After the new year, we've been anxiously waiting for news of good weather from the east coast opening up for some light tackle action. Not only were we told that the season opened, there were rumours of some groups hitting the mother lode of landing over 30 diamond trevallies in a day, some say 40s too.
A few days later, we're by the river jetty gazing over boats bobbing about, eagerly awaiting our boatman's arrival. Tackles ablaze, with a few acknowledging nods with the boatman, we load the boat up and head straight out with hopes held quietly high.
An hour or so later, we were dropping jigs at our first spot and struck the mother lode.
A nice size diamond on Evergreen's Caprice Kid jig taken on the fluttering drop, took quite a bit of crank in before being confirmed a solid hook up.
Firm steady hook up around the kisser.
Within the first 2 hours, fish finder were marking schools under and around the boat with multiple hook ups. Feeding frenzy ensues with various sizes being hooked up.
Nice sized diamonds on a double hook up next to each other. Even if there were misses, dropping the jig in again immediately invited other takers!
Double trouble all thanks to IMA's notoriously effective Gunpeki!
Occasionally, the school disappears and prompted us to search about nearby as the boatman suggests that they seldom wander far. Sometimes we find them, but sometimes we find other gangsters of the seabed.
1 Gun 2 fish. Greedy groupers with mouths barely big enough for the jig!
Multiple hook ups all throughout when we hit the sweet spot!
The frenzied excitement stirred up quite a bit of itch out of the deckie and asked me to loan him my idling light tackle as well as some Gunpekies to try out. He was casting off lighter jigs away from where we were jigging covering more grounds and busting up diamonds after diamonds! The only consolation I get out of seeing a deckie setting lines on fire is the knowledge that some of my new Gunpekies will be properly christened!
A decent sized fish with a Gun on a medium light boat bass MojorCraft Skyroad rod!
Candy coloured Gunpekis were firing too!
Occasional slowdown prompted the trial of lumos. This one goes to a Shout!
Oddly, candy colour Gunpekies was out firing other colours!
Sweet toothed diamond trevallies? Never heard of em? This candy coloured Gunpeki will show you otherwise.
The intense action lasted only for the first half of the day racking up about 10 jewels while the tally adds up to around mid 20s by day's end as the deckie out fished all 5 others combined as we enviously looks on with absolute disbelief!
It was a fun day out all in all and we'll surely be back for some revenge. Here are some of the actions caught on video for the trip, enjoy!
Full catch report can be found here. Photo courtesy of TackleSource.
We've finally gotten the window of opportunity to head out to the east coast with our preferred boatman who was out of action for quite some time now. A cancelled trip one weekend prior to this was all the hope there was for a clear weather action before the monsoon closes in for good. An 11th hour confirmation late Friday raised much doubt about the weather being clear enough with various weather forecast sources (apps, websites etc.) indicates storm or showers over east coast. None of these forecasts mean much when a seasoned boatman says it's safe to go out and meet us at the Jetty in no more than 12 hours to go, we obey.
A sudden rush of panic and weekend activity plans starting to take shape due to dwindling hopes of a clear weather fishing hit me like a freight train. First, cancel weekend activity plans, have dinner, start packing and get an early night sleep as we'll start our journey 4am onwards to arrive at the Jetty just in time for a quick breakfast and preparation before loading our gear onto the boat.
With loaded gear and a boat full of hope and anticipation, we head out shortly after first light with heavy overcast skies. First stop was to try out some popping action around areas with current. Fruitless throughout the session after a comrade's initial line bust being reefed by something suspiciously big, possibly a GT. Boatman says, we'll come back some other time when the conditions are more 'suitable' for popping and we head off to pintail hunting waters.
Typically around these waters, long toms (todak) are everywhere and we usually let our preferred lure sink quite close to the bottom before cranking back fast in search of the 'great wall' hit & strike. Damn todaks are a menace as they destroy leaders and bust our lines taking our Jackson Pintails with them into the deep. Occasionally we safely land them with some damages done to our lines.
Double trouble with the notorious todaks on Jackson's Pintail Tune!
The Jackson Pintail Tune is the go to hunting lure here cranking them fast. Takes are usually quite explosive with the tengiris, barracudas and damn todaks but nothing can stop your fast cranks like you've just hit a solid great wall than a GT. That's when you do a double take if you may have cranked your reel backwards and realise it's fish on!
Sudden take while cranking fast with Majorcraft's Giant Killing casting rod felt like hitting a great wall! Fully pimped up Shimano Stradic 4000FJ takes on a runner.
The so called great wall of GT! Small but brutally fun on these medium weight gear.
Battle ready Jackson Pintail Tune.
An entire afternoon of casting registered no more than 10 strikes and the boatman decided it's time to try some light jigging instead. First jig drop, usually just to test waters, would be a light jigging outfit with jigs up to 50g tops. A couple of small hits was all we got as the gloomy weather sticks around longer.
Tiny grouper takes on a 50g Caprice Kid jig by Evergreen.
Another ambitious grouper takes on IMA's Ganpeki 40g special edition colour.
We then switch to our ultralight gear for some microjig fun and landed a variety of species as compared to the regular light jigging outfit and bigger jigs.
Various other fun captures using Xesta's 20g Nitro jig paired with the ultra fun Temujin 'Spider'.
Free piercing for this youngster using Jackson's Gallop 40g jig.
Even though the catch was disappointing, the variety of game proved to be sufficient to keep the outing fun and exciting with very little catch predictability.
Here's a short action video of our Pintail adventures and do subscribe to Tackle Source TV for upcoming awesome video releases. A full catch report can also be found here. Enjoy!
