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Madagascar Trip Report Photos - Off the Chart Prize
- Thread starter munga
- Start date
Apologies for the delay but attached is our trip report!
The Whites go Off the Chart
It started out as a longshot but the closer we got to the deadline, the more realistic the dream became. It was the final month of voting in the Off the Chart, Upload a Catch finals and we were up against 11 others.
The grand prize was a trip for 4 to Madagascar to fish with Bossi Adventures in Nosy Be and I knew that if I won, I was taking my Dad and 2 brothers, Robbie and Greg, on a Father and sons trip of a lifetime. It all seemed to fall into place when the announcement was made that the final round of voting was to take place using Facebook as the platform. The formula was going to be simple, strength in numbers. I called my brothers and together we came up with our plan of attack. We collectively had close to 3000 friends on Facebook and it was time for our Facebook friends to help us out. And help us out they did.
We hit the campaigning hard and the competition was tight but after a long and nail biting month we came out on tops. Competitions are generally luck of the draw but after having put in the long yards of self-campaigning, it was a great feeling to have won this competition with the help of our friends and family.
“So what have we won?†my Dad asked. “We’ve won the trip of a lifetime Dad!!†I replied. “You get to spend a week with your sons on a yacht, sailing Northern Madagascar, fishing its tropical waters and catching fish that all anglers dream of!â€
“Awesome bro!†my Dad replied.
We had won the chance to do something that under normal circumstances, we would never have done. My Dad is a passionate light tackle angler who taught his 3 sons all how to fish but apart from myself, none of them would have considered travelling anywhere to go fishing. By winning this prize, we had been given the push we needed to do something that all fathers and sons should do. Spend quality time together in the outdoors.
Our prize was a week on the yacht Adiva, a 53 foot luxury catamaran, which included a skipper, a chef and a deckhand and of course all our food for the week. All we needed to do was to get to Madagascar and we would be looked after by Bossi Adventures. Bossi Adventures recommends making use of their 28 foot Super Cat, Joz Joz, as it gets to the fishing grounds a lot quicker than Adiva and is also equipped with everything a fishing boat could have so we decided to hire the Joz Joz to accompany us on the Adiva.
The next challenge was to tackle up as none of us had the adequate tackle needed to take on the denizens of the deep found in Madagascar. For me, this was like Christmas as I could go tackle shopping and buy 4 things for every 1 I would normally have bought! We decided on the Shimano Saragosa 18000 for our jigging setup so we got 4 of those. We paired those up with the Shimano Beastmaster jigging rod and 100 pound Double X viper braid and we were ready for action. On the lighter tackle side, we used 9ft spinning rods paired with either sustains or stradics and 20, 30 and 50 pound braid. It was really convenient having Commercial Marine in Port Elizabeth as they are fully stocked and always willing to source something if they don’t have in stock.
On the lure side, our plan was mainly to jig so I chatted to mates who had been to Nosy Be before and they recommended the flutter jigs made by Demon Tackle. I ordered about 70 jigs (mainly 200 gram flutters in pink, orange and smartie) and we were sorted on the jigging side. I also got a few jigs from Jigstar as well as all my Kevlar assist cord for the 80 assist hooks I made. We were also lucky to have some generous mates and we were given a few more jigs to add to our artillery. I also loaded up with spoons, plugs, stickbaits, soft plastics and tied a variety of bucktail leadheads for the trip.
Tackle, check. Lures, check. New fishing kit, check. Tickets, check. Passports, check. Let’s go chaps!
The day finally arrived with Robbie having flown in from London, Greg, my Dad and myself all packed and ready to go. Our luggage was well overweight and with the 3 rod tubes all fully packed let’s just say that we were lucky not to pay any overweight penalties. This was due to some careful planning and hand luggage bags that were splitting at the seams with lead! The family was all at the airport to send us off and spirits were high. As we were checking through security with the family waving in the background, the sirens went off and my Dad and his bag were whisked to the side.
“Can you please open your bag, sir. We suspect you may have something illegal in there.†Security said firmly.
“No problem?†said my Dad doubting himself.
True as Bob, my Dad had left his filleting knife in his hand luggage and after giving the knife back to my Mom we fortunately moved along with no further troubles.
The wives, kids and girlfriends were out of sight and it was the boys ready to take on Madagascar! Arriving in Joburg with 6 hours to spare, it was off to the Keg to watch the Bokke take on the All Blacks and smash some beers and a pub lunch. What a pleasure. Our flight to Nosy Be had been cancelled the day before so we knew we were flying to Antananarivo to spend the night. We met up with another 2 groups of fisherman also heading to Nosy Be as well as a couple on a dive trip and the ‘gees’ on the flight was really something I will never forget. Let’s just say the alcohol on the flight soon ran out and luckily for the group of banana farmers from Natal, they had stocked up at duty free. The coke on the flight also soon ran out.
Arriving in Antana was something else. Welcome to Africa. 2 hours later we made it through customs with our luggage and it was then time to arrange our hotel. An hour later we had been given our hotel paperwork and into the taxi we go. It was a Saturday, close to midnight, raining and the taxi and its driver smelt like a brewery. The drive to our hotel which was in the center of Antana was a rough one and blind rise overtaking, exceeding the speed limit and taking eyes off the road were old habits for this driver. Surprisingly, we made it safely to the hotel and the banana farmers had beaten us there. Their duty free stocks were still flowing strong and they kept going until about 4 in the morning much to the distress of the other couple who wanted some sleep. Quality chaps.
The next day, we all headed to the local markets for some bartering and we came away with some great things and great experiences. In terms of the local terrain, it felt like Morocco had been teleported to China as the houses were all terracotta and stacked on top of each other and there were rice paddies as far as the eye could see. For lunch we had some Zebu, which Greg had been told was a water buffalo and that the locals didn’t eat them for religious reasons. It was a different tasting steak but great nonetheless. The local Three Horse Beers were also flowing. Cheers to Antana. Nosy Be here we come.
Flying in to Nosy Be was something spectacular. I was quivering with excitement and anticipation of the fishing to come. The airport is the smallest I have ever been to, and the luggage conveyor belt is about 20 meters long and the luggage simply falls off the end if you haven’t collected it. Into the taxi and off we went. The ylang ylang trees were growing everywhere which are used to make perfume and are part of the local pride. Also lining the roads were pepper trees as well as coffee trees and Greg’s zebus. We eventually arrived in Nosy Be after having driven through Hell Ville and pulled up onto the beach where our crew awaited us. Onto the little dinghy we went and finally after nearly 2 days of travelling we had arrived on Yacht Adiva and were welcomed on board with some drinks and snacks. I’m not going to lie to you, this yacht really was top notch.
The skipper, Mamadou, the chef, Modeste and the deckhand, Maruf were all there to greet us as well as the Joz Joz skipper, Mau and his deckhand, Roberto. Mamadou pulled up his map charts onto the flatscreen and as we did every evening before supper, he plotted where we would be fishing the next day and gave us a summary of the species we would be fishing for. In summary, this was big Kingies, Doggies, Sailies and Grouper! We knew other species would be coming on board but those were the main targets for us! Supper consisted of prawns served with locally grown salad and stir fried veggies and some baguettes which accompanied every meal.
We each had our own cabin with double bed and en suite bathroom so we really were living in style. The next morning the skipper woke us up with some coffee on the deck of the boat as well as an omelette and variety of fruits for breakfast and onto the dinghy we went and off to the Joz Joz. The Joz Joz being a 28ft super cat is super spacious and really stable so we were fishing in style as well as living in style. The chef had been hard at work in the kitchen from early morning and there was a cooler box packed with lunch for us as well as a fridge on board the Joz Joz stocked with beer, water, sodas and energy drinks.
The plan for Day 1’s fishing was to head out to the Grand Castor Banks in search of doggies and the 40km/h winds and rough seas didn’t hamper those plans. After a 2 and a half hour boat ride we finally arrived at the banks. Joz Joz had recently found a spot where the doggies were eating trolled stick baits so we started out trolling an array of stick baits and other lures. This was unsuccessful so we boated some bonito for live baits and sent some of those down. After a few long tussles with some big sharks mostly hooked by Robbie we dropped down some jigs. The jigging was slow and I boated our first proper fish being a good grouper on a soft plastic. We jigged hard but the wind made the drift really quick on the super cat so we reverted to trolling for sailies along the drop off. No sailies made any appearances so we headed home. On the way home Robbie landed a really good green job fish and Greg got a nice grouper. We also spotted some free swimming sailies which we threw various lures at but no luck. All in all it was a slow day. We spent the night moored in the bay of one the islands called Sakatia and dined on calamari and chips, green job fish sashimi, grilled green job fish done on the gas braai on the boat accompanied by the standard salads and baguettes.
As the plan was to head north to be at Cape St Sebastian by Day 3, on Day 2 we started out in that direction. Once again, the wind wasn’t holding anything back from us so we put out some trolling lures as we searched for the sailies. After a few minutes of trolling, my rod went away and I landed a nice yellowspot kingfish. At this point the skipper had spotted some sailies so we headed in their direction armed with stickbaits, spoons and plugs on our 9ft spinning rods. We had some really good encounters with sailfish and Robbie had 2 fish hit his pink predator plug but the hook didn’t set and my Dad had some follows right up to the boat with his spoon. We put out the teasers and trolling lures and soon had a sailie in the spread. It ate the lure but we missed the fish. The deckhand was handling the rods under instruction from the skipper but luck wasn’t on our side. We had another fish eat the lure and the line screamed away but this fish also came off unfortunately.
After some really exciting sailie action we headed to the four brothers close to Mitsio and came across a big shoal of Bonito. They weren’t really interested in our spoons so we went over to trolling small skirts and leadheads and this did the trick. The leadheads being really effective when trolled through the shoal. We followed the shoal of Bonito by heading ahead of their direction and coming to stand still and we then put down jigs and livebait under the shoal but this wasn’t effective. We then went to one of the reefs and put down one rod with a livebait and the rest of us jigged. The jigs weren’t successful but the live bonnies were like giving candy to a baby.
Greg was first up to bat and after some violent bumping of the rod and braid singing off the open spool, he clicked over and the circle hook was set. After a tiring battle and some back burning action, Greg landed his GT of 94cm fork length. At one point during the fight Greg looked at the fighting chair and tried to climb on it but we wouldn’t have it. I was next up to bat and applying the same formula, I landed a 95cm GT which also took a fair amount of string and was a solid tussle. After the 2nd GT, they seemed to go off the bite so I continued with the jig and landed 2 nice yellowspot kingies in 2 drops.
That night we slept at Mitsio in a big bay and the same bay that the Tropical Fishing charter has their camp. The bay is renowned for its big grouper and we had kept some bonnies to drop down on the stand up marlin rig. I was in the shower and the bait had only be down for about 10 minutes when I heard Mamadou knocking on my door shouting fish on. I made it out there as quickly as possible and settled in to the fight. On that heavy tackle the fight was not much of a contest until the fish was alongside the boat when it sent some massive boils up to the surface. Onto Adiva came a nice grouper of about 15kg and we quickly got some pictures and then released it.
We woke up the next day to find out that during the night a couta had flown into the Adiva and it had landed next to Maruf’s head who was sleeping outside on the deck. Quite hectic to think that the couta which was only about 4kg had managed to leap that far out the water. It ended up as Sashimi that evening. Robbie, Greg and I then headed over to the Joz Joz for our journey up to Cape Saint Sebastian. My Dad made the decision to stay on the yacht and enjoy the day sailing and fishing off the yacht as she made her way up to our overnight bay. My Dad was treated to a fresh crab for lunch and a bottle of wine. He was in his element.
Once again the wind hadn’t let up and it was around 30km/h when we left Mitsio. We started out for sailies and it wasn’t long before we had spotted some free swimming sailfish. I was armed with my 9ft Berkley Air and a leadhead when a sailie came in about 2 metres behind the back of the boat. I flicked the leadhead out and the sailie took a swipe with its bill and I felt the hit of all hits but the hook didn’t set. I opened the bail and free spooled the leadhead out to the fish and as the braid went singing off the reel, I clicked over and hit the fish hard and I was on. The sailie screamed off at a rate of knots taking 50 metres of line in a few seconds. The sailie then came flying out the water and on its 3rd or 4th jump the leadhead came away. The adrenalin was pumping!
We decided to put out some teasers and bonito belly baits and it wasn’t long and a sailfish was in the spread. Luck was on my side when the sailie chose my rod over the others and it took the belly bait with no regret and the hook was set. We were fishing with our 9ft rigs but I also had my sustain 5000 with 20lb braid rigged up on a 7ft shimano trevala. This happened to be the rig that the sailie decided to eat and I knew I was in for an epic slogging match. As fate would have it, this was the exact same reel and length rod that I landed the 15kg white steenbras with, which was the fish that won us the trip to Madagascar. This sailie took line off my reel as relentlessly as the previous sailfish on leadhead had done, and with the 20lb braid the fish sailed out the water with little resistance. After about half an hour and some serious airtime, we had the fish next to the boat and we managed to leader the fish. Unfortunately being very light tackle, Roberto couldn’t put too much pressure on the leader and we didn’t boat the fish. We leadered the fish a second time after about 45 minutes but each time the fish seemed to get stronger. After an hour and half of tussling with the sailfish in testing conditions, the hook eventually pulled after having been worked loose over the fight. A leadered fish is a landed fish so we were content with the result. For me personally, this fish was the highlight of the trip as far as the light tackle angling side of things was concerned.
After the sailfish action, we moved off to the reef for some jigging. We drifted onto a nice mark and this marked the beginning of a frenzy of grouper on jig. We landed about 12 grouper almost drop for drop but because of the barotrauma, we decided to move on. We did manage to get all the fish down successfully using the upside down hook rig on the downrigger but GT’s is what we were after. At the next spot, we got stuck into a species flurry and we landed bohar snapper, bigeye, greenspot, yellowspot and giant kingfish as well as couta and some more grouper. After the jigging action, it was Robbie’s turn on the livebait rod after Greg and I handling it the day before and we sent down a large chunk of bonito. The bait soon got picked up and Robbie was Vas pappie! We could tell this was a bigger fish than the GT’s from the day before and soon Robbie’s back and arms were close to seizing even though he is a half ironman! This was a fairly lengthy fight with Robbie using some interesting techniques to land the fish but over the gunnel came a 109cm fork length GT which we estimated at around 25kg. The GT’s were getting bigger and we had all landed a GT of over 15kg’s which was what we were after. It was only our Dad who needed to experience the brute force of this Giant Trevally.
Robbie changed back to jig and on his next drop he was stuck into another nice GT. He landed one of 85cm and then said he was done for the day. This was enforced by the fact that he snapped his rod as he was landing the fish. Greg also landed a nice GT on jig just before the gale force winds came through again so we went inland for some popping action. We fished submarine rock and the surrounding areas and managed to get some nice follows from couta but with only couta interested in our lures, and the light fading, we headed for the Adiva where we knew a good meal and cold beers awaited us. Supper turned out to be Zebu steaks which despite what Greg had been told were eaten by the locals and was not a water buffalo but simply the local livestock. An early night followed.
For the months leading up to the trip, Robbie and Greg had spoken about doing some exploring on the islands as well some snorkeling so the next day they stayed behind on the yacht and did exactly that. My Dad and I hopped on board the Joz Joz and we went out to get my Dad stuck into some GT’s which up until then had eluded him. The wind on this particular morning was the strongest it had been all year and gale force was the only way to describe it. The fishing plans were to head out to the deep water for amberjack and the skipper obliged even under the conditions. We made our way out there and dropped the jigs down to 110 meters. I managed to hook 2 fish but they were both taxed. We also had a live bonnie out on the heavy tackle and this was picked up by a decent shark which we landed. We trolled for billfish on the trip back to the four brothers but we had no action.
On arriving at the four brothers it felt like we had just come into a harbor in comparison to the conditions we had experienced in the deep. Mao spotted the shoal of bonito and we landed a few on trolled leadhead. We then sent jigs down below the bonnie shoals and I hooked a nice GT. Unfortunately my line parted. My Dad was on the livebait rod and after a few drifts over the baitfish shoal he was picked up by his first ever GT. What followed was a long tussle but my Dad is a solid unit and dominated the fight. He landed a GT of 104cm and just over 20kgs and that fish was one of the defining moments of the trip. He then stepped up to bat again and landed another GT of 91cm which seemed to take it out of him.
After that he handed me his rod and said “It’s your turn pal!â€
I had been waiting for an opportunity to fish with his jigging rod which was custom made by Errol Holmes for the trip and this was my chance. I selected the biggest bonnie we had and after Roberto put a sinker down its throat and a circle hook through its lips, I dropped it over. We were fishing in 30 meters of water so it didn’t take long to get down to the strike zone. It wasn’t long and the line went singing off the spool. I clicked over and the circle hook found its way into the corner of this GT’s mouth. The fish screamed off taking line from the locked drag with ease. I gave that fish the gears and it gave me the gears in return. At that point I knew this was a decent fish and we followed the fish with the boat to keep above it and prevent being cut off. About 20 minutes later a slab of a fish broke the surface and we hauled aboard a 114cm GT which we estimated at 30kg. Struggling to hold the fish with my legs nearly buckling we got some photos and then released the GT to grow into a proper donkey of a fish!
After those 3 great fish, my Dad and I had just experienced what we had envisaged all along, and our spirits were at an all time high. We arrived back at the boat and Robbie and Greg were in the same high spirits as us. They had also experienced exactly what they had envisaged all along and that really was the crowning moment of the trip. That night over some Johnnie Blacks we relived the day’s events as Robbie and Greg shared their stories of summiting the 290m high Ankaria as well as snorkeling in gin clear waters with orange octopus sightings and Robbie getting wedged in an underwater cave. My Dad told us stories of his monster world record kingfish and how his months of training had finally paid off! We could have gone home the next day and the trip would have been a success but we still had one more item to take care of.
Waking up the next day with hangovers, we were back to 3 up on the Joz Joz as my Dad had decided to take a chilled day sailing back to Nosy Be on Adiva. The Joz Joz pulled out of the Mitsio Bay and approaching the four brothers we came across a shoal of bonito. We quickly sent out some teasers and leadheads for some bonnies but a sailie came up into the spread. It hit one of the bonnie skirts but didn’t hook itself. We put out some teasers and sailie lures and in no time the sailie was after the lures aggressively. Robbie’s rod went screaming off and we set the hook. Sailie on! The sailie screamed away and launched into a variety of aerial maneuvers. Robbie fought the fish well and after chasing the fish with the boat Roberto leadered the fish and hauled the fish over the railings and into the boat. Sailie, SAILIE! High fives rotated around the boat as we celebrated the landing of our nemesis and having taking care of our final item, we took some great pictures of the sailie and then released him successfully.
Having landed our sailie, we made our way to some of the jigging reefs and sent down some lures. Greg landed a decent GT on the smartie jig and then also landed a nice green jobfish. When moving from the first reef to the next, we noticed the tell-tale signs of sailfish, being 2 or 3 birds hovering just above the water as they watched the sailies feeding on small baitfish. We soon reverted back to sailie fever and the plan was to put Greg onto a sailie. What ensued was an afternoon of feeding sailfish but none landed. We hooked a few but unfortunately none of them stuck. It was an entertaining afternoon’s fishing watching sailies chasing stickbaits in crystal clear water right up to the boat as well as seeing them hitting leadheads and trolled lures. It was a great way to finish off our trip and we eventually headed back to Nosy Be where we were moored for the night.
That evening we reminisced over the past week’s events and celebrated the various highlights of the trip. As we thought the evening was coming to an end, Robbie and Greg suggested a trip to land to join the locals on their Friday night. My Dad decided to head to bed so it was the three brothers left in the capable hands of Modeste and Maruf. Or more appropriately, Modeste and Maruf left in the capable hands of the three brothers. Mamadou dropped us off on land and off we headed into the night. Nosy Be has a nightlife second to none and the streets were lined with pubs and little restaurants as well as locals just living in the moment. Modeste chose the pub with the most people as well as the live music and we settled in at the bar for some three horses. The bar was occupied mostly by the locals but also by middle aged Italians who fly in directly from Milan to enjoy themselves as well as enjoy the locals. After a while we moved onto the local rum and before we knew it, Robbie was nowhere to be seen. We were all searching for him when Maruf came up to me and said he knew where he was. Maruf took us to the stage where we came across Robbie doing the Madiba shuffle to the local band. Robbie came down from the stage after enjoying a few songs and was replaced by Greg who tried to emulate the shuffle. The band decided rather to give him the microphone and he gave his original rendition of their local chart topper in the best Malagasy he could muster up. It was a priceless moment which I managed to get on film for future reference.
The next day we woke up again with hangovers and made the inevitable journey back home. From the humble beginnings of our journey when it was still a pipedream, we always described it as a trip of lifetime and the trip to Madagascar was nothing less than that. We all had different expectations for this trip and we all managed to fulfill those expectations. My expectations were for us as a father and his 3 sons to spend quality time together away from the normality of everyday life and enjoy the open ocean and all that it has to offer. This trip will go down in the White Family record books as one of the highlights and hopefully it will be the catalyst to many more trips where the Whites go Off the Chart.
The Whites go Off the Chart
It started out as a longshot but the closer we got to the deadline, the more realistic the dream became. It was the final month of voting in the Off the Chart, Upload a Catch finals and we were up against 11 others.
The grand prize was a trip for 4 to Madagascar to fish with Bossi Adventures in Nosy Be and I knew that if I won, I was taking my Dad and 2 brothers, Robbie and Greg, on a Father and sons trip of a lifetime. It all seemed to fall into place when the announcement was made that the final round of voting was to take place using Facebook as the platform. The formula was going to be simple, strength in numbers. I called my brothers and together we came up with our plan of attack. We collectively had close to 3000 friends on Facebook and it was time for our Facebook friends to help us out. And help us out they did.
We hit the campaigning hard and the competition was tight but after a long and nail biting month we came out on tops. Competitions are generally luck of the draw but after having put in the long yards of self-campaigning, it was a great feeling to have won this competition with the help of our friends and family.
“So what have we won?†my Dad asked. “We’ve won the trip of a lifetime Dad!!†I replied. “You get to spend a week with your sons on a yacht, sailing Northern Madagascar, fishing its tropical waters and catching fish that all anglers dream of!â€
“Awesome bro!†my Dad replied.
We had won the chance to do something that under normal circumstances, we would never have done. My Dad is a passionate light tackle angler who taught his 3 sons all how to fish but apart from myself, none of them would have considered travelling anywhere to go fishing. By winning this prize, we had been given the push we needed to do something that all fathers and sons should do. Spend quality time together in the outdoors.
Our prize was a week on the yacht Adiva, a 53 foot luxury catamaran, which included a skipper, a chef and a deckhand and of course all our food for the week. All we needed to do was to get to Madagascar and we would be looked after by Bossi Adventures. Bossi Adventures recommends making use of their 28 foot Super Cat, Joz Joz, as it gets to the fishing grounds a lot quicker than Adiva and is also equipped with everything a fishing boat could have so we decided to hire the Joz Joz to accompany us on the Adiva.
The next challenge was to tackle up as none of us had the adequate tackle needed to take on the denizens of the deep found in Madagascar. For me, this was like Christmas as I could go tackle shopping and buy 4 things for every 1 I would normally have bought! We decided on the Shimano Saragosa 18000 for our jigging setup so we got 4 of those. We paired those up with the Shimano Beastmaster jigging rod and 100 pound Double X viper braid and we were ready for action. On the lighter tackle side, we used 9ft spinning rods paired with either sustains or stradics and 20, 30 and 50 pound braid. It was really convenient having Commercial Marine in Port Elizabeth as they are fully stocked and always willing to source something if they don’t have in stock.
On the lure side, our plan was mainly to jig so I chatted to mates who had been to Nosy Be before and they recommended the flutter jigs made by Demon Tackle. I ordered about 70 jigs (mainly 200 gram flutters in pink, orange and smartie) and we were sorted on the jigging side. I also got a few jigs from Jigstar as well as all my Kevlar assist cord for the 80 assist hooks I made. We were also lucky to have some generous mates and we were given a few more jigs to add to our artillery. I also loaded up with spoons, plugs, stickbaits, soft plastics and tied a variety of bucktail leadheads for the trip.
Tackle, check. Lures, check. New fishing kit, check. Tickets, check. Passports, check. Let’s go chaps!
The day finally arrived with Robbie having flown in from London, Greg, my Dad and myself all packed and ready to go. Our luggage was well overweight and with the 3 rod tubes all fully packed let’s just say that we were lucky not to pay any overweight penalties. This was due to some careful planning and hand luggage bags that were splitting at the seams with lead! The family was all at the airport to send us off and spirits were high. As we were checking through security with the family waving in the background, the sirens went off and my Dad and his bag were whisked to the side.
“Can you please open your bag, sir. We suspect you may have something illegal in there.†Security said firmly.
“No problem?†said my Dad doubting himself.
True as Bob, my Dad had left his filleting knife in his hand luggage and after giving the knife back to my Mom we fortunately moved along with no further troubles.
The wives, kids and girlfriends were out of sight and it was the boys ready to take on Madagascar! Arriving in Joburg with 6 hours to spare, it was off to the Keg to watch the Bokke take on the All Blacks and smash some beers and a pub lunch. What a pleasure. Our flight to Nosy Be had been cancelled the day before so we knew we were flying to Antananarivo to spend the night. We met up with another 2 groups of fisherman also heading to Nosy Be as well as a couple on a dive trip and the ‘gees’ on the flight was really something I will never forget. Let’s just say the alcohol on the flight soon ran out and luckily for the group of banana farmers from Natal, they had stocked up at duty free. The coke on the flight also soon ran out.
Arriving in Antana was something else. Welcome to Africa. 2 hours later we made it through customs with our luggage and it was then time to arrange our hotel. An hour later we had been given our hotel paperwork and into the taxi we go. It was a Saturday, close to midnight, raining and the taxi and its driver smelt like a brewery. The drive to our hotel which was in the center of Antana was a rough one and blind rise overtaking, exceeding the speed limit and taking eyes off the road were old habits for this driver. Surprisingly, we made it safely to the hotel and the banana farmers had beaten us there. Their duty free stocks were still flowing strong and they kept going until about 4 in the morning much to the distress of the other couple who wanted some sleep. Quality chaps.
The next day, we all headed to the local markets for some bartering and we came away with some great things and great experiences. In terms of the local terrain, it felt like Morocco had been teleported to China as the houses were all terracotta and stacked on top of each other and there were rice paddies as far as the eye could see. For lunch we had some Zebu, which Greg had been told was a water buffalo and that the locals didn’t eat them for religious reasons. It was a different tasting steak but great nonetheless. The local Three Horse Beers were also flowing. Cheers to Antana. Nosy Be here we come.
Flying in to Nosy Be was something spectacular. I was quivering with excitement and anticipation of the fishing to come. The airport is the smallest I have ever been to, and the luggage conveyor belt is about 20 meters long and the luggage simply falls off the end if you haven’t collected it. Into the taxi and off we went. The ylang ylang trees were growing everywhere which are used to make perfume and are part of the local pride. Also lining the roads were pepper trees as well as coffee trees and Greg’s zebus. We eventually arrived in Nosy Be after having driven through Hell Ville and pulled up onto the beach where our crew awaited us. Onto the little dinghy we went and finally after nearly 2 days of travelling we had arrived on Yacht Adiva and were welcomed on board with some drinks and snacks. I’m not going to lie to you, this yacht really was top notch.
The skipper, Mamadou, the chef, Modeste and the deckhand, Maruf were all there to greet us as well as the Joz Joz skipper, Mau and his deckhand, Roberto. Mamadou pulled up his map charts onto the flatscreen and as we did every evening before supper, he plotted where we would be fishing the next day and gave us a summary of the species we would be fishing for. In summary, this was big Kingies, Doggies, Sailies and Grouper! We knew other species would be coming on board but those were the main targets for us! Supper consisted of prawns served with locally grown salad and stir fried veggies and some baguettes which accompanied every meal.
We each had our own cabin with double bed and en suite bathroom so we really were living in style. The next morning the skipper woke us up with some coffee on the deck of the boat as well as an omelette and variety of fruits for breakfast and onto the dinghy we went and off to the Joz Joz. The Joz Joz being a 28ft super cat is super spacious and really stable so we were fishing in style as well as living in style. The chef had been hard at work in the kitchen from early morning and there was a cooler box packed with lunch for us as well as a fridge on board the Joz Joz stocked with beer, water, sodas and energy drinks.
The plan for Day 1’s fishing was to head out to the Grand Castor Banks in search of doggies and the 40km/h winds and rough seas didn’t hamper those plans. After a 2 and a half hour boat ride we finally arrived at the banks. Joz Joz had recently found a spot where the doggies were eating trolled stick baits so we started out trolling an array of stick baits and other lures. This was unsuccessful so we boated some bonito for live baits and sent some of those down. After a few long tussles with some big sharks mostly hooked by Robbie we dropped down some jigs. The jigging was slow and I boated our first proper fish being a good grouper on a soft plastic. We jigged hard but the wind made the drift really quick on the super cat so we reverted to trolling for sailies along the drop off. No sailies made any appearances so we headed home. On the way home Robbie landed a really good green job fish and Greg got a nice grouper. We also spotted some free swimming sailies which we threw various lures at but no luck. All in all it was a slow day. We spent the night moored in the bay of one the islands called Sakatia and dined on calamari and chips, green job fish sashimi, grilled green job fish done on the gas braai on the boat accompanied by the standard salads and baguettes.
As the plan was to head north to be at Cape St Sebastian by Day 3, on Day 2 we started out in that direction. Once again, the wind wasn’t holding anything back from us so we put out some trolling lures as we searched for the sailies. After a few minutes of trolling, my rod went away and I landed a nice yellowspot kingfish. At this point the skipper had spotted some sailies so we headed in their direction armed with stickbaits, spoons and plugs on our 9ft spinning rods. We had some really good encounters with sailfish and Robbie had 2 fish hit his pink predator plug but the hook didn’t set and my Dad had some follows right up to the boat with his spoon. We put out the teasers and trolling lures and soon had a sailie in the spread. It ate the lure but we missed the fish. The deckhand was handling the rods under instruction from the skipper but luck wasn’t on our side. We had another fish eat the lure and the line screamed away but this fish also came off unfortunately.
After some really exciting sailie action we headed to the four brothers close to Mitsio and came across a big shoal of Bonito. They weren’t really interested in our spoons so we went over to trolling small skirts and leadheads and this did the trick. The leadheads being really effective when trolled through the shoal. We followed the shoal of Bonito by heading ahead of their direction and coming to stand still and we then put down jigs and livebait under the shoal but this wasn’t effective. We then went to one of the reefs and put down one rod with a livebait and the rest of us jigged. The jigs weren’t successful but the live bonnies were like giving candy to a baby.
Greg was first up to bat and after some violent bumping of the rod and braid singing off the open spool, he clicked over and the circle hook was set. After a tiring battle and some back burning action, Greg landed his GT of 94cm fork length. At one point during the fight Greg looked at the fighting chair and tried to climb on it but we wouldn’t have it. I was next up to bat and applying the same formula, I landed a 95cm GT which also took a fair amount of string and was a solid tussle. After the 2nd GT, they seemed to go off the bite so I continued with the jig and landed 2 nice yellowspot kingies in 2 drops.
That night we slept at Mitsio in a big bay and the same bay that the Tropical Fishing charter has their camp. The bay is renowned for its big grouper and we had kept some bonnies to drop down on the stand up marlin rig. I was in the shower and the bait had only be down for about 10 minutes when I heard Mamadou knocking on my door shouting fish on. I made it out there as quickly as possible and settled in to the fight. On that heavy tackle the fight was not much of a contest until the fish was alongside the boat when it sent some massive boils up to the surface. Onto Adiva came a nice grouper of about 15kg and we quickly got some pictures and then released it.
We woke up the next day to find out that during the night a couta had flown into the Adiva and it had landed next to Maruf’s head who was sleeping outside on the deck. Quite hectic to think that the couta which was only about 4kg had managed to leap that far out the water. It ended up as Sashimi that evening. Robbie, Greg and I then headed over to the Joz Joz for our journey up to Cape Saint Sebastian. My Dad made the decision to stay on the yacht and enjoy the day sailing and fishing off the yacht as she made her way up to our overnight bay. My Dad was treated to a fresh crab for lunch and a bottle of wine. He was in his element.
Once again the wind hadn’t let up and it was around 30km/h when we left Mitsio. We started out for sailies and it wasn’t long before we had spotted some free swimming sailfish. I was armed with my 9ft Berkley Air and a leadhead when a sailie came in about 2 metres behind the back of the boat. I flicked the leadhead out and the sailie took a swipe with its bill and I felt the hit of all hits but the hook didn’t set. I opened the bail and free spooled the leadhead out to the fish and as the braid went singing off the reel, I clicked over and hit the fish hard and I was on. The sailie screamed off at a rate of knots taking 50 metres of line in a few seconds. The sailie then came flying out the water and on its 3rd or 4th jump the leadhead came away. The adrenalin was pumping!
We decided to put out some teasers and bonito belly baits and it wasn’t long and a sailfish was in the spread. Luck was on my side when the sailie chose my rod over the others and it took the belly bait with no regret and the hook was set. We were fishing with our 9ft rigs but I also had my sustain 5000 with 20lb braid rigged up on a 7ft shimano trevala. This happened to be the rig that the sailie decided to eat and I knew I was in for an epic slogging match. As fate would have it, this was the exact same reel and length rod that I landed the 15kg white steenbras with, which was the fish that won us the trip to Madagascar. This sailie took line off my reel as relentlessly as the previous sailfish on leadhead had done, and with the 20lb braid the fish sailed out the water with little resistance. After about half an hour and some serious airtime, we had the fish next to the boat and we managed to leader the fish. Unfortunately being very light tackle, Roberto couldn’t put too much pressure on the leader and we didn’t boat the fish. We leadered the fish a second time after about 45 minutes but each time the fish seemed to get stronger. After an hour and half of tussling with the sailfish in testing conditions, the hook eventually pulled after having been worked loose over the fight. A leadered fish is a landed fish so we were content with the result. For me personally, this fish was the highlight of the trip as far as the light tackle angling side of things was concerned.
After the sailfish action, we moved off to the reef for some jigging. We drifted onto a nice mark and this marked the beginning of a frenzy of grouper on jig. We landed about 12 grouper almost drop for drop but because of the barotrauma, we decided to move on. We did manage to get all the fish down successfully using the upside down hook rig on the downrigger but GT’s is what we were after. At the next spot, we got stuck into a species flurry and we landed bohar snapper, bigeye, greenspot, yellowspot and giant kingfish as well as couta and some more grouper. After the jigging action, it was Robbie’s turn on the livebait rod after Greg and I handling it the day before and we sent down a large chunk of bonito. The bait soon got picked up and Robbie was Vas pappie! We could tell this was a bigger fish than the GT’s from the day before and soon Robbie’s back and arms were close to seizing even though he is a half ironman! This was a fairly lengthy fight with Robbie using some interesting techniques to land the fish but over the gunnel came a 109cm fork length GT which we estimated at around 25kg. The GT’s were getting bigger and we had all landed a GT of over 15kg’s which was what we were after. It was only our Dad who needed to experience the brute force of this Giant Trevally.
Robbie changed back to jig and on his next drop he was stuck into another nice GT. He landed one of 85cm and then said he was done for the day. This was enforced by the fact that he snapped his rod as he was landing the fish. Greg also landed a nice GT on jig just before the gale force winds came through again so we went inland for some popping action. We fished submarine rock and the surrounding areas and managed to get some nice follows from couta but with only couta interested in our lures, and the light fading, we headed for the Adiva where we knew a good meal and cold beers awaited us. Supper turned out to be Zebu steaks which despite what Greg had been told were eaten by the locals and was not a water buffalo but simply the local livestock. An early night followed.
For the months leading up to the trip, Robbie and Greg had spoken about doing some exploring on the islands as well some snorkeling so the next day they stayed behind on the yacht and did exactly that. My Dad and I hopped on board the Joz Joz and we went out to get my Dad stuck into some GT’s which up until then had eluded him. The wind on this particular morning was the strongest it had been all year and gale force was the only way to describe it. The fishing plans were to head out to the deep water for amberjack and the skipper obliged even under the conditions. We made our way out there and dropped the jigs down to 110 meters. I managed to hook 2 fish but they were both taxed. We also had a live bonnie out on the heavy tackle and this was picked up by a decent shark which we landed. We trolled for billfish on the trip back to the four brothers but we had no action.
On arriving at the four brothers it felt like we had just come into a harbor in comparison to the conditions we had experienced in the deep. Mao spotted the shoal of bonito and we landed a few on trolled leadhead. We then sent jigs down below the bonnie shoals and I hooked a nice GT. Unfortunately my line parted. My Dad was on the livebait rod and after a few drifts over the baitfish shoal he was picked up by his first ever GT. What followed was a long tussle but my Dad is a solid unit and dominated the fight. He landed a GT of 104cm and just over 20kgs and that fish was one of the defining moments of the trip. He then stepped up to bat again and landed another GT of 91cm which seemed to take it out of him.
After that he handed me his rod and said “It’s your turn pal!â€
I had been waiting for an opportunity to fish with his jigging rod which was custom made by Errol Holmes for the trip and this was my chance. I selected the biggest bonnie we had and after Roberto put a sinker down its throat and a circle hook through its lips, I dropped it over. We were fishing in 30 meters of water so it didn’t take long to get down to the strike zone. It wasn’t long and the line went singing off the spool. I clicked over and the circle hook found its way into the corner of this GT’s mouth. The fish screamed off taking line from the locked drag with ease. I gave that fish the gears and it gave me the gears in return. At that point I knew this was a decent fish and we followed the fish with the boat to keep above it and prevent being cut off. About 20 minutes later a slab of a fish broke the surface and we hauled aboard a 114cm GT which we estimated at 30kg. Struggling to hold the fish with my legs nearly buckling we got some photos and then released the GT to grow into a proper donkey of a fish!
After those 3 great fish, my Dad and I had just experienced what we had envisaged all along, and our spirits were at an all time high. We arrived back at the boat and Robbie and Greg were in the same high spirits as us. They had also experienced exactly what they had envisaged all along and that really was the crowning moment of the trip. That night over some Johnnie Blacks we relived the day’s events as Robbie and Greg shared their stories of summiting the 290m high Ankaria as well as snorkeling in gin clear waters with orange octopus sightings and Robbie getting wedged in an underwater cave. My Dad told us stories of his monster world record kingfish and how his months of training had finally paid off! We could have gone home the next day and the trip would have been a success but we still had one more item to take care of.
Waking up the next day with hangovers, we were back to 3 up on the Joz Joz as my Dad had decided to take a chilled day sailing back to Nosy Be on Adiva. The Joz Joz pulled out of the Mitsio Bay and approaching the four brothers we came across a shoal of bonito. We quickly sent out some teasers and leadheads for some bonnies but a sailie came up into the spread. It hit one of the bonnie skirts but didn’t hook itself. We put out some teasers and sailie lures and in no time the sailie was after the lures aggressively. Robbie’s rod went screaming off and we set the hook. Sailie on! The sailie screamed away and launched into a variety of aerial maneuvers. Robbie fought the fish well and after chasing the fish with the boat Roberto leadered the fish and hauled the fish over the railings and into the boat. Sailie, SAILIE! High fives rotated around the boat as we celebrated the landing of our nemesis and having taking care of our final item, we took some great pictures of the sailie and then released him successfully.
Having landed our sailie, we made our way to some of the jigging reefs and sent down some lures. Greg landed a decent GT on the smartie jig and then also landed a nice green jobfish. When moving from the first reef to the next, we noticed the tell-tale signs of sailfish, being 2 or 3 birds hovering just above the water as they watched the sailies feeding on small baitfish. We soon reverted back to sailie fever and the plan was to put Greg onto a sailie. What ensued was an afternoon of feeding sailfish but none landed. We hooked a few but unfortunately none of them stuck. It was an entertaining afternoon’s fishing watching sailies chasing stickbaits in crystal clear water right up to the boat as well as seeing them hitting leadheads and trolled lures. It was a great way to finish off our trip and we eventually headed back to Nosy Be where we were moored for the night.
That evening we reminisced over the past week’s events and celebrated the various highlights of the trip. As we thought the evening was coming to an end, Robbie and Greg suggested a trip to land to join the locals on their Friday night. My Dad decided to head to bed so it was the three brothers left in the capable hands of Modeste and Maruf. Or more appropriately, Modeste and Maruf left in the capable hands of the three brothers. Mamadou dropped us off on land and off we headed into the night. Nosy Be has a nightlife second to none and the streets were lined with pubs and little restaurants as well as locals just living in the moment. Modeste chose the pub with the most people as well as the live music and we settled in at the bar for some three horses. The bar was occupied mostly by the locals but also by middle aged Italians who fly in directly from Milan to enjoy themselves as well as enjoy the locals. After a while we moved onto the local rum and before we knew it, Robbie was nowhere to be seen. We were all searching for him when Maruf came up to me and said he knew where he was. Maruf took us to the stage where we came across Robbie doing the Madiba shuffle to the local band. Robbie came down from the stage after enjoying a few songs and was replaced by Greg who tried to emulate the shuffle. The band decided rather to give him the microphone and he gave his original rendition of their local chart topper in the best Malagasy he could muster up. It was a priceless moment which I managed to get on film for future reference.
The next day we woke up again with hangovers and made the inevitable journey back home. From the humble beginnings of our journey when it was still a pipedream, we always described it as a trip of lifetime and the trip to Madagascar was nothing less than that. We all had different expectations for this trip and we all managed to fulfill those expectations. My expectations were for us as a father and his 3 sons to spend quality time together away from the normality of everyday life and enjoy the open ocean and all that it has to offer. This trip will go down in the White Family record books as one of the highlights and hopefully it will be the catalyst to many more trips where the Whites go Off the Chart.