Brad Jay and Glenn's New Cal report Jan 2010

I was going to write an article about our recent trip to New Caledonia but I have a fair bit going on in the next few months with work and moving etc so I thought, stuff it I will put all the photos up here for everyone to have a look at instead. That way you can enjoy the picks without ever having to fork out 7 or so bucks for a magazine.

Jay Glenn and I set off to New Cal mid Jan of this year in pursuit of some BIGGG GT’s. Unfortunately as you may already know we didn’t really get blessed with favorable weather conditions for our journey, this did make things very difficult at times. We were fishing with reputable new cal charter organization LPB. Quite a few of our friends had fished the area in the past while doing reasonably well. Rudy our skipper and guide and Rastafani the decky were really good company during our stay and made things pretty easy for us. Rudy and Rasta Picked us up after our first night in Noumea (and to many number 1’s which is the local beer) at about 0530 on the first morning of fishing. Our boat was a 27ft edge Water named the GT monster.

Location: well we were somewhere in the south west of the lagoon camping on what was aptly named “Wild Island”. Sea snakes and birds crawled and flew all over this place, my first encounter with the snakes was on night one when in the dark of night sitting by the camp fire one slithered straight over my feet. We did all eventually become accustomed to the creatures even when they were trying to get into our tents at night, “make sure you zip up your tents boys” a quote from our guide Rudy……(jay, did you always remember this advice, cough….hahaha)


Wild Island

Our time on the first couple of days was spent inside the lagoon popping reefs rising from as deep as 55 meters to only a few meters or even dry on occasions. The areas looked extremely fishy and although we did manage a fair amount of by catch it was really really really HARD slogging at times.


First of the trip

We all had a minimum of two GT combos both PE10 and PE12. The most common lure weights ranged from 170-250g unrigged. I concentrated mainly on the GT3 ultra Big mouths and 190g cono cono’s with GT recorder 8/0’s and my 150 and 170g Weezels in between. I am pretty sure jay was using the same as well as patriot master bombs around the 220g size. Glenn used I cups and his favorite cono 150 when he got tired. A Variety of stick baits including bigfoot’s, craftbaits, carpenters and black jacks were also used with a fair amount of success.

Pretty sure on day one Glenn landed a GT of around the 17 or so KG size after not much casting. We had a few really big strikes and follows on the first day but from memory we only landed 3 GT’s for the afternoon (all Glenn’s) as well as some by catch of blue cod (the hardest fighting fish in the ocean, hahaha) bass, trout, tuna, barracuda etc etc


Jays toothy cuda

Day two, we were amped after far to many mantas and number 1’s (local ale) it didn’t matter so much because again the weather was puss for most of the day. Jay and I managed to score a couple of GT’s as well as some solid red bass while Glenn got another couple of GT’s as well. I think the biggest for the trip was at that stage about 23kg (me and pretty happy to as it was on the “pilbara sunrise” coloured Weezel). Again Glenn had a solid hook up on a fish well over 30 but unfortunately he didn’t land it


Dinner

Day three, had some GPS trouble and the bad weather also confined us to the lagoon again. All good managed a few more GT’s reefies like bass, jobfish, tuna, barracuda. Pretty sure this was also the day we had a really eerie late arvo glass off. It was very very very lat and the sun came out, again not very good weather for the G busses but pleasant none the less. Had a jig and managed a small trout before loosing about 8 jigs between us to barracuda, Jay got SMASHED by a pretty good sized dog tooth, unfortunately didn’t land it


GT monster glass off

Day 4 finally got “outside” for a proper dig just for a couple of hours. I managed to get busted off by what looked like a large GT, it appeared to bite the front of my popper on the leader, luckily the lure popped up so we could get it. Good arvo for us, Jay landed his MONSTER WWAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO and probably the fish of the trip at 40kg’s, a first for Rudy at LPB, well done mate. Glenn managed 2 GT’s one tipping the scales at around 33kg, not long but a very fat fish, rest and more beer followed that night


Fish of the trip I would say


Biggest of the trip at 35kg’s and a new PB for me

Last day was only a half day fishing and was probably mine, I landed about 7 red bass and the biggest GT of the trip at 35kg’s. Glenn got quite a few petite GT’s and jobfish while I also landed a nice trout and jay also snagged a few bass and other reefies. The 35KG gt was a new PB for me by about 2KG’s but hey, ill take it

We went back to Noumea probably a little disappointed with the fishing but not with the experience, company or the trip as a whole. Great company great beer and an all round great experience was had.

I ended my overseas holiday by spending another week on a tropical island resort with my wife who flew into Noumea the day after our charter. I had 40kg GT’s swimming around my over water bungalow on 2 occasions, was pretty hard to take..

Cheers and I hope you like the pics

PS - I want to place some emphasis one thing. We still managed quite a lot of decent fish and in the report it may look as though we did really well - but believe me it was hard work. There were a lot of hours in between casting and one occasion for me a whole day in between fish. Yes we got some great captures but it just goes to show that in one of the best fishing locations in the world, it can still be tough going……………………


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Great Story

Mon, 2010-02-01 10:42

& sensational pics, well done mate. 

soupster51's picture

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Tough to take

Mon, 2010-02-01 10:51

Great write up Brad. The pictures are super; sounds like you had a pretty good trip. Know the story about hours on the water. I've only been out twice in Micro so far and yet to get a hook-up on a popper. They love to troll here. I'll be changing that with lots of popping and jigging to come.

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Andy Mac's picture

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Awesome report

Mon, 2010-02-01 10:55

Great pics and some nice fish. Congrats on the PB's guys, that wahoo is a monster!

 

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SamC's picture

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Good Stuff Lads. Just the

Mon, 2010-02-01 11:01

Good Stuff Lads. Just the experience in itself would make your trip worthwhile for sure.

Pitty the fishing was slow...Still some wicked fish landed though!

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awesome

Mon, 2010-02-01 11:36

Onya fellas, quality!!

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gregk's picture

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well done

Mon, 2010-02-01 11:57

great report well done on the new pb that whoo is a monster the camp looked great

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P.O.T.Y

Mon, 2010-02-01 11:58

Post of the Year... and a few pics of the months there too.

 

that is an awesome series of photos. I would be stoked to catch half of those fish over a lifetime...

 

Thanks for sharing. I am sure there will be a few more pics in the reeltime mags...

Cheers.

 

 

Colin Hay's picture

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Thanks Brad That is a great yarn and there are some fantastic

Mon, 2010-02-01 13:11

fish and pictures as per usual. It certainly gives one the urge to book in for a trip like that straight away.

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carnarvonite's picture

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Well done

Mon, 2010-02-01 14:00

Well done,some really nice fish even though you didn't get the best of the weather it will still be a trip to remember

eddie's picture

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Great pics, Brad!  I know

Mon, 2010-02-01 14:29

Great pics, Brad!  I know when you shell out for a trip like that you want to catch a PB on every cast.  Still, you got some nice fish and good time with some friends.  Glad you had a good time and thanks for sharing!

STEVE231's picture

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New Cal

Mon, 2010-02-01 14:51

Fantastic pictures and a great read. Despite the lack of monster GT's you boys caught some great fish. The bass are huge and that jobfish Jay is holding is a romper, not to mention the Wahoo!! Don't know how accommodating I would be with the sea snakes though?!

HuggyB's picture

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Ah

Mon, 2010-02-01 15:56

for a g bus or hoo half that size, I'd be a happy camper!

 

Despite the tough conditions, still sounded like an awesome trip with some great fish and sensational memories.

 

Well done guys.

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Great report mate, some

Mon, 2010-02-01 16:49

Great report mate, some amazing fish all round.

Lucky Tim's picture

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Ahh, I remember drinking a

Mon, 2010-02-01 16:58

Ahh, I remember drinking a few of those Number 1's when I was over there, not a bad drop and second only to West End.
Top report again fellas, even though it wasn't one of LPB's best there aren't too many people who can claim jobbies, bass and trout that size on poppers. And just to see the wahoo smoke off would've been worth it for me.
Now to plan the next adventure. Where's the next big trip gonna be boys?

PilbaraBrad's picture

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Im thinking it might be

Mon, 2010-02-01 17:06

Im thinking it might be Fiji, you keen?

Lucky Tim's picture

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I am due for a holiday.... I

Mon, 2010-02-01 17:25

I am due for a holiday....
I was thinking of yellowtail kings in NZ, jigging and stick baits.

PilbaraBrad's picture

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nah, just penciled in Kadavu

Mon, 2010-02-01 19:46

nah, just penciled in Kadavu for 7 days mate in Jan 2011 - I know your comming with me

Lucky Tim's picture

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I'm gonna need more than

Mon, 2010-02-01 20:41

I'm gonna need more than that. Send me a PM when you get a chance with a link etc.

jay_burgess's picture

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Probabaly head back to

Tue, 2010-02-02 20:42

Probabaly head back to Bugatti again this year with Nomad.

MJ's picture

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NC Report

Mon, 2010-02-01 20:02

Thanks for this report - the pics are excellent and give a good feel of what it must have been like.

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Rosco's picture

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Awesome report

Mon, 2010-02-01 20:38

Fantstic fishing boys. Sounds like you did it hard a few days but some people wont catch fish like that in a life time no matter how much they spend and where they travel to. Well done and thanks for the report.
Rosco

krabman's picture

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sic pics

Mon, 2010-02-01 21:49

sic pics those fish are awsome will get there oneday hopefully when snakes have dissapeard .had a sea snake wrap around my leg while fishing carnarvon once!!!the 35 gt and wahoo are huge cant wait to get up north and get a few of the gts lil bros.

Faulkner Family's picture

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well done on the write up

Mon, 2010-02-01 22:31

well done on the write up Brad. there were some great fish caught by all. It may have been a average trip for you guys but the rest of us can only hope we get the chance one day to do the same trip. Glad you guys got a few big gt's to make it a bit easier , but in the end thats fishing. can fire 1 week and the next it will be dead. great pics too . top effort by you all in trying conditions

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you bunch of wankers you

Mon, 2010-02-01 22:32

you bunch of wankers you stole that fishin trip out of my dreams......Cry your at the envy of us all...

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Kasey L.'s picture

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I hope u go back Brad, I

Tue, 2010-02-02 00:07

I hope u go back Brad, I really hope you do - from the area you can tell that it only needs to half-fire and you get to see so many fish you get 'scared to cast'

Just need a bit of luck with the weather - that's the story with NC.

Ah well, if everything was so easy it wouldn't be so special. We'll speak soon about setting up a trip together, cool? Great photography around l'ile de pins, btw.

Kelvin8r's picture

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nice report bro, and top

Tue, 2010-02-02 19:08

nice report bro, and top pics aswell

jay_burgess's picture

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Thanks for posting the

Tue, 2010-02-02 20:43

Thanks for posting the report bro.

DazSamFishing's picture

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Top report & geat trip.

Sat, 2010-02-06 19:09

Top report & geat trip. Can't beleive it's taken me a week to see this report. Pics are outstanding.

Mossie's picture

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Top Stuff guys ... was a

Mon, 2010-02-08 23:44

Top Stuff guys ... was a great read. Good to see you hung in there and still landed some fish a PB despite the weather!!!

 

Well Done

raymond's picture

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Fantastic report and Superb Catch

Tue, 2010-02-23 23:22

well done friends, i feel like i am inside that boat..Smile the GT is very big size for me, my biggest GT also around 25Kg only....my dream is "New Celedonia" Cry

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