Thread: One for the fishermen

We are just home from a great trip up to Samoa catching up with old family friends. Whole family came along, Mum, Dad, my brother and all the kids. It was packed full of fishing. Here are some of the highlights....

Accommodation was situated at Tafatafa on the south coast this land belongs to an old fella (Dave) who used to take Dad fishing every weekend when he lived up there. These days it runs some very basic accommodation which we were keen to support.





One of the problems with fishing in Samoa is the villages own the rights to fishing inside the reef and you have to get permission. Often near the resort areas they won't give visitors permission preferring to direct them to their arranged tours or charters.

We knew that by staying here we would have no trouble with permission. We took over our own lures and three Tica 15kg travel rods and our kingfish reels which worked out great

Started off the week casting from the shore.



Lots of black Lava rock which was very slippery. Found one spot that had good current and deep water that ended up producing a few fish. Here it is at low tide.



You had to swim through that first channel every time and climb up onto the rocks. At high hide you were standing about shin deep in the water on top of the rocks. Second time out there I got bitten on the toe by a morey eel when climbing out. Lucky it was only a small one and it didn't pierce my shoe. A good reminder to always wear shoes when swimming in the tropics

Managed a small GT and a bluefin from there. Also lost a good size bluefin while trying to tail it at a tricky time of the tide, hook popped and it was faster than me. We all got a hell of a fright at one stage when a white water explosion happened on my popper. The water just erupted with a massive splash but the popper was just cut clean off and I never felt a thing Presumably a big barracuda !



My mate had kindly offered us the use of his boat. When we called in to see him on monday he said "take my boat bro, you can tow it over" He just laughed when I showed him the rental car "Haha don't worry mate I will drop it off"

Sure enough my phone goes a couple of days later. I've dropped it off, its got a full tank. Just push it down the beach with some of the boys. Leave it out there, its got a good anchor, I'll come and get it the day before you go. Unreal generosity ! Typical of the Samoans.



Just a note about the above photo. This coast was hit by 3 huge tsunami waves in September 2009. The destruction along the coast was immense. Every building on Dave's property was flattened. The green concrete piller behind the row of palms was the only thing left standing it was the front corner of his house. His story was harrowing. Fortunately it happend during the daytime. They saw the water behind the reef disappear and had the foresight to load the family into the ute and blast up the driveway to higher ground. Others wernt so lucky 149 people died.

Under Dad and Daves watchful eyes. Me and a couple of the boys gave it the rolling maul approach and managed to get it floating.



The instructions from Dave were "use my mooring, I have a big mooring. Its over there"
I reply "I don't see any rope Dave?"..."Its on the bottom you have to swim down"

I found the mooring. A big tire full of concrete with about 20 links of chain leading to a rope. The rope looked and felt good but the chain was another story. Rusted and as thin as my fingernails in places, lucky if it would hold a kayak.

I untied the rope and attached it to the big steel ring in the concrete bypassing the chain, and put my mates fender on the other end so felt a lot happier about leaving it there.

We put it to good use





Did heaps of fishing and snorkling. It was great to see that well over 50% of the coral had recovered since the tsunami.

Managed to land one small barracuda. Interesting this is the fish that the locals like the most. They reckon it is the best raw fish to make their oka with



Ended up catching quite a few bluefin which were greatly recieved by our hosts and made into bowls of oka or baked in foil to share with the guests.







Having the boat was amazing but shit it kept me awake at night. It blew like 40 bastards on the second night we had it so I swam out at midnight and put the anchor out as well. I was worried about the mooring rope I had fished off the bottom breaking !

On the last night it poured and poured with rain and after a few hours I couldn't take it anymore so out I swam again, this time 2am. Flicked the bilge pump on and sat there for 15m in the torrential rain while it pumped about 1/2 a foot of water out of the boat.

Getting it out of the water just involved more boys and a few toys .



If you have made it this far your in for one more interesting fact. The village of tafatafa is 15km in a straight line from where the HMNZS Manawanui sank in October last year.

We discussed this with many of the locals and never did hear a bad word spoken about the NZ navy or their handling of the event. They were however extreemly complimentary of the first local boat to arrive on the scene after it went down. One of the most respected commercial and recreational skippers on the island who knows the reef and the cuts so well. He was able to guide/tow the navy boats full of survivors back threw the reef that night and in typical Samoan fashion refused to take any recognition for it

All in all....Bloody good fun !







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That's how you have a bloody good trip.
Those blue fin look fantastic

Super tasty raw

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Just awesome
Swimming out at night would give me the hebi jeebies

Awesome stuff mate. Rather you than me swimming out to the boat in the night

awesome.did a multi day trip over there a few years back with a charter, got quite a few decent yellow fin but he said the Chinese had been allowed to fish Samoas waters and had made a big dent in the fishery.
awesome place very hot and the samoans are good people.

Originally Posted by rugerman

Just awesome
Swimming out at night would give me the hebi jeebies

Originally Posted by Shearer

Awesome stuff mate. Rather you than me swimming out to the boat in the night

Never saw a single shark the whole time we were there. I thought we would for sure, especially snorkeling right beside the reef as we did often but not a one in sight!

Biggest fright I got was from the bloody moray eel

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Looks like the boys had a fantastic time, as per usual.

Oh, maybe the sharks have all been caught for sharkfin soup

Originally Posted by kukuwai

Never saw a single shark the whole time we were there. I thought we would for sure, especially snorkeling right beside the reef as we did often but not a one in sight!

Biggest fright I got was from the bloody moray eel

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did you try one of those big coconut crabs-- always wondered what they were like to eat -- big claws --

Originally Posted by Shearer

Looks like the boys had a fantastic time, as per usual.

Yea they got involved in everything as usual!

It was also super cool to have my brothers daughter there. That was the biggest cheer that went up on the boat when she landed her first bluefin

Was great for them to see how simply people can live. No wifi so no phones in sight

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Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

did you try one of those big coconut crabs-- always wondered what they were like to eat -- big claws --

No but we should have. We were told they are super tasty. It was easier to find them at night they are mostly down their big holes in the day.



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Originally Posted by Yesmate

awesome.did a multi day trip over there a few years back with a charter, got quite a few decent yellow fin but he said the Chinese had been allowed to fish Samoas waters and had made a big dent in the fishery.

My mate who lent us the boat runs Free Spirt Charters out of Apia. His family were involved with setting up the Samoan International Game Fishing Association and have been fishing their whole lives.

They made similar comments but not just about the chinese. They said the local canning industry made a real dent in the fish stocks, they used GPS long lines and one year after the SIGFA tournament 6 tagged marlin were caught and brought into the tuna factory in the first two weeks after the comp. Most of those factories are now closed.

So yep definitely less pelagic's around than there used to be. However looking at the photos on my mates phone, there was plenty to make most fisherman's dreams come true! So they are still about




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Damn awesome read and pics,thanks for sharing!

What a great fishing adventure. Your kids will never forget that trip!