GT attack

[nickstock]

Hi guys
With the recent spate of good weather up here Holly and I fished Cape Bedford in the morning for a slow experience on the bottom fish apart from some monster Catfish that seemed to be following us around. I landed a Whaler around 70kgs on 24kg mono which took over 45 mins to get to the boat which I grew tired of quickly.

I have seen a few small sharks jump out of the water before but never have I seen sharks around 7-8 feet jump clean out of the water. An amazing sight to see. Perhaps the Whalers thought they were Mako's??? We hooked a few GT's here also but they sorted us out quick smart. Another nice sight was a school of approx 25 Golden Trevally around 10 kilo grams, free swimming at the back of the boat.

The GT's were at their usual haunts on the reef edges and were terrorising anything that moved including me. I was spooled by one of these brutes (guessing around 40 kgs) lost 350 meters of 100 pound Berkley Braid which was a costly exercise. We hooked plenty and lost even more. Holly's biggest fish went just shy of 18 kilos and was quickly released. Not a bad effort considering she landed it on a hand line lol

Later in the day we moved to fish the top side of Egret reef. We lost some big Red Emperor and Trout and landed some smaller ones around 3 - 4kgs. After the GT's made us move on to another spot, we got stuck into some Spanish and nice reefies late in the afternoon. We were fishing in 25 meters of water and using butterflied Fusilier's fished on a running sinker and 8/0 hooks. We caught Gold Spot cod, Nannies (only around 45 cms) Trout, Long nosed Emperor and Red Emperor. Nothing went over 4kgs and we released all fish apart from enough for a nice feed of Trout and Red Emperor.

All in all a good day out even though the reefies were not playing the game until the last 1 1/2 hours of light. We left them biting and headed back to the ramp in dead flat seas and we were back at home before dark

I ran into Russell from the lure shop that had been for a fish on Hurricane Charters. They also noted that the bottom fishing was slow but they managed some nice Trout. The guys absolutely cleaned up on Mackerel landing around 15 big Spanish. Hopefully Russell will post a few pics of his catch
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[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']Cheers,[/font]
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[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']Nick[/font]

[geeb]

Great report and photos - thanks very much - for years I wanted to catch a GT - having done so now on many occassions I can understand why you moved on - they are very, very hard work - Holly 18 kg GT on a handline in my book you are a legend....very well done............Geeb

[Wahoo]

another great report Nick, great pics, well done, i did receive your SMS other day but working in Tully last few weeks, bad reception there, i have'nt been out in 4 weeks now and all last week has been prime weather, we have a beach house over looking Dunk Is, and when i get up in the mornings i had to try not look at the water, man it was sooo nice, but i had to slug it out and finish this job, two more days there and im free for a while, well i hope..lol...

Daz

[nickstock]

Thanks Geeb, Hol dropped one of the biggest Red's that I have seen in the flesh, right at the boat which was a bummer. Watching her battle it out with a 10kg Red is funny sight. She is 50 kgs sopping wet and watching her nearly disappear over the side of the boat with the head shakes of an angry red is good for a laugh (well for me anyway).

Daz,
I also went out on Thursday morning by myself, for similar results apart from the Reds. I had a Cobia around 15- 18 kgs right to the boat but did not bring the gaff and lost it with my rod in the rod holder trying to tail it lol. It would have been the first big Cobe that I landed.

The pelagic’s are absolutely firing up here at the moment but the bottom has been a bit slow. We were going to go out this morning again but Holly is too sore lol.

It must have killed you sitting at mission with good weather and no boat!

Nick

[Mattg68]

great report Nick, sounds like an awesome day was had. a handline with big GT's about, that's got to be the everest of optimism, lol. well done Holly. some nice fish there. bloody hell you know how to make a guy envious, living in paradise by the sounds (and looks) of it. 2 thumbs up.

Matt

[nickstock]

Cheers Matt,

Holly does not like to use a rod (I don’t know why). After playing tug of war for about 10 mins she thought that it was a big shark and asked me to cut her line for her. I was putting a fish in the kill bin at the time and looked over my side at the boat and saw her big GT lol. I am surprised at how quick she landed it.

I do live in paradise but unfortunately, the weather only plays the part for about 3 months of the year.

Nick

[nickstock]

A bit of colour coming up from the depths.

[yanjarra]

nice fish and what a heavenly unspoilt looking bit of terrain to do it on, i rekon id even be half a chance of landing one there

[1lastcast]

Good report congrats top effort
Regards MONOSTRETCHO

[ronnien]

what a top read!
great pics also, good on you"s.

ron.