Around September 2021 I exchanged posts on a NZ fishing site with a fellow NZ fisho I'll refer to here as AL. He escapes the NZ winter to fish Vanuatu waters where he has a second home located at Port Havannah on Efate Island, some 40 minutes drive from Port Vila. The initial discussion lead to some 1700 further email exchanges between then and now covering a wide range of fishing topics pertaining to fishing in Vanuatu, NZ and Australia. I think it would be fair to say that we are both rather passionate about our fishing even though we are both 70 plus years young. The pic below is the view from his front verandah looking over Havannah harbour, Moso Island on the other side. Depth of water in between reaches an incredible 130m. The drop offs are insane around all islands.

What you don't see in the above pic is the boat ramp, choice, no queues at this ramp.

AL's second home.

AL has the very same model of boat in Vanuatu as he has in NZ, a 5.3m Fryran plus everything else necessary to fish regularly, weather permitting. How could I decline AL's invitation to fish with him in Vanuatu once the Covid-19 restrictions were lifted from the respective countries? Well I didn't and this post is about my recent fishing experience with him in Vanuatu.

AL picked me up from the Port Vila airport on 29th September. Of my 30kg baggage limit some 20kg consisted of tackle that I just couldn't leave behind in Oz. Months of planning had gone into this despite AL's advice that you don't need to bring any tackle as I have all bases covered, and he was correct.

Fishing methods we engaged in included jigging, deep slow jigging, trolling skirts / bibbed lures / strip baits / dead baits / poppers and drifting dead baits as well as numerous methods of catching live-baits to be deployed as livies. In addition we would deep drop baits in mostly 250 - 400m water depths targeting poulet. Marlin were not on our radar despite regular hook ups and catches of small blues by charter boats in the areas we were fishing. Without going into daily reports AL put me onto some great fish and our captures included the following species:

Barracuda

Coral trout Coronation trout

Dogtooth tuna

Flying fish

Long nose emperor

Mahi mahi

Pygmy red poulet

Queenfish (not the same as the Oz Queenie, but similar)

Randall's snapper

Red bass

Red snapper

Saddle-back snapper

Scad

Sharks - too many but managed a few for the village

Silver jaw red poulet (Pale snapper)

Skipjack tuna

Sottel red poulet (Ruby snapper in WA)

Yellow fin tuna and I'm sure I've missed a few others.

The majority of the boated fish was distributed among the local indigenous population (Ni-vans), shark being their favourite. Hard to figure but they seem to prefer shark to mahi mahi or poulet.

Every fishing trip has a hard luck story and mine was to drop a 'fish of a lifetime' wahoo according to AL at the side of the boat just seconds before it was about to be hit with the gaff. The first run was huge despite 15kg of drag, impressive stuff.

I was fortunate to experience a good stretch of weather and we fished 16 of the 20 fishing days available. Lay-days only on the day after arrival, the day prior to departure and two sightseeing / shopping days.

For me the highlight of the trip would have to be the dogtooth tuna. We had experienced bust offs after being buried in the reef by others before we finally boated a 30kg doggie a few days before my departure. It was a huge buzz with the fish being hooked in 20m of water. 15kgs of drag on the reel again and trying to led it (perhaps bully it would be a better word) into deeper waters before it could bust you off on the reef. Bejesus they go hard. Two happy guys when it hit the deck I can assure you. Job done, tick the box, we eat doggie sashimi tonight, better than YFT.

AL was a great host and one of the most modest guys I have ever met. His knowledge about how to change tactics and fishing methods to catch fish in a fishery that has been seriously depleted (read fkd) by the Chinese long liners and purse seiners is impressive.

AL doesn't frequent this site however I feel obliged to thank him once again for the invitation and his hospitality. Tusker time; cheese, red onion and tomato on crackers; sashimi, fresh pawpaw / banana and yoghurt breakfasts and especially deep fried fish in the secret batter recipe will all feature in my many memories of my journey to Vanuatu. A few pics to finish.

Fruit and vege market in Port Vila

Fish & chips with the secret batter recipe, very yummy.

Trolling at sunrise near Nguna Island

Poulet and Randall's snapper

Mahi mahi time

And another

Dogtooth tuna

Sharks were a problem

But we took a few out

When the onshore terrain looks like this you know deep water is not far away.  We were probably in around 300m when I took this shot.

There are some shallower waters though.  The next two pics is coming through the gap between two islands.  We were pushing the boat through at 5am one morning.  Pics of each side.

Launch a little further down Moso Island.  Broke its mooring during cyclone Pam 2015.

I just had to take a pic of this

This is what is known as a banana boat.  Multiple uses and often used to transport people and produce between islands.  20+ persons in one of these is not uncommon.  Not much freeboard.  Adults on the outside, kids in the middle.  Everyone sits upright and stiff, scared to move so as not to rock the boat.

Lastly the fire dance show on Mele Beach.  Not my pic, I stole it off the internet, great show.

Late edit:

Just to clarify the background effect; there is a guy there which the pic doesn't see rapidly swinging a container around which generates the effect.  This is not a Catherine Wheel fireworks show.

Another tough day in the office.  This was the best weather day I had.  We were at a location called Scott Rock, approx. 6kms east of Emao Island.  There were a few lumps coming up to about 12m from 100m+ not far away from one another.  Doggie country but sharkie.

Locals were always friendly, happy and would give you a wave.

Many of the Ni-Vans do it hard.  These structures are typical of their houses outside of Port Vila.

During WWll the Americans introduced a fast growing vine to act as camouflage for their equipment.  It has taken over in places and just smothers the natural jungle / landscape.

We later added a single hook further back to the FF rig.  We went 100% hook-up rate on this rig but AL's since missed a couple.

My last nights scooping efforts, eleven fresh FF for AL to rig up. 

Image Upload: