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Where to Fish Don't Give up your Best Spots, but a Little Hint Would Help



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  #1  
Old 15-10-2010, 09:19 PM
kevin19870316 kevin19870316 is offline
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fiji trip.....wanna fit some fishing in!

gonna spend a week at fiji next month after exams with my gf. being a keen angler i'm not that interested in just spending the days sunbathing or snorkling, so i wanna fit some fishing in when she's doing her snorkling.

we r not sure yet where to stay which to me..is a plus cuz now i've got the freedom to choose my best fishing resort that's if i know which island's better over the others.

so basically i'm after advice on where to stay and what sorta fishing is available. i'm not keen on offshore trips even if i might still have to go on one of the charters. landbased fishing or maybe even more personalized small boat charter's much more prefered and all i wanna catch is just regular fish such as Trevs.

will be taking 4000 to up to 6000 size spin or even a small Baitcaster set up

thanks in advance
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  #2  
Old 15-10-2010, 09:33 PM
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plenty o' Bonefish in them thar waters
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  #3  
Old 16-10-2010, 12:40 AM
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Actually there are not a lot of bonefish in Fiji, there are some line class records down near Suva, but they are from a long time ago. I spent a fair while searching for bones in Fiji but it's tough going. A guy who use to work for me spent 6 months with some american anglers on a full payed charter there they covered most of the island groups and found none. Including the remote Lau group.

Personally i think they are there, just hard to find and not in mammoth populations, would be happy to be proved wrong if anyone does know of healthy populations. I was speaking to Adrian Watt a fishing legend in Fiji, he also thinks they should be there but yeah he couldn't even point me in the right direction.

On where to stay i use to live and work in the main holiday area denarau and it's a nice place and very relaxing and you can jet out to the islands from the marina pretty quick smart, the charters that operate out of their are pretty average aside from adrenalin but they do charge an arm and a leg. It's a cool place though and your GF would probably like it.

Denarau is probably the main place you will look at. And it's good because the marina gives you a lot of options depending on what you want to do. But there are other options. South of there is an amazing beach called natadola, you can go get a kayak and have fun in the lagoon and small reefs chasing fish and the resort the Intercontinental is probably the most luxurious in Fiji, aside from the island owned by the Guy who owns red bull. But i have heard they run a credit check on you to make sure you can afford it. LOL. I don't know how much truth there is to this though but some of the expats swear by it.

Out in the mamanucas is Liku Liku it's one of those resorts on the water. Like Bora Bora. There is plenty to do and the Trevally fishing there is awesome. This would be a place you should seriously consider but yeah it's costly.

You can shoot over to Kadavu island, fishing charter there is the best in Fiji by a long way and you have options about what styles you want to do. The resort there is really good but yeah its expensive. But if you want to go GT popping or chase tuna and wahoo then it's a good choice.

You could also go to any number of places up in the yasawa group accomodation there is cheaper and there is plenty of fun to be bad, there is also a fly fishing guide up there, really nice fella and the fishing there is amazing, not to mention if you want to go night diving for lobsters or spearfishing and surfing. And you can do this all pretty cheaply. Be aware it is still fairly wild a friend of mine who surfs up there has had plenty of encounters with big tiger sharks.

Down South there are places like Koratoga, Sigatoka and Pacific Harbour etc.. nice places on the coral coast and you can walk out onto the reef areas and fish at low tide with the locals. You also have the option of heading inland to chase jungle perch. I haven't done it but i heard there are good numbers there. Probably the pick of the places there is the Outrigger it's not bad plenty of places to eat and drink. It's more of a family thing though.

There is also the north island of vanua levu this is the real fiji, actually anything north and west of lautoka is the real fiji. These places are seriously beautiful. You could check out Garden Resort on Taveuni really nice place, not sure about the fishing i never got to go there but it's on my list of things to do.

But i have saved what i think is the best till last. The best place i went to in my times in Fiji is by far RakiRaki. What an awesome place this is, it is where the mountains meet the sea and is truly beautiful and fairly untouched. There are two awesome resorts there Wananavu and Voli Voli. If you want to do some diving, fishing, snorkelling and relaxing then this is a great place and your GF would love it. Not a lot of people get up there and i have no idea why the resorts are some of the best in Fiji. It's quiet, slow and truly relaxing. You could take your rod and just walk the shore of the bay if you wanted, but i am sure the temptations of the offshore sand flats and shallow reefs will be to much. If you hire a car from the airport it is a beautiful drive, but yeah they driving is a bit crazy there and i wouldn't recommend doing the drive at night. I think both resorts do pickups and transfers.

I hope that gives you a good idea mate, make sure you get some fishing in but trust me it's so easy not to because you can get so relaxed sometimes. If you want to do some serious fishing then head to Kadavu or Ono (same area) Or go to somewhere in Vanua Levu. Rakiraki is probably better if you want a but of both, do some research though and if you have an questions just send me a PM.

Good Luck and let me know how you go.

Last edited by Perky; 16-10-2010 at 12:42 AM.
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Old 17-10-2010, 03:51 AM
kevin19870316 kevin19870316 is offline
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thanks heaps Perky. seriously i didn't expect anyone to go this out of the way to help out someone that he doesn't even know. You are a legend.
sounds like we'll be spending couple days at Raki Raki then. hopefully the weather's gonna be good and i'll be able to get couple fish there.
i'm taking a stradic 8k on a 7' spin rod( rod's not bought yet so taking recommendations) so any idea what sorta lures i should prefare for the trip?
thinking about doing bit of casting off the land and maybe try to talk to a local and get onto a banana boat for some flats and bay fishing.
thanks again for pointing me in the right direction. muchly appreciated!!!!!!!!
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  #5  
Old 17-10-2010, 05:59 AM
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Hey mate, yeah voli voli has 2 boats one is a little centre console you could run about on the bay in possibly. And Wananavu has similar stuff. You will love the marina at wananavu it's a land based fishermans paradise. You can see to the bottom and on the left hand side as you approach is a rock wall which drops onto a shallow reef, and to the right of that is a white sandy beach and flats. There is a beautiful village down the road right on the beach and they have little canoes and what not.

In terms of tackle....i used a budget setup a shimano 3000 something or other on a .....i hate to say it Jarvis Walker 5-10kg. Only rod i had at the house and good tackle is hard to come by.

Man did i get smashed on this setup, spooled about 3 times. Had to replace the line so many times because it stretched so much that it just curled up. The rod performed well though. In terms of lures take poppers and minnows over the 120mm mark. But then again i am not a pro at chasing bigger reef species and pelagics. If anyone could give you a good idea it would be guys that have fished ningaloo conditions are probably not to much different. One huge tip is get good line mate that's probably the biggest thing that let me down. I didn't have access to good line and it made things really difficult. At one stage i has to use some 12lb flouro that i had in my tacklebox for when i chase flatties. Needless to say this didn't go well.
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Old 17-10-2010, 10:47 AM
kevin19870316 kevin19870316 is offline
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hey mate i just talked to my GF and we r gonna spend 2 days either in Voli Voli or Wananavu. So is the marina fully accessible? and what sorta gears, lures and line class do u reckon i should fish there with? i'd love to use my newly purchased calais 100a with battler rapier filled with 30lb braid. and how far is it from voli voli to that marina?

then we'll head off to yasawa for couple days as well. will be mainly sunbathing and snorkling there but well whenever she wants some private time herself i guess i'll be off casting lures lol.

then well be back to nadi for some shopping and food b4 we go back to brissie.

sorry to be bothering you with so many questions and i do appreciate all the effort you put in to help us out! a big thank you to you. last thing is the permit to fish those two places i mentioned?
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  #7  
Old 17-10-2010, 07:06 PM
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Wananavu has it's own little marina. For it's own boats it's very small but yeah around it is a rock bar, beach, reef...mangroves are not far away either. You have a lot of options. Voli Voli doesn't have it's own marina but it does have it's own private beach where it's boats are mored. The land based fishing you can do is endless there mate. There is also a tiny marina on it's own just up the road from both resorts. I believe it is fairly small though but i am sure you can do some fishing there. Just some things to be aware of though and i should have mentioned this in my first post. The majority of land is Native Title so you want to make sure that at least the resort staff where you are staying are cool with you throwing lures around. Normally these guys are the landowners anyway, employed by the resorts. But it's pretty relaxed in general i did some hand spearing up in the yasawas and the land owners were okay with it. And it always helps if your a catch and release guy to donate some of your catch to a land owner. I use to give my Fijian mate and guide all the trevally he wanted he loved it, i got to keep a couple of coral trout in exchange. hehehehe.

It is good your getting a few things in. The cat up to the yasawas is pretty cool, it can be a long trip but it is a nice one. I stayed up at the blue lagoon there at a place called tavewa it is really nice, lots of little places there with backpacker style bungalows for 2 to so it's very private, quiet and relaxing. There are a heap of places along the way though. Check out South Sea cruises they have packages where you can do 1 night somewhere, another night somewhere else, each day the cat just picks you up on it's daily run.

Your going to have fun there because each place has it's own little boat and if you mention to one of the Fijian guys you want to go do some inshore light fishing around the reef they will take you out for sure even if its not on the menu i am sure you can tempt them with a small donation, but i doubt you would even need that. There is a nice 3.5 star resort up in the blue lagoon across from tavewa but the name has escaped me at the moment. There is also turtle island up there it's pretty nice.

On your gear that will do really well. 30lb is perfect in my opinion if you want to make things sporting. Goof Luck with it all if you have anymore questions just let me know.
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Old 17-10-2010, 07:14 PM
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http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&s...,0.077162&z=14

That is a map link of the area, it is really old but most of the water shots look pretty accurate. There is a lot of water there to fish in mate you will be spoilt for choice. I think Wananavu would suit you more for fishing but you can always just go to Voli Voli no one is going to stop you we use to go and swim at their beach all the time. And Vice versa.
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Old 18-10-2010, 07:53 AM
kevin19870316 kevin19870316 is offline
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thats some insane info right there!
so what sorta lures mate do u reckon i should bring with me?
i'm thinking poppers then.......maybe a few slugs......

plastics will be the main thing but i really got no idea what oz jighead and what sorta tail would do the trick? guess the usual snapbacks and stuff like that?

then maybe a few minnows as well?
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  #10  
Old 18-10-2010, 08:07 AM
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Yeah as i said earlier i am prob not the best guy to as in terms of what tackle to take as i used what lures i could find, and to be honest as long as it dives to the right depth and is over 100mm then you should do fine. So i would take a wide variety for different depths and surface of course. I had some great follows throwing this rusty old popper that cost me $30 and was all rusted up. I didn't have good success with plastics mostly because it's difficult to fish them without snagging the reef, jerkshads and what not should do really well. Plus the only plastics i had were small squidgy fish. The mackeral did love them though. You could get some GT poppers, Fiji has some of the best if not the best GT fishing in the world. Don't believe me check these cats out. Rakiraki should be just as good if not better but it's not well publicised.

http://gamefishingfiji.blogspot.com/ from Kadavu

http://xstreemfishing.blogspot.com/ from Pacific Harbour
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  #11  
Old 18-10-2010, 08:20 AM
kevin19870316 kevin19870316 is offline
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looks like i'll stock up on poppers, pencils and some of the hybrids rather than plastics then. was pretty keen to get 50 HBs but that'll probably cost over 1k with hooks and stuff so i thought plastics would be a cheaper option. but yeah think i'll stick with HBs after hearing what u said.
btw it looks like yasawa trip might not happen due to me probably not being able to handle 4.5hrs boat ride.......i get seasick lol
so any other good snorkling place on the main island? we'll hire a car and drive to voli voli for 2 nights then she might wanna go to the best snorkling place where she can just walk out of the hotel for some snorkling. if the main island's not good maybe she wanna just get onto some day tours i suppose for the best snorkling.
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Old 18-10-2010, 09:20 AM
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Mate the snorkelling around the main tourist areas on the main island isn't amazing, Great Barrier Reef is far better. If you want to do some snorkelling or diving then you should be able to do some up at Rakiraki. There are short day trips off Denarau marina near nadi though, most are pretty good. All along the west coast is pretty much the coral coast but a lot of it is suffered from damage and what i assume is bleaching.

The further you get away from touristy places the better the snorkelling gets, thats why the yasawas and rakiraki are good. There is a privately owned island called honeymoon island about 1 hour or so on a quick boat from Denarau Marina it's meant to be the best in snorkelling in Fiji. I got to do some snorkelling around islands there and the coral life is average but the fish life is awesome.

South Sea also does drop offs along the way to the Yasawas so whilst it's 4.5 to the end of their route, it's only about 2.5 to the south end of the island group. And it's still awesome there. The boat is a massive cat mate, i think it carries something like 150 people, 3 decks, indoor and outdoor and it's a smooth ride. We had rough weather coming back once and it was still fine. But yeah it's up to you.

If your specifically looking for something where you can just go outside from your door then you would need to stay on a small island whether that be in the mamanucas or yasawas. Plenty of places there check out South Sea Cruises they do all the transfers. If you have a car you could also head to natadola for a day trip, just tell the guard at the gate your a tourist going for lunch and he will wave you in. Best pool that runs onto the beach, great food and yeah you can hire some snorkelling equipment and head out. Snorkelling isn't amazing though. So there are some snorkelling options for you.

You could always check out Liku Liku your GF will love you forever and yeah you can step out your front door into crystal clear water. Short xfer there to from denarau marina. I think Lleyward island services (Malolo Cat) do the xfers for it.
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Old 18-10-2010, 09:50 AM
kevin19870316 kevin19870316 is offline
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yeah that's pretty much what i've heard too so now she's trying to spend 7 days around yasawas.......and i'm trying to sneak over to rakiraki to fish
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Old 18-10-2010, 05:34 PM
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Originally Posted by kevin19870316 View Post
yeah that's pretty much what i've heard too so now she's trying to spend 7 days around yasawas.......and i'm trying to sneak over to rakiraki to fish
My favourite plastic for fishing fiji would be the squidgy slick rig in true blue i think its called, i think it was around 100-120mm as soon as it hit the bottom it was fish fish fish, hardly snagged up too. Only reason for losing the plastics was from getting chomped up too much or being busted off. My choice for poppers would be the 120mm surecatch poppers, yeah they may be a cheap brand but 9/10 times i have been hit on the surecatch over anything else just upgrade the trebbles to something a bit sharper
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Old 18-10-2010, 10:32 PM
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Way to go Perky, some mighty handy information there. And it certainly would have taken time to type up, so well done for helping out. Im gonna make this post a sticky for a while.

cheers
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