TAHITI'S FISHING IS NOT LIKE BAJA'S

July 9, 2006, Paul Whitehead, My fishing trip to Tahiti, Bora Bora, and Raratonga:

I didn't go to Mexico but I did fish in Tahiti at Bora Bora last week on a real nice Blackwatch 34, the Luna Sea. We were in Tahiti on a 10 day Princess Cruise which I would recommend to anyone. Well, we saw the commercial boats in Huahine, which are just 20-foot skiffs, bring back beautiful 30 to 40 pound Albacore.

They use a real hi-tech fishing method to catch them. They have an 18-inch buoy with 300 feet of line and 6 hooks. They throw 2 or 3 over the side and wait until they take off and then they chase them down and pull in the fish. Apparently when the ocean temperature is 82 degrees the Albacore are real deep.

Anyhow we just trolled around in 8-12 foot washing machine seas as the wind that was pushing the rain squalls came from 3 different directions during the day. I have to say the Blackwatch 34 is an awesome fishing boat. We only managed one fish, but it was the largest Skipjack I have ever seen. It was pushing 30 pounds. Other than that no luck.

We went 525 miles southwest to an island called Raratonga and the ocean was the biggest desert I have ever seen. I looked for life most of the day and only saw one bird and nothing else at all. Not even trash in the water. It was unbelievable that there was nothing! At Raratonga the local boats had dozens of little Skipjack, maybe 5 -7 pounds, for sale at $10 each. I hope to never be so hungry that I would pay $10 for a Skipjack that had been in the sun all day.

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