Despite their chunking size, the Niugini bass lays in ambush wait to strike out at its prey.

When Fall is like Summer…

Fall, in Papua New Guinea, if we can call it that, starts at the end of March and continuing until the end of June. The temperature is consistently in the high 80Fs, the same as it is in summer and spring. Rain fall is tapering off on the north coast near Port Moresby. If you are planning a trip from Europe or North America, be prepared that the humidity is high all the time so bring light weight cotton shorts and shirts.

The Niugini Bass is a close relative of the black bass and can be caught with the same fishing techniques that work on the Black Bass.

Use deep diver when trolling deep water. Go with Stump Jumpers and you can’t go wrong.

Deep divers don’t require a lot of effort in order to catch the Niugini Bass, but the fight is incredible. After setting the hook, vary the speed of the retrieve. Prior to setting the hook, stop every now and then while retrieving the line. Keep the bait around the three to five feet deep level and use a Texas style rig to reduce the probability of getting a snag.

Fly Fishing Tackle

We are going to recommend the Sage ZXL fly rod, much like the auto section of your paper would recommend a Ferrari: we don’t expect you to go out and get one due to the cost, but it is so well engineered that we just have to talk about it. The price estimated around $675 just for the rod alone. Oh, I believe that price includes the case shown in the picture below.

This rod is so light that our first impression is that there is no way it could handle any load. But as it is light, the Sage ZXL is very strong and so very easy to cast with. And if all the above is not enough, the sensitivity is amazing. To borrow again from the car analogy, too bad everyone can’t take this for a test cast…

Ambush

Despite their chunking size, the Niugini bass lays in ambush wait to strike out at its prey. It prefers the standard covered offered by lakes. Fish the river bank out crops, by sunken logs, trees and underwater rock ledges.

Adult Niugini Bass, especially big inactive lunker bass are voracious predators that eat various local fish, both small and large ones alike. They will also chase after the climbing perch, but due to their spines, some get lodged in the throat of the bass, killing them. However, we recommend suing the following as they are more practical: sardines, prawns, slimy mackerel, garfish, bonito, crabs, frogs, salamanders, snakes, mice, turtles and even birds. The Papuan Black Bass also eats catfish and crayfish.