It has been a while since our last visit to the motebello islands so with the long weekend upon us, Tim and i were on our way. Unlucky for us we only had two days this time but who is complaining. We set off late friday night with the weather gods smiling upon us. A 4 1/2 drive down to fortescue river followed by an absolutly sensational night transit accross the dark ocean guided by the gas pods on route to the montebello islands. We set the anchor at around 0130 to grab a couple of hours sleep before the morning popping session. We awoke to a beautiful bright red sky and fair seas, we rigged up, topped up the fuel and set off to the popping grounds.
Red in the morning
Words can not describe
Well after a late night and a gentlemans start to the day we were where the GT's liked to hang out. I asked Tim if he would like the first cast, as soon as he said no i didnt give him half a chance to change his mind. I bombed a cast toward the said bommy and on the 4th bloop on the first cast of the trip an explosion of water errupted behind my popper and I was on. Surprisingly what followed was a pretty easy fight, before too long i was surprised to see a nice GT of around 30kg's surface. Not a bad start to the trip.
hooked up on the first cast of the trip
Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeteeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Right, Tim's turn. Last time he visited me he caught a number of GT's but notthing over 20kg's. He got bricked more times than a labourer and the start of this trip was to be nothing different. His first cast resulted in another hook up and yet another lost lure. This happened again soon after. I was getting frustrated with the situation, i really wanted him to land a decent fish. We moved spots after about 5 strikes and 2 lost lures for instant success. This time tim stayed connected and managed to subdue a his first pilbara beast, 25kg's of Pilbara GT finally made it to his arms
hooked up
A very happy GT camper
Righto we then settled in to a pretty good sesion landing another three fish taking us to 5 for the morning session with as many if not more dropped in the couple of hours. the fish we caught were 30kg's, 2 specimens at 25kg's 20kg's and a petite 15kg's. Not a bad morning.
Another cracker from Tim
Well we decided to go for a quick jig in the arvo. I had not ever been out wide of the montes so much of the time we spent looking for any sort of structure in the 40 meter zone. WE found a lump approx 10 miles from where we were and opted for some pe5 fun. We found a ledge that dropped from about 25m to 40m. As usual in the pilbara the bloody thing was teeming with spanyds resulting in quite a few lost jigs. We did manage a ffew nice trout and so did the sharks that were obviouly lurking bellow.
yummo!
Anyway before the afternoon disapeared completely Tim and i went for a bit of a recon in amongst the islands around an area we had not been to before. We were looking for some of those monster jacks the montes are renound for and the only real species to evade us in the last two trips. WE did find some ground and it was covered in good size bar cheek trout over 70cm. I found one ledge while diving that had a 30 plus kg GT on it as well as a 90 odd cm trout and a few of those huge jacks we were looking for. I went back to the boat to get my spear gun but by the time i rreturned the bigger jacks were gone, I settled for a couple over 50cm and a couple of trout. Not a bad way to round out the afternoon.
by the way we named the spot undies, for an undisclosed reason
Well that night keeping with the montes tradition Tim and I share we feasted on coral trout Sashimi. Bloody beautiful! After a good nights sleep in the swags on the beach we woke to yet another beautiful day. Tim sugested we have another pop first thing followed by some plastics in amongst the islands and lure casting on the flats. We made our way out to the popping ground this time it was tim up first. It didnt dissapoint with another first cast hook up. We took turns popping that morning, apolagise for the lack of photos we decided to film instead. We landed 4 fish in ten casts ranging from 15 to 25 ish Kg's we litoraly left them biting, not a bad start to the moring.
Preparing the feast
Yummo, we ended up eating this for diner both nights
trying to get some sleep
Tim pondering the day ahead
Only photo we took on the second moring
Well after another successfull GT session we headed in for ome breaky. After that we headed in a different direction looking for some structure to throw some placky's around. We had reasonable succes in our last trip in one spot so we decided it was time for a revisit. First casts from both tim and i resulted in a double hook up. Tim was burned pretty hard on the pe2 gear resulting in a bust off. I on the other hand landed a nice little trout. We threw plastics and hard bodies around here for an hour or so with some prett good success, we landed a few nice trout and spangos, we also got bricked about 5 or 6 times by some onstopable jacks. I know they were jacks because i jumped in with the mask and snorkle to inspect, i saw jacks to an estimated 8kg's lurking in on the drop off, no wonder we didnt stand a chance on the light stuff, ahh well next time!
trout on an SP
Spango on a stickbait
Trout on a trembler
Well after that we went for a bit of a flats fish to round out the day. Tim had a bit of a cracker session on the pe 3 landing both a chinaman on a sticky bait and an estimated 15kg GT on a red snapback. It was pretty entertaining, i jumped in with the water camera for a few shots of the chinaminza, the water was a bit green but some turned out ok i guess. I speared one last fish to bring home, a nice bluebone.
Tim hooked up on the chinaman, pe 3
almost there
About to net him
Walah!
GT time
Not bad on pe3 gear
one last fish for the esky
Well thats about it. Once again had a great trip, highlight for me is definatly the 30kg GT on the first cast of the trip, tims well probably given the circumstances probably his first brute of a GT, it took him three trips and about 5 of my poppers to land it, hahha. We had glorious weather for the transit home, made a great end to the trip that bit better
Cheers
Brad
