With three months of predominantly westerly through to northerly winds or should I say breeze have kept the sea conditions amazingly calm with not much more than half a meter of gentle swell each day.
The fishing has been good most days with most of the action being to the south of Port Vila. These areas are difficult to get to when our prevailing south easterlies are blowing so it’s been great to get into these regions most days.
Marlin have been turning up in much larger sizes that previous months with most being well over the 100kg mark and some around 200kg.
Yellow fin and bonito are passing through as well however the yellow fin have been under 10 kg and bonito up to 10kg and these schools have been traveling pretty quickly making staying with them a difficult task and they have been also quite difficult to get to hook up.
The Port Vila Game Fishing Club and the Fisheries Department along with several operators are currently in the process of deploying some additional F.A.D’s in the area to replace the ones Green Piece cut off for us in an attempt to improve the world.
Dogtooth tuna have been thick and fast around the reef areas along with good sized wahoo. On a recent live-aboard trip to Erromango Island we were getting smacked by wahoo in excess of 20kg constantly and we have a great day on doggies around Goat Island. Most of these were around the 15kg mark however great fun on the appropriate tackle.
We at Wild Blue fishing charters have started doing our live away trips for the year and the first was a trip to Erromango with Richard and Bonnie
The first couple of days were spectacular taking advantage of the calm conditions and the fishing was hot with wahoo over 20kg belting us regularly. The yellow fin were on the small size even though they were abundant especially around the Vulcan Seamount.
A couple of species on Richards wish list even though this was his 6th trip fishing with me in Vanuatu were a sail fish which Bonnie has previously caught and constantly reminded Richard, a dogtooth tuna and a G.T.
First light on day one had us hooked up on a sail and tagged and released shortly after. After a day of fishing Richard landed his first doggie at last light as we were entering Dylans Bay for the night.
The end of day 2 saw Richard capturing at least 6 good 6 doggies and a G.T . Bonnie had also caught several personal best making for a great couple of days. Day three’s plane was to head on to Tanna and take in the Volcano that evening however at about 6 am Leanne contacted me from Port Vila on the satellite phone to inform me that a tropical low had formed suddenly and we could expect 40kt plus northerly winds so it was decided to head for home. By lunch time the wind was well up there and getting worse. It turned into a long 14 hour trip home with gale force winds on the nose and it was good to see the lights of Port Vila as we rounded Pango Point.
The weather had blown through a day later so we were on our way again for another couple of days. This time we went north. The fishing on this leg was a little quite however the overnight stay at the new Wahoo Bay at Havanah Harbour was great. Owner operator Andrew Colautti kept us entertained and his kitchen put on a great feed. The fishing was not good at all straight after the blow but a great time was had by all.
Richard and Bonnie are already talking about the next trip so I have got my thinking cap on to create another adventure for them
Peter Phillipps
Senior Skipper/G.M
Wild Blue Fishing Charters.
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