Jason Rigg & his mates came over for a fishing adventure, based out of Trees & Fishes in Port Havannah. A great bunch of guys that love their fishing and make the most of any situation.
They were a lot of fun onboard and up for anything, so we did it all, popper casting, jigging, trolling, down rigging, gamefishing, even deep sea dropping for sea bream, bass and cod.
Day 1: We put a few lures on the troll and caught a nice bull mahi-mahi and a decent couple of wahoo. Then the guys wanted to try a bit of jigging for dogtooth, didn’t take long to locate the fish and the guys landed a few smaller models and bust off on bigger fish. Back to the lodge for some well earned cold ales!
Day 2: The wahoo are in good numbers right now so I took them to an area that always does well for me, we trolled some lures, caught 2 and dropped another couple. Then we came closer inshore to do some casting around the island fringes and washes, you can get anything here, from GT’s, jobfish, trout, bass, big cod etc.
Jeff pulled the hooks on a solid GT just at the boat. We also picked up a nice bluefin trevally, they look great and go hard, always good for photo and release. Guys called it a day & back to the lodge for some well earned cold ales!
Day 3: We did an early start and went to a remote seamount. Over there everyone landed yellowfin tuna between 15 and 20 kgs and about a heap of smaller ones also between 5 and 10kgs. A few sharks were around as well. We lost a couple of nice tuna from the sharks and caught 2 bronze whalers of about 40kgs and one big one over 100 kilos (released). We also got into a few big rainbow runners. Topped it off with some deep dropping for some Golden Big eye Bream for the table! Big day on the water, the guys worn out and headed back to the lodge for some well earned cold ales!
Day 4: We decided to go to Monument rock, an impressive towering island monolith similar to Balls Pyramid at Lord Howe, impressive scenery! Over there we got one nice dogtooth of about 20kgs, and a few wahoo also (15-20kg). We also got a couple of big barracuda. A few marlin were around also, but no hookups. At stumps, they headed back to the lodge for some well earned cold ales!
Day 5: Wind had picked up slightly overnight. The guys wanted to try for marlin so we focused well offshore, raising a few blue marlin. One hit the long rigger but in the wind & swell the line wrapped on the top roller of the rod and the line snapped. Tough break, but this happens in gamefishing! Then we just stopped and watch the marlin jumping for about 5 mins until it dislodged the lure in it’s mouth.
Day 6: The boys were tired from all this fishing so they decided a visit to town was on the cards then back to the
anglers lodge to relax and wind down at the bar….
Andrea Traverso,
Skipper “Azzurra” – Ocean Blue Vanuatu
