Hi All,
A few weeks ago my mate Brett from Tairua Butchery came round for a Monday morning coffee.
"Why don't we go to Tonga for a weeks fishing bro?"
Brett's mate Terry (the owner of
Cascade Charters) has been taking his boat Morning Glory up to Tonga for the last few winters while Cascade is doing game fishing and whale watching trips up there, and had invited Brett up to check the place out. Vava'u is one place I've always wanted to fish and so a
fter a long NZ winter I didn't take much convincing to join him.
We'd tried to talk our mate Crowey into coming as well and a comment made at kids sport the Sunday before departure, something along the lines of "this time next Sunday we will be drinking cold beer in Tonga", clinched the deal and he booked his flights in. Rounding off the crew were keen fishos Corey and Mike from Tauranga.
We took a Friday morning flight from Auckland to Tongatapu, then a connecting flight on to Vava'u and come 4pm we were settled into the Aquarium on the waterfront having a nice cold one
We hooked up with Mike from Cascade, and some of his mates who were over for a trip with him, had a mean feed of mahimahi (couldn't wait!) in town, and a few beers, duty free and kava later woke up a little rusty :-)
The boys had a Japanese whale watching crew who were departing that day, so we went and checked out the local markets, stocked up on some fruit and veges and supplies for the boat and come midday we were setting sail with Terry and Charles aboard Morning Glory. We headed out to the North FAD on the way to our anchorage for the night and picked up dinner, fresh mahimahi - chur!
Our Anchorage for the night was Hunga Lagoon, and we steamed through a tiny gap to find a primo sheltered haven on the other side. What a spot! Rafted up with Cascade, there were many choice bombs from the tuna tower, amazing fresh nigiri and sashimi care of the sushi guru Charles, and a very good nudge at the duty free.
Our first proper fishing day we steamed south down to one of the banks where a lot of the boys action had been lately and no sooner had we arrived than the shotgun rigger popped, we looked back to see what had taken the little flying fish like bullet lure and all of a sudden there was a wall of white water, then a Blue Marlin was trying to overtake the boat - BOOM! What a performance this thing just went nato beside the boat while we were clearing the gear before setting off towards the horizon.
Crowey, who was still suffering the after effects of a big night the night before was buckled in to his first marlin
After a dogged fight Crowey had his first marlin. On ya bro!
Our next anchorage for the night was on another level again - Port Morelle - what a spot - this is paradise! We were in nice and early and swum to shore for a look around
Followed up by another next level feed - raw marlin in Gochujang sauce (Korean curry paste), fresh mahimahi and yellowfin sashimi
Plan the next morning was to steam out to some northern seamounts, we got out there to find things pretty dead, and we were returning hoping to pick up something on the way back in when Corey's homemade JoeYee imitation on the short rigger got popped and the 80W started howling. Looked like a big fish, we'd seen a bit of a splash but first thoughts were a very big tuna, and this was affirmed by the line heading straight down and at this stage a very empty 80W. Corey went to work lifting this fish up but very little headway was made, and then it looked very much like we might have a dead blue on our hands. Up to sunset it was and Terry would get some angle and plane it up a bit, then it would be Coreys job to gain some line as the boat came back
5 hours of grunt work by Corey later - BOOM! a very solid Blue Marlin came up in the dark
She was a late one getting home, 11.00pm by the time we were back in port, a quick steak tonight for a red meat fix, a rum and we hit the hay. The Blue went off to a very grateful village
The next day we headed back down the southern bank it was all on, there were birds everywhere and Mike and the boys on Cascade had been having a blinder, smashing the yellowfin, and proceeded to tag a couple of Blues in the process as well. We were marking some mean bait and individual tuna marks off the side on the Furuno
We came away with a very productive day
A sailfish for Brett, his first, came up like a stripy on the biggest lure in the spread on the long corner
A blue tag and released for Mike on the same lure
And plenty of mahi's and yellowfin
One of the bonuses of fishing in Tonga is there is never a dull day. From July to October each year humpback whales turn up in the warm waters of Tonga to breed and give birth to their calves. Every day we'd see at least thirty whales, jumping spectacularly clear of the water.
The water is probably the bluest, clearest water I've seen anywhere and the diving looks as if it would be amazing. Terry took us to a couple of very cool sea caves, one was an open air cave, packed full of bait fish
The other, Mariners cave, we free dived under a rock ledge to come up in an underwater bubble cave, pretty cool!
Our last day saw a constant stream of these fellas hitting the deck, so it seemed the logical thing to do to chow down on some mahimahi burgers for lunch! Mmmm, sunshine, fresh mahimahi and papaya, washed down with cold steinlager, doesn't get much better
Never got tired of the fresh nigiri that came out of Charles' galley
Final night in Vava'u and Terry had organised a little local waterfront bar owned by some locals to spit roast a goat for us…the local way..pretty choice feed!
All in all a pretty wicked week away catching fish with a bunch of good fellas and just what I like, eating the spoils of the fishing while you're doin it. We bought back some fresh mahi and yellowfin back to NZ and have had a couple of nights of enjoying that with the neighbours over for dinner. Just awesome eating fish!
Can't say enough of Terry's hospitality. We were very lucky to spend a week on such and awesome rig. Morning Glory is a dream boat for a game fishing live aboard trip. Cheers to Charlie and Mike for some great hospitality as well.
Cascade looks like a sweet boat for liveaboard fishing as well, and I'm looking forward to hopefully doing a trip to the Ranfurly at some stage in the future.
Now, back to reality!
Cheers
Carl