gday guys,

I thought I would share a great session that we had about a month ago. We have been going to Monkey Mia for about 15 years now and we were up there in May-June this year. We had 2 boats there this year, and this is the story.

We had been fishing all day, been out to a spot about 30km away and we had a lousy day. It was flat calm, and for about 6 hours of fishing flat out all we had was a couple of Blacks and a Estuary Cod. We also dropped a heap of good fish right near the boat. To make things worse, my Father in Law and bro in Law in the other boat had cleaned up, pulling in Baldies, Blacks, Pink Snapper and an oversize Cod for a bit of fun. They pulled stumps about half an hour earlier than us and headed back in.

We decided to head back after little to show for a lot of effort. I decided to have one last crack before pulling the boat up. For those that know Monkey Mia would know of the pearl farm not far away. We pulled up about 50m from the nets and I grabbed my soft plastic combo. Its a Sol 3000 on a Lemax Slim Max rod, it already had a 5 inch Berkley Gulp Shad rigged. Now I had heard reports of Trevally hanging around the pearl farm but never caught one this far south.

What happened next was frantic. First cast, the lure had just hit the water when BANG I was on, on in a big way and loosing line fast. I am running 8 kg braid on the Sol and it was peeling off in a hurry. To make things worse the pearling nets were so close and the fish was heading that way.

I ending up basically locking up the spool with my hand and then slowly slowly making ground. After numerous huge runs, after moving the boat around to avoid the nets and about 30min later, it was netted!! I was so wrapped the way the Daiwa Sol handled things, I love that reel

Now some may say its only a Golden Trevally, which is true, but what a rush. It isn't the biggest Trev I've caught, or the best ever catch but a combination of things made it special. Light gear, nets all around, people in the boat who didn't believe in soft plastics and a days fishing that was pretty lousy but sudddenly was special.

After a few pictures I got her back in the water and swam her for a few minutes and off she went. I couldn't keep and eat a fish that had made me that happy.

So, after a few more casts we called it a night and went back to tell the story to the other crew. I was so stoked. Its funny how one fish that I didn't even keep can make over 6 hours of eventless fishing seen somehow worth while. We got stacks of fish over the 3 and a bit weeks we were there, but none quite as memorable.

thanks for listening

Jared