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Coral Sea fishing adventures

GROWING up reading old issues of Fishing World, the stories that made the biggest impression were the pioneering trips to the Coral Sea on the boat, Seafari. The trips were an expedition to the final frontier. These reefs took days to get reach and the fish were large and plentiful. The tackle was destroyed almost as soon as it saw water. A trip like this seemed next to impossible to plan and undertake back in the late ‘80s and ‘90s.

Nomad really opened up the outer coral reefs during the turn of the millennium with fully guided trips, while Big Cat Reality is offering a more DIY alternative over the past 10 years. The good news is the fishing is still just as good. The sheer distance from the mainland along and the sport fishing ethos of the few who visit keeping the fishery relatively untouched. The added bonus is that modern tackle has caught up to the calibre of fish on offer, making incredible captures on sportfishing tackle a possibility instead of a liability.

GTs and dogtooth tuna would be the two most sought after species on long-range Coral Sea trips. The fishing is a combination of casting, jigging and trolling depending on the target species and personal preferences. In saying that, the range of species on offer is pretty incredible with typical trips providing big numbers of oversize coral trout, red bass, bluefin trevally, yellowfin tuna and wahoo. Along with the possibility of sailfish, black and blue marlin.

Tackle

A heavyweight casting and jigging outfit would be the two most important and heavily used outfits to take on a long range coral sea trip, with backups for both being more of a necessity than a luxury. The terrain being fished is generally nasty and most species of fish encountered will fight dirty so PE8 should be considered as a minimum for both styles and even heavier if you can physically handle it.

GT fishing is generally a mix of casting stickbaits or poppers in the 140-250g range on PE8-12 tackle. I wouldn’t risk going any lighter than PE8, especially when fishing breaking reef, inside lagoons or reef gutters. The country is brutal and it’s a matter of trying to keep a hooked fish on a short leash or it’s a certain bust-off. The deeper bommies over the atoll flats are a bit less white knuckle after hooking up but you still need enough power to keep a hooked fish up in the water column. If I was only able to take one casting outfit I’d settle for a PE8-10 popper rod between 7’6 and 8 foot long. You can still work a stickbait with this outfit, but a dedicated stickbait rod struggles to bloop a popper as the tip folds away too much. As far as rods go, you really get what you pay for. A 250g popper pushes a lot of water and requires a pretty specialised rod to be able to move it without folding away like a noodle. From what I’ve personally used and witnessed in action, Carpenter, Ripple fisher, FCL and Patriot design have all been well suited. The biggest considerations to selecting a rod are what you can comfortably cast and fish with for long periods of time. Longer rods will generally aid in distance which helps when trying to reach breaking surf or searching deeper water bommies, but the trade off is the extra leverage on the body after hooking up. Likewise, PE8 will aid in getting extra distance but might not be heavy enough to turn a fish in a narrow reef gutter.

When it comes to reels it’s pretty much a choice between Shimano Stellas in the 14-18000 size and Daiwa expedition and dogfights in higher speed models. Picking up slack line quickly becomes more of an issue when working poppers and a lot of strikes come in between rod sweeps so it’s important to keep in touch with the line at all times. We’ll generally run drag settings of 12-14kg to firstly set the hooks and secondly to try and get the upper hand early and win a few metres of line before the fish wakes up to what’s going on. This applies just as much to GTs as it does big coral trout and red bass. They tend to fight a lot dirtier than GTs with their first movements on hookup being straight back down into the reef. Being able to physically bully a hooked fish out the first few yards is often the difference between landing a fish and getting shredded in the coral.

When it comes to braid it pays to use one of the better quality 8 carrier brands as it’ll cast noticeably further and lay better on the reel. I’ve used Varivas and YGK for the past 10 years and rate both highly and there is definitely a large range of high quality lines out on the market today. At the business end of the braid is a stretchy 140-200lb leader tied off with either an FG or PR knot to give a bit of stretch and abrasion resistance into the system. I’ve run Varivas leader for years and find it easy to tie and excellent to use, I make the leader long enough that when the lure hangs level with the reel seat the leader knot will be at the bail roller. Any longer and the leader will end up tangling when cast. At the other end a 250-300lb roller bearing swivel and owner 10-11H split ring to your lure and your ready to go.

Other gear

Gloves are a necessity when casting heavy tackle for several hours over multiple days. Look for a pair that are comfortable and have adequate leather covering the finger tips. A lightweight rod belt is handy, especially if you get a stubborn fish that plugs away down deep. Braid sailfish model is a comfortable belt and reasonably priced when compared to some of the specialist casting and jigging belts.

Lures for GT fishing have a bit of a cult following with the most revered models running upwards of $250 per lure and being near impossible to source. Sure, the expensive models work well, but the coral sea fish are fairly uneducated and there is the constant risk of losing lures to getting reefed, or worse being bitten off by a wahoo or a reef shark.

The biggest differences between the top of the range and cheaper poppers is finish followed by action. Generally the top of the range handcrafted models bloop brilliantly in a range of surface conditions and have several coats of hard epoxy and strong wiring throughout. Some of the budget poppers tumble a bit while being worked and don’t cast as well. Cheap finished wooden poppers soon become waterlogged and sink. Nomad poppers in the Chug Norris model are relatively cheap, cast like a bullet and are easy to work. I’d rate them as the best of the affordable poppers and have no hesitation at using them. If your happy to spend more the original Cuberas are easy to cast and work and from there poppers from FCL, Pacemaker, Aamegari, Fisherman, Craftbait, and Carpenter have the reputation and price tag to match.

A good swimming stickbait is generally a lot harder to build and the actions of the more highly regarded models are definitely more noticeable than the cheapies. For ease of casting and use the Orion Big Foot as been popular with everyone I’ve fished with. They are super durable, swim well, can be trolled and cast like a bullet. I was lucky enough to hook and land a 70kg black marlin on a 180g Big Foot last year at Kenn reef and they are versatile enough to cast at GTs and then be used to troll over bommies for dogtooth tuna. FCL stickbaits in the CSP range are also really popular, being fairly cheap and easy to work. The biggest GT I’ve personally seen landed was caught on an FCL CSP 220 by Matt Holmes in the Cato lagoon.

When it comes to hooks go for the heaviest duty models available. GTs are tough and any weakness will quickly result in straightened or broken hooks. I’ve personally had better success using trebles either barbless or with flattened barbs but I know that some people prefer singles or baker rigged lures (singles cable tied back to back). For trebles owner ST-76s, GT recorders and BKK GT Rex seem to have the least amount of failures and owner SJ-51s and Shout Kudakos being the pick of the singles.

Tactics

Average size for GTs in the coral sea are around 10-15kg with the chance of 30kg fish being realistic. Truly huge GTs seem to be a bit more of a rarity, at least on the trips I’ve experienced but in saying that there’s been at least one capture of a GT over 40kg each trip and one fish between 50-60kg that was clearly seen before hookup only to be ultimately lost when it broke the PE10 mainline. Coral trout seem to be massive on the remote reefs with most of them being over 10kg and the remainder of the catch being a mix of red bass, bluefin trevally and big eye trevally.

The most spectacular GT strikes seem to come from the narrow reef gutters on the lee side of lagoons and inside the lagoons themselves. It’s visual fishing with GTs sometimes appearing in packs and lining up lures from a long distance and pushing considerable bow waves. I’ve found the best times to fish the reef gutters to be towards the bottom of the tide when GTs are waiting for baitfish to get washed out from top of the reef or the lagoon itself. The lagoons seem to fish best either towards the top of the tide casting back towards the breaking outer reef or at dead low tide when the fish are all concentrated in the deepest section of the lagoon. I’ve done best here casting stickbaits as the water tends to be calmer and hits coming within the first few seconds of the lure hitting the water. Bluefin trevally are the most common by-catch and make an excellent target on lightweight casting outfits and smaller stickbaits.The ocean side of the reef tends to fish best on the dropping tide with GTs working in the surf zone along with channels between reefs whenever there is some current to concentrate baitfish. Positioning the boat outside the breakers and casting into the breakers gets the majority of the strikes and driving out immediately on hooking up gives the best chance of towing fish out into deeper water. When the tide is really racing the water draining off the reef can look like a river pouring out and can hold big numbers of GTs along with other predatory species. Coral trout and red bass are the most common other species encountered on the breaking reef edges and in some areas outnumber GTs be a considerable margin, they tend to fight even dirtier than GTs for the first few seconds after hooking up so require heavy pressure to drag them away from cover.

Bommies on the atoll flat are best fished by either looking for bait fish sitting on pressure edges, especially fusiliers or by searching the whole area by casting big poppers to bring fish up. The atoll flats can produce good numbers of dogtooth tuna, wahoo and amberjack along with sailfish with the two biggest factors being baitfish and current around structure.

Jigging for dogtooth

The trophy target while jigging are big dogtooth tuna and with the possibility of 100kg plus fish out there the tackle again needs to be the heaviest that can be handled and even then a lot of battles are 50/50 due to the nasty bottom structure, dogtooth tend to frequent along with the tendency for a hooked fish to immediately dive straight down and shred tackle. The other big downside with chasing dogtooth tuna is that reef sharks tend to hand in close vicinity and smaller dogtooth tuna can be targeted heavily by sharks after being hooked so the faster they can be landed the less chance there is of packs of sharks attacking them.

There are more options when it comes to heavy weight jigging tackle with spin and overhead outfits being used equally. For the anglers who chase big kings and samsons down south, the tackle, techniques and jigs used will work well on dogtooth tuna. I personally wouldn’t fish any lighter than PE8 with PE10-12 being used by most of the guys I know. Steer clear of the high speed spin reels for jigging as they are painful to work for long periods of time, around a metre a turn is plenty fast enough to work jigs with the Stella 20k and Daiwa expedition being ideal. For overheads there are a stack of suitable models from Jigging master, Studio ocean mark Blue heaven’s, Accurate, Shimano and Daiwa. Look for reels that can fish PE10 to it’s limits, retrieve around a metre a turn with no back play in the handle and still be comfortable to fish with for long sessions.

There is a large range of suitable jig rods available from the same companies making high end popping/stickbait rods, look at rods from 5’6 to 6ft long that can work jigs in the 250-350g range and fish PE10 to the limit. I’d steer clear of the stiffer rods rated for 400-500g jigs as most of the Dogtooth we’ve encountered have been in water shallower than 70m and don’t require jigs that heavy. You want a rod that has enough flex in the tip to work the jigs your using and then having enough backbone to hopefully stop a dogtooth on its downward power run. We tend to use our jig outfits to troll between spots, over the atoll itself and along drop off’s so they end up being pretty versatile outfits on any coral reef trip.

Traditionally dogtooth tuna jigs have been fairly short with jigs like the Seven Seas Hooker being a go too all around the world. We haven’t found dogtooth tuna to be fussy at all with jig type, size or colour. Once we’ve found fish they’ll happily smash anything and everything in their path, both mechanical jigging with rear weighted jigs and slower techniques with centre weighted or flutter style jigs producing equal numbers of strikes.

Steep drop-offs that have plenty of current are hot spots for dogtooth tuna, especially if the drop off protrudes out into the current as a point or a kink. The ocean side of breaking reefs have produced dogtooth to 70kg for my friends along with some monumental bust-offs to fish that couldn’t be stopped. It pays to drive over the drop off as soon as possible on hookup to firstly lead the fish into deeper water and secondly to prevent line from angling over the drop off itself if the boat remained on the edge. If you can stop the fish reaching the reef and coming towards you the battle is won, dogtooth tend to be very manageable once that first big run is stopped. The range of species that can be caught on the drop offs is pretty extensive with coral trout, red bass, GTs, amberjack, wahoo, yellowfin tuna and a heap of smaller reef species all possible depending on the depth of the drop off being fished.

The channels between reefs can sometimes hold good numbers of dogtooth, especially where the channel meets the drop off or areas that have a lot of current to congregate bait. Trolling can be a good way to quickly cover the channels and pin point schools before choosing to cast or jig depending on where the fish are. Use the sounder to pick the drop offs and bait.

One of the most surprising areas we find numbers of dogtooth are on fairly flat bottom on the atoll proper on the lee side of lagoons. 30-40m depth with the occasional low rising bommie has produced several dogtooth both trolling and casting for us during the day and even more surprisingly jigging and with unweighted baits at night. The best way to find small pods of dogtooth tuna during the day in these areas has been to troll either large stickbaits like an Orion Bigfoot, large skirts, deep diving minnows or small bonito rigged as swim baits till fish are found and then working the spot repeatedly.

At night the dogtooth tuna along with amberjack and big eye trevally seem to come in waves from just after sunset till just before sunrise, they tend to feed better at night when there is a bit of breeze and deck lights don’t put them off. Jigs in the 200-300g range with some lumo paint charged by deck lights work well and if the reef sharks aren’t about in great numbers a light berley trail of pilchards along with unweighted pilchard baits can be dynamite with large dogtooth tuna and amberjack taking baits just below the surface.

Venturing out to the Coral Sea is an incredible experience. As a fisho, it’s something you should aim to do at least once in your life. There’s not much that rivals watching a GT charging down a stickbait in less than 2 metres of clear water. No photo or video can prepare you compared to seeing it in person, when it’s your lure that’s getting charged down in the frantic few seconds between  seeing the fish and witnessing an explosive surface strike you’ll never forget.

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