Deep Sea Fishing in Tonga

I remember the first fish I ever caught. It’s one of those life experiences you have as a young boy that you will always remember. In my case, I snagged my first fish when I was about eight years old while fishing with my father.

Since that first fishing experience I have done some more fishing over the years. Most of it has been in lakes, bridges or just standing on the beach. And while I’ve been deep sea fishing in the Atlantic, I just got my first experience going deep sea fishing in the Pacific.

Stan and I are the guests of Joe and his father-in-law John, who are visiting Vava’u this week. Joe and his wife Cory are both members of my group and live on the main island of Tongatapu. Cory and her Mom stay behind at the Reef Resort where they are staying, while we head out to the open waters of the South Pacific.

While I’ve done a bit of sailing since I’ve been in Vava’u, this is the first time I’ve left the protected waters of the Vava’u Island group where the ocean is always calm. As we motor out, the waves get rougher and soon we are holding on to keep from falling. Our captain puts four lines in the water and we are off. The further we get from land, the rougher the seas.

It’s early in the morning and the first thing we see are some whales on the horizon. They are too far away to capture with my camera, but you can see the distinctive tails jumping back into the water. We spend the next two hours in the open water without so much as a nibble. Finally John catches the first fish of the day and a while later catches the second fish, a barracuda. Stan then catches another barracuda and I reel in the last two fish of the day, also barracudas.


We are on the water with lines out for almost seven hours and all we have to show for it are five fish. We decide to call it a day and head back to drop John and Joe off at the Reef Resort while Stan and I head back to Neiafu.

No one got sick and thankfully even without taking any Dramamine I made it. (The last time I went deep sea fishing, which was in Florida, the water was a lot calmer and I did get sick). The boat captain keeps the fish but we head home having fully enjoyed our day deep sea fishing on the rough South Pacific.