stop making it " money that is ;)
Too true bro....My name is Scott, and I have a problem. I don't spend enough time fishing, so I satisfy my fishing related needs by buying excessive amounts of gear instead.
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Hey Scott its because your an addict :D :D
wise man once said to me " i will stop spending it when they stop making it " money that is ;)
Too true bro....My name is Scott, and I have a problem. I don't spend enough time fishing, so I satisfy my fishing related needs by buying excessive amounts of gear instead.
I suffer the same ailment
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shhhh,do not tell them too much,burdekin has lots of top spots. ;D