New Caledonia 2007

[ChrisT]

Here's some pictures from our recent trip to New Caledonia to spice up this section.

[Akudou]

Christ... heheh i envy all that catches man.. thats what i call game fishing!!! :P

[edylie]

Hi ChrisT,

Thank you for sharing. Those are very nice pictures. It must be fun to have a shark chasing the popper

Regards,
Edy

[MarkR]

Hi Chris,

Great trip...saw the pic of your weapons...

What was your favorite set-up?

Komodo dragon vs 78EXH?

cheers

[ChrisT]

Hi Chris,

Great trip...saw the pic of your weapons...

What was your favorite set-up?

Komodo dragon vs 78EXH?

cheers

I don't have the Komodo Dragon but the EXH rocks! Jac loves the TBL - very forgiving.

[Juan]

Chris,

Is the EXH any forgiving? Will be using it soon, hope to land something reasonable LOL

[MarkR]

Yo Chris,

Do you really need the extra line cap with the Dogfight or 20k spool at NC?

cheers

[ChrisT]

Chris,

Is the EXH any forgiving? Will be using it soon, hope to land something reasonable LOL

I'm not sure if I'll call the EXH forgiving but I like it stiff - nice to cast and puts pressure on the fish. The bigger ones I managed to land were done quite easily with the rod and these were around the 40kg mark. However, there was one particularly big one which I was nearly dragged over and couldn't even stand up to fight the fish. Got busted!

Mark, for a place like NC, you need the line cap of the dogfight or the 20k spool. We were using 130lb braid and with the 20k spool, I think I had around 200m plus. The fish usually takes around 50 to 80m of line and when the skipper sees that its a big one, he'll drive the boat away from the reefs - maybe another 50m. And then the fish will continue to take more line.....so you will need the extra line cap. The 40kg ones will eventually stop but the mega big ones keep going and going. We got busted 5 times this way when we just couldn't stop the fish from going into the reef and Jac got spooled using the 16k spool with 100lb braid - Not enough line to stop the monsters - damn happening!

[MarkR]

Yo Chris,

How much drag were you using?

78EXH better than 78H?

cheers

*wish my 78EXH was still around...*

[ChrisT]

Yo Chris,

How much drag were you using?

78EXH better than 78H?

cheers

*wish my 78EXH was still around...*

For the fish we were targetting, I found the EXH much better than the H, especially when you're chucking 190g poppers and stickbaits. With the EXH, it became quite easy to cast close to 100m.

I'm guessing we were using around 12 to 15kg drags. Didn't really check but it was near pretty tight. The 20kg ones didn't pull an inch of line but the big ones pulled lots!

Your EXH is now the new jigging model in Rodrigues!!