We arrived at Matava after somewhat of a nightmare travel experience caused by Cyclone Mick. I wont bore you with the details but we lost a day in travel and the 2 game boats 'Bite Me' and brand new popping boat 'Tease Me' were both stuck in Suva and would not be arriving until the last day of our trip.
Once we arrived at the resort all our fears and concerns were promptly addressed by Richard one of the owners. Richard explained that due to the Cyclone situation we would not be able to fish the game boats but he could provide us with a long boat and driver whilst we wait for the other boats to arrive. (We ended up changing our flights for a couple of days later so we can experience the new popper boat and do the Sea Reef)
The Matava resort is an eco resort and the experience is one i will never forget. We had come for the fishing and the fishing alone. At first i didn't really want to meet knew people or feel like a traveller again, i just wanted to get stuck into the GT's. After all, that is all we had been thinking about for the last few months leading up to the trip. But, there is something about the Matava experience that draws you in!
We quickly got to know the other guests and owners. Everyone eats together each evening and the table makes for some interesting conversations and banter. The staff are generally made up of people from the local village and they are some of the most genuine, kind and peaceful people i've met. The food is a mix of local produce and of east and west influence. The balance is right and food is tasty!
The Great Astrolabe Reef is 5-10 minute trip from your bedroom door and that is where the GT's are! The reef is solid in structure with very few broken bits for a GT to break you off on. This allowed us to run short leaders and keep everything outside the guides. We lost one popper to an unstoppable, but other that that kept all our gear.
Adrian our skipper let us use some prototype poppers he has been asked to test, and the darker colored one's seem to work best. One of mine did get destroyed but that was after is had landed many GT's.
The fishing was great and by far exceeded our expectations. We felt like we had got the Jewel in the crown. The spot that no one else knows about! We know its not true of course and Matava is highly rated, but seriously how good is it!
We caught fish from ranging from 5kg's up to 40kg's. There are lots of big one's and a few monsters. I keep thinking about my unstoppable and wondering what that would of looked like. But hey there is always next year!
The other great thing about this trip was that i didn't have to adjust my home loan to pay for it. It goes down for me as one of the best experiences i've had and one that i will be looking to repeat. Same again please!
Going to post photos - just gotta shrink em first
