Game fishing in Vanuatu can certainly be a family affair. Brian, Lindy, Brian Jnr and Tim are back again to Vanuatu for the third time and have just done another days fishing with us. We had a great day on the mahi -mahi and we had a couple of marlin on playing with our skip bait’s however the wouldn’t eat them (Too well fed)
The conditions were superb and great deal of fun was had by all. Everyone caught at least one fish. They will back later in the week to do some Scuba diving with us.
Mark and his mates Mike, Warren and John made their annual pilgrimage to Vanuatu for another weeks fishing. This was the boys third trip to these islands. This year they brought the girls with them so they opted for the fish out of Port Vila package this trip so they could go home to their lovely wives each night. We had mixed success with 5 marlin strikes for the week and only tagging one. We had 2 bitten off by wahoo and 2 just didn’t hook up well. The rest of the fishing was reasonably good with John nailing a nice 18kg mahi-mahi first day out and everyone else achieved personal bests on various species. Just after lunch on day on a nice blue marlin at around 140kg jumped on and was soon sorted by Warren to swim off with a tag in it. The boys experienced some great light tackle action around the Devils fad catching mahi-mahi on after the other.
One of the tough days was an early start to head 45nm south to the Erromango Seamounts to find not a lot of activity. Three wahoo strike for one captured and three marlin bite for 0 with 2 being hooked up and then bitten of by wahoo and the 3 only being a half hearted bit and no hook up. All in all it was a reasonably good weeks fishing and the boys have even booked a spot for next year already.
With the deployment of 2 new fad’s and fantastic weather the fishing has been very good most days here in Vanuatu. The fad’s been made possible by the Vanuatu Fisheries Department with the help of some aid money and donations from some local operators. They are nice and handy to Port Vila so we are able to fish them even on a 4 hour charter. The marlin activity has been fast and furious with most operators seeing up to 3 marlin a day with most catching at least one. Large mahi-mahi up to18.5kg have been turning up at the fad’s and open water. Some very good sized wahoo have been captured with a few just over the 20kg mark.
A few of the operators have been heading down to the Erromango Seamounts which have be delivering disappointing results as far as the yellow fin and wahoo have been concerned however the marlin action has been good there. A few of us have been heading north to Epi and Kakoola and getting very good results. The marlin haven’t been overly busy in these areas however the rest of the pelagic species have been plentiful. Dogtooth have been thick and fast around the seamounts and reef structure especially in and around the Maskelyne Islands and the seamount east of Mataso Island.
The weather is amazing at the moment and the fishing hot so come on up.
Cpt Peter Phillipps
Wild Blue Fishing Charters.
Vanuatu
I’ve been running charters here in Vanuatu for a lot of years now and it still astounds me how some anglers are lucky and other aren’t. I had a group of guest fly in from Australia and the evening before we were to leave on a six day adventure through the islands we were going through a safety and tackle brief so we would be ready to head off early the next morning. Two of the guest had fished with me for the last couple of years and I had two new guests. We were running through how to use Black Magic gimbals and harnesses when one of the new guests says he is not to interested in the demonstration, he would work it out on the day much to my dismay. He went on to inform me he has done heaps of fishing however never been game fishing before and that he will catch the most and the biggest anyway because he always does.
To cut a long story short the first fish for the day was an 80 kg blue marlin and the second was a 120kg blue caught by our new gun angler, harness on upside down and all. It was a pretty impressive effort for his first attempt on standup as well. The next day at a secret sea-mound I fish, on the first drop on his first attempt at jigging he hooks and boats a 25kg dogtooth tuna and hauls in a couple of good sized yellow fin, all on jigs. For the week we were away we caught a heap of fish and every angler caught personal bests. By the time we had got home our gun had out fished everyone with a 17.5 kg mahi- mahi, 25kg wahoo and numerous other fish of note leaving everyone shaking their heads. To my amazement his angling skills had improved out of site as well. Thank goodness for lucky anglers.
Capt. Pete Phillipps
Wild Blue Fishing Charters.
Read More...We have just hosted another spear fishing trip here in Vanuatu for Kane Grundy
