Fiji Bula Bula... it's their winter now and it's a constant 28 - 30 degrees.
A good customer Mike Scotter planned to sail his 52ft yacht Black Adder back to NZ and was looking for crew did I want to come? Wedding over there in three weeks or fishing in a few days? the choice was easy.

She's a fine lady too

This is one of the fish from Denarau Island wharf, any idea what it is? After visiting all the islands for a few days we set our sights on the fishing.
The plan was to catch a GT on stickbait or popper so we set off in the tender in search of likely water with a smattering of local knowledge to point up in the general direction. It takes a while to cotton on to the tricks of finding these reef dwellers, they don't seem to just be anywhere and everywhere, at least in Fiji anyway.



The large treble hooks were a worry on the inflatable being so far from the yacht so we didn't try any fancy photos in it but here's how it went. see the black rock like things in the water (bomies) these were the ones that seemed to hold the GT's and they were sharp too as we found out on a couple of the bigger models.. we hooked some monsters but soon learned that you had to put the brakes on or you get snipped off on those benign looking boulders  

Finally I'm into one I could get under control with my light weight Carpenter rod and Saltiga GT6000

as you can see I'm in much need of sunshine ah it was glorious


and so was my first GT, this was what it was all about and now I think I'm in love

the Hammerhead Sharapoa doing the mean damage and receiving a bit of damage itself from the nasty teeth of these fish... na your staying away from the inflatable Mr!


Mike was pleased to land his first GT off his boat and couldn't get over how hard they pulled


This fish came from slightly deeper water but once again from a prominent bommie


The reef like Coral trout were good fun as well and even pulled string... everything loved the hammerhead! This fish was more of a red colour when hooked. I think it goes this colour when stressed out.



Well I had to leave this beautiful place to do battle with the Bluefin Tuna at Westport in the freezing cold, talk about extremes. Loving it. Thanks Mike and crew it was a pleasure.

Also called a Policeman Fish, as they patrol up and down beaches ready to pounce on anything in shallow water that looks edible.
That bottom fish isn't a coral trout though, it is a red bass or malobar snapper (depending on who you talk to), and the certainly do fight like stink...snapper on steroids!
Get lots of them on even small poppers around inner lagoon bommies like you have pictured there, got these in the solomons recently in pretty much exactly the same sorts of areas...

...this is a coral trout....


....those are some very nice looking GTs though.... ya gotta love the tropics, eh! ;-)

No no, the policeman is the second fish down Nirai.
The red bass is also call a fangamea or something in Nuie (Billy Ho remembers the name by rhyming it with that song "tanamera").
They are full of Cig pretty much everywhere apparently, but not in the western provinces of the solomons, where there is none! I know you cannot eat them in vanuatu either they say. Other fish well known for being full of cig, like say chinaman fish, are fine to eat in the sols as well.

What does interest me is how they are called red bass by some, and malobar snapper by others.... "local" names are always different, in the Western provinces of the sols they are called Ringo.
Muu... I think in Aitutaki "Muu" are sweetlips, we were fishing for them up there on the billy ho show trip. In the sols they are known as Osanga.
I DO wish these jolly natives would sort out their dratted names! :-)

*******! :-) Good lord, jellyfins. Haven't seen them in these here parts for years......
Get them in the sollies like that too though. :-) Roll on January, back to zipolo for 4 weeks! :-)