Vanuatu Trip 2008

This is the first part of a three part feature on a recent trip to Santo , Vanuatu by six anglers from Got One Port Stephens.

Well, it has been and gone.  The first GOT ONE Vanuatu trip launched from Port Stephens very early on Sunday morning 19^th October.  The following is my recollection of the trip. 

Day One

Myself, John ‘JT’ Turner, Steve Wilson and Warren Haynes were kindly driven to the Newcastle air port at 4am by Steve’s lovely wife Kay.  We booked in early, grabbed a coffee and sat down to eagerly wait departure.  The trip to Brisbane went without a hitch and we didn’t have any trouble getting the rod tubes etc booked in although I gotta say that we were not to confident going in there.  On arrival in Brisbane the much discussed Haynesy curse had not affected our luggage and we collected it all and grabbed the train to the International terminal.

The two Michaels (Morin and Walsh) had flown to Brisbane the day before and met us at the International Terminal as organised.  By way of a small miracle everyone turned up with their pass port s and we got through check in and Customs and Immigration as a well organised rabble.  Duty free was the next stop to get some essential supplies for the trip then we headed off for the comfort of the Qantas Lounge.  This is where Murphy enters the picture.

Even though four of us were Qantas Club members, and the flight was a co-operated Air Vanuatu / Qantas flight, because we had booked via Air Vanuatu we were refused entry to the club – not happy Jan – but in true holiday mode we did not miss a beat and made a beeline for the air port bar.  By 8am we were well and truly in to the Crownies (and VB for MW) and completely over the Qantas Club. The next few hours were taken up with getting to know each other and learning to ‘hang it’ on the Frenchman (MM).  His best mate MW told us that he liked it when we did that…..

The flight from Brissy to Santo went without a hitch and we were met at the air port and trans port ed to the ferry.  The humidity surprised a few of the lads so it was just as well that we had been keeping the fluids up.  A short boat ride over to Aore Island resort and we were met by dancing, singing and a glass of ‘fruity rummy drink’ with a nice little umbrella and a slice of fruit – it didn’t even touch the sides.

Once we had settled in to the bungalows it was down to the bar to meet Geoff and Lee from Seascape Charters and discuss the planned fish assault.  They live on Aore Island and came down to have a few coldies with us.  We ended up ordering the lobster, settling in and making quite a night of it.  First night madness always brings me unstuck.

Day Two

Up at Sparrows partly due to the excitement of the days fishing but mostly due to JT being one of the noisiest earliest risers I have met. Out for a quick paddle on the resort kayak and a swim before brecky and Geoff picked us up from the wharf in the ‘Island Flyer’ as agreed. We were all s port ing our new GOT ONE Vanuatu fishing shirts and we certainly looked the part.  We met Michelle, one of the local chiefs that was deckying for Geoff and headed out for the day.  The seas were a little lumpy and we dragged lures around fro about 4.5 hrs without even a touch.  We stopped to have a flick with the two rigs that I had brought over (Saltiga Expedition rod and reel, and a Stella on a Saltiga 24kg jig stick) and low and behold I landed the first fish for the trip – the smallest Dogtooth Tuna that there is in the ocean caught on a 7in Curried Chicken GULP Jerkshad.  Not the classic way to catch Dogtooth but a fish never the same. 

This got the boys fired up and for the next hour we tossed all manner of plastics and bait to try to get some reef fish.  JT fed them a lot of plastics and MM finally managed to get a bite (which he was pretty damn happy about) but no more fish.  Back to Geoff’s wharf where he washed the boat down while we flicked poppers in case the big GT was lurking near home base.  A flowery cod jumped on a feather that I was flicking but no GTs.

Geoff took us all over to Santo in ‘The Truck’ where we changed some money then turned it in to cartons of beer.  We visited the dive shop to discuss a possible dive on the Coolidge and then returned to Aore Island for Pizza and beer on our balconies.

It poured rain that night while JT filled us all in on what his students get up to and MM and MW kept up their banter.  I am led to believe that they do really like each other.  A great day in all but not fish. Still if it was easy they would call it catching instead of fishing.  Bring on Day Three.

Day Three

To say we were keen to get back out on the water would be an understatement.  Geoff picked us up in the Truck and then we transferred to the Island Flyer and headed out to the FAD.  MM nearly drowned trying to get in to the Truck, but we won’t mention that.  What happens on tour……

The FAD was in the opposite direction from where we were the day before, and when we spotted Marlin working a bait ball we were VERY exited. We did not chase the Marlin but kept trolling out to the FAD and although we saw Mahi Mahi jumping we did not get any strikes.  Starting to think that someone had snuck bananas on board.  As the weather was closing in we headed over to work Araki Island .  We had previously nominated rods to individuals and our intent was to rotate the strike after the first fish.  Just before Araqi and BANG - Double strike. The split rings had pulled on one of the rods but SW had a nice fish.  After a reasonable battle we gaffed an impressive Dogtooth Tuna that would have tipped the scales at about 35-40kg.  Steve was ecstatic as he had now got his target fish.  A couple of pics and we put the fish on ice.  Naturally we had to move a few beers to fit the fish in the icebox.

Back at Geoff’s wharf and Haynesy ignored the previous warnings and broke the peer – good one dude J.  Turned out to be rotten wood.

Over to Luganville for Chinese that night but it was closed due to not enough patronage – what the??  We ate at the Santo Hotel and had invited Michelle down for a feed.  Good tucker and we all enjoyed finding out more about the Vanuatu culture, their tribes and traditions.  The $100AUD ferry ride hurt the back pocket a bit though.  HTFU.