Fiji Special Photo-Site by Don

"I am glad to have a chance to have experienced a memorable trip to Matava. Also, you guys there have done a fabulous job contributing lots to the education of our fragile environment and needs to conserving them for the future generations, cultural as well as Improving the social status of the locals. Hope the “Fiji Special” will contribute towards your goal."

Vinaka

Don, Hin Lim

Hin Lim Photography
274, Victoria Street

Richmond 3121 Victoria,

Australia

Tel: +61 (0) 3 9421 1548 (available on Thursday and Friday)

HP: 0401 012 374

Pacific Blue Marlin – Lures that work here in Fiji

When trolling lures for Blue marlin aboard ‘Bite Me’, we run a standard spread of four lures off bent butt chair rods and use Penn International 80STWs. We run a long and short corner from the transom rod holders and a long and short rigger from the chair. Sometimes we run a teaser such as a spreader bar or a Pakula Witchdoctor.

We never run a shotgun. We always aim to tag & release all billfish and use Billfish Foundation tags.

We generally use lures that imitate or approximate to the baitfish in the area such as skipjack & Yellowfin tuna, mahi mahi or flying fish.

Although We use wire rigs a lot because of wahoo, we don’t double the wire inside the skirt to make a stiff rig. We just use a single wire to the hook allowing some flexibility and swing. Lures are tooth-picked or hooks set with the point or points upwards. Two hook rigs have the hooks offset at about 45 degrees.

Our recommendations are for normal general fishing on a reasonably calm day in bright or slightly overcast weather when targeting fish of any size. This is what works for us. Its not necessarily what will work for you !

SHORT CORNER

We tend to use this position more as a teaser or to tempt a monster fish with a monster lure.

1. MBT custom made monster – Silver over yellow – 2 x 12/0 wire shackle rig

2. Pakula Smokin Jo – Blue Silver/ Green Gold – 2 x 12/0 wire shackle rig

3. Marlin Magic Mirror Big Dog – Purple – 2 x 12/0 wire shackle rig

LONG CORNER

1. Hollowpoint Goblin – silver/green/gold – 1 x 12/0 wire rig

2. Pakula Rat – Black/Red – 2 x 12/0 wire shackle rig

3. John Lau Good Head – Blue yellow / Redyellow – 2 x 12/0 wire shackle rig

4. Top Gun Ball bearing Nightmare – Clear Purple tint in water / Black Gold – 1 x 12/0 wire shackle rig

SHORT RIGGER

1. Joe Yee Apollo – Evil – 2 x 11/0 wire shackle rig

2. Black Bart Hot Breakfast – Blue white / pink white (yellow stripe) – 1 x 11/0 wire rig

3. John Lau Talibung – Black/Red – 2 x 11/0 wire shackle rig

4. MBT Tulip – Blue white / White – 2 x 11/0 wire shackle rig

LONG RIGGER

1. Hollowpoint Cabo Killa – Purple – 1 x 10/0 wire rig

2. Mould craft Wide Range – Purple – 1 x 12/0 Wire rig

3. Pakula Sprocket – Lumo – 2 x 10/0 wire shackle rig (this lure picks up a lot of wahoo)

4. Wellseys Hypahead Large Talai – Black/Gold – 2 x 11/0 wire shackle rig

Where we get our lures :

• Palm Fishing Australia
• Wellsys Tackle
  
• Melton International Tackle

Lure Manufacturer Links :

• Pakula lures
  
• Hollowpoint Lures
  
• Marlin Magic Lures
  
• Wellsys Lures
• MBT Lures
• John Lau Lures – Contact John at jaslau@yahoo.com
• Black Bart Lures

If you want to know what the top Australian skippers use, check out the lead article in the Feb / Mar issue of BlueWater magazine.

What Went Pear Shaped # 3

Trolling Lures for Pacific Blue Marlin

12.15pm Kadavu Trench

Trolling a 4kg Skipjack tuna skip bait rigged with a 14/0 Owner Super Mutu Circle hook. The hook was rigged to sit 4 inches ahead of the tuna’s nose and connected with waxed rigging thread. 9 feet of 400lb Ande leader, 19ft of wind on leader to a Melton bent butt & Penn International STW 80.

A nice blue marlin sidles up alongside the bait and engulfs it leaving a large hole in the wake and a big flash of silver flank as she turns. Skipper yells “big marlin” and angler comes charging out of the saloon to drop the bait back and allow the blue to swallow.

After 15 seconds the skipper calls for the drag to be eased up. Road loads up and the fish is hooked. The blue doesn’t jump at all. She peels off line but at a steady pace and sounds out and down to about 100m. One hour and fifteen minutes later we bully her up behind the boat.

A couple of head thrashes and she comes in quietly. Upside down quietly. Now we are all worried. We ease her alongside the boat, pop the Billfish Foundation tag in and find that we can’t see the hook.

She’s gut hooked and the damage is obvious. We cut the leader inside the mouth and start towing her behind the boat. A disposable gaff with the tip stoppered with a cork is used to hold her upright. Sadly she does not recover.

She weighs in at 420lbs and is donated to two local village schools to feed the kids.

What went right ?

We went to the right place.

We used the right technique to raise and hook up a blue on a circle hook.

We used a fairly heavy drag setting to bring the fish to the boat sooner rather than later.

We tried to revive the fish for some considerable time, even though the signs were bad.

What went wrong

The Owner Super Mutu hook is a KIRBED circle hook. The rig used was not one of ours. It must have been left on the boat by a previous angler and in the busy period of bait catching, my deckie grabbed the first ready rig in the box and quickly rigged up a skipjack to get a bait out there fast.

I didn’t check the rig.

“In my humble opinion”

Never use a kirbed circle hook for marlin fishing. It will gut hook just as well as a J hook and to make matters worse, you just dropped it back ensuring you gut hook. You will almost certainly kill the marlin.

Check everything twice before you set a line. Even if you are in a hurry. It just might save you from a bad day.

What Went Pear Shaped # 2: Trolling for Pacific Blue Marlin

Trolling for Pacific Blue Marlin

12.00 Noon on the Kadavu Seamount

Trolling a 7kg Yellowfin tuna skipbait rigged with a 16/0 Duratin Cirle hook. The hook was rigged to sit 4 inches ahead of the tuna’s nose and connected with waxed rigging thread. 9 feet of 400lb Ande leader, 19ft of wind on leader to a Melton bent butt & Penn International 80 STW.

A small blue marlin of about 100kg comes up behind the bait and quietly tries to eat it. The angler backs the drag off even more (it was set light already) and allows the bait to drop back controlling the spool with slight drag pressure to avoid over-spooling (bird’s nesting the line). The blue gobbles the bait and turns. Skipper calls for the angler to slowly bring up the drag. Some line pressure then the bait pops back up on the surface. No hook-up. Marlin comes back for attempt # 2. Same procedure but this time we give the marlin a good 10 seconds to swallow the bait. No hook-up.

Marlin comes back for attempt #3. This time the angler pumps the rod after raising the drag and the skipper gooses the throttles. No hook up. By now the bait is a good 100 yards behind the boat and the skipper can’t see what is going on below the surface.

Marlin comes back for attempt # 4. (This guy has to be very hungry or very stubborn). This time we drop back, all go inside, have breakfast, take a nap, wake up, make coffee, come back out and push up the drag. Marlin spits bait and finally gives up.

So do we.

What went right ?

• We went to the right place.
• We used the right technique to raise a blue.
• We theoretically used the right technique to hook him up on a circle hook
• Pumping the rod and goosing the throttles really wasn’t going to help when using a circle hook but hey, conventional wisdom wasn’t working. Try something.

What went wrong

1. After 2 drop backs we should have wound the bait back much closer so we could better see what was going on.
2. The bait was too big for the size of marlin we raised. We should have had a second rig ready to go with smaller bait, perhaps a stand-up 50lb outfit with a garfish pitch bait. We should have teased the little blue up and switched him onto the lighter tackle.

“In my humble opinion”

Just because you rig for a monster and go after a monster, it doesn’t mean the first fish you raise will be a monster. We missed a nice little blue because we were ‘thinking big’. Shame.

Be prepared for something other than what you hope for or expect.

Wahoo – Lures that work here in Fiji

From May to October, packs of wahoo congregate along the Great Astrolabe Barrier Reef. The average size of wahoo is about 50lbs with a good fish weighing in at 75lbs. Each wahoo pack usually has a fish of close to 100lbs. We almost always use lures when targeting wahoo however we often get jumped by fish when bait & switch fishing for sailfish. If your teaser is rigged with mono…wave bye bye to the end of your daisy chain….

The biggest problem we encounter is a mass attack, wahoo porpoising in at break-neck speed, every rod in the spread going off and then multiple bite-offs as other wahoo attack lines or swivels cutting through the water. We combat this by trolling a full spread until we find a pack and then switch to towing just two lures. Often, just a garfish (ballyhoo) on a two hook rig with a small pink skirt on the nose. Trolling speed is usually around 6-7kts. Most wahoo skippers around the world troll faster. Here, higher speeds do not increase strike rates. Last week on the Kadavu Seamount, we were feeding a skip bait back to a small blue marlin and a 60lb wahoo hit a Lumo green Pakula Sprocket that was only doing about 2kts.

All lures are rigged on at least 4 feet of 124lb 49 strand wire. (Longer if we think sails are in the area) At this time of year, if it isn’t on wire, it isn’t coming back….

SHORT CORNER

1. Wellsys Talai – Purple or lumo green

2. Halco Laser Pro 190 minnow - Redhead

LONG CORNER

1. McWhog – Blue/Chartruese – Rigged in front of a garfish (Ballyhoo)

2. Lurestreet Raptor minnow – Green/gold or Red/white

SHORT RIGGER

1. Wellsys Medium Turbojet – Blue Silver / Green Gold (Evil)

(This is our absolute ‘must have’ in the spread)

LONG RIGGER

1. Lurestreet Yahoowahoo – Black/green/red (I have seen wahoo charge this lure from 100 yards away)

2. Pakula Phantom - Blue Silver / Green Gold (Evil)

3. Pakula Sprocket - Lumo

SHOTGUN

1. Hollowpoint Mahi Sniper – Black/green or Black/red or White/pink

Where we get our lures :

• Palm Fishing Australia
  
• www.welsystackle.com
• Melton International Tackle
• 
  

Lure Manufacturer Links :

• Pakula lures
  
• Hollowpoint Lures
  
• Marlin Magic Lures
  
• Wellsys Lures

Matava Flickr Photo Group now LIVE

At long last after many requests from past guests we have managed to get a place where we can all share photos from Matava.

As many of you know we have very limited communications out in the resort in Kadavu. In fact if we even have phone lines that we can speak on we are grateful. The internet connection is a very ropey dial-up where we get an average of 9kbps if we're lucky.

Therefore when kind hearted guests send us photos by email, we unfortunately spend hours shouting and swearing (who us?) and trying to remove these 2MB attachments form our servers before picking up email, and/or the line dropping out.

SO... we have found a solution where we can see and share everyone's photos and still remain sane on our dial-up connection.

Cruise on over to www.Flickr.com, (join up and get your free Yahoo! name if you don't have one already) and then post pictures and join our group:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/matava/

We hope to see your photos up there soon guys. (send us a small email to say you've joined and we'll surf over and have a look)