FEW places on earth feel truly remote. Isolation and distance from “civilisation” equals great fishing and unforgettable experiences.
I spent last week onboard Ultimate One, Baia Sportfishing’s 72 foot luxury mothership. We explored the remote islands and rivers of the Bismarck Sea, north of New Britain. The island of New Britain lies off the mainland of Papua New Guinea and offers visitors a unique fishing adventure.
We were part of Ultimate One‘s Black Bass & Bluewater trips. This trip aims to show off PNG’s best offshore and river fishing with 8 days exploring everything from coral bommies to remote freshwater streams. The advantage of using a mothership is the flexibility it offers. You have options. If it’s windy, move to a new spot; if the rivers are dirty, find a new river. Having options increases your chance of finding fish dramatically.
Along the way we caught dogtooth tuna, wahoo, spaniards, trevally and more. But it was the rivers which really captured my imagination. I’ve fished PNG twice before, once 12 years ago covering the PNG National Titles, a game fishing tournament which was held in Rabaul, East New Britain. Several years later and I fished the Gulf region out of Port Moresby. We caught some big barra on that trip, however missed out on bass. Since then I desperately wanted to catch a black bass!
Onboard Ultimate One, we experienced some incredible bass fishing and I ticked off my first bass within hours. Over the following days we caught more bass trolling, casting and on top water.
The fishing available in West New Britain and onboard Ultimate One is world class, while the service, food and overall professionalism was hard to beat.
Check out the gallery above and stay tuned for an online video and feature story in an upcoming edition.
Meanwhile, you can find out more about Baia Sportfishing at www.baiafishingpng.com.
