Despite a tropical low (which was predicted to turn into a cyclone) crossing the coast 200km east from us on Sunday, Mondays forecast was surprisingly good with light winds and sunny skies.
We decided with ideal tides we would go out for a GT session. It was an early start and we were on the water by about 6am and at our destination by about 7 just after sunrise. We still had a little wait until the low tide but we decided to start popping straight away on the tide that was still running out.
We fished some areas that have produced some really good fish for us in the past but things were unusually quiet for most of the morning. Brad and Glenn both got sharks on their poppers, one of which would have been over 30kg, but fortunately didn't get bitten off.
We had a few lousy strikes by some average GT's and after a while I decided to change to a 170g Orion Bigfoot. I was rewarded pretty quickly with the hookup of a nice Coral Trout but unfortunately I didn't stay connected. Shortly after, we saw a really good sized GT take a good swipe at the stickbait in the crystal clear water but that failed to connect properly.
We moved along, Brad finally managed to hook something and he shrugged it off as just a really small GT but turned out to be a nice Coral Trout, a first for Brad on popper. Well done mate.
Brad suggested we move to a different Island where he had some luck last weekend. It didn't take much convincing as things were unusually quiet at our current location.
When we arrived, Glenn hooked up on the first cast and it turned out to be a little junior around 4kg. Not huge, but a convincing sign.
We continued casting over the drop off and I had a nice follow from a GT that had about 4 swipes at my lure without hooking up. Brad placed his popper directly behind mine and hooked up fairly instantly. After a short fight he landed a GT around the 10kg mark, things were looking better.
It went a bit quiet so we moved to the other side of the island. We had couple more hits but nothing to really brag about. We moved back to the other side and Brad pointed out the area where he caught his biggest GT last week. I threw out a cast and got monstered almost instantly, over the next few seconds I had about 3-4 huge hits from numerous GT's that all looked every bit of 20kg+.
Eventually I came up solid, we were fishing really shallow water so I locked up my PE10 gear and started to extract him from the shallow bommie studded water while Glenn drove the boat out into deeper water. After a short but strenuous tussle I had him boatside, Brad grabbed the tail and Glenn grabbed the leader to lift him in. After a couple of quick snaps and a weigh on the scales I speared an approx 20kg GT back into the water.
The Fisherman Bigmouth 130 HP Tail had some serious damage from the fish that swallowed it head first.
I suggested to Glenn that he change from a pencil to a chugger as the water was very choppy due to the wind/tide direction. He chose a Black Craftbait GT2 and I started to drive the boat exhausted from my fish, while Glenn and Brad continued to cast into the same area.
Glenn had results fairly instantly with a solid hit but failed to hookup. This continued for a couple more drifts until he finally came up solid. This was a noticeabley bigger fish than my previous GT and I ripped line from Glenn's twinspin at a great rate of knots.
Fearfull of losing the fish Glenn increased the drag but it didn't slow it. The result was a straightened Owner ST66 treble. The boys continued to cast while I stayed at the wheel, Brad had a nice hit but it failed to hookup. Glenn hooked up again on the craftbait.
It was a similar sized fish, Glenn fished his PE8 to the max but it wasn't much good. This fish was huge and it wasn't coming easy. I started to drive out into open water when Glenn stated he'd been buried. He stayed connected however, and the fish came free only to have one final surge for freedom and bust him off. Spewin.
I started to cast again but it went quiet so we put in a few more drifts before coming home. Overall it was a good finish to a day that started off really slow, Glenn got smoked but in brutal ground there's not heaps you can do - definately an area for PE10.
