Do yourself a favour and find a good charter with knowledgeable skipper

Ok so first up I’ve got to say that a 30year dream to catch a Mahi Mahi didn’t materialise. Obviously, very disappointing but having fished for over 60 years I know how fickle fishing can be. Perhaps I didn’t pray to the fishing gods hard enough.
However trolling for over five hours without any kind of take was frustrating.
But I am able to put this aside and give what I think is an objective review.
So I’m going to list the postives and negatives and let you decide whether my rating of the trip is accurate or not.
Positves…
Capt Steve and deckhand Seymour were friendly and professional. The safety briefing was adaquate and equipment was there to be seen.
Capt Steve asked for my expectations. I said how I had a 30 year dream to go game fishing and to catch Mahi Mahi would make my dream complete.
Koi Calevu was in good order and comfortable. Fishing from her was easy with good deck space and high gunnels giving a sense of security. She has good rear access making boarding / embarking easy especially good as my wife requires a wallking stick for balance. She is an ideal vessel for less than mobile passenger’s.
Koi Calevu is powered by twin 150 hp yamaha 4 stroke engines. They powered Koi Calevu with ease and never missed a beat all day.
After leaving the harbour 4 trolling rods were deployed and fishing commenced.

Negatives…
On the original booking form i made it very clear that I am left handed and asked if Malolo were able to provide left handed reels? I offered to bring my own if this would be a problem. I was told that reels would be reversable and will not be an issue. I was disppointed to find that all trolling rigs were fitted with over right hand reels and were obviously not reversable. Now you may think this was a minor issue but when you have fished for over 60 years left handed then fishing right handed is a huge issue. Playing a large fighting fish is hard enough but to do it with your wrong hand is a recipe for disaster.
Whilst talking of tackle there were 2 bottom feeder rods with spinning type reels available. Both rods were well used with rusted ring guides. The reels were very basic . Poorly spooled. I know first hand that they would be considered an entry level reel in the $40 range. On a plus side the handle was easily changed for a lefty.
I expected Capt Steve to use the vhf radio to contact other charters to try and get a heads up on feeding birds or other signs of possible feeding fish. Unfortunately this did not happen.
After 4 hours Capt Steve suggested we do some ‘bottom bashing’ we motored quickly to an exposed reef and anchored down. Trolling rigs were exchanged for bottom rigs.
No burley was deployed and for the next hour several fish in the 200mm range were caught but nothing that was worthy of a game charter.
The final hour before heading back to harbour was spent trolling. Nothing was caught. Hugely disappointing.

Finally our booking stated on the day of our charter we had a free pick up from our hotel to the dock. This was confirmed and arrangements made on the previous day. Come the chosen time no pick up arrived. After a wait of over 40 minutes i received a phone call to say there had been a problem with the pick up driver and could i please make my own way to the port. After final paperwork was arranged i was told the trip would finish 6 hours from the time we left the dock. This was indeed the case.
However no mention was made to reimburse the taxi fare in fact when we arrived back at 3pm the charter office was closed.

In conclusion
The fact the the trip started badly and with basic inappropriate tackle with no fish being caught and if I am fortunate to visit Fiji again I will not look to book with Malolo fishing charters again.