Next on the board is yours truly. Note the two in the boat behind me. The guy standing up is Donno, and he don't know how to fish. They are trying to steal our spots. Not to worry, they did not catch a thing.
Once we headed out to deeper water the fish started to change. Here is a double lined mackerel sporting some new piecing and preparing to go back to the deep.
While our little mackerel was down in the deep, Brendan managed to get connected to something rather large. After a good fight from 100 meters deep. We catch our first glimpse of an Almaco Jack. Here is the video and image.
Sorry the image is a little foggy. That was inside the camera housing.
Needless to say Brendan was over the top with his catch.
We try and do a bit of popping but the wind has kicked up and it is a lot of work just standing up in the boat. This does not deter Wayne and he continues to pop long after everyone else stopped.
His perseverance paid off. He lands a nice GT and Brendan lands a Bluefin at the same time.
Well we did not catch our target fish, Dogtooth Tuna, today, but we learned a lot about jigging in deep water. As a side benefit I am learning a lot about how to use my sounder to see fish at 100+ meters.
We are preparing to head out again and focus only on catching a Doggie.
Until then I leave you with a parting shot of happy and tired anglers.
This summer the weather has been amazingly calm. I know for those of you above the equator it is winter, but for those of us below, summer. We have had a lot of rain but also a lot of very calm days. That of course makes for great fishing.
Our good friend and artist extraordinaire, Nick Hannan of Marine Graphics Ink, is visiting from Melbourne Australia. As promised we take him out for a fish along with our friend Bendan Yee.
The weather was perfect and the fish reports were even better.
We were able to get right on the school without them dropping or spooking. This of course made the fishing all the more fun as all you had to do is flick your lure out and bang, your on.
All of this fish kissing has to do with our fishing club monthly competition. This month of course was kiss the fish.
After an hour of this hot and furious action it was time to move on to bigger and better fish. So a short run inside a lagoon and time to catch GT's.
A little background on Brendan first, he has never caught a GT in all the times he has been out with us so this was going to be his day of reckoning.
We motor over to some of our favorite bommies that we know will produce and start casting. I have Rosie take the wheel so I can give Brendan a few pointers and a head start.
But you know that is not gonna do. So I move the boat here and there, at here behest of course. Until finally she lands the GT that is deserved of it's picture with Rosie.
The days tally was 4 yellowfin, 5 skipjacks, 6 GT's. Not bad for 5 hours of fishing. Brendan was happy he caught his first GT, Nick was happy he was fishing, Rosie was happy she was fishing and I was happy just to be out there.
'Twas the day after Christmas and in all of the sea, not a ripple was seen, not even a swell. The sky was blue and the tides were right, we had no excuses, it was time for a fish fight.
We loaded the boat with rods and reels, nothing was left but to take hold the wheel.
Off we went like a bat out of hell, the fish were hungry we could tell.
Ok enough Xmas rhymes, time for some fishing porn.
First thing you will notice is there are no pictures of me. My back is still messed up and I tried to cast a stick bait but the pain was a little to much for this old fisherman. So with that being said, this is the view the Captain sees most of the day.
Yep, that's it, other people fishing and the sounder/GPS.
In case you are wondering, the round object on the left is a green coconut. (Just one of the many benefits of living in the tropics). It has been husked and put on ice so that the Captain has something refreshing to drink and stays happy even though he can't fish. The yellow water tight Pelican case holds the phones and ID's. The bulging at the top of the image is a life jacket pocket that is held up with a bungee cord, easy access.
Ok now you see what I did all day let's get into some fish.
First up was a very unlucky Barracuda. I say unlucky because here in Fiji we eat them and they taste great. So you know it went to the ice box first aid station.
Things got a bit quiet after the Bluefin, so off we went to a spot that has almost never let us down. The current was ripping around some bommies and there was a little bit of chop on the surface. Perfect for a GT to be hanging out in the eddies waiting for unsuspecting prey.
Rosie fished like a machine, she was unrelenting in her casts. As she scanned the surface of the water, pinpointing the next cast to a position that should hold fish.
Finally after a good long, hard slog, she was rewarded. The strike was hard and fast. The predator was dark in color and came from nowhere. It crashed the popper with an almighty splash. Once the hooks were set the fight was on. Line melted from the Stella as if there was no drag. Of course the drag was preset to 8kg or 17+lbs. Once the fish was off the bommie it was time to bring it home.
It was Rosies first Black GT. Short, fat, shaped like a barrel. Tough as nails and refused to smile for the camera. I swear he gave us the fin when we let him go.
Next up was the smaller cousin of grumpy. Yet he still put up a good fight. There was no coming in easy with this one either.
Now you would think that by now Rosie had had enough. Oh no, not even close. So what does she do? Adds one more to the list and just to be different, this one is small and full of piss and vinegar. It puts up a hell of a fight and even when it was in the boat it still fought and struggled. In fact we almost did not get a photo as the small GT tried to make a flying leap out of Rosie's arms into the water. Alas I was quick with the camera and here is the photo to prove it.
It is sad and disheartening to hear that people still leave fishing line around.
"The problem is not new — or limited to Prospect Park. Birders in other city and state parks report similar cases. The Ocean Conservancy in Washington points out that monofilament fishing line, which is made from an individual fiber of plastic, has been in use since World War II, and as the decades pass, it has accumulated in the water and on land. For a quarter-century, the conservancy has organized coastal cleanups throughout the world on a single day in September. Over that time, 1,340,114 pieces of discarded fishing line have been collected, according to the group.
“Plastics in general are the most persistent forms of marine debris,” said Nicholas Mallos, a conservation biologist with the conservancy. “Once monofilament line becomes loose in the marine environment, it poses a serious threat.”"
Please remember, do not leave fishing line in the water or on the land, dispose of it properly or recycle it. Talk to your tackle store about line recycling.
Line Recycling
Re spool and Recycle Public response to Berkley's innovative line and spool recycling program has been remarkable. Since 1990, the Berkley Conservation Institute, with the help of anglers everywhere, has recycled more than 9 million miles worth of fishing line. That's enough line to fill two reels for every angler in America.
And it continues to grow! Retailers and marinas have provided their support by displaying over 17,000 recycling collection bins. Magazines and radio stations have provided public service announcements.
Please continue your support. Pick up discarded fishing line and recycle it by dropping it off in a recycling collection bin, or mail it directly to our collection center at:
Berkley Recycling 1900 18th Street Spirit Lake, Iowa 51360
The Monofilament Recovery & Recycling Program (MRRP) is a statewide effort in Florida to educate the public on the problems caused by monofilament line left in the environment, to encourage recycling through a network of line recycling bins and drop-off locations in Florida , and to conduct volunteer monofilament line cleanup events.
My how time flies. I have actually not been out on our boat for almost four weeks.
Since my last post the weather turned to crap. I don't mean a little rain and wind, I mean blowing 25 knots for weeks on end and raining like the end of the world. Now I am usually the first to say, fish don't care if it rains, but this weather has been really nasty. We even have "very rough seas" warning put out by the weather people. So, needless to say not a lot of fishing has been done. On top of that I hurt my back,(more of that later).
We did get the chance to go away for a few days as it was Rosies birthday. I booked three nights at Volivoli Resort. I thought it might be romantic if we could do a bit of popper fishing with heavy gear. You know just the two of us and a skipper.
We stayed at Volivoli back in April, you can read about it here.
The owners are the Darling family and they are quite wonderful.
The staff are friendly and make you feel like family. Especially, Jenny, Sheba, Wise, Sasha, Pola, Ben, Bola, Amit, Lela, the night watchman, Puncture and all a few I can't remember their names.
We decided to take the back road to get there. We did this the first time also, only this time we had our own truck not a rental car.
You can see the rod tube sticking out of the back end of the truck. I think we had more fishing gear than anything else.
Only about 15 km is not paved and even that was not bad. The new road is being built full swill and soon it will be a breeze to get to the top end of the island.
The next day we had to wait for the boats to return as the resort was full of scuba divers. We had a leisurely morning and snapped a few pictures for you all.
When the boats finally returned and we got to go out, the weather had turned for the worst. Never mind, we are going fishing. Our captain was new to GT popping, but he new where to take us and I could direct the rest. We had a hell of a session. We landed six fish and raised another six in 1 1/2 hours.
This video shows how tough the these fish are. I am using 80lb braid with 120lb twisted leaders and 12kg of drag. By the end os this session I had pinched my sciatic nerve in my lower back. Although I fished the second day also I have paid a heavy price, as I am still laid up with a bad back.
Our second day out fishing proved to be harder than the first. We woke up early on to be greeted by cyclone type conditions.
By noon Rosie and I decided to head to the bar as the weather was not letting up. Well we all know what happens when you go to the bar at noon, you start drinking. And drink we did until after 3:00 pm, when Nick said, "Look the weather is letting up, let's go fish".
So we did. Only this time it was rougher than before. To be honest, it was too rough for fishing in the boat we were in, but we had a few drinks in us and we wanted to fish.
After pounding our way out to the reefs we managed to land a few fish.
