Vava’u Sport Fishing Club
Tonga Fish Tales Newsletter – July 2011 Tonga Fish Tales © Copyright
July ... Great weather, water temperature to 25.5 degrees and an absolutely huge run of feisty Blue Marlin that was the best bite on record, but more on that later. ‘Lady Colombo’ – 80ft Hatteras arrived early in the month via Tahiti to fish Vava’u waters. Other arrivals from NZ were “GPS’ Wynn & John Going, ‘Escapade’ Ross & Denise Knutson and “Cascade” – Terry and Mike.
Billfish Action ......... What a blast .....How does just one day’s fishing ....with 5 boats getting 44 recorded hook ups sound? ... well the whole month saw an average 8 -10 bites per boat per day and our overseas visiting boats could not believe the action. The South Bank fired red hot and the action was non-stop. Twice as many fish pulled the hook than were tagged and for all the boats it was pretty frustrating - one day you get 5 Blues from 8 bites .... then the next ......1 from 10. The Blues are not crashing the lures or baits just mouthing or billing them and at a slow pace. Changing drags, hook size, boat speed and terminal tackle did nothing to help but what an experience to be fishing such a hot bite. In just 15 days on the water ‘Reel Addiction’ tagged 47 Blue Marlin. The Blues on the whole were small fish in the 80kg range but they all went berserk and it was hard to keep the hook in. A few bigger Blues were reported ‘Reel Addiction tagged a 240kg and 260kg and ‘GPS’ & ‘Target One’, a good 200kg plus fish. A few sails were caught around the 50kg-60kg range and several Striped Marlin. The hot lure colours were Lumo and Black & Purple.
Yellow Fin Action ...... A bit patchy with some fish in the 15kg – 30kg range but most were around the 8kg-10kg size. Good increase in Flying Fish bait around the Middle Fad area produced the best bite but you had to be right on the spot when the fish popped up.
Wahoo Action ............ Still slow with fish in the 12kg-15kg range and only one fish reported over 30kg. The Bank and middle ground were the most productive areas.
Mahimahi Action ........ A bit hit and miss but a few good fish reported in the 20kg range. Late July marked an improvement in abundance and size so it looks good for August fishing.
Reef Fishing Action .......... A few Doggies and some reasonable GT action was reported. With such great weather a lot of the reef systems and off shore hot spots could be fished.
New FAD to be deployed .... a replacement deep water FAD should be in the water to coincide with the 20th TIBT, starting mid September.
New Records ...
11.9kg Mahimahi on 1kg – A new National & Club Record to Steve Campbell

2011 Tournaments Dates – Write them in your Diary ............
20th Anniversary Tonga International Billfish Tournament
15th - 21st September, 2011. This is Tonga’s most prestigious event for the year and is a qualifying tournament for the IGFA Offshore World Championship.
NZFN Tournament - 20th- 26th October, 2011
Tonga Nationals Tournament - Saturday 26th November, Saturday 3rd & Monday 5th December,
Don’t forget to check out the clubs new web site: www.vavausportfishingclub.com
Steve Campbell - ikalahi@tongafishing.com
Tonga Fish Tales © Copyright