Kiwi Dan

hello mate, mind sharing or sending me a pm with the shop details. Mights see if they have anything else interesting lying around.

Hi all, I'm looking to purchase a new jigging outfit, rod and reel. I am hoping to spend under $500 total. Does anyone have any suggestions on what could be a good purchase? I am hoping to get into solid offshore kings. I went into a tackle store last week and they showed me a Pflueger reel. Any help is appreciated.

Gday mate Bob is a cowboy without a doubt. I wouldnt recommend him to anyone heading over for a fish!!

Unlucky on that knot mate, I watched you through that battle, it definitely pulled hard. I got dusted 5 times on Saturday, ended up landing 9. Majority of mine were caught on squid. Nice work landing the 90cm model. I thought Steve was going to get you to swim back after the failed knot!!

Gday, it was weighed at the Sheraton

Gday all, Thanks for the comments. I forgot to mention should anyone want any details for John just shoot me a PM and ill be happy to help you out. D&G - The arms gave up hurting about 3 days later. Maybe all of the drinking i was also doing had something to do with that. Gday mate, we left from Port Denarau.

Gday Raiders Came back from my birthday trip to Fiji just over a week ago. Off the bat Fiji is an absolutely AWESOME place. The locals are great, the food is spectacular the swimming, sights and scenery is all unreal but most importantly the fishing is a 10 out of 10. This year for my 30th bday present the surprised me with a 10 night trip to Fiji. She had organized 5 nights on Denarau resort island followed by a 2 night Yasawa Islands cruise with 3 nights back on Denarau to finish it off. While the trip was full of highlights the main highlight for me was catching an 85kg Yellowfin Tuna! The Fijians seem to be spolied for choice over there - GTs, Mahi Mahi, marlin, sails, tuna the list goes on and on. I went on 2 charters while we were there, the 1st charter was rather disappointing. The skipper seemed to be full of talk but didnt really seem to know too much. It was a 4 hour charter and I did manage to land 1 GT to about 6kgs but the way the charter was organized showed this bloke up to be a bit of a cowboy. Luckily for me I was put on to another charter operator thanks to a very friendly cab driver. It was day 8 and was determined to catch a quality fish before leaving Fiji. I met up with John and his son Nick who were taking me out on a 4 hour charter aboard Johns awesome 32ft centre console Lady Lily. As we pulled out of the 4kn zone John ran through the safety drill then said to me - "will drive for about 30 minutes and jump into the 2nd current line and get you into some fish". This was what I wanted to hear. Then he said theres a harness up the front put it on because you'll need it. I thought to myself "this blokes a cocky bugger". As we got closer to our destination Nick started getting the spread ready. There was no shortage of quality game gear aboard. As we rounded one of the islands and started our troll towards Suva there were masses of birds working various patches all over the place. John made our way to the biggest of the lot and straight away put us onto a triple hook up of yellowfin. I began playing the first fin while Nick set the hooks on the other 2. The first fin came in at about 6kgs but unfortunately 1 of the other 2 was rather large and it ran straight across the other lines tangling and cutting the 2 fin free. After re rigging for 20 minutes the 5 lines went back out and away we went for pass number 2 which had us on a double hook up with another fin of around 6-8kgs. This went on for about 2.5 hours with run after run, plenty of solid fish lost and about 7 fin landed in total. The fin went seemed to go a bit quiet and the masses of birds became less and less. All fish landed were between 6-9kgs and I was stoked because we were pulling in constant fish. Then all of a sudden the the rapala on the Penn International goes off on a screaming run. Nick lifts the rod out of the holder and sets the hooks and im in. Immediately I could feel that this fish was a lot bigger than the others. A number of times througout the fight all I could do was stand there and hold on. The battle went on for 32 minutes. I was stoked when I finally had it beat although there were a few close calls with the rails of the boat. When I finally managed to bring it to the surface it was an amazing sight seeing 85kg of yellowfin come up out of the depths like a barrel! Nick was ready with the gaff and managed to get it on the 3rd attempt. John tied the tail and I chucked the 2nd gaff in. When we tried to lift it in I ended up straigtening the gaff. Once we finally got it into the boat I was STUFFED! I had to have a sit down to get my breath back. My left arm was burning, my back hurting but I didnt care because id just pulled this beast in! The fin ended up being a record for Johns boat so needless to say he was very excited as well. On the way back to the wharf John pulled into the beach out side our resort so that my wife could run down and have a look at the fish. She was amazed and couldnt believe the size of it. Once we got back to the wharf people gathered around for pictures etc. I gave 4 of the smaller fin to my cabbie and left the big fin for John, Nick and there family. The trip as a whole was a truly memorable experience and catching this big boy just capped it off. I cant wait to go back to Fiji next year and team up with John and Nick again. Great time, more photos to come later.

The and I are packing for the trip. First things that went into my bag were 3 8kg rods, the TLD20 a 10,000 shimano plus 1 more reel, a dozen golf balls and my golf glove. Ill chuck in some lures, jigs and a few spare spools of braid and ill be done. I think ill try and book a boat out for myself rather then a group, want to give myself the best chance of catching some big boys.

Gday Adam Im heading to Denarau island (not sure about spelling). Would it be better for me to take my own gear over or just use charter guys gear?

Nice catch. I'm heading over on Monday for 2 weeks - CANT WAIT!

nice one Greg, Dan was VERY excited when I was speaking on the phone to him tonight.

Thats insane

Cheers lads The came through with the goods this year, 10 day suprise trip to Fiji! GOLD

Gday raiders Havent been out in the boat in over 2 months. Just wondering if anyone knows if the Tunks Park boat ramp is open?

Nice catch there. Im suppose to be heading up to Swansea next Thursday to Sunday for some fishing. Any advice on catching kings up that way? Im told there are some quality size kings up there. Not really after salmon, prefer to target snapper and kings. Any help is appreciated.