queensland Surface bonanza down Goldy - FIRST GH?!

[51MPL]

Hello everyone,

Been a while since I've had a chance to head out for a flick with all the flood cleaning everyday. Yesterday was my gfs birthday so up early for a drive down to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctury for a look around and watch the shows etc.. Crazy hot day and all I could think about was going for a swim :'(

Anyhoo went all around the park (pics to come as my stupid old PS CS3 doesn't open raw files grrrr).. Surprise party with her other friends coming from bris down to the coast and we checked into Jupiters. With dinner out of the way went to see the Genesis Magic show at the cas and am still undecided if It was good or not (getting angry yet cos I havent mentioned the fishing? :whistle: )

Anyway wayy to much to drink, wandering around and watching people play in the cas and im off to bed @ 3. Don't know how but i remembered to set my alarm for 5 and i actually woke up!

Hop in the car and im at the spot just pre-dawn... Get out of the spot and Im looking at these 2 spools of FC leader.. 4lb or 6lb, I think to myself fk it; with all this rain the water should be a bit dirtier so I can get away with 6lb - What a fateful decision.

Instantly the mozzies feast on my blood -( i hope you got drunk and fell into the water so a big blue lipper ate you!) but I persevere and after about 5mis start to get some hits. Oh btw I was armed with the trusty 38mm P21 DR Crackjack, a couple plastics and a R2S Walk the dog / Sammy imitation / whatever. Anyway I tie the R2S on 75mm or something from memory and am getting hit sometimes mid-walk.. Sometimes on the pause? A couple big ass smashes but no hookup so I keep mixing it up to try to crack the pattern.

I settle on a quickish retreieve with 1/2 pauses in the middle with this as the result:

A few more missed hits and the sun is starting to rise so I keep on keeping on and put a cast out a bit deeper than normal. I flick the bail arm over and start the rub your belly tap your head retrieve and on about the 5th left / right / left right the water EXPLODESSS and something flies out of the water..

My 4lb braid and 6lb leader combo is sent on a burning run through the guides and out to wherever this pissed off fish wants. All i could do is sit back and watch the show as it jumped out of the water a couple more times with my heart in my mouth everytime this baby got airborne.

After the initial run we start a tug-of-war match with the fish taking back line everytime I start to make some but after about 5 minutes I can feel it slowly coming closer. Adrenalin is pumping through my veins and I just know that whatever could go wrong WILL go wrong :sick:

I can see leader so I know its not too far away - mind you I still had no idea what fish it was at this stage, i thought it could be a tarpon or something? Anyway after a few more splashes around in the shallows i quickly beach the fish get a couple photos and send it on his/her merry way.

Now, can anyone confirm whether or not it's a giant herring? I'm probably going to cry if it isn't but the more I look at the photos I think it is? Sorry if it isn't guys..

Anyway I'm so happy at this stage I couldn't care less whether I caught another fish :cheer: The happy feeling wasn't going to last long because 3 casts later, bang buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz jump; i see a thick body mid-air then as it lands ping my leader snaps.

STUPID ME FORGOT TO CHECK THE LEADER?! ><"!>

About 10 seconds later the fish jumps up into the air again and i can hear the little balls inside the lure jiggle around as its in the air.. Sigh

I change to the 38mm Crackjack at this stage with nothing left in my surface arsenal - thanks floods! And spend the next 30mins without a touch. I was about to give-up but chose to hitup a dead end canal and first cast soon as it lands bang zzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Up comes this beautiful little blue lipper -

Thankyou for reading guys hope I didn't drabble on too much. And sorry for the crappy pics.. Didn't wanna risk dropping the other camera in the water haha =]

Cheers,

k.

[rosstralia46]

top work mate am i am pre sure thats a gh so dont hav to cry sounds great awesome work

[yellahunter]

definately Giant Herring mate,

great report and well done on getting him in,

a very hard fish to actually land, 95% of the time they manage to throw the hooks ive found,

Cheers,

Ben

[51MPL]

Thanks guys, phew haha!

[Angus]

Great fish on your lite gear mate!

Well done on the first Giant Herring from a jealous Angus

Angus

[Keen-as-fisho]

Good sesh mate :woohoo: on the GH

[dan25]

Great report mate, and top effort on the GH, awesome little session

[51MPL]

ta boys

[LIVE_2_FiSH]

awesome mate, did you get a ruler on it? or estimate? Not many people catch them on lures so you've done well there!

[eg_vtec]

awsome trip khoi and nice report

[Do$tylz]

very jealous there mate... good session. How was the water clarity down there

[zdream]

great report khoi - whens our next trip?

[wesfish]

that was a freaking awesome report mate!! great job on the first gh and a friggen nice one at that :woohoo: great pics!!!

[51MPL]

Thanks nhan, water was greeny brown Henry not so bad I guess.

Thanks Wes hopefully we can get out for a fish sometime

Pics came up good for phone I reckon

[Mack_attack]

Nice session khoi, well done on the quick release of the GH sometimes they can take a while to get right after a longish fight

[Perky]

Great report mate and that's a great GH i bet your still stoked.

[Eug]

good work on the GH and other fish despite the weather, heard they are pretty elusive!

cheers

eug

[Brian D]

cool report

[Surfingant]

Great report mate, well done on the GH sounds like a bit of fun.

[FishoDave]

great report mate

good to see some bream action

[Scope]

HAHAHA Top report their Khoi! Loving your work! That Giant Herring looks awesome! Can you estimate a size on it for us ??

[51MPL]

thanks jono.. umm its like 2 x size 10 thongs + a little extra? whatever that comes to..

actually easier if i bragmat the thong first haha, i'll get onto it 2moro =]

itwould have been so awsome to get a bragmat shot but i didnt wanna keep it any longer than needed. the fight it gave was just awsome..

[JamesMac]

Nice job khoi. good job with the bream good to know they are still around. Sorry to hear about your lure

[grant h]

nice Khoi nice.

[51MPL]

sall good James it was a cheapo anyway =]

Wow your alive Grant, your place all good from the floods etc? And you still out on the yak?

[ellicat]

Ripper report mate. Congrats on the fishing.

Were you at canal, river, or Broadwater ?

[51MPL]

broady canals mate..

hows the pup going? seems angry haha