Casting In The Islands

[clutch]

Hi Guys, as I travel frequently to the islands and havent fished there yet, I thought that the next time I would give it a go off the beach.

I'm off to Tonga early Jan and arent really into the trolling of Deep Sea fishing or the expense for that matter however I'll look into it. I'm in Tonga a couple of times a year and I like this little island just off Nuku'alofa

I just went out today and bought a cheap and nasty 8 ft shimano 8-10kg spectrum 2 piece ($29) that I'm going to match a with a 4000 size spin reel and thought I'd take a couple of poppers and some plastics to fish from the beach.

Do you think that this is a realistic combo to take up.....or even a realistic fishing opportunity from the beach.

I really dont know but I'll give it a go............will have a beer in hand the whole time so not too serious

[clutch]

I have never fished any of the Pacific islands but if it is anything like the Far North QLD the fish all have cavernous mouths and can really pull. I could be wrong but I reckon you may be a little outgunned

Yes....quite possibly.....I'm not at all sure about it

Thanx Telco

[Guest bluecod]

Sounds almost ideal Clutch

I mean sitting on a beach with a rod in one hand and a beer in t'other

I've fished a couple of tropicals with close in fringing coral reefs with plenty of luderick heads - don't trevally love country like that - find structure, bloop those poppers across the surface and hang-on if the GT's are at home - 10 kg should be fine ..... for pan size fish around coral should be OK for larger specimens if you can get them away from cover.

[clutch]

Sounds almost ideal Clutch

I mean sitting on a beach with a rod in one hand and a beer in t'other

I've fished a couple of tropicals with close in fringing coral reefs with plenty of luderick heads - don't trevally love country like that - find structure, bloop those poppers across the surface and hang-on if the GT's are at home - 10 kg should be fine ..... for pan size fish around coral should be OK for larger specimens if you can get them away from cover.

Thanks George ...that rod is actually 8-12kg and i will load it with at least 10kg and gonna up the reel ...........them trevs are what I would like to hook

[phild]

Clutch, went to Vanuatu a year or two back and spent a small fortune on a charter for sweet f$#@#$ all. After cursing my waste of nearly 2k decided to do it myself, so bought a $10 kiddies rod, some halco poppers and hired myself a catamaran from the resort. trolling the lurer behind the cat I had an absolute ball catching solid GT's and other biteys, all while trying to steer an out of control cat. Took a couple back to the boys in the kitchen to cook up and ended up with friends for life. Great way to fish without spending a fortune a jet ski also suites this style of fishing and enables you to cover a lot of ground. IMO being outgunned is half the fun too

[bombora]

Hiya mate; just got back from my own fishing/surfing adventure in the pacific; I was in the Tuamotu Atolls about 500 kasy eats of Tahiti.

Anyway the outfit I used most was a top of their range Pfluegar (spell?) 4000 size threadline and 10kg Fins braid with a Shimano T-Curve 5-10kg two piece spinning rod. Rod was sensational. Reel _ apart from the drag which was great _ found the tropical brutal fishing a bit of a handfull and is a bit sick now!!!.

A few things I learned which might help you: Bring tough trace; something like Penn10x, as everything has teeth or wants to got straught home to their coral Bombie. I used 10kg trace a lot but upped to 20kg and 40kg often. Extra strong hooks on all lures: lost some good fish especially on poppers when hooks failed (same goes fro swivels split rings etc). A leatherman type multi tool is great or at least some pliers as those teeth filled mouths are interesting places to extract hooks from. lure-wise Iv reckon a small selection of poppers, metal casting lures and jigs is the go. poppers are such a blast; both bloopers and slant faced faster poppers; I reckon the smaller Halo Rooster popper is brilliant. Spanyids in sizes from about 30 gms to 80gms were tough and caught reef and pelagic fish. However the lures I used more than any other were "bucktrail" jigs. From approx quarter once to half once they catch everything. Problem with softplastics _ which are killer in tropics _ is its one cast one strike one ruined tail. Seriously I could have gone through 4 or 5 bags of tails in an hour or two every time I fished. PS if you wanna make friends with locals catch lots of smallish red reefies and give em to em; seems everywhere in the Pacificv the locals would rather BBQ up small red reefies than anything else!!!!

Cheers Bombie

[clutch]

Wow a couple of gret replies...........phild I reckon I would have just as much fun with that 10 buck kids rod too and the cost of some of those charters

And you right Phil........being outgunned is a rush

Bombora, very informative post mate. Thank you for that detail. I plan on fishing the Islands each time I visit in future and will follow your advice on lures

I recall you talking about the trip you just completed........how was the surfing

.....and you dont glow I hope

Cheers Boys

[bombora]

Hiya again Clutch; by the by I reckon your outfit will be sweet!! There's a definate market for a sensible priced two or three piece all purpose spinning rod for travelling!! I was forced to go a bit up market cause I couldn't find anything else.

Mate the surfing was awesome, though it took some time to get used to the black tip reef sharks you are constantly surfing with. They were also all around me when I did some wading on the coral flats _ that was wild, fighting two kilo long nosed emperors in shin deep water (snuck my bream spinning rod/reel into the board bag too!)!!!! Didn't even lose too much skin on the reefs either!!!! Speaking of which I reckon if you can fit in a pair of surfing booties/reef shoes they are a must if land based in tropical islands. Only glow I got is a dam healthy tan!!

Cheers again