August and September have seen the Blue Marlin out in force once again ranging from 200pd—800pd. Reel Capture raised five Blues and managed to tag one. Nevagivup has been on fire with raising five and tagging one, the fish have been finicky to say the least. Horizon fished her way up to Epi Island and raised six Blues, hooked four and tagged two along the way! Let’s hope the bite goes right through till the end of the year!
January 2009 saw Horizon head up to Santo for a two week charter on Ratu Island, one of Santo’s newest resorts. After a hectic Christmas period, Michelle, Charles and Paul decided to bring Horizon home after her charter with Charlie and James and take a short fishing break.
The weather was superb and allowed us to fish off Santo for the first day mooring at Bokissa Island that night. This day Paul tagged and released his first Blue Marlin. The second day saw us head South to fish the rich waters off Malakula. We encoutered some rather large Yellowfin Tuna and Charles tipped the scales with a nice fin around the 70kg mark. We anchored at Port Sandwich at Malakula which is a large river with amazing scenary. Wednesday morning was an early start to encounter some large Dogtooth Tuna at the southern end of Malakula. Michelle encoutered some large doggies only to pull the hooks. We landed two nice doggies around the 20kg mark and landed a couple of Wahoo as well. We then trolled down to Cooks Reef and anchored off Emae Island for the night.
Thursday was also an early start as we had to make the passage between the islands where the currents meet. Here we encoutered some nice blue marlin as well with Michelle tagging a Blue around the 100kg mark and Paul tagging another blue around the 200kg mark. We also raised another two for the day and landed a couple of nice Mahi Mahi for dinner as well. We overnighted at Havanna Harbour. Charles decided that we would try for a Ladies 10Kg record. After trolling for approximately two hours, we raised the perfect fish for 10Kg around the 80Kg mark. The bite was perfect and after ten minutes, we had the leader at the back of the boat and just out of gaff range, then Michelle broke her rod! After the fish dissappeared into the blue yonder with the rod tip, we managed to get the fish up again after 30 minutes only to have the line part.
The trip was a wonderful fishing experience with many of the islands accessible to fish and we managed to get amoungst a wide variety of fish as well.
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.
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.