Shoalwater Bay

[Andrew Poulos]

Hi all,

Has anyone been or heard much about the Nomad Shoalwater Bay trips ?

I just received my info pack on all the trips they do, and while I would love to go on some of the other ones, pricewise with a wedding coming up will be hard to cough up the cash. The Shoalwater bay is more within my immediate range , so if anyone has any feedback much appreciated.

Andrew

[Luke Wyrsta]

Hi all,

Has anyone been or heard much about the Nomad Shoalwater Bay trips ?

I just received my info pack on all the trips they do, and while I would love to go on some of the other ones, pricewise with a wedding coming up will be hard to cough up the cash. The Shoalwater bay is more within my immediate range , so if anyone has any feedback much appreciated.

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

Brandon is scheduled to go to Shoalwater very soon with Damon.

He should be able to let you know more info (both before and after).

I was also talking to Neil the other day and this came up as well - lot's of big GTs in green water. Sounds like a great place, can't wait to get there myself. Maybe Neil can fill in with a bit more of his knowledge about the place.

Cheers,
Luke

[Neil]

Love to be going myself but work won't go away.
Have seen the footage of last years trip and it looked great. Plenty of big fish in wicked terrain and the price is cheap for what you get. The guys going are good blokes, knowledgeable and friendly.
If the time and money is ok, go!!

Neil

[Brandon Khoo]

Hi Andrew

From what I understand, Nomad have done enough exploring in that area to decide they are going to run a charter there next year in 2008. Apparently, last year, they copped a hiding from the GTs in this location! I think they encountered more really big GTs here than anywhere else.

Shoalwater is GT specific. We won't be fishing for much, if anything else so unless you're a real GT afficionado.......... The other trip they run which is GT focussed is to Bugatti Reef but you will get other species at Bugatti like the various reef species and mackeral.

If you can make it, I'm sure it will be a tremendous trip. If you do come, rig up heavy. Neil has got me preparing heavier leaders than I've ever used before! I normally fish 80lb braid but for this trip, I may be going heavier.

[Andrew Poulos]

How big would you be going in the leaders ?

[Brandon Khoo]

How big would you be going in the leaders ?

twisted leaders at 120 pounds running at about 2.5 to 3 metres attached to a single strand of about 3 feet of 330lb leader. It's heavy!!

[Andrew Poulos]

oh, that heavy!

How do you attach you're twisted 120lb to a single 330lb?

[Brandon Khoo]

crimp is the easiest unless you like tying nail knots which is pretty tough with a leader of that size

[Greg Burt]

Wecome back Bernie, at least you got away, had my first trip out wide since Xmas last Sun and chased home by 25-30knt SE bluster [not cyclonic though] that came through 6hrs earlier than was  first forcast.
 Q: What is the advantage of the twisted leader? with my game fishing and jigging caps on I see 120-150lb mono leeder and the 1mt of 330lb. The only stand out difference I can see in popping is casting. I was going to try and make one this afternoon from Luke's instructions but thought I'd get my reasons, whatfors and leeder sizes worked out first.
 
 

[Brandon Khoo]

bloody hell - unfortunately fishing is like that sometimes. Well, we gave the restaurants and bars in Port Vila a workout anyway!

The only application which I use twisted leaders for is popping and the primary advantage is the braid to leader connection. If you have a bimimi double, its a loop to loop type connection with a very small knot which passes through the guides very easily. For jigging, I don't really care how big the knot is as long as it can pass through the guides. I nearly always use an albright/bimimi connection although a friend of mine who has probably forgotten more about jigging than I have learned use a single strand of braid to his albright.

[Greg Burt]

[Andrew Poulos]

Hi Greg,

I use twisted leaders for alot of my Sydney fishing.

For #1 & #2, I  use  10 and 15kg twistys.

On my stradic 8000 with 20-25lb main line I use generally a 15kg twisty. That covers most pelagics and kings for when they dive deep(remembering I'm landbased off the rocks so tend to fish a bit heavier). Tuna and the like dont have the personality of kings so you could get away with 10kg ones would be my guess, and that would keep the visibility down.

My 50lb outfit I have at the moment has 24kg twisted leader. But also have 60 and 80lb ones made up for really rough areas.

Cant help jigging wise though as I don't get much opportunity to practice that, only if I score a ride out.

By the sounds of the terrain at Shoalwater , it pays to go as heavy as possible.

cheers

PS like you, 2 days of southerly 20knot winds and my spot was hammered again this morning.

[Greg Burt]

Thanks Andrew, I guessed on the weather by how many Syd members were on line.
 I've chased up Nomad for some info on Shoalwater Bay, I think it's thier last gig before our Marion Reef trip.
 

[Brandon Khoo]

I didn't even think of that! Andrew - why don't you come on our Marion reef trip instead?

Greg, I think you'd be surprised at how compact the twisted leaders look if you do them properly. For your other applications, what type of fishing it is for and you need to cast? Don't forget that the primary reason we use these incredibly heavy twisted leaders on GTs is for abrasion resistance purposes. If you don't have this problem with tuna who fight on the surface, you may be able to go much lighter or perhaps not even use a twisted leader in the first place.

Once I am having to deal with big reef beasties like coral trout, red bass with the off GT thrown in, I'd be looking at a minimum of 80lb mono for the twistie

I think I've gotten even further off topic now!

Thanks Andrew, I guessed on the weather by how many Syd members were on line.
 I've chased up Nomad for some info on Shoalwater Bay, I think it's thier last gig before our Marion Reef trip.
 

[Greg Burt]

Thanks Bernie, I had seen 'bungie' mentioned and thought that was in the twisted leeder benifits,now I know its mainly for abraision I'll stick to my normal fluro leeders except aromd beacons or shallows.