Happy new year, folks! Just got back from the best GT popping trip of my life. As usual, my report is a long one. Read on if you dare.
BACKGROUND
Before I get into details of how the fishing unfolded, it's worth noting how this trip came about. After our last Fijian fishing experience (report posted hereabouts), my cousin Michael developed the GT bug. We made plans to fish New Caledonia in late December... but you know what they say about best laid plans! When Michael had to pull out at the last minute and I couldn't find another angler to accompany me, I decided to visit New Cal another time. I also found myself a couple of weeks away from the proposed travel dates - which I'd taken off work - really jonesing for a fish. Don’t let anyone tell you fishing addiction isn’t a thing. My bags were basically packed and I felt all dressed up with nowhere to go. That's when I contacted my mate Nick Darling from Volivoli Beach Resort. He said that although the resort was essentially fully booked over the Christmas/NYE period, his boat (Half Cast) wasn't. I jumped at the chance to book five days' fishing from December 27 to 31. I told Nick that the accommodation situation didn't really bother me - I'd happily sleep in a hammock if worst came to worst! Turns out his staff, led by the amazing Geraldine, were able to get me booked into one room for the duration of the trip!
Fast forward to Boxing Day and I was on a flight from Sydney to Nadi. My transfer from Nadi to Rakiraki provided an opportunity to assess the carnage wrought by TC Winston, which hit a few days after my last visit in February. In addition to the flood damage from a recent tropical depression, I spotted a number of blue tents scattered throughout the villages. These were provided by the UN to some of the 350 000 Fijians made homeless by the cyclone. The country is still rebuilding, but the people have proven resilient as always. To give one example, I’ll mention Pola here. He captained Half Cast for two of my fishing days, laughing and smiling often. When I asked Pola whether he lived nearby, only then did he tell me that he is renting close to Volivoli because his house was destroyed by Winston. And only after mentioning this to Nick's wife Danielle did I hear the full story - Pola, his wife, and his four children were at home when the cyclone hit. They had to leave their disintegrating house and run/crawl to the resort to seek shelter. Imagine having to run the gauntlet in the middle of a cyclone, shielding your wife and children from flying debris. This is the same guy who is known to often remark "sega na lega" - "no worries.” No matter what’s going on in their lives, the people of Fiji’s hospitality industry - and especially those I’ve met at Volivoli - seem to come to work with a singular focus: making their guests happy. Having worked in a guest experience role for five years myself, I know how difficult this can be. I really admire people like Pola.
When I arrived at Volivoli, I caught the end of dinner service and sat down at the bar with Nick. During Winston, he was responsible for the safety of his many guests as well as his young family. At one point, this involved convincing some guests to reluctantly move from their Premium Ocean View room to the other side of the resort. It's a lucky thing they listened, as their room and many others in that area were gutted by the cyclone. Lives were saved - through good management rather than good luck. Although the resort took heavy damage, no guests were injured. Now, 25/28 rooms have reopened, seamlessly restored to their former glory. The final three Premium Ocean View rooms are well on their way - and just as well, considering demand for accommodation is strong. I, for one, will be amongst the returning clientele; hopefully the following report gives you an idea as to why.
OUTFITS
Carpenter Monster Hunter 80H / Shimano Stella 18000HG / 100 lb YGK WX8
Carpenter Coral Viper 79/40 / Shimano Stella 14000XG / 60 lb Jerry Brown Hollow
LURES
Heru ulua
Orion nambas
Halco roosta haymaker
Fisherman long pen
DAY 1
6am saw me meeting Nick at the restaurant for a quick tropical breaky and planning session. There was to be a south-easterly wind all day, so we agreed that relatively local reefs would be our focus. We ran east and I began casting on bommies and shoals. Within two casts, I had my first GT strike - one of many for the morning. Because we were fishing close to the change of tide, many of the fish were biting "short" and not fully committing, and those that did try to eat my lures didn't necessarily find the hooks. At one point, a GT got airborne on my Ulua 200 but grabbed it between the front and back hooks. Another time, Nick called me a "magician" when I managed to extract a popper from a pack attack of half a dozen geets - I must have been a bit rusty on this first day to avoid so many hookups! Still managed to boat a handful of fish for my efforts. Whenever we found bait - in this case, blue fusies and oceanic queenfish - the trevally weren't far behind.
During this session, I also witnessed a most impressive pack attack - GTs, red bass, bluefin and barracuda (~20 fish in all!) were jostling for my lure. Of course, I caught the bluefin. Still lots of fun! Around lunchtime, we decided to drop a few soft plastics along a drop-off from 50m to 200m. First cast, I came up tight on a nice coral trout - unfortunately, I'll never know for sure as I was obliterated by a shark (in one bite!) about 10m under the boat. Not long after re-rigging, I hooked a doggie nearby. As soon as I palmed the spool, the fish cut through my leader. Bloody unstoppables! That was the extent of the jigging I did on this trip - over the next few days, I got pretty distracted by topwater.
DAY 2
Day 2 brought similar conditions to the first, with the sou'easter set to freshen throughout the day. As a result, Pola and I headed west to Charybdis reef with the intention to fish further west before hugging the coast on our run back to Volivoli in the afternoon. Pola took a no-nonsense attitude to hunting down the GTs this morning - when we'd rock up to a reef, he would scan the water intently for a few seconds before deciding if there was enough current running to make casting worthwhile. I appreciated this ritual, as I needed to bomb most casts into the wind and there's little use wasting that energy if the spot is a dud. I mainly fished pencil poppers in these sloppy conditions, attracting some truly spectacular strikes but few hookups - seems the fish found it difficult to line up a fast-moving target whilst accounting for wave movement. Can't blame them.
After much searching, we eventually found a stretch of broken reef that funnelled the current nicely and pushed up pressure edges. Add in schools of bait, and the recipe for GT madness was complete. Every cast in the vicinity of a bait ball got hammered. At one point, I hooked an average-sized GT, which was pursued to the boat by five more of his kind, plus a shark! One of the other GTs definitely seemed like it was trying to eat the hooked fish, or at least steal the lure. Just crazy! Even the dolphins got in on the action along this reef, with a pod of maybe a hundred animals coming past to say hi.
Around lunchtime, on Pola's advice, I fired a cast between two bommies. "Big fish!" I yelled as a solid gee smashed my pencil from the side. Because I saw the fish coming, I was able to set the hooks hard, and we managed to pull the fish out of the crevice by driving backwards. As a result, I fought this fish from the casting platform. It never gave up, taking a couple of last-minute runs that threatened to upset my footing on the top deck. Finally, it surfaced and came in through the fish door. Biggest GT of the trip! I was cheering. The rest of the afternoon was a little slower, but I managed to pull a few more fish off shallow reefs. Unfortunately, the last one of the day managed to take my favourite lure as a souvenir. By then, I was a little beyond caring - I'd experienced a "double digit day" - can't complain when you land more than 10 GTs in one session!
DAY 3
The weather forecast for my third day was favourable, with light winds predicted. Nick and I seized this opportunity and decided to head to the northeast. It was to be a two-hour journey, but I was pretty confident that the payoff would be worth it. On the way, we stopped at one reef for a quick cast that resulted in an instant GT. That was a good omen for the day ahead.
We arrived at our destination to find bait of several varieties balled up along the reef and showering nervously. GTs here were hungry, and I landed a few in quick succession. We continued up the main reef line, encountering monster red bass, barracuda and the odd GT. At one point, my pencil popper attracted multiple pack attacks along one curved section of reef that didn't seem to be holding any bait. These GTs must have been hunting, and they competed aggressively to attack the lure. There were some real stonkers amongst the pack, but as usual, the smaller fish beat them to the punch.
As the tide picked up, we concentrated on fishing channels and points, with many producing strikes. I boated a number of good fish in heavy current; really felt like I earnt each one after straight up-and-down fights. Unfortunately, I also broke two belly hooks in these situations, losing a couple of solid fish about 15m below the boat. I soon realised that this was a result of Baker-rigging the single hooks using zip ties, attached to the belly eyelet without a swivel. This meant the fish could break hooks through twisting the hooks against the lure or split ring and applying torsion. Replacing zip ties with electrical tape fixed this problem.
About half an hour before we were planning to leave, I cast my blue Halco Roosta up onto a reef in massive current. On my second pop, a huge grey missile shot out from 5m of water and crunched my lure, stripping 30m of drag in a split second. You know it's a big fish when your rod practically bends at right angles. All Nick could say was "f***!". "F*** is the word", I said in response. Then my line went slack. "No." I said. "Oh no. Oh no no no." Immediately after that big fish came off, a pack of 15-20kg GTs climbed all over my lure but they looked tiny in comparison. I wonder if one pulled the popper from the first geet's mouth, because I find it hard to believe that it wasn't hooked. Anyway, it's those missed opportunities that keep us coming back.
In all, I caught over a dozen GTs on this third day - I actually stopped counting. Champagne fishing, capped off my a visit from a humpback whale just as we prepared for the run back to the resort. To say I was stoked would be an understatement.
DAY 4
Reasonable winds were predicted for this fourth day, so at breakfast, Nick suggested that I head out to some other north-eastern reefs with captain Solo. Nick said there was a chance of a wrasse in that area. Basically all I needed to hear! I'd been telling anyone who would listen that I'd love to catch one of these legendary fish.
First pass on the first reef, I got my topwater wrasse! She was just starting to transition into male colours - check out the photo below to see the tinges of blue coming through. Of course, I've always wanted a big blue-green Napoleon, but I'll take what I can get! Bucket list item achieved. Had me grinning from ear to ear.
After I caught the wrasse, I hooked five GTs along the reef, but managed to lose them all. Each time, I checked those pesky belly hooks - but no failures today! It was only after I lost a big GT that I sight-cast whilst feeding on fusiliers that I examined every inch of the popper in frustration. Then I saw it - the tail hook (7/0 Shout Kudako no less) had opened up! It must have been this way since the wrasse. I was pretty devastated. A very important reminder to check not only the leader after each fish but also all terminal tackle. Don't fall victim to inattention blindness! Failing to pick up on subtle differences can cost you good fish.
As we continued along the reef, I noticed some flying fish, so decided to have a cast with a brand new pencil popper. After a few casts, I landed my first GT of the morning. Soon after, I hooked a second fish on top of the reef. As usual, it went ballistic. Just when I thought I'd pulled it out of the danger zone, my line went slack. I pulled it in to find what looked like a rigging needle attached to my split ring. After a second of disbelief, I realised it was the through-wire from my popper, which promptly surfaced on the reef edge. Seems the GT had snapped the wire at the back eyelet, tearing the hook off. In my mind, tackle failure might be the worst way to lose a fish, and this day was plagued by it!
As the current began to slow, I suggested to Solo that we bite the bullet and run out to the reefs I fished the day before. The moment we got there, I had my first strike. Five minutes later, I got a nice GT to the boat. The action continued much as it had during the previous day. GTs, red bass and barracuda were again stalking the reef line. Ended up with another double digit day!
DAY 5
My final day's fishing - and the final day of 2016 - was to be spent with Pola on close reefs. A strong southerly came up early in the day and persisted throughout, making conditions rather difficult. We also couldn't locate any schools of bait, meaning that most of the morning was spent blind casting into wind. Still managed a few GTs over the morning as I converted every strike into a solid hookup. No rustiness on day five!
In the afternoon, the wind and swell rose further. I concentrated on casting to bommies and across reef points but when I did find the fish, they often missed the hooks. Persistence eventually paid off with a couple more GTs landed, bringing my total to five for the day. I was pretty happy with that, considering the trying conditions. Pola was also happy to take a few big barracuda home for the table (yep!). To finish off the trip, I also landed a nice mackerel on popper, which I later enjoyed as my first meal of 2017. Pola and I waved goodbye to a turtle and headed back to the resort.
That night, we celebrated the end of 2016 (and the beginning of 2017) at a 'shipwrecked'-themed party on the beach at Volivoli. Suffice to say everyone got wrecked. I even had a few kavas with Pola. I told anyone in earshot how good the fishing had been, and I'm more than happy to tell you the same. Thanks for reading; hope you like the photos!
