The trip was not cheap but with the exception of a short stop on Hamilton Island was worth every penny . The trip was very well organised , great fishing, professional guides , delicious food and just an all round memorable experience .
I started the trip by flying into Hamilton island and having to spend one night in an overpriced Hotel . The island owners have a monopoly as they own the whole island.
This was the only negative as it cost almost $900 cad for one night on the way in and one night on the way out. Very plain motel like room , nothing special at all for the $350+ per night . The food was not cheap either with hamburgers costing $30 and $100 steaks .
For me Hamilton Island was really just a place to sleep so that I was there early enough for the float plane trip the next day..The fact that Oprah had apparently stayed on the island before was really of no interest to me .If you make what Oprah makes I guess you could afford to go there. LOL..
Ok so now I have that off my chest on with the trip.
The float plane trip from Hamilton out to the mother ship was a smooth flight and calm water for landing which was good as this was my first ocean landing.
The views of the reefs from the plane were just fantastic.
As we approached for landing it looked like we were coming in to land on the moon .
The meet with the boat was well coordinated as the mother ship moves locations sometimes daily trying to stay on good fishing areas. The boat is also always trying to anchor in a safe position for the plane to land safely between the reefs.
This was my first live aboard fishing trip . We were lucky in that we had great weather and no rough seas . I am sure the boat would handle rough water but it was my stomach that I was concerned about more than anything.
The staff at Nomad were a fun bunch . Very professional and just down to earth good people. Easy to spend a week on a boat with .
The guests were great also . You often wonder who you will end up with when flying onto a boat where you dont know anyone . There were 3 Aussies Michael, Charles and Luke and Tony all the way from Scotland .
I fished with different combinations of guests on the different boats throughout the trip and all were a pleasure to fish with. Everyone shared the boats well and no egos..The contender was the larger of the 2 boats and frankly better on choppy days that the other smaller boats.
They were impressed that the rods handled the battles easily ..
For anyone visiting Nomad there is a weight restriction on the flight to the mother ship.
I strongly recommend not to worry about taking too many poppers and jigs as Nomad has a good selection which was reasonably priced. They also had good rods with Stella reels if needed.
Yours truly with a nice Spanny caught on a popper. I could see the fish chase down the popper. It crushed the popper and took off like a rocket . Check out the fun video of catching this fish on the video bar at the bottom of this blog.
Here is proud Tony with a big smile and a really nice GT. Tony was fun to fish with and a good angler. I really enjoyed his dry Scottish humour.
Tony was having a lot of success with stick baits and frankly out fished me while I stuck with the popper.
I started off with big poppers but downsized my baits after seeing Michael a Nomad trip veteran catching lots more fish on the 150 Cuberra. The smaller poppers worked well for me and I landed some good fish .Thanks for the tip Michael.The smaller poppers were also much easier to cast and easier on my back..
Here is Luke with another good GT.
I think Luke caught more species than anyone. Here is another beauty however I dont know what species.
He was sometimes catching them 2 at a time..
I caught my first Long Tom . What a strange looking fish ..Best handled with care.
Look at the teeth on these things...
There were many double headers. Here are a nice pair of GT,s caught by Charles and Luke.
Charles was not the tallest person on the trip but he was tough. He had no problem handling big GT,s like this one.
Some of the guys great some great photos of the marine life while I was as usual obsessed with the finned marine life. Thanks for sharing the great pics guys.
Tony again with another super GT.I think he took this one on a popper off the front .It was quite tricky trying to fish off the front of the boat when it was bouncing around but this didn't stop Tony..
Here is Ben who runs Nomad Charters in New Zealand. Ben got this 40 kilo+ fish on what used to be his secret popper.. Small lure but big fish... This fish was caught right off the back of the mother ship..
At the end of a hard fishing day there was no time for rest as we would take turns catching sharks and huge GT,s right off the back of the mother ship.
Some of the guides were catching GTs with no rod and just heavy line with a piece of fish on a single hook wrapped around their hands and simply trying to haul them into the boat. NO kidding hand lining 30kg GTs .You gotta see it to believe it....
Charles did an awesome job of fighting this 40kilo GT on a fly right off the back . He had to jump into another boat with one of the guides and chase it into the sunset.
I had a good one off the back too, but caught it by slapping a large stick bait against the water and then just letting it sink slowly. The fish came out of nowhere and almost ripped the rod out of my hands.
Then it was time for a few nice cold beers as the sun was setting .
In Michael's case a nice glass of Shiraz I think it was..Happy to share a bottle of wine with you any day Michael and I hope to join you on another trip some day..
I am not sure how the illusive Michael caught so many fish yet stayed clear of the camera .
Time for dinner before doing a little more fishing before bed .
The dinners were fantastic .Delicious food and lots of it.
After dinner the plan was simple. We would try to catch and reel up bottom fish before they were eaten by sharks on their way up to the boat . When some of the sharks hit it was like hooking onto a freight train..
We usually stopped fishing around 10pm as we just couldn't reel anymore ...What a blast..!!
The time flew by and the trip was soon over I was sad to leave . I have never thought I could be so exhausted from fishing but I really needed a break after popping for 6 days straight..
I chilled out in Sydney for a few days and then headed up to Darwin for another great weeks fishing at Jarbu lodge on Croker island . You can read my report on this trip on my Jarbu blog, jarbulodge.blogspot.com or learn more about Jarbu at .....www.jarbulodge.com.
