My family and I are pretty seriously considering setting up a charter boat in Aitutaki to do some pretty serious and specialised fishing. As most of you who have tried to fish most places in the Pacific, the vast majority of charter operations only offer very limited options (ie. tow lures around FADs on minimum 37kg game gear).

We are looking at setting up a business that caters to the more serious fishermen amongst us who don't want to winch fish on stand up gear. We would obviously offer these day-trip charters to cater for those who are that way inclined but the fishery up there is far too good to have trolling as the only option. We would be setting up with top of the line jigging and popping gear and specialise in this type of fishing.

Aitutaki is absolutely crawling with GTs, and our last trip there we averaged roughly 20 strikes per day fishing only a couple of hours a day. There are some absolute donkeys amongst these fish as well, and plenty of 40kg plus fish to be had. There is also great dogtooth tuna jigging and we got absolutely spanked by some serious fish. All of this is within half an hour from the ramp and there is plenty of great accommodation and it is an amazing place to take the family with a stunning lagoon, endless beaches and incredible snorkelling.

However the market we really want to try and target is the guys who want a proper fishing adventure. The boat we are setting up will be very capable of undertaking single or multi day trips to an uninhabited atoll called Manuae, approximately 50 miles from Aitutaki. This atoll is very rarely fished by the locals and when they do, it is meat-gathering of wahoo etc. 

This place is swarming with GTs and Doggies, and the locals refuse to troll too close to the reefs because these fish ruin their gear. This charter will be the first to throw poppers or jigs in this incredible area which is quite literally untouched.

So basically what I'm wanting to know is if there is a market in NZ for this kind of charter. I'm hoping its handiness to NZ compared to other locations will help as well as the attraction of Aitutaki even without the fishing. We would also have part shares in on of the premier resorts (Samade) on Aitutaki and be able to offer very competitive package deals.

The pricing we are currently looking at would be roughly $2500pp for a full two days and one night fishing in Manuae including all gear, food, government taxes (Manuae requires government permission to enter the lagoon) and beverages. This would be world-class fishing in an untouched location that is easy to get to from NZ.

Any feedback regarding any of this would be greatly appreciated, this idea is in its early-middle stages and I am super keen to get it off the ground.

Cheers

Cheers for your feedback, these are all things that we are looking at adjusting, the pricing etc. is just going off the initial info I have been forwarded. It has been forwarded to me for any input and changes, and the first thing I was going to suggest was having a boat cost rather than a per person cost, and a set price per person for food etc.

The boat will be capable of comfortably catering for 2-4 people on these longer trips with 5 being the maximum.

We will also offer a better rate if the customer brings their own gear, however speaking from experience it can be difficult getting enough gear and lures etc. on the smaller airline from Raro to Aitutaki so we would need to be properly kitted out as well.

Cheers for the positive feedback, the more we get, the more excited I'm getting about getting this operation up and running sooner rather than later.

Aitutaki is such a phenomenal place, it literally has it all. Perfect beaches, one of the best lagoons in the world, stunning snorkelling and diving, world class Bonefishing and an untouched GT and Doggie fishery only a couple of hours away.

 

Will definitely keep you posted as to how the setup goes, would be great if we can possibly work in with existing operations to provide package deals catering to bonefish as well.