Samoa

[mitchell huner]

As some people may have seen i am off to the Whitsunday's soon, but i am also off to Samoa at the end of the year for some surfing and fishing, last time i was there i herd a few rumours of big GT's there, was just wondering if anyone can confirm this for me.
Cheers,
Mitch

[Michael Burton]

im off to samoa next week. I will have my gt gear as im fishing tonga for gts on way back.

I have seen reports of gts from samoa however unsure where you need to go to get them. Im not sure if they get to tokara type sizes.
I suspect they are 20 - 45 kg models...

will report when im back in october.

[David Noble]

Hi Mitchell, I've had 1 trip to Samoa (Upolu) and we fished offshore with some inshore stuff.  Left from Apia but spent most time around the opposite side and southern point of the island. Samoa is volcanic, deep water and only 8 islands total, not too much lagoon and the locals fish a fair bit for inshore species. It's mainly a pelagic charter from any local skippers point of view.

Most guys I know who have fished there got red bass, barracuda, bluefin trevally, a few smaller GT's etc and this is from boats and out front of resorts on kayaks etc. 
I'm sure there are decent GT's and reefies there but I reckon you'd need to go exploring by boat, looking for cliff faces and seamounts to explore the jigging or popper fishing potential. Those steep mountains collect a lot of rain so the run off would flush a lot of nutrients into the water, surely big GT's would patrol the back of the reef looking for food and your popper.

Cheers Dave

[Scott Stonex]

Three of us did a trip to Samoa Nov last year with fished the northern end of Savai we caught a number of 10-15kg GTs and saw a pair of 50kg fish.
    We also did catch YFT casting into a work up we came across while traveling. Lots of chances of picking up a big YFT on top water with the right boat and guide. There are opportunities in Samoa but the lack of good vessels make it hard to make the most of them, feel with a more experienced popping guide & vessel we would have done better.

[Greg Burt]

Did you do any Jigging Scott?

[Scott Stonex]

Did you do any Jigging Scott?

A little Bunzo but it was pretty much blind, the fish finder was good for nothing on the vessel we fished on.
We caught a hand full of small GTs, a Sweetlips & a Corral Trout. I feel Samoa has slot to offer if fishing from a vessel with good electronics

[mitchell huner]

last time we went there we took little gear and drop a lot of bluefin travs, and got really nice coral trout, and drop a few big barracuda.

[Anthony Robinson]

Hi guys

I got back in May 2011 from a year in Samoa working as a Volunteer. I too am a massively keen Surfer and Fisho. I unfortunately only managed one small GT, I targeted them on a handfull of occasions landbased and from boats. Although in amoungst not catching many GT's I managed a heap of other species including Blue Fin trevally, Long Nose Emperor, Coral Trout, Red bass, some massive barracuda, Wahoo, Dog Tooth Tuna, a couple of really nice Job Fish, Mahi Mahi (Masi Masi in Samoan), Rainbow Runners  .. the list goes on.

If you are really keen on getting GT's over there Mitch I would suggest you hook up with Asau Bay Resort on the Far North West coast of Savaii, these guys are awesome, they have a great little boat (probably not the best for popping but it'll do the job) and great knowledge of the area. On Upolu you could get in contact with Dive Samoa, they do fishnig charters out around the a small island located between Upolu and Savaii its called Apolima Island, there are some big GT's there .... Dive Samoa is located at Aggie Greys Resort, very close to the International Airport.

If you are looking for waves south coast of Upolu is you best bet, hook up with Offshore Adventures (check their website), A couple of aussie guys (Brent and Clark) own a small charter company and will also do accomodation and meals for a very good price. These guys are a lot cheaper and in my opinion much better value than the bigger surf resorts in Samoa (Salani, Samoana, Aganoa etc etc). Be prepared to loose some skin if it gets big haha.

There are hepas of good landbased spots to chase big blue fin trevally, Tsua Ocean Trench is a must see spot and if the sweel is small a great spot to chuck a lure around, i got busted of there by some big ass Red Bass, Blue Fin and GT's. Again its an awesome spot for a dive if the swell is small.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Anthony