Coral coast fishing - fiji

[BigHorse]

Hello raiders, during the holidays i was fortunate to go out to fiji with my family. We ended up going on a fishing charter where we went reef fishing and trolling. along with the charter we had made a friend in the village in we traded our old rugby boots for her son for a fishing spot, a win win. 

Reef action - 

We woke up at 6:30 as departual time from the jetty was 7. But the captain was 40 min late which i will talk about later so we ended up leaving at 7:40. so we headed out and ended up finding a reef to fish. we where on the boat along with the captain, deckhand, a husband a wife and another father and son. the son got a nice fish first drop i forget speices but it was 40 odd cm. nothing much happened over the next hour. we where using bontio fillet i remember fishing in 60m water. i wanted to use a jig but the captin insisted i stayed with bait. My dad eneded up bringing up a 60cm emperor which i wont show photo for privacy reason.

Game Fishing - 

Then after seeing birds and an unanimous decision we all decided to go for a trawl as the other day the other boat had caught 6 mahi mahi. After not long trolling we drove into some birds. then out of nowhere a big mahi mahi jumps out of the water..... then it hits the lure and the reel screams for 5 seconds before i goes silent. im guessing it hit the lure and not the hooks. after another hit we got nothing for a while. during this period i climbed up into the flypit and holy, it was a beautiful sight. this was my first time fishing offshore and i felt at home. i absolutely loved it. After looking for birds in the flypit we noticed a bunch of birds coming towards us all of us get exited and eyes are glued to the wash from the boat. Watching from the flu=ypit was the best. i saw a big black shape follow the left outrigger. i screamed out fish behind left outrigger thinking to myself this aint a mahi mahi this is something big. then zzzzzzzz the reel goes off. then a jump. it was the first time other then a flattie jump that i had seen a fish jump in person, and the rush of adrenaline was amazing. sadly it wasnt my dedicated rod so all i could do was offer encouragement to the angler. i thought it was a marlin but as the fish got closer it was obvious it was a sailfish, also the fight wasn't as good it only lasted 10 or so minutes. After the fish was gaffed we steamed back home to the resort, where we each took a fillet the the rest was given the the local village. 

 

Estuary - 

After making the trade with to lady from the village we headed away from the resort as it had a no fishing policy. we ended up fishing a little creek where i got my first Gt on a mmd splash prawn, also my first on topwater and a moses perch which was taken on a hardbody deep diver.

 

Overall, it was an amazing trip and i am sad to come back to this miserable weather 🤣

BTW the captin i think was etheir high, drunk or on fiji time and luckly none of us got hurt so all good!

 

Edited July 19, 2022 by mrsswordfisherman
Pics resized

[DrRaymondSnapper]

He'd probably been getting stuck into the kava. Its pretty popular in Fiji.

[Isaac Ct]

Great report mate, brilliant fish. 
Well done

[Squidless]

Looks like an awesome trip. Thanks the report, all these reports to great places definitely keeps the mind off work and the poor weather here.

 

[Little_Flatty]

Nice report @BigHorse. Always good to get the chance to wet a line overseas!

[bessell1955]

Great sailfish.

 

[masterfisho7]

Top report and love the photos well done

[big Neil]

Great report. That Sailfish is a decent size, must have had some pretty heavy gear to bring it aboard in 10 minutes.

Cheers, bn

[Rebel]

Super report.

Top photos.

Well done.

[Aerialangler]

Thanks for sharing the highlights of the trip to Fiji! 
 

well done 
 

I'm heading there in October, got my hopes up now 😃