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Brian Rowley

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New Caledonia Feb 2010 report
May 01, 2010, 07:14:30 AM
Just returned from fishing New Caledonia (22nd to 28th Feb 2010) with my two brothers Mick and Steve and the old man.  Spent 4 days fishing out of Ouano Lodge then the last 3 days out from Neweta Lodge.

Day 1: Totally devastated - spent all day casting big poppers for one Longnose Emperor; although it was a reasonable Emperor at 8kg; it was definitely not what we were looking for and there were a few worried faces at the end of fishing!!

Ouano Lodge.
Mick's 8kg Longnose Emperor.

Day 2: Lunch time Day 2 and we still haven't raised a single GT, those worried faces were almost turning to despair, but when that unmistakable strike occurs its surprising how quickly you forget about all the hard times!!  First GT of the trip went to Mick and was a reasonable fish of 21kg.

First GT.
Mick's 21kg GT.

The afternoon session really fired up for us and we managed to get eight nice GT's to the boat with the biggest going 32kg; while the old man nailed a solid 28kg GT (part of a double hook up with Steve); not a bad effort seeing that he is 70 years old and we still don't know how he manages to toss bg poppers all day then fight the GT's on 12-15kg drag setting - all we are hoping is that we will be able to do the same at that age!!  Photos from Day 2 -

Steve's 19kg GT.
Steve's 20kg GT.
Double.
Old man's 28kg GT.

My 32kg GT.

Day 3:  The day of the big GT's; although we did a bit of light tackle fishing in the morning for a few cod, spanish etc however in future trips I would forego this and just throw big poppers all day.  The old man gets blown away by a fish that just didn't stop tearing line of the Dogfight and eventually found some nice reef while I have a solid 50kg GT follow my popper all the way to the boat only to duck away at the last minute with Mick literally only tossing his popper several meters out we all saw the massive fish turn and engulf the popper - unfortunately after all the hard work was done and we were in "clear water" the popper falls out - spectacular strike but nonetheless very disappointing!!  I also land the best GT of the trip just before stumps of 39kg and after seeing what happened to the old man in the morning I immediately give the drag a few extra notches (later that evening it tested at 20kg).  All the fish are looked after very well (as they should be!!) and are carefully brought abroad, placed on a foam mate, tagged with NSW fisheries GT tags, weighted and after a quick photo sent home to play another day!!

About to be Tagged & Weighed.

My 39kg GT.


Day 4: Great day but ever so frustrating!!  We had a lot of strikes from some bruiser GT's today but simply could not stay attached.  We only got reefed by one GT but would have pulled the hooks on 15+ fish, a couple at the strike but mostly after the fight was all settled, I personally lost eight in a row!!  We will be using singles next trip.

Boat side about to be tailed.
Mick's 26kg GT.

We have a slightly early finish and make the move to Weketa Lodge which is about a 1 hour drive up the coast.

Weketa Lodge.

Day 5: No more light tackle fishing for us – we stayed attached to a good percentage of our GT’s today but they were a far bit smaller than previously with most going between 14-17kg with Mick’s 24kg GT being the exception.  We did pick up a couple of nice incidentals with Dad nailing a thumping big 19kg Humphead and I convinced a 18kg Coral Trout to leave its home!!

Mick's 24kg GT.
Fighting the Humphead.
19kg of Humphead.
18kg Coral Trout

Day 6: Another good day on the water with more nice incidentals, with Red Bass, Spanish Mackerel and Mangrove Jack’s all making a welcome appearance.  The GT’s were playing ball also with several fish in the mid 20kg range.

7-8kg Red Bass.
4-5kg Mangrove Jack.
8-10kg Spanish.
25kg GT.
Fighting another GT.
26kg GT.
30kg GT.

Day 7: Last day – bummer!!!  But it was a great day, with some very nice GT’s, a few solid Barracuda that the hooks never seem to fall out of and another solid Coral Trout.  We also had a few more good Trout slap our poppers but never hooked up.

Crystal clear water!!
16kg Coral Trout

Getting pulled around!!
31kg GT.
26kg GT.
Last GT of the trip - 24kg.

Paul Vogl

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Re: New Caledonia Feb 2010 report
May 01, 2010, 11:14:05 AM

Sensational Brian...Your old man must be as tough as nails!!! What a great effort

Angus Hulme

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Re: New Caledonia Feb 2010 report
May 01, 2010, 12:32:27 PM
Super work Brian, looks like a wonderful trip with plenty of variety, and some very serious GTs. Top pics mate. What lures did you find the most successful? Any stickbaits get a run?

Cheers
Angus


Brian Rowley

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Re: New Caledonia Feb 2010 report
May 01, 2010, 03:31:26 PM
Super work Brian, looks like a wonderful trip with plenty of variety, and some very serious GTs. Top pics mate. What lures did you find the most successful? Any stickbaits get a run?

Cheers
Angus

Hi Angus, it was a great trip, we had to work hard for the fish and were throwing poppers all day; but GT's are just so addictive!!We basically only threw Halco Haymakers and River2Sea Dumbell poppers + a few of the guides poppers; there was no real standout between the Haymaker or Dumbell.  Occassional we tossed a stickbait, both surface and sinking and probably had more success on this trip with the sinking stickbaits.  We will increase our popper selection slightly for our next trip; although these two worked fine (and are very affordable); just to add a bit more variety.  The only thing we would do next trip is most definitely exclusively run single hooks.

Brian Rowley

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Re: New Caledonia Feb 2010 report
May 01, 2010, 03:34:15 PM

Sensational Brian...Your old man must be as tough as nails!!! What a great effort

Hi Paul, I just don't know how the old boy keeps going; its an excellent effort; I think it is more stubbornness than anything else haha??  Doesn't seem to matter where or what we are fishing for, I will be sitting down for a drink and the old man will still be working away!!

Stephen Polzin

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Re: New Caledonia Feb 2010 report
May 02, 2010, 04:44:30 PM
great stuff, geez those trout are magnificent!
Cairns Bommie Basher

Brad.Bell

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Re: New Caledonia Feb 2010 report
May 02, 2010, 05:18:39 PM
Respect!!!!!!!!!!  to your old man mate.  Can only hope i am still pluggin poppers at his age


Brian Rowley

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Re: New Caledonia Feb 2010 report
May 03, 2010, 04:00:14 AM
great stuff, geez those trout are magnificent!

Yeah the trout were a very welcome by-catch!!  The last day when Steve landed the 16kg fish I had one trout that we estimated at 25kg (it may well may been the same size as the others we got) but it was solid fish which slap my popper; I think I would have been in all sorts of trouble getting him out of the territory - but it sure would have been great fun trying!!  We also had another two strikes from trout of similar size as those we landed but the hooks never stuck on either fish.

Brian Rowley

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Re: New Caledonia Feb 2010 report
May 03, 2010, 04:03:36 AM
Respect!!!!!!!!!!  to your old man mate.  Can only hope i am still pluggin poppers at his age

Thanks mate; I certainly hope I am still tossing poppers at that age aswell.  He certainly goes well, I know how tried I am at the end of a full day throwing poppers but it doesn't seem to stop him, he never misses a day and is always out there the next day!!

Nathan Cefai

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Re: New Caledonia Feb 2010 report
May 03, 2010, 09:10:56 AM
Hi mate,are they the exact weights that u have mentioned ?? Did u get them on a scale ?

Nice work,who did you fish with ??

Brian Rowley

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Re: New Caledonia Feb 2010 report
May 03, 2010, 06:52:49 PM
Hi mate,are they the exact weights that u have mentioned ?? Did u get them on a scale ?

Nice work,who did you fish with ??

Hi mate; all the GT's were tagged with NSW fisheries tags and then weighted in a cradle mat to probably support the fish during the weighing process by the guide (one of the pic's in my report show a GT being tagged and the yellow cradle mat that was used to weigh the fish).  The scale was adjusted to take into account the weight of the mat - they were weighed at sea in a rocking boat but the weights should be pretty accurate.  The coral trouts and humphead were also weighed but all others fish weights were guessimates.

I fished with both my brothers and father - was a good trip but we had to work hard.

Stan Konstantaras

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Re: New Caledonia Feb 2010 report
May 03, 2010, 07:38:36 PM
Great Report Brian,
I am back up there in a few weeks.
As for the tags, they are the ones NSW Fisheries use, made by Hallprint in Aust, but these are New Cal Fisheries Tags run by New Cal researchers. ( At least they were in Jan 2010 when I was there)
I have worked with NSW Fisheries for a long time and I am  the ANSA NSW Tagging Officer, but also ANSA, under the Austag Program runs the biggest tagging program in the world, with 600,000 fish tagged in QLD alone for about 48,000 recaptures, all our tags come from Hallprint as well.
They look the same, but I had a close look at them in Jan and the branding was unique to New Cal.

Also your old man puts to shame some of the softies I was fishing with, and I have let them know this.
Cheers
stan

Brian Rowley

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Re: New Caledonia Feb 2010 report
May 03, 2010, 08:51:31 PM
Great Report Brian,
I am back up there in a few weeks.
As for the tags, they are the ones NSW Fisheries use, made by Hallprint in Aust, but these are New Cal Fisheries Tags run by New Cal researchers. ( At least they were in Jan 2010 when I was there)
I have worked with NSW Fisheries for a long time and I am  the ANSA NSW Tagging Officer, but also ANSA, under the Austag Program runs the biggest tagging program in the world, with 600,000 fish tagged in QLD alone for about 48,000 recaptures, all our tags come from Hallprint as well.
They look the same, but I had a close look at them in Jan and the branding was unique to New Cal.

Also your old man puts to shame some of the softies I was fishing with, and I have let them know this.
Cheers
stan

Ah nice mate, which area you going to, look forward to hearing how your trip goes!  It's a pretty awesome place to fish, this trip was our first to NC but we are planning another one already (but will most likely be next year now - bummer).

I didn't look at the tags that hard, the guide Etiene just said that he got them from NSW fisheries??; but you could also be totally right - either way it is great there are starting to tag these special fish!!

Haha mate; the old man does go well, doesn't matter what he is fishing for, just never stops!!

Have a great trip!!!

Brian Rowley

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Re: New Caledonia Feb 2010 report
May 04, 2010, 03:40:48 AM
A few more photos from our trip:
















Michael Gordon

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Re: New Caledonia Feb 2010 report
May 04, 2010, 05:56:03 AM
Great report Brian & some fantastic photos.I am heading over on Saturday to fish the same areas as you fished & your trip report has certainly got my pulse racing.Will hopefully be able to add a report of my own in a few weeks.Cheers.