Light Popping On The Reef

[John Sykes]

Hi All,
   I have a mate coming up to Townsville at the end of the month and weather permitting I would like to take him popping in the shallows on the tops of the reefs.  Is popping the shallower bommies with 30lb a viable option?  I know I will get blown away by the occasional bigger fish but I'm not geared up for anything heavier at this point.  Gear is 5000 Stellas with 7'6" Custom blanks throwing handmade poppers and stickbaits.  (Been busy on the lathe lately!). 

   Good plan or am I dreaming?
Cheers,
    John.

[Trevor Skinner]

John,

If the resident fish weigh less than 3kg you're good to go.

Regards,



Trevor

[Trevor Skinner]

My apologies John, that was a rather flippant answer. Trying to be humorous rather than helpful.

I've not fished the bommies off Townsville but fishing for GTs in shallow, difficult water has some similarities regardless of the location. IMHO 30lb would be pushing it, even on small GTs. Fishing 30lb is one of my favourite things to do but getting even small GTs out of a metre or two of water in rocky or coral terrain is an expensive exercise. It's not a matter of drag, the 5000 is more than capable of stopping the run, it's just that with 50 metres of line out and maybe another half metre of flex in the rod tip there is just too much give in the system.

The fun, however, is in the trying. Time to practice that slim beauty until you can do it blindfolded.


Hope this helps.

Regards,


Trevor 

[John Sykes]

Hi Trevor,
   Thanks for the reply, I am well aware that I am up against it when it comes to GT's in this regard.  However, the bycatch in the form of Trout ect. has appeal for me as well so GT's won't be the sole focus and in terms of gear I have a huge stockpile of Poppers thanks to some hours on the Lathe lately so that is not a concern.  I guess I was more after if anyone out there does it with regularity and what to expect in terms of species encountered and ideal structure.  You're right though, trying is fun!  Just looking to broaden my horizons away Queenies and Longtails on the 30lb gear.

    I traded a spare baitcasting reel for an 18000 Saragossa with a spare spool today, pretty stoked as it was just one of those right place, right time sort of things so I guess I'm in the heavy popping game now albeit at the entry level.  That's ok, it's a start!

[Trevor Skinner]

John,

GTs won't be your biggest problem. If you get Spangled Emperor on those bommies you're in deep trouble!

Enjoy.


Trevor

[Jon Li]

Grouper in the shallow reefs will be hard to extract , unstoppable n stitch you good on the reef even when using PE5 and drag set at 8 kg .

Jon .

[Andrew Susani]

All good problems to have John!  Getting their heads turned quickly is the key!  From our experience in shallow, snaggy water, it can also pay to keep your casts relatively short as well, or position your boat so you are close to deeper water where you can steer the fish into.

Let us know how you go... I live in Mackay and have only just gotten around to learning how to turn poppers on lathes.  We have used stickbaits along shallow sexy looking dropoffs out from here but never caught much in the way of reef fish.  Maybe you have to go wayyyyy out...

As long as you have a backup plan in case things get ugly (e.g. 50lb outfit followed by a proper GT outfit), I am sure you will have a lot of fun. 

[John Sykes]

Thanks for the replies everyone, Andrew, now that I have aquired an 80lb outfit I am sure the temptation to find some Trevs will be strong.  The weather even looks like it might play the game.....

[dylan squarci]

Hi John. I did quiet a lot of light tackle popping on the reefs out of Innisfail over summer. I was only using 20lb braid on a 5000 spin reel. its awesome fun with coral trout, emperors and other various reefies regularly coming aboard. we would regularly hook a GT or big cod and get busted off, you will lose 7 out of 10 GTs you hook. I would recommend small subsurface stickbaits instead of poppers as they seem to get more sttention for some reason. but as I said. awesome fun and you catch a huge variety of fish.

[Titahi brown]

I have a light PE 2-3 Zenaq matched with a z4500 that i use for fishing the reef, medium sized softbaits worked with quick sweeps and retrieve
( erratic darting action) get lots of attention, and arent as hard on the wallet if something large gets snagged.  Jigheads 1/2 ounce to 1 ounce with strong hooks make and softbaits of your choice