Owner: Gamefishing Fiji URL:http://gamefishingfiji.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Thu, 08 Mar 2007 16:25:09 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: A blog by IGFA Captain Adrian Watt highlighting gamefishing in the Fiji Islands including salt water fishing, fly fishing, game fishing, sport fishing and popping. Site statistics:Click here
What Went Pear Shaped # 1 2007-03-07 00:57:00 Trolling Lures for Pacific Blue Marlin Although most of the Gamefishing my clients enjoy aboard Bite Me at Matava is light to medium tackle, I occasionally get the opportunity to break out the bent butt 80s and go after marlin. Every encounter with these monsters is a learning experience. We have learnt a few things along the way and for what its worth, I will be posting a few examples. You can learn from them, or laugh at them. I recommend both. 2.30pm heading away from the Kadavu Seamount 1. Trolling a spread of 4 lures near the Kadavu seamount – A purple Hollowpoint Cabo Killa on the long rigger, and a blue/white/yellow/pink Black Bart Hot Breakfast on the short rigger, both lures with a single 10/0 Stainless steel hook stiff rigged on wire. 19 feet of 400lb wind-on and 9 feet of 300lb Ande leader. Short and long corners were a huge silver / yellow custom MBT Monster and a John Lau Linda, both 12/0 double hook loose shackle rigged at about 45 degrees. (Pakula style) A large blu
Joe and mega marlin 2007-03-05 01:35:00 Joe and mega marlin Originally uploaded by matavafiji. A successful day marlin hunting for Joe and Adrian. See more on Flickr."Bite Me"
Matava Resort
Kadavu
Fiji Islands
www.matava.com
World’s first hands free underwater head camera 2007-03-05 00:50:00 Tony Ludovico, the creator of the world’s first hands free underwater
head camera has put an amazing array of underwater photographs and video footage on line.www.openwaterimages.com"Bite Me"
Matava Resort
Kadavu
Fiji Islands
www.matava.com Read more:World
The Billfish Foundation (TBF) Report 2007-03-05 00:48:00 The BillfishFoundation
(TBF) carried out a review of all tag, recapture and release data for the 2005 calendar year and have reported their findings. Headline points were : 11,261 Billfish reports were received of which 3,881 were releases of billfish without a tag.29 tags were recovered through recapture.Sailfish made up the majority of recaptures5,242 tag reports identified hook type. Of those, 49% were circle hooks and 51% J hooks.The longest period at large for a recapture was2,580 days (7 years) for a blue marlin tagged and recaptured in Puerto Rico More info see The Billfish Foundation (TBF) website"Bite Me"
Matava Resort
Kadavu
Fiji Islands
www.matava.com
New Regulations from the US NMFS 2007-03-05 00:45:00 The US National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has issued new regulations regarding anglers fishing from Highly Migratory Species (HMS) permitted vessels (also a requirement) in Atlantic Billfish Tournaments. Specifically: From 1st Jan 2007 anglers must deploy only non-offset circle hooks when using natural baits and may not use J hooks with natural baits or natural bait / lure combinations. J hooks may only be used with artificial lures. Annual retained landings of Atlantic white and blue marlin will be capped at 250. More info: The Billfish Foundation (TBF) The International Game Fish Association "Bite Me"
Matava Resort
Kadavu
Fiji Islands
www.matava.com Read more:Regulations
Canberra Game Fishing Club Back for More 2007-03-05 00:36:00 The Canberra
Game Fishing
Club group that visited Matava Resort last year will be returning in July for some more winter action with the wahoo, sails and GTs.Last year the wahoo season was not up to our normal mayhem standards but the sailfish more than made up for it. Many of the group tagged their first sail and one even plans on returning this year to land his first sail on fly.They are a great bunch of guys and gals and we are looking forward to having a lot of fun and putting some serious wahoo on the deck."Bite Me"
Matava Resort
Kadavu
Fiji Islands
www.matava.com Read more:Fishing Club
World Record Attempt 2007-03-05 00:28:00 Tim Simpson and Trevor Manwarring of BlueWater magazine and DeepVee Marine will be coming to Kadavu Island in June 07 to board ‘Bite Me’ and make another attempt at the Wahoo and Pacific Sailfish IGFA WorldRecord
s. Last year’s week of light tackle record hunting fun saw the Mens 6kg Fiji National Record smashed with a nice wahoo weighing in at 28kg (about 62lbs) but the World Record
fish remained elusive. On three occasions a potential world record Pacific Sailfish was fought for over an hour on 4kg line, only to be lost in the last stages of the fight. In one such fight, a double hook-up resulted in a 42kg sail on 8kg and a possible world record sail on 4kg. The fish on 8kg was allowed to move off and the angler moved to the foredeck whilst the team concentrated on the possible world record fish. One and a half hours later, just as the sail was visible behind the transom, the sail on 8kg came right back to the boat and bust off the record fish. Bugger! Oh well, that’s ultra l
Jim fishing on Bite Me 2007-03-05 00:05:00 Jim fishing on Bite Me Originally uploaded by .alethea.. Posted direct from Flickr.com!"Bite Me"
Matava Resort
Kadavu
Fiji Islands
www.matava.com
Matava Flickr Photo Group now LIVE 2007-03-03 01:06:00 At long last after many requests from past guests we have managed to get a place where we can all share photos from Matava
.As many of you know we have very limited communications out in the resort in Kadavu. In fact if we even have phone lines that we can speak on we are grateful. The internet connection is a very ropey dial-up where we get an average of 9kbps if we're lucky.Therefore when kind hearted guests send us photos by email, we unfortunately spend hours shouting and swearing (who us?) and trying to remove these 2MB attachments form our servers before picking up email, and/or the line dropping out.SO... we have found a solution where we can see and share everyone's photos and still remain sane on our dial-up connection.Cruise on over to www.Flickr
.com, (join up and get your free Yahoo! name if you don't have one already) and then post pictures and join our group:http://www.flickr.com/groups/matava/We hope to see your photos up there soon guys. (send us a small email to say y Read more:Group
, Photo
IGFA Anglers Digest & Wild TV coming to Matava 2007-02-26 01:05:00 We have a film crew coming out in June 2007.They are from IGFA AnglersDigest
- Make fishing TV programmes and want to film a couple of shows on Bite Me. They have close links with the IGFA and their shows are broadcast on the Sportsman Channel in the USA and Wild TV in Canada.They have an interesting website and a good story on it about the recent capture of a giant squid. IGFA Anglers Digesthttp://www.igfaanglersdigest.com/ "Bite Me"
Matava
Resort
Kadavu
Fiji Islands
www.matava.com
Netting Ban in South Australia (GFAA) 2007-02-13 23:07:00 SAGFA PLAYS A KEY ROLE IN GOVERNMENT DECISION TO BAN INSHORE NETTING IN SOUTH AUSTRALIAN WATERS For a decade the SouthAustralia
n Fishery Advisory Council has been ringing the alarm bells on the declining stocks of marine scale-fish stocks in local waters. During this period... Graham Woollard (SAGFA Executive Officer) is Chairman of SARFAC and State President, Ian Guest, is also on the SARFAC Board. After ten years of knocking on doors, making numerous submissions to Fishery Management Committees and Ministers (we had 5 Ministers of Fisheries and 3 Fishery Directors during this period) SARFAC took off the gloves late last year and increased the tempo of their efforts. During the past six months activity has been intense with many letters being sent to the Premier, the Minister and his Cabinet Colleagues. There has been an orchestrated campaign of letter writing to the media, a petition circulated which collected over 16,000 Read more:Netting
, South Australia
The Billfish Foundation 2007-02-13 08:50:00 We are big supporters of The BillfishFoundation
and Tag-&-Release.See their website for great educational programs and the most up to date and reliable databse of Billfish worldwide see their website:http://www.billfish.orgJoin us and TBF and donate to help fishing go on forever."Bite Me"
Matava Resort
Kadavu
Fiji Islands
www.matava.com
Matava assistance invaluable to Palmfishing Oz 2007-02-13 07:57:00 The team at the Matava
Resort in Fiji, is invaluable to the development of a quality lure. They are indeed a lucky group and what they call work, we call leisure, (No offence intended). Adrian's knowledge is keenly sought by Palmfishing and Lurestreet, we know how valuable his Field Tests are.Adrian and his team, aboard 'Bite Me' have tested many Lurestreet Lures included our small, but very effective range of Game lures. as well as several lures from our hard plastic range. Such lures as the Raptor 200SS, Raptor 150SS, Deceiver 225, Mother In Law (Popper), Clay's GT Special, (Popper), Classic Wood 230, Classic Wood 230/75, DEEP L Super Popper 160 (Sinking Popper), this is just a few.Read this full test article by Palmfishing & Outdoors here..."Bite Me"
Matava Resort
Kadavu
Fiji Islands
www.matava.com
Fiji National Records for Yellowfin Tuna 2007-02-13 07:52:00 Adrian Watt of Matava Resort in Fiji keeps on getting his clients records.This time the lucky anglers were able to take the Fiji NationalRecords
for the Male 4kg and Womens 6 and 8kg line class for Yellowfin Tuna. Now whilst the fish were not huge - they still proved why there are a sporting and 'game ' fish - on light tackle.All should be proud of these achievements.Matava Resort owns and operates the Deep V 310 "Bite Me" from their world class fishing and diving facillities.More information..."Bite Me"
Matava Resort
Kadavu
Fiji Islands
www.matava.com
Blue Day for Fiji! 2007-02-13 07:49:00 The good ship 'Bite Me' a Deep V 310 owned and operated by the Matava Resort Crew on the beautiful island of Kadavu managed to catch a nice 400lb plus Blue Marlin recently on what could be called a calm day.The fish is the first Blue Marlin for the year for the resort, a year which we are sure will see many more great Marlin catches for Capt Adrian Watt ( who is also an IGFA accredited skipper and weighmaster ) , his number one deckie Joe and the Deep V 310 'Bite Me'.See the article on Deep-V Website..."Bite Me"
Matava Resort
Kadavu
Fiji Islands
www.matava.com
Bluewater Magazine Feature 2007-02-13 07:45:00 After several successful BlueWater Readers' Trips in the past, the pressure was on to maintain the high level of professionalism, and of course, to catch plenty of fish during our latest trip to the Island of Kadavu in southern Fiji. Finding locations to conduct successful BlueWater Readers' Trips is not as easy as it sounds. We always make sure we fish the area and check out boats and accommodation before we offer a package trip to our readers.One visit to Matava Resort made our choice of accommodation an easy one. This small but idyllic resort with its picture postcard setting was the perfect location to base a trip. And so it was. July 2005 saw us back to Fiji with eight BlueWater trippers and two partners in tow. The lucky people who joined us on this occasion were Matthew O'Neil from Victoria, Shane Coles, Brett Graham, Brett Riley, Shaun Johnstone and Dean Baudendistel from Read more:Bluewater
, Magazine
FISH SEASONS 2007-02-13 07:28:00 Species Seasons Black Marlin Jul – Nov Blue Marlin Mar – Aug Striped Marlin Jun – Aug Sailfish All Year Round Wahoo May – Sep Yellow Fin Tuna Apr – Aug Dog Tooth Tuna Jun – Oct Mahi Mahi All Year Round Spanish mackerel Oct – Mar Giant Trevally Oct – Mar Barracuda Oct – Mar
Largest Fish Ever Caught On Fly 2007-03-12 00:52:00 Marty Arostegui recently landed a 385lbs Lemon Shark on fly line, not only taking the M-08kg tippet class but also the distinction of landing the heaviest fish ever caught on a fly rod. After the fish was weighed it was eased back into the water and released unharmed.See IGFA website for more details... "Bite Me"
Matava Resort
Kadavu
Fiji Islands
www.matava.com Read more:Caught
, Largest
Wahoo – Lures that work here in Fiji 2007-03-14 00:57:00 From May to October, packs of wahoo congregate along the Great Astrolabe Barrier Reef. The average size of wahoo is about 50lbs with a good fish weighing in at 75lbs. Each wahoo pack usually has a fish of close to 100lbs. We almost always use lures when targeting wahoo however we often get jumped by fish when bait & switch fishing for sailfish. If your teaser is rigged with mono…wave bye bye to the end of your daisy chain…. The biggest problem we encounter is a mass attack, wahoo porpoising in at break-neck speed, every rod in the spread going off and then multiple bite-offs as other wahoo attack lines or swivels cutting through the water. We combat this by trolling a full spread until we find a pack and then switch to towing just two lures. Often, just a garfish (ballyhoo) on a two hook rig with a small pink skirt on the nose. Trolling speed is usually around 6-7kts. Most wahoo skippers around the world troll faster. Here, higher speeds do not increase strike rates. Last week on t Read more:Lures
, Wahoo
Bamboo Fly Rod Care 2007-03-15 20:24:00 Excellent page by Danny Heus about the best way to care for your split bamboo rod. If you follow these guidelines you will keep your rod in an excellent condition.Bamboo
Fly Rod CareBamboo fly rods"Bite Me"
Matava Resort
Kadavu
Fiji Islands
www.matava.com
Buying a Boat ? 2007-03-18 06:16:00 I skipper Matava Resorts big game fishing vessel ‘Bite Me’ however I was also involved in the decision making process of which type of game boat the resort should purchase and from whom. After much research, we commissioned DeepVee Marine to build us a twin engined DV310. In the two years that we have operated ‘Bite Me’ I have yet to see a better, more suitable game boat for the resort’s Gamefishing clients.I see that this year’s single engine model, the DV310s has been nominated for ‘Boat of the year’ I’m not surprised. If you are considering buying a game boat I recommend you take a look at the DeepVee range.If you want to talk to an owner who fishes one hard, drop me a line any time. DeepVee www.deepv.com"Bite Me"
Matava Resort
Kadavu
Fiji Islands
www.matava.com Read more:Buying
Peter Pakula’s Wonderlures 2007-03-18 06:20:00 I see from the latest edition of BlueWater Magazine that the world famous angler, lure maker and pioneer of Gamefishing tackle and tactics is turning his skills to designing a new range of (super) lures. Apparently, (and I don’t doubt it for one minute) these lures will run at any trolling speed, in any position and are designed to set the hook, regardless of what the angler does or does not do.Moreover, they will be pre-rigged so all you have to do is attach them to your line, throw them in the sea and drive about a bit. Indeed, they will catch fish even at a standstill.Kind’a takes the fun out of fishing doesn’t it Peter
?I mean, catch a fish on one of those lures and it’s not much of an achievement is it ? All you have to do is fish in the right place and not do anything too stupid.The old expression “That’s why it’s called fishing not catching” looks like its heading for obscurity.Peter’s full article is available at www.bluewatermag.com.au"Bite Me"
Matava Resort
What Went Pear Shaped # 2: Trolling for Pacific Blue Marlin 2007-03-18 00:25:00 Trolling for Pacific
Blue Marlin
12.00 Noon on the Kadavu Seamount Trolling a 7kg Yellowfin tuna skipbait rigged with a 16/0 Duratin Cirle hook. The hook was rigged to sit 4 inches ahead of the tuna’s nose and connected with waxed rigging thread. 9 feet of 400lb Ande leader, 19ft of wind on leader to a Melton bent butt & Penn International 80 STW. A small blue marlin of about 100kg comes up behind the bait and quietly tries to eat it. The angler backs the drag off even more (it was set light already) and allows the bait to drop back controlling the spool with slight drag pressure to avoid over-spooling (bird’s nesting the line). The blue gobbles the bait and turns. Skipper calls for the angler to slowly bring up the drag. Some line pressure then the bait pops back up on the surface. No hook-up. Marlin comes back for attempt # 2. Same procedure but this time we give the marlin a good 10 seconds to swallow the bait. No hook-up. Marlin comes back for attempt #3. This time the angler Read more:Pacific Blue
, Trolling
Circle Hooks 101 2007-03-25 07:21:00 If you are still pondering the relative merits of Circle
Hooks verses J-Hooks, there is a good article by Bill Boyce on the IGFA Anglers Digest website which may help you make up your mindCircle Hooks verses J-Hookswww.igfaanglersdigest.com/circlehooks-jhooks.html Also on the site is more information about how to use those Circle Hooks effectively: How to Fish Circle Hookswww.igfaanglersdigest.com/how-to-fish-circle-hooks.html"Bite Me"
Matava Resort
Kadavu
Fiji Islands
www.matava.com
Pacific Fishery Management Council to Consider Longline Allowance 2007-03-25 01:09:00 At its upcoming meeting (April 6, SEATAC Marriott, Seattle Washington) the Pacific
Fishery ManagementCouncil
will make a recommendation on the request for an Exempted Fishing Permit that would allow a single vessel to use longline gear to target bluefin tuna, yellowfin tuna, bigeye tuna, albacore and swordfish in the waters of the coastal Pacific from California north to Washington.Although this permit now includes a provision that would prohibit fishing in the Southern California Bight that includes the primary range of striped marlin in U.S. Pacific waters, The Billfish Foundation is opposing the issuance of this permit on the grounds that three of the target species (bigeye, albacore and yellowfin tuna) are either currently overfished or approaching the overfished condition. We do not believe that it is wise management to begin to explore the possibility of a new longline fishery on species that are currently subject to excess fishing mortality. Click here to see ou
Circle Hooks: On again, off again? 2007-03-26 00:56:00 The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has published a proposed rule that would suspend the requirement for using circle hooks with live or natural baits in all Atlantic tournaments featuring billfish categories. Curiously, the proposal states that the rule might be suspended of 2007 in order to take advantage of the conservation benefits that circle hooks afford through the increased survival of released fish. Read more about it here. This issue might be critical to the ongoing review of the status of white marlin in relation to the endangered species act. The reaction to the circle hook requirement has ranged from full support to a demand for an exception for baits trolled with artificial lures.This new rulemaking comes in reaction to the complaints about the requirement and may conflict with many tournaments that already have printed literature and rules for 2007. Public comments on the rule are being accepted through March 30 via the following means: E-mail: Read more:Circle
Pacific Sailfish – Lures that work here in Fiji 2007-03-30 02:07:00 When targeting Pacific
Sailfish, we mostly use bait & Switch techniques or troll rigged skip baits. Sometimes however we want to cover more ground and increase by-catch of other species such as Wahoo, Spanish Mackerel, Yellowfin tuna and mahi mahi – so occasionally we run lures. The Sailfish season coincides with the Wahoo season so all lures are rigged on 125lb 49 strand wire. Make the leader long or the sail will use the lure head weight to throw the hooks when he jumps. We tag 4 out of 5 sail hook-ups when using long leaders. We find our lure spreads work best at about 6kts in most weather conditions. This is what works for us. Its not necessarily what will work in your neck of the woods ! SHORT CORNER 1. Wellsys Medium Talai – Purple or lumo green 2. Daisy Chain behind bird – Pink squid with blue/pink Mold craft Hooker on the end LONG CORNER 1. McWhog – Blue/Chartruese – Rigged in front of a garfish (Ballyhoo) 2. Pakula Cockroach - Purple SHORT RIGGER 1. Wellsys Med Read more:Lures
Hook Corrosion Rates in Salt Water 2007-04-06 04:54:00 I was asked one day “what about all those fish that get away and end up swimming around with a hook in their mouths ?” Well, undesirable as it is, it does happen and aboard our Gamefishing vessels, we always use hooks made from Duratin when using real baits, bait / lure combinations or in a lot of our wahoo and large marlin lures. Duratin, I explained, in contrast to Stainless Steel, corrodes rapidly in seawater so the hook quickly deteriorates and falls out or is ejected by the fish. It then occurred to me that I had never actually seen a study of just how long it takes to corrode a hook to the point where it is likely to drop out or be expelled by a fish so I conducted an amateur bench test: I selected a range of hooks we most commonly use aboard our game boats. I included only one Stainless Steel light gauge (Maruto SS1920) as a comparison to the Duratin hooks. The following hooks were tested: HOOK SIZE USE 1. Mustad 7766D (Duratin) Read more:Corrosion
, Rates
Inshore Fishing Report – March 2007 2007-04-07 23:32:00 For the waters around Kadavu Island- Fiji Islands Charter Operator – Matava Resort Gamefishing Boat Names – Offensive Tackle (Inshore) Average Water Temp – 28.5 Average Sea State – Calm / mild chop Average Winds – 5-10kts Water Clarity – Excellent The Narrow Barred (Spanish) Mackerel are tending to be a bit on the small side at the moment with the average fish being around 15lbs. These are mostly schooling juveniles found inside the Great Astrolabe barrier reef. The big guys are not really biting and staying deep away from the warm surface water. We know they are there as the divers see them often but always deep. We have picked up the occasional one when deepwater jigging. When the water temp starts to cool a little in May/June the mackerel action should pick up. On the deepwater jigging and bait fishing side, lots of action there. We are bringing up some very nice deepwater snapper (Opakapaka), emperors to 20lbs and some nice amberjack.The popper casting for Trevally has Read more:Fishing
, March
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