GregL Posted October 27, 2010 Share Posted October 27, 2010 (edited) Ever seen them underwater docos with huge schools of Giant Trevally milling around the reef edges? Ever thought what it would be like to cast a lure into it and see what happens? During October, along the deep edges of the Barrier Reef theres something big going on, breeding or just feeding, who knows but hell theres a stack of GTs schooling together. The guides called them Moving Bombies. From the top of the water in the deep purple coloured water you could see light green patches usually indicating a shallow rock but these so called rocks moved! Hundreds and hundreds of GTs balled up moving their way south along the reef edges. Over last week out off Lizard Island in very blowie conditions we braved the elements to experience this phenomenon. 6hours out of Sydney we were on the water burning out towards Number 10 Ribbon Reef in a Contender which is our fishing platform for the week. The plan was to cast at GTs each session till your arms fall off then tow a Spanish Mackerel as a skip bait to try nail a marlin. Sounded bloody good to us! From the set go we were on, first cast! Working our way down an outer edge we scored over 20 GTs in the first 2.5hours of fishing! Who wants a marlin? asked the guide? With sore shoulders already and not wanting to burn ourselves out, lets give it a bash! Out comes a 5ft mackerel rigged up and sent out on a stand up 80, no mucking around here! 5mins and out comes the head of a little black around 100kgs and swallows the mackerel and we are on! A quick spirited fight and up he comes for the release, how goods this place! A few more casts get a couple of GTs to finish off the arvo and back to the mother ship for beers on the back deck watching the sun go down.....Heaven! Day two really is when we found the pattern for the rest of the week of the craziest GT fishing that any of us had experienced before. During the morning the mother ship would travel out to Jewel reef, our anchorage for the next few days. The fishing boats would then travel fishing the different reefs on the way out. Our guide Glanni had other plans, steam out to Jewel and fish the outer edge and hopefully wastes less time finding and more time catching. I love it when a plan comes together! On arrival the first few casts scored some nice red bass, 15-20kg GTs and a nice Mori wrasse. About 50m out from the edge the guides pointing at a patch in the water saying cast out there, 2oclock, 50m! 4 poppers go flying and slap the water and all hell breaks loose! BENDING! Multi hook ups became the norm and it was more amazing to get your popper back than to hook a fish if you were on target. 40s and 50s per day per boat with fish between 12-25kg as standard with a few to 40kg and many a smoking to keep you on your toes! I fished a Ripple Fisher 100lb stick with a Stella 18000sw loaded with PE8 STP and a 200lb leaded FG knotted to my main line. This system seemed to work the best for casting and knot strength but I still lost over 15 lures. At 70 bux plus another 20 in rigging it got costly! In the end we just fished a single assist hook off the top of the lure, with 2 hooks you would hook 2 fish and end up loosing one or both to bent hooks or sharks! One of the high lights of the trip had to be our in counter with a baby whale shark. Sitting off the Ribbons we had a 15ft whale shark swim up to the boat and trying suck on the prop of the outboard! Hanging off the back casting platform you could reach out and pat it on the head. A once in a life time experience for sure! New Video Added As I said early, the conditions were blowie, 25kn was standard and we saw over 50kns but that didnt stop the fishing. Really we thought it got better as the wind got stronger. Second last day the wind sent us running back to Lizard as there was a 40kn front moving in fast. In the arvo meeting the mother ship back at anchorage at Lizard you could tell she copped a beating! Shit everywhere, freezers broken their mounts, dorys braking tie down chains and the crew looking a bit beaten up. Us, we just smacked GTs all the way back. The crew were very professional and fished till the customers dropped. Even in them conditions not once did we feel unsafe even with 5m swells crashing where your poppers were landing! Well thats a brief summary of my bestest fishing trip.......... SO FAR! Now I just dont think I can wait another 12 months till I go again! GregL Sorry we didn't pull the cameras out as much as we liked as the conditions just seemed to risky but here are a few at the start of the trip when conditions we OK. Only got sharked a few times. Night time entertainment Edited October 30, 2010 by GregL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 27, 2010 Share Posted October 27, 2010 AWESOME !!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjc123 Posted October 27, 2010 Share Posted October 27, 2010 (edited) Great read mate. They pull hard ayyy Edited October 27, 2010 by mack attack 79 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musty Posted October 27, 2010 Share Posted October 27, 2010 Awesome report Greg! You and those GT's are pulling the same face! Well done mate im sure u will need some dencorub after that trip. Musty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arpie Posted October 27, 2010 Share Posted October 27, 2010 Woohoo!!! Giddyup! What a trip! Nice beakie, amazing to pat a baby whale shark ..... I thought we only got them off the WA coast! Great report, Greg - well done! Roberta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gregg.michael Posted October 27, 2010 Share Posted October 27, 2010 What a report - great stuff Greg. I would love to see a whale shark - let alone give him a pat. Excellent report Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenno64 Posted October 27, 2010 Share Posted October 27, 2010 Purely Amazing Stuff!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jewhunter Posted October 27, 2010 Share Posted October 27, 2010 AWESOME !!!!! Ummm! !!!! Greg, I'm gobsmacked by your report! I don't really know what to say. Unbelievable mate. Great stuff! Cheers, Grant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle ray Posted October 27, 2010 Share Posted October 27, 2010 Any wahoo? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassboy888 Posted October 27, 2010 Share Posted October 27, 2010 WOW that is some insane fishing greg! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregL Posted October 28, 2010 Author Share Posted October 28, 2010 Thanks Raiders This trip was the smallest group I have been out with that I have previously known, 2 others and the bulk 9, were from over seas. Many great friendships were formed and now there's to many new places to visit and fish all over the world. Many stories were swapped over the dinning table and so many laughs shared through out the trip. With so many different backgrounds and occupations theres always something to talk about. Fishing is such a good equalizer! Jewel Reef area is reknowned for the best variety of fish for the boat but this trip there were 2 groups of anglers, GT or marlin only. 4 wanted to finish off there marlin slams with only a big girl, poor buggers towed monster baits for 5 days straight and only saw one fish but they did collect bait for 2hr each morning pulling divers having non stop double hookups on macs, kootas, jobbies and GT's. The rest of us just wanted to cast all day at GT's Over the last 3 months I have been out the back throwing a 150gm popper into the river for an hour a day to get ready for the trip. My previous trip I didn't and truly suffered. This time only first day I creamed up the burning shoulders but the rest of the trip nothing. With a little effort and better technique it was pretty easy to cast 400 times a day and pop it back! There was even a female angler on board, she shocked us all by popping all day every day and put most of the older guys to shame! I think her best was 14Gt's to 34kg in one day Hmmm now back to Sydney with zero motivation to go fishing, took 3 months last time to wet a line, wonder how long this time??? King's on the surface yet? Greg My Nirvana 14kg's of drag, them rods are incredible! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fryboy Posted October 28, 2010 Share Posted October 28, 2010 Fantastic report! Hope to get to Queensland to do some fishing this summer myself! Fryboy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sadamson Posted October 28, 2010 Share Posted October 28, 2010 Wonderfull report Greg.and a whale shark to top it off,thats great.Cheers stephen (Reggie the Rabbit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mako1 Posted October 28, 2010 Share Posted October 28, 2010 Awesome report Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gambler Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 Wicked report Greg, awesome photos and cracking fish! Mind sharing what Ripple Fisher rods you were using? The rod actions look great and I am very interested in adding one to the collection! Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizard Boy Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 Those GT's are some of the biggest GT's I've seen in my life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregL Posted October 30, 2010 Author Share Posted October 30, 2010 Wicked report Greg, awesome photos and cracking fish! Mind sharing what Ripple Fisher rods you were using? The rod actions look great and I am very interested in adding one to the collection! Cheers. G'day The rod is a Ripple Fisher GT79 Reversal and fished it all week. I'm only 68kgs so anything heavier is just a waste I feel. Brand new Stella 18000 has to go in for service though, can hear and feel the gears under load already Back to Saltigas when the new ones hit the country! Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray R Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 mate what an AMAZING trip, top story and pics, just looked at them again, what a top spot... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slinkymalinky Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 What a totally amazing report I'm not quite sure whether to be jealous or grateful that I wasn't fishing there... those GTs look like a whole lot of paaaaaaiiin Amazing pics, amazing vid and amazing fishing. Brilliant! Cheers, Slinky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a5corray Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 Cracker Pics!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACIMA Posted November 1, 2010 Share Posted November 1, 2010 That's an Awesome report Greg. The read, The Pics and the Videos are all 1st class. Can't wait till I get my chance to get into some GT action Brad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
italian stallion Posted November 2, 2010 Share Posted November 2, 2010 awesome trip Cheers Marco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle ray Posted November 7, 2010 Share Posted November 7, 2010 Ever seen them underwater doco’s with huge schools of Giant Trevally milling around the reef edges? Ever thought what it would be like to cast a lure into it and see what happens? During October, along the deep edges of the Barrier Reef there’s something big going on, breeding or just feeding, who knows but hell there’s a stack of GT’s schooling together. The guides called them “Moving Bombies”. From the top of the water in the deep purple coloured water you could see light green patches usually indicating a shallow rock but these so called rocks moved! Hundreds and hundreds of GT’s balled up moving their way south along the reef edges. I dived the ribbons during late september 2001 and winessed this. GT would be from about 3 meters off the bottom to 2 meters from the surface. They were out a bit wider and were like a wall. hundereds of them and all big . There were also big snapper looking things mixed in with them but i could never get close enough to them with out spooking them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IVZ350 Posted November 8, 2010 Share Posted November 8, 2010 crazy trip guys im hanging to get up north again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmak Posted November 10, 2010 Share Posted November 10, 2010 Just re-read the report Greg - that must be amazing out of this world fishing that really tests the best of your equipment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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