Let me just say from the onset, writing this fishing report doesn't do this special place the justice it deserves. I don't consider my writing skills advanced enough to paint an accurate picture of what my 3 friends and I experienced. It really is one of those special destinations that you have to experience to truely appreciate.
Naturally, if you've been to this part of the world, then this report will have a very special meaning to you... for everyone else... let me try and take you there...
Destination - Matava, Kadavu, Fiji
Getting there...
I spent several months organising this trip for a group of 4 of us. There was, Jonny(my brother), Dave, Gav and myself. I checked, double checked and triple checked everything to make sure that the whole event went off without a hitch... yeah right!!
It all began the day we were meant to fly out, with Adrian's reports in another thread of the Cyclone in Samoa potentially headed for Fiji... great... just what every fishing trip needs!
Anyway, we met at Gav's place and had a Maxi-Taxi booked for 9:15pm... at 9:30pm a normal Taxi fronts up and tells us there's no Maxi's available... great... we didn't have much choice so with rod tubes, arms, legs, bags and other body parts hanging out open windows, we high tail it to the airport.
On the way there, I get a call from Sunny who's also at the airport(flying out that night to another exotic destination) asking what time our flight was?... he said it was showing up as 11:00pm... WTF?? It was supposed to be at midnight! Anyway, we rushed through check-in... customs... and made our flight OK.
We arrived in Nadi at around 6am the next morning assuming that our luggage will be transferred to our connecting flight... not so... lucky we checked.
Then while sitting down having a much needed coffee, Dave suggests that we move over to the Domestic terminal and double check our next flight.
Walking through the airport, we quickly learnt that everybody say's "Bula" to everybody... is this the friendliest place on earth or what?
If you said Bula to someone back in Melbourne, they'd probably pull out a knife!
Our flight to Kadavu, according to our itinerary was scheduled for 12:40pm. We checked the TV screens and sure enough it said 12:40pm... awesome! Anyway, we wanted to get rid of all our luggage so I went and asked what time we could check in our baggage.... only to find out that the flight had been rescheduled to 11:00am? I asked the friendly check-in guy why it was still showing up as 12:40 on the screen?... he said, "oh, don't worry about that, we changed that flight time weeks ago and no-body has bother to correct the screen... don't worry my man, you're on Fiji time now... we wont leave without you"... at which point I just burst into laughter... the holiday had begun.
While waiting at the airport, I noticed a group of guys with Rod Tubes and wondered over for a chat. Turns out they were a group of Brazilian guys also headed to Matava... cool... we instantly became friends.
We finally get the call to board our flight and find ourselves boarding a 18 seater twin engine plane with a home made exhaust and a back-yarder panel beating job... awesome... we're going to die!
The pilot tells as not to worry if the plane drops suddenly and shudders when we get to Kadavu because of the winds... well, the plane did exactly that as well as swayed from side to side down the runway as we came in to land and surprisingly... we were pretty worried.
After many Hail Marry's and a lot of kissing the Tarmac, we have 8 fisherman and zero luggage?? We were assured that our luggage was coming on another flight. While waiting the 3 hours in the heat for our luggage, I started to wonder that maybe a higher power was trying to tell us that maybe we shouldn't be there... boy was I wrong!
Matava...
We were chauffeured from the airport to our awaiting long boats and enjoyed a pleasant 45mins ride with brilliant scenery to the Matava resort.
We were all expecting a fairly primitive set-up and were pleasantly surprised at what a neat little lay-out the resort is.
We were greeted by Maggie... the perfect host, entertainer, organiser... and full of surprises!
After a few cold cans served by none other than the excellent George... we were shown to our very sweet and very comfortable bure's... the holiday really had begun.
We spent the evening getting waited on, drinking "Caparizee"(spelling?) with our new friends... it's a Brazilian drink made up of just crushed lemon, ice and a double shot of vodka... sooo damn nice! We also listened to the famed stories of Scott's ripper 63kg-ish
Doggie and Sami "The Casting Machine" 50+" GT (The current Matava benchmark)... we looked forward to our next week on the water!
Now for the boring bit... the fishing begins...
Day 1 - We woke to a stiff SE wind, so were stuck fishing the inner reefs and bombies. No drama's... Dave and Jonny were on their first GT trip, so it was a good chance to get their casting up to speed... they picked it up in no time.
Adrian took us out for the day on the 24 foot centre console "Tease Me", we had booked for the week. It's a very capable little rig that saw 3 of us casting comfortably with the 4th person resting... as you do!
The first day was fairly uneventful with just a handful of reefies boated and a couple of possible GT swipes.
Adrian assured us that the weather prediction was on the improve by day 3.
Day 2 - With the wind still blowing and Muz at the helm singing his cheerful tunes, we spent the morning again fishing the inner reefs, again we managed a few reefies, but no GT's.
Then that afternoon, Muz takes us to one of the many passages entering the outer reef... and bang, Jonny hooks up to his first GT we estimated at 30kg+. Unfortunately the hooks pulled as the fish neared the boat... bummer. Not to worry, 2 casts later, his cherry is popped when he boats a respectable GT of about 22kg.
Gav then nails his biggest for the trip with a nice 45" fish(about 35kg)... great stuff.
Day 3 - We wake to much better conditions and Muz takes us back to the passages as the outer reef is still fairly lumpy, but on the improve. Almost immediately, Dave bags his first ever GT of around 30kg... not bad for a first eh?
... and I finally open my account with a baby of around 12kg.
Another fairly quiet day, but at least everyone has at least 1 GT to their name plus a number of other reefies.
Day 4 - Another perfect day in Fiji. Once again, Muz takes the wheel and takes us to the outer reef. We slowly venture outside and Dave's straight into another solid fish, but the hooks pull boat-side as Muz is lifting it into the boat for a happy snap. Gav then bags a nice little 15kg fish and I get one soon after that.
In the afternoon, Big bad Joe takes Captains honours and things were fairly quiet to begin with, with only one small GT boated. Then Dave decides to go for a snorkel, a few casts later, I have a GT smash my popper as it hits the water. After wrestling it into deeper water and a longish fight with lots of grunting and groaning with near full drag, a very fat 48" GT is drag aboard just as Dave is climbing back in from his snorkel...
with lots of hollering, high fives and some happy snaps, we returned the fish to the water only to see it start sinking side ways! Quick as a flash, Dave jumps straight back into the drink to try and swim the fish, but before he could get to it, the fish straightened up and happily swam off... we all breath a sigh of relief.
Day 5 - We wake to Mill Pond conditions... Today, Joe takes us out for the whole day, so our lunches are packed and we head west towards, but not quite as far as Hammerhead reef. It's pretty damn hot that day, but we're pretty keen to get some runs on the board, so we slug it out casting most of the day only really stopping for lunch.
While having lunch, Dave decides to go for another snorkel... the rest of us move out into deeper water for a spot of jigging. Gav jumps in for a quick swim and Joe jokingly yells out "SHARK SHARK"... Gav gets airborne back into the boat followed by Dave... I was jigging at the time and looked down to see that there actually was big Grey Reef Shark circling (fairly harmless according to Joe)... then 30 secs later a Massive Oceanic White tip Shark(nasty according to Joe!!) charges towards the boat... needless to say, no one swan after that.
While sitting there, a school of Tuna starts busting up near us so Jonny casts a pencil popper into it, we still don't know exactly what devoured his offering(Tuna, Wahoo??), but we saw a massive bow wave, a flash of silver and then it charged straight down... unfortunately the hooks pulled with about 100m of line out. Anyway, another fairly quiet day as we only finished up with 7 GT's including a handy double hook up... plus a few reefies... but we were still happy.
Back at the resort, we realised it was Thursday night which means it's Karva Night! What a fantasic experience. We must have had 20 - 30 shots while Muz was jamming away on his guitar doing a great Eagles cover and lots of Fijian tunes... we hung out with numb mouths and crossed legs till the Karva Bar closed for the night.
Warning - Karva night is a must do experience... but DO NOT plan on doing much the next day!
Day 6 - Once again we woke to a beautiful day. There were only 3 of us in the boat that moring as Gav had wisely decided to have a "lay day". We started casting with Jonny burning out within 30mins followed by me about an hour after that. It didn't take Dave much convincing to call it an early morning, head back for an early lunch, rest up and give it another shot that afternoon. Feeling refreshed, it was only me and Dave in the boat that afternoon and we started casting strongly, after about an hour, I was so drained I could barely lift my rod and happily just watched Dave slugging it out for about another hour. Tally for the day was 1 small GT... damn Karva!!
Day 7 - We were leaving that day, so we packed most of our stuff and sadly said our farewells to all our newly made friends.
Our luggage was taken with a separate boat to meet us near the airport after we'd finished our final fishing session that morning. With just a few hours left, we cast like our lives depended on it. We had several hits but failed to hook up. Then Jonny wisely puts on a stickbait and on his first cast raised what I believe to be a GT that would have smashed Sami's current Matava record. The fish failed to hook up... probably luckily as he was using an 8K Stella with only around 180m of PE8 and would have had to drag the fish over about 60m of low tide shallow coral! All of 2 casts later he hooks up 10m from the boat to another large fish and is instantly reefed... incidentally that's our first reefing for the trip. Not long after that, Dave a Gav get a double hook up and boat a nice GT and reasonable sized Red Bass.
Sadly, we pack our rods away and head towards the airport.
The remainder of our stay and the trip home was for the better part uneventful... thank goodness!
Our verdict on Matava as a resort... the Owners(Adrian and Co.)... all the Staff... the Guides... the Food... the Service... the Locals... the Boats... the Fishing... Simply Brilliant!
From a GT perspective, Matava is a GT destination in the making with an increasing influx of GT popping dudes over the last 10 months or so. Even though there have been some respectable fish landed here, I truly believe there will be some monsters hit the deck in years to come.
We were told that the popping while we were there, was the quietest they'd seen yet... Even Hammerhead reef did not produce for our Brazilian friends??... Cyclone/Bad weather???... New Moon/smaller tides??? Fishing can be strange.
We were still pretty happy tho. We ended up with 2 newbies getting their first, Gav with 3 fish over 40", A new PB for me with that 48" fish and a total of 5 Gt's all over the 40" mark... plus all the respectable smaller fish and reefies that we managed over the week.
Would we go back?... Hell Yes!
Useful info for anyone planning a trip to Matava...
Rule No. 1 - Relax... you're on Fijian time!
On tackle...
We bought a fair bit of tackle not really knowing what to expect. Below I've listed what worked best for us...
Rods and Reels - As used by each of the guys...
Dave used a Kaibatsu Surface Monster(Luke's old rod) with 18K SW Stella and 130lb JB Hollow... loved it!
Jonny matched up with his Yamaga Atlas 76/8 and 8K FA Stella and PE8 Varivas... loved it!
Gav mainly used his Smith Tokara and Komodo Dragon matched with 18K SW Stella(PE 10 Varivas) and a rattly Expedition 6500(100lb Tuff line).... loved them both... well except for the Salty... (I'm trying to talk him into buying a Tuff Tackle reel)
I brought along and played with a few sticks... but my go to rods for fishing the outer reefs on this trip were a Carpenter SP78H and my KD matched with 18 and 20K SW Stella's both loaded with PE10... I think the SP78H is my new favorite stick, taking care of the 150 - 190g poppers nicely and the KD handled larger stick baits and pencils.
Lures - We tested and tried several big name lures. The GT3 is pretty popular on these reefs and I spent a lot of time fishing these, albeit with very little success(unlucky maybe?). Poppers/Stickbaits that did well in order of success rate... Craftbait Pencil Slider... Adhek Pluto... Orion's T-Rex, ConoCono, GT Monster... Full Scale Kong... Nomad Custom Stickbait.
Knots - The FG was our all time favourite and really suits this location. I also love twisty's, but I believe that for this setting, the FG was ideal. There has been a lot of discussion in this forum on the FG knot. If you chose to use it as a friction knot, I'd suggest you learn it, practise it and get it right... it is a brilliant knot.
