Thought I had better write up and circulate a report of the fishing in Fiji as this was a trip of a lifetime!! Better a late report than no report.

 

Mate what can I say. We were on Golden Eagle in April for some action packed fishing. There were some fish of a lifetime captures in a part of the world that can only be described as truly amazing. Golden Eagle is a 51 Bertram completely decked out with all the best game gear, popping gear and jigging gear any fisho could
wish for. My fishing buddy Mike Brown and I chartered her with just the two of us fishing. The boat can handle more obviously but this was a treat to ourselves and we wanted to enjoy it without sharing ha!

 

There were four days of hardcore fishing in total. Heres a summary:
Day 1.

 

We were fishing a seamount called Cape Washington - the country was amazing deep water rising to within 150m of the surface. Lots of birds working indicated yellowfin and we picked up a few of these little suckers to feed down deep to the big doggies that we went there for. No trouble picking up a few of these 5-8kg models and we sent one down on the Penn 130 with high hopes of a monster smashing him. surprisingly he was swimming strongly for some time - we fed him down to about 100m and then a few panicked tailbeats and a slow tick tick off the big Penn as some monster of the deep ate him. We all looked at each other - this wasnt the screaming run of a big doggie much more like a monster shark that didnt even know he was hooked. Sure enough after following the slowly ticking line for a couple minutes the bugger bit us off. Sent down another livie
and this one actually made it back to the boat after going for a swim. Right - doggies werent playing we figured after spending some time with the big bait down deep.

 

Off we trolled and a mix of big dollies, wahoo and more of the jellybean fin. I am sure I am forgetting some more will have to go back through the pictures..

By now we were heading into the arvo session and the guide - a champion by the name of George Trinkler (you have probably heard of this fishing legend as a contributor to some of the better known magazines and fishing dvds out there including capturing some awesome GWS footage from Stockton and surrounds among other things) - was keen to see us get stretched on some monster GTs that lurk the washes of southern Kadavu Island.

 

Mike and I had never been popper fishing for GTs but second cast and I am on. This is real heart in the throat stuff with a big take on the surface and a screaming run back to the coral. The fish worked me over but we got him to the boat and I was all grins as a 20-25kg GT comes aboard.

 

Now my mate Mike is a bit of a whizz with the surface lures. In sydney he constantly outfishes me with small poppers on the flats for whiting/bream and sure enough upsizing the popper only upsized the fish for this keen young angler. Mike had watched the first GT come in and then went to work with his popper landing it right in the strikezone. Blooping the sucker back almost to the back of the boat and no $hit just as I looked up at his lure about 10 foot off the stern a massive take with a tail the length of my forearm explodes from the water as this monster screams back to the reef. A smoking run- have never seen anything like it - and Mike and Trinkler were trying desperately to stop the fish from making it to the reef (I got it all on video!). A top of the line reel had its drag fused solid and Trinkler literally burned his hand as he was trying to slow down the locked up spool. Mike was holding on for dear life as this fish was finally turned from what must have been inches from the reef. With a fused drag Mike had to fight the fish for the next 10 minutes pretty brutally and despite being taken elbows to the gunnells a few times eventually the
biggest GT ever brought to this boat was dragged through the marlin door. This was Mike's first ever GT and was honestly a fish of a lifetime. Will let the pictures do the talking but we conservatively estimated him at 45kg. Needless to say the beers were cracked and we trolled back into the anchorage for the
evening. A great end to Day 1.

Day 2.

 

High hopes with perfect conditions greeted me as I woke up at around 6am. I was massively hung over on day 1 and after an early night was feeling 1000% better on day 2!  I made a cup of tea, grabbed a popper rod and walked out onto the bow to have a couple casts while the crew woke up and had breakfast. Second cast and a 5 foot spaniard smashed the popper. I was stomping on the hatch of Mike's cabin (he was in forward berth) saying wake up mate fish are on! and Johnny the deckie led the toothy critter down to the stern and we brought him in. Right - that was lunch sorted. Today sure felt fishy.

 

We packed up quick smart and got the lures out as we headed out a  bit wider. Having landed the big GT the arvo before we were going to have a crack at a monster Blue Marlin. The guys had been spooled on 80 in 90 seconds the week before in this area so we knew there were some big fish out there. We set the 80 on the rigger and then two 15kg outfits for livebait and a 24kg for whatever might eat the R2Sea bibless minnow. What can I say the day was a blinder we caught at least 8 or 9 Wahoo to just under 30kg, stacks of yellowfin, had a jig for a couple of small doggies, and would you believe it 2 blue marlin within an
hour of each other. The blues kindly ate the 80 both times. Unfortunately the first fish came up tailwrapped and dead so we dragged him onboard but the second fish was green as at the back of the boat. Some handy leader work from the mighty Trinkler and we pulled the hook and let him go. High fives all round what a day! We ended up running the blue and a few of the bigger Wahoo into the village that allowed the boat to use the anchorage (this is remote Fiji where a big fish is as good as currency) and hung him from a palm tree then donated him to the islanders. Everyone on the island - all 157 ppl - got a chunk of marlin and the next day the smokers were cranking all over the hillside. No refrigeration means smoking is the best way to preserve the flesh.

 

This village produces the best Kava in Fiji - Kadavu Kava - and Mike and I were invited into the village that night as heros! and we drank stacks of this stuff. Numb mouth and pretty relaxed and chilled out we ended up staggering back to the boat around midnight and crashed out ready to do it all again the next day.

 

Day 3

 

Disaster. Anchor wrapped on the coral bommie we were secured to and couldn't
move the Bertie.

 

Trinkler and Captain Tom wanted us out there fishing and a quick Plan B was hatched and implemented. Mikey and I grabbed a few popping rods and jumped into Baa's longboat intending to head out to the open side of the reef and get into some GTs before breakfast. Mate first cast and we realised what a mistake it was
to not bring gimbal belts and try to tackle these brutes from such a primitive boat! The old Tohatsu motor kept carking it which was exciting as we were in the bloody surf zone in a reasonable swell.. Anyway I managed a nice 20kg odd fish  which I will never forget given the way it was caught! Then Iron Mike
(he was renamed from Mikey to Iron Mike after his brute GT on day 1) gets his popper into the 1-2 foot of water in the suds and he gave out that oh no that I think all GT fishermen must be able to relate to as you just know your going to get smashed and smoked. Explosion on the surface and a much better fish then
tries to bust Mike up multiple times. Those poppering rods are brutal on the fisherman and from a longboat in a swell with no rodbucket again made Mike feel the pain!

Another great battle and after some fancy longboat work to pull the sucker from the reef and a GT of 30-35kg gets lip-gaffed and dragged into the boat. Another great fish Iron Mike!

 

That was about all we could handle in those conditions - not a bad start to the day and a pre-breakfast fish at that. We got the call we were going to dump the anchor and made our way back to the mothership. The rest of Day 3 was pretty quiet as we were again back out this time with the 130s and the 80s really trying to cover some ground for that monster blue. Unfortunately he didnt turn up and the bycatch was limited on this heavy gear.

 

Day 4 we cracked the beers at 9am, cranked the tunes and were trolling around the Eastern side of Kadavu on our run back to Suva. We caught a stack of big dollies, wahoo, a couple barracuda (stinky buggers!), and I caught a nice YFT a bit bigger than the smaller models. The mighty Trinkler quickly turned him into a couple backstraps for sashimi lunch and we ate like kings an hour later once the fillets had cooled in the fridge. On food - the villagers were bringing us out mudcrabs each morning which were bloody awesome in exchange for some fish at the end of the day. Good deal if you ask me. Not every day you can chow down on muddie claws while trolling for marlin in paradise!

Only one slight issue was niggling us - we hadnt landed any doggies with size. I was keen as to get some metal in the water and jig hard. All day if need be - I wanted a doggie!

In the last hour of fishing on the last day we mark up a big pyramid school of tuna and I drop the jig with only half hopes. We had jigged quite a bit for not much which was disturbing to me. I was wishing I had
my sounder within arms reach and the center console over the reef - something about not being able to see the sounder was bugging me and it was the thing I was thinking to myself as being the reason we werent picking up the fish. Who knows if I was right or not but hey you get these things when you go fishing especially dropping jigs 150m and cranking them back without interest..!

Anyway the Captain was confident - so confident he came down from the flybridge to help handle the fish. First time he had done this during the trip so my interest sparked.

Hit bottom - right lets work this baby - jigged hard and yes! the rod loads up and I am on! Couldnt believe it and there was some serious weight pulling the locked drag on the saltiga. Eventually get the fish to the boat and couldnt believe it he was half the size I was expecting but still a serious upgrade on the models we had caught on day 2. Had foul-hooked him in the pec fin which explained the weight.. I was that happy I
am not sure who had the toothier grin - me or him - I had honestly written off catching a decent model of one of these guys and to get him in the last hour before we pulled stumps left us on a high for the 2-3hour run back to Suva.

 

Conclusion

 

Sorry about the length of the report I am getting a bit carried away here. In short it was a trip of a lifetime with my fishing buddy of 4 years Mike. We ticked all the boxes in terms of target species and - just as importantly - really had a great experience in the southern islands while doing it. George, Captain Tom and Johnny were like new mates from day 1 - this wasnt a pay to fish charter like you get in Oz - these were passionate fishos who wanted to get into them just as badly as we did and pulled all the stops every day to keep fish on the hook. Honestly cant speak highly enough of George Trinkler - Mike and I really enjoyed chatting to him through the day and learned alot just by doing some boat time with such a knowledgeable bloke. I have never met anyone like him and GT - if you're reading this - I hope
we can get out there out of Port Stephens some time soon. Always welcome on the Whaler!

 

Not a cheap trip but you get what you pay for in life and I highly, highly recommend these guys if you are looking for that trip of a lifetime with your
crew.

 

Get there if you can I know I am seriously thinking about getting back out there next year. Let me know if you are keen and we can make it happen.