A bit slow in getting this New Cal trip report posted.....life gets hectic!
In April 2009, I arranged a GT expedition to New Cal with LPB to enable 4 GT novices to have a serious crack at GT fishing. The adventure was on in earnest a couple of days before flying out when we received the news that going with LPB may not be an option........some excellent advice from Brandon (thankyou
) and a 1.5 days of phone calls and negotiations resulted in the expedition being confirmed........I was exhausted before even boarding the plane!
.
We had a fantastic trip with LPB despite the low numbers of GTs overall. The weather was calm, too calm and that basically made the fish 'very inactive' according to Rudy. Between the four of us we managed 16 GTs in 6 days - with 5 of those days being dedicated fully to popping - Rudy acknowledge we worked very hard for our fish - but the fish didn't come to play. In fact we didn't have that many GTs following our lures, we caught a fair percentage of what hit our poppers.
The bonus with popper fishing is its a lucky dip. We caught plenty of non-target species to keep are lines tight in between the GTs, including sharks, green job fish, trout, bass, cod, sweetlips, mackerel, and other trevallies. We dabbled in some jigging and trolling for very little - small doggies, sharks, trout, cod and a rainbow runner on the troll. Fishing off the back of the boat at night was fun. We got busted off more times than popping for GTs. Plenty of Spangled Emperor and the razor gang keep us busy.
We fished the western reef edge (outside) for 1.5 days for no GTs - 2 follows that's all - the sea was dead calm, almost oily - we landed a handful of quality trout and red bass but that's it.
We fished as far south as the Isle of Pines. I reckon the fish gods were smiling on me (maybe they were showing some sympathy for all the b@llsh#t we went through to actually go on LPBs Antares?). The first GT of the trip and incidentally my first GT, was the biggest of the trip nudging 40kg and caught using a Full Scale 180 Kong with a Saltiga SG GT 86 rod, a GT6000Z reel and 80lb braid. This was my first popper caught GT and to say I was stoked was an understatement
- gee they fight hard, this particular fish just wouldn't come up from below. Most of the fish landed were in the 10 kg - 30 kg range with a few fish reaching 25 kgs and 30 kgs.
Other trip highlights included Nick's 20kg + GT on a Saltiga Game 68-3 rod, Hyper Certate 4000 reel and 30 lb braid using a Yo zouri magnum deep diving lure during a lagoon casting session
.
Most successful lures were Full Scale Kongs in both sizes (thanks Chris), Craftbait GT2s, Fishermen Long Pen 100, HH G-Cup and Jai Fish Head 130. In fact one of the guys on the trip used only a Jai Fish Head 130 for the entire trip and landed 4 GTs - that popper is totally wrecked now. We tried a number of different stickbaits for no hook ups, in fact no decent strikes at all
Overall a magic trip - for first time GT poppers we all achieved our goals of catching GTs and learnt a hell of a lot from Rudy.
A couple of us have certainly got the GT bug..........can't wait for the next opportunity to chuck some poppers and stickbaits around and build on our experiences from the LBP trip. Thanks to Nick, Rod and Matt for being part of an awesome trip and of course Rudy and No-no the deckie for their patience, humor and willingness to impart their knowledge.
Cheers
Craig
