After borrowing and watching the nomad DVD of brad, I was well inspired to get out after some GT’s. I knew Bruce has been wanting to get into it and it didn’t take much convincing to con him into a trip. We invited pickles and sold it to our other halves as a training session for the exy comp.

The day started out quite well. Huey was kind to as and we had a flat run all the way out. We hit up a spot, well known for producing large numbers of queenies, as a bit of a warm up. Within 15mins we had two large queenies in the boat. I believe these fish are under rated as they were pulling 12kg’s of drag without too much drama. This, however, was not the target species so we moved off to our next spot.

The day turned out to be very slow. We tried many spots and sent out hundreds of casts. We worked drop-offs, tide lines, bait schools and bombies and stood there scratching our heads thinking “I was sure there would be a fish there”. However around midday Bruce hooked up to a very solid fish, which lived up to the ‘G bus’ name. Unfortunately for Bruce it was ‘next stop, a big bombie’. Bruce’s first GT encounter and he got tanked, loosing his brand new $60 popper. We decided a drinks break was needed, and took a nice long troll to the next spot so we could down a couple of beers. Pickles managed another nice Queenie on the trawl which interrupted our drinking some what.

An hour or so later and things finally went Bruces way. He had a solid strike that resulted in a good GT. It fought above its weight class and gave Bruce some curry. He was stoked to see it come over the side. A great way to open his account and put some runs on the board.

Bruces first Popped GT

A monster pulled from the depths

We spent the rest of the day working every possible nook and cranny to not much reward. It was literally in the last hour of the day when the tide had seriously started pumping out. Bruce hooked a nice little Spaniard. While he was dealing with his fish I lobbed a cast out into the current and watched as my popper just got smashed. We kicked the boat into reverse and convinced the fish that it didn’t want to head to the rocks. He didn’t run that far but I could tell by the weight that he was a nice fish. At one point we sat there for a few seconds in a stale mate. He didn’t want to move and I couldn’t move him. As he came boat side I started hooting a swearing as I looked down at my new PB GT. It really is amazing how a good fish can make the back pain and sore shoulders associated with 8 hours of popping, just disappear.

Popped Mackie

Hooked up

BP GT (Last cast of the day)