well we departed auckland on an Air New Zealand A320 and settled in for the 4 hour flight. time passed quickly, and before we knew it we were cruising into what is known as 'The Rock'. looking out the window showed beautiful cobalt blue water, several fads and beautiful looking coral reef edges that just screamed fish. a smooth landing and we touched down. stepping out theplane the first thing that hit me was the temperature. very hot compared to auckland, about 30 degrees (compared to 16 in Aucks) and hot, and sunny!

it seemed like the entire island had turned out to welcome us, as the plane landing was a thrill for the kids so a lot of people had come down to see it, also many family members were coming home. there is only one flight a week, so they are well recieved when they arrive.

we had hired two trucks from Willie Saniteli, you'll hear a lot about this bloke, a real top man very helpful and the local entreprenuer. we headed off to our accomodation to get settled in and get all the fishing gears ready! 

we stayed at the Matavai resort. it has recently been refurbished, and it is very nice to stay at, with airconditioning (a god send at night!) epic breakfasts (buffet style, classic nz fryup styles ) and fantastic staff. also had flatscreens in the rooms, with sky pacific which was awesome as it meant we could watch the ab's demolish argentina, woohoo!

here is the link http://www.matavairesort.com/

we shot down to the wharf at Alofi, the main 'harbour'. no luck, but it was the first night, and with a full day planned for tomorrow we hit the sack.

the next day dawned warm and sunny, so my mate Sean and i hit the wharf, taking our light spinning gear and my heavy topwater set. we had a great time on the light gear 

we caught several long toms, all fish were caught on silver hex wobblers, there slay fish and are very cheap and effective! Sean got dealt to by a couple of other fish, and i got my arse whipped by a big stingray  ate my flying fish bait in front of us, then proceeded to rip 30m of 80lb braid off in a few seconds and busted me off on the coral. we tried to pull line off the reel afterwards (finnor offshore 6500) and couldnt do it unless we had gloves on so our hands didnt get cut up. very strong fish!

we also went to a local market to have a look round, and the local school kids put on a performance for all the tourists

 and also to have a look at the locals 'pet uga (pronounced oonga) or coconut crabs. 

these suckers were huge, and their nippers can easily take fingers off! they were tied up with very heavy mono, to a varety of things, tent pegs etc for the tourists to get a good look at them 

this little guy poked his pet with his toy gun, and, well, that was the end of his toy 

gives you an idea of size, note the remnants of his gun haha

anyway, we headed back to the resort and kicked back for a bit then heded out to dinner at the 'washaway cafe'. this place is unique, as it is the only self serve bar. yes. you read right, you walk into the bar, get yourself a drink, and write it in a book, same goes for meals, order what you want, write it in the book and they bring it out to you. you pay at the end. awesome place, only open on sundays though so dont forget! run by Willie Saniteli, and the fish paninis are epic!

heres a link...http://www.niuetotal.com/attractions-avatele-ing.htm

the next day we headed arond the island to do some snorkelling. the vis here is superb, and offshore it is 40m plus. we stayed inside the reef, but the vis was still 15-20m plus. i havent got the video sorted yet as there is so much, but here are some screen shots....all shot on my contour 1080

if you are wondering why the 'top layer' of water is so unclear, it is all the freshwater coming up out of the limestone, into the saltwater. it is like putting oil into water, its really weird. there was a real definitive thermocline as well, dive down into the clear saltwater and it was warm as, but on top it was pretty nippy. water was super warm though, boardies the whole time no need for a wetsuit here

this mad bugger was an aussie dive instructor, he was trying to grab this sea snakes tail- they will kill you and there is no antidote  

then another of the dive instructors went down to try and find it under this rock, they are apparently pretty docile, but i wasnt going anywhere near them haha

there was heaps of these snakes around, we saw about 20-25 while we were in niue, most right in close but a couple were a bit further out.

heres a longtom 

heres a good example of the fresh water oil effect

under this was gin clear

these next two shots are examples of how camouflaged piper are.....

can you see it?

how about now? these screen shots are 2 seconds apart, and i have moved a metre closer

back to fishing.....

here are a couple of reef critters i caught off the edge of the wharf at Alofi, berley works wonders!!

this fish is without a doubt one of the coolest looking fish i have ever seen and will ever see!!

some sort of parrotfish, caught on a hunk of tuna out of a can  

off the end of the wharf is where we caught all of our fish. in the background is a coral bommie, and a big drop off next to it, this is here all the big fish cruise past, and we saw a couple of big bluefin trevally cruise past but couldnt hook them up, also where i got dealt to by the stingray and some big reef sharks cruised through there as well.

caught off the ramp at avatele (pronounced avasele)

our main reason for coming (well mine haha) was to go on a charter. we hired Willie Saniteli, and his boat Sarah, a senator rc500. Willie knows how to catch fish! he is also very knowledgeable about Niues history, and owns what seems like half the services on the island (he is very entrepreneurial, and is a really good bloke, cant recommend him highly enough. he is the one that took matt watson uga hunting and night diving)

Niue is called the rock for a reason. a road cone describes it best, the top 5 cm is niue and the rest is below sea. there is max 20m of reef that sticks out from the island and then it just drops off. to put it in perspective, we are fishing in 500 m of water in this photo

there are many fads (fish aggregation device) located around the island, some are only 500m from shore. catching every type of pelagic from these is more than possible, so me and Sean decided to borrow a tandem kayak and head out to the fad off avatele with jigging gear. and we got dealt to. no hookups, but on one drop, seans jig came back up looking like this (these were taken back home if you're wondering, and yes these are legit)

note the missing hook that was attached by 300lb kevlar cord, one little bump is all he felt and it was gone the wahoo have incredibly sharp razor like teeth, so it was wire assists after that!

mine came back looking like this  we didnt get a hookup though, next time i go back im going to rubberband the assist down, because the wahoo are so accurate i think they may have been hitting the jigs on the drop, worth a go anyway

this was a real good colour according to Willie, at the end of the report i will put up a recommended gear list if you are thinking of going.

some baitfish under the kayak at the fad

the scariest bit, was that the next day when we went out with Willie, was we stopped to have a jig at the same fad. i was jigging, and happened to look over and see a rather large brown thing in the water, that turned into a rather large tiger shark  needless to say, we didnt go back out in the kayak again  yeah i know, pussies hahaha

this lure is the one that Willie gave me to bring back to nz to try and find a replacement for, hopefully the one i ordered from the other side of the world turns up soon  he said this was the best lure he had

brand new to four wahoo later (one in the 30kg bracket)

needless to say us kiwis were very impressed at the indents left in this poor lure  RIP

so our first day out with Willie. we left at 6 am, to a beautiful sunrise, and proceeded trolling south around the island. our first hit didnt happen for a while, but when it did jesus did that tld 30 scream!! absolutely freaking amazing speed, people who have hooked wahoo will know what im talking about it was unreal. anyway, a short time later Sean had his Wahoo on board.

as the fish first saw the boat, second after this it was gone haha, screamed off another 50m

underwater shot of it as it comes to the gaff

on board!

soon after, we had a hit that emptied the tld 30 in around 12-14 seconds!! 

Willie had to whip the boat around to chase it but unfortunately the wahoo fell off, Willie reckoned it was in the 30kg bracket, but as the saying goes if you dont weigh it dont say it! gives us an excuse to go back anyway lol

had another hit afterwards and after a good scrap scored this wahoo

our biggest for the trip, Wille reckoned around 18-20 kg stoked as!

dad also nailed a small barracuda.

our next day out we really wanted a mahimahi so headed 'outwide' about 3 km out haha, to a fad. technically its open ocean out there though so not to be taken lightly. it was really really rough as you can see

we trolled past the fad, and i was trolling a nomad ulua 120 stickbait (wahoo love em according to Willie) and a mahimahi hooked up briefly but dropped off after about 3 seconds  

we stopped and tied up to the fad and i started jigging. i was using a 125g raider, as Willie had pointed it out and said 'that one'. when in rome!

dropped it down and boom!

made my trip! only a small one (bout 12-13kg) it was an awesome fight on the trinidad 16n, and a 200g bbe jig rod haha. made a real fast run taking about 100m, then boosted to the surface and went airborne! so cool, unfortunately we dint hook anymore up, sean got bit off on this jig afterwards too so lost the lucky one haha, dad lost a mahimahi too, and i had a hook up on a shimano ocea stickbait, the mahimahi were making really fast passes behind the lure, they did this about 10 times before one finally hooked up, only to pull the hook a short while later  next time mr mahimahi......

we continued trolling, and dad scored another couple of wahoo near the fad

awesome looking fish, check out them teefs

and the next one

this shot is about 50 m away!!

next to the boat

dad with his two wahoo

we then headed around to the eastern side of the island (where we did most of our fishing with Willie on the first day). it was very sloppy and confused around here as the ocean swells would hit niue then rebound. a good term is washing machine. howver, nothing the little senator could handle, and although it was rough we never felt concerned as this was 'calm' for this side of the island according to Willie.

Sean had a solid hookup and up came this big barracuda (the tropical version not the worm infested filthy barracouta we get in nz, and these ones are beautiful to eat)

if you look carefully below the one we have hooked there is another one shadowing it, we didnt see it at the time though

it was a fatty!

and that was the end of the fish we got with Willie. i cannot recommend him highly enough, he is more than happy for you to take your own gear out, knows where to catch the fish and how to catch them. he is a real top bloke, if you are heading there give him an email and he will sort you out. his charter is called 'fishaway charters'

some awesome sunsets too

look familiar?

the custom in niue, is that the charter skipper keeps the catch to supply his cafes, but Willie gave us half a wahoo to take back to the resort as they cook it for you.

entree- wahoo sashimi, yeah buddy! some of the best ive ever had

heaven

then the main course-pan seared, crumbed and battered 

Niue was hit by a category 5 cyclone in 2005, with winds of up to 296 kph  and waves of 50m + double 

to put this in perspective, waves were washing armchair sized boulders off the ocean floor, over the cliff above me and into the bar above where we are. 

mother nature cannot be tamed, that is for certain. here are some pics from afterwards, we were fishing off the end of that wharf........insanely powerful

saw this, thought it was photo worthy 

some pretty rugged country

that pretty much ends our trip. we had an awesome time, the people are so friendly (everyone waves as they drive past), they were very welcoming and hospitable. prices are pretty similar to NZ, howver there is NO fishing gear, you need to take everything with you. there is a small selection of hooks, lure skirts and other terminal tackle but bugger all else so take heaps.

places to eat, i would highly recommend

-Washaway Cafe ONLY OPEN ON A SUNDAY

-Falala Fa

-The Crazy Uga

-the Matavai itself, however we wanted to spread our dollar around the local communiy so only ate here twice including our Wahoo we had cooked.

Get in touch with Willie for your rental cars and Charter. he will sort you out!

Gear to take- boardshorts/shorts x 4, one pair of pants, 5x shirts, gruts, a hat! sunblock, and some tropical strength mossie repellant, bushmans plus with deet was good as there is dengue fever over there now. take at least 30spf sunscren, 15 doesnt cut it.

fishing gear- make sure its all good quality- cheap stuff will get destroyed- line, rod, reel, lures, hooks on lures etc all has to be top notch or you will get dealt too.

take a spinning set- i took a tcurve saltwater spin 5-10kg and my penn slammer 360 with 12 pd exceed fireline. handled most of the fish we caught on the wharf, some bigger models dealt to me haha

i took about 20 small silver hex wobblers, 14g -30g. these work very well. i only lost one, but my mate lost 10 so it pays to take more than you think you will need. sabikis would work well if you want to catch lots of reef critters. 20lb trace is what we used but 30lb flurcarbon would be good too.

topwater- pe8! took my finnor offshore 6500, 80lb braid on a custom cts topwater rod

dont take poppers, they dont work! dont ask me why they just dont. fished with them heaps and no luck, willie said they didnt, never have. stickbaits do however, wahoo love em. swap the hooks and splitrings for owners, that way you wont get smashed. take about 15 to make sure, oceas, uluas, RALs ones that can handle some punishment! 

take a jigging set, i took my trini 16na on a 200g bbe with 50lb powerpro depth hunter, but felt rather undergunned haha, pe8 would be good, something with lots of drag and lots of line!

take about 15-20 jigs with wire assists!!! silver was the best colour along with pink/white. blue also got hit. heavy leader for jigging and topwater is recommended, around 130lb we used, but 150lb is a good idea

we also took two trolling rods, 24kg minimum. a 50w would be best as you need a lot of capacity.

email Willie and ask him what lures to take as he will know what to use at that time of year. this was the best lure for us, along with rigged flying fish

it was a tap head, filled with lead  making the best of what you have has worked here, as it gets down really deep, and as it is rigged on wire you only need to replace the skirts. at the end of our second day there were 2 strands of skirt left 

hope you enjoyed the read, dont hesitate to ask a question and if you are planning a holiday go to Niue, it really is an undiscovered fishing paradise.

churr

By the way, those fish do not look like Long Tom, I think they are cornet fish, long tom have a mouth full of very sharp teeth. I have caught a few cornet fish on fly and they pull quite well for a fish with almost no tail! They are supposed to taste good as well, did you eat any of them?

All the best.

Mike

they werent long toms then as they had no teeth, cheers for the heads up. only fish we ate was the wahoo, let all the others go although a local was horrified when i put the parrotfish back haha