Dogtooth Tuna

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 xlarge 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.

Stuart fished with us on board Reel Capture for 5 days in September in the hunt for some rather big fish. On the Marlin side, the fishing was very quiet by Vanuatu standards but on our last day we headed up to Nguna to see what we could find up North. We ended up seeing 8 free jumping Sailfish, hooked a lot of extra large Wahoo and got blown away by some rather large Dogtooth Tuna around the 50-70 Kg mark. They managed to make mince meat out of 80 lb tackle. If you are after these amazing fighters, then Nguna is the spot! Be prepared to be blown away as they are awesome to try and catch!

Look at this beautiful Dogtooth Tuna! Landed on Nevagivup it is a beautiful specimen of a fighting fish world renown for fighting well above its weight class. Dogtooth Tuna fishing remains one of the most exciting pastimes on the planet and here is a prime example of what you get on the rare occurrence that you are the victor.