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 .

The Summer Yellowfin run is in full swing

Its not often that Joeli, 'Bite Me's deckie gets to fight his own fish but sometimes clearing a spread of lures when a guest angler hooks up can have its rewards.

On a recent half day 'Bite Me' charter Joe was clearing a couple of 15kg outfits when one unexpectedly put up some rather robust resistance. After the guest's fish was gaffed, Joe set about coaxing a nice yellowfin tuna out of the depths and onto the resorts dinner menu.

Next day, our PADI Instructor Simon Parry was treated to a go at the yellowfin out in front of the resort. His only previous fishing experience was sitting on a canal bank as a kid catching old boots. He soon got the hang of it after a bit of instruction from the crew and he was pretty damn pleased with the result.

Actually he is still bragging about it to anybody who will listen....

Guests are reminded that Joe's a big lad and its not a good idea to leave your sashimi lying around.

Saltwater Fishing Report – December / January 2008

• For the waters around Kadavu Island- Fiji Islands – South Pacific.
• Charter Operator – Matava Resort Gamefishing
• Boat Names – Bite Me (Offshore) and Offensive Tackle (Inshore)
• Average Water Temp – 28.0
• Average Sea State – 50% Wind chop to 4ft, groundswell to 4ft / 50% calm
• Average Winds – 50% 10-15kts / 50% light airs
• Water Clarity – Good inshore, good offshore

Now:
Fiji waters have been thick since Christmas with big schools of Yellowfin tuna. Ranging from marlin bait size to 100lbs plus, most good fish are coming in around the 80lbs mark with huge shoals of juveniles providing plenty of live bait for billfish enthusiasts.

All charter boats are reporting bumper catches of tuna with excellent action close in to the Great Astrolabe barrier reef around Kadavu island. The big yellowfin are schooling at 120ft in 300ft of water on the steep reef drop-offs. We are using the old trick of running a deep squid on a trip-planer to draw up the first fish then the whole spread gets smashed.

The Kadavu trench and seamount are still consistently producing several shots at blue marlin every visit. We are also still seeing the occasional wahoo, sail and short-billed spearfish when working out wide but the best time for these species is winter (May - October) when they turn up in huge packs.

Plenty of mahi mahi along current lines and the occasional raft of pummice from the underwater Tongan volcano that erupted last year.

Outlook:
The predicted La Nina event is in full swing but the blues will keep biting until the water temperature hits 30 then the bite will cool a little. We expect March to be a relatively quiet few weeks for billfish as the hot calm sunny days bake the surface waters but the yellowfin and mahi mahi will keep anglers busy over bent rods. By April the water temperature will ease off its peak and the billfish action will fire up again.

The weather has mostly been excellent for popper casting anglers and should just keep getting better and better through February / March with calm seas allowing big game boats unlimited access to miles and miles of barrier reef breakers where the big GTs hang out.

Summary:

• Blue marlin – Lots of mid sized fish with the occasional 500+ pounder
• Yellowfin - Here in big numbers, a virtually guaranteed catch
• Sailfish – Just the occasional
• Wahoo – Just the occasional
• Mahi Mahi – lots to 30lbs and some bigger bulls to 50lbs around
• Mackerel – Just the occasional
• GTs – Good bite at the moment with excellend weather conditions for popper casting

Cpt Adrian Watt
Director, Matava Resort Gamefishing,
Tel: + (679) 3337 222 or 3336 098
www.gamefishingfiji.blogspot.com
www.matava.com

Matava - Fishing Report – August 2007

For the waters around Kadavu Island- Fiji Islands

Charter Operator – Matava Resort Gamefishing

Boat Names – Bite Me (Offshore) and Offensive Tackle (Inshore)

Average Water Temp – 25.5

Average Sea State – Wind chop to 6ft, Occasional groundswell to 4ft

Average Winds – Breezy to 20kts mostly ESE

Water Clarity – Good inshore, good offshore

We are now well into the winter wahoo and Pacific sailfish run but this year continues to disappoint a little. The large packs of marauding wahoo that congregate along the barrier reef are fewer in number than normal. Though packs are being found in some of the usual places, some sites that normally hold wahoo packs are just not firing up yet. The average wahoo size is also lower than normal at about 20kg rather than 26kg though some big solitary fish have been seen. The sails have also been down in numbers though some very nice fish to 60kgs have been tagged & released. Normally the average sail pack consists of about 5 to 6 fish but this year, so far, sails have been raised as solo fish or in pairs. It may well be that the late fall in water temperature is leading to a late season here and September may be the peak month rather than the usual July / August.

The upside though is the blue marlin fishing. Normally fairly quiet at this time of year, there seems to be significant numbers of blues close in to the reefs ranging in size from 80kgs to 200kgs. During the recent Pacific Harbour Tournament, charter boat ‘Opulence’ hooked up a blue estimated at 600lbs on 15kg line class but the fish was lost. ‘Bite Me’ had a blue of about 150kgs free-jumping behind the spread but couldn’t get a shot. Another competitor on ‘Catalina’ was spooled on 24kg before the deck could be cleared. There are clearly some good sized blues out there in the mix.

The yellowfin are coming through in waves so one week they are everywhere and the next, hard to find anywhere other than the Kadavu seamount. This area always holds tuna.

Quite a few mahi mahi around with the average size around 10kg though some nice fish to 20kg were weighed during the recent tournament.

The GTs are still active in the surf zones with a lot of smaller fish to 15kg giving great sport on 15kg line class.

Summary

Water – Still slightly warmer than normal but continuing to fall slowly.

Weather – The usual winter trade winds often making it choppy

Blue Marlin – More around than usual and some big ones present

Sailfish – Ones and twos in all the usual place

Wahoo – Not a great year so far but still good wahoo fishing by anyone’s standard

Yellowfin - Here in good numbers but can be patchy as schools move throug

Mackerel – Plenty of small ones inshore, the bigger guys now hitting ballyhoo rig

Mahi Mahi – Yes, lots to 20lbs and some bigger fish showin

GTs – Excellent popper casting fishing at the moment but the weather sometimes interferes

Captain Adrian Watt

Director, Matava Resort Gamefishing,

Tel: + (679) 333 6222 or 333 6098

www.GameFishingFiji.blogspot.com

www.Matava.com

Offshore Fishing Report – March 2007

For the waters around Kadavu Island- Fiji Islands

Charter Operator – Matava Resort Gamefishing

Boat Names – Bite Me (Offshore)

Average Water Temp – 28.5

Average Sea State – Calm / mild chop

Average Winds – 5-10kts

Water Clarity – Excellent

We have had a hot bite from the blue marlin over Feb / March with most of the fish following the schools of skipjack tuna around the Kadavu seamount and up the Kadavu trench. The largest blue caught (was sadly gut hooked by a circle hook) weighed in at a respectable 420lbs with a couple of much bigger fish lost on lures. The average size as been about 200lbs.

Normally the water temp goes up to 29/30 by Jan / Feb and this kills a lot of the action but this year it rose to 28.5 and there it has stubbornly stayed which I think is why the blues are still here in numbers.

This lower than average water temp happed last year as well and it lead to a spectacular sailfish season from May – September. We found packs of sails on every attempt.

The Yellowfin are around with lots of fish in the 20 – 40lb range close in to the barrier reef and some nice cow Yellowfin around 100lbs farther out on the trench.

Mahi mahi are a bit thin on the South side of the island but round the North side there are quite a few juveniles chasing the flying fish a couple of miles offshore.