Vanuatu - Trip Report

[Brandon Khoo]

[Stephen Polzin]

Shame about the lack of action, but you still got some nice pics.  That trout is a ripper.

[Brandon Khoo]

my second biggest trout ever so i suppose I shouldn't complain and trolling around the active volcano was quite an experience too. The poor trout didn't have much chance once its first lunge didn't get it to the reef against GT gear. Anyway, it was released to fight again another day.

[Cam Foley]

the active volcano would have been an awsome sight alone have fished White Island here in NZ which is also an active volcano ,good one for letting the trout go ,would of tasted good though.

[Brandon Khoo]

Holy smoke, Cam - what are you doing up at around 3.30am in the morning?!
You can't eat the big reef fish like coral trout in Vanuatu, just like in Queensland as they potentially have ciguatera. The deckie really wanted to keep it (good kaikai) but the captain agreed it should go back

[Cam Foley]

opps my bad .But can you eat the little red ones you get of Mooloolaba cant you.3.30am  Aus time is 5.30am over here remember you Ausies are a little behind lol.No sheep jokes.

[Brandon Khoo]

yes - my mistake too. I forgot you were in NZ
Small fish are not a problem when it comes to ciguatera but the big ones can be risky. I know your next question will probably be what constitutes a big fish for these purposes and my honest response would have to be "I don't know"

[Cam Foley]

well asked and answered Brandon
    thanks 4 that

[Brandon Khoo]

Cam - all I can say is that where ciguatera is concerned, it is better to be safe. It can be devastating and from what I understand, can have long term affects.

One of the reasons why the Nomad guys catch so many huge coral trout out around reefs like Marion is because they have no commercial value and in fact, i think it may be illegal to see fish beyond a certain size in Queensland. Just as well otherwise the pros would have fished them out by now. 

[Cam Foley]

Brandon
makes sense,have herd some bad things about ciguatera[glad i had your version of how to spell it] in spannish mackeral.

[Greg Burt]

Bernie, Cam, at least we know not to eat the big trout at Marion next Year, but won't stop us catching them!!!!.

[Cam Foley]

yer i thought that was going to be a tasty feed how wrong i was.

[Brandon Khoo]

I caught quite a few of them at Shoalwater and i wasn't even really trying. These were beautiful table sized, from 1 - 3 kilos.

Unlike George who is a true believer, I cannot resist dropping a plastic down after i get buggered from casting a big popper for a few hours. I tell you, at Shoalwater, if you're there exclusively for GTs, don't look at the fish finder because it will drive you mad! I have never seen bait so thick on the finder and it was bloody everywhere. Just unbelievable.

If you dropped a plastic down, something would nail it and as often as not, it was a coral trout. We got obliterated a few times by big reefies. At Marion, we will almost certainly see some huge coral trout (20kg).

[Cam Foley]

Marion and me a match made in heaven cant wait