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 !

The New Fishing Boat "Bite Me Too"

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 !

Fiji Winter Season Gamefishing Summary

Well we are pretty much done with the 2012 Fiji winter season now. I think it could best be described as um....lets say "Challenging". A second year of continuing La Nina weather patterns reinforced last year's unusual oceanic currents and higher than normal water temperatures. Last year's wahoo season suffered a bit but the double La Nina whammy just killed the normal spectaculor wahoo fishing here.

 

Peak Wahoo Season but La Nina intervened (again)

 
 The colder ocean currents that normally run West to North East along the Great Astrolabe Barrier Reef reversed direction and any wahoo that did venture into our unusually warm waters didn't gather into packs but simply moved on....We caught wahoo but the crazy 30-40 wahoo packs just didn't exist.

 A few decent sized solitary Wahoo were landed....

 

 

  But most fish were lean around the 20kg weight....Much smaller than normal

 The winter Yellowfin Tuna fishing wasn't to bad though. Occasionally a little patchy, it did produce some decent fish around 40kg aboard Bite Me. That's a decent size for the winter time. (Summer is when we see the really big 70kg+ Yellowfin Tuna)

 

 

 We did have some fun with the Ultra-Light tackle Avets & Custom Eyre outfits. Graeme above fought several Wahoo on 3kg line class as we targeted the M-03 IGFA World Record. We got one probable WR boatside but the fish was just a bit too green and made a last ditch run, ripping the leader through Joe's hand and snapping the Double. With so few Wahoo around we just didn't get enough shots to take out the World Record...

The winter Pacific Sailfish season was reasonable but not spectaculor... We did see quite a few large sails around 60kg and surprisingly, a fair few juveniles that couldn't have been more than 15kg !
Generally the sails here average around 40kg but this year seems to have been a year of extremes.

 All in all, a pretty disappointing winter Wahoo season compared to normal years. The good news is that the La Nina conditions are definitely now coming to an end. The general consensus in the scientific community is a possible reversal to an El Nino weather pattern.....In fact there are already signs on El Nino conditions developing in the Eastern Pacific.
The best Wahoo season I have ever experienced here was during the last El Nino event. Next season could well be the best Wahoo season in 10 years....A happy thought to end with.

Spinner Dolphin Pod

A wonderful pod of spinner dolphin seen from the bridge of Bite Me

Bite Me Hauls Out

Its that time of year again when Bite Me hauls out for her annual maintenance and full out of water Marine Safety Survey. Actually its not due till August but we are so busy in July and August we are having to haul out two months early !

She gets a full high pressure blast, sand down and two new coats of anti-foul. All inlets inspected, rudders dropped and greased, props polished, running gear cleaned, anchor and chain pulled and cleaned, winch greased and tested, sacrificial anode checked, Raw water intake strainers pulled and cleaned, life raft serviced, shaft bearings checked and a full wax polish from the Fiberglass Shop....

Before

After !

Before...

After !

Unfortunately the list doesn't end there.....
Back in the water.....
Engine fuel pumps pulled and serviced, Turbos pulled and serviced, Intercoolers and raw water / fresh water coolers removed and cleaned, Rocker arm valve clearances checked, shaft alignments checked, engine control cables replaced, Fiji Islands Marine Safety Authority In-Water Survey.......
......and that squeak from the helm chair fixed...... Its been driving me nuts.

Fun Day on Bite Me

Claudia & Ben's first double hook-up

Claudia & Ben and Dang & Mary recently had a fun day of gamefishing aboard Bite Me. We fished the North Astrolabe Barrier Reef with 15kg trolling gear and soon found some nice Yellowfin Tuna.



Not only are yellowfin a lot of fun to fight and land on medium tackle, they are delicious to eat !
Sashimi starter and seared yellowfin steaks for dinner...
We did however release a couple after we had a good feed on board.

Mary's first Yellowfin

On the way home we stopped off at one of my little GT spots so that Ben & Dang could throw some poppers.....

Ben released this nice GT over 20kg

Dang then landed and released this lovely GT around 30kg caught on a Buffalo Popper

Everyone caught lots of fish and had a great day out....and to top it off we were all very popular with the other resort guests when we presented fresh yellowfin for dinner that night !

The Wahoo are Moving In

Some pics from Terry and his mates, Matt, Ray & Norbert from Australia fishing aboard Bite Me. Still getting a bit of a mixed bag but the good news is the wahoo are moving in. We are all set for a great winter wahoo & sailfish season...

How to impress the Skipper !

Wahoo

Still schoolie Yellowfin around

Good Wahoo are now thick in certain places

Still time to throw a popper or two

Terry with a trophy Narrow Barred (Spanish) Mackerel

Another big Mackerel for Terry the Mackerel Slayer....

He was pretty handy with a jig as well

Light Snack for a Whaler Shark

Here's a fun one...

This unfortunate angler fought a nice sized Yellowfin Tuna of around 30kg for 15 minutes or so only to have his much anticipated sashimi somewhat reduced in volume just as the fish was about to be landed. It doesn't happen often but just occasionally a shark decides to take an opportunistic nibble...

What the anglers didn't see whilst they took photos of their catch ( I had a great view of from the bridge ) was the shark was obviously still a bit peckish...

Er.....Look behind you Joe....

And it took the best Sashimi cuts as well !
Oh well, sharks are in enough trouble worldwide, I guess I can spare a few kilos of Yellowfin now and again :)

Fiji Striped Marlin

When is a blue marlin not a blue marlin ?
When its a stripey of course...

The only time I was ever wrong was when I thought I was wrong....

Oh, appart from a couple of weeks ago when we tagged and released a small blue marlin of about 250lbs that has come back to haunt me....

John Angus was aboard Bite Me completing his Royal Slam when we hooked the fish on a Zacatak Rat. She shook her head just like a blue, charged off just like a blue and at first we thought she would go 400lbs. But fishing 130lb class line and with John a very experienced angler, we had her alongside in 10-15 minutes and we quickly reassessed her size.

She was however still pretty green and feisty so with the tag already in, Joe whipped the hook out and released quickly (whilst I was half way down the ladder with a camera - thanks Joe)

The marlin behaved like a small blue but was lit up like a stripey. I got a brief look at the dorsal and my impression was of fairly stout fin rays and an overall height of about 2/3 body depth.

Small Blue I declared.

But no...doubts persisted....

So I sent the picture off to Tim Simpson, Editor of BlueWater magazine. Probably a Stripey he declared and send the picture on to Dr Julian Pepperell who added "Probably a Stripey"

Blast... I am being out-voted by my peers...

Last ditch effort, I sent the picture off to the NSW DPI, batted my eyelids and murmured "little blue ?"

No ! They declared...Most probably a Striped Marlin !

As Eddie Izzard said "They were China in my United Nations Council and Vetoed me !"

Of course I still harbour feint hopes that one day this fish will be caught again....weighing 750lbs.... I don't give up that easily.....

Its all Work Work Work...

Its a tough life working as a deckie on a gamefishing charterboat in the South Pacific.
The office doesn't have air-con but the views are nice...

You have to be in the office by 6.00am...

The commute is a real pain..

But there are some nice fringe benefits