Thursday, March 5, 2009

Pulau Jarak 2009 - Part 4: "GT day!"

We left the waters of Jarak to some nearby drop-offs for some jigging action. Wind conditions were starting to pick up with NW winds picking up throughout the day. 

First drift over the drop-off and FG was into business. Offblow PE1.5-3 bent nicely over with an unmistakable GT run on the other end. Check out the pic! Any jigger would love to be in his shoes at that time.


Mahadzir worked hard too. He had two missed strikes earlier but kept his cool. On the subsequent hookup, there was no mistake about it - double and triple hooksets to drive the hook points home resulted in a sure keeper. It was a GT alright.

Another double hookup of GT twins on jig

FG's GT caught on Williamson Abyss 200g (lumo)

Sifu (Teacher) Darren then showed us how to really put the stick to the test. He was using a Golden Mean Sabel Dance PE1 rod and jigging with an IMA jig, also a deadly jig which GTs were suckers for. Check out the bend on that rod! I thought it was almost going to snap but it sure goes to show the difference between a good rod and a cheap jigstick when you pay that little more for the quality. The Golden Mean Sabel Dance rods are definitely value for money, no nonsense! Oh, and did I mention they were super light? 

This is how its done. Darren with a nice specimen on PE1!

The capture of this GT as spelled by the words I.M.A.

One of the few GTs landed by Damien L

The Chrome Williamson Abyss proved to be an effective GT jig. Fast sinking with little resistance in the water when jigged vertically makes it easy to control

It was as if we had chanced upon a drop-off with hungry GTs waiting below to whack any jig that was dropped to the bottom. Ah Ho had advised that fishing the vast expense of reefs and drop-offs were challenging as it was not always that one could locate the GTs. This time we struck gold. Each drift would see most of us getting strikes, hookups - some landed and some lost (like mine!). Soon enough, the current became too unbearable and the wind picked up velocity which made drifting very difficult. So we left the hungry GT pack alone to return to Jarak to shelter from the wind.

Edi's triumphant capture

Evening came and Darren was at the front of the boat popping various poppers of different models and makes. He did pretty well, producing several nice GTs even though the fishing was tough amidst the winds. He was diligently casting away and disciplined and patient enough to keep casting away until the trebles latched on to something. Mighty impressive effort I must say - for he stood there and cast all through the evening.

Feeling inspired by him, I also went up to the bow and joined him - with Majorcraft Offblow/Twinpwer 5000PG and X-Walk combo in hand. Finally after seemed like an eternity of casting, a humble GT decided to check out the weird zig-zag thingy on the surface but changed its mind to eat it and did a U-turn after realising it might not exactly be tasty. Accidentally by a fluke, the treble latched onto the GT's tail and off it went like a bullet! It was good fun.  


Damien: "I'm training my abs. HEARGH!!"

Some pre-dinner fellowship after a long hard day's work

A beautiful sunset to end the day

To be continued....

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