Big Game Fishing in Fiji

Big Game Fishing in Fiji

GT Fishing with Capt Bob - Game fishing in Port Denarau Nadi

 GT Fishing with Capt Bob - Game fishing in Port Denarau Nadi

Pacific Yellow Fin Tuna off Port Denarau, Fiji

 Pacific Yellow Fin Tuna off Port Denarau, Fiji

Latest Trophy Catch

Angler Marc from the USA spend a couple of days GT Popping with us aboard Bite Me Too hoping to land his first ever GT. After a few smaller to mid-sized fish his Cubera got monstered...

Marc reports:

"That last day turned out to be the most rewarding fishing experience I've had.   

Steady rain.  Heavy at times, but a pleasant temperature.  Relatively calm.  High Tide.  Conditions were perfect.  Third cast of the trip, three rips of the popper and all I see is a giant gray shadow come out of the water totally engulfing the popper.  The fight was on as the fish struck at the end of a very long cast.  Drag screaming.  Sikeli was an amazing captain, immediately maneuvering the boat away from the reef as I did battle.  I 've caught plenty of big fish, but none with the brute strength of a GT.  Unbelievable.  The drag of my Stella 18,000 was locked all the way and the fish was still able to take line with ease."

 

The GT Short Length measured a whopping 132cm (52 inches) and was caught on a Heru El-Toro.

The fish was released unharmed although the popper took a bit of a beating !

 

 

Winter Kadavu Fishing Update

Its Wahoo Central now around Kadavu Island !
The Wahoo are thick and we are catching many Wahoo in sized up to 45kg (100lbs).

Magazine Editor Shane from Fishing SA Magazine with a 40+kg Wahoo

Vicki & Wayne (Mine's bigger than your's - Ooops) Nice one Vicki !

 Ben from Australia with a nice Wahoo caught trolling aboard Bite Me Too

Lance with a 40kg Hoo

The Wahoo are not the only species around. We are seeing some nice Pacific Sailfish mixed in as well as Mahi Mahi schooling a little off the reef.

Some anglers are even tossing a few popper at the reef and catching some great winter GTs

Vicki with a nice winter GT on Popper

The Wahoo will continue to be our main target species for the next two months as well as Sailfish along the outer barrier reef. We expect to still have great winter fishing well into October. With the water temp now hovering just above 24 anglers fishing offshore should also see some Striped Marlin and short billed Spearfish.

July Kadavu Update - Variety !

We are now well out of the normal summer GT Popping season and the Trades have started to push in but so far the weather has been reasonably cooperative - So much so that we are still throwing Poppers and seeing some nice GTs.

 Matt from Australia with a very nice looking GT

 Father Warren no slouch with a Popper rod either !

 Fair few Mahi Mahi around

 The big story for the next few months of course will be the winter Wahoo run. With the water temp now hitting 26C the Wahoo are starting to gather along the Great Astrolabe Barrier Reef. We expect a good season this year with Wahoo being caught as early as May and the first few Pacific Sailfish also showing. The Wahoo packs should grow to average 25-30 fish with an average size of around 60lbs.

Kadavu Fishing Update

Skipper Joe has been having some fun casting lures to surface feeding Yellowfin Tuna. Great fun for anglers and of course delicious shashimi for all the Resort guests !

Jarrod with a yellowfin caught casting poppers aboard Bite Me Too

 The winter Wahoo are moving in with some decent solitary fish and a few starting to school up.

 

 Angler Steve with a very nice 30kg Narrow Barred Mackerel

Just in case you were thinking of using a mono leader here in winter time.....Think again !

Albacore Record Smashed !

Skipper Joe took angler Boyang Zhang out for some deep-water jigging last week aboard the new boat Bite Me Too. Great weather meant ideal jigging conditions and Boyang made the most of it hooking up and landing a 19.6kg Albacore setting a new M-36 Fiji National Record.

 That's a monster Albacore !

The very distinctive Pectoral fins on an Albacore

A very good Fiji Record catch for Boyang and of course - very good eating for all the other guests at Matava Resort !

IGFA World Record Released

Last week skipper Joeli took angler Kenneth from Singapore out for some GT Popping on the brand new GT boat Bite Me Too.
Using a Dogfight 6500 on a Carpenter Blue Lagoon and GT Mania lure, Kenneth fought a huge GT for over 25 minutes until Joe could finally grab the leader.

The fish measured 57 Inches (short length) smashing the current IGFA All-Tackle Length World Record however, because of the long fight, Kenneth elected to snap one quick photo and get the GT back in the water as soon as possible. Joe swam the fish for 5 minutes before a healthy release....
Nice one guys, commendable !

First Blood

The new boat Bite Me Too went into action with Joe skippering taking out Peter & Sophie from Australia for a bit of trolling, GT Popping and Jigging on a couple of half days.

 

Peter came with the right GT Tackle

 First GT !

 A nice Bluefin Trevally for Sophie

 

A bigger GT for Peter

 A little doggie caught trolling

 Peter jigged up a bigger Dogtooth Tuna

Just to keep the other Resort guests happy.....Dinner !

The Yellowfin Tuna are now starting to move in with several big schools close in to the outer Barrier Reef. Still around the 20-40lb size but the big cow Yellowfin won't be far behind.
We still have openings for bookings in March / April and Matava Resort has some crazy Accommodation Specials available so drop us a line here !

The New Fishing Boat "Bite Me Too"

Bite Me Too Delivered !

Our brand new fishing boat Bite Me Too is now at the Resort and we are running in the engines and seeing just how fast she can go. The answer....Very !

Skipper Joe winds up the brand new Mercury 4-stroke 150s and she takes off...

Cruising at 30kts, we can now park on the Kadavu Seamount in under an hour....

Furuno Chartplotter, Sounder, VHF Radio, Lifejackets for 8, comfortable seating for six, plenty of rod storage, tackle boxes, ice boxes and even a head !

She is now ready for our summer GT Popping and Jigging season.

Drop us a line here if you want to be one of the fist to  blast around Kadavu Island !

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 !

Hook Line and Sinker TV Filming aboard Bite Me

We were delighted to have the guys from Australian TV show "Hook Line & Sinker" filming aboard Bite Me for a couple of days. Presenters Matt and Nick with cameraman Mike had some fun fishing though the bite wasn't particularly great. There is a surface layer of zooplankton around colouring up the water and the big yellowfin were tough to find. Even so we managed a few GTs on poppers, groupers on jigs, yellowfin & mahi mahi on the troll and had some fun. I will post a short video clip when the show has been edited....

Hope the guys can come backs some time for the winter wahoo & Sails !

Summer Kadavu Fishing Update

The GT fishing recently has been pretty modest by our standards. We have been having to work harder than normal with La Nina weather patterns still affecting the ocean current directions along the outer barrier reef.  First off, some pics from Mark from the US who was kind enough to let me post a few pics from his trip.

 Dogtooth Tuna on a Jig

 

Coral Trout on a Stickbait

 Always fun the Red Bass

Mangrove Jack !

Not really any Kadavu Monsters in the mix but a very nice variety of species on both Poppers and Jigs. Offshore South of Kadavu there a lots of schooling skipjack tuna and along the reef, yellowfin to 100lbs but the really big cow yellowfin should move into Kadavu waters in the next few weeks.
They are coming in from the North so currently they are being seen between Kadavu and Beqa Lagoon. This 73kg fish below was caught yesterday aboard NoahRay (Freedive Fiji Charters) fishing off Beqa.

Nice Yellowfin guys !

Other recent news, Stephanie Choate, daughter of Tim Choate ( One of the founders of  The Billfish Foundation ) knocked off the Fiji Womens W-08 kg Narrowbarred Mackerel Record with this fish:

It made wonderful Kokoda for all the guests !