Horizon

Horizon ventured out today with a group from Melbourne and Sydney and it was their second day fishing on board Horizon. At approximately 11am a nice Blue Marlin appeared in the pattern and teased everyone coming back 5 times before it finally took a lure. Gavin was ready for the strike and once the fish was firmly attached he encounted the next 3 hours on 80pd tackle with the rod bent and the drag on sunset for the last hour. Once the leader was in range Captain Fred told James to grab the leader and once he had the lure to cut the hooks. The fish was still green after 3 hours and Fred estimated the fish in the 700 -800pd range as it could not clear the water in its initially jumps which lasted more than 10 minutes. James restled with the fish and after cutting the line lost the lure. To everyone’s amazement, James dived over the side to recover the lure!

Gavin was relived to have tagged this magnicficant fish and the orders from James was no drinking Tusker until the tag was in!

Congratulations guys and to Fred and James a well earned cold Tusker once back on dry land!

 This June saw Horizon head back up to the Northern Islands for six days with the Caelli family from Melbourne on board. Charlie and James took them to their home islands of Paama and Ambrym and the family experienced the   hospitality of the islands with cultural dancing and some local food. Congratulations to Paul for his first Blue Marlin which was donated to the local villages. There was plenty of fun on board as the family enjoyed fishing for  Wahoo, Dog Tooth Tuna, Mahi Mahi and after snorkeling they bottom fished whilst dinner was being prepared. We offer Live aboard trips from April—December each year. Horizon is back to the islands in September so keep posted for more reports. 

Don’t think its too late to fish the VMC as we still have one team still open on Horizon. There is also one spot left on Team A on Horizon. So want to fish for some great prizes, meet some great people who like to have fun, then don’t hesitate to send us an email to secure your team or spot.  

If you are interested in fishing the VMC in June, you better get in quick to secure either a spot or a boat. Nevagivup and Reel Capture are fully booked and Horizon is still available.  So drop us an email to secure your spot.  For more information on the tournament go to www.vanuatumarlinclassic.com

Later this year we have decided to take Horizon up to Santo for a month to offer our clients another option for Live aboard trips based from the Island of Bokissa which is a 15min boat ride from Santo. If you are keen to fish the surrounding waters of Santo and The Banks, let us know so that we can start planning an awesome trip.

After much discussion and perusal of sea charts between Charles and Fred, it was decided to organize a weekend away on an exploration trip of the sea mounts approximately 70nm from Port Vila in the hunt for Broadbill. The weather was kind and seas to 1 metre, so we departed at 1am on Saturday morning with Horizon and Nevagivup and 6pax on each vessel with enough food and drink to last for a week! Once the sun had risen, we trolled our way to the sea mount and Horizon hooked two Blue Marlin only to have them fall off. We reached the sea mount at approximately 11am and found a rather large long linger working to the south of us. We then headed to the northern part and found some interesting ground. Nevagivup encountered some rather extra large Yellowfin tuna around the 70-80Kg range but were very finicky and raised a Marlin as well while Horizon worked the southern area.

As the sunset each vessel changed tactics and deployed the Broadbill gear, with baits and siloom sticks. Horizon had a solid hook up on the down rigger at 10.30pm only to have the line part At midnight we decided to head into Forari Bay in the hunt for some Dog Tooth Tuna. Nevagivup landed a nice 28Kg Doggie and Horizon ended up with two Barracuda. After a couple of hours we decided to head to Scotts Rock and circum navigate the Island as most of the crews had not been up that way. The water out wide was full of coral spawn and we feel that if the water was clearer we would have had much more success but apart from the fishing, everyone had a fantastic weekend enjoying the scenery and the company on board.

Here is a great shot of Horizon under power. She is a great seagoing boat.

JB from Mooloolaba in Queensland, Australia caught this nice little Wahoo on board Horizon so close to Port Vila that you can see it in the background.

Here we see Fred weighing in this beauty of a Yellowfin Tuna. I can’t tell from the photo as the scales are facing the other way but I reckon the fish would go about 55 Kg.

How is this for a days catch.  Twelve Yellowfin Tuna and every single one of them a fighting fish of note.