A year of planning led to 8 of us booking in a fishing trip to Vanuatu. We were after some jigging and popping action for GTs and Dogtooth Tuna. We went with Ocean Blue fishing, who I would highly recommend. They had some of the best captains and deckies I've fished with, putting you in prime fighting position to fight fish and working hard to find you fish as well. We had two 32 foot edgewster cruisers at our disposal.
Upon arrival at Trees and Fishes resort we proceeded to unpack and set up our gear. And between 8 of us we had brought plenty of gear.
We spent the night tying knots, changing split rings and rigging up poppers and jigs. The gear was heavy, basically each of us had at least 2 jigging and popping setups, PE 8-12 and PE 4-6 and some assorted lighter gear for fun, jigging for squids and bait etc.
Day 1 was pretty average. Winds were blowing hard so we could not leave the shelter of the cove. We fished hard for 8 hours but could only manage some small reef species, coral and coronation trouts, small GTs and Doggies etc. The weirdest catch of the day was this trumpet fish on jig.
Small doggie from day 1
The other boat fared slightly better with a myriad of reef fish and a GT and large Red bass.
When we got back and the staff were cleaning the boats however, we were told that the beach led to a drop off to 100 meters deep just 30 meters out so we rigged up a whole fish as bait and chucked it out. 30 minutes later the reel was screaming and I proceeded to fight the fish. The whole fight had us and the captains and deckies guessing what it was as it was clearly sizeable but not fighting like a GT or Doggie. Suddenly someone yelled "coral trout" and my heart sank as I was really hoping for one of the two species mentioned before and to my knowledge coral trouts didn't grow that big. My whole perception on that changed when I saw the fish however. Needless to say I was pretty happy.
Day 2: the winds had begun to drop off and we decided to head out to a few FADs to chase some big pelagics like yellowfin tuna, Mahi Mahi and Marlin etc. We had a ball catching baby yellowfin tuna to a couple of kgs but trolling yielded nothing so we decided to head back in to jig again, which again led us to some small coronation trout, jobfish and the like. We then decided to switch over to light gear and do some micro jigging which was again fun on the small reef species, except while one of the fish was coming up it got smashed by something much larger which basically smoked one of the boys reels.
This was what was kept from the day.
When we got back we sat down with the charter captains to work out what the plan would be for the next day as they really wanted to put us on to some larger fish. The plan was for one boat to head for a rocky island with a dropoff that was notorious for big doggies and the other to head to a coral atoll to chase some GTs and reef species.
Day 3 again began slightly calmer conditions, but with long boat rides of almost 2 hours traveling at 30 knots. We started the day earlier to enable us to fish more, giving us 10 hours on the water. I was on the boat going after doggies. We arrived at the spot and started jigging. Caught some small reef fish again and then I was hit by something large, which just took line off my Sustain 10k with a fully locked drag and reefed me before the bites stopped. We then setup a downrigger and began trolling with bait. 10 minutes in we had a hit and line began peeling off the Tiagra. I was first up and started trying to pump and wind the fish in, but as I had not had experience with fish that size and power before it managed to reef me again. We started trolling again and the next fish went to one of the boys who was on pretty much his first fishing trip ever. He managed to subdue and land a nice 30kg doggie.
I went back on next and landed a thresher shark and then finally a 15 kg doggie.
We then headed to a different spot to try popping and stickbaiting for GTs and managed to land a decent fish as well before heading home. The other boat landed 3 doggies as well. One of which was similar sized to our big one and the other two were about 10kgs each.
Day 4. The game plan was to be up and on the boat by 5 am and head out to a huge sea mount about 3 hours away. One of the boats was headed out for this and the other was going to stay closer and go back to the FADs for some pelagics as by then we were all wrecked and not everyone wanted to head out to the sea mount. I was leaning hard towards staying in for the easier trip (7am start and calmer seas) but in the end I figured. Since I'm here, why not and opted in for the sea mount. The Erromango Sea Mount is basically an underwater mountain with 7 peaks, the shallowest bits being 60 meters and dropping off to well over a kilometer on the outside. The plan was to jig around the peaks and troll between peaks.
Half an hour into the boat ride though, I was hating life as we were again traveling at 30 knots against the wind, I was getting bounced around and pretty much constantly being sprayed by salt water non stop. I was wishing I had stayed with the other boat as a 3 hour saltwater shower and multiple knocks and bumps is no joke.
Finally, we arrived and set out some lines to troll. My "bad mood", however, changed pretty quickly as ten minutes into trolling the deckie yelled "Sailfish!" just before the Tiagra again started screaming. The fish was quickly landed, photographed, revived and released.
The next hour and a half were the most frustrating of my life as we started jigging and hooking up to monster fish we simply could not stop. The first fish I hooked on to proceeded to rip line off a Stella 20k on an almost maxed out drag and bust me off on a reef.
https://vimeo.com/130178686
We lost about 10 fish in a row in similar fashion before the bites stopped. We then trolled to another peak of the seamount, landing a big barracuda on the way which was estimated to be about 10-12 kgs.
The next peak led to us catching a mix of GTs Jobfish, and even rainbow runners to 5kg on jig. I still had yet to land a GT by this point and I was jigging hard for one. I finally managed to hook what I thought could be a decent one but then got sharked, which started happening and kept happening so we decided to switch spots again. The next trolling session to the next peak yielded a nice wahoo as well.
The third and final peak we fished at for the day proved to be the most productive, where we landed sharks to 50kgs on bait and a myriad of large fish on both jigs and bait. On our last drift and drop for the day I finally managed to hook and land two doggies on jig, however they were only about 12-15kgs each and were nothing like the monsters we lost earlier.
The ride home was again a 3 hour saltwater shower on bumpy seas but the wind was behind us and we rode the waves back. However, this time it was much more bearable as we had a great days of fishing done with.
The other boat was treated to the sights of yellowfin tuna busting up everywhere and landed two. One of which ran 45kgs and the other 20kgs. They also managed some small tuna and Mahi Mahi on 10 pound line.
Day 5 was a half day of relaxing fishing for us before heading off to the airport. Conditions were the calmest I have seen ever. The sea was glassed out and it was sunny. And we cruised out to the FADs to hunt for some pelagics. Unfortunately, the fish weren't around and we could only manage some baby yellowfin. I did however hook and land two Mahi Mahi on my sustain 2500 which gave me a lot of fun with their acrobatics and hard runs. The colours on the fish were beautiful, gleaming green and gold in the sunlight.
While we were there as well it was barely a month after the cyclone hit the island, and we did deliver a lot of the fish we caught to the villagers and islanders for food.
We kept one or two fish for ourselves each day and released the rest. Needless to say, the sashimi was fantastic.
That marked the end to a fantastic trip and we flew back to cold old Melbourne. The next fishing expedition cannot come soon enough. Some extra pictures of the scenery and stuff below.
Until next time. Tight lines!
Han
PS. Still doing the 40 countries or 1000 species challenge. Documenting it on Instagram under @hanboy35 with the hashtag #40countries1000species. Feel free to follow and like.
PPS. If ever doing a trip like this, Jigging and popping with PE8-12 gear is hard work. Deep heat saved my life and i was basically applying it all over my body before going to sleep. It is needed, and i wish i spent some time working out before I went.
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