Vava`u GT fishing trip report!

[Roy Gould]

Well guys, after 7 months of planning, I finally got to fish the warm waters off Vava`u, 1st day I fished with Kurt Carlsen, he will be a legend soon , got wasted on my 5th cast so went up too 80lbs braid, and after a time, got my 1st GT, what a buzz, a combination  of excitement, fear of getting dragged overboard and awe of what just exploded in front off your eyes,  took about 15mins to boat it, Kurt spent 3-4mins with his hand in its mouth trying too remove the Yo-Zuri slider lure,

My 1st GT, est 25kgs,

Next day I was on-board MV Hakula with Capt Jeff le Strange a & deckie Ki`i, went out too a volcanic island and jigged over the pinnacles there, got my 2nd GT on the green/gold jig in 85mtrs of water, took a good 25mins to get it up, and Ki`i misplaced the gaff shot, so this beauty was for the table now, this went 30plus kgs

Was a great trip made better by Kurt & Jeff.

[Scott Maybury]

Awesome colouration/markings on the second fish, shame it had to die but I guess that is life on the islands at times...

I take it only the 2 GT Roy, but did you get anything else on jigs or poppers?

[Brandon Khoo]

he "misplaced" the gaff shot! 
I've had gaff shots misplaced on a number of occasions in the Pacific Islands and for some reason, it is always on fish which the deckie knows I want to release unharmed

[Roy Gould]

Yes I know what your saying Brandon, it was a shame, it was a darker colour than the 1st I caught, we also got lots of hits popping with Kurt, 3 takes in 5 casts one time, only the last take stayed on, but I suppose that's what it is all about, we also got plenty of other species jigging the sea-mounts, coral trout, dogtooth tuna, jobfish, sweetlips and some sort of cod, did get hooked up to another sort of Trevally, but it got sharked before I had a chance to get it near the boat, Kurt is going to ask what sort of fish it is on the forum sometime soon, i think he called it a Humphead,  , We did a bit of trolling also, that accounted for some Mahi-mahi, a Sailfish ( Tagged & released ) some more Doggies, and a Bloody big White-tip shark,
Cant wait until the next time I have a go at them,

[Mark Harris]

Congratulations Roy.

Shame about the dead fish of course.

Would be great to see more pics of the jigged fish....

That looks like a small boat on sea which might have been quite lumpy 

Well done.

[Roy Gould]

Kurt has a 17ft boston whaler, it was a bit lumpy out-side the reef, but she turned real ugly out at the seamount the next day, on Hakula, pretty sore knees and elbow from falling about the boat, did not feel much at the time, you know how it is 

[Marc Towers]

Some very nice fish there Roy - well done.

 At the risk of sounding ignorant  , where abouts is Vava'u...?

[Mark Harris]

Vava'u is part of Tonga.

[Kurt Carlson]

Hey Roy,  Had a great time with you and Jim.  Here is a picture of the kind of fish that Roy got sharked on.  I call it the Bumphead Trevally    Anyone got an idea of this one?  It is green in color.  I posted this in another thread before and never got a definitive answer.  Thanks to James for getting me into jigging and for this photo.

[Chris Young]

Thats a Black Trevally 

[Kurt Carlson]

Thanks for that Chris, the color really threw me off.  Also none of the photos I see on the net have such a pronounced mouth as the ones we've caught.  I think the black scales along the lateral line are the true definers.

[Saltywater Tackle]

Hey Roy,  Had a great time with you and Jim.  Here is a picture of the kind of fish that Roy got sharked on.  I call it the Bumphead Trevally    Anyone got an idea of this one?  It is green in color.  I posted this in another thread before and never got a definitive answer.  Thanks to James for getting me into jigging and for this photo.

It is called Black Jack as well, very common to catch them on the jig,
Latham and Rodriguez island was infested by them.
Tight lines
 Sami

[Brandon Khoo]

they got really spooky eyes!!

[Roy Gould]

Hi Kurt, so that was a Black Trevally that got sharked, so now we know for sure ,
Hows the fishing going? hope that skipjack 150 is not in davey-jones yet, ha,ha, get a template of it first, aye!
I am glad you enjoyed our fishing trips aswell, thats what makes for such a good expeirence, you and Jeff love the sport so much it infects the rest of us,
Keep on finding those new spots and I will try and get over and see you again next year mate,

[Nathan Cefai]

Thats a nice fish that James has got there..

Good work on the GT,spike jigs work well...