MontesAugust 2012 Trip Report
Well, just back from what can only be described as heaven on earth.......the Monte Bello Islands.
Was invited by Baron (Troy) as part of his 40th birthday shindig, along with his bro (Kenny Gay), bro in law ('Cuda Jack), old man (Ken)and old man’s mate (Trev). What a cracking bunch of fellas!!!!!!!!!! We went with Chad Mills from Blue Lightning Charters, what a top young fella and excellent skipper.
Although all the boys are pretty well entrenched bait fishermen, they were al intrigued by jigging, so I bought all the boys a light jigging outfit for the trip and all the fellas including Ken Senior, at 65, gave both jigging and soft plastics a crack and all landed fish on artificials. Great stuff. But bait was their passion, and there was no doubt bait out fished jigs and softies on the trip, although there were little periods where artificials held their own.
Jigging is my passion, so apart from a 5 minute period of madness where I put bait on a soft plastics jighead at the insistence of Team B Captain 'Cuda Troy when we were a few fish behind Team A, I only fished plastics and jigs. On artificials I landed saddletail, Rankin, dolphinfish, coral trout, trevally, barracuda, Spanish mackerel, gold band jobfish, cobia........the list goes on. The only fish I could not hook despite 6 days of trying was a red emperor...........Friggin Troy the jammy prick got a red on jig after trying for only 5 minutes.........dead easy he reckoned!!!!
Many memorable moments, with the following highlights:
-Quietly revealing numerous sparkling Stella's to Trev as we first rigged up....Trev was talking up his Stella 18k at the airport to our silence, thinking he was the only one on the trip with a Stella..........priceless.
-spending 7 days with a bunch of cracking fellas.....never laughed so much.
-getting my first billie........cheers fellas for the opportunity. I fully get it now!
-Monties.......oh my GOD!
-having my first beer in 10 weeks after about 1 minute of stepping on the boat.......followed by about 50 more over the next week.........DETOX time.
-spending the first night drifting the high seas on a distant sea mount 45 km north of the Monties, taking 2 hr turns on watch all night....
-Chad, Leah and Kurt....perfect hosts.
-Curry mackerel courtesy of 'Cuda Jack..........5 stars.
- "Stealing" a cobia with my soft plastic casting right in front of Chad's.......only to have Chad repay the favour the next day on an awesome pennant trevelly as I reached for the softie setup.
-Red Emperor wings on the BBQ. YUM.
-Getting absolutely destroyed by a pack of large Spanish Macs on stickbait ......every hit resulting in airborne action for 30 minutes, depleting my stocks of Blackjacks.
- Getting bricked by a horse GT that was way better than me and my dodgy back......
- Having my FG knot break right on the middle of a solid GT fight, losing my favourite stickbait, after telling everyone how good the knot is......GT knots for the rest of the trip.......cheers Chaddy!
Many many more. Here are a few of my pics:
Boston Whaler 235 Conquest......getting the flogging it was built for.
Damien F
Posts: 3
Date Joined: 02/09/12
wicked catchs you got there,
wicked catchs you got there, love to catch just one of those fish you got there.
still young, still learning
John_M
Posts: 967
Date Joined: 17/01/10
Blue Lightning
Chad is a good operater and runs a good charter up there. Some nice fish!
spanishmackeral
Posts: 940
Date Joined: 05/01/11
Solid photos mate, what sort
Solid photos mate, what sort of trevally is that under the gt?
JohnF
Posts: 2838
Date Joined: 07/07/10
The Report
gg
Boston Whaler 235 Conquest......getting the flogging it was built for.
JohnF
Posts: 2838
Date Joined: 07/07/10
Pennant trevelly apparently.
Pennant trevelly apparently. Quite rare, sort of a mix between a GT and a queenie. Followed the boat and out stickbaits for 5 minutes before falling to a mcarthy soft plastic.
Boston Whaler 235 Conquest......getting the flogging it was built for.
crasny1
Posts: 7003
Date Joined: 16/10/08
Ah here we go
The eternal pennat fish and diamond trevally arguement. I thought Big diamond trevor.
Help needed from our Museum Guru!!!
Epic photos.
Neels
"I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact!!" _ Elon Musk
baron
Posts: 55
Date Joined: 28/07/12
Great report
Thanks John for a great trip report. Could not have done a better job, thankyou for also coming on the trip John we all had a ball.
milsey
Posts: 1462
Date Joined: 22/08/07
Epic, few very lucky fishos.
Epic, few very lucky fishos. very high on the to do list thats for sure.
cahal.dahm
Posts: 254
Date Joined: 19/09/11
great report john! very
great report john! very jealous
schecky
Posts: 1645
Date Joined: 25/08/08
Bastard...
Bastard...
slam
Posts: 168
Date Joined: 09/09/09
montes
What a mighty fine place the Montes are. Had a trip of a lifetime when i went up there a couple of yrs ago. Highly recommend it put on bucket lists if funds allow ( and the wife!!)
Great fish John. Sounds like you had a ball!
alfred
Posts: 3097
Date Joined: 12/01/07
Top report John, thanks for
Top report John, thanks for sharing!
funkbrother1
Posts: 17
Date Joined: 11/06/12
And the cost
Fleays Leisure and Tackle came out of it around 500 bucks lighter too. And who brings a pillow out for watch at 1.00 in the morning???
Uluabuster
Posts: 724
Date Joined: 12/12/10
What an awesome report.
What an awesome report. Cheers on you for sticking to artificials....I would do that.
Montes will definitely be on my list......
Thanks for sharing.
dkonig82
Posts: 2091
Date Joined: 06/07/10
Nice one, sounds like a great
Nice one, sounds like a great trip. Bugger you couldn't tempt a red on jig, never had any luck with them myself either.
Many GTs landed on the trip?
Dan
When asked by a non-fisherman 'how many fishing rods do you really need?' the correct answer is either:
n+1 (where n is the number of fishing rods you currently own); or
n-1 (where n is the number of fishing rods which would cause your significant other to dump you.
kane
Posts: 1752
Date Joined: 07/12/08
awesome mate!
more than a little jealous :-)
Gooooone Fishin!
grayzeee
Posts: 2283
Date Joined: 09/07/09
Sounds the goods John.Nice
Sounds the goods John.
Nice hol if you can swing it.
I've just switched to the fg from the gt knot after you championing it. Are you switching back now???
If I spent half as long fishing , as I do reading this bloody forum , I'd be twice the fisherman I am.
PattyT
Posts: 1025
Date Joined: 15/08/10
Sounds like a cracking trip
Sounds like a cracking trip mate, looks like Ill have to chuck the montes into the bucket list!
JohnF
Posts: 2838
Date Joined: 07/07/10
Dan, we Only popped for 2
Dan, we Only popped for 2 half days unfortunately, landed a few trout and around 6 GT'S, so not great, apparently the GT fishing gets better later in the season.
Hooked and Lost a lot more, including a few horses that i was not good enough to land. Only One red bass follow of the stckbait.
Grayzee, FG still much better for jigging, but I am almost swayed toward the GT knot for casting, as the braid can not get damaged through the guides which I think happened to my old FG. Not much in it, but you never want to loose a good fish.....need to keep the Bimini very short for the GT knot though.....
Boston Whaler 235 Conquest......getting the flogging it was built for.
jay_burgess
Posts: 4648
Date Joined: 18/08/05
Don't go backwards John! FG
Don't go backwards John! FG is a proven knot! You won't find many GT anglers using the GT knot.
GT fishing gets a lot better later in the season. When the water heats up they get a lot more active. That said, there's still a lot of good fish around in the cooler months.
JohnF
Posts: 2838
Date Joined: 07/07/10
Haha, cheers Jay. Yeah, I
Haha, cheers Jay. Yeah, I know the FG is better, but when your the only one on the boat who drops a GT due to terminal tackle failure and the others are using GT knots and taking the piss, it makes one question their own sexuality......haha!!
Boston Whaler 235 Conquest......getting the flogging it was built for.
KEN SNR
Posts: 1
Date Joined: 04/09/12
old man!!!
Great right up John, it was a pleasure to have you aboard. From all the members of team A