Big Game Fishing in Fiji

Big Game Fishing in Fiji

Pacific Yellow Fin Tuna off Port Denarau, Fiji

 Pacific Yellow Fin Tuna off Port Denarau, Fiji

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 !

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 !

Old School Gamefishing

Before.....

(Those were the days !)

After.....

Damn I forgot my bow tie....

Fame Anybody ?

We are arranging an opportunity for World renown photographer Jon Schwartz to visit us and photograph GT Poping aboard Tease Me this summer. We need a couple of GT anglers willing to model !
You have probably seen many of Jon's photos gracing the covers of publications such as Marlin Magazine and BlueWater Magazine. You can see some of his work here www.bluewaterjon.com
Jon will be taking action stills of anglers fighting GTs, posing with their catch and releasing, some of which will be filmed from underwater......


We need to fit this in between the 18th and 25th February. Matava Eco-Adventure Resort currently has a 'Special' on for February but it does not include Fishing Packages.
As this would not be a 'normal' fishing trip we are offering to extend this Special Second Person Half Price deal for anbody who wants to GT Pop on Tease Me and be photographed all day long !
Our primary target will be GTs, the bigger the better but if we see an opportunity to pop for yellowfin, wahoo or jig for dogtooth tuna and film that as well, excllent !

This is a great opportunity to get a ridiculously cheap GT Popping trip for two on the Great Astroabe Barrier Reef, Kadavu and be presented with your own professional photos of the trip. Oh, and you might get famous as well.
Drop us an email if you are interested.....

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

Ultra Light IGFA Wahoo World Record Hunting

Graeme and Owen fron South Australia spent a week with us at Matava Lodge with the intention of going after the M-03 Wahoo IGFA World Record. Owen makes a range of ultra-light custom rods and this was a great opportunity to put them through their paces on some relatively big fish.

We started off with a bit of a warm-up on some small yellowfin. Despit their small size, on 3kg line these yellowfin put up quite a fight.....Fortunately the guys had been practising on the Southern Bluefin Tuna at home so we were asured of some sashimi for dinner !

A couple of Rainbow Runners later just for a bit of variety...

and we were ready for the serious stuff....Trying to beat the current M-03 IGFA Wahoo World Record of 23.13kg caught in 1978 off Puerto Rico.

Graeme was up first using an Avet SX (Florida Cam) spooled with Platypus Pre-Test on an Eyre Toxic Wahoosta. We were using the best wahoo lure money can buy...The Halco Laser Pro.
After a fight of just over an hour, Graeme had his first prize....

A little shy of the World Record but what a great catch on 3kg !

Owen then had his chance using an Eyre Pirate These rods were hand made specifically for Bite Me and the finishing is beautiful. What's more they proved to be perfect for the job in the hands of an experienced angler.

A beautiful wahoo and quite a challenge on 3kg line

Graeme then hooked up and fought a feisty Mahi Mahi that would have smashed the Fiji National Record but just as Joe went in with the gaff the fish leapt out of the water (as they so often do !) and threw the hooks boatside.

Unfortunately the weather turned on us for a few days so we had to switch tactics. One of the advantages of the Pirate is its working range up to 8kg so we re-spooled with 6kg and headed back out. Owen got this nice Mahi Mahi, again using an Avet SX on a Pirate.


By the way, if any angler catches an IGFA World Record using one of our Eyre Custom rods they get to keep the rod....Or Owen will make them a brand new one for free ! Check out his website for details.

You have to experience the fun of fighting a fish like this on ultra-light tackle. Its a lot of fun for the skipper too !

The weather got worse so we spent the last two days fishing the calmer lee side of the island with the 3kg gear, in particular, the Ono Drop-off. After having a beautiful little sailfish jump and throw the hooks on us (bugger) we found some decent sized yellowfin. A bit too decent ! We fought two yellowfin for well over an hour and a half each only to have the line break just as we were getting close..... I have hours of GoPro video footage but I won't subject readers to blubbing anglers ! These yellowfin would have smashed the Fiji Record and possibly given the IGFA World Record a scare but it was not to be.
Anyway, we just missed out on the Wahoo World Record but had a lot of fun chasing it. The Eyre rods performed beautifully and now have a proven track record. I can't wait to have another go....In the mean time I might just mount them on the wall...They are that pretty !

Fiji Winter Season Saltwater Fishing Summary

From the beginning of 2011, the South Pacific experienced strong La Nina weather patterns. Warmer than normal water gathered towards the Western side of the Pacific leading to unusual weather conditions. Normal tropical depression and Cyclone paths shifted West and Australia's long running drought was broken. For the Fiji Islands this meant fine weather but frequent large ground swells from the South West. Normal oceanic currents along Kadavu Island's Great Astrolabe Barrier Reef stalled and the GT Popping season was significantly affected with coloured water outside the barrier reef and GTs moving from regular haunts.


The summer yellowfin tuna run started late but by the end of March, Bite Me was landing excellent yellowfin around 130lb with our best fish weighing in at 165lbs.

Our normal winter Wahoo season begins with the first wahoo packs arriving in May and by June the outer reef slopes are crowded with hundreds of wahoo packing up on reef points and current lines. Not this year. Water temps stayed stubbournly higher than normal. Our June water temp was the highest recorded for that month in 15 years....


Nevertheless we did get a wahoo run, just not as crazy as normal years. Packs averaged 10-15 fish rather than 20-30 and the average size was down from 60lbs to around 40lbs. The Kadavu Seamount proved very patchy wahoo fishing. Some days it was loaded, some days quiet. Very unusual indeed.


The Pacific Sailfish didn't disappoint but with unusual current directions along the reef and a scarcity in normal winter bait, they moved around a lot making my job a little harder than normal. Still, we did manage to take the M-06 (12lb) Fiji National Record with a sail of just over 75lbs.

The new M-06 Pacific Sailfish Fiji Record taken aboard Bite Me

The La Nina weather patterns usually only last 9-12 months so by December, the start of the next summer Popping & Jigging season, we should be back to normal. Looking forward to it.

IGFA Saltwater Adventures Filmed aboard Bite Me

Filming aboard Bite Me

Last week we were joined by the film crew filming the new WFN Network show 'IGFA Saltwater Adventures'. Presenter Bill Boyce was in fine Californian form with special guest angler Tim Simpson, Editor of BlueWater Magazine fame providing useful insights to the show's viewers.

A nice Yellowfin Tuna on the leader

First good fish on camera was a nice Yellowfin Tuna around 100lbs. Bill was using some of the new 4 piece travel rods from Fox International. I was initially sceptical about a travel rod that fits into a pencil case but the quality of these rods is exceptional and quite remarkably they performed as good as any one piece gamefishing rod I have ever seen. In fact Bill told me they had recently fought a 700lb black marlin for over 4 hours on 50lb before eventually wearing through the leader boatside.

A Fox 15-24kg gamefishing Travel rod

nice yellowfin comes aboard

Bill is happy with a good first fish for the show

The IGFA Saltwater Adventure series of shows will begin broadcasting on the 1st July on the World Fishing Network (WFN)

Kadavu GT Popper Casting Update

Some of the latest pics from a trip to Kadavu aboard Bite Me organised by (ex) Anglers Pro Shop.....

Margaret hooks into a big doggie (unfortunately the hooks pulled just 20 meters from the boat)

The weather was decidedly 'ordinary' for some of the days..... very unusual for this time of year. Made our life rather difficult but we still managed some decent GTs.

Colin with a nice GT

Margaret showing the boys how its done...

Colin with a little doggie

Edwin's first GT Popping trip

For those of you interested, Randy I believe is now JDM Tackle and Sami has set up his own shop in New York - www.saltywatertackle.com.

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.....

5th World Recreational Fishing Conference/November 10-13, 2008/Hosted by IGFA

The World Recreational Fishing Conference series is a forum through which to address fisheries issues specific to recreational fishing community. The 5th WRFC will provide a focused and dynamic agenda to address issues of importance today and the future. Leaders representing the sport fishing community from around the world will gather in an environment where they can get to know one another and exchange ideas on addressing real issues impacting the sport of fishing. The conference Proceedings will be peer reviewed and published.

The outcomes of the WRFC include:

Better ideas and solutions for addressing challenges, and capitalizing on opportunities, that impact sport fishing and participation. For the scientific/management community, an opportunity to explore common environmental and social issues affecting sport fishing from a scientific view point in an atmosphere focused specifically on sport fishing.

Topics of Specific Interest include:

• Climate change: direct implications for anglers, sportfishing industry, and fisheries managers
• Inland and marine protected areas: successes, failures, processes and impacts on recreational fisheries
• Sustainable development of recreational fisheries
• Community expectations and perceptions: recreational fishing’s role in society
• Global partnerships in recreational fisheries
• Ecosystem based approach to recreational fisheries management
• Economic contribution of recreational fisheries to society

This will be a highly dynamic, interactive conference offering ample opportunities for you to interact with your colleagues from around the globe.

Who Should Participate?

• Recreational fisheries managers
• Companies depending on sportfishing for their business
• NGO’s wanting to increase interaction with the sportfishing community
• Fisheries scientists
• Highly motivated anglers involved with management of sport fisheries

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News

• The Program for the 5th WRFC has been posted.

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

Registration is limited to 280 Conference Attendees. Attendees are encouraged to register early as space will be limited!
Registration will be open Sunday Nov. 9th from 2pm - 6pm at the IGFA Fishing Hall of Fame & Museum.

Register Now ›

5th World Recreational Fishing Conference/November 10-13, 2008/Hosted by IGFA

Key West Offshore Fishing

Key West Fishing  features excellent offshore fishing grounds which are a guarantee for fantastic and successful fishing excursions.

An abundance of fish such as marlin, sailfish, mahi-mahi, tuna, wahoo, cobia, and king mackerel live in these waters and you can never know what it is that went after your bait in the Atlantic here.

Look for the fish and go after them for the catch of a lifetime. With the right boat and captain, nothing can go wrong during an exciting fishing adventure on the Atlantic Ocean with Key West Fishing .