Quote from: Chris on April 28, 2016, 12:28:14 AM
Pretty cool! GT are a lot of fun! I'm surprised you guys kept them. One of he few places that still does besides Hawaii.

It was a tournament so we had to turn in our catch for the weigh-in. I really didn't care for the tournament I just wanted to feel the burn.  But since I had a boatmate and it's a team effort I had no choice. One of the biggest GT caught was cooked by the chef and was served for dinner. It was amazingly delicious!  First time I tasted GT

I've moved back to the Philippines since Dec 2015.  Needed to feel the burn again and drag screaming run, so I joined a local fishing club.  I joined the Philippine Game Fishing Foundation (PGFF) fishing club and off I went with my friends
to Santa Ana Cagayan for a PGFF sponsored fishing tournament.  It was a 14 hour road trip to the northern most tip of Luzon island.  A place renowned for Blue and Black marlins, sailfish, hoos, and GTs.  My no.1 goal was to hookup a GT. It's been many years since I felt the drag screaming run of a GT when I was stationed in Guam.  The club has a very nice compound complete with airconditioned rooms with hot showers, a pool, full blown kitchen, launch ramp, and its own beach. The club also owned a couple of 23' pangas you can rent for about $100 per day + gas. There are also local banca outriggers you can hire if you choose to do so.
Truly an awesome place for anglers. As per my friends, jigging for GTs was a sure way to catch one. The 1st day was a light tackle competition limited to PE2 (20lb) main line. I was ill prepared, as most of my reels were loaded with 40lb and 80lb spectra.  The only reel I had loaded with PE2 line was my small Van Staal VM150
reel which I used for surffishing in OC. I didn't have any spare spool of PE2 lines either.  So the VM150 will have to do. The only problem was, by the time my jig reached the bottom and coupled with the drift of the boat and the currrent, I was only left with a few yards of spectra on the VM150. Hopefully you won't get bit
till the jig was halfway up and have more line to spare on the spool for the initial runs of the GT. So I briefed the boat captain to be fast and be on the ready to move if I got bit to offset the run of the GT,  The panga we rented had a fish finder, a must if you're jigging.  Unfortunately it wasn't working right.  So we were jigging blind. It's been quite some time since I did the vertical jigging.  It's quite exhausting.  Coupled with the tropical heat, it will dehydrate you fast. I was drinking gatorade like crazy. I did every jigging stroke known to jigging fanatics, (long stroke, short stroke, high pitch, low pitch) to include the Cali yoyo. It was a muscle numbing exercise. It was drift, drop, jig, reset, drift, drop, jig...over and over again till you got hit. I was dropping the 100gm gold colored Charkbait CB Wedge jig that my wifey picked while I was prepping and packing for the trip.  After so many drifts and drops, I was getting frustrated. Still, You gotta jig on.
Finally, on one of the drifts, I got hit hard! I looked at my spool, and I estimate I only had about 15 to 20 yards of line left.  I was screaming at the captain to start the engine as the GT started pulling line fast. Fortunately, the captain was on the ball, and the boat was moving in reverse, and I started recovering line.  I got my first GT on the boat in no time.  Between me and my boat buddy, we landed a total of 7 nice GTs, and some groupers at the end of the day to win the light tackle competition.

Link to the video of one of my GT hookups.

https://youtu.be/VGG3jQohXhI 

Beat up jig after GT hookups!



Light tackle tourney pic.

This was last Saturday's session.  After getting no bites at the beach, I joined my fishing buddy at the small pier.  He was fishing chovies, while I was casting small jigs catching macks for bait.  He got a massive hit, and I could tell it was a nice one.  Turned out to be a whopper halibut.  Damn that butt was huge, the video doesn't do justice.  I went down the ledge and he handed me his net. Well that net was a bit too small for the size of the halibut he had on the other end of his line.  I was afraid the butt will just go ape sh!t and either pop the hook or bust his line.  I didn't know what size of leader he was using. So I decided to just try and lip the butt with my pliers.  My pliers was about 4 inches from the butt's mouth while holding on to his leader trying to keep the butt from going under the pier and rub his line against the sharp edges of the pier when his line parted!  Aaarrggg!  What a heart break!!!  I decided to dropper loop a live mack I caught, hoping there are more monster butt in the area.  After about an hour of soaking, I got a massive hit.  By the time I got to my rod, the line went slack.  I kept watch on the rod hoping for whatever bit it would come back.  Nada!  Reeled in my line to check the bait, and found out all what's left of the fat mack was the head.  That's all she wrote.

Video of the heart break!
https://youtu.be/8JW23GWhK3g

Woke up around 4:30 AM today, thought I'd go and start soaking before sunrise.  Made me a cup of coffee and went out to have a smoke.  Damn it was cold!  Decided to wait a bit longer and hit the surf at sunrise.  Got to the beach around 7AM and brought one long rod for soaking and a light setup for casting jigs.  Was hoping that the big critters are back.  It has been many weeks now with no bats or leos.  I got some nice hits on the long rod on a long soak, but I knew they were not the right kind.  Decided to start throwing jigs to reduce the boredom.  Slow bouncing the jig, I got hit by a sand bass.  The water was very clear, and I saw some small butts following my jig as it nears the beach.  It gave me hope that maybe there are bigger models around.  Nada.  Decided to pack it up, and go move to the rocks for more  bass.  Hooked and released some more bass and macks.  Then on one of my casts, I hooked a fighter.  Thought at first it might be a nice hali.  It turned out to be a nice bone.  Surprised they're still around.  Decided to keep it and use it as bait for my next sesh.  Decided to call it quits and headed home.  Turned out to be a nice session!  I think my GoPro finally said no mas.  Not sure if it's the camera itself or the battery that finally kicked the bucket.  Some pics I took using my cell phone.

Quote from: vdisney on October 29, 2015, 02:47:21 PM
Very cool indeed................

X2

Well the weather's getting cooler.  They're bound to show up sooner than later.  This time last year the hookup was awesome.  Gotta keep soakin'.

Awesome report!  Thanks for sharing.

Well, the big ones are still a no show.  Started soaking mack at around 5PM.  Got a hookup, turned out to be a 18" Sand Bass.  Unhooked and released it.  Hey at least I'm not going to to go home wearing a stripe on my back.    Threw another mack...long soak..not even a sound on the dinner bell. I noticed my rod tip would slowly and slightly bend and then straighten out again. Hmmm..must be my line is snagged by some eel grass.  Started reeling in my line to reset, and it felt like I'm snag to some debris.  Kept reeling it in, and I thought at first it was a jumble of kelp, and then this good sized octopus is what greeted me. Wow!  That's a first!  Unhooked and released it.



As always, nothing beats the view of a setting sun.

Soaked some macks last Saturday morning till about noon time.  At around 11 AM at incoming tide finally my mack head got picked up by something with shoulders.  Let it take more line than usual before setting the hook.  I thought I had this one cold.  But then it got off.  Checked the bait, and the head was flattened, somehow the hook didn't stick. Definitely a bat. 

Also uber slow at my honey hole.  Two weekends in a row now.  What's weird is I kept losing bait and didn't even trigger the bell.  Just gotta keep trying.  My wife told me Bolsa Chica, Sunset, and Seal Beaches were closed today because of the presence of GWS.

Nice one! 

Quote from: xjchad on September 23, 2015, 04:05:31 PM
Just looking for any and all ideas.
I currently use a piece of PVC with a 45* cut on the end.  It works ok, but it's kind of a pain getting the rod in and out since the butt end is so long.  Just wondering what everyone else uses and looking for any ideas before I start making some new ones.  I'm thinking of using some aluminum angle and making my own.

Measure how much length of the butt of your rod you want in the PVC pipe. Drill a hole through the PVC pipe,  Insert a bolt through the holes and secure it with a nut.  This way the butt of your rod will not go all the way in the PVC pipe.

Happened to me too last Saturday.  Many times I didn't see any hits nor even rung the bell, when I check the bait it's gone. Stealth mode,

WTG!  Nice leo.  Glad to see somebody hooked up. Got another stripe yesterday.

Didn't get a chance to go during the weekday, got stuck at work.  But tomorrow we have big tide swings,  4.6 feet in the morning at around past 9:30 AM and the next at 5 feet at 9:43 PM at my AO.  Gotta give it a shot early in the morning.  In San Diego it's even bigger.  High tide of 6 feet at 8:49 AM and almost 7 feet at 8:49 PM.  Bring out your long rods, and casting rods fellas, you'll never know!