After ten years, Vanuatu has become my favourite destination in the South Pacific and although I only ever come here for the gamefishing, I must say, the island people are very friendly and the resorts and restaurants are first class. It’s a great place to visit whether you just want a leisurely holiday or do what I do and head out on the bluewater!
This particular trip I was day tripping out of Port Vila Harbour onboard the Ocean Vanuatu’s brand new 40-foot BlackWatch. Over-nighting in town instead of doing my usual long distance, live-onboard adventures, I decided to lodge at the lovely Chantilly Hotel, which is handy to all amenities and happens to have one of the best restaurants around. Staying here I get to have an early morning stroll through town to pick-up the supplies for the day before meeting the boat. The French bakery here is just one of many International influences that are reflected in the local foods and the daily baked breads and cakes are superb!
The fishing off Efate is very good all year round and a series of Fad’s (fish aggregating device) off the coast in about 500 fathoms produce big yellowfin tuna, mahi mahi and 3 species of marlin and spearfish. It’s mostly the speedy blue marlin that gets caught in these waters and they average about 150 to 200 kilos, but one never knows when a real big mother is likely to turn up. Several grander blues have been taken here in the past few years and during the cooler months between May and August often some nice size black marlin show up as well. Last year a 1,000-pound black marlin was also captured around one of these Fad’s.
My first day out on the new BlackWatch ‘OceanBlue’ turned out to be the perfect day with calm weather conditions and plenty of hook-ups. We no-sooner reached the first Fad when one of the bait rods bent over to a small striped tuna, so we pulled it onboard and bridled rigged it for a live-bait. These striped tuna make excellent bait for marlin of all sizes and even big yellowfin tuna love to suck them down.
It’s not hard to pick the difference most times between a tuna and a marlin when they strike these live-baits either, as the tuna usually hit with lightning speed, where-as a billfish will often check out the bait first which makes it very nervous and gives you a bit of warning that something is about to happen! The live-bait was only back in the water for about 3 minutes when the outrigger peg holding the line started vibrating like mad. A big flash of colour on the bait indicated a marlin was about to nail the little tuna and the line quickly snapped from the peg. There was no back-drop to the bait as we were using a circle hook and the idea is to keep just enough pressure on the reel to stop it from over-running while the fish moves off and swallows the bait. After a long pause the drag pressure is increased slowly to only half the strike position which pulls the hook into the corner of the jaw.
It’s a strike method that takes a bit of time to perfect, particularly if your old technique was to lock-up and hit-em hard! Once the circle hook system is mastered though it works surprisingly well and one thing about these hooks, once there set, they rarely come out! The marlin appeared to be a nice size blue and when the hook found its mark the line poured off the reel at an alarming rate. Our skipper Ross Hawkins had to spin the vessel around hard to give chase as the fish angled away from the boat like a runaway freight train. It stayed on the surface for the first few minutes, but never jumped and the angler Anthony Pisano had a good 500 yards of line out when the fish sounded for the depths. Anthony knew he had a fight on his hands and the drag on the heavy 130lb tackle was now cranked up to around 55-pounds to try and slow the ongoing run. The solid pressure was enough to pull Anthony’s butt off the chair and the strained look on his face indicated he was having a ball. These big blues are an amazing fish to catch!
Twenty minutes later the line finally started angling up towards the surface and all onboard were eager to get a good look at the fish if it jumped. Anthony’s been fishing these waters now for about 12 years? and he was keen to release a marlin bigger than the 600-pounder we caught off the west coast of Pentecost Island during an 8-day live-aboard trip last year. This marlin had all the makings of a larger fish and when we finally got our first glimpse we estimated it to be around 700-pounds. Fifteen minutes later we had her boat-side for a tag shot and we released the fish to fight another day.
Anthony was wrapped! We sorted out the cockpit and set-up a spread of lures to troll back towards the Fad where another 2 vessels were now working the area. By the time we approached the Fad we could see Ocean Blue's second 40’ BlackWatch ‘Bolero’ had hooked another blue marlin. The area was loaded with striped tuna and there were hundreds of these little skipjack jumping though the small chop that now ruffled the blue ocean surface. It was a difficult discission whether to leave the big lures out or grab another live-bait, but the scream of a ratchet on the long-corner rod soon solved the problem for us. A 200-pound blue had pounced on the Top-Gun ‘Midnight’ lure and was carving up the surface in an amazing display of aerial madness. The little blue burnt itself out in about 10 minutes flat and we soon had it swimming quietly alongside the boat where we punched a tag in its shoulder and removed the hooks. This certainly made the day for Anthony.
The following week the weather stayed nice and we averaged a few shots a day on blue marlin, releasing another four, including one around the 600-pound mark. One day right near the Fad we also caught a couple of very large yellowfin tuna around the 180 to 190-pounds and they were boated for obvious reasons. These big mid-Pacific yellowfin make great sashimi and we managed to keep a few select cuts before the bulk of the fish was given to the local village. This trip turned out to be another successful one and I can’t wait to get back over there next year! |
