anyone fished raratonga , cook islands ???

[jason starling]

Booking a trip to try and catch first GT on cousins stories of GT's he could not stop on 50lb gear and was wondering if anyone could verify ?? Also have purchased a Daiwa Seagate 6000 ( apparently a step up from saltist ? ) 80lb tuf-line and a berkley venom viperGT rod  some halco roosta haymakers and some river 2 sea 200mm dumbells... thoughts

[Dan Ryan]

If you need a break and want to really annoy your fly-fishing friends -  try the lagoon for the world's dumbest bonefish, small placcies and a long cast is all you'll need.

[Byron Ford]

Booking a trip to try and catch first GT on cousins stories of GT's he could not stop on 50lb gear and was wondering if anyone could verify ?? Also have purchased a Daiwa Seagate 6000 ( apparently a step up from saltist ? ) 80lb tuf-line and a berkley venom viperGT rod  some halco roosta haymakers and some river 2 sea 200mm dumbells... thoughts

hay mate my fathers from the cook islands an i have been heading back there every year or 2nd year since i was a kid to go fishing an see the grandparents, never caught any GTs in rarotonga but caught every thing else on the out side reefs, from marlin, yellowfin, to mahi mahi.. i have seen a few small gt's in the lagoon while snoorkling but never really heard of guys fishing for them there, but another little island which is part of the cook islands  an hr flight away called aitutaki is awsome GT fishing, this island is where my father is from, i have only ever caught 2 smallish GTs there but never really fished for them as mostly fish for the big palargics while im there ,  but i have booked my next trip in oct purely to target the beasts, an as being a novis i have been i this site getting my ins an outs so i got a heads up for when i get there....

hope this info helps a little bit, when is your trip booked???

[jason starling]

Thanks Dan will do, my cousin is the fly fisher so will give it a go ! Planned on doing some light gear soft plastics and small poppers in the lagoon . any idea about the GT fishing ? I think you can catch bluefin trevally inside the reef also but not 100% on what else is around or wether a jigging rod would be of much use or if i should just use popper rod for both ?

[Byron Ford]

Thanks Dan will do, my cousin is the fly fisher so will give it a go ! Planned on doing some light gear soft plastics and small poppers in the lagoon . any idea about the GT fishing ? I think you can catch bluefin trevally inside the reef also but not 100% on what else is around or wether a jigging rod would be of much use or if i should just use popper rod for both ?

u wont be able to use any jig rod on the logoon as its deapest past would be 10m max, its more of aa atol sort of reef, but i always take a jig rod set up for the outter reef an jig round the fads for doggy's an other tuna, plenty of life round the inner lagoon reefs tho for light popping just not sure u will incounter the big GTs if any, an with the bad case of cicatoses(not sure how its spelt) but its some thing the affects the reef fish on the inner reefs which makes them uneatable the local's have stopped fishing them. so there should be plenty of action

[jason starling]

Thanks Byron thats the sort of heads up i was looking for . cousin said he was hooking GT on the rocks where the water comes in a passage to the lagoon but from something i looked at led me think that area might be some sort of sanctuary so might look into that before we book . What sort of gear did you fish with for the mahi's and tuna with ? lures , livies , trolling or bait ?

[jason starling]

Oh and trips planned for 31st of december till 8th of january . The jig rod question was related to the deep stuff and not worried about the ciguetara ,just sportfishing . Do you think i would get away with the 7'6" popper rod for jigging occasionally or would it be to hard a work ? Have you caught doggies there and if so what sort of size and any special jig ?

[Byron Ford]

Thanks Byron thats the sort of heads up i was looking for . cousin said he was hooking GT on the rocks where the water comes in a passage to the lagoon but from something i looked at led me think that area might be some sort of sanctuary so might look into that before we book . What sort of gear did you fish with for the mahi's and tuna with ? lures , livies , trolling or bait ?

caught all my palargics trolling around the few fads or out deeper for the marlin, an i know exactlly where u are talking about on the passage rocks but never thought of popping off there, but know you say it it sounds perfect, there is 2 passage out to sea one is very rocky an sounds perfect for GTs an the other is in the main harbour, as for the sanctuary there is a few at any time in the lagoon, thay move them every so often to increase the groth of fish life all round the island an stop the locals from over fishing them, but thay are well marked out with boeys an signs to let you know.

[Byron Ford]

Oh and trips planned for 31st of december till 8th of january . The jig rod question was related to the deep stuff and not worried about the ciguetara ,just sportfishing . Do you think i would get away with the 7'6" popper rod for jigging occasionally or would it be to hard a work ? Have you caught doggies there and if so what sort of size and any special jig ?

as for the jigging set up an iff you could use i popping rod im not to sure as i have never used a popping rod before, an only took my jig set up last year an people had not really heard of jigging over there so it was trial an eara for me, im lucky enough to have a couisen who runs a charter boat there so i just pulled it out once we hit a school of small stripies at one of the fads which had doggys down deaper, as for the jig i was using 180g tuna jigs....hope this helps an if u need the number of my cousins charter boat let me know, to bad im there a month earlier would have been fun to hook up an do some fishing togeather

[jason starling]

Sounds awesome Byron , would love to hook a doggie so now you have me really keen !!! The number for your cousins boat would be very much appreciated , at this stage there is four of us but that may grow so I would like to know how big the boat is ? Hope you can let me know how you go as like you I am bit of an novice at big game fishing having fished for years but mostly estuary ,trout ,murray cod ,yellow belly etc . I read some of your other posts which answered a few questions I would have asked also ! I bought my Berkley venom viper GT rod before i looked at this site so am hoping it will be ok I looked at t-curve GT specials but was worried about the max drag rating being what i had planned to run it at and the berkley is rated at max drag 26kg and won afta rod of year last year but alas no mention of it on this site ? Bad luck we didnt cross paths mate but if it fishes well I reckon I will be back now I am getting so much popping gear, so maybe next time ?