Blue Marlin

Pacific Blue Marlin

420lb blue pacific marlin tagged and released Kadavu island sees black, blue and striped marlin however the most commonly caught species and seen all year round is the blue marlin.

Ranging in size from 150lbs to 1,000lbs they can be caught trolling lures, skip-baits or livebaiting.

Because of the deep trenches running either side of Kadavu island, the 1,000 fathom line is only a few miles off the reef. Here, blues have been raised as close as 500 yards from the outer barrier reef slopes. When the large shoals of skipjack amd yellowfin tuna mass along the outer reef edge, the blues move in close and a number of surprise blues have been hooked and fought by anglers trolling in close for wahoo and sailfish.
	Black marlin are much more rare and tend to be seen right up close to the reef. In fact quite a few have been seen by guests diving from the lodge. Presumed to be migrating back and forth to the Great Barrier Reef off Australia, the best times for black marlin seem to support this with blacks usually seen July to September and December - March.
Striped marlin tend to be rare around Kadavu and usually seen only in winter time.
	We usually run four bent butt 80Ws and troll 12"-22" skirted lures for blues until we find a school of tuna. Then we usually switch to tuna skip-baits if we believe a marlin is in the area. In fine weather on the Kadavu seamount we sometimes stop over a tuna school and livebait. A very effective method of marlin fishing, it does however have its draw-backs when the occasional hammerhead or tiger shark pinches a bait.
For blue marlin, January - March is when we target the big girls. Bite Me has boated blues to 500lbs but fought and lost blues in excess of 800lbs. During the rest of the year, most blues range from 150lbs to 400lbs though the occasional really big blue is still encountered year round.
	We normally troll a spread of 4 lures until we find yellowfin or skipjack tuna. We then generally switch to two tuna skip-baits with a light tackle pitch bait ready to go if a sailfish or short billed spearfish comes up behind the boat.

2009WorldCup2

It is our policy to tag and release all billfish. If we are sure that a billfish is a World or Fiji National Record we offer the angler the choice of taking the record or tagging & releasing. This blue unfortunately did not survive despite considerable efforts to revive her. She went on to feed the children of several local island schools.

Fishing Method	Trolling lures & skipbaits / Bait & Switch / Livebaiting
Average Size	300lbs
Matava Resort Record	480lbs * We advocate Tag & Release
Fiji All Tackle Record	983lbs