Aitutaki & Raro

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    Posted: 08 Jun 2012 at 9:41pm
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Doing a trip over to the cooks, will be there in 6 weeks time. 8 nights Aitutaki & 6 nights in Raro.

I will only be doing shore based fishing... inner reef area. From what I have read around this forum in different places, my very limited fishing gear will be just that...limited. Gear that I am taking is (please don't frown) Old school thunnus & 15-24 t curve, 10-15 14 foot beastmaster rod & 6500 baitrunner, akios shuttle overhead on 8kg 12 foot rod. Not sure if taking a 4kg setup.

I'm basically setup for the smaller fish & heard theres a few to be caught on the gear I have.

A mate told me.. Live baiting is the way to go if you can get livies. But its cast & retrieve fishing in the cooks, so a trip to the tackle shop to score a heap of gear is on the cards. 

Now... how do I say this.... I got buggar all experience with poppers & stik bait fishing & I am really making do with what I am taking with me. Now.... if you were going to the cooks with only this gear, what would you be purchasing from the tackle shop to target inner reef species. I don't want to buy a new outfit as I would rather buy more tackle instead.

Oh yeah, accommodation in Aitutaki has kayaks to use


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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote footey Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Jun 2012 at 10:05pm
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All you need is some small poppers like this on trade me.
I took some of these over last year and cast around the channels that flow out of the lagoon and had a ball. I lost 3 poppers I think but caught some great fish (bluefin trevally and long toms) just using my softbait gear. You don't need anything more than that. I got smoked once on something large but it was blast. Whatever you use needs to float as the coral is very hungry on anything that sinks.
 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote BananaBoat Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Jun 2012 at 11:05pm
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Thanks for that mate. Yeah, I thought half doz of those would be a good start. I feel I will lose alot of lures.... I hope to get the girlie a good fish there too. She has a lipstik & baitrunner setup

What was the bait fishing like

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote 2cold Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Jun 2012 at 1:20am
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small poppers and small chrome lures on the softie set are the way to go for a heap of fun and variety. These are worth a look, cheaper than trademe ones too http://www.torpedo7.co.nz/products/G0L1HNNPL/title/g-i-popper-lure--23-12cm
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (1) Likes(1)   Quote BananaBoat Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Aug 2012 at 6:07pm
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Ok, this is from a shore based snapper fisho, with limited experience for flicking lures around.

Braid gear I took for the job..3kg softie set Penn 3-7kg rod, Daiwa 1500 reel. 10kg softie Okuma concept 10-15 rod, Stardic 500024kg 15-24 T-curve & Thunnus reel

Bought a heap of bloody gear for targeting the smaller to next size up fishies for inside the reef. Used a lot of some gear & none of the rest.

Hardly fished the inner reef in Raro….too much to do in a short amount of time & fishing was left to end of the day.One side of the island was glassy calm & the other is wind & white caps. No matter where you go, you will find a place to flick a few lures about. There are a few “no take” areas (reserves) The popular place like Muri didn’t seem all that fishy to me as it was all chopped up by the wind with white caps most times I visited the area. Flicked a few spinners around Arorangi where we stayed, caught a bit of small stuff for my efforts…. Nice to get my “fix”Another popular place is the main wharf in town where the charter fleet is at. 

Aitutaki, the 3kg was plenty enough for the inner reef species…heaps of small stuff around for your fun fishing with Bluefin trevs up to 3kg in the mix to challenge you around the coral. I had a few huge runs that fell off. Lure of choice were the metal spinners around 7-18g worked the best.  I made the mistake of changing the trebles to single hooks which resulted in dropped fish & missed strikes… Swapping them back to trebles & crushing the barbs did the damage. For me at the time, soft plastics were definitely the best to use inside the reef, with ¼oz weight heads.  I took a range of colours. 5 inch jerk shad blue pepper neons worked well. Any dark green colour, like lime tiger were good as well.  I took other colours but didn’t need to use them.  I am not sure if the inner reef fish had a colour preference, as I reckon the lure action caused the strikes. If my 7 foot rod was a little bit more longer to work the action of the softies I reckon that would have resulted in more strikes.I would say that a more experienced softbait fisher who specializes in that type of fishing would have done way more better than my amateur plastic skills…. I still caught a heap of fish.It is all blind casting. Where you think you will get snagged on the reef is where the fish are at.Depths of water I fished inside the reef ranged from waist high to knee deep. The water I fished was sheltered & mostly glassy calm.  If you snag up, you can walk out to the snag & unhook it…so you lose buggar all gear. The deeper parts I fished seemed empty... this I can only imagine because the coral rocks were more spread out & it was open sand & featureless.  Anything that was swimming around from A to B were swimming hard to get there & you could see something bigger going after it.  The fish were easily spooked, so just watch how you tread.I was splashing around & still caught bluefins… but a more stealth approach would be better. The water is soooo clear as well. I did all my casting about on the western side in front of our accommodation & towards the airport…which was better.  Getting about in the kayak was better again. The fish are on the move like kingies back home…forget about shore based fishing, even though you will see a heap of bust ups by sometimes big fish & I do mean big fish…get in the water & move around fishing blind. I also missed a heap of fish. There were fish with kahawai like bodies that would jump out of the water trying to crash the plastics & spinners. Other times a near miss would leave a hole in the water from the unseen fish. I had a heap of follow ups & turn away at the last moment right at my feet.Biggest bluefin trev was around 45-50cm on the 3kg gear.  

I tried stick baits & poppers off the wharf next to the game club… had lots of follow ups but no joy. Some of the trevs were big.. as wide as your fist & deep like the length of your laptop pc with pectoral fins like legal sized snapper...lots of them I couldn’t work the river2sea stickbaits & strike pro poppers properly like they are designed to be used…so back to the drawing board for that. The 85mm shimano waxwings & the strike pro cyber vibe 26g raised more fish than the other hard baits….again, the trevs would turn away at the last moment at my feet…. And they were big GTs. I saw a heap of them around the wharf crashing the bait schools. They swim around like kingies when they follow the shore line at your feet.  Vaipae wharf is another to try for your land based trevs.I didn’t hook any GTs this trip… but had a few follow ups with the hard baits.  Every big lure raised fish.  I would flick it out & try & work it as best as I could & the fish would charge at it & turn away at my feet. Flick it the other way & same again as above, then they would stop completely after more flicking about.  I then changed the lure from stick bait to popper & the whole cycle similar to the above would happen again.  So, in the end, when you stop raising fish, change the lure to something else.In 30mins I changed 4 types of lures & raised fish each time.   Again, I reckon those who have more specialized fishing gear for this type of fishing would do well.

I went out with Black pearl charters & fished the fad with 2 others around change of light in the morning. Caught a few yellowfin around 8-9kg then I ran my 10kg softie set…caught yellowfin around 6-7kg but hardly any scrap for that setup…good to blood a new setup tho… then fins went off the bite. We drifted livies around the fad for the mahimahi while the skipper biffed out handfuls of livies. The mahis crashed those & left our livies alone.... that was it for the day (half day charter)  Unusal fishing the fads, you either get onto them or you don’t. One charter got around 20-30 fins & 6-8 mahis one trip & down to only one fish on another charter.  All the fins were caught on trolled softbaits & all the boats at that time fished softies for the fins as well. Light drags with the lightest fluro you are willing to run.


When we come back again, I will bring a small cast net for the livies.  We used sprat like fish for the mahis, about 12cm long & these would be awesome for the trevs inside the reef under a cork. These baitfish are everywhere no matter where your accommodation is on Aitutaki.  The fish are in ankle depth water.  The charters keep the livies overnight in a plastic cage…similar to a cat cage for kittens.  I would bring a few frozen squid & catch the piper around the wharves for livies or use as dead baits. The targeted fish show up regularly around the wharf as well.Ring up a charter & ask them to drop off some tuna offcuts for fresh baits.  At night around Samade, berley cubes of tuna & then stray line a decent bait for a GT… heard that is how you do it at night…with baits.  I will borrow a 80lb Stella setup & do a specialised GT charter & target the buggars with hard baits... have heard this type of fishing is amazing if you can get them in before the "teeth" arive


Off topic here...If you do one other thing after fishing, be sure you do a lagoon cruise. The snorkelling is amazing, with stacks of fish life, huge calms in the marine reserve & swimming with 30kg plus GTs close by. Once everyone is back on the boats, they feed the GTs with tuna pieces…Take your specialty cheeses & dips with you too…there is none on the island   



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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote BananaBoat Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Aug 2012 at 3:27pm
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Forgot to mention. if you fly virgin pacific blue. Your rod tube is considered another item of baggage (23kg) it is best to pre-purchase this item before you board the plane as an extra bag $25 each way.... or pay 80 bucks each way at bag check in. There was a rule change end of June & the above came in  
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Jimm Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Aug 2012 at 3:38pm
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excellent information bananaboat, great write up.  We will definitely keep that info in mind when we one day get out to the cook islands.

cheers

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote tightlines2 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Aug 2012 at 3:12pm
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Excellent info BB. We went out with Mike from Black Pearl charters and did the same thing as you a few days before you, and caught plenty of YF, and mahimahi. Seeing the mahimahi freejumping and smashing the live baits was amazing. We also caught a BIG bronzy, which chewed up 35 minutes of fishing timeAngry, I was hoping it was going to be something different. Would love to go back again and have a more serious crack at the fish in the lagoon. I found fishing at Raro itself disappointing after Aitutaki, with so many reserves around the place. I'll be booking time with Mike and Black Pearl again when I go next.
Remember it's not the number of breaths you take that is important in life, but rather the number of times that life takes your breath away.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (1) Likes(1)   Quote alan syme Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Aug 2012 at 5:09pm
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the fishing is way better on aitutaki than raro.

mike on black pearl is the man!! tighlines2 he was telling me about your shark, i asked him if he tried to get his lure back? "hell no!"

there is some serious fish inside the aitutaki lagoon also.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote BananaBoat Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Aug 2012 at 5:30pm
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The next time we do a charter there for the fins, I would ask the charter to supply more ice for the caught fins that will be used specifically for sashimi. The fish we took home intended for sashimi was very ordinary as more care was needed with the icing down process. The tuna was much better prepared as cooked or used as island style raw fish... still bloody good tho Thumbs Up
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