The Incredible Hull Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 BULA raiders! I'm on a 10 day holiday in Fiji with my wife, daughter and mum in law. It's really a nice place to relax. I've been to a number of countries and resorts, this has to be my favourite to date. I'm staying in a villa on Malolo Island. So first thing I did when I got here... went down the Marina and booked a fishing charter straight away! It's a 4 hour session with 3 other people, 4 in total. We rotate in pairs every 20minutes or after a catch. Day 1: I took 1 trava calm tablet 30 mins prior. On board with me was 3 english fellas. We trolled a few km's south, targeting Mahi Mahi. The first hour was generally quiet. Then one of the reels started screaming, and the fish jumped, we think it was a small tuna. The english guy on rod was reeling a tad slow, and eventually lost the fish within a couple of minutes =(. Trolled for another 30 odd minutes, and the reel in front of me started screammmming. We all yelled ON! (alerting the captain to stop). Everyone quickly reeled all the surrounding rods up, and I was on my way. I had so much difficulty reeling and lifting, the reel would sort of tilt left and right, due to the swivel thingy attached to the chair. It would have been better if it just rotate up and down. 5 mins in, and my arms were killing me... I had some... well a lot of assistance from the decky. About 7 mins in, it decides to go for a run... the misery! Keep in mind its 30+ deg and hardly any wind so I'm burning. Eventually after about 15 minutes (which felt like 1 hour), I reel it up, decky grabs the gaff, its a sizeable MAHI MAHI, my first words were "f$#@ me!" Decky threw all the lines back in, trolled for another hour, hour and a half, and the other blokes line went off, reel screaming. Was a relatively quick fight, probably 5 minutes, pulls up a small spanish mackeral, probably around 60 cm. After that it was really quiet, and we didn't catch any more. I didn't get my GT either, and I knew straight away I'd be back for more... So I booked it again as soon as I got back for tomorrows charter! Day 2: Went with 3 other nice aussie guys from Melbourne. This time, I decided not to take trava calm, as I thought we were trolling anyways, I won't get sick... I'll tell you now, I paid for it dearly... In the first 20-40 minutes, we had a double hook up. The guys were working hard to reel them both up. 2 small tunas came on board, looked around 60cm-ish roughly. Straight after I hopped in the hot seat, 10 minutes later I was ON! This fish was sort of heavy, but didn't give a great fight, I think I was comparing to the mahi mahi. Within about 5-7minutes, I brought up a sizable spanish mackeral, was stoked =) Shortly after, 2 of the other guys, hooked on 2 GT's! I was a little sad it wasn't me, but I also wanted to see this fish I have never seen them in real life before. The boys brought them up, they were small GT's. Maybe 60-70cm I think, nice work boys! I started getting sea sick at this point, actually all of us were... one guy pukes, that sets me off, and the another one pukes too! It was synchnoized sympathy puking lol. After that, I was out, couldn't fish anymore haha boohoo. About an hour later, captain saw birds flying around an area, u turned into the area, and you wouldn't believe, triple hook up! The friendly melbourne boys offered me to take one but I said nah, u boys go ahead lol, I was so sick. All three boys brought up 3 tunas, all around 60-70 mark. After that it was fairly quiet. We had about 10 fish in the bag and headed home. To add, I have the worst singlet tan known to man lol It's constantly 30+ deg here everyday. I learnt a valuable lesson... trava calm does work! (makes your mouth really dry too) And fishing with big fish hurts the arms! It was my first chartered experience, and I'm actually thinking of going back for more - most likely I will, as I have another 5 days here lol I really want those enormous GT's... Till then, happy fishing raiders! Dave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fryboy Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 thats what I call an 'on the spot' report! Great report. thanks for sharing..! fryboy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catchin Jack Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 Great report and nice photos, hope the arms have recovered. Good luck hitting the big GT's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mannyspy Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 I'm Leaving for Fiji on this 1st of Jan can't wait! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimnicdusty Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 nice fish the trevally on the left in the last pic is a bigeye trevally and its a bit hard to tell whether the other one is a GT or a brassy trevally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Incredible Hull Posted November 25, 2011 Author Share Posted November 25, 2011 nice fish the trevally on the left in the last pic is a bigeye trevally and its a bit hard to tell whether the other one is a GT or a brassy trevally. oh I'm not too sure, the locals just said GT's hehe. You can't see from the pic, but one of them had a bit of blue colour. Mannyspy, I recommend to get trava calm from your local pharmacy. During the trip, they don't provide any food, water either, so best to bring a bottle of Fiji water, 1 tablet of trava calm makes your mouth extremely dry. Oh and its catch and release... to the captain lol. That's how it was for me both times. Captain takes dibs on most of the fish, they give you a couple of fillets only. I actually asked for a fillet of the mackerel I caught, but he took the whole thing haha. However for $145FJD per session, its definitely worth it, I'm def going again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macmac Posted November 26, 2011 Share Posted November 26, 2011 oh I'm not too sure, the locals just said GT's hehe. You can't see from the pic, but one of them had a bit of blue colour. Mannyspy, I recommend to get trava calm from your local pharmacy. During the trip, they don't provide any food, water either, so best to bring a bottle of Fiji water, 1 tablet of trava calm makes your mouth extremely dry. Oh and its catch and release... to the captain lol. That's how it was for me both times. Captain takes dibs on most of the fish, they give you a couple of fillets only. I actually asked for a fillet of the mackerel I caught, but he took the whole thing haha. However for $145FJD per session, its definitely worth it, I'm def going again Hi, How much $145 fuji if convert to Aussie? Is it a self-touring or u book for a package? Haven't been in Fuji. Cheers, Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Incredible Hull Posted November 26, 2011 Author Share Posted November 26, 2011 (edited) Hey Macmac, In AUD, it depends on how much you get your aussie dollar exchanged for. I had some exchanged in australia before I left (the rest I put on credit card I.e. hotel and the exchange rate for that depends on visa at the time. I think I got $1.70 fiji for each $1 aud. So $145/1.7 is about $85. All I did was choose a hotel\resort to stay at - I'm not on the main island (which is nadi, pronounced as "nandi"). From "nandi" we took a ferry across to Malolo Island. If you want more details of resort names etc, feel free to PM me cheers dave. P.S. you'll find most of the tourists here are aussie too, so you'll feel right at home =) Edited November 26, 2011 by The Incredible Hull Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AEG Posted November 26, 2011 Share Posted November 26, 2011 good luck with the recovery, and enjoy the rest of your trip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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