GT Popping Junkies, A Fiji Fix
April 12th, 2011 | By Ocean Blue
Our trip to Ono
After the first hour on the water it was pretty obvious that this place had the potential to really fire up. The wind had turned north east and strengthened during the morning transit forcing us to hide on the western side of the reef. The western side of the Great Astrolabe is very different to the eastern side. It is full of large studded bommies and shallower water where as the eastern side drops away rapidly. It does however still scream fish. Within twenty minutes of casting we had hooked and landed a couple of red bass, a blue cod and a barracuda. I managed a strike from a solid GT on popper but unfortunately I didn’t stay connected. We peppered that area for a while as Piero headed the boat slowly toward the northern end of the reef. We didn’t manage any GT’s in the first few hours although we did encounter several follows and strikes.
We decided to cast lures at a shallower section of the reef and drag them into a deeper passage. This type of popping reminded me of the stuff we did in New Caledonia last year, an area where we typically throw big poppers around. Glenn had tied one on and it didn’t take long for him to hook up and land the first GT of the trip. It didn’t come as easily as we had anticipated but it was a solid fish of around 25 kilos and enough to get me excited. The rest of the afternoon we all managed some solid strikes and hook ups however we only landed a few small GT’s. The wind was really howling by the afternoon and it was difficult for us to reach the proven popping areas. I again had a bit of bad luck with a good sized GT. After a solid strike the fish ran hard into the reef and unfortunately the belly swivel on my lure popped resulting in one lost fish. We rounded out the afternoon with a swim and although the day only saw a few GT’s landed there was enough by catch and interest to keep us casting for the whole day.
Day two of GT popping Fiji was very similar to day one with strong winds and only a few solid fish landed so I will jump straight into day three’s description which was probably one of our best. It started off with a bang! We were heading south on the eastern side of the great Astrolabe. Glenn managed to get the first strike within minutes, this time he was plugging a sinking stick bait into some deeper water and by all accounts the fish looked solid. It went hard in some pretty unforgiving ground but he managed to pull it out of the reef and boat it for a quick photo. The fish was around the 27 Kilogram mark and a very welcome start to the day.
Tim and I were working poppers off the front of Piero’s 28ft fibreglass centre consol casting towards the shallow part of the reef while Glenn was working a stick bait off the stern, casting into the deeper water. Glenn managed three GT’s and a heap of red bass doing this before he convinced both Tim and I to change our technique. I am pretty sure Tim tied on a seven ounce Richter plug while I opted for a Green Sebile Stick Shad. Within five minutes Tim was on and connected to his first solid Kadavu GT. He had to get aggressive with the fish early, the area was covered in coral encrusted trenches with big bommies and his fish wasn’t really letting up. Some skillful boat driving aided Tim in landing his first really solid Fiji GT. It also marked the start of a pretty hot little session.
After hooking nothing but the reef and having to go for a swim to retrieve my new lure I was pretty excited when I managed to draw a strike and stay connected to a solid fish. Again it went hard but I managed to pull it from the reef and boat it for a quick photo before release. I landed about two or three GT’s and a couple of red bass in that little morning session with both Tim and Glenn landing more than me. After lunch we had moved further north, again we were peppering the outside of the Astrolabe on the eastern side of the Kadavu Group. The red bass were teeming in that session. We all managed to land some solid GT’s but what also made the afternoon exciting was the by-catch. Blue fin trevally were common along with some cod, barracuda and green jobfish. Glenn picked up the angler of the day award for the third day in a row with a solid GT late in the afternoon. I’m not sure if it would have gone thirty kilos, but the strike and fight was spectacular and the whole reason why I love chasing these fish. It took a stick bait off the surface leaving a huge crater in the oceans surface. It was bloody amazing to watch, and very hard not to get jealous.
I think by the end of the day we had landed in excess of fifteen GT’s between us with probably a similar number of strikes, dropped fish and follows. The amount of by-catch thrown in left us all with aching backs and sore arms. Luckily you can get a massage back at the resort for less than thirty Australian dollars, it is a good way to loosen the aching arms and back up before the next day.
Day four was probably my best day and I think the only time on the trip that I managed to snare the angler of the day prize. It came by means of a thirty kilogram GT in the first half an hour of the day. Again the fish fell victim to a sinking stick bait cast into deeper water on a fading tide. Long sweeping movement of the rod and longer pauses really seemed to be the most successful technique of the trip. After conversation with Piero this did seem a little strange. He says that more commonly larger poppers worked erratically seemed to produce better numbers of fish however we were experiencing the direct opposite. Pencil poppers were also producing good numbers of GT’s and plenty of by-catch. They were always the lure we turned to when nothing else seemed to work.
Anyway day four saw a lot of fish landed on top water lures. It was also the first day that stick baits seemed to dull in the afternoon session while chugger’s took their place on the thrown. I’m not sure if it was the clearer water or the area we were fishing but poppers really came into their own that afternoon. I used both Fisherman HP tail 150’s and Nomad cubera 125’s with great success. Tim and Glenn both used pencils and ‘I’ cups and also did quite well. Tim was the bluefin trevally king that afternoon. I stopped counting after his fifth solid fish off the surface. Day four was also the afternoon that we spotted two free swimming sailfish on the drop off. Both of them were circling the boat all lit up. Glenn cast a stick bait in front of the lead fish’s nose and for a second it looked like it was going to strike. Its sail came up and it changed colour to an iridescent blue. Both of the fish swam off after a few more minutes of circling into the deep blue, what a site!
The rest of the GT popping wasn’t as action packed as days three and four for top water angling. We still managed some respectable fish but it was at times very hard work and a lot of casts between fish. We were also challenged by weather at times and it just goes to show that even at a remote place like Ono Island Kadavu, fishing is still fishing. It can be tough, just like anywhere else.
My experience at Oneta was one of the best of my life. It has a lot more to offer than just fishing, it really is about the whole experience. Going back to the resort each day to the food, comfortable beds, great company and a massage completes the experience and I am all ready organising my return GT popping adventure to the islands, I cant wait!
Brad Bell
Posted in Fiji, Fiji Reports
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