Work Hard and Be Good To Your Mother and you might Catch One 15/12/07

If you work hard in this game you are usually rewarded. Bill & Jenni Davies contacted us some time back and said they were coming to Vanuatu for a holiday and wanted to spend a couple of days fishing. On arrival Leanne my partner made contact with Bill and Jenni to organise the fishing days, lunch requirements and pick up times.
Day one after discussing with Bill what he would like to achieve during the on board safety and tackle briefing we decided to head out to the F.A.D off Devils Point. Bill & Jenni had emphasized that it had been a long term goal of Bill’s to catch a marlin and at least have a pull on a few big fish.
After an hour of lure towing, jigging and baiting we only managed to turn up a small yellow fin and a couple of skippies. From there we headed north to Tuki Tuk F.A.D and onto Blue Hat & 366.
To add insult to injury we tried a couple of baits on the downrigger as we went past Hat Island to have one bitten by a shark and the second not touched. I was monitoring the V.H.F radio during day and heard that Impact had 4 marlin bites and tagged one back at Devils F.A.D so I decided to head back that way. On arrival at the F.A.D there were schools of yellow fin and skipjack tuna everywhere. We were way over head home time however I kept looking however no marlin, just a couple more tuna.
On arrival back at the dock I suggested to Bill and Jenni that we wait a couple of days to see if the fish come back as I wasn’t keen to go and repeat our slow day.
Still not convinced I could turn up a marlin for Bill straight out from Port Vila I decided on an early start and a 40nm trip south to Erromango Sea Mounds. We left the dock at 5am and deployed the lures 5nm short of the mounds at 7am. By 7.20 we were hooked up on a nice blue marlin with Bill in the chair living his dream. The fish put on a great aerial display for all on board with some amazing photo opportunities to be had as well.
Forty minutes later the fish was tagged and released and some high 5’s all round. I never grow tired of my job seeing the joy on someone’s face when they have just caught the fish of their life.

From there we proceeded onto the sea mounds proper where I could see plenty of working birds in random flocks.
Our next hook up was a small wahoo which was a first for Jenni. From there it was onto a couple of yellow fin. Having recently noticing a couple of vacant Vanuatu women’s records for yellow fin it was decided to deploy 4,6,8 and 10kg tackle and turn Jenni into a legend.
In no time we were hooked up on 8kg with Jenni on the rod. She was shortly after hooked up on another skipjack tuna for another record.
Just as we got everything reset and off after the birds again the 10kg outfit started screaming like a tortured banshee. Twenty meters out behind the boat our second marlin was jumping all over the place. This was shot lived as we ended up with too much line out and broke the fish off.

After all the excitement it was time to turn the bow for home to round out a pretty good days fishing.
When I dropped Bill and Jenni back at the resort they were staying at they said something about wanting to do it all again next year.
I’m looking forward to seeing them again, I do have the best job in the world.
www.nautilus.com.vu/fishing

6 Records and 10 personal bests 10/12/07

We’ve just completed our last live-ashore trip to Epi Island for the year and had a great time. The Musuino family who are expat Aussie’s living in Port Vila charter Shogun once a year for a family holiday and this year we went to Epi for a quick 3 day trip.
Day one proved very slow on the way north with a marlin bite early in the day however it didn’t stick. The cool beers watching the sun go down at Lamen Bay that evening was a consolation to a slow start.
Day 2 started out with a troll around Lapevi Volcano in dead flat perfect conditions looking for wahoo and dogtooth tuna. Just out to the east dolphins, pilot whales and a fast moving school of yellow fin was spotted. The yellow fin were a little elusive and hard to keep up with and only one was captured to get us on the board for the day. A few more skipjack tuna were caught and put in the bait bin.
The next stop was the top of Lapevi sea mound that comes up to 38m from 500 and from past experience we know this spot had great potential to turn on some tackle destroying fishing with big doggies, G.T’s and sharks making mince meat of jigs and baits on heavy tackle. Deck hand Tom had stitched up a couple of nice fresh skippy baits on arrival and one was dropped over the side by Maurice and drifted into the depths. Within moments the ratchet was screaming and Maurice calling he was on as he put the drag lever up to strike. A short time later the hard fighting doggy was along side the boat. This fish was later weighed at 43KG.

The action continued hard and fast with a couple of G.T’s in succession being caught, photographed and released for another day and Robyn successfully boating a nice doggy to take out a Vanuatu record. We began getting sharked so it was time to move on.
Within a mile east of the sea mound we ran across a F.A.D (Fish Aggregating Device) floating in about 350m of water. This structure was absolutely loaded with rainbow runners so it was decided to put away the 37kg tackle and get out the 4,6,8 and 10kg tackle and clean up a bag of unclaimed ladies records. Robin managed 6 records for the weekend. Well done Robyn.


Day three started with a 6am departure for the trip home. I normally steam 10nm south to hit deep water before setting the gear and has usually worked a treat and this day was no exception. Fifteen minutes after the lures were deployed the ratchet on the short corner was screaming and the sight of a blue marlin thrashing about 50 meters out the back with a pink and blue Zuker lure hanging from its mouth had everyone’s attention. Seventeen year old Sam Musuino, a regular Vanuatu angler hadn’t caught a marlin so he was on rod duty. Sam had the fish by the boat in 50 minutes on 37kg stand up where it was tagged. As the deck crew was unhooking the fish it was discovered it had sustained and eye injury so the call was to put it in the boat. A sad finish to a great battle.

Once again the trip along the marlin highway home proved slower than usual with only a mahi-mahi bite close to Tuki-tuk F.A.D.
All in all the trip was successful with some great fishing action, perfect conditions, 6 Vanuatu records and 10 personal bests.
www.nautilu.com.vu/fishing