I arrived back yesterday after spending a week away in Fiji wich involved fishing the small island of Kadavu with two good mates, Kris and Le. To say that it was an awesome! trip would be an understatment.
We arrived in Kadavu on Thursday after a 45min conection flight from Nadi we then had a 40min boat ride to get to our resort. On the boat ride over we got to troll some lures for about 10mins and Kris managed to hook up a bluefin trevally, not a bad way to start the trip.
On arrival at the resort we were greated by the very friendly staff of Matava then had a chat to Adrian who runs the charter operation, he told us that he just had two serious popper casting blokes do a 5 day trip in wich they were landing around 15 to 20 Gt's a day and there biggest were 44,40 and 38kg fish so we were busting at the bit to get on the water.
Our first day was on the small boat a 18ft centre console with local guide Joe. WE started popping the reef edge closest the resort wich is only 10mins in the boat. It took us a while to get the hang of using big gear and casting big lures but within 20 mins i had my first strike, but no hook up. Not long after that i had another strike and BANG i was on and after a short but very strong fight i landed my first Gt wich was about 12kg. Then with in 15mins Kris and Le both landed gt's of around 10kg. As we were popper casting you could see yellowfin tuna busting up in the distance. We went on to hook 16 Gt's taht day with the biggest around 16kg we also caught a load of bluefin trevally and i hooked a black tip reef shark on apopper wich was about 20kg. Also on this day i hooked two massive gt's one easly over 30kg but due to gear failing and my inexperience (better word for lack of abillity) was busted off. In total we lost 7 Gt's
Day two saw us on the big game boat and we traveled to a reef a little further away. I hooked the first Gt for the day wich was only small around 8kg then lot long after that Le was on with a monster smashing his popper. After what was the longest fight for the trip a monster Gt surfaced (monster in our book)it went 22kg. Then it was Kris's turn with a very nice fish of around 17kg. We then moved a little further round the reef were Kris had a massive Gt arrupt on in lure after a good effort from Kris he landed a 24kg Gt. I had a bad day day two with hooking 10 gish and landing only 5. Two just bricked me in seconds one very big fish had six goes of the lure before finally hooking up and running straight into a cave i also had nots pull line fail but still had a great day. Day two saw 11 Gt's landed and 7 lost along with the standard bluefin. Kris also got bricked by a big red bass.
Day three i was determend not to loose fish and respoiled my line and Adrian put a twisted leader on for me. The third day was slow compared to the last two we caught a couple of smaller Gt's early on then decided to do a bit of jigging. I managed to pull up two red job fish and one small coral trout, Kris also got a nice job fish and Le a nice coral trout. The job fish were good fun on 50lb. We then went back to the Gt's and we caught a couple mor with things firing up on the way home. Le was smashed by what might have been the biggest Gt of the trip wich came nearly all the way out of the water but busted off nearly instantly. On the way home we fished right out front of the resort and i hooked two good Gt's of around 12kg in secsesion with the last taking me into a long coral cave, I free spoiled twice and amazingly he came out and was landed not long after (defently using twisted leader from now on). Day two only saw 9 Gt's landed with 4 lost but i managed to hook 6 and land 6.Le also got a nice red bass and i managed a barracuda.
Unfortunatly we didn't get to see a fish over 30kg but we defently hooked a few, next time will be taking bigger gear and hopefully alittle more abillity. All in all a awesome trip with a total of 49 Gt's hooked and 15 dropped. I myself didn't manage a monster but did land 15 Gt's and dropped 9.
Not enough can be said about the resort and the charter operation both exceaded expetation with very friendly and helpfull staff and 5 star meals as well as one of the nicest boats of fished from. The water there is so clear you can see everything (nice when you have to go swimming for poppers every day). I carn't wait to go back and tame those Gt's.
IM HOOKED
WAITING ON MATES FOR MORE PHOTOS
