Main targets for me were a bumphead parrotfish and a Napoleon Wrasse - and I managed to tick both the boxes.
My fishing diary for the week:
Day 1, Friday 26th October
Group composed of 9 people (one last minute cancellation):
- Andrey and Gennady
- Alexander and Matvei
- Gert and Angelika
- Alfredo and Fabio
- Myself
- Matthieu Cosson (french)
- Nic Isabelle (SA)
- Erich Pienaar (SA)
- Peter (Seychelles)
- Gerry (Seychelles)
Day 2 - guide Nic - fished with Alfredo - sunny and breezy
We started the day at Jack's Panic looking for GTs and bones in the lagoon. I walked up the lagoon as the tide was dropping and caught a small Blacktip shark and then a shortly after a mid sized GT that was chasing mullet in a small channel. We then went to Jamieson where I spotted a nice GT for Alfredo. He didn't see it but cast where we told him and the fish promptly ate. After a long fight with lots of coaching he finally landed a 90cm GT, his first. My turn next, I saw a big lemon shark and cast to it. Nothing following but out of the corner a GT ate my fly, but I didn't manage to pin it as I had no line left to strip in. We then headed to Disposé where I spotted and cast to another GT that somehow didn't stay connected, followed by another GT Nic saw that I finally caught. We left the boat and went surf side looking for bumpies and GTs, we saw and cast to plenty of bumpies but no luck. Cast to triggers but they were their usual obnoxious selves.
2 GTs
Day 2 - guide Matt - fished solo - sunny and breezy
We started the day blind casting for anything, caught a bunch of fish and got buzzed by a GT. We then went onto the flats between 2nd and 3rd island and spent a good time casting at bumpies and golden trevally tailing on the turtle grass. I got an eat from a golden but no luck. We then went down to Wreck channel at low tide and found more bumpies. After many casts I finally got an eat and caught a medium sized bumpie that I managed to stop and land quite quickly. We kept on fishing and shortly after I hooked another much bigger one that really gave us a hard time. I got taken around a coral head and out into the surf and ended up fighting it standing on a coral head to avoid the waves. Matt finally netted it and we got some good pictures of the 99cm bumpie. We then walked up the edge of the flat, I saw a big GT on the edge in a green hole, cast and it missed the fly. I made another cast and caught an 80 cm GT that must have been following it. We saw a few more GTs but we didn't get a shot, and then went to South point where I caught a bonefish and completed the Grand slam.
1 GT and 2 Bumpies
Day 3 - guide Peter - fished with Fabio - sunny and breezy
We started the day trolling offshore. We raised a sailfish that ate the fly but didn't stay connected. Then we managed to raise a blue marlin estimated round 200 pounds, I presented the fly, it ate the fly but when I strip struck it didn't connect – for some reason instead of eating the fly and charging off it just sat there – very odd for a blue. We also raised a wahoo and then we started doing some dredging, caught a bunch of species including various grouper and quite a few lyretails. We then went back to the lodge for lunch, Fabio went to get changed, and then finally we went to just near the gaps, crossed the island on foot and fished the surfside for an hour and a half. Cast to a few triggers, caught some bones and saw one GT but the light wasn’t great.
0 GTs
Day 4 - guide Erich - fished with Alfredo - overcast and light winds
We started offshore and couldn't find any bonito for belly flaps. We trolled the teaser and Alfredo had a shot at a sail. We then raised another one when it was my turn and it just kept on billing the fly and never ate properly. I tried to set the hook a few times but nothing. We then went to the flats, around Ricky Bobby but didn't see any GTs. We caught lots of spangled emperors and had shots at triggers but the bad light made it very difficult.
0 GTs
Day 5 - guide Gerry - fished solo - sunny and light winds
We started the day dredging offshore, and almost straight away managed to hook and land a 20kg dogtooth tuna. We continued with the dredging and managed to catch a number of other fish including marbled grouper, bohar and bluefin trevally. We then saw birds splashing not so far offshore and when we got there we found baitballs with GTs, bohar snapper and all sorts of action. The baitfish were small (2-3cm) rust coloured and the fish were gorging on them. I made a few casts with the Ugandan but no interest, and then grabbed the dredging outfit. As I was getting ready to cast one of the other boats trolled straight through the baitballs thinking they were tuna, and hooked up a GT – unfortunately that ended up putting the fish down and dispersing the bait. We carried on dredging and caught a few more different species before heading into the flats. We fished Helmets, Tripod and all the way to Bilge and saw GTs on rays. I managed to catch 2, and hooked and lost a 1m+ fish that ran off the flat and broke my leader on a coral head. Fish were in singles or pairs, or on rays. Finished the day walking around Dipose, caught a few bones and had a good shot at a huge yellowmargin triggerfish.
2 GTs and 20kg dogtooth tuna
Day 6 - guide Nic - fished with Fabio - sunny and breezy
Started the day fishing bommies at Craig's Se Gat, and then over to Trigger Happy and caught assorted species, mainly to give Fabio some fishing time. We then headed down towards Bilge always fishing coral heads, and I finally caught my first Napoleon Wrasse. We also spangleds, groupers, bluefin trevally and all sorts of things. We saw 2 GTs including one on a ray that was not interested. We had lunch at Bilge and then fished more bommies before heading to Helmets at 2pm to look for GTs. Conditions were good with dropping water and we started seeing rays. Most had GTs on them and in 2 hours I managed to catch 4 GTs on rays and saw a few more, great final session.
4 GT
Total for the week:
- 9 GTs
- 2 Bumpies
- 1 Napoleon Wrasse
- 1 Dogtooth Tuna
- Bonefish
- Bohar snapper
- Bluefin trevally
- Blacktip shark
- Green jobfish
- Humpback red snapper
- Lyretail snapper
- Peacock grouper
- Marbled grouper
- Malabar grouper
- Three spot pompano
- Yellowlipped emperor
- Spangled emperor
- Boxfish
