GT Seasons

[Dan Kaggelis]

Hi Guys
This question is focused around North Queensland and Central Queensland waters. In many overseas destinations there seems to be preferred GT 'seasons' however I don't seem to find time of year (in terms of water temperature) a big factor in finding GT. It seems for me the biggest issue is water clarity and if the water is dirty I find it very hard to raise fish. Just wondering what other anglers are finding in this neck of the woods? 

[Nathan Tsao]

Water temps are everything for us here in Hawaii. Right now we have warm El Nino currents which has made for highly productive winter months when fishing is usually very poor. Typical GT season here is during our warmest water months May thru September.

[Graham Scott]

Hi Dan,
I agree, not a lot of difference across the year.
Current, wind, swell, state and direction of tide are more important.
When I started fishing for GT's I found a lot of correlation with Spanish mackerel fishing....if you caught Spanish at a certain time or place, GT's weren't far away, probably closer to the rocks on the up current side.

[Andrew Susani]

We catch them off Mackay at all times of the year but the best bite we have had was in Feb, in the middle of the day.  It was as hot as hell but the tidal run was small.  Ironically the second best session was in the middle of July, again in the middle of the day! 

I only have a 16ft boat so we only fish the inshore waters and islands, and not the outer reef... although if the weather is good I push out to 80km or so.  One trick we use is to hit all the typical spots first and fish bait schools off points etc, but if that doesn't work, we return to these same areas on different stages of the tide.  On the second or third visit, we normally get some action if there is none on the first attempt.

Below is the only pattern that we have noticed.  The data for these captures is very good, because the determining factor for our GT trips is the calm weather, not the tides.  Very interesting to see the congregation of captures on the start of the run in.  It certainly makes us focus on this stage of the tide a lot more!  Captures in blue are within 2km of the coast, captures in black are from further out.

[Kris Wright]

Im the same a Andrew only got a 16 foot boat, so inshore islands and shoals.  Im in Townsville and fish for geets when ever the weather is good enough to get out to the islands.  Have had the perfect day weather, tides and bait for very few fish and have had the not so good weather, neap tides and truck loads of geets days.  But as for season we are lucky up here in that respect as we get them all year long.  I have kept a diary like Andrew with baro pressure and tides water temp etc.  The only time I have come to a conclusion on temp was one day popping in the middle of Feb in 35 degress and 90% humidity and had a good chuck after about an hour.

[Gerhard Delport]

How would you go about targeting them in the warmer part of the year compared to the cooler part?

Poppers vs Stick baits?