I've tee'd up a bit of a family reunion on the coral coast in April staying at the Warwick and my biggest goal is to get my old man out on a charter to catch one of the local sport fish - Mahi / GT / Waho etc. 

I've spent ages looking up the local charters and they're pretty pricey and would love some recent experiences to justify dropping the big bucks on those trips. 

I've also heard alot about the local tour operators who work on the fringes of the resorts and can suss out reasonable deals on some good trips. Anyone have any recent experience with them?

Any ideas, tips, crazy locals to avoid would be really appreciated.

Cheers!.

Not sure about charters out of Fiji, but we do manufacture bad ass stickbaits in beefy sizes perfect for throwing topwater over there.

Check it out

facebook.com/hakuhunternz

Have caught heaps of big GTs and other reef fish

Sigatoka Charters seemed to be reasonably priced and catered for different fishing typse,(jigging, trolling, reef-fishing ), 

I  had a successful trip out at Savusavu so didnt go out  at Sigatoka but presume they havent changed much  in 4 months. Hope this helps.

Ive read a few reviews on the Sigatoka outfit and they seem fairly successful with some good recent reviews. 

I'll probably book something with them and then roll the dice with one of the local tour operators as well.

Will report on our return.

Guys had good gear and the boat was well maintained. Captain and deckie seemed knowledgable and were pretty straight up with us when they noted the fishing had been hard.

We trawled for nearly 5 hours out from Pacific Harbour chasing Spanish Mackerel and Dogtooth. Caught a few fresh baits on rapalas and rigged up for the big ones - 2 strikes later and no fish it was time to call it a day. 

Sucks we didn't catch anything, but its fishing not catching right. 

Costwise i think it was 1350 FJD + 180 FJD for the return transfer for the private charter for half the day. We had 5 of us and there was plenty of room. 

chur.