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Well it's finally here! I am off to St Brandon's tomorrow for a 13 day live aboard trip 300 nm up from Mauritius.
The trip has been organised by cunning mastermind Dave Sharples who is the man in the know and has put the trip together off his own back without using a tour operator - good man!
It has been a long hard winter and the bass fishing still hasn't kicked off however I have been more focused on getting ready for this trip; giving up smoking on NYE, specific gym training since December, dieting and generally looking after myself so I give myself the best start on what I am expecting to be a physically demanding fishing trip.
Because this is the first big trip I have done I have had to save my pennies to rig up properly - tropical fishing tackle is NOT cheap and has cost around 3 times the price of the trip - but I have the tackle required and it should last providing I look after it well - I may even hire it out as a package (Big thank you to Andre for shipping his Shilton SL7 for me to borrow for the trip! - all the way from Cape Town!)
Main quarries are in order;
GT's
Dogtooth Tuna
Reef species (would love a big Maori wrasse!)
Bonefish
General pelagics - Sails, YFT and Marlin
Sharks?
I am a GT virgin and hope I can set a reasonable PB - my DG Tuna PB stands at 49KG so hoping to top when we stop off for some jigging on the Soudan Bank on the way up to St Brandon's
The weather looks reasonable at the moment - a smattering of thunderstorms and sunny days with av daytime temp around 32deg and night temp around 27deg - this is going to make the fishign pretty tough casting, popping, jigging and fly casting will be alot harder and take its toll. Wind is around 12 knots at present - a reasonable breeze.
Tackle ... I was hoping to do a big post on tackle I am taking and rigging however I have run out of time with still alot to do tonight so I will list whats going;
Popping Gear
Ocean Revolution GT Explorer Widowmaker PE10 Popping Rod
Stella 18000SW
JB Hollowcore 100lb braid
Streamline Leader loop to loop Jinkai mono 200lbs or fisherman 240lb twisted leader
Lamiglas PE5 Spinning rod rebuilt by Mick's contact
Twinpower 12000SW
JB Hollowcore 60lb Braid
Streamline Leader loop to loop Jinkai mono 80lbs
Jigging Gear
HOTS Wei World PE8 500g Jigging rod
Stella 20000SW
JB Hollowcore 60lb Braid
Streamline Leader loop to loop Jinkai mono 200lb
Tenryu Supermix 270
Twinpower 4000PG
JB Solid Core PE2
Seagur Flouro 30lb leader
Fly Tackle
Loop Blueline 12/13wt
Shilton SL7 with 65lb GS backing
Airflo 12wt GT lines -WF floating and intermediate
Bloke XL50 8wt
Bloke SW Reel 9wt with 30lb GS backing
Rio Bonefish lines WF 8 and 9wt
We are flying with emirates so a default 30kg limit inc the rod tube is pretty good plus a laptop bag and hand luggage - just about managed it!
16 Large GT poppers / swimbaits - Fullscale/Orion/ Darkstar/ Heru
10 Medium poppers / swimbaits - TackleHouse/Smith/Orion
10 Large jigs - FClLabo/Fisherman/Sevenseas
6 Small Jigs - FClLabo/Smith/Xorus
15 small swimbaits and poppers - staple UK bass plugs
20 SP's ranging from xlayers to large shads
30 bonefish flies approx
40 bluewater / gt flies approx
Terminal tackle - spare line, leaders, hooks and tackle plus tools
Jigging Master Dual Fighting plate with back support
Fisherman casting gloves
We are all sticking 20EU into a pool for the evening PE2 challenge - biggest fish sweeps the 100EU at the end of the week - well beats playing cards whilst drinking beer! (its a lure only challenge!)
I am taking a waterproof vid cam plus a headcam (POV a first?) and a normal Canon Ixus in a waterproof housing - oh and my laptop to write it all up day by day so I can post as we get back on the 26th to Mauritius.
Fairly nervous and anxious on what to expect but at the same time looking forward to it immensly (going to miss the wife and doggie as its been years since we have been apart for this long!) - it has been around 3 years in the making sinvce I saw gtpopping.com to do a proper GT trip - and now the wait is over!
The trip has been organised by cunning mastermind Dave Sharples who is the man in the know and has put the trip together off his own back without using a tour operator - good man!
It has been a long hard winter and the bass fishing still hasn't kicked off however I have been more focused on getting ready for this trip; giving up smoking on NYE, specific gym training since December, dieting and generally looking after myself so I give myself the best start on what I am expecting to be a physically demanding fishing trip.
Because this is the first big trip I have done I have had to save my pennies to rig up properly - tropical fishing tackle is NOT cheap and has cost around 3 times the price of the trip - but I have the tackle required and it should last providing I look after it well - I may even hire it out as a package (Big thank you to Andre for shipping his Shilton SL7 for me to borrow for the trip! - all the way from Cape Town!)
Main quarries are in order;
GT's
Dogtooth Tuna
Reef species (would love a big Maori wrasse!)
Bonefish
General pelagics - Sails, YFT and Marlin
Sharks?
I am a GT virgin and hope I can set a reasonable PB - my DG Tuna PB stands at 49KG so hoping to top when we stop off for some jigging on the Soudan Bank on the way up to St Brandon's
The weather looks reasonable at the moment - a smattering of thunderstorms and sunny days with av daytime temp around 32deg and night temp around 27deg - this is going to make the fishign pretty tough casting, popping, jigging and fly casting will be alot harder and take its toll. Wind is around 12 knots at present - a reasonable breeze.
Tackle ... I was hoping to do a big post on tackle I am taking and rigging however I have run out of time with still alot to do tonight so I will list whats going;
Popping Gear
Ocean Revolution GT Explorer Widowmaker PE10 Popping Rod
Stella 18000SW
JB Hollowcore 100lb braid
Streamline Leader loop to loop Jinkai mono 200lbs or fisherman 240lb twisted leader
Lamiglas PE5 Spinning rod rebuilt by Mick's contact
Twinpower 12000SW
JB Hollowcore 60lb Braid
Streamline Leader loop to loop Jinkai mono 80lbs
Jigging Gear
HOTS Wei World PE8 500g Jigging rod
Stella 20000SW
JB Hollowcore 60lb Braid
Streamline Leader loop to loop Jinkai mono 200lb
Tenryu Supermix 270
Twinpower 4000PG
JB Solid Core PE2
Seagur Flouro 30lb leader
Fly Tackle
Loop Blueline 12/13wt
Shilton SL7 with 65lb GS backing
Airflo 12wt GT lines -WF floating and intermediate
Bloke XL50 8wt
Bloke SW Reel 9wt with 30lb GS backing
Rio Bonefish lines WF 8 and 9wt
We are flying with emirates so a default 30kg limit inc the rod tube is pretty good plus a laptop bag and hand luggage - just about managed it!
16 Large GT poppers / swimbaits - Fullscale/Orion/ Darkstar/ Heru
10 Medium poppers / swimbaits - TackleHouse/Smith/Orion
10 Large jigs - FClLabo/Fisherman/Sevenseas
6 Small Jigs - FClLabo/Smith/Xorus
15 small swimbaits and poppers - staple UK bass plugs
20 SP's ranging from xlayers to large shads
30 bonefish flies approx
40 bluewater / gt flies approx
Terminal tackle - spare line, leaders, hooks and tackle plus tools
Jigging Master Dual Fighting plate with back support
Fisherman casting gloves
We are all sticking 20EU into a pool for the evening PE2 challenge - biggest fish sweeps the 100EU at the end of the week - well beats playing cards whilst drinking beer! (its a lure only challenge!)
I am taking a waterproof vid cam plus a headcam (POV a first?) and a normal Canon Ixus in a waterproof housing - oh and my laptop to write it all up day by day so I can post as we get back on the 26th to Mauritius.
Fairly nervous and anxious on what to expect but at the same time looking forward to it immensly (going to miss the wife and doggie as its been years since we have been apart for this long!) - it has been around 3 years in the making sinvce I saw gtpopping.com to do a proper GT trip - and now the wait is over!
