# Fiji Basics



## koich (Jul 25, 2007)

So I'm spending a week with my own boat on Kadavu in Fiji 

Anyway, gear wise, I'm probably going to get a Daiwa Saltist 6500 running 80lb braid with a 8"3' monster Mesh as my primary weapon of choice. My main reason for going is to catch big GT's on poppers, I also want red bass and a bunch of other stuff, all reefies, no blue water stuff.

The place we are staying in has a massive flats system out the front so I'm going to take some plastics and stuff, that's the easy bit.

What am I looking at in regards to leader set-ups and connections and what are the absolute mandatory lure(diving and poppers) inclusions I'm looking at?

I'm lost when it comes to this stuff.


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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

make sure to buy a Fiji Bitter singlet top and wear it at all times, so you blend in with the locals.


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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QlpoOTFBWSZTWeB40UIAACHfgAAQQOcAEJUj0CA/79+gMACsYim1GmmTQyAeoyANANTUzUbUAAAAABqYkabSaeqMmjQANMaiAAwBmSmH0j7PAnRQMxtaPkJ2kNRwPS0t85W6e+YRJVOIYQwsmklHIQ8ohETpdIJtnpcDe6ZMcaiNMIBj09ZZ0WsUaNkjfb1puQlcRXjVIjAE9FQzBz7ChrLHymsPuluQuM1EQRuKL+aV6obVbUvV9ZLIhxO9HTZnzDXwQWSq1tQMCAnjYDNRlAylPxdyRThQkOB40UI=


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## koich (Jul 25, 2007)

That's fantastic news Ken.

I was planning on getting the cheap berkley and ET poppers and hb's from Big W($12 bucks) and upgrading the split rings and trebles.

Here's hoping they have a wire through.:lol:


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## paulo (Nov 1, 2007)

koich said:


> what are the absolute mandatory lure(diving and poppers) inclusions I'm looking at?
> I'm lost when it comes to this stuff.


Ive been doing a lot of research on this stuff over the past two months. Ill be on Ono Island in March. Im taking 100lb on a Dogfight 6500 on a Saltiga Muramura 76 and hoping to win at least some of the battles. Will also have 50lb on Catalina 4500 on Nitro Godzilla as my light outfit.

Leaders are 60, 80, 100, 120, 170lb. Knots are line to leader: FG or mid knot, leader to terminal: four turn uni knot.

Heru (rebadged as Blackjack or Nomad) Cuberas 125 are the goto popper with Adhek Goby the easiest stickbait to work. They start at $40 and go up to $150 and beyond. Good luck trying to find some of them. Ive found them in Indo for half the price of Aus but struggling to get an order accepted.
Most of my lure box will be Halco roosters, R2S dumbells and stickbaits from R2S.

Join gtpopping.com. The best GT popping and stickbaiting resource on the web. Some great articles on tackle selection.
I just need a second job to pay for this stuff!

PM me if you want a more detailed list of what I am taking.


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## Decay (Feb 25, 2008)

Hi Koich,

I've been around Kandavu one or two times. Here's my last report:
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=35066

Which island are you going to? Are you going to be on Kanavu on the Western side? You should gear up for some Yellow fin in that case. I did a lot of my fishing on Ono on the Eastern side.

I guess to start the too and through, can I ask if you're on a kayak or a boat, I change my gear dramatically for the two occassions. 
I'll assume you're in a yak, No point gearing up with HEAVY stuff on a kayak, you aren't going to stop a 60kg red bass on a kayak, (you can try if you like, I've been in a 6 meter game boat and nearly got pulled over board) chances are you will end up in the water if you hook one on the yak and your reel is set too high and you have heavy line (like I did... see my first story... lots of my blood and skin was left over in Fiji on my first trip). Better to gear up in a way that you can stay on board, I actually started scorring much bigger fish when I went to 12 kg braid, I could manage the fish much better. The local fish like Qantas colour lures (Red and White). And here's my big tip if you want the GT from the kayak. Poppers are good but expect to be smoked by Job fish and Red Bass (followed by loss of said lure). On the contrary, take some shinny slugs and the like, cast out, couple of reels in, let the lure sink a few meters. In Fiji the blue fin trevally and GT take the falling lure, they don't particularly like the fast retreive, they leave those to the monster Long Tom (who have a particular liking for green). A three meter Long Tom next to the kayak is fun until they realise you are alive and that you can bleed like anything else they bite, then they get nasty. Easy to unhook them, just give them 0.5 seconds of slack, that's probably exaggerating, you probably only need 0.25 secs.

Lots of zones of Cigatera on the western reefs keep and eye out for that.



kraley said:


> I once had a 3 metre bronze whaler pop out of the reef there to devour a brass coloured popper that was big as my forearm. He ate it without a thought.


Yeh, read my story.... Mine was about the same size as my kayak and was a tiger, not a whaler. Went to take a piece out of my rudder .... lucky to be here to talk about it. I would consider a shark shield, in fact when I go back that will be the first item I pack. Lot of people brush shark attacks off.... I'm no longer one of them.

Give me some more details about where you will be and if you're indeed on a yak and I might be able to point out some neat spots.

Cheers,
Derek


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## Decay (Feb 25, 2008)

Hi Paulo,

Which resort on Ono? Is it Piero's place (Onata resort?). March ehh, hmmmm


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## paulo (Nov 1, 2007)

Decay said:


> Hi Paulo,
> 
> Which resort on Ono? Is it Piero's place (Onata resort?). March ehh, hmmmm


Yup DK Ono with Piero. Dave from OceanBlue is organising. Same trip Keza and Co did a while back. A mates wife is paying for four of us so wont be doing much (if any) kayak but will take my SShield just in case I sneal an early morning fish whilst the other boys are no doubt sleeping off their hangovers. 
I will be seeking you out over the next few weeks for a chat.


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## koich (Jul 25, 2007)

Legends 

Decay
We're basing ourselves on the NE tip of Kadavu.

We'll be in the boat for fair slab of the fishing. I'm not keen on the yak based on a few peoples stories of bities in the boats and your yak experience. So I'll either be on one of the resorts boats (self guided) or walking the flats with plastics. I wouldn't mind hitting these on fly but my budget doesn't extend to a new abel reel and sage 11# and my 7# isn't going to be stopping much. :lol:

Cheers for that link Paulo, I'll be ripping through that shortly.


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## Decay (Feb 25, 2008)

Nice, the North-East. I've been taken past there in a boat but we didn't stop on that occasion because of the wind (25 knots). If you're in the channel (between Kandavu and Ono) there is some deep water and some very big fish, you name the species... it'll probably go through there. The shore line can have the same aspect as Oneta resort but changes to rock face as you move around to the channel. The flats are not quite like our Australian flats, they are more commonly interspersed with coral.
On the west side of Kandavu you might see this:








Indeed this is taken from the airport on the western end of the run way. These are flats, more or less as you might expect them and they do have constant boils as pelagics race through. You could probably happily popper and spin off them.
However, on the East you might see this:








Oppps, there is a fish in the way, ignore that, this is a picture from the beach in front of Oneta resort, looks like a flat, now take a look from the water (photo taken from the kayak looking back at the very spot I took the previous picture from):








Its actually reef that you can walk on it at low tide but its very sharp and will carve shoes and feet to pieces. Also not ecologically friendly to walk on it too much. I tried it once and I have to say I saw an amazing site, two small GT (about 30 cm) fighting over my lure only to be scooped by a very nice coral trout that came out of nowhere. Lots of action on those reef edges.
Here is what they call "flats" on Ono:








Opps, another fish in the way, again, ignore that if you can... you'll get used to that problem in Fiji, fish getting in the way of great landscape shots. ...opps I get distracted, the flats are generally too deep to be walking around and go spinning or poppering or fly fishing. Don't get me wrong, you can spin off the beach, it just might not be the same as you are expecting and the hook ups might be a little different. I would suggest for that style fishing light (5-10 kg is light for Fiji) so you can spin out as far as possible from the beach. As an aside, I put that picture in there because I took it with me to Fiji as a junk lure, never worked for me in Australia, in Fiji it was one of the most productive lures I had, the trevally couldn't resist it on the fall.... unfortunately in a very cocky moment I cast if over a bommie and a Job fish thought it looked good too. 2 milli seconds of very exciting fishing before I lost my lure to the great coral god.

For my few cents worth, I love Ono and for all the fish and stuff I caught, the thing I really liked was going out in 2 meters of water, 5 kg line and spinning for Blue Fin trevally. Great fish to catch, great sashimi and good in a curry.
Hope that helps.


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## koich (Jul 25, 2007)

That's exactly the advice I'm after.

Thanks heaps.

Paulo, I'll shoot you a pm re the gear.


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## Decay (Feb 25, 2008)

Glad to be of service.


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## wopfish (Dec 4, 2006)

Get some of those cheap 7 inch slam baits from MO tackle - 5 packs for 10 bucks - get the bright colours - I nailed tons of blue spot trevors site fishing in the reef in fiji ....... you dont need much wait with them.... I just used a hook with a bullet lead and bead to add a bit of noise.


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## pescado (May 17, 2007)

You are going to get soooooo smoked, im jealous 

When are you going??


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## spooled1 (Sep 16, 2005)

If the swell is quite small along the backline of the outer reefs or you're fishing the lagoony type bommies that aren't too shaken up, go for smaller dark coloured stickbaits like Smith Baby Runbohs or 125 Cuberas.
If there's some real good washing machine action along the backline and the swell is up, go for big poppers or big stickbaits.

We were on the Coral Coast during a low swell period (<4 foot) and the 3 biggest fish of the trip 25-30kg all fell Runbohs, Cuberas and the dark purple Williamson Jet Popper. We also got a stack of GT's in the 10-15kg range on big hardwood poppers. I mainly used Weezels (http://www.weezellure.com) because I didn't have the $$$ to buy the ridiculously expensive stuff. In the end I had an equal strike to my travel buddies and their $80 schmicko lures.


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## koich (Jul 25, 2007)

Loving this.

Cheers lads.


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## koich (Jul 25, 2007)

BigGee said:


> I'm coming!!!!


I thought I was excited about the trip.


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## GregL (Jul 27, 2008)

Koich.
You bastard.
Take me.


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## spooled1 (Sep 16, 2005)

Oh yeah! One of the most important items in your kit is a pair or split ring pliers. Don't skimp on a cheap $20 pair like I did. Pay $60-$100 and get the proper ones.

Reason being: Big ST-66TN Owner Trebles, big inlines and heavy Decoy split rings size 9,10 and 11 need a tool that can properly open the rings really easily without slipping off. Using my crap pliers with a crap beak, trebles points embedded into my fingers countless times and sometimes it took up to 10 minutes to swap a lure out because I had to be so careful of slippage. In Fiji access to hospitals is a long way from sea.

The guys I fished with had the Owner ones you get from Nomad and they were sensational.


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