Vanuatu is a ”Y”-shaped collection of 83 islands located in the South Pacific Ocean northeast of Australia between the Solomon Islands and Fiji that has only been an independent nation since 1980. It has become noted for its excellent fishery including large blue marlin, black marlin, striped marlin, yellowfin tuna, and dogtooth tuna. Spearfish, swordfish, bigeye tuna, giant trevally, and assorted bottom fish including coral trout are also caught off its shores in large numbers. I came here to try to catch another and larger dogtooth tuna to complete my second tuna royal slam and to see if I could handle marlin and other large powerful fish species from a wheelchair after my brain hemorrhages in May and August of 2008 resulted in a persistent partial right sided paralysis and in January and February of this year I required back surgery for spinal cord compression caused by vertebral boney metastases leaving me bilaterally partially paralyzed below the waist. This would be my first serious fishing trip since I experienced these setbacks. My best friend Ian McTurk agreed to accompany me on this trek and I could not have made it without his extensive assistance.

We arrived in Port Vila, the capital, on Efate Island Tuesday afternoon after more than 40 hours travel which was necessitated by several long but unavoidable layovers in Los Angeles and Aukland, New Zealand. After the difficult task of negotiating getting on and off the transportation bus to the Sebel hotel and checking in, we both lied down on our beds to rest and slept for nearly 14 hours.

Vanuatu and its Location in the South Pacific

The next morning we were picked up by the crew of Southern Destiny after breakfast and taken along with all of our gear to the boat which was tethered to the dock not far from the hotel. We had booked a five day four night trip aboard the 43-foot Cabo sportfisher with Captain Chris Donato, his mates Nounous and John, and his Kiwi wife Shannon who functioned as hostess, cook, and photographer. The boat had just relocated from Samoa to Vanuatu several weeks earlier joining the Ocean Blue fleet and we were among their first charters. The first obstacle was getting me and my wheelchair aboard the boat. With the assistance of several natives standing nearby Ian and the mates picked me up in the chair and deposited me unharmed on the cockpit deck. After our gear was quickly loaded and stored by the crew and Chris gave us a quick safety briefing we headed out of the harbor.

Map of Efate Island

Our plan was to head north, spending the first night in Havana Harbor near the northern end of Efate and then work our way to several underwater pinnacles and smaller islands further north as the week progressed. The wind usually is out of the southeast and therefore we were fishing the lee side of the island. However it shifted to the northeast in the late morning and the water progressively got rougher. By late afternoon the conditions were similar to a typical day on the Great Barrier Reef or the north drop. I usually like rough water as I have caught more fish under these conditions but it made negotiating the cockpit in a wheelchair particularly difficult. We had no action whatsoever until we reached a FAD north of the entrance to Havana Harbor about 3:30 in the afternoon. We then had a blind strike on the left long bait, a green Black Bart Cairns Prowler. The fish took out a modest amount of line with no jumps and then suddenly disappeared. Although no one saw it John thought the fish was a marlin. I suspect it was a yellowfin or bigeye tuna. Immediately after we lost the first fish the right long bait went off. This was a mackerel festooned with a blue and white islander. Utilizing the heavy tackle we had out I made fairly quick work out of the 25-30-pound bigeye tuna on the other end of the line which was actually snagged in the abdomen rather than hooked in the mouth. This is of course quite unusual.

We had just got the lure spread back in the water when the right long (the mackerel/islander combination) was struck again. This time it was a 250-pound blue marlin. The fish took out a lot of line and made a number of jumps tiring itself out reasonably early. I therefore had the fairly easy job of just reeling it in. That still took about 15 minutes and left me somewhat tired. After tagging the blue the crew began repositioning the spread. Then the same bait went off again even before we could get all the other baits in the water. This fish proved to be a 15-pound cow mahi mahi.  We just got the lines back in the water again when the green Cairns Prowler was grabbed by what proved to be a 25-pound bull mahi mahi. Although this fight also was not long my arms and back were starting to get pretty tired. Just as I thought I might be done for the day the right short bait (a Black Bart Blue Breakfast) disappeared in a huge splash and the reel started singing. It was another blue marlin about 300 to 350 pounds in size and he took off away from the boat at full speed! He stayed on the surface and greyhounded around in circles first toward the boat and then away from the boat and then in a figure eight. That made for great photography. After about 15 minutes of cranking the reel handle, which after all the work I had already done seemed much longer, I finally got the marlin to the boat. The crew quickly placed a tag high on its back and he was released. It was late in the afternoon so Captain Chris guided the boat into Havana Harbor where we tied up to a mooring for the night. I was exhausted after catching 5 fish in less than an hour and was ready to quit for the day, particularly since I had not pulled on a fish in over a year and a half. In this well protected harbor the water was flat and after a nice meal I slept like a baby.

43-ft Cabo Sportfisher Southern Destiny	Sebel Hotel from the Water
Small Bigeye Tuna	Bull Dorado

Terry in the Chair	First Blue Marlin Jumping
Blue Marlin Being Tagged	First Blue Being Released

The next morning we disconnected from the mooring and headed out of Havana Harbor about 8:00 am. It was our intention to head further north to some more isolated islands, reefs, and under water seamounts where the dogtooth action should be better as well as continued good potential for marlin but the wind was still northeasterly and the water remained relatively rough. Going north there would be no protection from the wind and rough water so we elected to fish the same area in which we had enjoyed action the previous day. We started out fishing the FAD that had been so productive the afternoon before. About 9:30 am a large blue marlin about 600 to 700 pounds came up and ate the mackerel in the right long position but didn’t hook-up. She came back and ate a second mackerel that we had rapidly put out to replace the first bait but again avoided the hook. We quickly placed out a third mackerel bait in the same position and again she grabbed the bait and took off away from the boat this time taking out a modest amount of line but again she had avoided the hook and simply dropped out of site. She had given us considerable albeit temporary excitement. It was then totally quiet until 1:30 pm when a wahoo came up and tore apart Chris’ favorite lure but like the marlin before failed to find steel. At 2:00 pm we stopped trolling for marlin around the FAD and headed inside of Hat Island to troll for bait to use to try to catch dogtooth tuna. Usually this area is productive for rainbow runners which are excellent live bait for dogtooth and stay alive for quite some time in the live well. We caught several Kawakawa but no runners. Without tuna tubes the Kawakawa unfortunately died quickly.  We put them out along with several juiced mackerel as skip baits and also put out several rapalas and mauraders for the doggies but had no action trolling inside of Hat Island along the reef’s edges. The ideal depth for doggies is felt to be 30 to 60 meters and the best time is dawn and dusk. We continued to try to get runners with sabiki rigs but remained totally unsuccessful. We continued trolling the shallow areas until dusk and then trolled around the opening to Havana Harbor until dark when we had to quit and go back to our mooring. We had no action at all despite all of our intense efforts. That night we enjoyed wonderful sashimi from the bigeye I had caught on day one.

Terry on the Second Blue Marlin	Blue Marlin Jumping
Continued Jumping	Still Jumping
Last Jump	Tagging the Second Blue

We left the mooring at 8:30 the next morning and again trolled around the FAD for marlin with our large baits. We had a change in mates as Nounous had a booking for his own boat so we took Jackie, another local, in his place. Jackie was not nearly as experienced as either Nounous or John but proved to be an adequate substitute. The weather continued to be overcast and the seas a bit sloppy with the wind remaining out of the northeast. About 9:30 am the right short bait (a Black Bart Blue Breakfast with black, red, and yellow skirts) was grabbed by a large blue marlin that appeared to be 700 plus pounds. She made a huge splash as she grabbed the lure and ran off over 500 yards of line getting well down into the Dacron backing on the reel. She was gorgeous as she jumped repeatedly way off in the distance. We started backing down on her slowly gaining line as she leisurely swam away from the boat. After 30 minutes of hard pump and grinding made more difficult by my right-sided weakness I suddenly lost weight and she was gone, having pulled the hook. I was exhausted and a bit disappointed but it was fun while it lasted. Having caught over 500 marlin I was fully aware of the roughly 50-60% capture ratio of lure hooked fish using “J”-hooks and therefore was not surprised by her success at becoming unbuttoned. We trolled the same area for a number of hours but had no additional action. Finally at about 12:30 pm we had a strike on the left long bait, a Bart black and purple super plunger. The reel began singing our favorite tune as another blue marlin began jumping away from the boat this time with the hook deeply implanted in his mouth. This fish was much smaller estimated at 150 to 200 pounds but was full of attitude and pulled harder and longer than all of the other fish we had thus far hooked on this trip. It took me 30 minutes to get him to the boat and he was still full of energy on the wire. He eventually was successfully tagged and released and swam away strongly apparently un-phased and unhurt after a brief resuscitation. This fish had worn me out despite his small size.

Terry On His Third Marlin	Third Blue Showing Himself
Tagging the Third Blue	Terry and Ian Are Both Happy

At this point we decided to once again get serious about fishing for dogtooth tuna which was the primary target species of my trip. We again trolled the shallow waters around the reefs and smaller islands inside of Hat Island. The mates had fished these areas with success for doggies since they were small children. We put out rapalas and marauders along with mackerel and ballyhoo and continued working sabiki rigs and tiny lures for rainbow runners and other potential live bait options. After about 30 minutes we had a strike on one of the tiny lures but it came off before John could get it to the boat. Shortly thereafter we had a strike on one of our mackerel skip-baits. It took out some line but quickly came unbuttoned. This fish may well have been a doggie! We continued to work hard the rest of the afternoon until dusk but could not entice another strike. Eventually we had to stop due to darkness and again trolled back to our mooring in Havana Harbor. It had been a successful day as I had fought two blue marlin and caught and released one but I remained a bit disappointed as I still I had not caught my dogtooth.

The next morning the wind remained out of the northeast and the water rough forcing us to abort our initial plan of going further north. Thus far the weather had precluded us from getting to the prime dogtooth areas which remained some distance to the north. The seas had been daily like those on the north drop or the GBR with the northeast wind that persisted. We also had been unable to catch any decent live bait which according to our local mates was the best choice of bait for doggies around Hat Island. We therefore decided to head directly to the FAD and try to catch bait there with the intention of taking them quickly to the shallow areas around the reef at Hat. Having left the harbor at 8:00 am we trolled directly to the FAD and circled it several times. A 300-pound blue came up on the right teaser, then moved to the left teaser, and finally took a shot at but missed the right short bait, the Bart blue breakfast. The fish dropped out of site and didn’t return. There were numerous pods of bait around so we put out tiny lures and sabiki rigs to try to catch them. We eventually even stopped and tried to catch baitfish right at the FAD with tiny chunks of bait and small hooks. We did catch a small yellowfin and a triggerfish but we had surprisingly poor luck at catching real bait! Finally we left the FAD and went back behind Hat Island where we worked the edges of the reef with skip baits and rapalas until the afternoon. We also continued trying to catch live baits with sabiki rigs and tiny lures but still to no avail.

Mate John	Mate Jackie
Hat Island	Terry Catching His Wahoo From Wheelchair

By late morning the wind had quieted and the wave action had decreased significantly so we finally were able to troll northwest and work the reef edges around a number of islands on the north side of Efate which usually are prime locations for catching dogtooth. We not only had no bites from doggies but we also still couldn’t catch any decent live bait despite the fact we saw bait jumping and at times even showering out of the water. Late in the afternoon we caught another kawakawa but nothing small enough to keep alive in the bait well. We bridled the kawakawa and placed it in the spread while continuing to troll our dead skip baits, a ballyhoo swimming bait, rapalas, and sabiki rigs but despite this smorgasbord of baits we had no action whatsoever the rest of the day.  We worked these islands until dark when the rain showed up and we were finally forced to troll back to Havana Harbor.

Our fifth and final day on the water we got up early to try to catch the dawn dogtooth bite. This was my last chance! We were up at 5:00 am and were trolling the shallow waters around the reefs with rapalas and marauders by 5:30. I did get a hook-up at about 7:30 on my 50-pound short bent butt stand-up outfit that we initially thought might be a dogtooth but when I reeled the fish to the transom proved to be a 40-pound wahoo. Although he provided an excellent sashimi entre for dinner that night it was not my doggie. At 10:00 am we went back to trolling heavy tackle and large lures for marlin as the morning tuna bite was likely over. We worked the FAD for several hours with nary a strike! Since we had to get back to Port Vila that afternoon we went back to light tackle and trolled the shallow waters near the reef to give me one last chance at catching my dogtooth. We first worked the reefs around Hat Island and several small surrounding islands and then trolled all the way back to Port Vila along the reef’s edges but got no strikes. Finally we were back to Port Vila at 4:00 pm and we went back to the dock and then the hotel.

I had caught 3 out of 4 blue marlin that we hooked along with 2 mahi mahi, a bigeye tuna, and a nice wahoo and we had raised three additional blue marlin. By most accounts this would be considered a successful trip. But I was still disappointed as I had now fished the 2 premier locations for dogtooth tuna in the world, the Andaman Islands and Vanuatu, without catching a single doggie. I was pleased that I had found myself capable of pulling in blue marlin despite my disability, although they certainly wore me out. And I was pleased that my modification of my stand-up harness along with the new short bent butt rods I had built for the trip worked fairly well from the wheelchair. And Ian had developed some new ideas for additional modifications of the wheelchair, butt plate, and harness that we can try out on our next trip.

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