We returned on Wednesday from a 5 day livabord trip up in the islands with a group of guys from Melbourne. George Pagoulatos Frank Siamelis
The first morning was spent prepping gear for the arrival at the first jigging spot, we trolled all the way but it was quiet, the seas were calm so it made for a nice trip. When we got close we set out a spread of lures on spinning gear and were soon rewarded with some nice wahoo which are always fun on light tackle. Soon I found what I was looking for on the sounder and the jigs went down, for the next two hours it was carnage, with the boys not landing one fish. Numerous big fish were hooked, doubles, triples but luck was not on their side. We lost fish to the reef, knots broke, assist cords got chewed through and the sharks taxed their share....
The next morning Arthur caught a wahoo first thing, then we raised a triple of sail fish of which we caught a nice one. But when it came to jigging it was the same story as the day before,,, lots of bites and hook ups but no fish boated. Luckily in the afternoon something changed and they boys started landing some small dogtooth, George, Frank & Jimmy all catching their first.
Day 3, we were up early and jigging a seamount that comes from 300 mts up to 37mt !! They all got bites, and we caught some reef fish, big trout & rusty jobfish. I made the call to go to a nearby island and try for some wahoo and sails. Well it proved to be the right move, as within 30 seconds of the baits going out we had a double header of wahoo on, next up was a big sail that didn't stay connected and then the bite never stopped for the next 4 hours. We caught a small yellowfin tuna and and 13 wahoo to 20+ kg all on spinning gear with baits or Colorato Luresdoing the damage. I lost count of the bites but I'd guess it was close to 50!!!! On the way back to the anchorage we stopped for a jig and Jimmy caught his biggest dogtooth, a solid fish of 25 kgs (I don't have picture my battery was flat, boys have to send me one ?!)
Day 4, the trend was the same a quiet morning with a bite in the afternoon. Frank got the day going by catching a wahoo of 30 kg that was foul hooked. The first run made his Daiwa Saltiga spin at warp speed, rooster tailing across the surface as it went. The rest is of the day there was more wahoo caught, big coral trout, more dogtooth, red bass, yellowfin tuna & more.
Day 5, it was raining and grey and the fishing was hard, we caught dogtooth but the wahoo alluded us as did the marlin. On the way home we found a school of yellowfins on on one of the fads and spent some time popping for them but they didn't want to play.... All in all the boys had a great trip, with all the normal highs and lows of trying to catch big fish on sporting gear, I look forward to seeing them all again soon as I know most of them have some scores to settle with the sea monsters of Vanuatu !!
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