Fishing in Papua New Guinea - The Difference from other world class destinations

I’ve been lucky enough to have fished and guided in many areas around the world over the last few years starting in my home waters along the east coast of South Africa and our nneighbor Mozambique and moving around the rest of the Indian ocean from the desert seas of Dubai and Oman to the sub tropical jungles of Sri Lanka and the Andaman Islands. I now find myself in Papua New Guinea with Sport Fishing PNG and a completely new ocean and new fresh water species to take on.

The biggest difference between PNG and the other areas I’ve worked has to be the topography. To be sitting on a boat 30 meters from the edge of a reef you could walk on and only get wet to your knees and have 100m + water under the boat was a bit of a mind bender for me when I started! The reefs are littered with gutters and run off areas as well and the insides hold massive bommies which are always worth a cast. The species list here is outstanding and goes on and on. I have a passion for light tackle fishing and you can rack up more species in a day in PNG than most other places in a week or even a month. GT’s have always been my first passion and PNG holds plenty of all sizes from monsters to juniors as well as giant Napoleon Wrasse which might be one of the coolest looking fish to ever eat a lure, but it’s the Doggies that have really captured my attention. I’ve never gone up against a more frustrating fish in my life and I have started referring to them as the fish that everyone thinks they want to catch! For the big ones, you have to go deep and get deep you have to use heavy jigs, and they tend to hang around with the sharks so you pay a lot of tax on both fish and jigs. But you get past the aching shoulders, arms made of lead and the sharks and summon the strength to have “one” more drop only to be completely annihilated by a big doggie it really is an incredible feeling to get one to the boat.

Our river season is kicking off soon and although I’m a relative new comer to the world of bass and Barramundi I’m really looking forward to it. I first tackled Bass & Barra on what can only be described as the best job interview ever when Jason invited me to join him on a trip up the Aramia river in 2016 since then I’ve done a few more trips to other parts of PNG in search of fresh water adventures and they have all delivered great fishing.

The Bass are a formidable opponent they hit incredibly hard and fight all the way to the boat, provided you can keep them out the snags that they love so much. My goal for the upcoming season is to try take one on fly I only have a 9wt here with me so it’s a death or glory situation as I’ve seen them smash much heavier conventional rods!

As always we are on the lookout for new rivers and reefs to visit and we have some exciting prospects in the pipe line so stay tuned for more reports and photo’s, our 2018 dates are being snapped up already so if you’re keen for a trip drop us a mail to info@sportfishingpng.net or sales@sportfishingpng.net for available dates.

Cheers,

Cameron

Operations Manager, Pro - Guide