Foz

Fished east of Port Havannah on Efate, the main island. Would love to spend a week there chasing fish. Also tried my luck off a kayak (jigs, poppers, minnows, plastics) on the fringe reefs out from the resort near Port Villa for no luck though, Fishy looking places but didn't even see any decent fish let alone catch anything. Main things I learnt were probably already common knowledge to most game fisho's on here but mainly to do with birds and how they behave above fish, as well as how to set, and subsequently clear a lure spread after strike, as well as what to do with the boat once hooked up etc, can read all the books in the world but learn a lot more in practice I found.

Hi all, First post on here but have been reading the wealth of info for some time now. Hope it doesn't bore you all. Just got back from a family holiday to Vanuatu and managed a morning charter on my final day. Fished a couple of fads offshore, one in 1100m and the other in about 600m, and trolled in between. water temps were around 26-27 and an awesome blue colour. As we headed out there was plenty of bird action and flying fish so all was looking promising. Before even putting the lures out the skipper says put the gimbal belts on........ that sort of optimism was very encouraging. I asked the skipper what we could expect, the response was "just about anything..... Blue Marlin, Dolphin Fish, Yellowfin, wahoo, dogtooth tuna....... excitement level through the roof! Trolled a 4 lure spread, 3 skirts and one diver at about 6-7kn, hooked first doly near the 11OOm FAD and it went 12kg. I was pumped. Shortly after my mate landed a nice 24kg yellow fin, before I dropped what the skipper called a "bigger yellowfin" which took the long rigger and screamed line for a minute or so but after having to take evasive action with another boat who was also hooked up, line went slack and fish was free. Gutted but knew there was more fish to be had. Bird action went quiet and we left for the shallower fad where the action heated up again and dollies seen jumping right near the fad. Couple of minutes later we were on, long rigger again, 9 inch blue, gold and white skirt again doing the damage. Fish took to the air a few times and the iridescent blue/yellow was incredible as the fish fought on the surface before heading deeper closer to the boat. About 10 mins later we boated a cracker, this 17kg dolpin fish and the biggest fish I have ever landed, Wind got up after that and we headed in. Great end to a great holiday. Learnt a lot on the charter and hope to use some of this knowledge to chase a few good fish back here in the future. Cheers Foz

Nice wahoo njsconst! I'm heading over in 2 weeks to invest some tourist dollars, can't wait. Very disappointing about the Governments response to the cyclone! I'm hoping to through a few lures around the lagoons/drop offs from the resort kayaks when my young bloke has an afternoon naps ;-) but also do a charter or two and catch something a little larger fingers crossed.

nice work, great photos.

hadn't even thought about interference issues, i'll do some more investigations. thanks cameldownunder also, what is making the install messy?

Hi all, Currently have a Garmin 550s sounder/GPS combo and am looking at getting a second dedicated sounder so I can have both the sounder and GPS running full screens rather than the split screen I use now. Not wanting to spend a fortune (as I really dont get on the water often enough to justify it), and am considering the Garmin 350C and the Lowrance elite 4x DSI HDI (which has downscan). Whitworths currently have them for $199 and $219 respectively which seems pretty reasonable from looking around for prices on the net. I like the idea of having another garmin unit to match the other one, and it has a 5 inch screen which is bigger than the lowrance at 4.3 inch screen. The DSI looks impressive though however I have not used it before to know if it is really worth it. Mostly fish inshore chasing kings, snapper or anything else that bites but also looking to do a bit of trolling etc a little wider. Any recommendations or experiences with either of these or other alternatives would be appreciated? Huey, you got any deals on either of these, or recommendations of others in the price range? Cheers Foz

wow!