As we all know, it seems this year’s weather has been the worst in memory with constant wind and rain. Like many other avid fishers and spearos, I had been close to breaking point and it was time for me to explore waters outside of New Zealand in search of sunshine, warm water, big pelagics, and just a break from the deluge of rain and crappy weather.

I jumped on Google, scouting the South Pacific for a likely spot. I had only a few requirements; I was dead set on landing either my first wahoo, dogtooth tuna, or both, so the location had to accommodate this. After scouring the web for hours, reading forums and going in circles, I remembered that I know a guy in northern Fiji who I stayed and dived with for a very brief trip back in 2018. Dan from Rakiraki, born in New Zealand but having grown up in Fiji, was my guy. Chilled out, living close to some awesome fishing grounds, and having just acquired a new boat meant there were options to explore further than my last trip and potentially land some decent fish.

I contacted Dan, and once some dates were aligned, I booked tickets and the trip was on!

I was so fed up with the weather, and not wanting to miss a good weather gap in Fiji also, I decided to book a 16-day trip, and lucky I did! I landed in Fiji about six days prior to the full moon. These were Dan’s instructions, to dive four days on either side of the full moon as this is when the biggest fish turn up.

After a few hours’ drive north of Nadi, I made it to the destination – Rakiraki. It’s a place full of history including large, vast areas of ancient stone fish traps dating back thousands of years, a major hub for sugar cane fields, pristine coastline, and much more. I was met by Dan and settled into my accommodation. It seemed I had brought the weather with me as there was a major front moving in over the coming days with heavy winds and rain. Great.

We had two days before the bad weather arrived, so we were geared up and ready to hit the water the next day at first light to make the most of it. We boated along to our first spot and on jumping in, saw it was exactly what I was looking for – blue, warm water and beautiful coral formations with big schools of baitfish. A nice change from the cold, gloomy winter water in New Zealand and hopefully some new fish species to tick off.

The specific spot, according to Dan, holds good numbers of Spanish mackerel (also on my target list), and basically anything could swim by including dogtooth tuna. Great, let’s get into it! Dan had fabricated some small throw flashers which were very simple – a small length of PVC pipe roughly 20cm long and 3-4mm thick covered in a holographic reflective tape. The best way from his experience to lure these fish in was to throw them out beyond the bait schools hanging in front of the reef bombie and let them sink down 20 or so meters before freediving down to retrieve it and hopefully intercept a pelagic coming in to check it out.

It worked a treat, and before long Dan had speared the first fish for the day, a tasty spanish mackerel or walu in Fiji. I finally got my chance. After sinking down to retrieve my flasher at about 15m below, nearing the end of my breath, I caught a nice walu coming into range to check me out. I swam at an angle away from the fish, as if you charge at them they will become scared like any fish. Keeping the curiosity high, the fish eventually swam in closer and I lined it up, squeezing off the trigger and sending the shaft right through the fish. It sped off like a rocket. I had done the damage, however, and after a minute I had the fish in my hands and was stoked. My first spanish mackerel!

Not long after, I managed to spear another one and then another. I think I had these fish figured out! Along with some nice bar-cheek trevally and other fish, we had a nice selection of fish between the three of us and headed back home for a cook-up. The cuisine in Fiji is incredible (if you like curries). With the Indian population in Fiji influencing the local dishes, you are left with the most beautiful curries, like nothing I had tried before. Incredible.

We repeated this all again the next day before the weather caught us and I was landlocked for about a week while 40-knot winds howled and battered the coast. I made the most of my time, however, heading deep inland to waterfalls, meeting a bunch of locals, sharing a fair few bowls of kava and stories at night, working on our spearguns, testing and target practice in the pool, and – quite a surprise treat – gathering some big clams from the local reef at low tide and having a tasty beach BBQ feast with all seafood cooked over the fire coals. This was paired with some interesting seafood including ‘sea grapes’ which looked like the name – stalks of small grape-looking balls that tasted like very mild caviar and paired well with freshly squeezed coconut milk.

We managed one more day in the middle of the trip before the bad weather returned, spearing some reef fish and other tasty critters and encountering beautiful big schools of barracuda and other species like GT (giant trevally), and of course a selection of pesky reef sharks. Luckily I had booked a long trip otherwise I would have missed out big time! Once again, we had beautiful fresh Fijian fish curries for lunch and dinner. I could get used to this. Finally, just days before the end of the trip, we were greeted with two days of calm-ish weather and this meant we could head wider to target wahoo at some offshore reefs.

We set off at dawn once again the next day, and after 45 minutes were at the destination.

I was pumped and eager to just encounter a wahoo underwater, let alone send a shaft into one. I had caught one on a handline years back but never by speargun. The wahoo, as with other pelagics, would often hang off a little further out from the bait schools, which would be sitting about 10m out from a reef/bombie.

We had bigger flashers this time, ‘South African Buzz Bombs’ – silver cask wine bags converted by cutting the bags into big strips then securing them together and hanging a lead weight below. These moved majestically in the water and were very reflective. We set them down about 10m on a line and floated around in the blue for what seemed like hours, gazing into the inky blue water, almost getting into a trance as we stared and searched, hoping for one of the elusive silver bullets to swim by.

Wahoo are crazy – one second you are staring into the inky blue, you blink, and then they suddenly appear out of nowhere, gliding past. It all happened so quickly, as suddenly we spotted two wahoo coming in and they circled the flasher below, then came up to check us out. I swam in to close the gap and lined one of the fish up perfectly before squeezing off a shot. I couldn’t believe it – a clean miss with the shaft shooting low. We scrambled around, trying to get a shot into the second fish, but with the seas now becoming quite rough it was very hard to aim, floating and bobbing around on the surface. The other fish swam away, too. Gutted!

After a few curse words and a few more hours of floating, we were greeted by a school of around 10 fish! They were being very cautious and staying just out of range. I tossed my throw flasher out multiple times, trying to lure them in. When I finally got to line up another fish, I felt confident and pulled the trigger. This time I connected and the wahoo screamed off like a rocket (I believe it’s the third fastest fish in the ocean), taking my shaft line and disappearing into the distance. I had my speargun rigged up as a breakaway setup, which means the shaft detaches from the gun fully but is connected by line to a big float on the surface which is used to slow down and land the fish. A minute or two passed with the fish towing the big float around before it did one last big run down deep, putting immense pressure on the spear/float. The shaft either ripped out or the fish got sharked and I felt the line go slack. Gutted again! We called it a day. A few cold Fijian bitter beers were had that evening, not to celebrate but to drown my sorrows from the day’s events.

After a few days of relaxing, we got one last gap in the weather. This time, we headed even wider to some more wahoo grounds. Just after sunrise, we landed two big fat fish on the rods at around 20-25kg each before jumping in to try our luck on the spearguns. After about an hour, a nice wahoo swam by with me trying to lure it in. Closing the gap, it changed direction and swam in to check out Dan who was floating on the surface. He couldn’t believe it, with the fish swimming right up to him. He shot it top down through the head and the fish screamed off, swimming in circles around us. There were lines everywhere and we needed to be very careful not to get tangled and dragged under.

In all this commotion, another fish swam into range and this time I was beyond confident I was going to nail it. Once again, I squeezed off the trigger and I could see I’d hit the fish low. A longer fight this time – close to five minutes – then the fish tore off and I was broken. The wahoo had beaten me. After further pool testing, I found the gun was shooting seriously low. Rookie me, I should have tested my new speargun before the trip!

These fish have such soft flesh that you need a very well-placed shot in order to land one, and this time it wasn’t for me. I managed some other fish on the trip including mangrove jacks which are stunning to eat. In many parts of the world these are off the menu, but in these waters they did not have the toxic ciguatera.

It’s not all about the fish on these trips, however. I love to meet new people, experience different cultures, and try new food, and this trip provided just that, meeting plenty of awesome locals who I now consider friends. On the final night before my departure, I was lucky enough to sit down with an elderly Fijian guy who had just stepped foot on the mainland for the first time in 30 years, having been living on his tiny remote island all that time. We shared his first beer in 30 years, shared stories, passed around the kava, and laughed and sang for hours. This was probably the highlight of my trip, and a reminder on these holidays to just embrace the journey, enjoy the small things, and remember that getting that dream fish is just a bonus on top.

You can check out my adventures on YouTube:

Ollie Craig -Primal Pursuit