Information For A Papuan Black Bass Trip

[aussie123]

Last night I confirmed and paid for an upcoming trip into West Papua chasing some Black Bass with Stu (Bi-Polar)

I know some guys on here have been to PNG chasing them so I was hoping you may have some valuable info to offer up 

I am interested to hear what your favorite outfit was and more so what were your best lures for your trip.

Also is there any gear or items that you think are a must that I should look at taking.

Our itinary is not really confirmed yet but we are flying out of Brisbane on the 6th Sept going Brisbane -> Bali -> Makassar where we will spend a night before boarding a plane at 3.30am on the 7th to fly Makassar -> Ambon -> Kaimana.

We are spending a night in Kaimana so we can prepare the gear, load the boats and fuel ect before heading off on a 5-6 hour boat ride to where we will be setting up camp.

Duration will probably be 10-14 days fishing plus travel time.

The fish where we are going consists of Black Bass, Saratoga, Barramundi, Snakeheads, Pacific Tarpon, Jacks, Queenfish ect plus massive GT's and Mackeral ect on the way to our base camp if we want to fish for them.

It should be an amazing trip and I cannot wait.

Anyway please throw up any suggestions or advice that you may have for a trip like this.

Thanks

Lance

 

[Damien2Rad]

Hey Lance,

I used Wilson Venom Rods. The 6' Barra Monster 50lb baitcast stick, with a Daiwa Tatula HD with rope for braid (I think 85lb,) and a 6'5" 40-60lb Black Bass Spin with a 5000PG Stella with 50lb Braid.

I fished mostly 50-60lb flouro leader via FG (it's the only knot you can wind onto a low profile baitcaster reel at this breaking strain).

My biggest fish was caught casting on a Duel Hardcore 145F in Gold (from Plat.co.jp) and second biggest on a FCL D-2B. Obviously all with upgraded split rings and I used Decoy W77 treble and Decoy Inline Singles.

For trolling the classic barra style lures, flats rats and my favourite, the Gidgee (good old Aussie timber!!); basically, anything that's gonna get 3-6 metres down depending on depth.

I also know that a lot of people fish a hell of a lot heavier than that too, but I thought the gear I was using could pull most fish backwards if required.

I know you have access to all the gear but if you're interested in borrowing either outfit feel free, I don't have much use for them right now!

I also have some popping set ups you guys can borrow if you don't want to outlay for the trip - as long as you have travel insurance of course ahaha!

 

 

 

[aussie123]

Hey Damo, thanks mate for the advice.

Rods are a nightmare as there is far too many choices and that to me has been the hardest thing to try and make a decision on.

Quite a few people have mentioned the range of Wilson rods so I am keen to look at them all next month at the AFTA show.

I have 3 Shimano Calcutta's here which are my Barra reels so I will probably pick a rod to match the 400 Calcutta and use the rods I already have on the 2 x 200 Calcuttas.

Our mate over there recommends 40lb braid and 80lb traces as the trip will involve a lot of open water fishing and not so much the snaggy rivers like down in PNG.

I also have a few barra lures but I want to get a few more to donate to the fish gods, especially some deeper diving lures.

Also thanks mate for the offer on a GT outfit,I may take you up on that.

I have been garanteed GT's up to 45kg if we want to throw some lures at them on the way past so if we have a decent outfit onboard that would handle that, it could be fun to kill a couple of hours with.

We will definitely be fully insured for everything.

Who did you guys go through for your insurance policies.

Thanks mate

Lance

 

Start of my collection to donate to the fish gods.

 

 

[Damien2Rad]

More and more rod manufacturers are making black bass specific tackle in the last 5 years it seems, so I understand about the rod choices! 

More than welcome to borrow a GT set up.

[aussie123]

I am seriously thinking of a custom 7ft 30-50lb St Croix from my rod builder but I want to see what's at AFTA first.

Thanks for the lend of a GT outfit mate.

Hopefully we can thin your drag washers down a bit,lol 

[Angus]

Mate happy to give you a detailed list of what we used but it gets dismissed by most as far to light. 

My heaviest set up was a Nordic Stage Cheater 692MH (10-22lb) matched with a Stradic 5000 with 30lb braid.

Although last trip I wanted a challenge and a lot of my fish including biggest spot tail and black were caught on a the 16lb equivalent with a Sustain 4000 and 22lb braid.
 

Henry @Do$tylz landed the biggest fish for either trip I have been on on his Cheater 672M (16lb) with a 2500 size reel and 15lb braid. 

I am not advising anyone to ONLY use this sort of gear but it is fun and can be done so worth having at least 1 lighter option. The number of fish lost due to light gear on both trips I can count on 1 hand. Fish were more often lost due to lure failure than anything else. Blacks simply crush lures, split rings and trebles. Then the gamble comes down to where you hook it in regards to structure etc.

Angus

[aussie123]

Thanks @Angus

You are a large part of my indicision on what rods to take after your last trip over there, lol

I want to take the full range from very light to heavy as I do want to throw a lot of small bass type lures at these fish as well as larger 100 to 150mm type lures

I also have a 2500 (10lb) and 5000 (30lb) Stradic to take over once I beef up the drags and give them a good service.

A Cheater is definitely at the top of my shopping list but I do want to check afta first before I commit to anything

Thanks mate

Lance

[Angus]

20 minutes ago, aussie123 said:

Thanks @Angus

You are a large part of my indicision on what rods to take after your last trip over there, lol

I want to take the full range from very light to heavy as I do want to throw a lot of small bass type lures at these fish as well as larger 100 to 150mm type lures

I also have a 2500 (10lb) and 5000 (30lb) Stradic to take over once I beef up the drags and give them a good service.

A Cheater is definitely at the top of my shopping list but I do want to check afta first before I commit to anything

Thanks mate

Lance

ll good mate. Not trying to up sell the rod just pointing out the specs

I would even take a break rod. Especially for the snakehead and toga. Apparently PNG snakehead not massive.

I do not know the region you are fishing at all but there are prob jungle perch, big archers etc.

Angus

[aussie123]

Thanks @Angus

The place is full of the biggest JP's and Archers that I have ever seen pics of so I am keen to have a crack at them too.

The Snakeheads are small, the average size is apparently about 4-8 kg with the odd larger specimen mixed in but plenty of them.

I know the boys went to check out another area off the Sorong coastline that they had never fished before and they couldn't catch many Bass due to the huge number of Snakeheads that have invaded the waterways there.

They were hooking Snakeheads nearly every cast and the other fish had no chance.

The Barra and Toga are huge in there as well as the area is relatively un fished 

Unfortunately there are no Spot tail Bass up there so I will go back next year and do a Spot Tail and saltwater trip on Biak if all goes well this trip.

 

[ipk18]

17 hours ago, aussie123 said:

Be really careful with travel insurance, a policy like CoverMore from Flight Centre will be a waste of money, they exclude too much in a place like this, have a read of Smart Traveller website and anything that they have in the travel warning will be excluded from your policy. If you go direct to a insurance company you will be able to get a bespoke policy that will cover you for everything you want no matter of travel warnings in place, it will just cost a bit, no matter what company you go through have the exclusions in writing for the country you are going to. 

 

 

[Do$tylz]

Hey Lance. Sounds like you're going to an awesome place to have that range of fish.

Re travel insurance - like IPK says be wary of what they insure. I did use covermore but I called and emailed them my itinerary and they assured me all was OK so I had no concerns.

Re gear - the heavy stuff is definitely needed when you hook up to a decent sized bass anywhere near their snaggy homes. Sef had his blacksheep on a wilson venom on locked drag and his biggest black was giving him some grief trying to get back into its snag. He also got absolutely dusted a few times.

I just have a big gap in my gear arsenal so didn't have the choice of using a good 60/80lb set up. But, when I was throwing around my 20lb rod all day my hand just ended up hurting. I could grin and bear through all the casting but the moment I'd hook up to a big fish my hand and forearm would be so fatigued that I felt like I wasn't in control. Could just me being weak   Stepping down to the lighter stuff gave my arm, hand and wrist a break and didn't stop me from catching big fish. I think of the top 5 big fish for the trip I nailed 4 of them. 3 on the 16lb gear.

My suggestion is bring a good amount of heavy split rings and trebles. Decoy SWs is what we were using and we still had snapped trebles. From your pic, those trebles on all of those top water lures will be useless after the first bass no matter what size. If your lures aren't wired through and you have them on heavy drag you may end up just pulling the hook points out of the lure. My big fish pulled the middle hook point out of my lure and I was only using a 2500.

 

 

 

 

[aussie123]

Thanks for that info Henry.

I started looking into travel insurance but that is as far as I have got so far with work, fishing and stocktaking getting in the way at the moment.

I will look into more later this week.

I have bought 250 Owner ST-66 hooks to upgrade those lures as well as a heap of Ten Mouth Hyper GT Rings.

We slightly extended the trip again  so now we are doing from the 6th Sept to 23rd Sept so it should be a cracker trip.

I am getting a St Croix custom built now to suit a Calcutta 400  so that will be my brute stick and then I have a number of standard barra outfits that I will also take for fishing some lighter gear.

I will have a range of outfits from 10kg to 30kg to take over but I will always fish as light as possible depending on the structure at the time.

If I get wiped out this trip, I will rebuild heavier and go back next year,lol

Anyway mate thanks for the good info.

[aussie123]

Which companies did you guys use for your travel insurance @Angus and @Damien2Rad.

A lot don't seem to have good coverage for fishing gear as they have individual limits on a lot of items.

Between Stu and myself we have around 10 grand in fishing gear that we are taking plus cameras and phones, ect.

Only have 3 weeks to go so we want to try and sort out the insurance this week if we can.

Thanks guys.

[Angus]

21 hours ago, aussie123 said:

Which companies did you guys use for your travel insurance @Angus and @Damien2Rad.

A lot don't seem to have good coverage for fishing gear as they have individual limits on a lot of items.

Between Stu and myself we have around 10 grand in fishing gear that we are taking plus cameras and phones, ect.

Only have 3 weeks to go so we want to try and sort out the insurance this week if we can.

Thanks guys.

Hey @aussie123 I used NRMA.

 

$78 for my policy but it is not a whole lot more to cover yourself for 13k of baggage (if I read it correctly).

 

http://www.nrma.com.au/quote-exit/travel/international-travel-insurance

 

Angus

[aussie123]

Thanks @Angus

NRMA looks ok with some parts upgraded.

Stu is in contact with another couple of companies today so hopefully he will sort something out.

 

[Damien2Rad]

I have used Allianz for all my travel. @aussie123

[aussie123]

Thanks @Damien2Rad

I will check them out as well tonight.

3 weeks to go now but who's counting, lol