Taming Tropical Brutes – A Fijian Adventure

We were lucky enough to be staying at a resort in beautiful Pacific Harbour, and it was literally only a two-minute walk to the shoreline where I could start flicking lures. This ended up being the main type of fishing I did, as I never travel without a rod packed in my luggage. Unfortunately, for several days my partner Helen and baby Max were struck down with illness, which meant we could not venture too far from our hotel room. As a result, most mornings and evenings I would wander down to a nearby break wall and spend an hour or two casting lures.

While the fish I was catching were a far cry from the powerful brutes I landed aboard Captain Freddy's charter boat, there was something incredibly special about being able to simply walk down to the water each day and catch species I would never encounter back home. The calm surroundings, warm tropical weather and relaxed style of fishing made it a genuinely therapeutic experience. As my son Max began to recover, some of my favourite moments of the trip were the early morning walks down to the water with him strapped to my chest. He quickly became part of the action, helping to wind the reel handle and excitedly watching the trevally come to the surface. Those simple sessions may not have produced the biggest fish of the holiday, but they created memories that will stay with me forever.

The land-based fishing around the resort was far from easy, but I found that concentrating my efforts around the change of light periods for an hour or so each morning and evening produced the best results. I also paid close attention to the tides, timing my sessions around tide changes and focusing my casts along reef bommies. These structures often create pockets of calmer water where baitfish congregate, making them natural ambush points for predatory species.

I experimented with a range of lures but the clear standout was the BMAX Goldie. The lure's shimmering action proved irresistible to a variety of species, while its sinking design offered several advantages. Not only did it allow me to work different depths in the water column, but it also had an enticing slow sink when paused during the retrieve, which accounted for several hook-ups. On occasions I was able to drop the lure back to fish that had followed it into the shallows but were yet to commit, often triggering a second strike. A steady slow-roll retrieve with the occasional twitch consistently produced the best results, bagging me six Bigeye Trevally up to 60cm and seven Brassy Trevally.

Casting tropical shores all day can be a nightmare for wind knots and gear failure, but the 13X braid performed exceptionally well while casting lures around the shoreline each day. Many of my sessions were spent fishing in windy conditions, and when combined with the relatively lightweight BMAX lures, which weigh just 9.3 grams, the risk of wind knots and casting tangles was significantly increased. Despite this, the braid handled flawlessly throughout the trip and I experienced no issues whatsoever. For my land-based fishing, I paired the braid with 40 lb and 60 lb Tough Trace leader material. This proved to be an ideal balance between abrasion resistance and castability, offering plenty of protection against the raspy mouths and sharp scutes of trevally while still allowing long accurate casts.