plenty of charter options such as, in no particular order akura, dawn breaker, seafari, marlin queen, reel time, tangaroa, blue water adventures, delano, among others. all good fellas, google search these names for their website sites and details/photos etc.

depends of what type/size of boat and numbers in your group. when you get to raro, go to the avatiu wharf, have a look around and meet some of the guys, find a boat/skipper you like a time that suits and sorted. i might be there, come say gidday. all the charter boats provide trolling gear, some good quality, some not so flash. no serious popper or jig sets that i am aware of.

poppers are best around the wharf or reef passages, walk out to the edges of them, avana, arorangi, rutaki, avaavaroa for example. not easy to catch the gts in the daytime here, not many of them and picky. night time they come out to play. plenty of bluefin trevally around that will hit poppers and softbaits, a softbait set with poppers or softbaits is great fun, plenty of interesting fish to be caught in the lagoon also. bring plenty of light and heavy leader, hooks, softbaits,poppers, lures etc you lose alot.

hope this helps.