I had a gut feeling that the fishing would not be good, but we wanted to go out anyway.
The weather was very calm and the sea followed suit. The air was thick with humidity and no breeze to speak of.
We set out, Rosie, Brendan, Paul and myself, in hopes of catching something.
Things started out really slow. Not even the bait fish were biting, but persistence paid off and a few small fish were landed. They were to be used as bait (poor buggers).
We continued fishing with little success and much sweatiness.
As the day progressed our catch did not.
At one point I was jigging a soft plastic when I felt what appeared to be a bite, I set the hook and prepared for a fight. Alas I was hooked to the fishes house, snagged, caught the bottom. During my zealousness to free my lure there was an unmistakable cracking sound. Yep I broke my favorite jigging rod. For those of you who have never broken a graphite rod, the crack is memorable not to mention gut wrenching.
As the top half of my rod slipped away down the line and into the blue abyss, my heart sank with it.
After many expletive's, I realized my line was loose. Go figure, after all that it could have had the decency to stay snagged.
As I reeled it up I noticed that it was a bit heavy, too heavy for my jig. Low and behold there was a fish on the end and it was...........a Leather Jacket, aka Clown Triggerfish.
Well, you have to laugh at times like this, of course that is after you cry. Nothing I can do about it now and there was still some fishing to do.
We fished on for another couple of hours to no real avail.
I new it was not going to be a great day of fishing, but still better than work.
Some good friend of ours came to visit on their way to Christmas Island, John and Karen. Now these two are probably more mad about fishing than Rosie and I. And that says alot.
While they were staying with us it was John's birthday, so we had to go fishing on that day come hell or high water.
Now being mad fishers, these two don't really need any lessons. Except the proper technique for casting a heavy popping outfit, which took all of about 1 minute.
Now if only the fish would cooperate.
The weather was strange, no wind and very muggy.
Hat off to these two, they put in some serious casting time and for John it finally paid off.
Heading out in the morning.
Karen, ready for action.
John showing us how it is done.
Calm and muggy.
Finally a GT, small but feisty.
The release.
Rosie had to get in on the action with a little bluefin trevally.
And the birthday boy lands a second one.
The fishing was less than stellar and a lot of hard work for these two, but we had a good time and with them. Lots of catching up and fish tails.
The weather was not looking so good on this particular Sunday, so we decided to stay inside the reefs and do a bit of light tackle fishing.
Out comes the 6lb to 30lb gear. Now anytime you pull out this light of tackle in the ocean, your gear is bound to get smashed and busted. We were not let down. Lots of tackle was lost, but a lot of fish were landed too.
The weather did not disappoint us either. It blew harder and harder as the day progressed. Good thing we stayed inside.
A rather ominous looking morning sky.
Wayne with the first of many on his little 6lb soft plastic grub set-up.
Rosie catching the toothy critters without a steel trace. (Barracuda)
Brendan with a little bluefin trevally.
Another toothy critter. (Gar fish or Long Tom)
This is a little better bluefin.
A baby grouper or coral trout.
Now we're talking dinner. Rosie with a green job fish caught on bait.
Two at a time. A long nose emperor and a grouper
Another good day on the water despite the weather. Come to think of it, as long as we get home safely, it is always a good day on the water.
On June 2nd and 3rd, there was a GT fishing comp held at VoliVoli Resort on the other side of the island. Our team was Rosie, Brendan, Wayne, and of course yours truly. We are to drive our boat all the way around the island, about 120 miles, Friday. Then fish Saturday and Sunday. Then drive back on Monday. We planned, packed, planned some more, packed some more, planned a bit more, then planned some more until finally the day arrived. Now what could possibly go wrong with all the planning that was done? Well, we left the jetty at 6:00 AM sharp, just as planned, but by the time we left the river we were taking waves over the bow of the boat. That was to be the prelude to the first 2+ hours of our journey. To say it was rough would be an understatement. Luckily once we got to Suva Harbour we would go inside the reef and it would be calmer. As predicted it got much calmer and we made good time to the Rewa River for the next leg of our journey/adventure. The only problem was, it took over 1.5 hours longer than we had anticipated. That put us to far into the falling tide to cross the sand/mud bar in the river mouth. I eventually put the boat on the muck and there we sat, waiting for the tide. Now for those who spend time in the saltwater, they will know that waiting for the tide is a fact of life. Fish prefer certain tides and wont bite on slack tides. Sometimes there is too much current caused by the tide and sometimes not enough. Not to mention "time and tide waits for no man". So there we sat, rigging, talking, eating, and dancing. Waiting for the return of the tide. It took 2.5 hours for the boat to float free again. Good thing we are all friends. The rest of the trip was like clock work. Once we came out of the Rewa River the wind was on our stern and we flew. Although we did not get to fish on our way up we arrived at the resort at 4:00 PM. At that very moment all of our plans went out the door. The problem being, we knew almost everyone there. And when 40+ friends get together at a fishing comp, well we all know what happens. Plans go overboard. We partook in festive activities until all to late hours of the night/morning. We did manage to get up and be on the water quite early considering the night before. Unfortunately the weather for the first day of the comp proved to rough and tumble and on top of that, we did not find fish. We caught a few, but not what we had hoped for. The second night proved even deadlier for our team of merry makers. After all we were Team Xstreem. Xstreem grog, Xstreem tequila, Xstreem beer, Xstreem late night. Yep, Sunday, day 2 of the comp, was a little rough for us as well as the other teams. A late start, rough weather and xstreem hangovers did not fair well for catching fish. Although I must say Rosie did manage to land a nice GT in the morning. That would be our only GT. We were a sorry lot I must say. Oh well, "the best laid schemes (plans) of mice and men often go awry". Boy did they go awry. No time to sulk, there was a party to be had. After all the winning team came from our fishing club, The Twisted Leaders. They were Team Vai Lima, consisting of Russell Baumann, Erik Powell and Ben Duea. They won best Team, Russell won Best male angler and biggest GT. A side note, they did not partake in any of the festivities. They did however fish hard and deserved to win. I think we won most partying and least sleep. On Monday, we were to leave the resort early for the trip home. Yeah right, we left late and missed the tide and did everything in reverse going home. We had a great time. I would do it again in a second. In fact plans are going forward for a first, catch and release only, popping comp. I don't think we will win that one either.
Here is a slide show of the trip with a few high lights.
The plan was basically the same. Get to the general area and then use the sounder to find the depth range and hopefully the Dogs.
As with all fishing down deep, you never know what you will come up with. Especially when you are fishing in the 70-100 meter depth range. It looked fishy and Rosie proved it was fishy with this lovely Brown Spotted Grouper.
Mean while Wayne and I are speed jigging like maniacs and not really catching anything but sore arms.
Soon after this beauty was caught Rosie decided she wanted to live bait with steel wire. Well the outcome of that can only go one way. A leviathan of the deep. A monster that no one wants to touch. A beast of nightmares.
OK enough here is the video. Warning this video does contain some language that might be offensive to some.
Now if you do not want to watch the video I shall paraphrase it for you.
The fight lasted more than an hour and pretty much whipped Rosie. Lucky for here she had new TufLine XP 50 lb indicator braid and a brand new Black Hole, Cape Cod jigging rod. I only got one shot of the shark, but there is underwater video footage in the above video.
We put this Silvertip shark at about 8ft and a hell of a lot of teeth.
Now that we are done with this shark it is time to get back to jigging for Doggies. Oh and by the way, during the fight Rosie swore off using steel leader and live baiting ever again. Until the next time of course.
Back to the jigging we proceeded to pull all kinds of fish. including the Lyre Tail Grouper.
Unfortunately the elusive Dogtooth was just that, elusive. Wayne lost every jig he had including one of mine. Of course we do not know what it was that was taking them, but that did not deter us.
Here is a shot of Wayne waiting for his jig to hit the bottom.
The day was winding down and Wayne wanted one more drop. I told Rosie to get the video rolling as I had a feeling of the out come. It would be the same as all of the other ones.
After all that excitement it was time to head home. We had a bout a 20 mile run and I hate driving at night.
