Bite Me Smashes Ladies World Record Wahoo!

Bite Me Smashes Ladies World Record Wahoo - Story

Pending IGFA World Record

For over 8 years the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) Ladies 3kg line class wahoo World Record has stood at 13.18kg. A very respectable fish caught by Ms Dianne Cross in Papua New Guinea. That record now has a challenger, currently undergoing the IGFA record application process.
Fiona Stallard and her partner Mark Lacey were staying at Matava Eco-Adventure Resort on Kadavu Island, Fiji. There to enjoy some diving, snorkeling and a week of relaxation in the warm Fiji Islands tropical sunshine. Every evening, Australian anglers Graeme McKinnell and Owen Spalding, then fishing aboard the resorts charterboat 'Bite Me', would entertain all the guests with tales of their days light tackle exploits. When Owen returned one evening with a new M-10 Barracuda Fiji National Record and colourful stories of leaping wahoo packs, Mark and Fiona decided have a go and see for themselves. Plans were set and soon we were heading out.


By lunch time, with several nice wahoo and dolphinfish on deck, dinner was secured so I invited them to try a little record hunting. Conditions were ideal and Mark & Fiona were keen to have a go....

Fiona warms up with a wahoo on 8kg

Fiona first landed a wahoo on 8kg with no problem at all so we went one step further and broke out the ultra-light tackle, Avet SX reels on Stickfacewrangler custom rods hand made for Bite Me by Glen Gardener in Sydney. Our prefered set-up, a short double, a 14ft Platypus 80lb leader and single strand wire bite leader terminating in the wahoo's favourite snack, a Halco Laser-Pro.

The Ultra-light tackle is set and Joe goes over tactics

Our first hook-up was a short lived affair. The wahoo screamed off across the surface in one direction then abruptly stopped, changed direction and bust us off in an instant. The next hook-up was a double but Mark and Fiona had the fish to the boat within minutes and a scad and rainbow runner were quickly released. All excellent practice for the real thing...

Double hook-up and both anglers are into a fight

At 2.55pm both rods loaded up and line melted off the reels as a pair of wahoo streaked across the surface. Fiona's fish settled down and cruised out wide but Mark's fish headed down under the boat. With 1kg of fighting drag and a green fish, all Fiona could do for now was to keep the rod tip high and loaded up. After 10 minutes Mark almost had his fish to the boat but just as we saw colour a shark pounced and ended the fight.

What was left of Mark's wahoo

Not a record fish but would have been an excellent catch on 3kg. Still, now Mark could pick up the video camera we were able to chase down Fiona's fish that still cruised away from us on the surface heading for open water. A battle ensued with Bite Me charging backwards across the calm waters and Fiona cranking on every inch of line she could as the wahoo made the fatal mistake of staying on the surface. At 3.18pm, 23 minutes after hook-up, deckie Joeli Tuku, standing on the marlin board of a hard charging Bite Me, stretched out, grabbed the flimsy leader and gaffed the fish. Whoops of delight, high fives all round and a new pending W-03 World Record Wahoo hit the deck.

New pending World Record hits the deck

Halco Laser-Pro does the business

Fionas delighted with her catch....Wouldn't you be !

Joe holds up another World Record for Bite Me

Later, back at the resort, (an IGFA Weighstation) the wahoo weighed in at 21.0kg on the certified scales.


Angler - Fiona Stallard (Australian)

Species - Wahoo

Weight - 21.0kg

Long Length - 151cm

Girth - 59cm

Line Class - 3kg

Line - Maxima 6lb / 3kg IGFA line class

Rod - Stickfacewrangler Custom made by Glen Gardener in Sydney

Reel - Avet SX

Lure - Halco Lazer-Pro 160 (Golden green)

Fight time - 23 minutes

Video to follow shortly....

Bite Me Takes Fiji Barracuda Record

A Wahoo this week showing beautiful barring

Anglers Graeme and Owen from Australia caught a lucky break with the Fiji winter weather for their week of fishing aboard Bite Me. They made the most of it fishing all the best areas around Kadavu island such as Solo attol and the seamount landing dolphinfish, mackerel, barracuda and a boatload of rocket propelled wahoo, many of which we released.

Joe releases another pack wahoo

Fishing 15kg line class at first, we quickly moved down to 10kg and then 8kg for some great sporting action with the wahoo packs.

Graeme with a nice Wahoo on 8kg

On day 4 Owen was on strike when a ball of spray erupted engulfing a small Williamson skirt on the 10kg line class rod on the long rigger. At first we thought it was a dogtooth tuna but as soon as we got colour we saw the huge gnarley head and gnashing teeth of a Great Barracuda. After a 10 minute fight the fish came aboard and soon we were celebrating a new Fiji National Record (pending FIGFA Line Testing)

Owen's pending 10kg line class Fiji National Record

On Day 5 I sounded out the guys on the possibility of having a go at the IGFA 3kg line class Wahoo World Record. We had the ideal opportunity to give it a go and the guys having worked their way down from 15kg to 8kg were up for it....So the ultra-light gear I had stashed away on Bite Me for just such an occasion came out. The Avet SX reels on Stickfacewrangler rods custom made by Glen Gardener in Sydney and specially rigged, carefully measured Halco Lazer-Pro rigs were put into action...

Joe carefully sets the drag on the Avet SX Reels

Graeme hooks up !

But this fight ends in disappointment when a potential World Record fish is 'sharked' close to the boat. Undaunted we try again....
Graeme again hooks up and a new fight begins. This time we succeed ! The wahoo comes aboard but its clear that this one won't make the grade with the current IGFA World Record standing at 23.13kg
Never the less, an excellent catch on 3kg (6 lb) line class !

Graeme's Wahoo caught on 3kg line

Thanks for the week of light tackle sportfishing guys, I think everybody had a lot of fun !
Next time we will get that World Record....

Bite Me Smashes Another World Record

Angler Fiona from Australia just smashed the Womens 3kg line class Wahoo IGFA World Record aboard Bite Me.
Full story and Video to follow shortly....

New telephone numbers for Matava!

Matava - Fiji's Premier Eco Adventure Resort has installed a new Satellite Communications System with new telephone numbers. We have new methods of contacting Matava in the Fiji Islands including new telephone and fax numbers and a new Skype name! All running off the in-house solar power!

Our new permanent contact numbers are:

TELEPHONE: +679 603 0685

FAX: +679 603 0684

SKYPE: MatavaFiji

"And so what does this mean to you?" I hear you ask? Well one of the big step forwards is that we now have a 24 hour contact via Skype technology and voice-mail there-in on site at the resort. This will revolutionise our online reservations and booking system.

Matava Resort is proud to install this communications solution purely using the alternative power already available at the resort.

We will maintain our current CDMA/Easytel phone (+679 368 0080) until the end of August 2010, at which point they it be disconnected.

The new system runs on the Gilat SkyEdge System which supports telephony, broadband data and video communications via satellite. It is optimized for transaction-oriented applications, business continuity needs, legacy protocols, rural telephony deployments and multi-topology networks with mesh, star and multi-star topologies.

The system has an uplink speed of 64kbps where the service and support are provided by Connect Fiji.

Not only does the new service out perform its predecessors, the satellite network is designed to perform even under the heavy tropical rain.

The equipment installed at Matava is called a VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal). It consists of a 1.8m dish (situated hidden away behind the resort office) and outdoor electronics for communicating with the satellite and an indoor unit to which our standard telephone /fax lines and laptops are connected. The intelligence within the indoor unit processes the calls and distributes them to assigned telephone lines.

Power for the terminal is purely 12V DC and is supplied by our own in-house solar panels and batteries in our Main Bure complex.

Watch this space for the next phase in the program which is to make WiFi available directly to guests laptops in the Main Bure (shhhhh... this is currently top secret info!)

Once again, here are our new permanent contact numbers:

TELEPHONE: +679 603 0685

FAX: +679 603 0684

SKYPE: MatavaFiji

New telephone numbers for Matava!

Fiji Gamefishing Report

A little summary from last week's fishing with anglers Hayden & Guy from Australia. We had a bit of a mixture of weather, a couple of nice days and a couple of decidedly 'iffy' days.
The water temperature is still hovering around 25.5 a shade warmer than normal and a warmer water current coming down from the NW over the North Astrolabe Barrier reef has brought plankton rich coloured surface water, not ideal consitions for the wahoo and sails. Compared to the week before, the fishing was quiet with the changing conditions.


We did manage a day jigging on the seamount for dogtooth tuna. Plenty of wahoo around which proved costly on the jigs. Hayden had a nice doggie of over 30kg sharked by several whaler sharks right at the back of the boat which was a bit of a shame. Guy then hooked into a freight train that powered away from the seamount just as the really big dogtooth do. We gave chase but just after 10 minutes the hooks pulled. I estimate this fish was well over 60kg.

Hayden about to see his prized doggie sharked

Heads you win...Tails you lose..

Guy hooks up to one of the really big dogtooth and hangs on for the ride...

A consolation prize. Retrieving our jig from the depths after the hooks pulled did net us a little yellowfin for some nice sashimi for dinner.

We also has some fun taking several wahoo with jigs

The popper casting was unusually quiet, probably because of the coloured surface waters



Amazing what you see on the seamount. Standing there jigging away and up pops a pair of humpback whales just to say hi. We also had a Hammerhead shark investigate us but a little too shy for a decent photo.

Big Fish, Broken Tackle

One of my Daiwa Emblem Pro 5500s finally packed up the other day. Interestingly, it wasn't the gear or drag system or shaft that went....it was the reel foot. Still, its done pretty well for the light / medium tackle popping for GTs here.
Time to go shopping for some new popping gear for Bite Me and Tease Me !

August Starts With Mixed Weather....Mixed Bag....

The past week the weather has been somewhat challenging. A strong Tradewind with frequent rain squalls gusting to 30kts..... Didn't stop us fishing of course but ruled out jigging and limited our popping options to the calm side of the island and barrier reef.
We are fortunate enought to always have a lee shore, no matter what the weather brings but water temps rule in the winter season and sometimes the biggest fish prove elusive.
Oh well...that's fishing...

Rain squalls not a problem on the lee side

Mind you...even in the lee of the barrier reef it got choppy....

Great weather for Mackerel

A few Yellowfin around

Dave Christens his new Stella & Hots Gipang 75XXH

This big Barracuda loved his Cubera

Some very good bull Mahi Mahi around

Adam with a nice GT on the popper

Big Dogtooth Tuna Records Fall

Just heard from pro fishing guide George Trinkler aboard Suva based charterboat Golden Eagle that they have smashed a couple of Fiji Islands ladies dogtooth tuna records. I asked him for the low down. He writes :
"During day 2 of our trip the boys caught some nice fish jigging and
livebaiting so the girls decided it was ther turn in the morning. We were
drifting over the Kadavu seamount with the girls both harnessed up with the reels
set on strike drag and a drop back to the baits via the rigger when Kim
Gilbert hooked up on 24kg line, shane also hooked up on a jig at the same
time but was cut of when his fish bolted for the bottom. We left Sheridan
Purvis bait out and as we got colour on Kims fish Sheridan hooked up on
37kg. Fight time was around 20 minutes each and Kim Gilbert's fish was 42kg
on 24kg and Sheridans 64kg on 37kg, Sheridan fought another dogtooth for 40
minutes on 15kg only to have the hook fall out and both girls were stoked at
catching bigger dogtooth than there partners."


Awsome doggies mate, that's a fun day on the seamount !

To top that off, Golden Eagle also won the recent Denarau Sport & Gamefishing Club Tournament.

Very well done to the angling team and crew.