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West Papua - Our Journey Into The Unknown

aussie123

By aussie123
in Saltwater

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aussie123 Newbie

aussie123

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On the 25th March Stu and myself are heading back to West Papua chasing the elusive Black Bass.
This will be our 2nd trip into the jungles of West Papua but this trip is going to be very different to our first one.
This is an exploratory trip, a journey into the unknown taking us into some of the remotest parts of WP which will see us venturing over 50km upstream and very deep into the jungle in some of the wildest and remote countyside that West Papua has to offer.
We are taking in some basic camping gear and we will be setting up a campsite somewhere around the middle section of the river so we can fish both upstream into the fresh and downstream to the river mouth during our week in there.
Our river of choice is so remote that there is no villages along the river banks so hopefully we will not run into any issues with any local villagers.
Being so remote and hopefully un fished, we are hoping to see plenty of big fish if the water conditions are right and if the fish are willing to play the game while we are there.
Our journey begins with 2 days of flights to reach our mates place on the island of Biak where we will stay the night and meet his family and friends over dinner.
We may even get a few hours spare in the afternoon to chase some large Spot Tail Bass that haunt a small river system about an hours drive away from his home.

If we run out of time, we have planned a couple of days spare for R&R  at the end of our Bass fishing back on Biak so we will have a crack at them then.
The third day we will board another plane and fly across to another remote island where we will meet our boatman and the son of the chief from the village that we have borrowed the long boats from.
The chiefs son is keen to come and fish with us for the week so they have kindly offered us the use of their 2 long boats.
After a quick trip to collect some fresh supplies along with a load of drinking water we will load the gear onto the 2 long boats and head off on a 150km trip across the ocean to our river and find somewhere to set up our base camp.
This is going to be a trip of a life time and hopefully one that could possibly open up an entire new Black Bass fishery in one of the remotest areas that you could ever dream of going to.
Logistically it has been quite hard to organize but now with securing 2 long boats at 6m and 14m in length to drag all the gear along as well as the 1200 liters of fuel and oil has made things a lot easier.
Both Stu and myself have upgraded all of our rods and reels for this trip as we do not want to go in under gunned and end up regretting taking in our old Black Bass gear from the last trip.
Rods, reels and our lures have been upgraded, terminal tackle has been upgraded along with heavier braid lines and leaders.
It's going to be a cracker of a trip and the next 4 weeks is going to take forever to pass.

Some of the new arsenal.

Bone Combat Beast XXH rod with a Shimano Tranx 300

Bone Combat Beast XXXH rod with an Abu Revo Toro Beast reel.

rod1.jpg

reel.jpg

lures.jpg

lures1.jpg

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Drop Bear Community Regular

Drop Bear

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That is amazing :worship:.... my jaw is on the floor. :drooling:

If you don't get a stack of pictures for your report I'll... your not too old to put over my knee you know! ;)

I hope you find a good place to camp far enough from the lizards. I'd reckon they will be pretty impressive. Perhaps just don't eat them as sashimi.... :whistle:

What broomsticks are you taking?

 

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aussie123 Newbie

aussie123

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Apparently the lizards are massive and tons of them as they have never been hunted in this region due to the remoteness of the area.

We have been warned numerous times to be extremely vigilant with them so we will make sure we set up camp in a safe spot so we don't wake up with any snapping handbags knocking on the tent door through the night.

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aussie123 Newbie

aussie123

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I am taking in 2 of the new Bone Lim Combat Beast rods and i will also take in the 80lb St Croix that I had custom built for our last trip which is a real broomstick.

I will use the St Croix when we do any trolling up the myriad of narrow creeks and channels that feed into this massive river system.

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Luvit Newbie

Luvit

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Sounds like an amazing adventure ready to unfold.

Dreams don’t just happen by themselves, you have to organise them and there would have been a bit on this trip. 

Fingers crossed it exceeds your expectations and you all have a safe trip and catch the biggest bad a$$ Bass out there. 

 

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aussie123 Newbie

aussie123

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6 hours ago, Luvit said:

Sounds like an amazing adventure ready to unfold.

Dreams don’t just happen by themselves, you have to organise them and there would have been a bit on this trip. 

Fingers crossed it exceeds your expectations and you all have a safe trip and catch the biggest bad a$$ Bass out there. 

 

There is every chance we may not see any Bass in this system but if we do, they are going to be massive fish.

What ever happens, we are going to have fun trying.

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aussie123 Newbie

aussie123

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2 hours ago, Bi_polar said:

I might do one too on the trip, Lance may have a distorted and bias view on which reels performed best.  Daiwa v Shimano....... LoL

 

LOL, I think we both know the answer to this one.

When casting, the Daiwa:drooling: snapped shut more times than a mouse trap in a mouse plague :D :frantics::P

Even the ABU performed flawlessly, not 1 issue with it the entire trip. :worship:

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Angus Rookie

Angus

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1 hour ago, aussie123 said:

LOL, I think we both know the answer to this one.

When casting, the Daiwa:drooling: snapped shut more times than a mouse trap in a mouse plague :D :frantics::P

Even the ABU performed flawlessly, not 1 issue with it the entire trip. :worship:

Cannot wait for the report! Genuenly itching especially with my next black bass trip later this year,

Angus

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aussie123 Newbie

aussie123

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21 minutes ago, Drop Bear said:

D - Doesn't

A - Always

I - Impress

W - When 

A - Activated

 

This Daiwa reel which is supposed to be one of their flag ship models must have tripped into gear when casting at least a 100 times plus over the week.

It was a real pita and if it was my reel, it would either have gone for a swim over there or it would be for sale by now, lol

The Shimano Tranx 300 and the Abu Revo Beast that I used performed flawlessly and not once did they trip when casting.

I am that impressed with the Tranx that I am going to offload some of my reels here and buy a couple more in the different models that are available.

I did use the Abu Beast for most of the trip on a Bone Combat Beast XXXH rod and that rod and reel was really nice to use.

It never faulted once and the only complaint that I have with it was the drag rating is higher than the Tranx but the Tranx definitely had the strongest drag out of the 2 reels.

Maybe a quick drag service will get it up to the rating where it should be but at the same time, it had plenty of drag available for its intended purpose.

If anyone was looking for an overhead reel with lots of stopping power and beautiful to cast lures on all day long, I would happily recommend both the Shimano Tranx and the Abu Revo Beast.

 

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Luvit Newbie

Luvit

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While you were away Lance l bought a Tranx 300 and used it for the first time the other day. Very impressed with it and hearing your experience with it as well it was a good choice. Using it for a jigging reel and can use if for Barra & Cod as well making it a multipurpose reel.

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Drop Bear Community Regular

Drop Bear

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2 minutes ago, Luvit said:

While you were away Lance l bought a Tranx 300 and used it for the first time the other day. Very impressed with it and hearing your experience with it as well it was a good choice. Using it for a jigging reel and can use if for Barra & Cod as well making it a multipurpose reel.

What sort of line capacity? something like 30lb braid?

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aussie123 Newbie

aussie123

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3 minutes ago, Luvit said:

While you were away Lance l bought a Tranx 300 and used it for the first time the other day. Very impressed with it and hearing your experience with it as well it was a good choice. Using it for a jigging reel and can use if for Barra & Cod as well making it a multipurpose reel.

I think it is the nicest baitcaster that I have ever used and I am sure you will be super impressed with it.

I want a couple of the bigger models now for float lining and bottom bashing offshore.

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