20 Jul 2010

August Wahoo Special

August Special

Don't miss your chance to extend your stay at Matava - Fiji's Premier Eco Adventure Resort during the whole month of August for NO EXTRA COST!
August Wahoo Madness has set in at Matava on Bite Me!
Use this great deal to do even more fishing on Bite Me for those Wahoos and Sailfish in August,
PRIME 'HOO and SAIL season
!



http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_eaIMPEar5Bw/TEPemopMmhI/AAAAAAAAEZo/OXbxw-un32M/s1600/July+Report+2.JPG


Book your August-Pay-Stay Special Now!

Heck of a good deal... Spend that saved money on more days on Bite Me! Email Adrian on Adrian@GamefishingFiji.com and ask for the August-Pay-Stay Special!

GT Popping 2010 Season Summary

"Mine's bigger than yours "

Its been a tough season weather-wise, the worst I can recall in 8 years of gamefishing around Kadavu Island waters. January was great but the next 4 months were a mixture of cyclones, big swells and out of season tradewinds. Not what you need when you are trying to park a 7 ton gamefishing boat 30 yards from the outer barrier reef breakers... Even so, we managed a lot of nice GTs nudging 100lbs and a fair few doggies aboard Bite Me and Tease Me, the best of which were around 65kg.

Here are the Top Ten GTs on poppers this season (at least the ones I got a half decent photo of)
Not in any particular order....
Congrats guys, you popped hard and saw the best fish.

Tri (Australia)
Tim (Australia)

Scott (Australia)

Margaret (England)

Jin (Brazil)

Dave (Australia)

Dave (Australia)

Dan (Oz / South Africa)

Christian (France)

Bruno (France)

Brendan (Australia)


As for the hot poppers this season, the popper that accounted for the most fish was the Cubera. 150 or 180, they are relatively easy to work, pop well in all conditions and proved themselves over and over again.
Also fishing well were the usual top suspects - the FCL Labo EBIPOP, the Craftbait Megamouth, the Hammer Heads, the Halco Haymakers and the River 2 Sea Dumbell 200 poppers.
Full Scale was a newcomer this year with some Australian anglers and proved very tough and effective.
Buffalo lures were on test on Bite Me. Some early models had paintwork issues and have been changed but all proved themselves tough enough for the GTs here and have caught many fish. Not had one single failure.

Cubera 150 The all round winner

The Craftbait Megamouth in this clown triggerfish colour was deadly

Buffalo Lures on test - Very effective and good value for money

FCL Labo EBI POP

Newcomer Full Scale was very effective

River 2 Sea Dumbell Cheap but very effective

Funkey Hammerhead

FCL Panic Trout, pretty damn good actually....

Whackiest Newcomer ?

This Patriot Fizzer

Best Stickbait ?

The Orion Bigfoot



Most unusual catch ?
A Diamond Trevally (Alectis indicus) caught on a Buffalo popper

Ashley (USA)

Last Popping Week of the Season

Some pics of the last popping & jigging week of the Fiji summer season. These guys came all the way from Italy organised by an Italian specialist fishing agency - Fishmania Travel
Vincenzo Caccico from Fishmania takes specialist anglers to some of the best remote popping and jigging spots around the world. You can see his blog here.
One of the anglers, Antonello, came last year but this time nailed his personal Best GT over 40kg.
We jigged the seamount but the big doggies were absent so the guys had some fun popping for wahoo that schooled all around Bite Me.




A small GT in black spawning colouration

Blackfin Barracuda with an apetite bigger than its mouth

Vincenzo contemplates a big Great Barracuda and how much damage it's done to his Craftbait popper !


Popping for wahoo on the seamount

One of several wahoo taken on poppers

Some nice Grouper on the jigs


A very unusual catch - a Coronet Fish

Rosy Jobfish

Anto knocks off another mid-sized GT


19 Jul 2010

Gamefishing Fiji Report July 2010

Gamefishing Report July 2010
Kadavu Island - Fiji Islands


The cooler water that heralds the start of the winter wahoo and sailfish season moved in later than normal leading to a patchy June season start.

Gary Barmby of Angling Adventures and Joe with Wahoo
The big wahoo packs hovered on offshore seamounts causing somewhat of a headache for marlin anglers but now the season is in full swing with numerous wahoo along the Kadavu Island Great Astrolabe Barrier Reef slopes.
A reasonable 'hoo!
Pacific Sailfish numbers are building along the barrier reef with fish averaging about 90lbs offering excellent sport on the lighter line classes.

Is this 'hoo big enough for u???
The best wahoo so far this month was an 80 pounder but we should soon see plenty over the magical 100lb mark.

Tagged sailfish on Bite Me
The Winter yellowfin run has been a little thin but there are plenty of juvenile skipjack tuna and mahi mahi around the island, good news for blue marlin enthusiasts. Expect to see some nice black marlin released in the next few months with a few big striped marlin in the mix.

Good tag and release!
A late season start usually means a late season finish so we should still see lots of wahoo and sail action well into October.

Capt Adrian Watt
Bite Me Gamefishing Charters

16 Jul 2010

Huge Wahoo hitting TOW-CAM in Fiji...


Huge Wahoo hitting TOW-CAM in Fiji on board
with our friends on Golden Eagle
 

Just got some awsome video footage from my friend and gamefishing colleague George Trinkler. Taken aboard Suva based charterboat Golden Eagle (Metatag  - www.goldeneaglefiji.com) 
 
With the winter season of big wahoo  fast approaching, George and the crew have been having some fun with their Tow-Cam.
 
Just goes to show that lures are mostly made for fishermen, not fish as this wahoo ignores everything and nails the Tow-Cam !

15 Jul 2010

Grander Black

News from my good friend Bill Boyce :

My good friend John Richardson of Belleville, TX owns the mother ship MAMA LIDO and the "trick" historic 43' custom Merritt sport fisher the PICAFLOR. On July 11th he caught a huge black marlin in Panama's Perlas Islands. Not known as a major marlin destination.. After this catch..It may well need to be one...!!!

John fishes with a complete set of my Boyce Custom Rods and he gives them a year round work out... Nice to know a fatty black marlin was subdued so quickly on one of my 50 lb. "shortie chair" rods. I designed them to be fished from a chair OR fished stand-up when the shortie AFTCO uni-butt is affixed..

Congradualtions to John and the expert crew on the PICAFLOR for this astounding catch...!!! I look forward to getting down there on his recent invite to sample some of that fine fishing myself on board the PICAFLOR.

Hope you are all enjoying your day in the office... LOL

Lenght- 152 inches (mouth to tailfork)- alongside boat measurement

Girth-92 inches (alongside boat estimate)
Calculated wt-1150# (+/- 50#)
Line- 50#, Suffix
Lure- Joe Yee Evil
Rod- Boyce Custom Rods, 50 lb. "shortie chair" special
Fighting time- 40 minutes
Witnesses- Travis Russell, Richard Smith
Captain- Adolfo Grajales
Mates- Ligorrio Sanapi, Aristotal Cordoba
Angler-John E Richardson
Boat-Picaflor, 43 Merritt
Location- San Jose Canyon, Perlas Islands, Panama
Current World Record on 50# line- 1124#
Fish released in excellent condition-07/11/10
Billfish Foundation Tag Number 477407

Whether or not it would have been a World Record will never be known but iether way, what a magnificent Black Marlin !

12 Jul 2010

Wahoo hitting stickbait on TOW-CAM!

Wahoo hitting stickbait on TOW-CAM on Golden Eagle 

Just got some awsome video footage from my friend and gamefishing colleague George Trinkler. Taken aboard Suva based charterboat Golden Eagle (Metatag  - www.goldeneaglefiji.com) 

Here a wahoo checks out a skirted lure but then spots a hookless stickbait run as a teaser for the camera. What's really interesting about this clip is the length of time the wahoo takes inspecting the lure before hitting it......Twice !

Wahoo always seem to come tearing into the spread, smash a lure and go screaming off....

Perhaps not....These wahoo clearly follow the lures and give them a good look-over before biting.

Interesting stuff.

11 Jul 2010

Some highlights of a 6 day GT Popping trip to Matava Eco-Adventure Resort by Dan, Andy, JT and James, fishing aboard Bite Me.

The gang

Some highlights of a 6 day GT Popping trip to Matava Eco-Adventure Resort by Dan, Andy, JT and James, fishing aboard Bite Me.

Dan knocked over a few nice GTs like this one

Weather for the first few days was decidedly unfriendly...

Even when we did get access to the best GT spots we had to put up with some annoying chop but it was usually worth it. Best GT of the week measured 46" SL with several around the 40-45" mark. We tagged and released two GTs, the best of which measured 46" SL as well as a Dogtooth Tuna around 15kg.
We could have tagged many more but the second a fish comes out of the water we start an invisible clock running


JT with his biggest fish that measured 45" Short Length (close to 40kg) taken on a Stickbait

JT also fought a big doggie to the boat but all aboard were dismayed to see it pounced on by three whaler sharks just below the transom. The head alone weighed in at 20kg....


Lunch time and JT demonstrates his preferred water entry method

Double hook-ups

Dan with a nice GT caught off the bow on a Buffalo Popper

Some real chunky Red Bass around....