The river was muddy, a result of the region’s
regular afternoon storms. While black bass don’t
like dirty water, our experienced guide Chris was
still optimistic. Another potential set back for
catching bass is the regular migration of white bait
into the rivers. Similar to whitebait in our
estuaries back home, swarms of these tiny fish
routinely push up river where bass gorge
themselves while rejecting anything else.
We noticed a few skipping whitebait around the
river mouth and saw a canoe-load full of locals
fishing for bait along one of the scrubby banks.
The bait push into the thick bank-side vegetation
where the villages use nets to capture the schools.
The whitebait and coloured water meant
trolling was our best option in the main river. The
idea was to troll a few metres away from the edge
where the fish were more likely to take our
offerings. I was using a bright green Halco RMG
Poltergeist. The Poltergeist is a great cod and barra
lure and within a few minutes it also proved its
worth as a versatile black bass deep diver.Both Mal and I caught several smallish bass on
the troll before things went quiet around
lunchtime. After lunch we travelled to a nearby lake
via a narrow overgrown channel. The lake’s water
was much clearer, but void of any structure. The
weedlined banks and lack of structure called for a
topwater approach. Several small bass came on
board with 115mm Halco Roosta Poppers doing
the damage. We also caught a couple more small
fish and a nice mangrove jack trolling the channel
on the way back through to the main river.BLUEWATER
The next morning we woke alongside the Vitu
Islands after a 14 hour overnight journey. Vitu
are a series of lush islands offering good shelter
for anchoring and outstanding fishing for a
number of sport fish. The volcanic islands give
way to incredibly deep water and an endless
series of shallow bommies; perfect territory for
dogtooth, Spaniards, wahoo, GTs and plenty
more reef dwelling species.DESTINATION: PAPUA NEW GUINEA
38 fishingworld.com.au | September 2019We anchored behind a small dormant volcano.
Steam from the island’s active geysers could be
seen along the beach. The shallow blue water
along the island’s lee gave way to deep blue water
and a line of bommies which ran for several miles.
The wind made things challenging. We fished
from one of three long boats which travel
alongside Ultimate One. These boats are
incredibly versatile and work well across the blue
water and inside the river chasing bass. Casting
poppers along the edge of the bommies became
challenging, so we switched to the troll. I attached
a Halco 190 Laser Pro, while Doug and George
fished Halco MAX 190s and Rapala X-Raps.
The Laser Pro and MAX proved reliable,
quickly converting several wahoo – that night’s
delicous dinner – plus a big Spaniard lost near the
boat and a dogtooth or two for Doug. We also lost
a few Gomoku micro jigs on a deeper reef to
mackerel. The lures were connected via knotable
wire, an effective and easy option for the toothy
critters we encountered.IMAGE: DOUG OL ANDER -
SPORT FISHING MAGAZINE