Townsville Monster GT's

[dipster]

G’Day all,

Headed out from Townsville casino on Friday morning at the ungodly hour of 0430 with AAer Happygilmore and his brother Brendan for a days trolling for pelagics around cape Cleveland and the many inshore islands, rocks and bommies. The weather forecast was for 10-15kt E/SE but we were pretty sure that with a 3.28 metre making tide, it was gonna be tough going.

After setting our pots at the mouth of Cocoa Ck, we scooted up the inside of the cape and upon rounding it our worst fears were realized with about 1.5 metre seas. “Press on” was the call and so we motored along at a sedate 15kts and tried not to get wet. Mercifully the trip to our favourite island was over after about 30 bone jarring minutes and its lee side allowed us to sort ourselves out with an assortment of Halco crazy deep +8m lures in a variety of lengths and colours.

The first hour or so was fairly quiet with just some barracuda and small school mackerel taking a shine to Brendans lure which was to prove the most successful all through the day. Once the tide started to ebb, the seas thankfully began to ease off a little and Brendan hooked up to something which had a blinding first run followed by several others which had us thinking Spanish Mackeral. However it then went deep and did big tail thumping circles for the next 15 minutes.

He was fishing 30lb braid on a newly bought Shimano Tecota which was performing beautifully, but despite that, whatever it was refused to come to the surface which then had the peanut gallery calling it for a noah. Persistence and fighting through the “Jelly arm” syndrome finally got colour after another 10 minutes as a monster GT came to the surface. A huge haul on the gaff then had 17kg’s of fish on board and massive smiles of relief, what a fish! A few piccies later and he’s back in the water.

Things then slowed again and we tried trolling a different island. I decided to rig up a Wolf Herring onto a chin guard in hopes of picking up a Spaniard. The theory being that as Happy had hooked an undersize version the week before, that a deluxe size would hopefully be about as well. After one pass over a fringing rock shelf my Avett JX 4.1.1 screams as 80lb braid gets stripped relentlessly until the backing shows. I’ve recently brought this rod and reel off Happy and don’t know exactly how much mono backing he has on it, “She’s right, you’ve got heaps!” he tells me, but I’m still nervous. Thankfully, the boat is maneuvered back onto the fish to allow me to get the braid back onto the reel and put me more at ease.

I’m then able to apply some solid pressure to whatever it is and after about 5 minutes up comes another horse sized GT. Once again, grunts of exertion are required at the rail to get him aboard and this time it goes 20KG!!!! Unbelievable. Piccies taken, we then swim him until a good kick sees him off to terrorize the bait schools once more.

The rest of the day was patchy with several small mackerel taking lures half their size although we did get two keepers, and finally Happy is on the board after much hacking from his brother. Last but not least Brendan hooked onto something which put up a reasonable fight before coming to the surface with a nice golden glow which turned into 69cm’s of great eating fingermark, just to cement his position as top rod of the boat for the day.

By then it was time to collect the pots which turned out to be empty of any size bucks, which was dissappoiting as we were all keen on getting Christmas Day feed of crab. Oh well.

All in all, it was a good day with great company although at times conversations were a little hard when pounding through huge waves. Thanks to Hap and BJ for a great day and its time to go back to BCF for more lures as several were sacrificed to the fishing god, bring on the after Chrissy sales.

Regards

Dipster

[Two Utes]

Nice fish. Sounds like you had a great time. Fishing with Aaron is great....l know from personnel experiance.

[happygilmour]

Awesome report Dipster!!!

It was a great day watching both Brendon and you kick my butt but it was nice to be the net/gaff and boat driver. The fishing was not really hot with numbers of fish boated but some quality fish instead. Shame no spanish mackeral but that gt was huge.


Got my replacement 8m+ halcos ready for the next trip although need to upgrade trebles to st-66's. Ben, I think my AA shirt is cursed, only boated 1 legal school mackeral the wholeday on its maiden outing. Will try again to see if I can improve and get some serious slime,scale and blood on it.

Cheers

Aaron

[Daniel W]

Awesome report Dipster!!!
The fishing was not really hot with numbers of fish boated but some quality fish instead.
Cheers
Aaron

I'd be happy with a slow/quiet-not really hot day like that.
Great report Dipster, well done. Quality fish for sure.
Danny.

[adidaspeteman]

bring on the after Chrissy sales.

I have no money left for them......

A 20kg GT is a dream for me mate, cheers for the read and Wicked photos.

Merry Xmas

[blacksnake]

nice fish fellas, go the avets!

[dipster]

Thanks Blacksnake, I must admit that I didnt know very much about Avetts until Happy brought his along on a fishin trip and I took a shine to its slick lever drag a tough all alloy construction. I think that theyre seen more often in the US but have a small but satisfied following in Australia.

I love it when you have mates with more fishing gear than they know what to do with . LOL.

Dipster

[Leighton]

Fellas if thats a poor day then im packing up the hand brake and dog and moving up there.
Fantastic read and pics

[dipster]

A 20kg GT is a dream for me mate..

Mate, trust me, when I was living in Brissy for the last few years, my big aim was to be able to catch a 35cm plus squire or grassy sweetlip from Moreton Bay, and that was after the hour drive. A 20kg GT was definately a dream fish for me too!
Townsville has so many more options which change throughout the year i.e summertime barra when in-season (Nov to Jan is no-take for spawning) and winter time for pelagics.

I have seen plenty of awesome episodes of Fishing WA on Foxtel Sampson Fish being caught off Perth, have you ever had a chance to give them a crack? they look like a mottly coloured version of a Yellowtail Kingfish on steroids!!!

Dipster

[blacksnake]

Thanks Blacksnake, I must admit that I didnt know very much about Avetts until Happy brought his along on a fishin trip and I took a shine to its slick lever drag a tough all alloy construction. I think that theyre seen more often in the US but have a small but satisfied following in Australia.

I love it when you have mates with more fishing gear than they know what to do with . LOL.

Dipster

yep,theyre nice tools mate, i have 4 incl an lx,2 30w for trolling,a pro ex 30 2sp for bottom bashing and it keeps impressing everyone that uses it with its sheer pulling power
i would buy some 50wides only the pro ex 30's minimum drag was about 24lb with the preset backed right off.
the only reels that you can still get free spool with drag screwed right up.. i think..