GTPopping.com - Giant Trevally, GTPopping, Topwater & GT Fly-Fishing Resource

Topwater Caranx Ignobilis: Giant Trevally (GT) => Reports & Expeditions => Topic started by: Luke Ryan on June 11, 2013, 11:18:30 PM

Title: Return to Eiao....
Post by: Luke Ryan on June 11, 2013, 11:18:30 PM
Hey all

I have been quite busy since coming back from Eiao in mid April and only now have I had a chance to sit down and post up some pics

As quite a few of you on here would have seen last year the report I did from our trip to Eiao in August it was quite good, I had such a good time on the last trip I just had to book again to target that Ghost GT!
I wasted no time in booking another trip when returning home last year, however this time I was to go by myself as I could not manage to find a friend that could manage to come with me. The plan was to meet up with the guys in Papeete and fly to Nuku Hiva where we would meet Teddy and the crew and sail to Eiao.

This trip was going to be different to the first as we were now staying on a mothership sailboat large enough for 9 people to comfortably live for a week in the middle of nowhere, it was a lot more comfortable then camping!!

There was 6 of us fishing from two traditional boats which are ideal for casting from all day, the anglers comprised of me from Australia, Michael from Denmark, Cyrall(Breakfast) from Canada, Teddy from Tahiti, George the scotsman from Aus and Randy from Singapore. So we had a good mixed bag of anglers!

The fishing was quite hard this trip due to the water being quite dirty, maybe this was due to rough weather or temperature changes in the water, we will not know.

Even though we had relatively hard fishing we still managed to catch plenty of fish, Eiao is amazing and is plentiful of fish so we still caught plenty just nothing over the top XOS

The place is quite breathtakingly beautiful with shear cliff faces and rugged mountainsides, there is also plenty of birdlife on the island.

I'll let the pictures do the majority of the talking...

Gear used

Rods Carpenter MH79XH, Carpenter TBL80/40, Carpenter SP80, Carpenter EP86/35, Ripple Ultimo 79H, Smith Rocket, Smith AMJ52ex, Temple Reef 53Ex, Temple Reef F7 
reels Stella and Saltiga
Lures Gamma 200, GT3 190, Saltiga Miester edition, Orion bigfoot, realbait bigbait special

Enough Gear for the trip?
(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7237.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7237.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7600.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7600.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7595.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7595.jpg.html)
Comfortable Beds(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7594.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7594.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7592.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7592.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7590.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7590.jpg.html)
Not so comfortable toilet!!(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7589.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7589.jpg.html)
The bay we stay in over the trip(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7575.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7575.jpg.html)
Preparing the fishing boats (http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7567.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7567.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7561.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7561.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7559.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7559.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7262.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7262.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7269.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7269.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7274.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7274.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7279.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7279.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7292.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7292.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7294.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7294.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7302_2.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7302_2.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7308.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7308.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7314.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7314.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7317.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7317.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7328.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7328.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7333.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7333.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7336.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7336.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7338.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7338.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7342.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7342.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7347.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7347.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7353.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7353.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7357_2.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7357_2.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7365.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7365.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7371.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7371.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7373.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7373.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7377.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7377.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7384.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7384.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7393.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7393.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7403.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7403.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7407.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7407.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7417.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7417.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7422.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7422.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7426.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7426.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7435.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7435.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7454.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7454.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7464.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7464.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7473.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7473.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7480.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7480.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7493.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7493.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7521.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7521.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7522.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7522.jpg.html)
THE ULTIMATE!!!(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7527_2.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7527_2.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7533.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7533.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7540.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7540.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7545.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7545.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7553.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7553.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7558.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7558.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7563.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7563.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7614.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7614.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7623.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7623.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7625.jpg) (http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7625.jpg.html)(http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7583.jpg) (http://[URL=http://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7583.jpg.html)://s1118.photobucket.com/user/lukeryan1/media/IMG_7628.jpg.html](http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/lukeryan1/IMG_7628.jpg)[/URL]
Title: Re: Return to Eiao....
Post by: Andrew Susani on June 11, 2013, 11:31:23 PM
Spectacular photos!  I love the bokeh in most of them, awesome.

WTF happened with the shark tail and the busted rod?????  :o

That lagoon looked unreal too  8)
Title: Re: Return to Eiao....
Post by: Ed Nicholas on June 12, 2013, 01:53:05 AM
Sick pics man .. shark/rod story please, something smoked you big time. Just love the look of that place. What camera u using bro?
Title: Re: Return to Eiao....
Post by: Nathan Cefai on June 12, 2013, 10:12:41 AM
Awesome trip mate, sick photos...Great variety also..
Title: Re: Return to Eiao....
Post by: Sam McKechnie on June 13, 2013, 09:40:39 AM
Top notch photos!  Looks like a great trip.
Title: Re: Return to Eiao....
Post by: Christoffer Hansen on June 13, 2013, 05:46:08 PM
Another broken smith! Didn't you break 2 last trip?
Title: Re: Return to Eiao....
Post by: Luke Ryan on June 13, 2013, 08:31:54 PM
Hey Ed, I'm using a Canon 5D mk2 with 24-70mm Lens. Seems to pump out some good pics

That shark was released.....Local style  ;)

I don't want to start debate on rods but yes it's the second one for me now
Title: Re: Return to Eiao....
Post by: Clem Henry on June 13, 2013, 08:40:01 PM
Great pics Ryan, hard to beat that full frame... :)
Title: Re: Return to Eiao....
Post by: Charles Cintron on June 14, 2013, 06:10:43 AM
Nice Pics, gotta love that guys wooden speedboat even the chairs are made out of wood
Title: Re: Return to Eiao....
Post by: David Noble on June 14, 2013, 09:25:30 AM
Great looking destination and stunning shots in there Luke.
Very nice!

Cheers Dave

ps, that's an expensive camera & lens to have onboard, no dramas keeping it safely away from salt water?
Title: Re: Return to Eiao....
Post by: Luke Ryan on June 14, 2013, 09:55:00 AM
I couldnlt believe the wooden boat when we hopped on it, was so funny

Dave, I normaly keep my camera in a handbag/shoulder bag. Ideally it would be great to bring a pelican case but due to weight restrictions its too heavy. I did come home with a cracked filter due too the bag falling off the icebox in the boat, lucky the lens was still fine
Title: Re: Return to Eiao....
Post by: dante green on June 23, 2013, 05:02:00 PM
Very nice catches mates!!  And very beautiful water!!

cheers.

D
Title: Re: Return to Eiao....
Post by: Michael Adolfsen on July 21, 2013, 01:52:27 AM
Hi Luke

How are you doing great to meet and fish Eiao with you. Great Pictures and I still remember that sick fight with the shark/broken rod  ;)
I fished 4 days from the rocks with Teddy and Pierre didn't get much though, all the big ones busted me of. Maybe we will fish together Again in the future and go to the "shop" with Randy ;D
Title: Re: Return to Eiao....
Post by: Vincenzo Caccico on August 01, 2013, 11:29:25 PM
Onestly the location is one of the best i never saw in my life.

Congrats!
Title: Re: Return to Eiao....
Post by: John Cahill on August 02, 2013, 10:24:37 PM
My god....... now that is a trip report! well done, some spectacular images in there too..... really pop out some of the colors! bravo!
Title: Re: Return to Eiao....
Post by: Teddy MOUX on August 04, 2013, 08:01:42 AM
Kaoha Nui Everybody,
Kaoha Nui Luke & Michael !!!

Michael look this nice one landed a few days ago. 135cm (112 cm girth) of pure power (28mn epic fight : rod too short !!!)

(https://jdmtackle.com/userfiles/product_images/gt%20length%20135%20cm%20%20girth%20112%20cm%20i.jpg)
(https://jdmtackle.com/userfiles/product_images/gt%20length%20135%20cm%20%20girth%20112%20cm%20iii.jpg)
(https://jdmtackle.com/userfiles/product_images/reefer%20711%20bending%20ii.jpg)
(https://jdmtackle.com/userfiles/product_images/reefer%20711%20bending%20i.jpg)

Two weeks ago on the spot you fished with Breakfast, I got my ass kicked by several big ones. One was an huge black one (thought it was a shark on the strike !!!). It's a good thing, I'll leave this one for you ! ;D ;D ;D

Take care my friends !!!

Apae
Title: Re: Return to Eiao....
Post by: Dan Konig on August 05, 2013, 10:29:14 AM
That's a huge fish off the stones
Title: Re: Return to Eiao....
Post by: Chrislocke on August 05, 2013, 10:41:28 AM
Awesome trip report! Looks like a heap of fun and I can't wait to do some of the same one day!
Title: Re: Return to Eiao....
Post by: Teddy MOUX on August 05, 2013, 06:58:32 PM
Kaoha Nui Gentlemen,

And this is just our most "civilized" training spot ...
Same day, few catches. Catch and release only.

(http://s13.postimg.org/9m851t0jn/Baby_Mahi_copy_small.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/9m851t0jn/)
(http://s11.postimg.org/u9m97hosf/106cm_GT_Mista_Stone_small.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/u9m97hosf/)
(http://s23.postimg.org/ryba1b787/Bonito_small.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/ryba1b787/)

We thank everyday Mother Nuku Hiva.

Tight lines

Apae
Title: Re: Return to Eiao....
Post by: Michael Adolfsen on August 07, 2013, 05:54:21 AM
Kaoha Nui Teddy

How are you my friend. Great fish. Wow well done Teddy I will bet it was the one I lost when my line exploded and I fell on my ass ;D
I will mail you one of these days.
Take care

Michael