I recently had the pleasure of taking Carl-Johan Nilsson out for a bit of a fish in our inshore game fishing vessel ‘Offensive Tackle’. The weather was a bit gnarly outside the reef so we spent the first afternoon working some of my favourite narrow barred (Spanish) mackerel spots close to the resort. We trolled a couple of bibbed minnows (Red head and green/gold) as well as a mackerel favourite – ballyhoo rigged with a heavy skirted lure on the nose. The water was unfortunately quite churned up due to spring tides and rough weather but the fish were there. I know this from seeing several fish of about 20lbs leap vertically out of the water around us whilst hitting surface baitfish. On one such occasion a fish leapt 20 feet into the air right beside the boat as we trolled along. Such was the height of the jump; I had time to point it out to the guests as the fish inverted its leap with a sideways roll and pitched back head first towards the sea. I’d swear the dammed fish smiled and winked at me.

We returned home defeated but with Carl diving the next morning, we agreed to have another go the following afternoon. I felt it necessary to rescue my reputation and stamp our authority on those smiling mackerel.

We began by trolling a similar spread of lures and lure/bait combos on Shimano 30lb trolling outfits. This gear is capable of handling any and all predators that we target inside the reef including sailfish but is light enough to be user friendly for the occasional novice angler.

Carl was quite experienced and had brought a few of his own rods & reels to try out. I decided that the mackerel might be so focused on small baitfish that they were ignoring our larger lures and so elected to run an extra downsized lure. It was here that we made or first mistake.

We ran a small Rapala on Carl’s gear:

* reel is a Daiwa Caprice 3500 with 20 pound Fireline
* the rod a Viva/Tom Raymond Combat Stik 3.30m (11")
* 20-70g (3/4 - 2 1/2 oz)
* 6-9 lb.

There had been quite a few decent sized Yellowfin about outside the reef and in the back of my mind I knew that they sometimes come inside the reef during inclement weather but those mackerel were laughing at me so hey caution out the window…..

It was inevitable really….at 4.15 the little outfit bent double and the fixed spool reel whined as line pealed off at an alarming rate. We cleared the deck and settled down for a fight. Small to medium sized mackerel are not big fighters and usually tire after 5 to 10 minutes on 30lb gear but after half an hour, this guy was still winning. After 45 minutes, the fish briefly surfaced and gave us a glimpse of a yellow sickle fin. Right then I knew we were in trouble. With coral reefs around and a good sized Yellowfin sounding on light tackle, we chased the fish around and tried to coax her clear of the reefs and shallows where razor sharp corals waited to bust us off. This was going to take a while and with darkness falling at about 5.30, navigating home through the maze of reefs was going to be my worst nightmare. An hour into the fight with his rod bent double, Carl had to start taking risks and began inching up the drag. I have never deliberately cut off a fish and wasn’t about to start then. That’s the problem with fixed spool reels, if you change the drag you just don’t know exactly what your new drag setting is.

Eventually, the fish began to tire a little and Carl managed to get its head up and start to make some line back. One and a half hours later, we finally managed to get the fish circling besides the boat and sank the gaff home.

I then had to get us home and began the tricky sprint, crawl, sprint journey back to the resort through the lagoons and narrow passageways. With one eye glued to the GPS and the other to the sounder we crawled the last mile in pitch dark. I was much relieved to see the anchor light on Bite Me as she sat on her mooring. Not a situation any skipper wants to find himself in but hey, we got home safely, Carl with a nice 30lb Yellowfin for dinner and I have yet to deliberately cut off a fish.

And the moral of the story is….If you set out to fish 30lb gear and stick a little baitcaster out the side you are asking for trouble. You just know which one is going to get hit !

Adrian was born on the island of Cyprus and graduated to his first rod & reel at the age of five. Having fished around the world from the Arabian Gulf to the North sea and English Channel, he finally settled for the tropical waters of the South Pacific around the island of Kadavu, Fiji Islands. Director of Matava Resort Gamefishing, he skippers 'Bite Me', the resort's 31ft DeepVee Gamefishing vessel and thoroughly enjoys exploring the light and heavy tackle fishing around the island and Great Astrolabe Barrier Reef. An IGFA Certified Captain, he advocates tag & release and is a keen supporter of the IGFA and the Billfish Foundation.

Adrian Watt
IGFA Captain
info@matava.com
http://www.Matava.com
http://www.GamefishingFiji.com
http://www.GameFishingFiji.blogspot.com