New Caledonia
The Indo-Pacific is loaded with great topwater-fishing destinations. One of my favorites has to be New Caledonia. Here, reefs inside the huge French island's fringing lagoon, passes and outer edges of the reef truly teem with life - and much of that life is big, mean and hungry - not likely to pass up a hapless popper struggling in the clear waters above. The GT are massive by any measure, as are the mega coral trout (long, aggressive, colorful grouper that lay in wait atop reefs), narrowbarred Spanish mackerel, behemoth Maori wrasse, voracious red bass (snapper that love to dash up from reefs to nail anything moving above) and much more. Best of all is that the internationally popular fishing operation here, Le Poisson-Banane, consists of guys whose specialty is popping reefs and adjacent waters on live-aboard trips. They're well organized and very well equipped, and they catch monsters - see for yourself at lepoissonbanane.com.
