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Topwater Caranx Ignobilis: Giant Trevally (GT) => Reports & Expeditions => Topic started by: Chris Tan on March 30, 2009, 12:37:22 PM

Title: Kadavu Fiji
Post by: Chris Tan on March 30, 2009, 12:37:22 PM
Just came back from Kadavu, fishing on the the Great Astrolobe Reef. A beautiful place with some gts on popper and a few fish on jigs.

Title: Re: Kadavu Fiji
Post by: Rob Ciotucha on March 30, 2009, 01:44:31 PM
Good on you Chris some nice photos and fish there. Looks like you had a good time.

Cheers
Rob
Title: Re: Kadavu Fiji
Post by: Kasey Leong on March 30, 2009, 02:33:42 PM
Chris!
How big is that doggie there?
Title: Re: Kadavu Fiji
Post by: Scott Maybury on March 30, 2009, 02:40:55 PM
Wow some really nice fish there, well done.

I am planning a trip to Fiji, probbaly Kadavu, for early next year. Do you mind telling me who you fished with and how you found the charter service etc? Feel free to PM me if you don't want to post it here

thanks
Title: Re: Kadavu Fiji
Post by: Nathan Cefai on March 30, 2009, 02:50:19 PM
Nice fish i must say,some good GTs,how big did they get to,did you manage to lose any big beasts ?
Title: Re: Kadavu Fiji
Post by: Chris Tan on March 30, 2009, 04:48:27 PM
Doggie was probably between 35 to 40kgs. Biggest gt was around 35kg. We were fishing in pretty slack currents, so not ideal for gts. Jigging at the seamount was pretty good. I had my doggie take my hooker jig pretty high up. Was actually reeling up my line when it took.

My wife Jac had a big fish take when she was dropping her 400g nagamasa. She couldnt close the bail arm and we tried all we could to close it but when we did, the line busted off. The fish was just taking alot of line and we couldnt slow it down. Not sure what we could have done to get her started on the fight.

MarkR had a huge bust off on a big gt. The line was unfortunately loosely spooled in by the shop and it dug in and busted off.He lost his lucky craftbait.

We were fishing with Adrian on his boat Bite Me. Great skipper and boat. Matava resort was really nice too - nice food and good bunch of guys, but you might want to bring a portable fan and your insect repellant.

Only the big mouth poppers worked - craftbait, hammerheads, big jim. Surprisingly, big foots and other stickbaits didnt work. They liked red, green or pink poppers.

Jigs were around 300 to 400g in the deeper spots (150m). You could get away with 200 or 250g jigs in the shallower areas. Sevenseas hookers and nagamasas worked for me.
Title: Re: Kadavu Fiji
Post by: Brandon Khoo on March 30, 2009, 05:12:24 PM
great result, Chris
You deserved a good trip!
Title: Re: Kadavu Fiji
Post by: Scott Maybury on March 30, 2009, 06:28:11 PM
Nice one, Adrian is a guy I have heard a lot of good things about and will almost definately be getting my business
Title: Re: Kadavu Fiji
Post by: Jon Li on March 30, 2009, 06:54:30 PM
Hi Chris ,

Good photos n catch results !

You have trully converted Mark Richards to a popping enthusiast now .  :D

Jon .
Title: Re: Kadavu Fiji
Post by: Peter Morris on March 30, 2009, 08:22:32 PM
Excellent...Great trip and Great photos.

Might look at going to Kadavu shortly.

Thanks,
Pete
Title: Re: Kadavu Fiji
Post by: Sachin Chaudhry on April 01, 2009, 01:04:28 PM
Chris, good to see that you had a good time here in Fiji. Said it many times here that Kadavu can really turn on the heat with great fish to be had. Likely to be headed that way for Easter. Only 1 1/2 hours on my boat from Suva so .... easy. If anyone on the forum is headed this way with monster GT's in mind let me know and I will try to put you in touch with THE GT man (72 kg GT kind of man) in these parts. Nothing in it for me and will leave it to you guys to sort out the dealings.
Title: Re: Kadavu Fiji
Post by: Chris Tan on April 01, 2009, 01:49:14 PM
Had a great time there. Pity the bigger gts didnt come out to play.

A word of caution - the Fijian customs in Nadi seem to get a hard on checking our stuff. We had a 100% check on all our gears and bags with everything taken out.

Also had some trouble with BA on the flight back to Singapore. My rod tube was deemed too long as they initially didnt want to take it on the plane - something about the cargo being too short to take my tube?? Had no problems loading it on the BA flight from Sin to Sydney!
Title: Re: Kadavu Fiji
Post by: jay currie on April 01, 2009, 08:06:59 PM
Some good fish there mate!

We were there a month ago and had a great trip. I would have loved to have caught one of those doggies tho. We had no dramas with customs in Nadi but in Brisbane they opened my tackle box to check out my poppers apparently they look rather sus on the scanners, I saw the customs lady have a bit of a giggle when she saw them go threw.
Title: Re: Kadavu Fiji
Post by: jay currie on April 02, 2009, 07:11:39 PM
Just to anyone who is intrested in visiting Adrian in Kadavu Fiji, there are videos posted at www.metacafe.com (http://www.metacafe.com) just do a search for Kadavu.