Nomad Sportfishing are well known for their Coral Sea charters targeting giant trevally, billfish and dogtooth tuna. In April 2008 Bluewater's Hal Harvey fished the Bugatti Reef system with Nomad, along with seven other West Australians and four Sydneyites.

The target species for this trip was giant trevally (GTs), which the Bugatti system is ideal for. Over five full days and two half days of throwing poppers and stickbaits, the 12 anglers encountered many hundreds of GTs, successfully bringing to the boat and releasing well over a hundred fish.

GT virgin Martin Exel was the star of the first full day. Prior to that his largest fish had been a 13kg barramundi; but after just one full day of popperchucking, he had an amazing 13 GTs to his credit, very few of which would have been less than 13kg!

There were several 'doubles' brought to Nomad's dories over the week, including this pair of beauties for Gerard Edwards and Hal Harvey. The fish took poppers cast around one of the 'trout boats', which are out there catching coral trout for the live export trade.

Gerard Edwards also caught and released two other GTs over 40kg, as did Brent Hughes. Brent was getting plenty of action on a popper his mother had bought him for his birthday, so he had plenty of photos to show her that she had made a good choice.

Without a doubt Cubera 125s were the popper of choice for the week, with probably every angler using one at some time, and maybe half the fish having been caught on them. 

This Cubera 125 collected a crashing strike in one of the 'blue holes', and was promptly cut off on shallow coral; however it was retrieved shortly afterwards, having been shaken off by the fish (all lures wore only barbless hooks). It wasn't until it had been used for another half hour that the tooth in the back was noticed!

The weather wasn't ideal, blowing 20 knots most of the time and with a fair bit spent at 25 and 30 knots, plus rain squalls that would have gusted to 40 knots, but the proliferation of reef and channels meant that there was never an opportunity missed. The Kevlacat 18' dories were fine for the job and were out there every day, rain, wind and brief moments of shine.

The late Chef Rob's meals were five-star every day, but we didn't let it go to his head. He knew how good he was, and he was right. We miss him.

Many thanks to the numerous GTs that contributed to the making of this trip. They're all still swimming of course, Nomad being big on successful catch-and-release. Catch you next time!

Text and pics © Bluewater Tackle World and Nomad Sportfishing Adventures