Small Landbased GT

James Clain · October 12, 2020

After my great session with @dirvin21 A landbased GT was now the target. I fished for a few days at Brunswick heads for only one flathead. On the last night at Brunswick Marina there were trevs bustin up hard. Unfortunately out in the middle and out of reach of most casts. A 3 inch popper got hit hard once when a bust-up erupted around it. Although there were no Gt caught that night however I did get to experience a beautiful GT topwater take out in the middle, a massive head wake and insane acceleration followed by a huge explosion. I estimate this fish was in the 70 to 80cm range.

The quest for my first landbased GT was still on. I thought it was all over as we were driving back from Mullumbimby to Sydney in one day but a near halfway stop at Macksvillle on the Nambucca river for 30 minutes kept my hopes up. Upon arrival there was considerable amounts of bait holding on the rock wall (butterbream, australian herring, big-eye trevally, whitebait and some larger silver fish which I assume to be small tailor or GT) I had my hopes up for a jack but the target was to get a landbased GT. After approximately 10 minutes of fishing and a short conversation with the passing @dirvin21 on his boat i managed a nice skip cast underneath the old highway bridge and got hammered as soon as the atomic hards 70mm diving lure got below a large bait ball of bigeye Trevally and herring.

A 30 cm

A GT. The fast and powerful take was unmistakable, followed by a long strip of drag peeled of the reel could only mean one thing! Not a large one like the great fish caught on the earlier trip but still amazing how it pulled at least 3 - 4 metres of locked 'jack drag' Am I right in saying the warmer water produces a better fight from a fish as this one was caught in strong sunlight alongside a rock bar and bridge pylon? - Photo below is the good one caught earlier in the week with dirvin. Next target - Sydney GT and a NSW Mangrove Jack!!!!