Gayle McPhee and her husband pose for a shot beside a 101Kg Pacific Blue Marlin landed aboard Horizon skippered by Charles Wheeler. The catch placed Gayle in the record books for Ladies 15Kg line class. Also in the photo is renown fisherman Fred Temminck.
Let’s get up close and personal with our Captain Charlie Tui. Charlie has been skippering out of Port Vila for the last eighteen years and has many repeat clients that love only to fish with him. Charlie skippers Horizon on our live aboard charters and often takes his clients to his home island of Paama. He knows the outer islands like no one else here and can take you to the most remote place to fish. Charlie also skippers Reel Capture for day charters out of Port Vila. Charlie lives in Port Vila with his wife and 6 kids!
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!
Captain Charlie Tui sitting happily at the helm of Reel Capture.
With a whopping 30 charters in August and 36 charters in September, Crusoe Fishing Adventures has had it’s busiest months since we have been here!
Leanne and her partner Tim fished with us in August and managed to fish a day on each of our boats. Their end tally was 7 Blue Marlin raised, 4 hooked and 1 tagged. The fish were winning that week! They also ended up with a nice mixed bag of Yellowfin Tuna, Wahoo, Mahi Mahi and also raised a couple of Sailfish. The pictures are of Leanne with a small Vanuatu Yellowfin and Tim with a nice Bull Mahi Mahi.
This month I am going to list the newsletter stories individually on our blog as it is more suited for that format.
Reel Capture has been on a roll the last two months with winning 3 out of the 4 tournaments that have been held in Port Vila over the last two months. The first win was the Tusker Easter Tournament which was held from Havanna Harbour, the second win was the ITM Group which was fished over four days and the latest win was the Vanuatu Marlin Classic which concluded on the 1st of June.
Tusker Easter Tournament
The Tusker Easter Tournament was fished over the Easter weekend and was a 6Kg and under line class tournament. 12 Boats entered the tournament and stayed overnight at Havanna Harbour and enjoyed the hospitality of Gideon’s landing along with a few cold beers and lots of stories of the ones that got away on light tackle. Reel Capture was skippered by Fred Temminck and the crew was his wife Michelle, Paul and Shane. Fred also managed two new Vanuatu records on 4Kg with a Mahi Mahi weighing 6.6Kg and a Wahoo weighing 10.2Kg. The result was 7 Wahoo and 1 Mahi Mahi which saw Reel Capture take out Champion Boat, Best Capture and Best Angler went to Fred.
ITM Fishing Group
Over the last four years, the ITM fishing group (NZ) has been holding it’s own tournament out of Port Vila. 5 boats were used to accommodate the keen anglers and fishing was held over four days. Reel Capture was skippered by our new skipper Charlie Tui and had a different team fish on the boat each day. Reel Capture landed a nice 72Kg Yellowfin and tagged a 400pound Blue Marlin and also bought in a few nice Wahoo. This saw Reel Capture take out Champion boat, Champion skipper and crew for the tournament.
Vanuatu Marlin Classic
In it’s fourth year running the Vanuatu Marlin Classic was held from the 26th May - 1st June from the Waterfront Port Vila. There were 21 teams entered and each team was allowed to fish 3 days each. Team A onboard Reel Capture was skippered by Charles Wheeler and the crew consisted of Fred, Gabby, Shane and Steve flew in from Australia. Team A managed to tag a Sailfish and lost a nice 700 pound Blue Marlin on 30 pound line. Team B fished the last 3 days and was skippered by Charles Wheeler and the crew consisted of Michelle, Grant and Sparkey. On the team’s first day they raised a total of 5 Blue Marlin and only one fish decided to eat and Michelle tagged a nice 300 pound Blue Marlin on 30 pound! (which was the only Marlin tagged on 30 pound for the whole tournament). The second day was very quite with only one fish raised. Day three saw Grant tag a nice 150 pound Blue Marlin on 50 pound. This put Team B in the lead with 3,130 points and of course we cleaned up! Team B will also be heading to Cabo San Lucas next May to fish the Rolex tournament. Team B has already rebooked again for next year’s tournament!
Alana Underwood from the Sunshine Coast now holds the new 37Kg Women’s Blue Marlin record with her fish weighing in at 160.6Kg. Alana and her husband Ben went out on Reel Capture on the 15th of June and after hooking 4 Blue Marlin for the day, one being tagged by Ben and unfortunately Alana’s fish ended up tail wrapped after a one hour fight. This fish was Alana’s first Marlin and ended up being a record. Well done Alana!
Reel Capture was skippered by Charles Wheeler and the deck hands were Richard and Charlie. The anglers, Michelle Temminck, Grant Hall and Chris are seen here happily displaying their awards.
REEL CAPTURE TAKES OUT THE VANUATU TUSKER EASTER CHALLENGE
During the Easter break, 12 boats ventured out for a weekend of fun and light tackle fishing. Light tackle fishing is not common in Port Vila so the Port Vila Game Fishing Club hosts this annual event to promote this style of fishing. The target species for the weekend are all pelagic species.
Fred Temminck along with his wife Michelle with friends Paul and Shane headed off early Saturday morning and headed to Tuk Tuk fad and the Marlin Highway, crazy we know with fishing with 4kg and 6kg line class. The possibility of being blown away by a big Blue Marlin was always in the back of our minds. The morning was quite to what we are use to but Fred managed to land a new Vanuatu record on 4kg with a nice 6.6Kg Mahi Mahi.
After cease fishing was called, the fleet headed back into Havanna Harbour to join up for a swim, good feed and of course a few coldies. That night we encountered 2 Metres of rain! So to say that we were wet was an understatement.
Sunday morning we ventured further north to an Island called Nguna. The fish were not on the chew the day before but the Wahoo sure did make up for it. Sunday was only a half day of fishing and Reel Capture managed 7 Wahoo strikes, landed 5 and Fred did it again with another Vanuatu Record! This time it was a nice 10.2Kg Wahoo on 4Kg line class.
After cease fishing was called, there were a couple of boats very close to us in the point scores, so we had to wait for the weigh in. At the end of it all, Reel Capture took out Champion Boat, Champion Angler and also Best Capture.
I must say that this was indeed a fun tournament held out of a beautiful place, I cannot wait to fish it next year!