Blue Marlin

 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! 

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

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.

The crew headed out for a fun day out on the water and we decided to fish light tackle just for fun. With Charles Wheeler at the helm, Fred landed this 68 Kg Yellowfin Tuna on 24Kg line. Not a bad effort after 40 minutes and John tagged a Blue Marlin around the 130Kg mark on 15Kg line. A great effort after a one hour fight!

NEVAGIVUP AND REEL CAPTURE - 1ST AND 2ND PLACE!

The 2007 PVGFC Tusker Game Fish Classic was held out of Port Vila on the 10th & 11th November 2007. There were 13 boats in total and the weather conditions were not so pleasant on the Saturday morning but the seas abated for Sunday’s fishing.

There were around 20 Blue Marlin hooked during the tournament and the aim of the tournament was to promote the skill of light tackle for all pelagics. The line class category was from 4kg-60Kg with points awarded accordingly.

Nevagivup tagged and released a Blue Marlin on Saturday on 15Kg line for maximum points on Marlin to Gayle McPhee and another Blue Marlin was tagged by Russ Housby (deck hand and his first Marlin) after there double hook up. Both fish were on 15Kg line and this was a great effort and unfortunately, Gayle’s fish was the only one that was eligible for points. This had Nevagivup sitting on 1500 Points.

Reel Capture also tagged and released a Blue Marlin on Saturday on 24Kg line for 1,000 points for Greg Procter. Greg also landed a nice Mahi Mahi on 24Kg line as well.

The round up for the Saturday afternoon was Nevagivup and Reel Capture on top of the leader board. Sunday morning saw a very hot bite of marlin around Devils FAD and there were plenty of fish hooked and lost. Reel Capture lost a nice Marlin on 15Kg after a one hour fight after pulling the hooks at the side of the boat! Nevagivup also lost a Marlin on 15Kg as well! So the end result was there being no Marlin tagged on the Sunday.

So the wash up of the tournament was 1st place - Nevagivup skippered by Charles Wheeler 2nd place - Reel Capture skippered by Fred Temminck and 3rd place - Lucky Jack. Reel Capture secured 2nd place with their weighed Mahi Mahi!

Congratulations to Gayle McPhee for cleaning up the prize pool and also to Greg with his 1st place Mahi Mahi and runner- up angler prizes.

Just another notch in the Crusoe Fishing Camp! Well done guys!