Fiji Islands Fishing Report, December 2009

[bitemefiji]

It has been a bit of a topsy turvey run up to Christmas with very unusual water temperatures and even a direct hit from a Cat 2 Cyclone thrown in for good measure.



Whilst the normal incoming flood of hot summer water hovers to the North West of the Fiji Islands, the rest of Fiji is still experiencing water temps some 3 degrees lower than normal.
The winter wahoo season that normally comes to an end in September actually extended right through to the end of the year. In fact we are still finding wahoo though not quite in the big mid-winter numbers.



Around October, huge numbers of Mahi Mahi flooded in, a welcome by-catch for the marlin anglers. The marlin bite has been fairly average though boats able to find and fish a temp break are having great success on blues.



The delay in the warmer water moving in has however meant that the Christmas run of Yellowfin Tuna looks to be starting late this year. Only now are we seeing the first few schools of smaller fish around Kadavu Island though several 150lb fish were recently landed off the west coast of the main island.



The summer popper casting season has got off to a great start, the big GTs obviously don't mind the unseasonably cooler waters. Both of our gamefishing vessels 'Bite Me' and the new inshore popper boat 'Tease Me' will be spending most of their time in the next few months focused on popper casting for GTs and jigging for dogtooth tuna. Jan - April being peak season.



We just missed out on taking the Dogtooth IGFA All-Tackle World Record last season. Hopes are high for the coming few months.

[Captain Fred Archer]

BIG dog tooth. Man, those things are powerful, excellent fighters...just don't let one bite you!

Very nice GT's too. And they sure are a blast on poppers.

Thank you for the report and pictures.