A New Caledonian Sojourn

“Oh… ugh… what the… ???“ The splash said it all, the size of the eddy around where his lure had just landed was plain to see. The line was, unfortunately, slack with a failed hook-up.

Hi, my name is Joey and this is my New Caledonia report from a recent trip with fellow angler Joel Carpenter. Joel is from Queensland and I’m from New South Wales. We were aboard a centre console fisherman as guests of Etienne via Ocean Blue Fishing Adventures for a few days to experience the world of popper fishing targeting Giant Trevally (GT). The charter is a four day/five night fishing excursion to New Caledonia, fishing the reefs and lagoons for two days out of La Foa and two days out of Bourail, both on the west coast. We were met at the airport and transferred to comfortable, quiet surf camp-style bungalows. The only challenge was the French language and lack of money exchange facilities, I had no perception of the dominance of the French culture in this island paradise! Despite the surrounding English-speaking countries, very little English is used here. But Etienne and our other guide Manu (Emmanuel) were able to rise above this and easily communicate with us ignorant Aussies!

Giant Trevally are superb fighters and often find the reef or other structure before you can do anything but grunt with the force of their runs. The take is spectacular, very visual, especially when the waters surrounding the island are exceptionally clear. Staghorn and other sprawling reef formations, bommies, weed and sand beds are all clearly visible beneath the surface even though a light breeze ruffles the surface. Running across the inner lagoon enroute to favoured locations is an experience in itself; the differing blue, aqua and green colours dancing on the sea bed are simply stunning.

Back to day one. Joel had just missed a GT on his first cast, using a goodly sized popper of bright colour. He used what could commonly be regarded as heavy gauge tackle – 80 and 100lb braid and 200 lb leaders, and shortish heavy duty Illex rods coupled with what I thought were the biggest Saltiga eggbeaters they could find. The experience of casting 180 – 200 gm lures effectively over some distance takes a few cycles to perfect, and then making the popper work is another challenge. Joel, who normally fishes from a kayak and has very fine, light and responsive tackle, had hardly mastered holding such a lump of fish-fighting machinery when set upon by one of our quarry.

Over the morning we managed to boat a few fish of decent size, GT’s to about 21 kg, and red bass to about 10 kg. The afternoon was a bit quieter as the moon and tides were all against us, as was the weather . . it was too calm. Apparently, increasing winds mean more responsive fish.

The sheer pulling power of these brutes is amazing. In the normal fashion of experience, we had backed off our drag pressures a bit as there seemed to be line-busting levels of drag set. Once hooked on a fish, the catch cry from Etienne . . “ more drag . . more drag . . . . ” Mate, we did no wanna go for a swim for as sure as the drag be increased we would have been hauled over the gunwales! Or worse, we’d have the whole kit and caboodle reefed from our clammy, nervous clasp.

Much the same scenario greeted us on the next day, though a storm front was moving through as we were making our way out to the chosen location for the start of the day’s fishing. Etienne was prepared for the deluge, but Joel and I, thinking tropical paradise and rain don’t necessarily mix (especially when on holidays) hadn’t much to protect ourselves from the rain. Never mind, we dried in the sun and breeze after the rain. And casting afterward warmed us up. As was the norm during this trip, darker coloured lures seemed to work well and several good strikes were had.

For the third and fourth day we were transferred to another lodge further up the coast and from here we thought we were to fish at a slightly quieter pace. The morning had us drifting off the shoreline which bristled with a healthy growth of mangroves. However, though the fish were smaller, their aggression seemed ten fold at times. Schools of trevally, long tom, barracuda, tarpon and wolf herring, and the odd mangrove jack were all feeding on some hapless school of baitfish. Long tom around a meter in length could be seen tail walking across the calm waters of the lagoon after their prey and large boils in the water all around pinpointed the active fish locations. The technique was to drift to the fish once we had found them. A few strikes were had, the school moved onto other grounds and we were back into a search pattern across the bommies, holes and channels that abound the area of the lagoon. I found that fish were striking at or near the the initial impact of the lure with the water, particularly in the clearer area’s of the waters we fished.

Joel and I both managed simultaneous good hook ups on sub 10 kg trevally. However, Joel, using the heavier outfit and heavier lure managed to have two trevally impale themselves on the quite sizeable treble hooks. Unfortunately we didn’t get a picture of the event as the second ruffian managed to free itself at the boat. Joel managed another similar event a little later… Irish luck I reckon! Such is the aggression of these great little sportfish.

The large treble hooks had their barbs flattened out, both to preserve the fish and manifest an easy release. It was pleasing to note that even though we caught many fish we did not experience a single mortality. All fish were released and swam away powerfully. A positive highlight considering the flattened barbs, we managed to retrieve a lure with leader intact that was lost during one fish’s blistering run. It was found floating amongst some debris later in the day likely disgorged from the mouth of the fish post line parting.

So, I hear you ask, what are the bad parts of the story. Well, there are a couple to mention.

Firstly, the third member of the party had a sudden and unexpected exit from the line up for due to some over-exuberance of a post office clerk in his home town in northern NSW. Presenting his passport for renewal, though still current and legal, the clerk promptly put the document to death with a pair of scissors while the remainder of the paperwork was sorted out by the applicant, much to his horror. Leaving the next day, all attempts to sort out a replacement passport came to nought. I could hear the pain and frustration in his voice when we spoke the evening before departure.

And yours truly had a near death experience when at the check-in counter at Sydney Airport. The attendant refused to allow me onto the flight, claiming a spelling mistake in the e-ticket meant I was a grave and dangerous risk to the safety of the airline. Oh yes, I could go and get it sorted out and come back, but the catch was that the booking agency didn’t open until an hour or so after the planes departure… bad luck! No amount of documentation or identification would convince the silly buggers that it was a simple grammatical error, though they were more than happy to supply another ticket. So much for the security risk! Realising that other parties were already organised around me and that common sense has nothing to do with airline travel booking clerks and particular Australian carriers I was left with no option other than to fork out, again. Bugger – fantastic plastic to the rescue!

Both of us enjoyed the fishing, the company and the scenery that was part of this trip. The fishing itself proved very tiring, Joel and I both requiring ‘ rest periods ‘ between attack sessions on the heavy popper gear, probably more so I. The food was excellent and accommodation though basic was certainly very comfortable and was always a joy to retire after a days activities on the water. We return to our daily lives in Aus with a lot of great memories and some great pictures too. The people we met were friendly, helpful and courteous, always willing to go that extra yard to make your experience a memorable one.

And they have a wicked sense of humour… only wish I knew what they were laughing at???

Thank you Ocean Blue!

PS… When are we going to Ono Island???
PPS… Etienne, hope you enjoy those new dark poppers and stick baits!

Joey Kolossa