Exceedingly Great Stuff

The French colony of New Caledonia is the ideal island destination for sportfishing and diving vacation, positioned north-west of New Zealand in the South Pacific.

If you are in to culture, shopping and dining, you will be intoxicated with Noumea, capital of the main island of Grand Terre. Noumea has been called the Paris of the Pacific, with its wonderful museums, chic and trendy dress shops of Rue de Sebastopol and shops of Chinatown. If this isn’t enough then the Grand Terre is encircled by its greatest treasure, the worlds greatest coral lagoon and second largest coral reef, where marine life abounds.

Due to the south-east trade winds and New Caledonia’s location as one of the southern-most pacific islands, New Caledonia basks a temperate climate all year round. With consistant warm and sunny days there are unlimited opportunites for diving and sportfishing jaunts. Idyllic coral and underwater canyons and caves supply the backdrop for stunning dives and plentiful fishing.

fishing holidays in New Caledonia is suitable for any type of fisherman. From charter boats for deep sea and big game fishing; cruisers and catermarans for rod, spear and fly fishing; or small, local boats are accessible for rent. Fisherman around the earth know that New Caledonia is one of the greatest and most gorgeous bone fishing destinations in the world. These fish are noted for their strength and speed, and fisherman desiring to set records flock to this realm.

The small islands that make up New Caledonia are ideal for diving and snorkelling. . Full and half day trips operate out of Noumea, and equipment is on hand through expedition operators and resorts. New Caledonia is a diving holidays paradise.

Travelers would be hard pressed to find another destination on the earth that offers such an amazing medley of sportfishing and diving holiday joys.

I hit the flats Saturday morning at 6am. Went geared up with my 2 light tackle rods, a bait bucket full of finger mullet and pinfish that I caught out of a creek. Started the morning off throwing a baby bass colored soft plastic jerk bait with 1/8 oz white jig head. My buddy Joe was throwing a bone diamond colored jerk bait, and well Bob he was fishing a popping cork with a live finger mullet… Well as soon as we got out there, on my 2nd cast I was hooked up… took me a while to get the guy in but soon realized why, it was a big fat mullet about 6 lbs…. Had him hooked right in top of the head… by now the sun was coming up and the birds started moving in on us, and we were right in the middle of a school of feeding reds… and it was on. We pulled out about 15 reds in the next hour and half, with a lot of jacks, blue fish, lady fish mixed in the bunch. All reds were around 25-30 inches and fat… And then the bite just turned off and we couldn’t catch anything we kept at it, working the shores and the deeper water, when bob was throwing a shrimp with a split shot weight to get it on the sandy bottom, as he was realing it up he saw a huge sting ray comeing after it, he tried to not let it bite but it took it, and the fight was on, only he didn’t realize until later when he landed the fish he had about a 7lb flounder, it was a beauty, after that we worked the grass flats and picked up a few nice trout, and then on the way back we hit the mangroves since the tide was in, Joe picked up about 4 nice snook on some pin fish and a popping cork, 3 broke off while trying to get the hook out, and the other was released, 3 of the snook that broke Joe off were over 30 inches, and the smaller one was about 20 inches. Got some great saltwater fishing pictures of all the fish we caught.

Sunday Morning we returned to the same spot and it didn’t take long after about 10 cast I caught another mullet, it never fails… Then we got into another school of fish, and we caught trout until we were blue in the face, along with Jacks and lady fish and blue fish again, We did the for about 3 hours and finally we had to leave and the fish were still biting, we had several hook ups that we never saw the fish and the drags were screaming… Over the two day period I would have to say we must have caught about 30 fish a piece if not more it was awesome.