Marlin

The Tusker Game Fishing Classic was held on the 8^th & 9^th of November from Port Vila Vanuatu and twelve teams entered for some fantastic fishing on Blue Marlin and the usual pelagic species. The weather gods turned it on with no more than 10 knots on Saturday and no wind on Sunday and it was hot out on the water. There were quite a few Blues hooked on Saturday and only two were tagged and the action hotted up on Sunday morning with the first Marlin being hooked at 6.15am. The bite lasted for about an hour and boats were hooking up one after the other!There were some notable catches of Mahi Mahi one being 10Kg caught on 4Kg and a new Vanuatu Ladies record on 24Kg for a 21.8Kg Barracuda. There were also some nice Dog Tooth Tuna bought to the scales as well.The team aboard Nevagivup consisted of Rodney & Gayle McPhee and Michelle Temminck skippered by Charles Wheeler and Deck Hand Richard. Rodney and Gayle were out to defend their winning title from last year. The first day we saw 4 Blue Marlin and 1 Sail fish and we managed to pull the hooks on two fish! Gayle landed a nice Mahi Mahi on 15Kg line as well. The team aboard Horizon, all Aussie anglers and skippered by Sean Winslett and Deck Hand James managed to raise 3 Blues as well for the day. Sunday saw Nevagivup turn into Reel Capture due to engine troubles and we hooked our first Blue at 6.35am only to have him charge the boat and throw the lure. Ten minutes later Michelle hooked a Blue around 130Kg on 15Kg and we had the tag in the fish after 15 minutes. The competition was hotting up with other teams tagging fish on heavier line classes and we knew that we had to tag another one on 15Kg to secure the lead. Rodney hooked a nice Blue on 15Kg at around 11.20am and after 25 minutes the tag was in! Horizon raised three Blues but the hooks were pulled as well. Between our two boats we raised 13 Blue Marlin and 1 Sailfish and landed a couple of nice Mahi Mahi.The final run down for our winning team on Nevagivup/Reel Capture was;Best Angler Tag & Release             Michelle TemminckBest Boat                                           Nevagivup/Reel CaptureBest Lady Angler                              Michelle TemminckBest Skipper                                     Charles WheelerAll in all this is a great tournament and the fishing and competition was enjoyed by all.

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. 

The Vanuatu Marlin Classic was held from the 8th - 14th June 2008 and Crusoe Fishing Adventures had five teams entered fishing from all three of our vessels. There was a total of seventeen teams entered this year and the weather was a little ordinary. Nevagivup Team B, skippered by Charles Wheeler, managed to hook four marlin for the three days fishing with Chris on a nice Blue around the 350lb mark on 30pd for 21/2 hours only to have the hooks pull at the back of the boat.

Reel Capture Team A who consisted of Tim, Leanne and Travis and skippered by Fred Temminck, managed to tag and release a small Blue Marlin on 50lb line to take out third place. The fish was caught by Travis Auton and this was his first marlin. There was only one fish caught for 1st and 2nd place but they were on 30lb line. Plenty of fish were lost and seen and once again it was a fantastic tournament.

If you would like to fish the tournament next year, you better get in quick as we have bookings already!

 This April saw Nevagivup, Shogun and V-Factor head up to Epi with groups from the New Zealand Fishing News Magazine. Initially a 5 day trip, the trip was delayed by one day due to poor weather conditions. With crews staying at Taso’s Bungalows at Epi, the guys were keen to get into the fish. With a mini comp in progress; Nevagivup blitzed the field with nineteen different species which ranged from Marlin, Dog Tooth Tuna to Coral Trout and GT’s! A great time was had by all and the week ended with a Presentation dinner on the Friday night. The next trip is September which is fully booked.  

 As it was the 1st day of April being April Fools day the weather was perfect and we had friends over from Australia, why not give this fly fishing a go for Marlin. Fred and Charles had been talking about it for the last few months and the plan was to head out and find some fish! This we did indeed! I was a little skeptical trolling lures around with no hooks but after seeing what I saw on this day, this has now changed. The call came from the boys “on the right, on the left” and after Richard had teased a nice 120pd Blue Marlin to the back of the boat, Fred cast his fly and the Marlin took it. When Fred went to set the hook, the Marlin was smart enough to flick his head and freedom was his once again. After the initial excitement, we all said that was awesome, let’s go find another one. A few hours passed by and by mid afternoon we had another fish up in the pattern. After Charles nearly fell off the flybridge with excitement he was yelling, “it’s a big fish ” it was decided not to tease him up but he wouldn’t let go of the lure! This fish was estimated at around 700lb! Not easy to catch when you are only using 10Kg tippet! I’m now hooked but it sure isn’t the easiest way to catch a Marlin! If you are up to the challenge this style of game fishing will certainly test you out! 

 May saw our team head off to Cabo San Lucas in Mexico to fish the Rolex IGFA World Championships. This year 63 teams were entered. Our team was Grant, Chris, Michelle, Fred and John. We were all excited as Fred and I had fished this tournament before and with all of our tackle well prepared, we only needed the fish to co-operate. Fishing the four days in this tournament is a great experience as we saw 50-60 Striped Marlin a day and they proved hard to catch. With plenty of baits pitched to tailor’s, they just weren’t interested, which makes for very frustrating fishing. We managed to release 3 Striped Marlin for points and lost a couple at the back of the boat. Chris and John ended up with their first Striped Marlin release which was a great effort. With the Vanuatu Marlin Classic just around the corner, all of our teams are fighting for the title once again to head over to Cabo San Lucas next year! 

This Newsletter we get up close and personal with Charles Wheeler our partner and Skipper of Nevagivup. Charles is the king of Fly Fishing in Vanuatu and has 5 World Records to his credit. He has lived in Port Vila for the last seven years and his passion for fishing originated from Hunting in England. In his spare time he loved to go game fishing around the world. His passion then turned into a new career after visiting Vanuatu and realizing the potential that Vanuatu had for big Blue Marlin and targeting them year round.  Next month we feature Fred Fly Fishing for Marlin on Nevagivup! 

REEL CAPTURE TAKES OUT EASTER TOURNAMENT 2008

Five boats fished the Tusker Easter Tournament which was held from Havanna Harbour and was fished on Saturday and Sunday. This tournament is 6Kg and under and anglers are put to the test to fish light tackle. The other aim of the tournament is to fish grounds that we don’t often get to. Nevagivup and Reel Capture headed up on Friday afternoon to make our run shorter on the Saturday morning.

The plan for Saturday morning was to head to Nguna with reports of plenty of bait and action up there in the lead up to the tournament. After cease fishing on Saturday, Reel Capture who had Fred and Michelle, Gary and Ingrid on board, had landed a couple of nice Dog Tooth Tuna on 4kg, a Wahoo on 6kg to Michelle which was a new Vanuatu record and some Skip Jack Tuna. The fishing was quite hot on the Saturday with tailing Sailfish in the area as well. Reel Capture raised three Sails to no avail. Results after Saturday had Reel Capture in the lead, followed by Half Cut, V-Factor and Nevagivup. Paul fishing aboard Nevagivup landed a nice 2.4Kg Skip Jack on 2Kg line class which was also a new Vanuatu record.

Sunday sore the weather a little calmer as well and also the fishing was allot slower as it was the day after the full moon. Sunday was also a shorter fishing day with cease fishing at 12pm. Reel Capture landed another nice 17.6Kg Wahoo on 6kg line to Michelle (who broke her record from the day before) and a nice Yellowfin Tuna on 4kg to Gary. After hearing the scheds during the day, we knew that we had the comp in the bag. With 1 1/2hours left until cease fishing, Fred decided to head out wide to try and catch a Marlin on 6kg line. We stumbled across quite a few birds working and as soon as we started working the area we hooked a nice Blue Marlin on 6kg, only to have him fall off! The gear went back into the water and 5 minutes later we hooked another small Blue only to have him also fall off. Cease fishing was called and we didn’t want to leave the fish but had to head back to Havanna Harbour to weigh our fish in.

The final results of the tournament were;

Best Angler                              Michelle Temminck

Best Boat                                  Reel Capture

Most Meritorious Capture           Fred Temminck

Best Capture                            Fred Temminck

Second Place                             Half Cut

Third Place                                Nevagivup

All in all it was a fantastic weekend away with plenty of laughs and of course too many beers! This is the second year running that Reel Capture has won this tournament and we are looking forward to next Easter already!

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