4 days of Whitsundays

[Cy and Kerrin Taylor]

Hi,

Here is some photos from a recent 4 day excursion through the Whitsundays outer islands.

Our goal was to find new areas as we searched the drop-offs, rocks and passes, marking in any interesting features on GPS.

We used a Catamaran as our mothership, and towed our boat as the fishing vessel.

Kind of like a mini-Nomad setup!

The main lures we used were the Nomad Dogtooth stickbaits, which were toothed by a range of large fish.

[Cy and Kerrin Taylor]

We were amazed at the hook-up rate on the single Owner Jobu hooks on the Nomad stickbaits.

All days, GT would smash the lures but the lure would keep falling out about 2 seconds after the strike.

On one day, we got around 7 strikes from big fish and landed 1.

This GT came from a large bommie, rising out of 40 metres of water!

[Cy and Kerrin Taylor]

We also landed some big Longtail Tuna on the stickbaits too.

You would see heaps of Mack Tuna surface feeding in 40 metres of water, and you had to pick the longtails out from them and cast to them!

They are an awesome surface striker! White-water goes everywhere!

[Cy and Kerrin Taylor]

We also found a lot of other options too!

Casting large soft plastics to the deep reef edges was awesome fun!

Large Coral Trout, Sweetlip, Tuskfish and Red throat Emporer were some of the catches.

[Cy and Kerrin Taylor]

Our best place that we found for GT were large rocks which rised out of the deep.

Places like Minstrel and Jester rock on the outer Whitsunday islands were great areas and we found that they were more productive when the current was strongly flowing.

[Cy and Kerrin Taylor]

Places with large boulders on major points were also great GT areas.

This particular point was very productive in the morning hours!

It had 3 features: garfish were holding out the current in the shallows, a drop-off to 35 metres and 5 large coral bommies sitting in the strong current. A hot GT area!

Cy and Kerrin Taylor
Whitsundays QLD

[Stephen Polzin]

nice way to spend a few days.  I tried singles on the stickbaits with mixed success - certainly no better than trebles, so now it's trebles all round for me.

steve

[Angus Hulme]

C & K......great pics, excellent wrap up. Just been up in tha area myself, and I wish I could show those sorts of results.

How long/heavy are those Nomad stickbaits? I suppose you need 'saltwater serious' gear to toss those types of lures?

Anyhow, thanks for sharing!

Angus

[Brandon Khoo]

I wish I could see the damn pictures!

Guys, I can't understand why your hookup rate is so poor with the singles. There are times when the fish are not really committed and are more slapping at the lure rather than seriously attacking it but if they are going at the lures hard, I can't understand your hookup rate. I've used singles a lot and while I won't go into the results I have had because we have already had another thread on that, can you give us some idea on how you're rigging the singles?

[Cy and Kerrin Taylor]

Hi Brandon,

We have been using Owner Jobu 8/0 single hooks with 300LB single split rings.

We found when a fish takes your lure just under the surface too, it has a much better hook up!

How do you rig them Brandon & Luke?

Angus, the Nomad stickbaits are simply awesome! When we first tried the Dogtooth 125, we thought they were kind of weird to use! But now they are always tied on. We use a rod of 15 - 24 kg and they are powerful enough to cast a long way.

Once you get use to using stickbaits, you can get a lot more strikes!

Cy and Kerrin Taylor
Whitsundays QLD

[Brandon Khoo]

guys, I don't use the 8/0 Jobus for GTs as as I find them a bit too small in the gape. The 9/0 is a much better size for GTs, in my opinion. I rig these using a single split ring like what you're doing with the 8/0. I prefer single jigging hooks though to the Jobus. My favourite is a Fisherman Shiden 13/0 as it is about the right size. I like using assist cord on these although I have to admit split rings are much easier.

My standard rig on a popper is a treble off the belly and a single off the tail. For a stickbait, I tend to run either a baker rig (look for an old thread I posted a while back) off both the belly and tail or a single off the tail. for a pencil popper, I tend to run trebles off the both the belly and the tail.

The Nomad stickbaits are very good on GTs and you might consider a couple of the new Ulua models. They work really well and they certainly swim better than the Dogtooth. I'm not convinced that stickbaits work better than a good popper though. I still think that if you really know how to work a good chugger that it is about the best GT lure around.

[Cy and Kerrin Taylor]

Thanks for the info Brandon. 

We'll give the baker rig a try!

C&K

[Mick Cunningham]

sound like a great trip   

hey next time just pm me  cos i might want to tag along 

[Luke Wyrsta]

Hi Brandon,

We have been using Owner Jobu 8/0 single hooks with 300LB single split rings.

We found when a fish takes your lure just under the surface too, it has a much better hook up!

How do you rig them Brandon & Luke?

Angus, the Nomad stickbaits are simply awesome! When we first tried the Dogtooth 125, we thought they were kind of weird to use! But now they are always tied on. We use a rod of 15 - 24 kg and they are powerful enough to cast a long way.

Once you get use to using stickbaits, you can get a lot more strikes!

Cy and Kerrin Taylor
Whitsundays QLD

Hi Guys,

Great report!

I agree with what Brandon has said - definately up your hook size. As an alternate opinion, I use Decoy JS-2 in 9/0+ sizes and find them great - all of the hooks mentioned should do the job nicely though in larger sizes.

My other recommendation would be to strike 3 - 5 times just as you hook-up - really drive the hooks home and keep that tension up. I think this is a very important aspect.

[Cy and Kerrin Taylor]

Luke,

Thanks for the good info.

We'll try it next time for-sure!

Mick,

Ok, but you'll have to sleep in the dingy! 

Cy and Kerrin Taylor
Whitsundays Qld