My cousin Dat and I had booked this trip some six months ago and finally the day arrived. We both said to ourselves that we would not expect too much from this trip after the disappointment of a Fijian GT popping trip we did last year which yielded very little fish.

This trip itinerary was to fish two days in La Foa and two days in Bourail. We exited the arrivals gate and was met by Etienne and straight away he tells us his throttle cable has snapped in the morning while launching his own boat and cant be fixed by tomorrow. Inside I’m going NOOOOOOO!! But Etienne says no problem, we fish four days in Bourail on Manu’s boat.

Even though we didn’t land any monsters, and by monsters i mean 40kg+, we were so satisfied by the 3rd fishing day we didn’t fish the 4th and decided to be tourists in Noumea.

But there were monsters out there, Dat managed to break Etienne’s PE10 rod and i broke 80lb braid trying to set the hooks on one of the GT’s.

I tell you these guys, Etienne and Manu are absolute champions. Very professional, very passionate about trying to get us our dream fish. I think they were more disappointed than us when we lost fish, and we lost alot. All you could hear in the background all day from Manu ” no slack no slack please” then Etienne ” OH NOOOO! S!:*t

Manu, Stephanie and Choko their dog run an excellent lodge, very comfortable and plenty to eat.

Etienne stayed with us the whole trip, prepared and cleaned our fishing gear each day. Nothing was a problem. When we decided to have a look in Noumea, even though he didn’t have to and wasn’t part of the trip, he drove us around Noumea showed us the sites and dropped us off at the hotel. And if that wasn’t enough he picked us up in the morning and drove us to the airport.

Fishing 10/10

Service 12/10

Thanks Ocean Blue and your team Etienne, Manu, Steph and Choko

Enjoy the video

Tu Tran