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Mark Gonsalves

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Here on Oahu, Hawaii a 145lb (65kg) ulua (GT) was just landed from shore using the slidebait method.  You can google the picture and story.  Try ulua + 145lbs + Hawaii.  Congrats to the angler.

Brandon Khoo

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That 145lb fish looks about 2/3s the size of Alex's fish!

Mark, I have to agree with Kasey - that has got to be the worst photo of a big fish I have ever seen!  ;D
If it swims; I want to catch it!

Luke Wyrsta

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Bloody fabulous fish for sure and big congratulations to Alex Rios.

It's also a very good example of the way a fish is photographed effecting the comments it will elicite.

For example, I think the fish below was bigger than the 55 kgs estimated above (check out the tail!), and yet when it was posted here it received no comments at all. The power of a good photo eh?  8)



It's near impossible to compare the two including the reference to the tail.

Mark, it's becoming a little old in the tooth that you continue to raise photography issues in multiple threads. Please refrain - there are photography forums out there if you feel the urge to critique/discuss further.

Mark Harris

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Mark, I have to agree with Kasey - that has got to be the worst photo of a big fish I have ever seen!  ;D

Totally agreed with Brandon and Kasey there. Such a bloody shame.
Last Edit: April 12, 2012, 10:47:37 AM by Mark Harris

Peter Childs

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Its certainly a reflection on the advances made in the sport, tackle and captures that we are even indulging in this conversation.

I remember only 2 or three years ago.......even on this forum, that a 35 - 40 kg fish was met with Ooooohs and Aaahs, and a lot of 25kg fish held up proudly in photos.

Now we are hearing of trips in Oman where "most" fish are in excess of 50 kg and a 40 kegger barely rates a mention!

Mark Harris

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Too right Pete.

I just hope that the proliferation of huge fish that we hear about these days does not discourage members from posting their own captures, be they 15, 20, 25 kgs...... whatever. It is still great to hear about people from different parts of the world going out and catching GTs, no matter the size.

After all, there are still only a handful of locations which will produce true monsters on anything approaching a regular basis.
Last Edit: April 12, 2012, 04:40:04 PM by Mark Harris

Mark Gwynne

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I tried that search and found this. Not wanting to weigh into the "how to take a picture" debate but I've always felt you should never hold a fish when it is being weighed. Who's to say he wasn't pulling down on this fish? It's a big one though!!

http://www.stripersonline.com/t/843354/monster-ulua-caught-shorecasting-off-oahu-hawaii-145lbs-pic

Mark Gonsalves

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The head and guts were given to the fisheries service so they could study the otoliths to try and determine the age of the beast.  The head and guts, chopped off without the pectorals and jaw, weighed in at 62lbs.  The rest of the fish was consumed.

Vincenzo Caccico

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Very big fish and very nice photo!  ;)

Geoff Volter

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The head and guts were given to the fisheries service so they could study the otoliths to try and determine the age of the beast.  The head and guts, chopped off without the pectorals and jaw, weighed in at 62lbs.  The rest of the fish was consumed.

Mark, has the age of the fish been released? I'd be interested to know how old such a beast was.

Brandon Khoo

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with all this talk of gargantuan GTs, I remain firmly of the view that any GT over 30kgs is a big fish and an excellent capture.

The fact that there have been a more visible proliferation of captures of massive fish in the past year doesn't change that. It is also a mistake to think that massive fish weren't capture before. Fish larger than 50kgs have been regular captures in the past, particularly in locations like Tokara and New Caledonia, not to mention the odd monster caught among the masses of mid-sized fish in the Coral Sea.

There is no doubt that the concentration of monsters appearing in the middle east are a relatively new phenomenon but as I have written in the recent past, there are massive fish everywhere. The difficult is in finding and targeting them.

A few years back, a group to Marion Reef saw some unbelievable monster GT activity including fish turning on their sides to get from various deep holes into another. They hooked heaps and got absolutely destroyed. The only person who ever landed a fish out of that area was Konishi San who got lucky when his fish ran out of the hole into the open water. That capture is one of the most well-know GT photos today. There used to be schools of huge fish caught jigging off the Burma Banks and in other surrounding areas but these got destroyed by idiots who kept every single fish they caught.

Unfortunately, the seems to be a perception that a 50kg capture is the mark of a great GT angler to the point now where we have seen fish that are more like 40kg fish being masqueraded as 50kg fish. It isn't. Some pretty mediocre anglers have fish this size but more to the point, some really excellent anglers haven't had the luck to land a fish of that size. If you want to establish how meritorious a capture is, it is not just the size, you need to take into account the terrain the fish was extracted from. Damon Olsen landed a fish around 30kgs at Shoalwater a few years back from terrain where I still can't believe he landed the fish. the fish went like hell too which made it an incredible capture.

It is getting to the absurd though when we are taking away from what are simply great captures by debating what a fish actually weighs and how misleading a photo is. Alex's fish is a wonderful capture any way you look at it and while a suggestion that this is the world's biggest GT is a little absurd, it's a wonderful capture and I hope I can get one like that this year on one of my trip.

This is why I am no longer willing to post estimates of weights of fish in photos. Let's just appreciate a great capture for what it is.
If it swims; I want to catch it!

Peter Morris

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Brandon,

Have you found some GT's fight rediculously harder than others....for reasons I am unsure of.

I remeber one fish at Elusive of around 30kg I got with Damon that they were calling for a monster as it fought so stupidly hard and really gave me a serving.I was seriously tired after that fish.

This one fought way harder than the one I caught a smidgen shy of 40kg........

Like you said many variables come into it.

Pete

Chris Webster

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with all this talk of gargantuan GTs, I remain firmly of the view that any GT over 30kgs is a big fish and an excellent capture.

The fact that there have been a more visible proliferation of captures of massive fish in the past year doesn't change that. It is also a mistake to think that massive fish weren't capture before. Fish larger than 50kgs have been regular captures in the past, particularly in locations like Tokara and New Caledonia, not to mention the odd monster caught among the masses of mid-sized fish in the Coral Sea.

There is no doubt that the concentration of monsters appearing in the middle east are a relatively new phenomenon but as I have written in the recent past, there are massive fish everywhere. The difficult is in finding and targeting them.

A few years back, a group to Marion Reef saw some unbelievable monster GT activity including fish turning on their sides to get from various deep holes into another. They hooked heaps and got absolutely destroyed. The only person who ever landed a fish out of that area was Konishi San who got lucky when his fish ran out of the hole into the open water. That capture is one of the most well-know GT photos today. There used to be schools of huge fish caught jigging off the Burma Banks and in other surrounding areas but these got destroyed by idiots who kept every single fish they caught.

Unfortunately, the seems to be a perception that a 50kg capture is the mark of a great GT angler to the point now where we have seen fish that are more like 40kg fish being masqueraded as 50kg fish. It isn't. Some pretty mediocre anglers have fish this size but more to the point, some really excellent anglers haven't had the luck to land a fish of that size. If you want to establish how meritorious a capture is, it is not just the size, you need to take into account the terrain the fish was extracted from. Damon Olsen landed a fish around 30kgs at Shoalwater a few years back from terrain where I still can't believe he landed the fish. the fish went like hell too which made it an incredible capture.

It is getting to the absurd though when we are taking away from what are simply great captures by debating what a fish actually weighs and how misleading a photo is. Alex's fish is a wonderful capture any way you look at it and while a suggestion that this is the world's biggest GT is a little absurd, it's a wonderful capture and I hope I can get one like that this year on one of my trip.

This is why I am no longer willing to post estimates of weights of fish in photos. Let's just appreciate a great capture for what it is.

Very well said.

Mark Harris

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Brilliantly put Brandon, and I don't think there is anything to add to that.

Mark Gonsalves

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The head and guts were given to the fisheries service so they could study the otoliths to try and determine the age of the beast.  The head and guts, chopped off without the pectorals and jaw, weighed in at 62lbs.  The rest of the fish was consumed.

Mark, has the age of the fish been released? I'd be interested to know how old such a beast was.

Not yet.  If and when I hear any information, I will post it.  This will be very interesting.