Dirty fighters at the best of time , top catch land based. Probably my all time favorite fish to target. Very jealous. 

Nice work mate that would of been alot of fun of the beach ,great looking fish 

 Bloody rippa

 Whoa! Very nice mate 

HOOLEY DOOLEY. that would have gone like a freight train! top effort.

Cracking blue there mate !
nice work .. what was it on

if ya don't mind me asking?
crab ??  

Magic Fish...Magic photo.

This needs a story ?

Back in the 70's, we tried time and again to stop them on beach gear with crabs for bait. Unstoppable is the only word that springs to mind. Mate tried 80lb line and a locked drag.....can still recall vividly his nose in the sand as it pulled him off his feet face down into the sand before screaming around a coral bommie to break the line like cotton. I hold you in total awe for managing to land one ..... 

That's a great fish mate,  land based makes it even more impressive 

Off the beach. Well done. As others have said, they pull like trains 

Well done a cracking fish right there

Top catch there has got to be a story to go with that catch, it is truly jaw dropping and a great photo.

 Awesome job mate, would of taking some stopping 

 Thanks for the kind comments.

And since a couple of you asked for the story, here it goes…

This was almost a non-occurrence, funny how your best fish sometimes come from the most unexpected circumstances.

We regularly head up north for our annual holiday, family love Exmouth for the mix of surfing, fishing and snorkeling and I managed to wrangle a spot at Lighthouse Caravan Park, that was a challenge in itself considering how the busy place is at the moment!

3 week trip, weather gods have been kind to us for most of the time, we’ve only had a couple of windy days and the fishing has been as good as land based can be up here, with plenty of big Spangled Emperor and the mix of usual Trevally species being the most prevalent.

I hadn’t managed a single Blue this trip and I had tried their favorites of crab, occy even soft plastics to no avail, none the less I was super satisfied with trip so far.

So let me set the scene...

Second last day, tides are nice big with the low late in the arvo, with my Catalina 5000 spooled with 100lb braid and rigged with a nice fresh occy tentacle for bait, I wade out across the reef flats for about 100 meters until I am about waist deep.

I am only expecting the usual Spangled and I am about 10 min into my first cast.

I start to get an inquiry, but not the normal instant hook up and buckle a larger emperor would give but more of a pickup drop, pickup drop type of bite, on the next one as the line goes taught I set the hook.

This thing goes absolutely nuts, splashing and almost jumping on the surface, now I run an almost locked drag this thing was peeling line and heading towards the horizon, I am calling shark and almost irritated because I would inevitably have to re rig after this.

So I give the drag another turn and put the herbs on it not caring whether I lost it or not, then things change, I start to feel tail kicks and it starts going deep and sideways, I realize its not a shark or an Emperor and at this stage change my call to big GT.

 My adrenaline is now in overdrive, I need to land this fish!

Then the worst possible feeling, I start to feel the bottom and the line goes solid… he has reefed me!!

But only for and instant, he’s out and coming straight at me at a rate of speed that has me struggling to keep tension on the line, he comes to the surface again and I see the dark blue/green color and it’s a now that I start really start shitting myself recognizing what I’ve hooked.

Fights not over though, he goes straight past me, pulls more line and I am now fighting him facing the shore in barely a meter of water!

I get things under control after a minute or so and I have him at my side, I have no gaff or net as I normally just get them get them under gills by hand and carry them back to shore.

I try to do the same with this guy, but he won’t open up and is slippery as hell and he is still going nuts, I’ve no way of grabbing him!

I am praying “don’t lose him now” and I can’t see how well he’s hooked, its somewhere deep in the gob and cant be sure it solid but I take the risk and start swimming him the 100 or so meters back to shore.

Halfway there the wind gets hold of my cap and it falls into the water I stupidly stop and think should I try and rescue it, common sense prevails and I let it go.

Finally get him in the confines of the rock pools and I think if he gets off now I will bloody well ditch the rod and dive on him if I must.

Not needed thankfully, 20 more meters and we are on the shore and its now I realize what a beast it is, turns out he was hooked pretty well but the 100lb leader was shredded to hell, I didn’t have scales but he went just shy of 700mm.

Luckily, a guy was collecting his snagged lures from the earlier high tide and he had watched the whole fight, his lovely wife took the photo for me.

Definitely one of my bucket list fish.

Solid fish mate and land based it dont get any better. Cracking write up too, when the stars align!

 You must be the envy of every fisherman on this site. Definitely one for the records. Great fishing. 

I bet your heart was going ten to the dozen when you realised what you had at the other end of the line. wading into waist deep water at exy, not for this little black duck with all the tax collectors that I keep reading about that are around those necks of the woods at the moment.
A truly great catch from the stones well done

 Best fish to catch and eat for mine and thats a ripper off the beach in Exxy knowing the ground you have to fight against.

 Dream bluey. Awesome capture

 Awesome catch mate! One for the ages!

Great fish mate, bloody monster!