The trip of personal best GT

For the first time we had a group of anglers who had fished for GT before but all of them were after a bigger fish than they had caught before and wanted to see if they could better their personal best catches till date. There had been a lot of to and fro emails on the tackle list and what was working the best, but at the end of the day it comes down to you and your luck at the moment you need it most.

Perfect weather and we are off with all expectations running high

On day 1 there was a slight SW’ly wind which I do not really like and the drifts were not the usual way so we needed to improvise however a few drifts into the first session and Nick is into a decent fish, we land it and its a PB for him at 20kg, a quick photograph and we are back to the fishing.

Jason then gets his PB with a GT in the 20kg range, in the first morning session too, the expectations are higher now.

Wong kept catching fish through the day, he had the most GT’s it was really quite funny because he would take a break and rest and everyone else would keep and when then needed a break Mr Wong would take a cast or 2 and hook a fish, his biggest of the day was a fish close to the 30kg mark. Below he poses with one of the smaller ones.

Saikat too is into the fun with a small GT so now we are in the morning session of day 1 and everyone has got a fish.

In the calm conditions the stick-baits worked well, of course the old GT Gamma is a favourite.

The Next session is flat calm, with current a few drifts as we wait for the current to pick up and look at the sounder to see whats going on down below, we have a few smaller fish first then Mr Wong is into a good fish, which takes a lot of line,

we were a bit surprised to see a GT in the 30-35kg range as it fought much harder, buts is again another PB fish for a happy angler.

I tell Saikat there is fish marking and to pop like he means it, on the 3rd cast there is is this huge explosion around his Craftbait GT3, I see him struggling but he manages to set the hook a few time and line is disappearing fast.

20 minutes later there is this enormously fat GT on the deck she is thick and wide with huge tail wrist and we estimate in the 45-47kg range for a delighted Saikat who has also got his PB GT.

Another view of the fish showing its girth above and below the Gama GT Recorder that had broken, such are the strength of these fish.

A bit of jig on the way back and Saikat is again into a good fish, that fights like a demon close to the bottom, and boy is he happy once he lands this super grouper below.

Next session Nick is into a another good fish which gives him a workout….. here he is with the hurt on at both ends.

and Nick resets his PB with another nice 30kg + GT, way to go boys!!!!!

What followed next was amusing a PE10 popping rod broke at the handle, not on a big fish but on an estimated 8 kg Spanish Mack near the boat, and that is Nick out of rods for the last session of the last day, his other rod broke and eye and was unusable…..what a time to go….

Jason has some bad luck with a big fish that he hooks up but breaks him off, some fish are just unstoppable here. However he is soon in another big big fish that has him gasping and he needs to put all his strength into holding on, with Nick behind him to support him in case of a line break.

Many minutes of pain later followed with some deft boat handling and the fish is under control, Jason is happy now and can manage a smile between the excitement.

And here he is all smiles as he rewrites his PB again this time with a 143 cm estimated over 50kg GT, it is also the end of the trip with some amazing memories for all anglers.

Till our next report

Tight lines.