Topwater Caranx Ignobilis: Giant Trevally (GT) > Tackle & Techniques

What's your favourite popping style for big GTs?

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Luke Wyrsta:
What's your favourite popping style for big GTs?

I am often asked what is the best popping style/action for a particular species or area. I think it would be useful if we had discussion about this topic and perhaps came to some conclusions on what works and what doesn't.

We all know that there are many techniques to target GTs of different size, in different areas and with different type surface lures...please share some of your thoughts. This could be used for some kind of fact file or information page on the main GTPopping.com website.

Cheers,
Luke

Jon Li:
Hi Luke ,

Upon arriving in an area ;

If it's deep water around the rocks then my choise of lures would be chugger and stickbait , however if the sea is somewhat choppy then chugger is out and stickbait is my main choice . If it's shallow reef / sand banks then my choise would be pencil popper and chugger , again when there is chop then pencil popper will be my choise and may even try stickbait . Colour of lures is not important but flashes in stickbait is of the utmost important so pelagic fish can see it from a distance away . Less than clear water warrant noisy lures and the bigger size may work better than the smaller one .

For these I have a specific rod for each task , for chugger I use short rod with stiff tip , for pencil popper I use long rod with stiff tip and for stickbait I use rod with sensitive tip . I prefer as light a reel as possible with retrieve speed of minimum 1m per turn of handle filled with 200 m of 80 lbs ~ 100 lbs braided line for GT fishing and 300m of 60 lbs ~ 80 lbs braided line for YFT .

I hardly use lures heavier than 125 gr. , my main concerns are reaching the target as accurately as possible each time I cast and the longer distance I can cast but still accurately the better it is . I prefer to have a strike for every cast but that is not possible so , yes as few cast and as many strike as possible !

I like to use thin main leader + 15 cm of thick " bite " leader , my GT leader would be 120 mono leader and my YFT leader would be 100 lbs mono leader , these will be connected to 180 lbs fluorocarbon leader . The length of my leader is double the distance from spool to rod tip , this is necessary because I cast from the bow of the boat which can be as high as 2 m above the water level .

For chugger I use sideway stroke n retrieve from the moment the lure hit the water till the end of the retrieve , with pencil popper I hold the tip of the rod high and stroke it while retrieving continuously , with stickbait I twitch and retrive with rod tip pointed somewhat lower than sideway stroking .

The best way to learn GT fishing is to fish along a more accomplished anglers , if a picture worth a thousand words then a movie worth a million words and meanwhile fishing in the real world with  accomplished anglers must be worth a zillion words .

Jon .

Brandon Khoo:
John summed it up really well. There is no better way to learn than to fish alongside an accomplished angler. You learn more in one short session than all the reading you can do.

I am finding that I am reaching more and more for the stickbait as my first choice now. Once you get the technique right, it is a far more forgiving lure on your body to fish with than poppers. Chuggers, especially the big chuggers like the big hammerheads will wear you out in relatively short time. Pencil poppers which tend to be my second choice are great as they are easy to work but you still need to wind pretty fast and if you have a 20000 Stella instead of a 10000 or a Dogfight, you'll get pretty tired!

I carry stickbaits for all conditions now (John - your Herus are a great all round stickbait for all conditions).

Andrew Poulos:
Has anyone seen the dvd by carpenter...hope its good as i just ordered it. I haven't used my stickbaits that much yet, but mainly the cup faced variety. I stab the rod tip down or work it sideways to get the spray and blooping going. I haven't been too impressed with the pencil poppers I have so far and am trying to work out the best conditions for them. I have only used them in rough seas and they were all over the place.

Brandon Khoo:

--- Quote from: squidgie on March 12, 2007, 09:43:12 PM ---Has anyone seen the dvd by carpenter...hope its good as i just ordered it. I haven't used my stickbaits that much yet, but mainly the cup faced variety. I stab the rod tip down or work it sideways to get the spray and blooping going. I haven't been too impressed with the pencil poppers I have so far and am trying to work out the best conditions for them. I have only used them in rough seas and they were all over the place.

--- End quote ---


 ;D  sorry Andrew. i don't mean to be laughing but your post above was just really funny. You haven't been impressed with the pencil poppers because they are all over the place in rough seas.

Well, you don't really use pencil poppers in conditions like that! They're not designed for it. Pencil poppers work best in relatively calm conditions when they are highly visible skipping along the surface. In rough conditions, it is very hard to get tha skipping motion and also, there will be too much chop and white water for them to be visible.

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