Fishing the Solomon Islands

It is 20 years since I first went to the Solomon Islands and 17 since I was last there, so when the Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau invited me up for a flying visit in early May, I wondered how much things would have changed from my earlier trips. Back in the 1990s, their tourism was pretty much restricted to a trickle of adventurous divers drawn to the sunken wrecks of WWII, and the place was not on the angler’s horizon at all. But by 1998 there was a steady stream of adventurous Kiwi fishos visiting the Solomons and a number of resorts catering for them, backed by a direct Solomons Airlines flight from Auckland to Honiara.

Then, in early 1999, tensions between the local people on Guadalcanal and more recent migrants from the neighbouring island of Malaita erupted into civil war, centred around the capital of Honiara, sending the fledgling fishing tourism industry tumbling down. It was not until 2003 that a Pacific-based peacekeeping force – the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) – intervened, enabling the Solomons people to begin rebuilding their economy and for life to return to normal. 

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A dozen years later, things are looking up. Much of the infrastructure has been greatly improved and the Solomons are looking to kick-start their tourism industry again. Although Solomon Airlines hope, in the medium term, to re-establish direct flights to Auckland, currently flights leave from Brisbane (and soon, Sydney), requiring a connecting flight for Kiwis. 

At the Brisbane Airport I ran into a couple of Aussie fishing journalists, Dave Randle and Stefan Hansson, who were also making the trip. Eventually we were ensconced in the Heritage Park Hotel in Honiara, a new facility built only a couple of years ago. Clean and comfortable it is up there with any hotel in the Pacific, and provided a little touch of luxury at each end of our trip. This is a marked improvement from what had been available in the past and sets the tone for the ‘new’ Solomons. 

The next morning we were on the early flight to Santa Isabel, one of the large islands of the Solomon group I’d not visited before. This is no great trick, however, as there are around 1,000 islands in the chain, ranging from towering volcanic peaks swathed in dense rainforest to tiny white sand cays with a handful of coconut palms. Peering down from the window of our little plane, I was reminded why I had been so captivated by the Solomons in the past; the place is still stunningly beautiful, picture-postcard Pacific.

We touched down on the Suavanao airstrip and were transferred to nearby Papatura Island Resort by longboat. This is largely a surf resort with basic leaf-haus facilities, but like most beach resorts, they will take you fishing as well. Pausing only to rig some tackle, we were straight out on the water. 

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Stefan and I shared a longboat with genial local guide Willie. It was ten minutes across the lagoon to the nearest reef entrance, and only ten minutes after setting some gear, a sailfish smashed a small skirted lure and took to the air! We didn’t get that one, or hook the two subsequent strikes – one of which looked to be a decent Spanish mackerel and left deep gouges in my lure’s head. Dave, fishing from another boat, also had his chances at sailfish, but likewise, failed to capitalise. 

A quick prospect with a popper saw a blacktip reef shark crash my surface lure (a regular happening in the Solomons), then it was back to Papatura for a late lunch followed by a poke around the bottom reaches of a mangrove creek. Stef pulled a nice mangrove jack off a snag, and half-a-dozen trevally of various types came to our lures. Then it was off to troll for wahoo without success, apart from a couple of half-hearted knocks.

That evening, replete with a meal of mud crabs and coral trout, I reflected on the day. There were a lot of hot-looking fishing options in the area, but with a full moon the bite was sluggish, and we were due out of the area on the next morning’s plane. This is the problem with this sort of trip (called a ‘famil’ in the travel industry); you try to fit in too many venues and spend more time travelling than concentrating on working out the fishing in one area or a particular type of fishing.

Next morning I was back on the water at dawn to give it a last try, this time fishing with Dave. We only had a couple of hours, and soon tripped over several fast-moving schools of mackerel tuna (kawakawa) crashing small baitfish. I love spin-fishing for tuna, and a small Black Magic jig turned the trick for me, hooking a fish nearly every cast, while Dave persisted bravely, trying to hook one on a fly-rod.

It was a fun session, made even better upon dropping small jigs to the bottom, resulting in a range of colourful reefies hooking up, including coronation trout and triggerfish. Stef, on the other boat, managed a spanish mackerel, but all too soon it was time to go, and moments after winding in the last line, the boat pulled up at the end of the airstrip and we were frantically packing down the last of our gear as the Twin Otter touched down.

After flying back to Honiara, that evening we touched down at Ghizo in the Solomon’s Western Province, followed by a short boat-ride to Fatboys Resort. An odd name but a great spot, with the restaurant and bar out on the end of a long wharf and the deck of my large and comfortable room cantilevered out over the water. I dropped off my case and watched a school of diamond-scale mullet mooch along under my balcony. 

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Seafood is big in the Solomons, and we were soon seated with spectacular-looking meals of painted crayfish spread in front of us.

Fatboys is a multipurpose resort, with fishing, snorkelling and a wide range of other water sports catered for. The area around the bar is a ‘no fishing’ zone, with magnificent white sand, coral gardens, colourful giant clams and a great population of fish, including the ‘pet’ blacktip sharks. These are mostly a small timid species, and we snorkelled with them several times without any problems.

Early next morning we were on the water again. It was a bit rainy, but you are never cold in the Solomons! Our longboat was not set up for fishing – it didn’t have any rod holders or a chilly bin – but resort manager Mano was all ears as we explained the few basics needed to suit the boat more for fishing. He was obviously keen to improve the services offered by Fatboys.

We trolled minnows and cast poppers along the reef edge. The fishing was improving as we came off the full moon, and we soon had a couple of barracuda, a coral trout and three Spanish mackerel in the boot. Poppers produced another blacktip reef shark, some gold-spot and giant trevally, and another ‘cuda. 

After a leisurely lunch, the afternoon fined up and we hit the water again with a similar plan to the morning. Again the minnows proved productive, with three more spanish mackerel hitting the decks before we found some baitfish to cast poppers at. 

A toothy critter chopped off Stef’s popper, but it bobbed to the surface shortly after and we retrieved it. Tying it back on, Stef was soon nailed by a nice GT. Fishing variety is the spice of life I reckon, and variety is what the Solomons is all about. We already had 15 species to our credit, and the fishing was improving all the time.

While Fatboys is a great spot to take your partner and/or family for a getaway, a big grin spread over my face when, the next morning, the hottest new sport-fishing boat in the Solomons pulled up to the jetty, driven by an old friend from my earlier days in these islands. Better still, we would be fishing our way to a resort that has been one of my favourite spots in all the Pacific…

   This article is reproduced with permission of   
New Zealand Fishing News

July 2015 - by Sam Mossman
Re-publishing elsewhere is prohibited

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