I just returned from a 3 day popping trip off Ningaloo Reef on Australia's West Coast. For those who don't know, Ningaloo Reef is situated roughly 1200km north of Perth and is Australia's largest fringing coral reef. We were spoiled with exceptional weather for the 3 days as well as ideal full moon tides.
Day 1-
On the first day I made my way down from Karratha roughly a 5 hour drive and arrived to light winds and beautiful sunny skies. We packed the boat and departed around lunch time. Shortly after we arrived at the first popping grounds. Fortunately there was a small swell so this made popping easy on the outer reef edge. It didn't take long for some action and Glenn had a feisty red bass boatside. Not long after I hooked another, a little bigger. We continued to pop the reef edge slowly making our way further north when Glenn hooked up again, this time a nice little GT. Glenn was next to hookup again this time another bass but it made it's way back to the reef in record time. Fortunately we managed to extract the abalone GT2 minus the bass. I hooked up this time and after a reasonable tussle turned out to be an average GT around 20kg. By this time the wind had picked up a little so we decided to make our way into the lagoon and find an anchorage before it got too dark.
Day 2-
We woke up early and continued popping along the same section of reef, it was difficult looking into the sun which meant we couldn't see the reef or any fish we raised. On about my 5th cast I hooked a small fish which I called for a mini GT but turned out to be a little Green Jobfish. We continued to pop for not much action so we headed wide to try some jigging. Found a nice lump that rose from 40m up to 20m. Sounder showed plenty of fish but surprisingly little interest besides a few Sweetlip Emperor. We decided to head back into the reef and continue popping. Within a few casts I had a Spaniard jump on, pesky little things at times. We came across a section of reef that was just loaded with bait, Glenn had a hookup and we called it for a small GT but turned out to be a beautiful Bluefin Trevally, one of the biggest I've seen. Shortly after I hooked a GT around the 20kg mark and got him to the boat rather green, as Glenn went to leader the fish he took off and pulled the hooks boatside. Soon after I hooked up again this time it was a much bigger fish, fortunately he didn't take off on a screaming run and I started to wonder if my initial estimate was wrong. We towed him to some deeper water, then he woke up and after a blistering run the line busted. Glenn hooked another bass after teasing it out from the shallower water and fortunately this one didn't have a chance to brick him. Glenn hooked up again and after a lovely fight we got a GT of about 25kg on board. We made the call to spend the afternoon steaming north to a new spot which took a couple of hours. When we arrived we spent the afternoon fishing the lagoon but it was reasonably quiet.
Day 3-
The next morning we began fishing the edge of an entirely different section of reef. The weather was sensational but the water was a lot dirtier than further south and we struggled to find some clean water. It turned out that it just wasn't to be our morning. I lost count of the number of missed hookups & pulled hooks but I don't think we landed a single fish along this section of reef. Glenn hooked yet another red bass although this time he didn't stop it getting to the reef and didn't get his popper back. We decided to make our way south back to the reef popped on Day 1 & 2 as it seemed far more productive. When we arrived at our spot it wasn't long before we had a hookup, unfortunately it was another one of those pesky mackerel and it managed to snip the leader and get away with my Craftbait GT3. Soon after I hooked up again but it was a extremely large red bass in some very gnarly terrain and it was all over before I managed a turn of the handle. We were now past midday and neither of us had boated a fish all day. Spirits were down.
What happened next I don't think either of us expected. We had one of the most intense sessions I've ever had, anywhere. We came across the same section we popped on day 2 that was loaded with bait and the fish were going ballistic. Probably every second cast had some kind of hit or hookup from a myriad of species including more bass, jobfish, bluefin trevally, brassy trevally & GT's. Most fish we didn't photograph unless it was an exceptional capture as we just wanted to get back into the action. Glenn had some of the worst luck I've seen. After getting busted off by a better than average GT he then pulled the hooks on two very respectable GT's after surviving the first blistering run and once we were in deep water. Eventually he managed to stay connected to a fish and boated a nice fat GT around 22kg. I changed to a Hammerhead C Cup and on the 2nd cast got absolutely monstered by a good size GT. After a nice fight we boated the fish and estimated around 40kg. I think I boated one more GT around the 18kg mark then we decided to call it a day and head back to the ramp as it was starting to get late.
Tackle and Lures Used-
Hammerhead Faube 77H
Ripple Fisher GT78PF
Carpenter SP78UHL
Carpenter CV79RF40
Fisherman GT Game T-RSH
Shimano Stella SW18000HG & Daiwa Saltiga Dogfight
Shimano Stella 10000SW
Varivas Avani GT PE8 & PE10
The best lures were medium poppers in the 120-150g range. Natural colours seemed to work the best, ones that had a light (white-silver) underside contrasted by a dark upper body. In particular the Craftbait GT2 and GT3 (150g) in Skipjack and Craftbait & Hammerhead in Yellowfin tuna colour. Blue and white orion Cono Cono's also worked exceptionally well. Most of the time bright coloured lures were used it yielded little or no interest at all. We also had minimal interest on Stickbaits but we didn't use them often as the bloopers were working very well.
