Day 1: GT Popping after a 12 month break is always hard especially from a boat rocking in choppy seas but our 5 fishermen manage a very respectable 2 GTs and 1 King Mackrel on Popper from 12 bites. Gerard’s trip gets off to a good start with a powerful GT estimated at about 35kg (127cm/100cm) caught on a Halco Roosta Popper 195 with a homemade full pink colour.
Day 2: Rain, wind and discoloured water make for slow fishing with only 2 small GT’s from 7 bites
Day 3: It’s raining but there’s no wind and we manage to find spots with better water colour where the fish are active. 14 fish are caught from 28 bites on popper with some nice 20kg GT and a couple of Blue Trevally and Malabar Trevally.
Day 4: Our fishermen want to try some jigging but the fish don’t want to play. We finish the day popping and Lionel catches a nice 30kg GT with the pink coloured Gerard Roosta. It was the only fish of the day from 4 bites and had a remora on the side of her belly like the GT Gerard caught the first day…we’re seriously thinking that GT’s are pelagic.
Day 5: We return to the spots with good water colour and fish activity from day 3. It’s a good decision, there are plenty of fish about and plenty of action on board. Bait schools hovering on the reef and predators all around. 46 bites lead to 12 fish being brought on board. Most of them are GT’s between 10 & 15kg. José loses a really big one but catches a really nice Red Bass. Lionel get a very acrobatic bite from a King Mackrel close to the boat but it’s impossible to set the hook properly and the fish doesn’t make it on board. The lure of the day is a Carpenter Maguro Kattobi.
Day 6: Another full day of popping and the guys have some good action in deep water spots. They land 10 fish from 16 bites. GT’s averaging 10-15kg. Jean Marie misses a monster on the Homemade Pink Gerard Rooster Popper and another nice fish that smashes his Bertox sinking stick bait very close to the boat and is gone in a flash without a chance for a proper strike.
Strength, skill and endurance are all required in equal measure at our destinations in Sri Lanka. Every catch requires an effort directly proportional to the reward at the end of the line.
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