We had the best private fishing trip ever with Captain Joji and Deck Hand Dilesh! Forget the group charters, private tours with Sigatoka are the way to go!
I wasn’t sure what fishing charter to book, so I messaged a couple of them in Fishing Booker and Instagram. Sigatoka responded promptly on Fishing Booker and Dan from Sigatoka messaged me on Instagram to provide all the details and answer all my questions. I felt confident booking with them after speaking to Dan.
Mohammed came all the way to Denarau from Cuvu to pick us up from the Hilton. The round trip transportation was included in the price of our tour! Wow! He was a good driver and we enjoyed talking to him. We learned a lot about Fijian culture and various places that we passed. Denarau has various charters at the marina which were closer to our hotel, but we really liked the private experience and local experience with Sigatoka. I will definitely book with them again instead of taking a fishing charter from Denarau just because they are closer. We enjoyed our one hour ride to Cuvu, where we boarded the boat on the beach.
Captain Joji and Deck Hand Dilesh were the best! I want to request them next time. They worked SO hard to find fish for us. They searched for fish for about 2 hours, tracking down every group of seabirds and trying to find schools of yellowfin tuna. They stayed positive and provided us with good company while we waited for fish to bite. Captain Joji offered to take us bottom-fishing since we weren’t having any luck trolling, but said he had “a good feeling.” We decided to gamble and keep trolling instead of bottom-fishing. We are so glad we did! My husband caught a huge Spanish Mackerel that gave him a good fight! Afterward, Captain Joji asked if we wanted to keep gambling on trolling or switch it up. We kept on trolling and they found us a small school of yellowfin tuna! We had a double-strike and Joji and Delish helped get us both on poles. We both caught one yellowfin each! Unfortunately a shark got my my husband’s tuna before we finished reeling it in (Captain Joji called it the Fiji tax haha). Delish cut up the remaining meat on the fish my husband caught and served us fresh sashimi! After, Captain Joji and Delish circled many other groups of birds trying to find us more fish. On our way back we caught a monster barracuda and even saw some dolphins! We were lucky, because catching fish isn’t always guaranteed. I couldn’t have asked for a better crew. Even if we didn’t catch anything, I would have had a great time with Captain Joji and Delish. They were great company, and really went above and beyond to make our charter the best it could be! We will be back!
Upon our return the tide had come in, so we were able to take the channel back to the village. What an amazing experience! This is the REAL Fiji. The village kids were so friendly. We were fortunate enough to catch multiple fish, so we just took the tuna and half of the Spanish mackerel. Captain Joji and Delish shared the rest of our fish with the village. We were happy that it would not go to waste!
We had a nice ride home again with a Mohammed. Upon returning to our hotel (Hilton Fiji on Denarau Island), the concierge (evening of 1/24/23) called the chef at Nuvu who agreed to prepare our fish. Best fish I ever had! The mackerel was so moist and tasty! It’s my new favorite. I am Japanese so I eat a lot of sushi and sashimi, but I really enjoyed the Fijian style of preparing the raw fish. It’s almost like ceviche. So good!
We had the best private fishing trip ever with Captain Joji and Deck Hand Dilesh! Forget the group charters, private tours...
