Planning a Fiji trip

[Brett Carter]

Hey all, Planning on doing a trip over to Fiji next year in July to go do some serious GT fishing and to make it a bit of a culture adventure trip. We are planning to base ourselves out of a town called Labasa on the north eastern main land of Vanua Levu. One of my mates used to work over there and has come friends with some of the locals who we would be staying with in labasa and we can get access to a boat to use for our time over there. I've heard some great story's and seen some huge fish that have been caught from the surrounding reefs and just curious to find out if anyone has ever done a trip over to that area for fishing in the past? Check it out on google earth... Labasa... 16 25.865S, 179 21.790E this is a channel where my mate caught huge GT's, Spanish, Tuna, etc etc!... 16 17.846S, 179 16 067E If anyone has any additional info on the area or surrounding areas it would be much appreciated if anyone has anything to offer.

Cheers,

Brett

[Callan Wallace]

Sorry Brett. I lived on the other side of Vanua Levu for almost ten years and only went to Labasa 3 times. I have heard there is good fishing with Cakaulevu reef right there. I think the 3rd largest in the world. But I have not fished there myself.
Cheers

[Sachin Chaudhry]

Brett, try to get to Udu Point on Vanua Levu and do some popping there. Get the okay from the native fishing ground owners as they are quite protective of their fisheries. Take the heavy gear and lots of lures.

[Luke Wyrsta]

Hi Brett,

I am also looking into a trip to this area hopefully by the end of the year. Will let you know if I come up with anything of use to you.

[Warwick Joyce]

There is a good story in a recent modern fishing mag about the area, but its on the southern reefs. May be of some help for you tho.

[Brett Carter]

Thanks for the info so far guys, much appreciated

Luke would love to hear how you go over there, I'll keep any eye out for it in the forum.

[Neale Bird]

The Mrs suggested that we go to fiji in the near future  am keen to hear any info or recommendations too

[Scott Maybury]

I'll let you know how we go in Jan, Birdy

[Neale Bird]

her first suggestion was that we go in Jan, have to crunch a few numbers first

[Scott Maybury]

Nice one mate, you run the risk of running into a cyclone, but it is only a small risk, I think about 5-10%.

If you don't though it is a great time of year for fishing there and the weather is nice and still.

[Adrian Watt]

The RSMC Nadi is predicting a relatively normal cyclone season next summer (mild El-Nino) with around 9 cyclones in the South Pacific. I guess expect 2-3 to pass close to or into Fiji waters. The good news is that Fiji Terratorial waters cover a huge area, most cyclones have a relatively small destructive centre and at Fiji's Latitude they tend to move through pretty quickly. Unless you are unlucky enough to be within 75nm of the eye track, its just a couple of breezy days and they are gone.
Scott is quite right about the time of year. The summer is the best time to come as its mostly calm and popper boats can access all areas and get in at those barrier reef breakers where the biggest GTs hang out.
Hope you have a great time in Fiji !