Well, I was really hoping to be posting an epic, 3 page report full of pictures and reports of insane fish, GT's, Doggies and more.... But unfortunately that is not the case....
All the planning and prep that goes into a trip, the hours of tackle preparation, packing and repacking and trying to get everything to fit... the searching Google Earth for reefs around the location etc.. all this great preparation counts for bugger all if your bags holding all your tackle don't show up.... Yip, thats what happened to me... My rods arrived, but my bag with my reels and tackle, and clothes and mask and fins and sunscreen etc only arrived on the last day of my stay.... As you can imagine, I was not a happy camper in this regard.... Thankfully the place we stayed was frickin amazing, so myself and the missus had a great time, but with all the expectations I had, I would be lying if I said I wasn't bitterly dissapointed... Air Madagascar and OR Tambo Airport are not my favourite people or places right now....
Adding salt to the wound was the fact we met a group of guys going on their annual boys fishing trip on the way out there ( 5 hour delay outta Jobrug ) and they were on a Catamaran going to Grand Casta Banks and Mitsio Island.... saw them the last day, when they were on their way back, and they said by day 3 they wwanted to quit they were so buggered from catching fish... a couple of the days they got over 100 GT's between the 5 of them.... they took nearly 30 kilos of Jigs and came back with 3 kilos.... Doggies to 50 kilos, and got smoked by plenty bigger... in fact they had the fishing people always dream about.... So the place has the fish, no doubt about it, and I'm planning for a Liveaboard mission soon, but this time my reels and poppers travel in my hand luggage!!!!!!
Anyway, I got one little session in around the island for about an hour...
Managed 1 x Bonnie on a Stickbait, 1 x Couta on a Stickbait, and got smoked by what was either a HUGE sailfish or a Marlin of sorts... right at sunset this fish smashed my Stickbait, and proceeded to run off 200 plus metres of line against 10 kilos or more of drag, nearly towing me off the back of the open transomed dive boat I was fishing off..... Saw a HUGE splash and spray of whiewater about 150 metres out directly into the sunset, but couldn't see the fish.... she took another bunch of line and then wore through the 150lb leader........ Fun stuff, but pretty disheartening as it was my only hook up to a decent fish t5he whole trip.... still fun to feel a bit of drag pull though, as the Bonnie and Couta were pretty much no macth for the Stella 10K and Carpenter DJ83MH... but both were awesome strikes with both fish skyrocketing the baits at least a metre out of the water....
Couta ate a Blue Orion Bigfoot 140 and the Bonnie and Billfish both ate a Gold/Red Heru Wahoo 125 Stickbait...
A couple pics...
Bonnie
King Mackeral:
Worn through 150lb leader.......all that was left of my 45 seconds of Adrenalin!!!
Next time hopefully I'll have a better report, cause I'll be back for sure....
All the planning and prep that goes into a trip, the hours of tackle preparation, packing and repacking and trying to get everything to fit... the searching Google Earth for reefs around the location etc.. all this great preparation counts for bugger all if your bags holding all your tackle don't show up.... Yip, thats what happened to me... My rods arrived, but my bag with my reels and tackle, and clothes and mask and fins and sunscreen etc only arrived on the last day of my stay.... As you can imagine, I was not a happy camper in this regard.... Thankfully the place we stayed was frickin amazing, so myself and the missus had a great time, but with all the expectations I had, I would be lying if I said I wasn't bitterly dissapointed... Air Madagascar and OR Tambo Airport are not my favourite people or places right now....
Adding salt to the wound was the fact we met a group of guys going on their annual boys fishing trip on the way out there ( 5 hour delay outta Jobrug ) and they were on a Catamaran going to Grand Casta Banks and Mitsio Island.... saw them the last day, when they were on their way back, and they said by day 3 they wwanted to quit they were so buggered from catching fish... a couple of the days they got over 100 GT's between the 5 of them.... they took nearly 30 kilos of Jigs and came back with 3 kilos.... Doggies to 50 kilos, and got smoked by plenty bigger... in fact they had the fishing people always dream about.... So the place has the fish, no doubt about it, and I'm planning for a Liveaboard mission soon, but this time my reels and poppers travel in my hand luggage!!!!!!
Anyway, I got one little session in around the island for about an hour...
Managed 1 x Bonnie on a Stickbait, 1 x Couta on a Stickbait, and got smoked by what was either a HUGE sailfish or a Marlin of sorts... right at sunset this fish smashed my Stickbait, and proceeded to run off 200 plus metres of line against 10 kilos or more of drag, nearly towing me off the back of the open transomed dive boat I was fishing off..... Saw a HUGE splash and spray of whiewater about 150 metres out directly into the sunset, but couldn't see the fish.... she took another bunch of line and then wore through the 150lb leader........ Fun stuff, but pretty disheartening as it was my only hook up to a decent fish t5he whole trip.... still fun to feel a bit of drag pull though, as the Bonnie and Couta were pretty much no macth for the Stella 10K and Carpenter DJ83MH... but both were awesome strikes with both fish skyrocketing the baits at least a metre out of the water....
Couta ate a Blue Orion Bigfoot 140 and the Bonnie and Billfish both ate a Gold/Red Heru Wahoo 125 Stickbait...
A couple pics...
Bonnie
King Mackeral:
Worn through 150lb leader.......all that was left of my 45 seconds of Adrenalin!!!
Next time hopefully I'll have a better report, cause I'll be back for sure....
?
