Hook Line and Sinker TV Filming aboard Bite Me

We were delighted to have the guys from Australian TV show "Hook Line & Sinker" filming aboard Bite Me for a couple of days. Presenters Matt and Nick with cameraman Mike had some fun fishing though the bite wasn't particularly great. There is a surface layer of zooplankton around colouring up the water and the big yellowfin were tough to find. Even so we managed a few GTs on poppers, groupers on jigs, yellowfin & mahi mahi on the troll and had some fun. I will post a short video clip when the show has been edited....

Hope the guys can come backs some time for the winter wahoo & Sails !

New Custom Eyre Rods for Bite Me

Bite Me now carries a new pair of Eyre Wishbone Series 15kg custom rods and we got the chance to try them out on some 20kg yellowfin last week. These rods are built tough for Bite Me but have the superb finishing that comes standard with any Eyre hand built rod.

 

 

 

Needless to say they made short work of a little yellowfin tuna !

They were brought over from Australia by one of my regular clients, Graeme, who like nothing better than to knock off a trophy fish on ultra-light tackle. Last trip he knocked off an 18kg Wahoo on 3kg.
We actually had a quadruple hook-up so whilst Graeme went after the fish on the 3kg Eyre Pirate, Joe and Alex skull-dragged the two yellowfin in on the new Wishbones.

 The weather wasn't kind this trip but when you fish 3kg and fish is a good fish !  This Narrow Barred Mackerel was fun (and technically a Fiji National Record) but we wanted bigger and it did make wonderful Kokoda for dinner !

 One of our Eyre Pirate rods trolling 3kg whils we tried to dodge thunderstorms...

Fiji Fishing Report Feb 2012

The summer run of Yellowfin Tuna has so far not produced huge numbers of smaller schooling fish along the barrier reef edges but offshore, the big cow yellowfin are running. This trophy fish was taken aboard Bite Me fishing a stickbait over the Kadavu Seamount by Australian angler Matt, owner of Tackle World - Exmouth. Quite a fight on a poppercasting outfit !

Joe was delighted with his dinner !

Luckily, Matava Resort now has a Spa to sort out Matt's back !

 The GTs are hitting surface poppers on the calm days

 

Quite a few Dogtooth Tuna on jigs but so far, no monsters...

 Deepwater jigging has produced some nice Groupers....

 

 and trophy fish like this huge Coral Trout....

 Dropping jigs on the outer reef slopes has produced all sorts of species

 Rosy Jobfish

 Long Nose Emperor

  

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.....

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

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)

My mate Glen was over again recently with his delightful wife Cherie. Cherie was mostly here for the sun, sea, sangria and diving but poped out one day for a bit of fun with the yellowfin tuna.

Cheri makes all the guests happy with some sashimi for dinner

Glen wanted to test out his new Okuma V Series reel on his new Daiwa Monster Mesh rod and the Kadavu GTs were happy to oblige.....So far the reel has stood up to expectations.

Glen was also kind enough to bring my Deckie Joeli a rather nice Christmas present. He hand made Joe a custom Stickfacewrangler GT popper rod. We coupled that with a reel kindly given to Joe from another guest, Dan Ryan and Joe was goo to go after his first big GT.

Joe's first GT with his new Stickfacewrangler custom rod

Course, now Joe's hankering after a Shimano T Curve GT Special and Shimano Stella....
Ther's no pleasing some people !

USA v Australia Ultra-Light Tackle Shootout

Well, its official. Somebody up there likes to have a laugh at my expense every winter. Each year Tim Simpson, Editor of BlueWater magazine (www.bluewatermag.com.au) and I take a 'busman's holiday' and get together for a week of fishing 4kg line class. 

Each year we discuss at length, plan and meticulously prepare tackle, rods, reels and tactics to target the run of big wahoo packs that gather along Kadavu island's Great Astrolabe barrier reef and each year the powers above select a suitably sized spanner and chuck it in the works.

This year's spanner was a straight run of 30 knot winds that began the day Tim arrived and eased the day Tim left.

If we didn't have to wait another year before trying again it would almost be funny.

Fortunately this year we were joined by world renown biologist, photographer, writer and TV show presenter and producer Bill Boyce and his partner in crime Diana Woods. (See some of Bill's hugely entertaining gamefishing TV shows for free at IGFA Angler's Digest www.IgfaAnglersDigest.com).

I have to say that having such knowledgeable fishermen together in the same cockpit was more than just instructional, it was down right entertaining as West Coast USA took on East coast Australia and the ensuing realms of fishing stories that drifted up to the bridge could have filled a novel. A very funny novel, all be it with an '18 - not for sale to minors' certification !

We looked hard for the wahoo but could only find the occasional juvenile fish of about 10lbs sheltering from the rough weather. With the big wahoo packs stubbornly staying on the unfishable wild side of the barrier reef, we turned our attention to the yellowfin and sailfish.

Whilst we trolled teasers and special Bill Boyce kawakawa belly flap circle rigged baits for the sails, (forever known now aboard Bite Me as 'BB Specials') Diana took the opportunity to turn herself from beginner to pro-light tackle angler with every strike and some world class advice and encouragement from the two pros.

By day two she had taken the W-04 Kawakawa and yellowfin tuna Fiji National Records. On day 4 she set the womens 4kg wahoo record and finally, on our last day together she displayed all her new found ultra-light tackle skills by taking the W-04 Giant Trevally Fiji National record. Anyone familiar with GTs will appreciate the skill envolved in taking one of these fish on 4kg (8lb) line class.

One day we were joined by Mike Thomas, angler from California and member of the Tuna Club of Avalon for the light tackle fun. He proceeded to smash the existing M-04 Barracuda Fiji record which was previously held by....er, Tim actually. Ooops !

As to the sails, we found quite a good bite. Bill had a sail hooked up for over an hour and we were getting close to the leader when the hook pulled. Tim fought a lively sail to the transom several times after some hard backing down in nasty chop that sent spray clear over the bridge. (yes I got very wet) We could have tagged several times but the record beckoned.

Just as Bill went in for yet another possible gaff shot the circle hook pulled. We had doubles and tripples but the most entertaining moments were when Tim hooked up to a dancing sail, Bill cranked in a minnow at full drag to clear it and just before it reached the transom, another sail raced in, gobbled the lure and sped away. 'Crack' went the line. The look on his face was just priceless, not to mention the ensuing colourful Californian West Coast string of verbal observations. It was a whole lot of fun. I can't wait to do it again.

See some of Bill's awesome underwater photographs at www.boyceimage.com

Yellowfin Season full on!

A yellowfin tuna caught aboard Bite Me at Matava, Kadavu. Capt Adrian Watts & Deckhand Glen Gardner.

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.