hi all,
A few months ago myself and 2 mates (kyle and trent) took off to what would be our first proper trip targeting GT. We all had limited experience and knowledge and had only caught a handful of topwater GT prior to the trip locally from SE queensland, australia. While there are charters and trips becoming more readily available and affordable, they were still a little out of our price range.
We decided to explore the coral coast of fiji, and further explore a few of the reefs I had previous success on holidaying with the girlfriend the previous year used some of the local contacts from the nearby village. While the locals didn't know much about fishing they are are happy enough to drive you to where ever you want to fish so research is critical to the location you're staying as the locals don't like taking there boats to far out and need to get permission if you wish to fish further up or down the coast where another village may be located.
Our trip didn't start of with the action we were hoping for, the cloudless sky, gin clear water and dead calm ocean (both wind and current almost non existent) made the first few days fishing topwater for GT tough and apart from raising 2 monster fish during a short but intense rain storm we had no luck on the GT front. HOWEVER, this was fiji and there were plenty of options, we put down the heavy popping gear and opted for lighter pe 6 gear with small to medium sinking stickbaits across the vast reefy flats and drop offs for a multitude of reef species that came in thick and fast. Bluefin trevally were in abundance and between the multiple double hook it kept us eagerly casting and the action pretty consistent. As well as bluefin, we came across a number of colourful and taisty reefies that were also new species to tick of the list.
The last 2 days of our 6 day trip was a complete game changer, once outside the bay the hotel was situated we were greeted with a strong current and hoards of sauri's and flying fish showering in front of the longboat. The anticipation was high and it didn't take long for the first popper to get smashed of the top by a very reasonable GT, unfortunately, I didn't set the hooks hard enough which resulted in plenty of sledging from the boys.
The action only got better and even thought most of the GT were smaller 8-10kg models we landed almost 20 fish in a few hours each morning as well as getting completely smoked by some larger models and attempting to land fish on pe 6 gear which resulted on the braid blowing up on the strike. Over all the action was pretty intense but the tripple hook up on GT est 16-18, 20-22 and 28-30kg gt was by far the coolest thing I've seen and ended up being PB fish for each of us.
This whole trip ended up costing us around $1500 aus each for flights, accommodation, transport, food and boat/ driver hire. Adding to the experience of our first proper GT experience we were invited back to the village on our last night for lovo ( fijian hangi) and karva. Can't say the longtom they cooked us was too appetising but the rest of the local food was pretty dam good.
I think we also walked away from this trip with some valuable knowledge, things you can only learn from trial and error at first hand experience no matter how many reports you read or youtube clips you watch.
shout out to kyle for landing the best GT of the trip. stonker.
