The New Fishing Boat "Bite Me Too"

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 !

New Shortbill Spearfish Fiji Record

Fishing report from Rick & Sheila from Australia who recently completed a live-aboard fishing trip aboard Charterboat Ika Levu. He writes;

The trip I just had was an awesome trip fishing from first landing and heading out wide to the inside of the Yasawa Islands. Then East through the Bligh Waters and onto Koro Island. Next we headed for Savusavu for a re supply. We then headed out wide and took a North direction and headed onto Taveuni, then further North to the Ringold Isles. We had a really good trip and will do something similar next year and hope to extend our trip from the 12 days this year to maybe 21 days next year and travel a further a feild.

Over the course we caught some nice Mahi Mahi to 20 kg, Spanish Mackeral to 23 kg, Wahoo to 25 kg,

 

Some large GT's, some big Rainbow Runner ( 14 kg ), a Blue marlin 130 kg, Short Bill Spearfish 24.8 kg,

Yellow Fin Tuna to 35 kg, the other Tuna Species and also Travelly Species, scad were around, barracuda in numbers, whales were very playful........so all in all we had a wonderful trip.

Its great to hear of successful fun fishing trips from all over Fiji, not just from our Kadavu neck of the woods !

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.

August Wahoo

Brett with a nice Kadavu winter wahoo

August is our peak season for Wahoo but this year with rare La Nina weather conditions keeping the water temperatures unusually high, the wahoo run was a bit patchy. Bite Me still found plenty of wahoo but not so many monsters this season. Most fish averaged around 40lbs compared to a normal average of 60lbs.

Barry with a respectable Hoo

Brett tags his first Sailfish

The sails showed in reasonably good numbers but with unusual weather and wind directions they did tend to move around a lot so no specific area consistantly produced.

Darren knocked off his first Wahoo

Brett somehow managed to land all the biggest fish that week....

A school wahoo typical of this season

Bite Me Takes Fiji Sailfish Record

The Eyre rods and Avet SXs - Our ultra-light tackle Record hunting gear

Australian anglers Steve, Peter and Paul came to Matava Eco-Adventure Resort recently to fish light and ultra-light tackle on the winter wahoo and sailfish. We fished 3kg line class for wahoo and tunas and targeted Pacific Sailfish on 6kg line class.
Steve brought with him a new Cam now available from Avet. Called the South Florida Cam it modifies the Avet SX drag curve to perfectly suit our ultra light tackle record hunting.
The wahoo fishing was slow thanks to La Nina weather patterns but the guys did pick up some National Records including the M-03 Kawakawa and Yellowfin tuna. Deckie Glen was clearing rods after a multiple yellowfin hook-up when a chuky skipjack tuna jumped on. Turned out his skippie smashed the current M-03 Fiji National Record when it weighed in at 8.6kg

Deckie Glen chuffed with his M-03 Skipjack Record of 8.6kg

The boys hooked and fought several sails on 6kg but the sails continued to elude us with spectaculor leaps and jumps across the ocean (We have some great video to post when I get to a faster connection !)
On the last day we went all out for the M-06 Sailfish Record. Fishing Soso bay Paul hooked up a nice sail and we went into action....Winning back the belly of line, charging backwards after the hard fighting fish. With both Joe and Glen aboard to handle the leader and gaffs we finally had the sail aboard after about a 45 minute fight.

What a cracking Sail for Paul on 6kg line class

The sail weighed in at 34.20kg and subject to FIGFA approval and line testing is the new M-06 Fiji National Record

The new M-06 Fiji National Record

Sails Move In

Rob grabs a quick photo of his Pacific Sailfish

Continuing La Nina weather patterns have lead to the warmest winter water temperatures recorded in the past 15 years. The wahoo started moving in late May but the cooler currents failed and the wahoo fishing has been very quiet by our normal crazy winter standards. The winter run of yellowfin tuna is also pretty mediocre. The sails though are providing some fun on lighter tackle.

Deckie Glen releases and the tagged sail swims away

Gamefishing Report June 2011 - Kadavu Island - Fiji Islands

 Gamefishing Report June 2011 -  Kadavu Island - Fiji Islands

The summer blue marlin season was reasonable with fish averaging around 250lbs but we didn't see the usual monsters this season. 

Perhaps it was the slightly unusual La Nina weather patterns and currents. Fortunately the yellowfing tuna fishing was excellent. A good run of summer yellowfin continued right up to early May. 

 

Most fish averaged about 50lbs but some very nice cows spiced up the mix weighing in at well over 150lbs.

Bite Me was fortunate enough to tag and release two extremely rare baby striped marlin. Fish of this size are believed to be only a few months old. 

 We are still waiting confirmation from the fish ID experts however we are pretty sure they were stripies. Catching marlin of this size in the South Pacific is a very unusual event and to catch two doubly so.

 

Evidence is increasingly indicating that the Fiji waters are a striped marlin spawning ground.

The La Nina weather conditions affected the summer GT Popper casting with frequent South Westerly swells and North West to South West prevailing breezes. Water colour was generally poor as the usual ocean currents that scour the outer slopes of the Great Astrolabe Barrier Reef failed to show. Some very good fish were still landed but the average number of GTs landed in a day fell from the usual 12-15 down to 5-8.

At time of writing the first winter wahoo and sailfish have started to show. The sails are still one here, one there and the wahoo have not yet formed up into the expected packs of 40-50 marauding fish but we expect that to start happening within the next few weeks.

By July we will br re-rigging every single lure in use with wire and fending wahoo off with sticks. We have a number of anglers booked in to fish ultra-light tackle this season so we are hopeful of adding a few more IGFA World Records to Bite Me's growing list of accomplishments.

Capt Adrian Watt - Bite Me Gamefishing Charters
www.GameFishingFiji.com

August Wahoo Special

August Special

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or
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August Wahoo Madness has set in at Matava on Bite Me!

Use this great deal to do even more fishing on Bite Me for those Wahoos and Sailfish in August,
PRIME 'HOO and SAIL season!

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Gamefishing Fiji Report July 2010

Gamefishing Report July 2010
Kadavu Island - Fiji Islands

The cooler water that heralds the start of the winter wahoo and sailfish season moved in later than normal leading to a patchy June season start.

Gary Barmby of Angling Adventures and Joe with Wahoo

The big wahoo packs hovered on offshore seamounts causing somewhat of a headache for marlin anglers but now the season is in full swing with numerous wahoo along the Kadavu Island Great Astrolabe Barrier Reef slopes.

A reasonable 'hoo!

Pacific Sailfish numbers are building along the barrier reef with fish averaging about 90lbs offering excellent sport on the lighter line classes.

Is this 'hoo big enough for u???

The best wahoo so far this month was an 80 pounder but we should soon see plenty over the magical 100lb mark.

Tagged sailfish on Bite Me

The Winter yellowfin run has been a little thin but there are plenty of juvenile skipjack tuna and mahi mahi around the island, good news for blue marlin enthusiasts. Expect to see some nice black marlin released in the next few months with a few big striped marlin in the mix.

Good tag and release!

A late season start usually means a late season finish so we should still see lots of wahoo and sail action well into October.

Capt Adrian Watt
Bite Me Gamefishing Charters

Fiji Gamefishing Seasons Go Nuts

Thorsten recently had a few days popper casting aboard 'Tease Me' whilst staying at Matava Eco-Adventure Resort and despite some early ordinary weather, managed to rack up a few nice GTs.

One of Thorsten's best GTs around 30kg

One day Skipper Joe spotted some birds working off the reef and they headed over to have a go at some yellowfin tuna on a popper or stickbait. First couple of casts and Thorsten had a little yellowfin hooked up but before Joe could whip out his sashimi knife, it was 'sharked'.
Undaunted, Thorsten cast again and was quickly connected to something that screamed off across the surface.....Another shark ?
No ! a Wahoo !!


We are way out of wahoo season here but it just goes to show, you never know what you are going to hook up next.

Yesterday anglers aboard Bite Me were jigging the outer reef slopes for doggies and we hooked up something fairly big... It was a bit of a surprise when our doggie hook-up came screaming up to the surface right behind Bite Me and transformed into an airbourne Pacific sailfish that cavorted about for 10 seconds right in our laps before throwing the hook...
Wahoo and sails in the middle of summer ??? The seasons have gone nuts...

Fiji Islands Saltwater Fishing Report – July 2008

Charter Operator – Matava Resort Gamefishing

Average Water Temp – 25.5

Average Winds - 20kts,

Sea State – 50% Slight to Moderate / 50% Rough

Water Clarity – Poor inshore, good offshore

The expected wahoo and Pacific sailfish action fired up in June with good wahoo packs all along the Kadavu island barrier reef and medium sized sailfish to 75lbs forming small packs in the usual hot spots. Bite Me took the womens W-10kg Line Class Fiji National Record with a good sail of over 100lbs and single fish over this size are fairly common right now.The windy weather so far in July has made for difficult light tackle fishing but with Kadavu island's big lee shore, nobody has gone home disappointed with a number of other light and ultra-light tackle Fiji National Records on wahoo, GTs and Yellowfin tuna falling to visiting anglers.

The hungry wahoo and sailfish packs will stay well into September with the best sail bites either side of the full moons. August should see the start of some nice black marlin migrating through Fiji waters passing exposed barrier reef and offshore seamounts on their way to Australia's Great Barrier Reef spawning grounds.

The blue marlin are being virtually ignored at the moment as charter boats make the most of the fired up wahoo and sailfish packs but there are plenty of school tuna around holding marlin and offering fresh live or skip-baits for the heavy tackle enthusiasts.

Popper casting suffered from the wild early July weather but the bite remains strong with the GTs loving the pounding surf with GTs to 50lbs common and much bigger fish hitting the popper specialists using heavy tackle and super-sized custom gear.

Aboard 'Bite Me' we will continue to target the wahoo and sails on light tackle from 12lb to 20lb line class as well as some specialised ultra-light tackle fishing on the 8lb (4kg) custom gear.

Summary
Wahoo – Here now in big packs
Sailfish – Here now in packs of 3 to 6 with pairs of larger fish nearby
Yellowfin - Plenty of small inshore fish around 20lbs, larger fish to 75lbs farther offshore
Mahi Mahi – Bit thin on the ground with just the occasional pair here and there
Mackerel – Good sized fish around hitting skip-baits
Blue marlin – Largely being ignored because of the hot wahoo & sailfish bite
GTs –  Excellent fishing when the weather allows, particularily around the full moons

Cpt Adrian Watt
Director,
Matava Resort Gamefishing,
Tel: + (679) 333 6222 or 333 6098

Game Fishing Fiji

Gamefishing Fiji Blog

Stan's The Man

Stan Coverdell from Boulder Colorado got a recent taste of the Kadavu Island Gamefishing action with a day out on Bite Me. With the wahoo and sailfish season just strating to fire up now, we soon had Stan hooked up to a nice Pacific Sailfish of about 80lbs. Stan fought the sail to the boat but just as deckie Joe placed the tag stick in position to implant the Billfish Foundation tag, the hook pulled and the sail gently cruised off into the depths. Not an 'oficial' catch, it was still a bunch of fun and we were all happy to get a close look at such a beautiful billfish and see it swim away.Deckie Joe gets ready for the tag shot

We didn't go home empty handed. Stan soon found the wahoo to be quite a handful and we put two wahoo of about 60lbs each on deck for the resort guest's dinner.


Together with a narrow barred (Spanish) mackerel for sashimi starter, we had all the fish we needed so when Stan hooked up a little baby wahoo of only about 15lbs, we elected to release it unharmed.

Deckie Joe uses a de-hooker to release a small wahoo

Stan declared it was the best days fishing he had ever had. Pleasure to have you aboard Stan and glad you had fun. See you next year !