In a follow up to my last GT post, I’ll give you all a little bit of visual representation of what fighting one of these special fish is like.

The first two casts were too far in front of the fish, that cast where the line tangled around the butt of my spare rod almost ended my life. My palms were sweaty and I honestly thought the fish would hear my heart smashing against my rib cage!

I absolutely love the fish’s acceleration and the amount water he displaces as he takes off after my fly. The take is clear – I love the way he changes direction after getting hooked and at first blindly charges away and pretty much takes me for a walk. You can see how I have to almost run after him because of how tight my drag is set. Watch how quickly the line is cleared off the water.

He very soon establishes where the deep blue water is and doggedly fights his way towards it. I have my hands full trying to turn him before he gets over the edge and do so only with a meter to spare. I have to pull him so hard that he literally cartwheels as I turn him. He then still makes a final last ditch effort to reach the blue.

The fight is relatively short but at the end both myself and the fish are stuffed. But a short fight like this does mean that the recovers very quickly and swims away strong and putting the brakes on keeps him out of the bricks. The worst thing is to lose a fish by being cut off on the coral and to know that its wearing a good chunk of leader or even fly line!

Enjoy.