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FIJI
- NEW ZEALAND COMBO
(Note: for three years, we made a Fiji
stop before our annual New Zealand trek. This
report is from one of those Fiji stops at a small
beachfront resort we came to love – returned three
times. I spent three years trying to make Fiji into
a good fly fishing destination with very limited
success.)
Arrived in Nadi at 2:45am (6:45 our time)
– took a nap at Tanoa International Hotel near the
airport, like a Holiday Inn. Rate: 120fj per night
Brought NZ bags to “LEFT LUGGAGE” – open
24 hours, have to pay in advance. Should have
100-200 Fiji dollars for cab, tips, left luggage,
and baggage overages on way to Tavenui.
Nadi to Tavenui on Sun Air (1hr 20min)..
20kg of baggage free per person (2.2# to KG). We
paid 116fj for 170 total # of checked baggage
(carried my camera bag on or it would have been
more). 270fj pp for flight (one way??).
Qamea - We had one of the new deluxe bures,
Babale – only 2 deluxe bure’s with private pool
built into the front deck - $850 apprx vs $600 apprx
for regular bure per night per couple. All the
bure’s are comfortable bungalows with good A/C.
1st day - Couple in Oct fishing
with Eric hooked 6 GT’s across bay on left side
where waves rolled up on reef – first 3 broke off on
coral during the low tide, the landed 3 – 30# GT’s,
all on poppers on the high tide. Spent 3 hours
first morning casting to schooling baitfish with
Sierra Mackerel – no takes. Tried casting poppers
to same reef as above – no takes. Worked another
reef/shoreline and did get a spectacularly colored
small coral grouper to eat. Had tried a clouser
before – only eat I got all morning.
2nd day – left for the
beautiful flat in front of Forbes Island at 8:00, a
45 minute boat ride. Tide was full so we waded the
flat near shore that would be out of the water on
the outgoing tide. Twice saw fish that could have
been bonefish, but were spooked and never got a cast
off. Found the black tip shark nursery – 15 – 20
black tips up to 2 ft long milling around on a hard
packed sand flat less than a foot deep. Many
followed the fly but wouldn’t eat. Unlike last year
when my passion to find a bonefish didn’t allow me
to appreciate the black tip opportunity, I vowed we
would come back with some chum and get a black tip
later. The rest of the day we spent drifting across
this beautiful flat and did not see the school of
bones (??) we had found last year. We did take 5
black spotted snappers off two of the rock piles on
the flat on bonefish flies and had three close
encounters with trevally. Had a big GT (25-30 #)
follow my chartreuse and white clouser to the boat
while casting a sink-tip on the edge of the flat –
the drop-off. Also, on the flat, had a 10# blue fin
trevally chase my bonefish fly – think the fly was
too small for him. On one drift with the incoming
tide in the mid-afternoon, Eric had a GT chase his
popper but spooked off near the boat. I had a great
shot at a cruising GT right on the surface and threw
the fly over his back and spooked him. Also, had a
3 ft cuda eat the fly, but I yanked it out of his
mouth as I didn’t want to lose that popper.
Activity level seemed to pick up with the incoming.
Wish we had an incoming in the AM when the water was
cooler – very warm on the flat with the bright sun
baking it. Cut up one of our snappers for chum and
finished the day looking for the Black tips but
couldn’t find them – maybe too warm in the shallows
late in the day???
3rd day: Just fished a few
hours on reef across bay. I cast my popper on 10 wt
looking for that big GT for about an hour while Eric
drove boat and kept it close to reef. After tiring,
I took over driving and Eric casted a spin outfit
with popper. Five minutes later, big GT was visible
30 ft behind popper and engulfed it with head and
shoulders out of water – very good stuff. Fish took
off, drag screaming as I began to back boat further
from reef. Turned out Eric only had about 80 yards
of line on reel and fish took it all. We both had
clear view of fish and guessed him to be 60-70#.
Eric has caught GT’s that big on handling, but it
would have been his biggest fish on rod – different
world. Remember that last year there were no rods
and reels here. I switched to sink tip and took
three groupers – two small coral and 1 peacock that
was bigger than others I caught – they liked that
2/0 chartreuse/white clouser.
Marte rested for day and hid from the sun
as she forgot that snorkeling for four hours in
bright sun was not a good idea. Basically low key
day.
4th day: 7:30 went to Forbes
Island flat – wish I had an incoming tide in the
am. Tide was full when we got there and the flat
along the shoreline was in flood. Eric pointed out
that the flat was hard, but riddled with holes and
bubbles were produced with every step. He thought
there were many sand worms and crabs and that’s what
held the small black tip sharks there. The school
of baby black tips was there and the chum got them
going and one grabbed my popper. Lots of photos –
cool looking fish. After that one, we couldn’t find
them - the school had vacated the flat – all of
them?????? Did see two fish that swam between us
and I’m about 70% sure they were bones.
More casting lessons for Eric and turned
him loose on a rocky island where he got a nice
black spotted snapper on about his tenth cast – both
of us very excited!!!
Had 4 or 5 GT shots up to 10 pounds but
most came with bonefish fly and they would follow
but just not eat the little fly – had wrong rod in
my hand – would be interesting to fish this flat for
only sight cast trevally shots. Did get a small
black marbled grouper off a rock pile – very pretty
little fish.
Got back to Qamea about 2:00 and spent an
hour casting for big GT’s on reef, but
Marte did two long snorkeling sessions
fully clothed. Had a wonderful time…”I hope heaven
is like this.”
5th day: bad weather –
couldn’t even find black tip shark
Bad weather day of
departure and Air Fiji flight was late. Made
connection to Auckland in Nadi for the 3 hour
flight.
In Auckland – easy to
store bags at place right outside of customs – max
wt per bag for ANZ (for sure for inter-island
flights) is 32 KG – 2.2# per KG = 70#
Began another New
Zealand adventure.
Don Muelrath
TRIP REPORT
Fly Fishing Adventures
888-347-4896
flyfish@napanet.net
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