Fiji Islands Saltwater Fishing Report – May 2009

An nice black marlin tagged & released by angler Brett Perryman
Photo by Renae Perryman

The Fiji Autumn has seen some excellent marlin fishing alongside the last of the summer Yellowfin run.

The average size of the blue marlin was down a little at around 150kg but the occasional larger black added a little extra spice to the heavy tackle fishing. Throw in a few 100lb yellowfin tuna and the odd mahi mahi and you have a recipie for a pretty good days gamefishing.Blue marlin for Graeme Robinson aboard Bite Me

The GT popper casting has been fabulous with frequent GTs to 70lbs and several around the magical 90lb mark. The bite is still good but we expect the weather conditions to turn more breezy as winter moves in and there won't be so many of those glassy calm days in the coming few months.

We have been doing quite a bit of deep water jigging on 50lb and 80lb class tackle and the reef slopes around Kadavu have offered up some spectaculor dogtooth tuna. Average size has been around 75lbs but the trophy fish of the month goes to angler Bill Busch from the USA and his monster 200lb doggie. A new Fiji All-Tackle Record.

Anto from Italy with a nice dogtooth tuna

The water temp is now cooling rapidly and the first winter wahoo and sailfish have already started to arrive. By July, large packs of wahoo should be frequent with many anglers opting to bait and switch packs of sails along the outer reef slopes on lighter line classes.

Expect wahoo to 40kg, sails to 60kg and a winter run of Yellowfin tuna to keep anglers lunging for screaming reels.The first winter wahoo of 32kg for Stacey Lethlean