 
Fishermen are a unique bunch and no matter where it is in the world they fish
they have many things in common. And the same is true when they are not on the
water. One of their most common characteristics is, if they are not out there
fishing, they’re holed up in a bar somewhere drinking a beer and talking about
fishing.
Fishing stories, tall and true, are told and re-told during these times, where
fish that were caught and released somehow seem to get bigger, the ones that
got away become behemoths and the later it gets, the bigger the fish and the
stories around them become. Whether they were really that big or not, it’s the
ones that got away that keeps them going back.
We all know how it is and we, as a collective group, would have it no
other way.
Two of Port Vilas most prominent game fishermen are certainly no different in
this regard and many afternoons you may find them at the Waterfront Bar and
Grill talking about, you guessed it,fishing.
Kahuna Charters’ Captain Charles Wheeler and life long local game fishing
authority, super keen angler, Sport fishing operator and local businessman
Herve Picarda recently took their fishing discussions to a new level. It is now
way more serious than a quiet beer and a fish story or two; they have a wager
and what a beauty it is.
Put simply, without influence of the quantity of Tusker beer that went into its
making, the bet is this:
Herve, based on his 30 years accumulating local knowledge on the fishing
around Port Vila and the recent capture by his 9 year old son, Julien, of a 70
Kg black marlin inside Port Vila Harbour itself, has bet with Charles that he
can catch, within the next 5 years, all of the marlin species readily available
around Vanuatu with-in the confines of Port Vila Harbour. That’s a blue, a
black, a striped marlin and a pacific sailfish caught up to but no further out
than the waters between Pango Point and Devils Point.
Charles has allowed the recent black capture so, Herve has the next 5 years to
catch the blue and the striped marlins and the sailfish. But Charles has
stipulated that Herve must be onboard the boat when it catches the fish. This
pretty much limits Herve to weekend fishing as he runs a computer business in
downtown Port Vila.
The bet has been put together on a graduated scale. If Herve can catch all 4
fish in a five year period Charles will pay him 50 English Pounds. If he can do
it faster then Charles will add 50 pounds per year to the prize or up to 250
English Pounds if Herve can catch all in the first year.
South Pacific Anglers have become the unofficial score keeper for this bet and
believe that many like us will be interested in the wager, how it progresses
and, of course, the ultimate result.
Click here if you want to be updated.
The Black is caught and the bet is made.
One weekend in April saw Herve ready to spend some time to win the bet. He
found himself in the unfortunate position of having no one to sit in the chair
and wind the reel. He was forced to turn to his friend Charles to help him in
the pursuit of winning the bet they’d made against each other. Charles and
Herve spent the day in the harbour but there was no luck with the billfish that
day. Both were found with a cold drink that evening at the Waterfront and both
were grinning and telling fishing stories. So much for the serious rivalry.
Herve was at it again after a one month hiatus forced by a travel schedule that
took him to France, New Caledonia and OZ. On this occasion Herve hooked up the
stripy and was handling it well. After a bit of a fight he lost the marlin at
the boat. He called Charles from his mobile phone and told him he almost had
the striped marlin (the most difficult of the 4 to find in Vanuatu) but had
just lost him at the boat. Charles was eating at a local restaurant at the
time, within sight of Herve’s boat, and when Herve called, Charles told him in
a rather non-consoling manner “that sure is tough luck”. A few minutes later
Herve cruised by the Waterfront restaurant and enthusiastic single fingered
hand gestures were traded across the water. Both are still grinning although it
looks as if the rivalry is heating up. More to Herve’s chagrin, he also saw a
sailfish free jumping in the harbour on the same day as the lost striped
marlin. That sure is tough luck!
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