It has been a while since our last visit to the motebello islands so with the long weekend upon us, Tim and i were on our way. Unlucky for us we only had two days this time but who is complaining. We set off late friday night with the weather gods smiling upon us. A 4 1/2 drive down to fortescue river followed by an absolutly sensational night transit accross the dark ocean guided by the gas pods on route to the montebello islands. We set the anchor at around 0130 to grab a couple of hours sleep before the morning popping session. We awoke to a beautiful bright red sky and fair seas, we rigged up, topped up the fuel and set off to the popping grounds.


Red in the morning


Words can not describe



Well after a late night and a gentlemans start to the day we were where the GT's liked to hang out. I asked Tim if he would like the first cast, as soon as he said no i didnt give him half a chance to change his mind. I bombed a cast toward the said bommy and on the 4th bloop on the first cast of the trip an explosion of water errupted behind my popper and I was on. Surprisingly what followed was a pretty easy fight, before too long i was surprised to see a nice GT of around 30kg's surface. Not a bad start to the trip.


hooked up on the first cast of the trip


Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeteeeeeeeeeeeeeee



Right, Tim's turn. Last time he visited me he caught a number of GT's but notthing over 20kg's. He got bricked more times than a labourer and the start of this trip was to be nothing different. His first cast resulted in another hook up and yet another lost lure. This happened again soon after. I was getting frustrated with the situation, i really wanted him to land a decent fish. We moved spots after about 5 strikes and 2 lost lures for instant success. This time tim stayed connected and managed to subdue a his first pilbara beast, 25kg's of Pilbara GT finally made it to his arms


hooked up


A very happy GT camper



Righto we then settled in to a pretty good sesion landing another three fish taking us to 5 for the morning session with as many if not more dropped in the couple of hours. the fish we caught were 30kg's, 2 specimens at 25kg's 20kg's and a petite 15kg's. Not a bad morning.





Another cracker from Tim



Well we decided to go for a quick jig in the arvo. I had not ever been out wide of the montes so much of the time we spent looking for any sort of structure in the 40 meter zone. WE found a lump approx 10 miles from where we were and opted for some pe5 fun. We found a ledge that dropped from about 25m to 40m. As usual in the pilbara the bl..dy thing was teeming with spanyds resulting in quite a few lost jigs. We did manage a ffew nice trout and so did the sharks that were obviouly lurking bellow.






yummo!

Anyway before the afternoon disapeared completely Tim and i went for a bit of a recon in amongst the islands around an area we had not been to before. We were looking for some of those monster jacks the montes are renound for and the only real species to evade us in the last two trips. WE did find some ground and it was covered in good size bar cheek trout over 70cm. I found one ledge while diving that had a 30 plus kg GT on it as well as a 90 odd cm trout and a few of those huge jacks we were looking for. I went back to the boat to get my spear gun but by the time i rreturned the bigger jacks were gone, I settled for a couple over 50cm and a couple of trout. Not a bad way to round out the afternoon.


by the way we named the spot undies, for an undisclosed reason



Well that night keeping with the montes tradition Tim and I share we feasted on coral trout Sashimi. bl..dy beautiful! After a good nights sleep in the swags on the beach we woke to yet another beautiful day. Tim sugested we have another pop first thing followed by some plastics in amongst the islands and lure casting on the flats. We made our way out to the popping ground this time it was tim up first. It didnt dissapoint with another first cast hook up. We took turns popping that morning, apolagise for the lack of photos we decided to film instead. We landed 4 fish in ten casts ranging from 15 to 25 ish Kg's we litoraly left them biting, not a bad start to the moring.


Preparing the feast


Yummo, we ended up eating this for diner both nights


trying to get some sleep


Tim pondering the day ahead


Only photo we took on the second moring

Well after another successfull GT session we headed in for ome breaky. After that we headed in a different direction looking for some structure to throw some placky's around. We had reasonable succes in our last trip in one spot so we decided it was time for a revisit. First casts from both tim and i resulted in a double hook up. Tim was burned pretty hard on the pe2 gear resulting in a bust off. I on the other hand landed a nice little trout. We threw plastics and hard bodies around here for an hour or so with some prett good success, we landed a few nice trout and spangos, we also got bricked about 5 or 6 times by some onstopable jacks. I know they were jacks because i jumped in with the mask and snorkle to inspect, i saw jacks to an estimated 8kg's lurking in on the drop off, no wonder we didnt stand a chance on the light stuff, ahh well next time!


trout on an SP


Spango on a stickbait


Trout on a trembler

Well after that we went for a bit of a flats fish to round out the day. Tim had a bit of a cracker session on the pe 3 landing both a chinaman on a sticky bait and an estimated 15kg GT on a red snapback. It was pretty entertaining, i jumped in with the water camera for a few shots of the chinaminza, the water was a bit green but some turned out ok i guess. I speared one last fish to bring home, a nice bluebone.


Tim hooked up on the chinaman, pe 3


almost there


About to net him


Walah!


GT time


Not bad on pe3 gear


one last fish for the esky

Well thats about it. Once again had a great trip, highlight for me is definatly the 30kg GT on the first cast of the trip, tims well probably given the circumstances probably his first brute of a GT, it took him three trips and about 5 of my poppers to land it, hahha. We had glorious weather for the transit home, made a great end to the trip that bit better

Cheers

Brad

Awesome pics and monster GT's..how good is that place....

Once again top write up and photies one of those GT's would put me in traction I reccon

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Hi Brad,

Great report and fantastic photos!


I was wondering, these big GTs, are they good to eat?
I actually really enjoy eating the much smaller ones that I catch in Darwin, but I have never caught such a big one...
So, any good or not?

Or maybe you just did not try them because of all these coral trout that you got over there?


Have a good day,
Pecheur

That is out of control What a cracker of a trip ,and a deadly post n pics to match .Well done boys youv given me somthing to dream about

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awsome read, awsome pics....smiles from ear to ear. Mite be up that way for work mid year....looks the goods Brad.

Richie

Awesome pics and post

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Sensational trip and post mate well done!

What outfits are you using to popper those GT's?

AWESOME fish there Brad with some equally good photos!

although a bit green as you stated i still think the under water shot of the chinaman is pretty cool. they have great colors in many different forms as do the trout.

cant wait to read the next installment from the montes!

Yeah thanks guys

Gear for GT's

I use two rods

one is a PE10 Ripplefisher GT78PF and the other is a Ripplefisher GT78XH (pe12)

both are coupled to Stella 18000SW reels with Varivas GT Avani pe 10 (130lb) braid

Man....these are heavy investments....not to mention the poppers that you are using....

That is one hell of a trip, well done. I really enjoyed reading the report and seeing the picture's. Cheer's:applause: