New Caledonia - trip rerort for August visit

[Angus Hulme]

Fantastic report Brandon. All very impressive captures. Can you tell me.....do coral trout respond to a different retrieve than what you'd use for GTs? From my very limited experiences on small coral trout, they seemed to prefer a faster, straighter retrieve than GTs, which seem more excited by a stop, start blooping retrieve with lots of pauses. What has been your experience on this issue?

Chris, those lures of yours are looking great, I'm looking forward to seeing some more detailed pics and other colour schemes. 

Cheers
Angus

[Scott Maybury]

Awesome report Brandon, if I wasn't already excited about my trip with LPB in April I am now

I think it has just sunk in though that I need to up the weights at the gym and find a PE10 rod I am capable of fishing 

Do you know if Nomad have available any PE10 rods for clients to use on their charters? I am fishing Shoalwater in Feb and if I could try out a PE10 rod or two with them before buying one it might help me know what decision to make there...

[Brandon Khoo]

Angus, to be perfectly honest, I don't know! I've caught an awful lot of them over the years but generally as a by-catch. I can hardly claim to be an expert on trout although I sure love eating them.  

I have rarely gone out there to focus on coral trout alone and in fact, the number of times I have done this with stickbaits in the past I can count on less than one hand. I did do this at Marion this year and was lucky enough to land some real beauties. What I can say is that I have never used a really slow retrieve for coral trout. I tend to try to get the stickbait to dart around a bit. There is a big danger in too slow a retrieve for trout in shallow water in that you will get the fish shoot up, grab your lure and dive straight back down and reef you before you can react.

Reefies like trout, red bass and green jobfish are capable of much more speed than most people give them credit for. I've caught these on pencil poppers before so they will chase a lure being retrieved quickly. That said, I have found the most effective approach for trout is a sinking stickbait which you permit to sink down to them.

How aggressive they are will depend on how turned on they are and whether there is competition from other predators.

[Brandon Khoo]

Hi Scott

fishing for GTs is a combination of technique and strength. The strength factor though, is probably more important in heavy jigging and popping than just about any other form of fishing. I got my butt tanned as a combination of allowing myelf to get out of shape and some health issues. Nothing helps as much as gym work. You don't need to go crazy but if you haven't done this before, you'd be surprised at how much you can improve your strength after getting through the initial few sessions of great pain! I'll be heading back in once I feel a bit better.

Nomad carry the Shimano GT Special. This rod can be used with PE10 although the rod states it is a PE8 rod. I would not hesitate to use PE10 on it as they rod is really bloody strong. I can't remember but are you the one who recently acquired a RP GT79R? This rod can handle PE10. If not, you may find this rod quite suitable. It is a bit more forgiving in the tip than some other models out there.

Awesome report Brandon, if I wasn't already excited about my trip with LPB in April I am now

I think it has just sunk in though that I need to up the weights at the gym and find a PE10 rod I am capable of fishing 

Do you know if Nomad have available any PE10 rods for clients to use on their charters? I am fishing Shoalwater in Feb and if I could try out a PE10 rod or two with them before buying one it might help me know what decision to make there...

[Angus Hulme]

Thanks for that Brandon, I suppose I was more referring to popper fishing for trout rather than stickbaits, but your comments are very helpful nonetheless. I am making some stickbaits as well as poppers for an upcoming trip, so I will try both with a variety of retrieve methods and see what works. Now GTs will be the primary target of course, however the odd solid trout would be very much welcomed. 

Anyhow, your insights into the art of popping are always very informative, and I always make sure I glean as much info from your posts as I possibly can.

Cheers
Angus

[Peter Lowe]

Same as every other comment Brandon - great report - awsome fishing. Man you guys caught and saw some beauties - Hmmm do you thing the bigger one you were happy did not to commit to you popper, would have been a 70 ?

Hey Malcolm - those shirts havent faded at all.......

I feel after reading the report I have been their, thanks for that - but I think I will have to go myself to ensure all is good.....

Well done - RESPECT

 

[Brandon Khoo]

Angus, you will definitely catch more trout on stickbaits than poppers. The king of popper-captured coral trout is Eric le Guyader, the maker of Orion lures. Actually, he's also one of the best GT fishermen on the planet to boot. Eric is very understated and simply lets his captures speak for themselves.

I understand Eric uses a very slow retrieve but creates a huge pop with the lures he uses like his own ConoCono. I've posted these photos before but check these out if you haven't seen them:





I wish I could catch a coral trout like the ones above. Come to think of it, I wish I could cath some of the GTs Eric manages to catch!

Pete - it's very difficult to estimate the actual size of a fish in the water but what I can say is bloody huge and yes, at least in my view, upwards of 60kg

[Andre van Wyk]

Just plain awesome Brandon.... great detailed report as always, and some fantastic fishing and insight...
Sorry to hear your health hasn't been up to top order recently Brandon but I hope the little dose of Vitamin GT did you well... and seeing the pics looks like you certainly did pretty damn well despite not being 100%!!!

Congrats on some epic fish and a great time... LPB has been on the dream list for a long time for me... for the moment due to costs it will remain there, but its good to know it, and its operators, David and Rudy, are just as good, if not better than imagined.... One day it'll work out!

Brandon - on another note, is there any chance, and I know this may be a big ask, but is there any chance you could post up a pic of your popper and stickbait collection with labels to each lure? I know this is a huge ask, but we cannot get ANY of these lures here in SA, and I would love to be able to have a good look at whats what....

Thans again for an awesome report, and hopefully you rest up and feel better soon.
A

[Chris Young]

Those trout are dinosaurs

[Scott Maybury]

Thanks Brandon, I am indeed the one who just acquired a RF 79R, and in fact I also have a shimano GT Special, so if these should do for NC I will just have to up the weights training!

Cheers

[Brandon Khoo]

Andre, if you realised how big my lure collection is, you'd know how big an ask your request is! 

I'll see what I can do with regard to some of my favourite poppers and stickbaits - but I will need some time to do this.

Just plain awesome Brandon.... great detailed report as always, and some fantastic fishing and insight...
Sorry to hear your health hasn't been up to top order recently Brandon but I hope the little dose of Vitamin GT did you well... and seeing the pics looks like you certainly did pretty damn well despite not being 100%!!!

Congrats on some epic fish and a great time... LPB has been on the dream list for a long time for me... for the moment due to costs it will remain there, but its good to know it, and its operators, David and Rudy, are just as good, if not better than imagined.... One day it'll work out!

Brandon - on another note, is there any chance, and I know this may be a big ask, but is there any chance you could post up a pic of your popper and stickbait collection with labels to each lure? I know this is a huge ask, but we cannot get ANY of these lures here in SA, and I would love to be able to have a good look at whats what....

Thans again for an awesome report, and hopefully you rest up and feel better soon.
A

[Brock Arifovic]

Brandon, what an awsome trip, i need to know more as i trying to make as trip there in the next 2 yrs, also what are the sticks that malcom used in some of the pics?
hope to hear more about the trip one day.
Malcom great pics mate, loooks like you guys had a ball.

Luke best of luck on your new trip coming, hope you have plenty of pics coming our way soon.

[Aaron Concord]

Brandon,

Brillant report mate! Terrific captures for 'off peak New Cal'!!!!!!!!

looks like you and Malcolm had a ball.

Malcolm, that stick bait looks familiar!!!

congrats to the both of you.


Luke, you better not get a 60 you bugger!!!!!!!!

Aaron.

[Andre van Wyk]

Brandon - I realised after I posted that asking what I did might be a little crazy!!
Hahahahahaaha!! I figured it might eb a HUGE undertaking for ya.... So please, take your time! :-)
I guess what I am looking for is some form of comprehensive "Good" GT/Doggie?YFT popper and Stickbait list, with images to help me indentify which are which ( Brands - model etc ) unfortunately none of this stuff is available here, so the only place to see it is on line.... and even that is a chore at times for those without knowing just wher to look...

Even a brief glimpse at your "favourites" would be awesome, thanks bud! 

[Greg Burt]

Andre, if Brandon takes his time on that project it will never get finished, because he keeps adding to it.

Mate here is a roundup of the Blackjack models, c/o Bluewater.