New Great Barracuda Record

Tim Simpson, Editor of Australia's prestigious BlueWater magazine recently visited Matava Eco-Adventure Resort to co-host a couple of episodes of Bill Boyce's new show IGFA Saltwater Adventures. This show is soon to be aired on the WFN in the USA.
In between a bit of general gamefishing, Tim found time to run a couple of his ultra-light outfits and tested a couple of the new Fin Nor reels spooled with Platypus Pre-Test 3kg line

Tim is more concerned about his potential M-03 Fiji Record as Bill checks out the footage

Safe aboard !

This new pending Fiji National Record Great Barracuda was tempted by a Halco Laser-Pro, our favored lure choice when hunting for IGFA World Records.
On Tim's last visit he landed the new and still current IGFA Wahoo World Record on 4kg line with a Halco Laser Pro 190.

The new pending Fiji National Record Great Barracuda with Tim and outfit used

Fiji Great Barracuda Record Falls

A new Great Barracuda Fiji Islands M-06 Line Class National Record has just been set by Zane Southwick who landed an 8.50kg (18.7lbs) fish on 6kg line class.

Zane fighting the fish from the beach

The Barracuda fell to a cast metal slug rigged on a mono leader. Well done Zane....Pretty good catch on light tackle for a big fish with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth !

Past few days Species

The decidedly unseasonal and rather 'ordinary' weather has led to us picking up all sorts of species as we work inner lagoons, barrier reef passageways and more sheltered drop-offs on the other side of Kadavu Island. Anglers Joseph, Ande and Jonathan from Singapore were unlucky with the weather but made the best of a few bad weather days...

Barracuda on a Popper

Rosy Jobfish on a jig

one of the better GTs on a Popper

Mangrove Jack on a jig

Bigeye Trevally on a jig

The Penalty for Barracuda

Generally speaking, barracuda are not all that popular aboard Bite Me. They tend to make a complete mess of carefully rigged baits and wreck expensive skirts on trolling lures.
They can also make quite a mess of an expensive popper....
Consequently, if Joe identifies your popper or stickbait as a "Cuda Catcher" and you go ahead any use it anyway...and you then present deckie Joe with 10 kilos of writhing snapping teeth gnashing cuda on the end of your leader.....the penalty is a quick dump in the ocean....

Ozzie angler Tim pays the price

Joe has a bit of extra fun bawling "Shark !"

Tips On Fiji Blue Water Offshore Pattern (The offshore ‘I don’t care spread’)

The Fiji islands enjoy a whole variety of sport fish species from reef dwelling coral trout to oceanic blue marlin. Whilst we usually target particular species aboard our game fishing vessel Bite Me, we sometimes take resort guests out simply to catch dinner and have fun doing so.

Its general fishing (Otherwise known as “I don’t care what I catch just as long as its big and tasty”) so we cover all our bases and target a variety of different species.

Offshore, we run 15kg (30lb) Penn International 30Ts on Penn Millennium rods with a 9ft double connected to a short leader. In the winter time, (May – September) most lures are rigged on a wire trace because of the wahoo packs that congregate along the barrier reef. The sample spread below should give you an idea of how we fish the outer barrier reef slopes and offshore blue water for anything and everything found out there.

Sample “I don’t care” spread from our Offshore DeepV big game boat ‘Bite Me’

SHORT CORNER

1. Halco Laser Pro 190 Crazy Deep – Silver (mullet), Target – Mackerel, Barracuda Tuna, GTs

2. Wellsys Talai (Medium) – Purple, Target – Wahoo, Sailfish

LONG CORNER

1. Lurestreet Raptor or Classic – Green / Gold or Red / White, Target – Wahoo, Mackerel, Barracuda, Tuna

2. Halco Laser Pro 190 minnow – Redhead, Target – Wahoo, Mackerel, Barracuda, Tuna

SHORT RIGGER

1. Wellsys Turbojet - Blue Silver / Green Gold (Evil), Target – Wahoo, Mackerel, Sailfish, Mahi mahi

LONG RIGGER

1. Lurestreet Yahoowahoo – Lumo Green or Blue/White, Target – Wahoo, Sailfish, Mahi mahi

SHOTGUN

1. Wellsys Micro Bullet – Red black / Pink, Target – Tuna

2. Pakula Sprocket – Lumo Green, Target – Wahoo, Sailfish

Species Variety:

Mackerel – Narrow Barred (Spanish) Mackerel, Shark Mackerel, Double lined Mackerel

Tuna – Yellowfin Tuna, Skipjack Tuna, Mackerel Tuna (Kawakawa), Bigeye Tuna, Albacore.

Barracuda – Great Barracuda, Chevron Barracuda, Bigeye Barracuda

Where we get our Offshore lures :

www.welsystackle.com

www.palmfishing.com.au

Tips On Fiji Inshore / Reef Pattern (The ‘I don’t care spread’)

The Fiji Islands enjoy a whole variety of sport fish species from reef dwelling coral trout to oceanic blue marlin. Whilst we usually target particular species aboard our game fishing vessels Bite Me and Offensive Tackle, we sometimes take resort guests out simply to catch dinner and have fun doing so.

Its general fishing (Otherwise known as “I don’t care what I catch just as long as its big and tasty”) so we aim to cover all our bases and catch a variety of different species.

We run 15kg (30lb) Shimano TLD25 outfits on Excalibur roller tip rods with a 9ft double connected to a short leader. All minnows are rigged on a short single strand wire trace. The sample spread below should give you an idea of how we fish the inner lagoons and fringing reefs for anything and everything found there.

Sample “I don’t care” spread from our inshore sport fishing boat ‘Offensive Tackle’

SHORT CORNER

1. Halco Sorcerer – Silver (mullet) , Target – Mackerel, Grouper, Red Bass

2. Halco Laser Pro 190 Crazy Deep – Silver (mullet)

LONG CORNER

1. Lurestreet Raptor – Green / Gold or Red / White, Target – Mackerel, Barracuda, Long Tom

SHORT RIGGER

1. Wellsys Micro Bullet – Red black / Pink, Target – Tuna, all Trevally

LONG RIGGER

1. Pakula Uzi – Orange, Target – Tuna, all Trevally

2. Abu Toby Spoon or other metal slug- Silver, Target - Queenfish

SHOTGUN

1. Halco Laser Pro 160 minnow – Redhead, Target – Mackerel, Tuna, all Trevally

3. Pakula Phantom – Blue Silver / Green Gold (Evil), Target – Sailfish.

3. Halco Roosta Popper – Redhead, Target – Large Great Barracuda & GTs

Species Variety:

Mackerel – Narrow Barred (Spanish) Mackerel, Shark Mackerel, Double lined Mackerel

Tuna – Yellowfin Tuna, Skipjack Tuna, Mackerel Tuna (Kawakawa), Bigeye Tuna, Albacore.

Trevally – Giant Trevally, Bluefin Trevally, Bigeye Trevally, Brassy Trevally, Golden Trevally

Barracuda – Great Barracuda, Chevron Barracuda, Bigeye Barracuda

Grouper – Coral Trout, Lyretail Grouper, Peacock Grouper, Rock Cod

Where we get our Inshore lures :

www.welsystackle.com

www.palmfishing.com.au