Solomons

[Mad_fisherman]

Lad's

Does any one have any tips on fishing the solomons or where to start any good charters, bait lures etc??

Or has any one here ever fished the area

Cheers

MAD!

[nigelr]

Hi.
Wife and I stayed at Tambea just north of Honiara on Guadalcanal in 1979.
Awesome diving, didn't fish as didn't have any gear.
I imagine that the inshore and offshore charter scene would be pretty good value, perhaps google up 'charter boats, Solomons islands' might provide some details, should be something out of Honiara, although the political scene might be curtailing the tourist trade a little.
One thing I do recall, very warm water and lots of sharks also!
Apparently Gizo is the place to go, 'though the wife and I didnt get over there at the time.
Good luck, it's a great place.
Cheers

[NeilD]

A few years back I went to Lola Island in the big lagoon off Western Provence. I think it was called Rendova Lagoon. The accomodation was pretty basic but some of the fishing was OK. Offshore FADs produced heaps of Yellowfin on spin gear, I got a 160+kg marlin out of a longboat etc. The inshore areas produced Jacks and Cod with some rivers big enough to get up to the fresh where we caught a couple of Spotail Bass. We were pretty disappointed with a lot of the fishing and worked hard most days to score anything worthwhile.

I'm not too sure about heading that way at the moment with all the unrest in the area

Neil

[imported_admin]

Would depend on what you are looking for or expecting. Went their a few years ago and fished out of Uepi and Munda. The operator at Munda has since moved to Vanuatu, last I heard.

Have a look at http://www.uepi.com/ for info on Uepi

[rusco]

check out gotours.com.au They have listings for the solomons

rusco

[Rhetly]

I was in the Solomons in ’03.

The opportunities over there are endless.

There is a guy who runs a charter out of Honiara with an 8m'ish power cat called ‘Lalae charters’. He is an ex-pat that hangs around the yacht club and moors his boat just off there. He was posted there years ago when the Navy gave a couple of old patrol boats to them. He decided to stay.

His main business is tourist island transfers but he has all the gear for fishing as well. The day he took us was only his second charter in quite some time. The first one was the day before. We boated a decent Spanish and a yellowfin for the day. We fished the Florida Isles across from Honiara. Sighted 2 sailfish but no action on them. And trolled around acres of tuna that were so thick they were stacked on top of each other. Over all, I would say that he wasn’t the best fishing charter operator but he was our only option back then.

There was also another guy running a long boat out of Gizo doing local charters. This guy was strictly fishing charters and knew the area very well, however I did not get to go out with him. We got his info from the dive shop in Gizo.

If I was to go there again, I would pay a local fisherman to take me out.

Make sure you get out of Honiara for some time, otherwise you will have the wrong impression of what the Solomons is really like.

A tip if your lure collection is getting low…..take a mask and when passing shallow bombies, pull up and take your pick of the lures snagged on it! There is one in about 3 metres a couple of hundred metres to the right of the jetty at gizo airport as you face the town. I can also recommend snorkeling the clam farm which is adjacent to the runaway at Gizo.