Woodlark Ridge Exploration; January 14 - 22, 2018

There is an old Japanese proverb that says whoever casts the first popper catches the G.T or something like that. This trip we had 10 very experienced anglers from Japan for our annual exploration trip to the far east of Milne bay to try open up some new reefs for our usual K2O blue water expeditions.

First day started with Eno catching a 25kg sailfish on a jig on his very first drop of the trip which was pretty cool.

A few doggies and some massive coral trout were landed. At the end of the day I decided to steam a further 120nm overnight. To say the place was beautiful would be an understatement, from the colour of the water to the bleach white sand on the beaches surrounding this new island we had come to test out it sportfishing capabilities.

Everything was too perfect at this new spot from the weather the tides even being welcomed by the tiny village on the island with about 15kg of cray tails. The biggest problem with this place was it only had a very short window to catch fish over the 2 days we spent there we landed several g.t over 30kg and one of the guys was lucky enough to cross that elusive Napoleon wrasse off the list.

Overnight we steamed a further 110nm to a group of reefs we had only fished once before and to say we hit the nail on the head would be an understatement with hook up after hook up on monsterclass doggies that couldn’t be stopped to finally being able to cross the double hook up on Napoleon off my guiding list.

One guy even managed to land 3 napoleon in 1 day 2x 20kg and a 30 kg model. There weren't crazy numbers of fish caught but the fish that were landed were all quality fish. As always I would like to thanks Eno and all the guys that literally cast till they drop. Till next year guys I will add at the bottom one of our blogs for future anglers that want a few tips with the big dogs. --> https://www.sportfishingpng.net/…/The-fish-you-think-you-wa…

Photo Credits to the legendary Mogi Yoichi and the rest of the gang! Appreciate your generosity!

Cheers,

Capt. Jed Hokins