Latest Sportfishing Adventure
Date: Fri, Oct 16th, 2009
Report:

Golden Eagle’s latest sportfishing adventure was a reconnaissance mission to the unfished Southern Lau Group 170 miles south of Suva in search of new fishing grounds. This trip took in some of the most remote and some uninhabited parts of the Fiji Islands. We were fortunate to be joined on this trip by a great bunch of Australians, Pete, Darky, Chalky and the young gun Youngy. The guys arrived just in time to catch the NRL grand final and we departed Suva early the following morning. The following is a brief summary of some of the highs and lows of our 8 day journey.

Our first stop was a seamount that rises from 2500m to 20m, 85miles east of Suva and as expected it was littered with yellowfin and wahoo. The guys were quick to hook in to them and Darky landed a beaut wahoo well over 40 kilos.

As this kind of sportfishing is normally on tap around Fijian seamounts once the boys had all caught a few fish we elected to target something bigger and sent down a live rainbow runner while we drifted and jigged along the seamount ledges for dogtooth tuna.

The doggies proved a bit quiet only following the jigs without taking them and eventually the wahoo found us and schooled around the boat making it hard to get the jigs down. It was time to troll over a glassy sea towards our anchorage at Moala Island where our guests enjoyed a swim and a few drinks while the crew prepared a BBQ.

As we made our way through the reef passage the 15kg line trolling a Halco Laser Pro took a classic dogtooth bite that unloaded 400m in seconds before cutting off on the reef. Our next stop was an isolated coral atoll named Vanua Vatu which produced a few GT’s and wahoo before we made a long troll across to Lakeba Island to another spectacular anchorage.

Captain Tom had a plan to try a seamount that was said to rise to 300m on the charts so we struck out at first light in the still flat conditions and after an hour at 25 knots pulled up to find the current boiling all around the seamount and the sounder marking the top of it as 40m!!!!!!!!!!

This one was alive and the bites came thick and fast with yellowfin, wahoo and dogtooth climbing all over our lures, within 2 hours the team accounted for 20 nice fish including a 30kg dogtooth for Pete that took a large River 2 Sea Killer Vibe. We drifted an 8kg yellowfin around the edges trying for a big dogtooth but unfortunately the best bite we had was on a jig that nearly pulled Chalky over the side and busted the twisted leader.

Given the distance we had to travel to our next destination Vanua Balavu we reluctantly left the seamount and started trolling hi-speed lures at 12 knots toward Vanua Balavu. The troll produced a couple of 10 kg skipjacks and a wahoo before we reached another beautiful coral atoll. The guys were keen to try the poppers again and we had a good session that finished with the GT’s well in front.

On nearing Vanua Balavu it became apparent that things were not quite as they seemed with the GPS chart being out up to 500m in places so with both crew on lookout Tom skillfully navigated the reef passages with only his eyes and his sounder while traveling into a blinding sun. On our arrival we were greeted by the former Fijian Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase who invited us to savu savu (a traditional Fijian welcome ceremony) in his village where we enjoyed a great cultural experience that included a whole freshly cooked pig cooked in a Lovo. After the ceremony is completed we are given the Chiefs blessing to do what ever we like in the village and surrounding Islands.

The next morning we headed north to some serious looking country that we had been drooling over the entire trip, six seamounts rising from 2,500m to various depths all within a few square miles. Just as we arrived at our destination a Tsunami warning was issued after an earthquake in Vanuatu, we were shattered! After coming all this way we couldn’t take the risk and fish the shallower ground so it was a slow troll that only produced a few mahi mahi in the deeper water back to Lakeba Island.

The first sign of a breeze for the trip was on Friday morning and in such a remote place we can only refuel in calm conditions. After much discussion we erred on safety first, abandoning the remaining 2000 liters of fuel and leaving it to some very happy villagers to run through their generators we headed off towards Taveuni Island at 30 knots. Tom eased the throttles back around 50 miles east of our next port Savu Savu Bay and we run a variety of lures out including a couple of big Moldcafts for marlin. The water was 28 C here and the sea had dropped to lake like conditions with no swell or breeze in the shelter of Taveuni. When the bite came it was a classic blue marlin take with the fish just racing in and engulfing the purple mold craft, Youngy just beat Pete to the chair and it was game on as we backed down in the glassy conditions while the fish put on a spectacular display. After 20 minutes Youngy had his first marlin, a blue of around 120kg so it was off to Savu Savu Bay for a celebration.

This was Golden Eagles first visit to Savu Savu, a place famous for its hot water springs, but their was much more to it than that with a perfectly sheltered marina under a spectacular backdrop, shops, restaurants, markets, nightclubs and with plenty of visiting boats the place has a real party vibe. After a great night out we had a late start on Saturday to give our guests time to do a little shopping and check out some of the local attractions.

The troll across to Koro Island was pretty quiet so after catching a few GT’s on poppers we decided to take advantage of the hot, calm conditions and anchor up for a snorkel around the pristine coral reefs. During the troll back to Savu Savu we came across blue marlin feeding on skipjacks but couldn’t raise a bite out of them, not even with a live skipjack.

Sunday morning was the start of our journey back towards Suva with the first stop a popper session at Wakaya Island a place that has been very good to us in the past. It didn’t take long to get our first GT bite but the problem seemed to be stopping the buggers before they hit the reef.  At one stage Youngy was losing poppers quicker than we could rig them before he finally landed a 20kg specimen. The session at our next Island was much the same with the first ten casts all getting bites and all of the guys catching nice GT’s. We anchored overnight at Gau (pronounced Now) and Captain Tom took a few of the guests ashore for savu savu before returning to Golden Eagle in time for dinner.

Our last mornings fishing we trolled close to the reefs at Gau and had a few wahoo bites that went unconverted while we waited for the tide to rise enough for popper fishing. The GT’s were keen to play the game here and some truly brutal battles unfolded as the guys played hard with locked drags trying to force the GT’s to turn before they hit the reef. At the end of the session I would say the score was pretty even with Chalky losing an enormous fish that he was ever so close to stopping, the GT’s claimed plenty of poppers and all the guys caught fish.

In summary I would say that the fishing was surprisingly quiet in isolated places that I would expect to be red hot and absolutely brilliant around some of the sea mounts where I would have loved to have spent more time. The good news is we have discovered some great grounds within easy reach of our 4 and 5 day live aboard charters from Suva and a currently working on packages for these areas. For pics of our trip please check out our website www.goldeneaglefiji.com .

Happy fishing

George Trinkler

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