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Advantage Vanuatu

Author: John Ashley
It was typical billfishing -- nothing happens for three hours, and then suddenly a pack of nice fish is up on the big Joe Yee Plunger running off the short rigger. It was hard to tell exactly how many marlin were there, but plenty of vivid color shone clear through the waves as they jostled one another out of the way. The first one to hit the lure didn't miss, and the big 130 International let out a scream as the 12/0 hook found its mark. One very angry Pacific blue burst from the surface.

Hotel Booking Glen Booth and I, along with our young deckie Samson Mainguy, started to retrieve the rest of the gear as one of the other fish followed a lure right to the transom. It was a solid blue, around 400 pounds, and it was lit up like a neon sign, with lavender bars and fins glowing brightly. The sight almost took my breath away, and it took a scream from the bridge to snap me back to reality.

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Travel Agency "Fish right there -- on the right, on the right!" the skipper screamed, and we spun around to see a third marlin tailing down the waves past the port side of the Blackwatch. This one was every bit of 850 pounds, and the top half of its tail was enormous. I've seen many 1,000-pound black marlin tailing off the Great Barrier Reef and striped marlin surfing the waves at Port Stephens, but never a big blue. I was stunned.

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Cheap Hotel I think the encounter with so many marlin so fast even startled our French skipper, Capt. Eric Festa, and this guy has seen his share of blues. "It's not often you see one tailing like that," he yelled as he slammed the port throttle lever into reverse to chase the fish we had all but ignored. By the time we grabbed our cameras and concentrated on the fish at hand, the once-acrobatic blue had sounded for the depths. It took 20 minutes of solid rod work to get a tag into a magnificent 550-pounder.

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Flight Booking This was just part of the great action from my first trip (and certainly not my last) to the beautiful archipelago of Vanuatu deep in the heart of the South Pacific Ocean. The warm, blue currents here abound with game fish of all shapes and sizes, and although the place is right on Australia's doorstep (only three-and-a-half hours of flying time from Sydney), it's only been in the last few years that even we Aussies have discovered Vanuatu's bounty. It's high time the rest of the world finds out about these beautiful islands and their little-known billfishing opportunities.

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In the center of Port Vila, Vanuatu capital city, this hotel is set on the harbour and two km from the National Museum. Nomads Moorings Hotel guestrooms include ensuite bathrooms, and harbour or... $147. 5 Lini Highway, P.O Box 3061, Port Vila, Vanuatu Located in Vanuatu's capital Port Vila, stunning waterfront position opposite Irikiki Island Resort with reciprocal use of the beaches, restaurants, bars, and other recreational harbour activities...

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Online Booking Marlin fishing is certainly nothing new around Vanuatu. Although the handful of fishing charters are still very much in their infancy, unfortunately, commercial fishing for billfish occurred here for decades. Such was the abundance of marlin around these deepwater grounds that a Japanese longline company set up a huge factory at Palekula on the island of Espmritu Santo, the most northern and the largest island in the group, where it processed literally millions of billfish.

Travel Health Insurance The South Pacific Fishing Company established the plant back in 1965, and it operated for 10 years until the Vanuatu government closed it down. The locals were not benefiting in any way and certainly didn't see a slice of the huge profit the company was raking in. When the government put a levy in place, the company moved off to the Solomon Islands for a supposedly better deal. The remains of the old slaughterhouse are still quite visible today, and the enormous generators and freezing plants have been left here to rust away in the elements.

Hotel Reservation If anything good has come out of the years of commercial fishing here, it's that it has been proved without any doubt that blue marlin of giant proportions do come through this area. In fact, one of the biggest blue marlin ever caught in the South Pacific was taken in Vanuatu by a local drop-line fisherman. A crane was needed to move the fish; unfortunately, no scales were available on the island, but witnesses estimated its weight at 1,800 pounds.

London Hotel Booking Today, Vanuatu enjoys a restricted 50-mile fishing zone, and, because of the widespread and complex cluster of islands, it means the foreign longlines are kept well away from some of the productive seamounts and important 1,000-fathom ridges. Also surprisingly, the fishing zones are fairly well monitored by sea and air. Over the last decade there's been some nasty scenes on the high seas when the local patrol boats have caught foreign fishermen within Vanuatu's territory.

Discount Travel Consequently, the fishing around Vanuatu remains good, and, like most of the South Pacific resort islands, the charter fleet here picks up a large slice of its angling clientele among the tourists. A few of the boats are only set up for light- to medium-tackle fishing and spend most of their time trolling lures around the headlands, FADs or seamounts for the abundant wahoo, yellowfin tuna, dogtooth and mahimahi. But in doing so, they still experience plenty of shots on marlin.

Orlando Hotel Although they catch some very large sailfish and striped and black marlin here, a pretty heavy percentage of the billfish action comes from the speedy blue marlin. Because of the tackle limitations on some boats, they experience plenty of spool jobs and busted lines; the story of the one that got away is commonplace.

Booking Agency A handful of boats on the island, however, do offer quality gear for heavy-tackle fishing. Ocean Blue Fishing Tours, owned by Remy Frouin, has three Australian-built Blackwatch boats -- two 34-footers and a brand-new 40-footer -- that are all fitted with a good range of two-speed Penn Internationals right up to the 130 class.

International Travel Medical Although these guys still find plenty of inexperienced tourist anglers wanting to charter their boats, they are finding more and more anglers to accept the big-fish challenge. While most of the world might not have heard about the big blues these guys are catching, here in Australia and New Zealand, Vanuatu is on every sport fisherman's lips.

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Travel Medical Insurance At the moment, most of the half- and full-day charters are fished out of Port Vila on the main island of Efate, and it's quite common to put the lures in the water even before you get out of the harbor. They often catch billfish right on the edge of the drop-off, within a bull's roar of some of the resorts. On our recent trip, we worked a FAD 6 miles offshore on four afternoons, and we raised 10 blues, hooked six and tagged three. And this was in July, which is not noted to be their marlin season.

Miami Hotel Because of the warm currents here all year, the blue marlin in particular seem to be around all the time. But the best billfishing seems to be from October to May, when local charter skippers often get blacks, blues and striped marlin together. Sailfish seem to be most numerous between June and September.

Air Deccan Booking For me, the exciting thing about this place is that there's so much water that remains unexplored. With the introduction of the new 40-foot Blackwatch to his fleet, Frouin has the opportunity to explore farther afield. One of the first items on his to-do list is to offer live-aboard charters to fish the lee shore of Santo Island in the north. One look at the marine charts of these grounds is enough to give you an instant dose of marlin fever, because the west coast of Santo is blessed with a combination of seamounts and very deep drop-offs extremely close to shore.

Las Vegas Nevada Travel These grounds look geographically perfect for lure trolling, and the high volcanic mountains on the island will give some protection when the seasonal southeast trade winds are blowing their usually brisk 20 to 30 knots. The place -- which appears quite similar to the Big Island of Hawaii but without all the fishing pressure -- has enormous potential, judging by the nice fish produced by the small amount of experimenting thus far. It just could be the blue marlin hot spot we've been looking for Down Under.

Las Vegas Nv Hotel Although it is still very early in the life of heavy-tackle fishing in Vanuatu, to date the country's charters have landed blues up to 800 pounds. Plenty of bigger fish have eluded them. Only recently, an experienced Aussie angler battled a blue in excess of 1,000 pounds for over three hours on 130, only to have his brand-new rod break above the reel seat. As the captains and crews gain experience handling big fish and more top-notch international anglers get involved, grander catches should occur with downright regularity.

Hotel Florence Booking Online Judging by its history and what I witnessed on this trip (we released a total of 10 blue marlin up to 750 pounds during our three and a half days of fishing), I can only agree with what everyone else is saying about the potential of Vanuatu. If Frouin and his captains continue with their big fish explorations and look after their fishery by tagging and monitoring their billfish, this place will soon be on the lips of fishermen not just in Australia, but around the world.

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