Have Faith!

Lock it up and have faith your fish is staying connected!


Close up of the wiring used in my poppers... 2.4mm 316 Stainless Steel with a fully locked tow point connection. 

Long time, no post... 

Have had some great builds lately, with most work being custom or test lures...

This is a little 145mm/50g bait going out for testing in the next few days.

Make sure to check out the Facebook page to keep up to date, Peace!

RAL Update!

Make sure to check out the RAL Facebook Page, I will be trying to keep things up to date and also get some lures made too!

Bomber Jr's Update.

I have been working on these little poppers for a while now, like most lures it takes a fair amount of time to get them how I would like. Currently working on a batch to for a angler in North Queensland AU, I may just put some aside for myself yet... 

This little duck has proven to be a great surface lure with the GT's... I may "upsize" the lure for heavier line classes as it is currently made for "light tackle" GT fishing.

GT Popping, Vava'u Tonga.

Location - Vava'u, Tonga

Date - 20th of February 2012

Number of Days - 5 days

Charter Operator - Poppin' Tonga ( Kurt Carlson )

Number of Anglers - Myself

I was lucky enough to be surprised on Christmas Day with flights and transfers to Vava'u from my partner and daughter to go hunt down my first GT! 

So I started planning and making a few lures for the trip. I had a few poppers I wanted to try out and see how they worked on GT's. With only stick baiting rods in the quiver I contacted the team at Synit to help me out.

Synit came through and I had the rod hand delivered by Graeme the night before flying out. CJ had spun up a Synit Topshot GT, 2 piece, 7' 10" and 25kg Max drag at 45 degrees with a max lure of 260g... Just the ticket.

Landed in Tonga, and after a short taxi ride I arrived at the domestic terminal for the flight to Vava'u. I had a 4 hour wait but there was a great little cafe, took the time to re-fuel...

Getting ready to board.

Flying into Vava'u, checking out the numerous reefs along the way.

Landed safely in Vava'u and was met by Kurt at the airport, the gear was loaded in the 4x4 and we we were off. Stopping in at the local store for some supplies and cold beer we then made our way to Lucky's Beach Houses also run by Kurt and his wife Lyn.

View from my beach front room...

Spent the last of the evening casting from the beach, trying out the new rod and lures. 

Day 1 -

Worked the inshore reefs, and some of the bommies along the way... Kurt gave me a few pointers and we keep working what seems like an endless amount of spots. I was fishing a stick bait hoping to lure a GT, the fishing was slow with a tide change late in the afternoon we kept working. Managed to raise the odd boil but no hook up yet... 

Changed out to a Cubera 100g and worked the reef next to a channel which attracts large numbers of Manta Rays... Kurt saw it well before me, the popper was absolutely inhaled by a Red Bass, I was tight on a fish and it felt good after hours of casting. With the fish at the boat it was clear to see why they fish didn't have a lot of fight, the lure was swallowed deep.

Another Island and reef to explore...

Kurt knows this place very well, some spots you cast a few lures then move on, other you work right along the edges... We kept hitting spots all day long, by now I had dropped 3-4 fish and had fish mouth a few lures... The tide had changed and I changed out to a black popper and finally hooked up... After 8 hours of casting I had my first GT!

Success!

All GT's are released with Poppin' Tonga... Too much!

I managed to catch another GT late in the day. By now I was pretty tired, and feeling the effects of casting all day.

Day 2 -

Finding bits of your body that aren't bruised...The wind had picked up and set the tone for the rest of the day.Wind and rain wasn't stopping us.. With a few leader changes due to some very stubborn wind knots I was getting plenty of knot tying practise in... Once again we hit some truly awesome spots, listening to story's of what has been pulled out from these spots always keeps you on edge. Late afternoon tide change was what I was waiting for but Kurt kept working hard, spot after spot, pass after pass. The radio was alive with talk of marlin, YFT, spanish mack's and sail's what a wicked place! I again dropped a few fish, one took a lure really deep, how did it not it not get any hook??

Late afternoon we hit a few small islands, the wind was whipping up but was at my back... Once again my own black 130g popper was the lure of choice...

Only fish for the day, but it was great... We had to really work for this one. We had a few feathered friends intent on eating my popper, it was inevitable the one should end up tangled. These birds were angry, and I mean angry. Biting the gaff, the boat and then Kurts hand as he tried to free the bird... It was a laugh first time round, second time not so cool. We said good bye to the birds and headed home. 

Over the course of the trip Kurt found plenty of bait, large schools of Fusiliers that we struggled to get any bites any where near the bait. But hey that's fishing...

Day 3 - 

I hadn't planned on fishing, I had a half day to kill before flying out but Kurt wandered over and told me not to put all my gear away "We are going fishing". Sweet...

What looked like good water soon turned into angry seas and was blowing hard. We started out at some deep bommies, I decided to fish the 200g /50mm popper all day, and just suck it up...

We had a hit and drop, we moved on casting at the reef on the outside... Good swell running, lots of water moving it looked fishy. 

My favourite spot of the trip.

Having had a hit on day one in this spot, I had high hopes of hooking up. This spot is wicked to say the least... Huge ledge, nice reef section off to the right.

We finally hooked up, it was a good looking cast into some nice water and it was smashed... The fish stayed flat in the reef but eventually came out to the drop off, started to sound, turned back to the reef and rolled out the hook... Wicked, its still cool losing GT's! Kurt was surprised I lost the fish so late in the fight, it was hooked for 4-5 minutes but found its freedom. 

Kurt and Lyn run a great operation, if you stay make sure Lyn cooks your meals as she is a lovely cook and you are well feed. Kurt is a top class guide, and is down to earth he shared plenty of tips and lure designs with me, a few should be out later this year for testing.

New Lures...

Spent this afternoon testing some new lures from the shore... We have had a lot of rain so the water quality is not so good but when it clears I will make an effort to shoot some video...


First up is a new 130g Popper...

The popper is rigged with an ST66 5/0 on the belly swivel... I purposely tested the lure with no rear hook as this lure will be for targeting GT's. I have researched and found GT's crash the middle section on most lures and in most photo's the fish is hooked on the belly hook, leaving the rear hook to do a lot of damage to the fish, not the best for both angler or fish. If targeting YTK a single hook on the rear would be a good idea. 

The popper has impressed me so far, big splash, lots of noise and a great "waggle" as the cupped face spills the water pressure...I will testing this popper properly in Tonga next month. 

Another new lure is the 230 Stick bait... Again this lure is 130g...

Rigged with ST66 4/0 both front and rear...

This is a diving lure and the action is wicked, very hard to explain so you will have to wait for some video.. I finished this lure in fusilier colours to mimic the common reef bait. Again this will be tested next month in the tropics.  

In need of a name....

The test bait is in need of a name...

Black... As requested by Capt Ben Pokaia.

Currently finishing up a few baits for sale, includes poppers, stick baits and some popping pencils... Will get some pictures up as soon as they are done...