A scheduled coral trout drift at "the islands" turned into one of the more memorable captures in Mick's Gone Fishing's recent uploads, after a 25-kilo giant trevally pinned a small red prawn jig and spun the boat in a full 360-degree pivot before the host could put hands on it.
The trip — pitched in the opening minutes as a low-stakes "strawberry picking" run for coral trout — used Mick's standard inshore reef set-up: a Saki Forge 30 to 50 lb rod, a 5000 Sultan reel, 50 lb braid, 60 lb leader and a small red prawn jig. He had warned viewers it had been "a long time since I had the boat out" and to expect a slower pace.
What he got instead was an immediate fight with something that wasn't supposed to be in the strike zone.
"Definitely got big throbbing head shakes," Mick said as the fish dragged out line. "Calm down, mate. Sultan sing. This is where you wish you had something a little bit heavier."
The initial run took roughly 100 metres of braid. By the time he had clawed half of it back, the boat itself had been dragged in a circle.
"At least I'm getting some line back. I should have counted how much line he had out because I reckon I've still got 100 metres of line out — that's the colour I finished on," he said. "This boat's just doing a donut."
"You've got us like anchored. I go under the boat. I wonder if I try and freeze-spool it and spin it around these outboards because I'm not going to get around otherwise. That's better. Better angle. Bit more power. You watch, she's coming back now."
When the fish came up colour he called the species and the size on the spot.
"It's bloody huge. Wow. A 25-kilo jet. Let's pull this dog in," Mick said. "He's coming in the back door. Actually, I'm going to need a hand here."
The GT — Mick's frank assessment was that it had "no business eating a little prawn bait" — went into the esky after a stretch of disbelief at the size of the fish on the gunwale.
The rest of the session moved at a more reasonable cadence. The first legal coral trout of the day measured 54 cm. Smaller trout followed across multiple drifts, alongside a tank-sized grassy sweetlip, a Spanish mackerel that smoked Mick's leader as soon as the stickbait hit the water, and a brawling cod that nearly took him into structure on the same edge.
For the Spanish, Mick laid out the routine he says works best for him on the same gear.
"Let it sink. Rip one. Rip one. Rip one. Rip one. Pause," he said. "There he is."
"Yeah, it's a shark. Sharks eating prawns. What's a shark doing eating a prawn?"
The slack tide and a flat-glass surface eventually shut the bite down. Mick's read on the day was that the current going slack with the wind glass-off was a one-two combination he'd seen before.
"Once the glass is out, the fish don't seem to want to play," he said. "We struggled to find some current, and when we finally did, we couldn't even feel the bottom."