I went for a trip to NC for six days with Damon Olsen from Nomad Sportfishing with le Poisson Banane in July. The objective of the trip (apart from the obvious) was for Damon to meet the boys from LPB and for an exchange of ideas and approaches in targeting GTs. This can ultimately only be good news for those of us who fish with either or both of these outfits. Both David and Rudy will then be fishing with Nomad at a trip of their choosing in 2010.
Unfortunately, the weather gods conspired against us. The first day was a complete write-off and we couldn't even leave the harbour and looking at the conditions, none of us would have wanted to. As far as conditions were concerned, we ended up with two reasonable days, one good day, one poor day and one unbelievably bad day!
Still, we enjoyed some terrific fishing at times and with an ounce of luck, we could have had an unbelievable few days. I got to say, Damon has got to be the most unlucky angler I've fished with! He raised something like 8-9 huge fish in the two reasonable and one good day and he didn't get a single hook-up! The fish would either slash and miss or a smaller fish would get in front of the big fish or the fish would veer away at the last moment but he just had no luck. I think Rudy and I would say the same. I had one absolutely monstrous fish strip over 100m in its first run before it threw the hook moments later and Rudy had another monster grab his pencil popper right in the middle of the body and not hook up.
In terms of the fishing, we still caught a bucket load of fish but an ounce of luck would have made for a truly memorable trip. I was amazed by the variety of fish for winter. It's really hard trying to convince Damon, David or Rudy to take photos - I think they see too many fish on a day to day basis. I almost had to make them take photos for it to happen. In terms of meeting the objectives of the trip, it was a huge success, I think. Damon got along like a house on fire with David and Rudy. Damon said he found it very informative in terms of how the boys targeted certain areas and no doubt, David and Rudy will find the same when they fish with Nomad next year.
Highlights for me:
Isle of Pines - we anchored one evening in the lagoon at the Isle of Pines and it would have to be one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. It was worth the trip just to see the place. We fished the lagoon throwing small minnows and plastics and I lost every minnow I had.
Damon striking at the fish - On the first day we were out, Damon hooked a shark which jumped about three feet out of the water. On the last afternoon, he then hooks a cod which jumps out of the water as well. It wasn't until I realised what had happened that I found it so funny. he was striking at the poor fish so hard he was literally pulling it out of the water!
Smallest fish on a plastic - I think I might have outdone myself at least - check out the last photo!
Almaco Jack on a popper - Damon managed to catch an almaco jack on a popper in atrocious conditions!
Blue cod - truly the most impressive fighting fish in New Caledonia.
The strike is ferocious and then ............. nothing! The fish just floats in mid-water with its mouth wide open and doesn't do a damn thing.
Bottom fishing - the bottom fishing in NC really is quite spectacular. the only time we did it was at night or when the weather was so bad, we had to anchor up and wait but the fishing on he bottom were unreal. For some reason, the inchiku jigs work better than soft plastics.
In terms of what we used and what worked best, We fished primarily PE10 although I was using PE8 on my stickbait outfit. Damon went heavy the whole way with his lightest rod being a SP78EXH! He was also using a Wild Violence and a Ripple Fisher GT78XH. I was using a TBL711 for my stickbait rod and a SP78UHL and Fisherman GT Game T-RSH with PE10 for poppers. This really was a trip for poppers, and big ones at that. I had most of my success on a Fullscale Big 200 whilst Damon caught most of his on a big Cubera or huge Patriot Masterd Bomb.
