New Offshore Fishing Boat Almost Complete

Work is well under way on our brand new offshore sportfishing boat Bite Me II being built by BlueWater craft in Navua, Viti Levu. She will be a 28ft go-fast go-anywhere fishing machine designed to perfectly service the growing GT Popping and deep water jigging specialists as well as offer anglers the opportunity to go after pelagic gamefish such as marlin, Pacific Sailfish, yellowfin Tuna, Dorado and Wahoo on stand-up tackle. Powered by the very latest Twin 150 Mercury 4-strokes she will cruise at 25 kts and be capable of reaching 35+ knots at WOT.

Sister Ship

Our vessel will be based on the above design however we have added a number of modifications to suit our fishing around Kadavu Island.

The main hull is complete with the large centre console going on now.

With a 400L in-floor fuel tank she will be very stable for casting and jigging and have extensive range.

We have specified grab rails at the perfect height for safety and ease of casting poppers

There will be plenty of rod storage

and of course easy access transom door for hauling in a big Yellowfin or sliding in the big GTs for release !

I will be personally supervising the finishing touches and loading all the required brand new safety equipment in a few weeks and we hope to have her in Marine Survey and in service by the beginning of December. We are now taking bookings for the summer season starting 1st January 2014.

I can’t wait to barrel out to the Kadavu Seamount and drop some jigs !

US Billfish Conservation Act becomes Law

Great news for Marlin, Sailfish and Spearfish !
On October 5, 2012, President Obama signed the Billfish Conservation Act into law, effectively banning the importation of all billfish into the continental United States. The signing marks the culmination of a united undertaking by a diverse coalition of angling and conservation organizations working in cooperation with a bipartisan group of congressional champions.  Although there are no commercial fisheries targeting billfish in the US, the US has been the largest importer of billfish in the world, importing about 30,000 billfish annually.
More details here on the IGFA Website here.

More of these guys around for future generations

There are many sustainable alternatives for restaurants and retailers to offer in place of billfish; thus most restaurants have taken marlin and other billfish off the menu.

New Shortbill Spearfish Fiji Record

Fishing report from Rick & Sheila from Australia who recently completed a live-aboard fishing trip aboard Charterboat Ika Levu. He writes;

The trip I just had was an awesome trip fishing from first landing and heading out wide to the inside of the Yasawa Islands. Then East through the Bligh Waters and onto Koro Island. Next we headed for Savusavu for a re supply. We then headed out wide and took a North direction and headed onto Taveuni, then further North to the Ringold Isles. We had a really good trip and will do something similar next year and hope to extend our trip from the 12 days this year to maybe 21 days next year and travel a further a feild.

Over the course we caught some nice Mahi Mahi to 20 kg, Spanish Mackeral to 23 kg, Wahoo to 25 kg,

 

Some large GT's, some big Rainbow Runner ( 14 kg ), a Blue marlin 130 kg, Short Bill Spearfish 24.8 kg,

Yellow Fin Tuna to 35 kg, the other Tuna Species and also Travelly Species, scad were around, barracuda in numbers, whales were very playful........so all in all we had a wonderful trip.

Its great to hear of successful fun fishing trips from all over Fiji, not just from our Kadavu neck of the woods !

Prime Slot opens up for Anglers

Summer Dolphinfish are numerous

Matava Eco-Adventure Resort was totally fully booked with divers for early January however it has just had a cancellation from the 1st to the 10th January 2012 opening up some accommodation space.
This means that Bite Me Gamefishing Charters now has a slot available for any anglers who might wish to charter Bite Me or Tease Me between the 1-10th January 2012

During our summer season we usually concentrate on offshore heavy tackle gamefishing for blue marlin and yellowfin tuna or we focus on heavy tackle popping for GTs and deepwater jigging for Dogtooth Tuna.

Summer time is usually when we see the larger blue marlin

The summer Yellowfin Tuna run is when we get the big cow yellowfin

Yellowfin boiling on glassy seas....a typical summer sight

Weather conditions are usually hot, humid and calm, ideal for offshore gamefishing, working outer barrier reef slopes with poppers for huge GTs and deepwater jigging.

If anybody is interested, please drop me a line any time at adrian@GameFishingFiji.com

Good News for Costa Rica Billfish

First hotels and restaurants in Costa Rica sign

agreement to support billfish conservation

Initial group of Central American hotels, resorts and restaurants set example for others in promoting sportfishing ecotourism by taking sailfish and marlin off their menus

FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. USA. – The Billfish Foundation (TBF) entered into an agreement with its conservation partner, the Costa Rica Sport Fishing Federation (FECOPT) and four participating Hilton Worldwide hotels in Costa Rica, pledging to stop serving all sailfish and marlin.

Based on a socio-economic study released last year by TBF showing the huge economic value of sportfishing tourism to Costa Rica, the participating hotels adopted the ban on billfish from their restaurants in part to promote responsible and sustainable tourism in the nation.

The four properties include the DoubleTree Resort by Hilton Costa Rica in Puntarenas, the DoubleTree Cariari by Hilton San Jose, the Hilton Papagayo Costa Rica Resort and Spa, and the Hilton Garden Inn Liberia Airport. The bold conservation move with the hotels and resorts came after two months of discussions with FECOPT Executive Director Enrique Ramirez.

“TBF is proud of the efforts by Enrique Ramirez who secured the participation of the four participating Hilton Worldwide properties in Costa Rica and explained the conservation and business benefits of the world’s sportfishing tourists, reaffirming Costa Rica’s stature as one of the world’s premier fishing destinations,” noted TBF Chief Scientist Dr. Russell Nelson. “We specially appreciate the foresight of the general managers at the participating Hilton Worldwide hotels in Costa Rica - Ricardo Rodriguez Gil, Laura Castagnini and Rui Dominguez - that supporting sportfishing conservation efforts are good for the oceans and good for business as well.”

“The participating Hilton Worldwide hotels in Costa Rica are leading the way for Costa Rica’s tourism industry to move toward new levels of support for sportfishing conservation practices,” said FECOPT’s Ramirez. “Using the impetus of our agreement with the participating properties we look forward to partnering with sustainable tourism tour leader Horizontes to let this precedent spread across the nation’s tourism industry.

TBF President Ellen Peel applauded the agreement as a new standard for voluntary conservation action in the private sector adding, “we’re very pleased to see tourism businesses and government tourism officials responding so positively to the facts and information presented by our socio-economic research conducted with the University of Costa Rica that clearly supports TBF’s message that good conservation can be good economics.”

TBF has been working with governments such as Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru and Panama to protect billfish, mainly from overfishing coastal fisheries by commercial interests, while implementing tag and release programs for sportsmen. Herbert Nanne of San Jose serves as TBF’s Central American Conservation Director.

Established 25 years ago, The Billfish Foundation is the only non-profit organization dedicated solely to conserving and enhancing billfish populations around the world. TBF's comprehensive network of members and supporters includes anglers, captains, mates, tournament directors, clubs and sportfishing businesses. By coordinating efforts and speaking with one voice, TBF is able to work for solutions that are good for billfish and not punitive to recreational anglers. To reach Dr. Nelson call 561-449-9637 or visit www.billfish.org

The Billfish Foundation is out there right now trying to preserve our billfish for future generations. Consider becoming a valued member Its all you need do to help.

Some Pics from this Week

Steve & Kathy from Florida

Jigged the Seamount this week, no doggies just a few odds & sodds like Almaco Jacks, groupers...
A lot of small yellowfin and skipjack tuna in the area.
Marlin bite has been quiet this week. We had a sinking skipbait whacked by a billfish whilst we fought a yellowfin but it didn't return to finish off the bait. Raised another small blue that lit up like a Christmas tree, methodically inspected three lures and then disappeared...probably because of all the tuna around us at the time.

Steve helps Joe bring in another nice Yellowfin

Jayson from Perth joined Steve & Kathy for a day on Bite Me landing this nice Yellowfin Tuna.
He spent the rest of his time popping aboard Tease Me - More on that later

Steve with a pretty female Mahi mahi

Late January Gamefishing Update

Joe leaders a nice Yellowfin Tuna

Father and son Darren & Josh had a few days gamefishing aboard Bite Me to celebrate Josh's 16th Birthday. We really wanted a nice blue marlin for Josh but the blues didn't want to cooperate. Despite trolling some of the world's best marlin lures around skipjack and yellowfin tuna schools charging around chasing flying fish....no blues.
The tuna were moving too quickly for us to livebait so it was Moldcrafts, Joe Yees, John Laus, Marlin Magics, Black Barts and Pakulas that we used on stand-op 50lb gear and 80lb chair tackle.

Darren with a beautiful Yellowfin Tuna

Joe hoiks in a Mahi Mahi (Dolpninfish)

A trip round the North side of the island found us yellwfin, Mahi mahi and even a missed bite from a Pacific Sailfish but the blues remained elusive.
(They are worse than London busses....Three bites in an hour then nothing for ages....drive you nuts they will )

Josh with a Mahi around 12kg

After a couple of days we turned to some popping and jigging. Weather a bit ordinary and the churned up choppy water not ideal for popping but we found some fish.

Darren loads up one of our Saragosa 18,000s on a GT Special

Josh lands and releases his first ever GT

and his first ever doggie on a jig

December 2010 Fishing Report

Australian anglers Craig & Nick poped over from Melbourne for a few days gamefishing on Bite Me last week. Looking for some variety with a real mixture of species.
We started off on day 1 with a trip out to the Kadavu seamount with the heavy tackle and jigging gear. Conditions were less than perfect but good enough. Small schoolie yellowfin and skipjack tuna were busting up on the surface so we began our doggie hunt with a 5kg yellowfin livebait on one of the heavy tackle marlin rods.

Joe drops back the circle hook rigged livebait

Unfortunately, within minutes a small hammerhead shark moved in and after a brief tussle, departed with our livebait. Time to switch to jigs...

Nick loads up

A bit of searching with the sounder and we found a deep school of bait. Soon after Nick was hooked up and into a nice doggie....

Then it was Craig's turn to hang on tight

We were all thinking 'doggie' but when we finally got the fish to the boat we were all astonished to see a huge Rosy Jobfish - the biggest I have ever seen !

Craig's monster Rosy Jobfish

Nick went on to land a similar jobfish but then the currents changed, the bait moved off and it was time to head back.

Nick was on a mission to tag his first blue marlin so after day 1 we continued day 2 with the marlin gear, 50lb stand-up off the riggers and 130 chair gear off the corners in case a big summer blue came across our spread.

Nick connected to a blue on stand-up 50lb gear

We worked the North side of the Kadavu Trench and around 3.00pm we finally had a blue crash into the Moldcraft Wide Range on the long rigger. The 90-100kg marlin charged forward at Bite Me but quickly vered off to the left allowing us to gun the throttles and give chase.




About 25 minutes later we had the blue to the boat. In went the tag, a few quick pictures and high fives all round for Nick's first tagged blue marlin.

Any day you tag and release a blue marlin is a good day fishing !

Part 2 of Craig & Nicks visit to follow when we switch to the Popper Casting and target the GTs !

October / November Blues

Jarrod with one of the last winter wahoo

With the water temperature now rocketing up the winter wahoo have moved on to pastures new. For the next month or two, Bite Me will be fishing for a mixed bag of species as we wait for the start of the summer run of yellowfin tuna. Popping and jigging when the weather allows but mostly trolling for stray wahoo, early yellowfin, dolphinfish and blue marlin.
Anglers Jarrod, Julian & Damian from Angling Adventures copped some mediocre weather but still managed some nice fish.

some small GTs on the poppers

Deckie Masau takes the leader on his first blue marlin

Caught on stand-up 50lb class

Angler Jarrod from Australia is delighted with his first blue marlin

A short fat fish of around 250-300lbs

Tagged with a Billfish Foundation tag

...and released in great shape....

IGFA Take Marlin Off The Menu

Deckie Masau releases a nice blue marlin around 300lbs
this week aboard Bite Me

Now is the time to Take Marlin Off the Menu

Concerned about the health of billfish fisheries, the IGFA and the National Coalition for Marine Conservation joined forces in 2008 to create the Take Marlin off the Menu campaign. In just two short years, the campaign gained the support of such luminaries as Wolfgang Puck and the Wegmans Supermarket chain – as well as the attention of U.S. policymakers. Their support hinged largely on an Economic Analysis of International Billfish Markets which shows that the economic value of the U.S. billfish trade is almost nil in relation to the rest of the U.S. commercial fishing industry.
Support of the Billfish Conservation Act would close the U.S. to commercial billfish harvest, importation and sale. It would have a negligible impact on the commercial industry in the U.S. while helping increase the abundance of these important apex predators and also the value of the recreational fishery, which brings in billions of dollars annually but has a minimal impact on billfish populations.
Take action today to make sure that no billfish will end up in grocery store shelves or on restaurant menus again. Visit http://takemarlinoffthemenu.org/Billfish_Conservation_Act to do your part to take marlin off the menu!

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