Fiji report
Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2019 10:13 am
I’m currently sitting at the airport with my family, 6hrs early for our flight, so I thought I’d put together a little report from our time in Fiji. We stayed at a lovely little air bnb for a bit over a week – this was the view from our backyard:
The first thing my dad and I did after we unpacked (and after acquainting ourselves with the local stray cat):
Was look for a spot to have a flick. There was an old train line out the back of our house, that ran parallel to the beach:
So we followed it until we found a fishy looking spot:
In Fiji, if you can find a lagoon with a deep entrance, you’ll catch fish. The reefies get fished out pretty quick, but if you have a deep entrance, the pelagics will move in and out with the tides. And sure enough, first cast:
And second cast:
We spent the arvo catching lots of trevally, mostly tea-leaf, big eye and blue-fin:
With a few reefies mixed in:
The trevs ranged from about 15cm to the mid 50s, with the latter pulling a lot of string on bream gear:
Not a bad spot to have a flick:
On our second day I went out to photograph birds - a relatively new hobby, and one reason why I haven't posted many fishing reports lately. There were plenty of shore birds including this reef heron and sharp-tailed sandpiper:
These vanikoro fly-catchers were everywhere (female first, male second):
But disaster struck, and my 400mm telephoto lens became a 200mm lens ha. Dang. RIP telephoto. So no more bird snaps, which is a shame because fiji has some wild birds (google golden fruit dove, orange fruit dove, and collared lory if you’re interested). But that meant I had plenty of time to fish! And fish we did, every afternoon. Tea-leaf trevs were the most common fish:
Followed by these delicious redthroat emperor:
We caught a few of these beautiful little coral trout:
And lots of little cod:
We ate fresh fish for dins every night (my ma is a killer cook):
I still had a macro lens, so I hunted for cool critters to photograph. Unfortunately, the most common critters are invasive pests, like this cane toad and common house gecko:
But there are some cool invertebrates too. This is the second largest beetle in the world, the Fijian long-horned beetle. This thing was about the size of my palm, but they get much bigger:
This rhinocerous beetle wasn’t much smaller:
These little copper-headed skinks were everywhere:
But the kings of the Fijian forest are crabs:
Shells are in short supply, so this poor hermit crab had to make do:
On our second last day, we had some massive tides, and the water was absolutely ripping through our little lagoon. The fishing was hot:
I just love blue-fin trevally:
This big goatfish was a highlight:
Little big-eyes were everywhere:
More little cod, redthroat and trout (check the reflection in this cod's pupil):
Even my little bro got in on the action:
The big tea-leafs go really hard:
This grassy emperor was a new species:
We got bitten off by as many long-tom as we landed:
I got smoked by a couple of bigguns, and I was regretting not bringing down my heavier outfit. I fished heavy the next day, but the tides had calmed down, and there were only small fry about again:
Our final sunset was an absolute cracker:
Seriously, it looked like a postcard:
And then it was time to come home.
Cheers!
The first thing my dad and I did after we unpacked (and after acquainting ourselves with the local stray cat):
Was look for a spot to have a flick. There was an old train line out the back of our house, that ran parallel to the beach:
So we followed it until we found a fishy looking spot:
In Fiji, if you can find a lagoon with a deep entrance, you’ll catch fish. The reefies get fished out pretty quick, but if you have a deep entrance, the pelagics will move in and out with the tides. And sure enough, first cast:
And second cast:
We spent the arvo catching lots of trevally, mostly tea-leaf, big eye and blue-fin:
With a few reefies mixed in:
The trevs ranged from about 15cm to the mid 50s, with the latter pulling a lot of string on bream gear:
Not a bad spot to have a flick:
On our second day I went out to photograph birds - a relatively new hobby, and one reason why I haven't posted many fishing reports lately. There were plenty of shore birds including this reef heron and sharp-tailed sandpiper:
These vanikoro fly-catchers were everywhere (female first, male second):
But disaster struck, and my 400mm telephoto lens became a 200mm lens ha. Dang. RIP telephoto. So no more bird snaps, which is a shame because fiji has some wild birds (google golden fruit dove, orange fruit dove, and collared lory if you’re interested). But that meant I had plenty of time to fish! And fish we did, every afternoon. Tea-leaf trevs were the most common fish:
Followed by these delicious redthroat emperor:
We caught a few of these beautiful little coral trout:
And lots of little cod:
We ate fresh fish for dins every night (my ma is a killer cook):
I still had a macro lens, so I hunted for cool critters to photograph. Unfortunately, the most common critters are invasive pests, like this cane toad and common house gecko:
But there are some cool invertebrates too. This is the second largest beetle in the world, the Fijian long-horned beetle. This thing was about the size of my palm, but they get much bigger:
This rhinocerous beetle wasn’t much smaller:
These little copper-headed skinks were everywhere:
But the kings of the Fijian forest are crabs:
Shells are in short supply, so this poor hermit crab had to make do:
On our second last day, we had some massive tides, and the water was absolutely ripping through our little lagoon. The fishing was hot:
I just love blue-fin trevally:
This big goatfish was a highlight:
Little big-eyes were everywhere:
More little cod, redthroat and trout (check the reflection in this cod's pupil):
Even my little bro got in on the action:
The big tea-leafs go really hard:
This grassy emperor was a new species:
We got bitten off by as many long-tom as we landed:
I got smoked by a couple of bigguns, and I was regretting not bringing down my heavier outfit. I fished heavy the next day, but the tides had calmed down, and there were only small fry about again:
Our final sunset was an absolute cracker:
Seriously, it looked like a postcard:
And then it was time to come home.
Cheers!