THE following report comes from fishing charter specialist Ocean Blue who regularly run trips to the idyllic South Pacific destination of Vanuatu, home of big dogtooth tuna, GTs, wahoo, jobfish, red bass – you name it!
The following report was recently posted on the Ocean Blue website:
Our friends from Singapore, tackle store Kaiser Pro Shop, Kingfisher Magazine and Ocean Blue’s Rob Chang were our guests last week for some Vanuatu style sportfishing. The guys were keen to tangle with big GTs and dogtooth on heavy tackle, as well as explore the potential for micro jigging.
The guys came in via Sydney on the evening flight to Vanuatu, the comforts of Trees & Fishes’ well appointed cabins, smiling hosts and comfortable beds would have been most welcome to our guests arriving at 1am.
Needless to say, they immediately switched to island time, sleeping in late and enjoying a big cooked breakfast, delicious French pastries and good coffee to kick them into gear for their first days fishing!
Anglers, fishing gear & camera’s were all loaded into the boat & skipper Andrea finally turned the big twin 250s over as they headed out across Port Havannah’s sheltered waters on day 1 of their search for fast and powerful fish. First stop was a steep island rising out of deep water. Nguna, like so many of Vanuatu’s islands was once an active volcano. Action started immediately, hooking up on a big doggy on only the second drop (jigging) which ended after a blistering 150m run.
Being armed with a selection of some of the best fishing tackle available anywhere, it soon ecame apparent that hooking fish wasn’t going to be a problem, but stopping the bigger unstoppable fish would be!
The following days saw similar action & the guys were able to use a huge range of gear. Everything from big El Toro cup faced poppers, stickbaits, heavy jigs, soft plastics and micro sized jigs caught fish. The latter is a new technique Richard Tong and the Kaiser guys specialise in. We have a number of areas, reefs and sea mounts perfect for this style of fishing, and discovered some more great spots with this last group of anglers.
Rob even landed a nice little jobfish from the jetty at Trees & Fishes one afternoon as the crew were washing down the boat (above). The water in front of the lodge drops into 60m deep within casting distance (300m in the middle) so plenty of good fish in the harbour!
Highlights from the trip included watching a 40kg dogtooth fearlessly cruise under our boat, Azzurra, aggressively take a jig as soon as it appeared, then hit the afterburners to find its freedom back in the reef!
Fishing another island was like being in an aquarium, with wahoo grabbing lures all around the boat in crystal clear waters. One time Rob’s stickbait was attacked by a 25kg wahoo close to the boat, the fish became airborne and left a decent gouge in the outboard engine cover before it made a re-entry into the water. The biggest GT smashed the ever reliable El Toro orange popper and would have gone close to 50kg. Angler Wee (Kaiser tester) did a great job to get her onboard in very short time, allowing a quick photo and release.
Species for the week included black jack trevally, emperors, coral and coronation trout, ever present red bass, GT’s and dogtooth tuna and more. With so many islands, reefs & places to fish it’s hard to do everything in 1 trip, so our guests from Singapore are already planning a return trip!
Ocean Blue is currently offering great deals for upcoming Vanuatu trips in November – go to the website for details at: www.oceanbluefishing.com
