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Topwater Caranx Ignobilis: Giant Trevally (GT) => Tackle & Techniques => Topic started by: Dean Gold on November 14, 2012, 10:08:06 AM
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Hello all,
I'm headding to Saumarez and Fredericks Reefs in Feb and would appreciate any advice on lures. I am very new to GT popping and am building up my lure collection.
I have read Brandon's review of poppers and stick baits which is great. The question that I would like to put to you all is this. If you had a budget of $600 to spend on lures for a 10 day trip to Saumarez and Fredericks Reefs, what would you buy?
Rods used will be Patriot Designs Extreme 80 with 6500 saltiga PE 8 and 8 foot PE 5 rod and 4500 saltiga. I currently have 1 x Nomad stick bait, 1 x FCL Ebipop, 1 x fullscale kong 200 and a few dumbells and roosta poppers.
I appreciate any advice.
DG
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10 x Roosters
10 x Dumb Bells
;D
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Dean, you haven't mentioned what fishing you're going to be doing outside of the obvious which is GT fishing and whether you budget of $600 is only for GT lures or meant to cover you for all the lures you may need. On this trip, I'd expect that outside of GT fishing, you may be wanting to throw some smaller lures as well as some jigging.
It looks like you have one GT capable outfit but I wouldn't bother with the PE5 outfit if you were intending to fish for GTs with that. It is just too light.
Steve may have been a but tongue in cheek with his recommendation but unless you're thinking of going with Halcos and River2Sea lures and the odd Heru, you're underdone on your budget. You've picked a pretty expensive trip to go on too so you may want to to think about what budget you want to allocate to this.
Don't forget too that on Nomad that you're going to have to acquire single hooks for your lures which means you need to think about full replacement terminals for all your lures. This adds substantially to the cost of the lures and if you don't get prepared before you go on the boat, well .............. you're going to have to get it on the boat which won't be cheap.
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Do nomad not allow the use of trebles at all? I thought it was more of a reccomendation.
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Adhek lures is another posibility. Great lures for a fair price
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whilst i apologize for not being able to answer your question Dean. I like the Heru range - Nomad has their stamp on them - they offer good value for money
I am curious about the singles story with Nomad? do they completely ban trebles?
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:) Hi Matt
i have been on a few trips with Nomad and Brandon would be the best to comment about this as he has been on more Nomad trip then any one i know and that is Nomad only allow the barb less bakers rig or single rig setup.
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Fair enough - can respect that.
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The Nomad policy is no trebles on any GT sized lures
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Hi Dean,
Adhek has already been mentioned!
I'd be looking for a equal number of poppers and stickbaits (up to 150g) and a couple pencils. This will also give you a good start for a collection for almost any GT destination.
There are great priced and good value products from Adhek, FCL Labo, ASWB, WCP to name a few.
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Thank you to every one who has been in contact.
I have settled on the following shopping list
Orion Big Foot 140 x 2
Adhek Long Goby x 2
Nomad Cubera 150 x 4
ASWB F1 130 x 2
WCP x 2
I'll let you know how I go in Feb.
It's 3 months away and I'm already getting excited... and spending too much time at work looking at lures on the internet.
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Dean,
Your choices look good. Cubera's are one of my favourite lures as are the ASWBs.
You reckon you're addicted now, wait until you put your first big GT in the boat.
It took weeks to wipe the smile of my face!
Regards,
Trevor
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That's a decent enough list that you are buying Dean. Luke mentioned a pencil or two and I see you don't have any in there. While I know nothing about Saumarez and Fredericks' Reef, I reckon you should buy one long pencil. Then, all bases covered :). Good luck.
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Agreed Mark!
In fact, there's not one BIG GT destination in the world that I wouldn't take at least x2 Pencils to 8) 8) Skipping Gars, Sauries, Long-Toms...Monster GT Candy right there.
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Pencil poppers keep coming up in these topics but personally I've never had any success with these. Probaly because I haven't given them the water time to gain confidence. What technique do you fish pencils to entice large gts and I'm guessing in shallow lagoons or structure?
Chris
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Chris, personally I tend to use pencils when the water conditions dictate, and that drives it rather than the type of terrain. Anytime there is chop in the water, then I tend to reach for a long, skipping type pencil.
The other time would be when there are lots of fleeing Long Toms around. I find it hard to get the lure to work properly in calm water though.
As for technique - nothing very clever. Stick the rod in your belt with quite a high angle and use a steady retrieve (does not need to be too fast) with a gentle up-twitch. The speed of retrieve and the twitch need to be just enough to get the lure skipping authentically.
With lures which are dual purpose popping pencil types (eg SS Trumpet, Heru Skipjack), then you can mix up the skipping retrieve with some gentle pops as well.
One other note - in my experience and that of others I have spoken to, the speed and ferocity of a GT taking a pencil is incredibly spectacular. Really fast and aggressive.
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Thanks Mark, I had in my mind that pencils were only for dead calm conditions and that you crank them as fast as you can.
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Some might use them in such conditions Dean. Personally I would not as it is the chop in the water that creates the action of the lure.
In my opinion, in glassy calm conditions you would be much better off reaching for a floating stickbait.
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Some of Damon Olsen's first really big dogtooth taken on stick baits were from the seamount to the south of Frederick Reef.
The larger of the doggies was certainly 85+kg and probably closer to 100.
It was caught on relatively light GT gear due to a fair bit of luck.
The seamount comes out of 2000m and is around 50m on top.
I am led to believe from Damon's retelling that it was an almost spool job as the doggie plunged down the side of the mount and it ran out of puff.........sometimes you can be lucky!
It's not a bad place to drop a jig either, for obvious reasons!
The other areas of Fredrick and Saumaurez reefs have on offer the same types of pelagics as the other offshore reefs I have been to out there.
I'd say take a few more sinking stick baits as the water out there is ridiculously clear and stick baits work better in really clear water.
They are handy as a trolling lure too............nothing and I mean nothing will swim past a trolled stick bait!
As for your other lures, that's a nice spread, bar the mentioned lack of pencils.