Recent trip to Tanzania

[Khai Huang]

Hi all, new forum member so thought I'd open the account with a quick trip report of my first popping/jigging trip in Tanzania in August.
Was over in East Africa already for study/work and managed to fit in 5 days out with Jason and Mady out of Dar es Salaam to Latham Island.

The yellowfin were on the chew but it ended up being a bit early in the season for the Dogtooth. Although we did mis one big fish - reported here:

http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/outposts/post/giant-dogtooth-tuna-becomes-shark-bait/

Highlight for me was first time popping for GT around latham. Ended up with a few good fish in the end, standout lure was the orion cona cona (incidentally, anyone know how to get them easily from Aus?). Now have the bug and am in fact heading out for a day of GT popping in the whitsundays tomorrow. If we have any success will add another post.

[Khai Huang]

[Thomas Maxted]

Khai
Awesome trip
 To bad that monster doggie was sharked and nice yellowfin.
What gear did you use on this trip?
I cant wait for the Whitsundays report!
  Thomas

[Gerhard Delport]

Very nice fish.

Counting down the days to go fish Mafia Island in Feb 2015.

[Khai Huang]

Very nice fish.

Counting down the days to go fish Mafia Island in Feb 2015.

Mafia should be amazing and a great trip. Jason mentioned there was heaps more popping spots all around the island for big GT (just less doggies and jigging).

Khai
Awesome trip
 To bad that monster doggie was sharked and nice yellowfin.
What gear did you use on this trip?
I cant wait for the Whitsundays report!
  Thomas

In terms of gear, as the trip wasn't locked in when I left Aus and I was overseas for 6m I couldn't bring my own gear. Jason was kind enough to lend me some of his tackle for both jigging and popping. Reels were stella 14000, 18000 and 20000 mixture of sw and swb. Rods were the saltwater tackle race point rods for popping and outer banks rods for jigging. Can't remember exactly what the line was.

[Khai Huang]

Also as promised,

Managed to head out today with Richard from barra2billfish, great bloke and he knows his stuff. Mainly popping around Hamilton Island in the whitsundays.

Started off the day with a nice coral trout on stick bait (which will be lunch tomorrow!).

[Ryan Keith]

Welcome, Khai. Looks like you got a few nice fish for your first popping trip. What, may I ask, were you studying in Africa? I'm a biologist and we tend to all get drawn over there at some point.

Also good to hear you experienced some success in the Whitsundays. If you were you using that Stick Shadd all day, I'm not totally surprised you dropped a couple of fish. I think they're a really great lure when it comes to attracting strikes - especially in that fusilier colour - but I've missed a disproportionately high number of fish using them (when compared to, say, a popper). Just my personal opinion from anecdotal evidence. A little more on that here:
http://www.gtpopping.com/forum/index.php/topic,6403.msg54852.html#msg54852

[Khai Huang]

Welcome, Khai. Looks like you got a few nice fish for your first popping trip. What, may I ask, were you studying in Africa? I'm a biologist and we tend to all get drawn over there at some point.

Also good to hear you experienced some success in the Whitsundays. If you were you using that Stick Shadd all day, I'm not totally surprised you dropped a couple of fish. I think they're a really great lure when it comes to attracting strikes - especially in that fusilier colour - but I've missed a disproportionately high number of fish using them (when compared to, say, a popper). Just my personal opinion from anecdotal evidence. A little more on that here:
http://www.gtpopping.com/forum/index.php/topic,6403.msg54852.html#msg54852

Thanks for the tips Ryan, I was using a nomad cubera 125 that seemed to be attracting most of the strikes from GT that day. Interesting read about the stick shad, it is a good looking lure with a nice action but will definitely look into alternate rigging options.

[Ryan Keith]

Thanks for the tips Ryan, I was using a nomad cubera 125 that seemed to be attracting most of the strikes from GT that day. Interesting read about the stick shad, it is a good looking lure with a nice action but will definitely look into alternate rigging options.

Love the cuberas. Very popular lures, for good reason. You've probably already come across this info hereabouts, but it's fairly common to rig a cubera with a single at the back and back-to-back (Baker-rigged) singles under the belly. Everyone has personal preferences; that's mine, and it rarely misses.