The summer blue marlin season was reasonable with fish averaging around 250lbs but we didn't see the usual monsters this season.
Perhaps it was the slightly unusual La Nina weather patterns and currents. Fortunately the yellowfing tuna fishing was excellent. A good run of summer yellowfin continued right up to early May.
Most fish averaged about 50lbs but some very nice cows spiced up the mix weighing in at well over 150lbs.
Bite Me was fortunate enough to tag and release two extremely rare baby striped marlin. Fish of this size are believed to be only a few months old.
We are still waiting confirmation from the fish ID experts however we are pretty sure they were stripies. Catching marlin of this size in the South Pacific is a very unusual event and to catch two doubly so.
Evidence is increasingly indicating that the Fiji waters are a striped marlin spawning ground.
The La Nina weather conditions affected the summer GT Popper casting with frequent South Westerly swells and North West to South West prevailing breezes. Water colour was generally poor as the usual ocean currents that scour the outer slopes of the Great Astrolabe Barrier Reef failed to show. Some very good fish were still landed but the average number of GTs landed in a day fell from the usual 12-15 down to 5-8.
At time of writing the first winter wahoo and sailfish have started to show. The sails are still one here, one there and the wahoo have not yet formed up into the expected packs of 40-50 marauding fish but we expect that to start happening within the next few weeks.
By July we will br re-rigging every single lure in use with wire and fending wahoo off with sticks. We have a number of anglers booked in to fish ultra-light tackle this season so we are hopeful of adding a few more IGFA World Records to Bite Me's growing list of accomplishments.
Capt Adrian Watt - Bite Me Gamefishing Charters
www.GameFishingFiji.com
