GTs (the wolves of the flats)

[king2707]

Hey Larry

Saw your show on the Seychelles the other day where you went to St Frances (or was it St Francois?) on the Tam Tam. Great place and great show. I wanted to let you know that the Seychelles have a competitor on the GT front in Christmas Island. Christmas Island is known for it's bonefish but is apparently getting a bad rap these days for a lack of bonefish. I spent a week there last month and not only caught a ton of bonefish but saw over 100 GTs, hooked many that I had no chance to land, landed a dozen or more in the 25-45 lb class and one 'bus' of better then 70 lbs. What an awesome fish. It seems to me that the key to getting them on the flats on Christmas Island was to be there on the tail end of the high, spring tides when they were comfortable coming into the lagoon channels and flats. Then, an appropriately placed fly got their agressive nature to kick in. We hardly ever saw loners, always in pods of several fish. When I got my bus, it was the smallest of the group! - Cheers and keep up the good work.

Paul

[dahlberg]

hi k
thanks for the post! I agree, those GT's are the real bad boys!
best,
L

[king2707]

The age old question.

Hi Larry

One thing we did in X-mas Island hunting big GTs was to get in the back of the waves and cast hookless top water poppers back into the breaking waves and see if we couldn't entice the fish to come out so we could cast a fly to them. Really big fun, you've gotta try this. Anyway, we've decided that next time we go, we're taking our own gear (as we had fly fishing gear with us only). What we're doing is building 16 wt fly rods into a spinning/casting rod just for this application. The question is, casting reel vs spinning. As I understand it, casting reels cast farther but are harder to control (back spool) while spinning reels have a faster retrieve. For this application, speed is of essence but so is distance as we don't want to be too close to the breaking waves. Any suggestions on type and/or brand?

Thanks

PK

[dahlberg]

hi k

If you pick the right plugs to toss, 7 1/2-8' med heavy spin or baitcasters will work fine. Don't spend the $ and time on a fly blank conversion. If you've not had much experiene with baitcasters, I'd suggest spinning. You could go with 30-50 lb braid and a 5000 size shimano spinning reel reel.
IMO anything much larger gets clunky and uncomfortable for what you're doing.
Pick aerodynamic lures that weigh from 3/4 to about 2 oz. Check out the Tiralejo Surf rods with guides designed for braid on spinning reels.
have fun. Bring xtra line.
You can be sure I've played tease the cat with GT's. I've had 90 pounders eating hunks of fish out of my hands while wading! They are if anything, t teasable to say the least!
have fun
L