Papuan Coast Camp Aug. 19 - 25, 2018 (New Destination)

Company: Big Trout Japan

Anglers: 3

Type of fishing: Casting only

Anglers’ Tackle info:

Rods - Tulala Adventura 59, Shimano World Shaula 1604SS2, PNG River Raskol prototype PE2-4

Reels – Shimano conquest 2017 300, Shimano 2018 Antares Monster Drive, Shimano Grappler, Elan Tailwalk Widepower plus

Line – Varivas PE8, Varivas 140lbs leader, YGK Galis 110lbs leader

Lures – DUO G87, Deps Cascabel, Deps kickbacker,

Hooks – Owner ST66, Gamakstu SP-MH, BKK Raptor Z

It was great to have Taka-san of Big Trout Japan back with us since his last visit back in 2011. This time around, we decided to do something different and head out to our new Black bass camp.

We visited this destination with paying customers for the first time with Kazuhiro (creator of OneBiteOneFishe / FangOps) with DUO CEO Masa experiencing some the best camp based fishing we’ve had and we expected the second group with Taka-san to garner similar results.

The bass were on fire with lots of big fish taking home plenty of lures and bruised everyone's ego.

Talking about the best gears we could get our hands on, heavy duty rods / 160lbs leader / 6X Trebles and 80-100lbs mainline, the party was totally blown away by how quick and hard these brutes hit.

By day 3, we had 1 broken PE 4 rod, 1 broken conquest 400, 1 mechanically damaged Antares monster drive and over 30 snapped leaders & lures. The biggest fish of the trip was only 24lbs though. Imagine how big the others were…

It was clear that everyone came prepared with good tackle but kept on losing lures and snapping off their leaders. The team tried their best to advise them the best ways to hook & land these bass in tiny creeks of barely 8m wide filled with snags, but habits are hard to change. They now know how it feels and they say they will come better prepared next season!

Last 2 days was a struggle as the guys were left with very limited options of tackle, having lost a big chunk of the lures they brought, along with broken hooks.

“I will bring 10 rods, 200lbs leader and lots of crank-bait next year, please book me in! I’m coming back for sure!” exclaimed Jimmy back at dinner at the camp after losing half of his deep divers and didn't manage to land any bass for the day.

Wild River Fishing PNG advises: Bring all the best tackle that you can afford, expect to fish in some of the most challenging conditions you can imagine, expect to lose some lures due to leader or line breakages, expect to break some tackle, and finally, expect PNG Black Bass fishing to be the hardest type of fishing you have ever done.

Tight lines,

Jia An Ng