Introductions :: Who Are You?

[Shane Hartstone]

hi Guys, my name is Shane "Nuthead" Hartstone from Hamilton New Zealand.  I fish all over new Zealand, jigging for Kingfish and Hapuka in between chasing Marlin.  I'm heading to the Coral Sea in 3 weeks time, and I've never thrown a popper before!  Hence joining this forum. There is very little popping done on this side of the Tasman, but Jigging has taken off like wild fire.  So I'll be doing lots of reading and asking the odd technical Question, that I hope aren't too stupid.

[Andrew Poulos]

Welcome aboard Shane....ask away and we will all try and help with answers.

Dont you get out and throw poppers around for kings your way ?

[Shane Hartstone]

The Majority is Livebaiting, but us Jiggers are keeping up with and in most cases outfishing live baits.  There wouly only be a hand full of shops here that would carry a popping rod, and that would be a basic model.

[Colin P]

Hi Everyone.

My name is Colin Pacitti - living in England and new to the forum. I retired early 5 years ago (I hit the big 60 next year) and my wife Marg and I spend as much time as possible travelling abroad to fish and take photographs. We fish Canada a lot (mainly for lake trout, sturgeon and arctic grayling) and only got into sea fishing a couple of years ago. We caught sailfish and amberjack in Malaysia (see pic of Marg with biggest amberjack of the trip), did some jigging in the Maldives ..... and then I went to Musandam with a couple of mates in April this year (pic of biggest gt to date attached). Took Marg in September (see thread "When it's hot in Musandam") and now we are both hooked!! Going to Seychelles in December, Panama next June, Musandam next November and planning a long trip to Oz in 2011.

Have learned a lot from the forum and can now tie my own twisted leaders, splice hollow braid and make passable attempts to fish poppers and stick baits. Thanks to all who have posted really useful tips - learning all the time.

Realise now I should have written this before posting the Musandam report - would appreciate any advice on the kind of stuff you guys want to see in such reports to help me avoid any gaffs when reporting on the Seychelles trip.

PS
The King in the report was of course dead when photographed and fed a houseful of local workers - I am uneasy about killing fish I do not plan to eat myself but I was assured by the skipper that big Kings do not return easily and that this was a good cause. Could never kill a gt regardless of the cause!

[Brandon Khoo]

Colin - a warm welcome to our little community on the other side of the earth!
It's great to see you have developed a passion for heavy jigging and popping from so far away. It really is a global sport these days.

please feel free to post what you like from your trips. At the end of the day, we all just love seeing pictures of big fish captured - which are then released to fight another day.

One thing that I would be interested in would be your observations of the terrain and the style of fishing required for it.

[Colin P]

Thanks for the welcome Brandon.

I've only done a couple of popping trips to the Musandam peninsular but for what they are worth here are my observations so far -

It's a relatively barren and deserted coastline of steep sandstone cliffs and islands that can only be fished from a boat. The GT tend to patrol either the drop offs at the base of the cliffs or the reefs around the islands. There is always deeper water close to the areas that the GT patrol but mosttimes you hook them over shallow water. This means that the first order of priority is to move the hooked fish over deeper water. The tactic is to set a very tight clutch and hold on while the skipper reverses the boat. Once the GT is in deeper water, you have a chance albeit that you have a gut-wrenching fight ahead of you (but that's why we do it right?!).

In my experience there is no amount of clutch you can set that will stop a big GT dead - so you have to accept losses of fish and tackle. I have been very lucky so far in that I have only been reefed once - and that was by a big fish that we all saw steam into the popper in very clear water by an island. I use a Smiths Offshore Stick 80P/35 and a 10000 Stella with a 20000 spool loded with 100 test hollow braid (my leader is spliced-in 200 test hollow braid joined via a catspaw to a 200 test Varivas twisted leader. But I know for a fact that the guys at Oceanactive have been destroyed by monsters despite using Komodo Dragons, heavier lines and leaders and max clutch settings on Accurate reels. In fact they broke a KD earlier this year trying to stop a big GT!

Dave Sharples and I have debated the merits of the many poppers and stickbaits available. A few points have emerged (but bear in mind that these are only based on a couple of trips) -

The 130g GT Mania has outfished bigger and much more expensive poppers - all of our 4 30kg plus gt on the April trip fell to this popper and we got more takes working it with a definite pause after each pop. This popper has also proved by far the most durable. We have never had one destroyed by a fish and we do hit the cliffs with occasional overenthusiastic casts! Wahoo stickbaits (generally in 125g or 150g size) outfished Uluas and produced fewer but bigger fish than poppers during the September trip. We work them with sideways sweeps and quite long pauses.

I've attached a couple of pics to illustrate the terrain.

[Randall Cullinan]

Hi to all. I am Randy Cullinan and I am on the Eastern part of the US with easy Atlantic access. I am a long time serious big game fisherman and newbie to jigging and popping. I have had to start all over on equipment and lures, etc. and am coming on strong for jigging and having a popping rod built for tuna(up to 300lb Bluefins). Most will be 75 lb yellowfins on average. I may get into popping enough to pay for a DownUnder venture on your GT's.

Mainly now I am looking at your experience with heavy duty tackle to help guide my purchases. When the popper is completed, it will wear a Stella 20000!

Keep up the good work. It allows me to dream further than just local.

[stuart bradley]

Hey guys, names Stuart (which some may have already worked out). Live in Wollongong, NSW. Main interest is in LBG, and I fish Jervis Bay and other surrounding areas whe I can. had a shocker past few years as far as fishing goes-doing a uni degree, with a family and the need to work, while my wife works full time. Budget is tight and time is even worse. Finish uni (providing I pass exams) this year, so hopefully pick up a decent job with weekends and 4 weeks off a year (Worked weekends for the past 5 yrs or so) which will give me more fishing time.

Joined this forum because Im keen on getting stuck into some kingfish on poppers. Its something that basically got me into LBG, and the tackle around then just made it too hard to do. Im keen on giving it all another go-got a monster mesh popping rod, reel is on its way. Got some poppers already, but in future Im going to have to make them as I survive for a week on the price of one popper justabout. Reel, Im trying the V system, cause I got a good deal through work. Im sure I will retire it soon. Was keen on a Saragosa but just didnt have the cash. At least there is basically no questions asked warranty on the V system, so I can get it fixed and flog it off to someone when I have a bit more cash

If I get keen on doing a lot more of this, Ill slowly update the gear. Money just makes it impossible at the moment to buy what I really need.

Been having a good look around, picked up a lot of good hints and Im sure I will more.

[Jarrad Heritage]

Hello all, My name is Jarrad and slowly getting into the popping scene of things, Live in Mandurah, West Oz.

Just started heading to Exmouth for the last couple of years and been getting into all the place offers.

Looking forward to leaning all the great tips and having a yarn to you all...

Jarrad

[Dietmar Brock]

Hello,

my name is Dietmar and I am from Germany. Here in Germany I love flyfishing for trouts and greylings. In Danmark I fish for seatrouts and in the Netherlands the pike is the number one on my wish list, the european zander, a bigger brother of the walleye, is the number two.

The last fishing trip goes to Spain and there I fish with soft baits (shads) for catfish over 2 meter. It was a nice trip and some fishes over 2 m where cought.









Maybe with a little luck I see the area of Bali in the next year. If this happens, I will try to catch some GT's. So I am searching the net for some informations.

Bye, Dietmar

[Travis Gandossi]

hi guys
  just getting into the popping scene and this looks like a great website to get good advice from experience people!
got a couple of trips planned for next year (up north western australia) and might even get to the monties!

looking forward to read about everyones fishings trip and advice.

cheers travis

[jay currie]

Hi all my name is Jay "Jb" im very new to the poppering and jigging world but i am very very keen i am even selling my boat to concentrate on bigger fish.
 At the moment i manly fish hervey bay and moreton bay (qld) manly for longtail tuna, mackerel and gt's i am looking into doing alot of charter trips for bigger and harder pulling fish.
 I think you have done a great job with the web site its good to see a more personel approch taken and i look forward to learning alot and spending some time on your site

[B Hartman]

Hi All

Bruce from Zimbabwe - fairly new to this game but the little have done has been hugely exciting ! Fished only off our East coat ( Kenya down to Moz )- a fair trek at that.

Have found this forum outstanding especially with regard to tackle advice from Mark and Luke. Have even found someone to build me a custom Calstar 700H rod - my first GT was caught casting with an ancient heavy 8 foot rod  and old daiwa sealine  reel - so we are advancing now !!! Now I even own a Stella and Saltiga !! Done all sorts of fishing but this GT popping is definitely THE way to go !!!! And whats even better is my eldest son fishes with me and also loves it. Going to try get my youngest onto one  this December ( hes only 11) - try find a small one so that he stays on the boat !!!!

Many thanks

[austen goldsmith]

Hi Guys
 Been meaning to join this forum for ageas . I confess that most of my time is spent with a fly rod in hand rather than a 7 foot GT poker , but I have been across to the dark side and my god its fun. I first GT popped in the Seychelles last November and will be doing the same again this winter. I love GT popping with Big fly rods and Big flies but its hard to compare my little spash of a 6/0 popper with a 200 Gram wooden bucket being pulled accross the top.Thats why I went shopping not so long ago. Have geared up with a Smith - Dogfight - 80 lb Power Pro . Have rod will travel !

Thats me.


Cheers

AG - Cornwall - England - Earth

[jarrodday]

Hey all, My Name is Jarrod Day, obviously from my nick, it wasn't that hard to guess. I spend my time fishing for basically anything. have been jigging for about 5 years and now getting into the popping side of things. have popped previously but nothing serious until my first trip to New Cal on 09.
I work full time in a fishing tackle store in Victoria, and in my spare time (yeah right) am a full time fishing journalist for most of Australia's leading fishing publications......as well as co-host a local fishing radio program.....

and just about sums me up....mad fisho.
cheers,