Bite Me Mystery Guest of the Month

Clues:
This mystery guest hails from the sunny West Coast of California with a sunny disposition to match.

A world renown photographer, his underwater and gamefish pictures are eagerly sought by magazines around the world.

Marine bilologist, writer, expert angler and now award winning TV show presenter and producer, you have probably seen him on TV.

The one and only Bill Boyce

Check out Bill's extraordinary photographs at www.boyceimage.com (you will be blown away by his pictures). Read his entertaining ramblings in the pages of BlueWater magazine www.bluewatermag.com.au or see him in action presenting one of his award winning shows at www.igfaanglersdigest.com

The 29th Annual TELLY Awards | Press Release

Matava was the recent star on one of IGFA Angler's Digest who won a couple of Telly Awardsfor the episodes!

The Telly Awards honor the very best local, regional, and cable television commercials and programs, as well as the finest video and film productions, and work created for the Web.

29th Annual Telly Awards Winners Announced
Telly again proudly honors the very best commercials, videos, films and internet work
www.tellyawards.com

New York City, NY -- (June 24, 2008) The Winners of the 29th Annual Telly Awards have been announced. With 13,500 entries from all 50 states and around the world, this year’s competition has been one of the most competitive and successful in the long history of the Telly Awards.

Founded in 1979, the Telly Awards is the premier award honoring outstanding local, regional, and cable TV commercials and programs, the finest film and video productions, and groundbreaking web commercials, videos and films. Winners represent the best work of the most respected advertising agencies, production companies, television stations, cable operators, and corporate video departments in the world.

This year’s Winners include companies, agencies and organizations of all sizes, from large multinational media companies to small ad agencies and local production houses. A sample of Silver Telly Winners includes AMC, American Heart Association, Chicago Tribune, Chick-fil-A, Clear Channel Creative Services Group, Comcast, Disney Destinations,LLC., Eagles Television Network, ESPN, FamilyNet, Film House, Inc., Gaiam, Inc., Golf Channel, Harpo Studios, HBO Latin American Group, JWT Team Detroit, Kohl's Department Stores, Lockheed Martin, M&C Saatchi, Macys North,

NASA Television, NBA Entertainment, NBC Universal Global Networks Italia s.r.l., Outdoor Channel, PBS, PGA Tour Productions, SCI FI Channel, Sports Illustrated, The Boeing Company, The Christian Broadcasting Network, The Weather Channel, Time Life, Time Warner Cable, TV Guide Network, and Warner Bros. To view the complete list of Silver Telly Winners for the 29th Annual competition, please visit www.tellyawards.com.

A prestigious judging panel of over 40 accomplished industry professionals, each a past Winner of a Silver Telly, the top honor, judged the competition, upholding the historical standard of excellence that Telly represents. Judges evaluated entries to recognize distinction in creative work - entries do not compete against each other - rather entries are judged against a high standard of merit. Less than 10% of entries are chosen as Winners of a Silver Telly, our highest honor. Other outstanding work is awarded a Bronze Telly.

Chairman of the judging panel, Richard Friley, the Emmy and Telly Award winning President of Friley Productions noted, "As judging chairman, our judges are honored to have evaluated such an incredible body of work. The diverse pool of entries represents the best of traditional and online video and was an inspiration to us all. The quality of work exceeded our expectations, even in this challenging overall market and it is a true accomplishment for our winners”

To find out more about the Telly Awards, please visit our website at www.tellyawards.com.

The 29th Annual TELLY Awards | Press Release

Bite Me on IGFA Angler's Digest TV

IGFA ANGLER'S DIGEST

Just thought you might want to know that the two episodes filmed with Bite Me at Matava are going to broadcast starting on July 19th on Fox Sports Net.

The channel is carried on both DISH Network (channel 423) and DirecTV (channel 654).

Here's the schedule:

Date	Time
July 19th	10:00am EST
July 24th	2:00pm EST
July 26th	10:00am EST
July 31st	2:00pm EST

Bite Me on IGFA Angler's Digest TV

Its not the size of the dog in the fight....

If you think that big game fishing is a battle of brute force over monster fish, think again. A bit of technique and a 'can do' attitude goes a long way. When 16 year old Melissa Baxter Mackay and 12 year old Mason Court from Auckland, New Zealand came aboard Bite Me with their fathers Sherriden and Owen for a couple of days fishing, I expected the dads to be handling the big ones. Not a bit of it. Melissa and Mason were the anglers on strike and I was amazed and delighted when Mason stepped up to a screaming Penn International 30, yanked it out of the rod holder, planted the butt in the butt pad and began to fight a 60lb wahoo without the slightest assistance save for some verbal encouragement from dad.15 minutes later after some tough battling by Mason, deckie Joe gaffed the fish and Mason was delighted with his first ever Kadavu wahoo. Pretty damn good if you ask me.

Next day we decided to throw some poppers for GTs and yet again I was amazed as Melissa and Mason stepped up to the gunnels and fought some of the toughest fighting fish found on the reef. Both Mason and Melissa fought and landed GTs in excess of 20kgs as well as a number of good sized bluefin trevally.

Melissa battles a big Giant Trevally

One of several Trevally Melissa fought and landed

Deckie Joe releasing yet another nice GT

Just goes to prove the old saying.

Its not the size of the dog in the fight.....Its the size of the fight in the dog....

Nice GT Mason !

Fiji Islands Saltwater Fishing Report – July 2008

Charter Operator – Matava Resort Gamefishing

Average Water Temp – 25.5

Average Winds - 20kts,

Sea State – 50% Slight to Moderate / 50% Rough

Water Clarity – Poor inshore, good offshore

The expected wahoo and Pacific sailfish action fired up in June with good wahoo packs all along the Kadavu island barrier reef and medium sized sailfish to 75lbs forming small packs in the usual hot spots. Bite Me took the womens W-10kg Line Class Fiji National Record with a good sail of over 100lbs and single fish over this size are fairly common right now.The windy weather so far in July has made for difficult light tackle fishing but with Kadavu island's big lee shore, nobody has gone home disappointed with a number of other light and ultra-light tackle Fiji National Records on wahoo, GTs and Yellowfin tuna falling to visiting anglers.

The hungry wahoo and sailfish packs will stay well into September with the best sail bites either side of the full moons. August should see the start of some nice black marlin migrating through Fiji waters passing exposed barrier reef and offshore seamounts on their way to Australia's Great Barrier Reef spawning grounds.

The blue marlin are being virtually ignored at the moment as charter boats make the most of the fired up wahoo and sailfish packs but there are plenty of school tuna around holding marlin and offering fresh live or skip-baits for the heavy tackle enthusiasts.

Popper casting suffered from the wild early July weather but the bite remains strong with the GTs loving the pounding surf with GTs to 50lbs common and much bigger fish hitting the popper specialists using heavy tackle and super-sized custom gear.

Aboard 'Bite Me' we will continue to target the wahoo and sails on light tackle from 12lb to 20lb line class as well as some specialised ultra-light tackle fishing on the 8lb (4kg) custom gear.

Summary
Wahoo – Here now in big packs
Sailfish – Here now in packs of 3 to 6 with pairs of larger fish nearby
Yellowfin - Plenty of small inshore fish around 20lbs, larger fish to 75lbs farther offshore
Mahi Mahi – Bit thin on the ground with just the occasional pair here and there
Mackerel – Good sized fish around hitting skip-baits
Blue marlin – Largely being ignored because of the hot wahoo & sailfish bite
GTs –  Excellent fishing when the weather allows, particularily around the full moons

Cpt Adrian Watt
Director,
Matava Resort Gamefishing,
Tel: + (679) 333 6222 or 333 6098

Game Fishing Fiji

Gamefishing Fiji Blog

Fiji National Sailfish Record

Another Pacific Sailfish Record fell to Bite Me last week and New Zealand angler Lyn Salvidge. Lyn and her husband Bruce spent two days aboard Bite Me having some fun with the wahoo and looking to take a ladies National Record back home to Auckland.

Bruce hooked up to his first ever wahoo

Happy to oblige, we introduced Bruce to his first ever wahoo and after a 15 minute fight on 30lb line class, Joe sank the gaff into a nice 60lb fish. Not a bad start for your first ever wahoo.

Nice Hoo Bruce !

We decided Lyn should target the W-10kg Pacific Sailfish record. Normally we tag and release all billfish but a National or World Record are sometimes the exception. Working one of Bite Me's favourite sail spots with a pair of 10kg outfits on the riggers, we hooked up a nice sail on a Hollowpoint Mahi Sniper in white and pink with one of our special light tackle hook rigs.
With some careful backing down early on, we had the sail in close after 20 minutes but using only 5lbs of drag on the Shimano TLD20, the fight was anything but over. Lyn applied steady pressure using her Black Magic stand-up fighting harness as we began to slowly chase the sail down in reverse. 55 minutes later with the sail tiring we upped the drag and Lyn guided the 130lb leader into deckie Joe's hands. Using special light tackle Pakula Katana hooks, this was no time for brute force so Joe gently eased the sail into gaff range and the fight was over.

Lyn and Bite Me's deckie Joe

Weighing in at 47.8kg, ( 105 lbs ) and almost five times line class weight, this was a very respectable fish and earned Lyn the new W-10kg Fiji National Record.