Vanuatu Update

It has been another fantastic couple of week fishing here in Vanuatu.

The Port Vila Game Fishing Club hosted the annual “Doing a Doggy in the Dark”. This is tournament aimed at targeting dogtooth tuna and fishing commences late afternoon into the night. The winner was Johnny Ware the full time deck hand on V-Factor with a 45.4kg doggy. Johnny and skipper Andrew Hibgame have now won this tournament for the last 2 years so well done guys.

Kiwi’s Gary Townley and his mates Justin and Hayden made their 6^th annual trip to fish with yours truly on Shogun and took the Epi Trip option. Despite overcast weather and a couple of slightly rough days we got amongst some amazing fishing. The boys got cleaned up on quite a few dogtooth tuna that weren’t stoppable on light tackle however once the heavier gear was deployed we caught some good doggies and G.T’s  on the sea mound that dot the areas amongst the  picturesque island system. On return back to Port Vila 5 days later there were flags from the top of the outrigger to the bottom. The only species not caught was a sail fish, black and striped marlin. On departing the boat they proceeded to my booking office and booked 2 trips for next year.

John Duncan also returned with his mates Mark and Mike for their annual trip with us. These guys would have to receive the hard luck award; in 4 days fishing we had 6 marlin bits and only one capture. The fish were not feeding aggressively and were either not hooking up or falling of after 10 to 15 min. To further add insult we had a sail fall off after 5 minutes on the rod. The boys did see some good wahoo action.

On one of Johns lay days I took out a charter for John Robinson and his friends. It was a special occasion beings Johns birthday so the boys were pumped. During the boat brief before leaving the dock I asked John what he would like to catch and his reply was that he was keen to catch a sail fish. Within 10 minutes of lures in the water just off Pango Point 20min from the dock we had a 40kg sail hooked up and tagged in a further 12 minutes. Well done John and happy birthday. 

Crusot Charters have been going well with some great live-aboard action on Horizon. One of their better fish on a recent trip was a 50kg dogtooth tuna up close to Lopevi Volcano just off Epi Island.

We are looking forward to some great action in the coming weeks with marlin turning up in greater numbers and a lot more bait appearing on the surface and around the F.A.Ds.