OTHER FISH, OTHER GAMES : On The Water

As previously mentioned, yellowfin do frequent these waters year round with the majority of their run appearing in April thru August. The average size yellowfin are the schoolie 15 to 30 lb. class fish, but the resort’s “bragging board” had several recent photos of yellowfin over the “Ben Franklin Line”, 100 pounds plus. Another brute scombrid species found in Fiji are the dog tooth tuna. These are insane fighters, and sport a set of chompers that would make a Doberman pincher proud. They come into Kadavu from June thru October, but we caught none. Adrian simply said, “You’ll just have to come back”. They too can reach the BFL.

Large dolphin are also a year round resident, and can reach 60 + pounds in these waters. A fish that can be a pest almost anywhere in the world it is found, but must be respected, is the great barracuda. No un-suspecting lure in the pattern is ever safe from these devious critters, and our trip was no exception. We caught several that went to 50 lbs.

Another fish with a dental enriched mouth is the barred Spanish mackerel. Not any resemblance of a Spanish mackerel we might find in U.S. waters, these “mackies” look more similar to our kingfish, with their steely blue coloration, but these fish have more pronounced vertical banding prevalent along their sides. They can reach upwards of 50 + pounds and their teeth make a wahoo’s look like flat gums..!!! They are a highly prized food fish and few, if any are ever released.

While these pelagics can keep you busy for an entire vacation. Don’t cut yourself short of the inshore experience of surface plugging for bluefin trevally and giant trevally (GTs). We did this for less than an hour one day, and caught two respectable 30 lb.GTs. We had a 70 lb. GT take the plug and follow it to the exhaust ports on the BITE ME..!! In hind site, I am glad we didn’t hook it as it would have no doubt found the coral below and been stuck with a treble hooked hood ornament on it face for awhile. You could however come prepared with tackle to handle this fishery, and spent countless hours pursuing these reef warriors. Adrian informed us that the Oct. thru March time slot is when the weather calms on the front side of the reef, thus allowing the Bite Me to fish in tighter to the reef patrol zone.

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