We’ve just returned from our first Reef to River trip. The lucky guys on board Nick, Geof, Dave, Martin, David, Peter, Andrew and John from Australia and Jimmy and Okta, two of our Saltwater regulars who snapped up the last minute cancellation seats got to taste both the Salt and Fresh water fishing PNG has to offer. Nowhere else in the world can you have a shot at monster PNG Black Bass and Barramundi as well as GT’s, Doggies and Wrasse in one trip!
The trip was only possible now as we sit on the cusp of our blue water season with the fresh water season winding down. The battle plan was to head to Bimuru for three days to target the Bass and Barra then hit up Eastern fields on the return leg of the journey for four days of Saltwater mayhem but a beautiful weather window opened up and Moli and I made the decision to steam directly to Eastern Fields before the wind was forecast to blow hard. The sea was the best we’ve had it in ages and K2O made great time steaming along like we were on a feather bed, The Aussie boys took advantage weather with a back deck party that lasted two days!
We arrived at night and made our way into the Eastern Fields lagoon to anchor up and offload boats and outboards, as the clients rose from their slumber with some looking a little worse for wear than others. Moli and I manned the two new Salt boats christened Salt Shaker (Moli) and Bigpla Warra (Cameron) with 3 guests per boat and Fikia and Mea ran the banana boats with 2 guests each. All the Sportfishing PNG boys where excited to try out the new boats and gear with all the boats equipped with great new sounder/plotter systems compliments of Garmin.
The first day started off a little slow with the Aussie boys learning the art of topwater fishing and finding it hard work compared to flicking barra lures! Martin who was definitely the dark horse on the trip smashed a great Yellowfin Tuna on the inside of the Atoll claimed top honors for day one.
