ripplefisher
Senior Member
This report is a little late due to poor internet/work commitments – better late than never though!
So, after a fair few months a long awaited return trip to the Mitsio islands in Madagascar was soon approaching – I had accumulated a fair amount of tackle during the period – principally jigging stuff, so I was looking forward to some good action...
A good stock of jigs – damn shame I had to leave half of them behind due to weight limits – but they will serve me well in the future I hope..!
Hooks and more hooks ...plus split and solid rings - I find the ten mouth welded solid rings to be the best by some margin, at least from those I have come across..
Well, I arrived in Nosy Be to find conditions a little different to what I expected – still a little cold, and the famed ‘Varatraz’ wind was still present; I had taken a slight risk with the timing of the trip, as I knew august can be very windy, but it had to also fit into work commitments etc. I was going to be fishing with Alain Soulet and ‘Commando’ – a Malagasy deckhand/skipper whom I rate very highly.
The tackle we had on board – well, some real good stuff – two Fisherman Spinoza Amberjacks, and a WRC Nirai 55, Saltiga Hiramasa as back up, as well as a Jigging Master three kings special rod for some Madai work.. Then two Zenaq Fokeeto 83-5 popping rods, and a RippleFisher 79R, plus a Fisherman popping rod – full custom, but forget the model. Then an OR stealth and a Temple Reef Stealth – same rods, but different marketing – this was for the lighter stuff..
The first day was spent fishing a few spots as we meandered our way up to the Mitsio islands and the camp; unfortunately the fishing was slow – a few modest size GT’s, plus a few nice bottom fish. This was not the Mitsio fishing I had come to expect, and definitely was the worst days fishing I have had here – a view shared by Alain, as it ranked amongst one of his worst days ever!
A yellow edged lyretail (Variola louti) – very pretty fish, and my first – so a new species for me.
At least I managed to raise this decent grouper – a reasonable size for the species – Malabar grouper (E. Malabaricus) - I think.
Day two started off with strong winds – it was difficult to keep footing on the boat whilst jigging, and we fished spots in the vicinity (say 15 km radius) of the Mitsio islands.
A good blood or humphead snapper (I think!)...
An average size GT – during the whole trip I have to admit that the GT bite was not nearly as ‘hot’ as it was on previous trips – there were plenty of fish on the sonar, but for some reason the GT’s were not feeding heavily – water temp was pretty cold (25 degrees odd), so perhaps this contributed to the slow GT fishing.. There was a positive side to the slow GT fishing, in the sense that a greater range of species were caught – other species had a chance to get to the jig I suppose!
A change of approach....and a decent orange spotted grouper (E. Coioides) taken on a Madai jig..
A modest sized bludger - but my first, so an addition to the new species list..
And another grouper - they were all over the place the second day..
There is one benefit to the two hooks / one jig approach...! I don’t use the two hook approach often at all, but it’s fun to experiment at times...
In the afternoon we managed to locate some bonito / birds in about 40 metres of water – as is often the case here the GT’s are not too far behind...
A few smaller GT's to start off..
a double hook up for Alain and I..
One of the best GT's of the trip (above) - the real big boys did not show - a couple were hooked, but none boated.
Another bludger...
Small fish take jigs too! a couple of juvenile yellowspotted trevally – I would guess..?
The end of the day was spent bringing up a 60 plus kilo whitetip – the sharks were a pest during the whole trip!
The third day saw an improvement in the weather and so we went ‘au large’ so to speak – or rather to some further away spots, 40 or so kilometres from the Mitsio’s. We found the bonito shoals, and got a few onboard which went back out as livebait to see if there were any marlin around – unfortunately the sharks were a problem, and the only fish other than a shark which took a bonito snapped me up as it had worn down the 150 lb shock leader on the coral/rocks – guess was that it was a big GT by the way it was fighting...
Anyways, trolled a skip bait and a few lures whilst moving around the area – got a nice sailie on the skipbait, which was released successfully.
Some time was then spent jigging – and the usual stamp of GT’s was present – but the going was slow...
One of the highlights of the day was seeing a huge leatherback turtle on the surface – it must have been over two and a half meters long, and we managed to approach it fairly closely – unfortunately I didn’t get any decent photo’s...
We then encountered a shoal of Dorado – not a particularly common species in the waters here, but they were present during this trip. I managed to boat 5 fish in half an hour odd– all released but for one which was going to be part of dinner..!
The last couple of hours were spent jigging – some good fish, or rather species, were caught..
Bohar snapper..
Marbled coral grouper (P. punctatus).
Lethrinops nebulosus / spangled emperor I think??
Green jobfish.
Yellowspotted trevally.
Bluespotted Hind
A better Lethrinops...
More Bohar snapper..
Day 4 and the weather was still OK – so the decision was taken to go with both boats to a spot 60 km’s from the Mitsio islands – there are normally doggies present, plus just generally a lot of fish – only downside to the spot is there are a lot of sharks, as is so often the case in ‘ fishy spots ‘ !
On arrival there were bonito feeding – we saw a sailfish within minutes of arrival as well – it was looking good. We managed to easily get a couple of bonito on board, and they were put out as livebaits – unfortunately within minutes the sharks were present, and I spent the next 30-40 odd minutes hauling up a 100 kilo odd whitetip. Don’t get me wrong, sharks can be great sport – but I dislike their habit of fighting, thrashing full of teeth beside the boat – it just increases the possibility of an accident – either to the person trying to tether the fish, or to your precious equipment – read rods! The sharks were so bad that you couldn’t even leave a bonito tethered in the water just beside the boat – they would be hammered.
Taking the strain as a decent shark whacks a bonito livebait - nice outfit though - got to use Alain's brand new Fisherman custom popping rod - nice!
We decided to change tactics and looked for likely fish holding spots for jigging – and caught a few fish..
Malabar grouper.
Big roving coral grouper (P. pessuliferus).
Bluefin trevally
Blacksaddled coral grouper (P. laevis).
We then heard that the other Tropical Fishing boat was having some dogtooth tuna – the sharks were being a big problem however, and the more elderly clients fishing with Ludo couldn’t handle the rushes – so the end result was only fairly small dogtooth (12-15 kilo’s) boated – then again, better than what we managed, as we tried the same area but they had, but the fish appeared to have disappeared, or rather gone off the bite – even though the rainbow runners, sharks etc all made it feel very fishy..
Every time a bonito was put out same result!
We then decided to give trolling a shot – normal set up of a couple of plastics and, very importantly as it always seems to be the bait taken – a skipbait trolled out behind the lures. We had one marlin strike – skipbait as usual, but it didn’t stick, and then a bit later another strike – this time the marlin hooked up – not a particularly big fish, maybe 75-80 odd kilo’s. After a couple of minutes, on the third set of aerial acrobatics, unfortunately the fish threw the hook – ah well, fishing is a lot of luck, and it just wasn’t to be - a bit disappointed!
As close as I got to getting a marlin on this trip...
We managed to pick up another dorado..
As well as a few wahoo – which made a bloody mess of one of my precious black bart lures – look at what’s left of the skirt..! Luckily I had spare skirts with me..
The humpback whales were very plentiful – we saw them on most days – lovely creatures..
Day 5 was a day of mixed contrasts – the weather looked OK in the morning, and we headed out to a few spots 30 odd km’s from the Mitio’s, and at the start we managed to get some jigging in and some decent fish were boated..
Blue-spotted hind.
Bluefin trevally
Bloody couta – they took a lot of jigs during the trip, as per usual – and as such didn’t manage to get too many fish to the boat!
Yellow-edged lyretail – a couple were caught at this spot.
Marbled coral grouper - double hook-up (P. punctatus).
A large speckled snapper – new species for me, well almost (I am going to count it anyway!) pity the sharks got it on the way up..
One of the few GT’s caught that day..
Another Malabar grouper..
The wind by mid-day has picked up something chronic – it was difficult to maintain footing is the swells, and with the speed of the drift jigging became very hard work. We decided to slowly make our way back to camp, as fishing was becoming difficult and unpleasant. After a slow and wet journey back, there were a few shoals of bonito fairly close to the Mitsio’s, so we decided to see if the GT’s were present.
I managed this decent GT.
I hooked a good fish on a live bonnie as well – it was fighting very much like a big GT, and it was hellishly strong, but unfortunately the hook came unstuck about 5 minutes into the fight – more bad luck!
Day 6 and the Varatraz wind was howling – it would have made offshore fishing very difficult indeed, so there was little choice other than to fish the more sheltered shorelines – I was happy giving this a go with my OR stealth outfit, casting K-ten minnows – light tackle fun!
I was really chuffed to get this mangrove snapper – a new species for me, and I do enjoy working the K-ten around the rocks.. I Didn’t manage anything else of note other than a few small couta.
We then moved on to the leeward side of one of the islands in the archipelago, and proceeded to get stuck into the GT’s, when the Couta were not stealing jigs that is..!
This is an interesting one – every now and then you pull up what look like very slender GT’s – I has assumed they were just this, but Alain is not so sure.... so the question is, is the fish in the above picture a GT..?
Really happy to get this one – new species for me – I am guessing it is an African pompano, but I welcome any comments or thoughts...?
We then spent the last hour or two around the rocks again – fishing light with the K-ten – I was on my second as my first was donated to a shark that within seconds of me hooking a small bohar snapper, was there to cash in..!
Small bohar snapper – a bit of fun to end the day..
Day 7 was similar conditions wise – howling winds meant once again we were restricted to inshore fishing for the morning..
I was chuffed to get this blacktip trevally – modest size, but a new species for me once again!
Ditto for this acrobatic garfish – a first for me, so slowly adding to the species tally..
I then took this grouper – I am almost certain this is once again a colour variant of the blacksaddled coral grouper – they do indeed be able to take on a number of different colours...!
We worked the bay a little more, and all I achieved was losing my second K-ten minnow to a big Couta – not a great result..! We then decided to head out to a spot not too far away from camp, to see what we could get on the jig. We trolled along the way, in not particularly conducive weather, and as we approached our spot we had a sailie interested in the Williamson diamond advocate – unfortunately he didn’t have enough conviction to hook up! We also had a sailfish come and look at our jigs, but again, wouldn’t take them either..!
Jigging began – I got a juvenile yellow-spotted trevally, which went down as a live bait – 5 minutes later this horse barracuda took the bait...
I then got this guy up amongst the yellow-spotted and modest size GT’s – I guessed at first that is was once again an African pompano, but now I look again at the fish I am not so sure – it has a long wispy anal fin, plus the head shape and colouration are a little different – any guesses..? Maybe a pennant fish, or just a juvenile African pompano (but it’s not that[/i] small..).
I then picked up this barracuda on the jig – not nearly as big as the one before, but on the jig it wasn’t too bad I thought..
We then decided to troll a little – look for bonnie’s etc, but it wasn’t happening, so we took the decision to return to the spot we had been at before, and put out a few feathers to trap a few needlescale queenfish, which was what we suspected the sailfish were feeding on. We got a couple, and out they went as live baits – half an hour later (yes, they were dead baits by then!) we got the desired result, and a 30 kilo sailfish was a nice reward. Unfortunately it had been hooked in the gills, so we couldn’t release it – always a shame.
On the last day I took decision to try and fish bonito livebaits / skipbaits to see whether there were any marlin about. Unfortunately the weather once again was not kind – and we had no interest from the marlin – we did have two sailfish hooked up briefly, but both managed to throw the hook. We caught a couple more dorado, and then jigged for a while before heading back to Nosy Be – nothing special was caught – predominantly green job fish, and a few trevally etc.
So all in all not a bad trip – it was hard work at times, and there were not huge volumes of fish caught as there often can be in the area on same days – the GT’s were noticeable by the fact that they were not on the bite – I would not say that they weren’t there, judging by the sonar at most spots, but they just weren’t keen on feeding too hard! That said however, the species count was impressive, and if I include species such as bonito, skipjack and needlescale queenfish, and a few modest sized rusty jobs and pickhandle barracuda, it takes the species tally to over 30 for the trip – 32 if my count is correct - quite impressive, and takes my Mitsio species tally very close to 40...
I was a little disappointed that the marlin were not ‘on’ – but the weather broke our efforts too often, and the lunar phase wasn’t good either.. Ditto for the doggies and AJ's. Thanks to those of you that provided me with advice on how to target these fish – much appreciated, and I would have like to have put a bigger effort in if the conditions had been better..
Ah well, that is enough reason for a return voyage at some stage...! :fishn
So, after a fair few months a long awaited return trip to the Mitsio islands in Madagascar was soon approaching – I had accumulated a fair amount of tackle during the period – principally jigging stuff, so I was looking forward to some good action...
A good stock of jigs – damn shame I had to leave half of them behind due to weight limits – but they will serve me well in the future I hope..!
Hooks and more hooks ...plus split and solid rings - I find the ten mouth welded solid rings to be the best by some margin, at least from those I have come across..
Well, I arrived in Nosy Be to find conditions a little different to what I expected – still a little cold, and the famed ‘Varatraz’ wind was still present; I had taken a slight risk with the timing of the trip, as I knew august can be very windy, but it had to also fit into work commitments etc. I was going to be fishing with Alain Soulet and ‘Commando’ – a Malagasy deckhand/skipper whom I rate very highly.
The tackle we had on board – well, some real good stuff – two Fisherman Spinoza Amberjacks, and a WRC Nirai 55, Saltiga Hiramasa as back up, as well as a Jigging Master three kings special rod for some Madai work.. Then two Zenaq Fokeeto 83-5 popping rods, and a RippleFisher 79R, plus a Fisherman popping rod – full custom, but forget the model. Then an OR stealth and a Temple Reef Stealth – same rods, but different marketing – this was for the lighter stuff..
The first day was spent fishing a few spots as we meandered our way up to the Mitsio islands and the camp; unfortunately the fishing was slow – a few modest size GT’s, plus a few nice bottom fish. This was not the Mitsio fishing I had come to expect, and definitely was the worst days fishing I have had here – a view shared by Alain, as it ranked amongst one of his worst days ever!
A yellow edged lyretail (Variola louti) – very pretty fish, and my first – so a new species for me.
At least I managed to raise this decent grouper – a reasonable size for the species – Malabar grouper (E. Malabaricus) - I think.
Day two started off with strong winds – it was difficult to keep footing on the boat whilst jigging, and we fished spots in the vicinity (say 15 km radius) of the Mitsio islands.
A good blood or humphead snapper (I think!)...
An average size GT – during the whole trip I have to admit that the GT bite was not nearly as ‘hot’ as it was on previous trips – there were plenty of fish on the sonar, but for some reason the GT’s were not feeding heavily – water temp was pretty cold (25 degrees odd), so perhaps this contributed to the slow GT fishing.. There was a positive side to the slow GT fishing, in the sense that a greater range of species were caught – other species had a chance to get to the jig I suppose!
A change of approach....and a decent orange spotted grouper (E. Coioides) taken on a Madai jig..
A modest sized bludger - but my first, so an addition to the new species list..
And another grouper - they were all over the place the second day..
There is one benefit to the two hooks / one jig approach...! I don’t use the two hook approach often at all, but it’s fun to experiment at times...
In the afternoon we managed to locate some bonito / birds in about 40 metres of water – as is often the case here the GT’s are not too far behind...
A few smaller GT's to start off..
a double hook up for Alain and I..
One of the best GT's of the trip (above) - the real big boys did not show - a couple were hooked, but none boated.
Another bludger...
Small fish take jigs too! a couple of juvenile yellowspotted trevally – I would guess..?
The end of the day was spent bringing up a 60 plus kilo whitetip – the sharks were a pest during the whole trip!
The third day saw an improvement in the weather and so we went ‘au large’ so to speak – or rather to some further away spots, 40 or so kilometres from the Mitsio’s. We found the bonito shoals, and got a few onboard which went back out as livebait to see if there were any marlin around – unfortunately the sharks were a problem, and the only fish other than a shark which took a bonito snapped me up as it had worn down the 150 lb shock leader on the coral/rocks – guess was that it was a big GT by the way it was fighting...
Anyways, trolled a skip bait and a few lures whilst moving around the area – got a nice sailie on the skipbait, which was released successfully.
Some time was then spent jigging – and the usual stamp of GT’s was present – but the going was slow...
One of the highlights of the day was seeing a huge leatherback turtle on the surface – it must have been over two and a half meters long, and we managed to approach it fairly closely – unfortunately I didn’t get any decent photo’s...
We then encountered a shoal of Dorado – not a particularly common species in the waters here, but they were present during this trip. I managed to boat 5 fish in half an hour odd– all released but for one which was going to be part of dinner..!
The last couple of hours were spent jigging – some good fish, or rather species, were caught..
Bohar snapper..
Marbled coral grouper (P. punctatus).
Lethrinops nebulosus / spangled emperor I think??
Green jobfish.
Yellowspotted trevally.
Bluespotted Hind
A better Lethrinops...
More Bohar snapper..
Day 4 and the weather was still OK – so the decision was taken to go with both boats to a spot 60 km’s from the Mitsio islands – there are normally doggies present, plus just generally a lot of fish – only downside to the spot is there are a lot of sharks, as is so often the case in ‘ fishy spots ‘ !
On arrival there were bonito feeding – we saw a sailfish within minutes of arrival as well – it was looking good. We managed to easily get a couple of bonito on board, and they were put out as livebaits – unfortunately within minutes the sharks were present, and I spent the next 30-40 odd minutes hauling up a 100 kilo odd whitetip. Don’t get me wrong, sharks can be great sport – but I dislike their habit of fighting, thrashing full of teeth beside the boat – it just increases the possibility of an accident – either to the person trying to tether the fish, or to your precious equipment – read rods! The sharks were so bad that you couldn’t even leave a bonito tethered in the water just beside the boat – they would be hammered.
Taking the strain as a decent shark whacks a bonito livebait - nice outfit though - got to use Alain's brand new Fisherman custom popping rod - nice!
We decided to change tactics and looked for likely fish holding spots for jigging – and caught a few fish..
Malabar grouper.
Big roving coral grouper (P. pessuliferus).
Bluefin trevally
Blacksaddled coral grouper (P. laevis).
We then heard that the other Tropical Fishing boat was having some dogtooth tuna – the sharks were being a big problem however, and the more elderly clients fishing with Ludo couldn’t handle the rushes – so the end result was only fairly small dogtooth (12-15 kilo’s) boated – then again, better than what we managed, as we tried the same area but they had, but the fish appeared to have disappeared, or rather gone off the bite – even though the rainbow runners, sharks etc all made it feel very fishy..
Every time a bonito was put out same result!
We then decided to give trolling a shot – normal set up of a couple of plastics and, very importantly as it always seems to be the bait taken – a skipbait trolled out behind the lures. We had one marlin strike – skipbait as usual, but it didn’t stick, and then a bit later another strike – this time the marlin hooked up – not a particularly big fish, maybe 75-80 odd kilo’s. After a couple of minutes, on the third set of aerial acrobatics, unfortunately the fish threw the hook – ah well, fishing is a lot of luck, and it just wasn’t to be - a bit disappointed!
As close as I got to getting a marlin on this trip...
We managed to pick up another dorado..
As well as a few wahoo – which made a bloody mess of one of my precious black bart lures – look at what’s left of the skirt..! Luckily I had spare skirts with me..
The humpback whales were very plentiful – we saw them on most days – lovely creatures..
Day 5 was a day of mixed contrasts – the weather looked OK in the morning, and we headed out to a few spots 30 odd km’s from the Mitio’s, and at the start we managed to get some jigging in and some decent fish were boated..
Blue-spotted hind.
Bluefin trevally
Bloody couta – they took a lot of jigs during the trip, as per usual – and as such didn’t manage to get too many fish to the boat!
Yellow-edged lyretail – a couple were caught at this spot.
Marbled coral grouper - double hook-up (P. punctatus).
A large speckled snapper – new species for me, well almost (I am going to count it anyway!) pity the sharks got it on the way up..
One of the few GT’s caught that day..
Another Malabar grouper..
The wind by mid-day has picked up something chronic – it was difficult to maintain footing is the swells, and with the speed of the drift jigging became very hard work. We decided to slowly make our way back to camp, as fishing was becoming difficult and unpleasant. After a slow and wet journey back, there were a few shoals of bonito fairly close to the Mitsio’s, so we decided to see if the GT’s were present.
I managed this decent GT.
I hooked a good fish on a live bonnie as well – it was fighting very much like a big GT, and it was hellishly strong, but unfortunately the hook came unstuck about 5 minutes into the fight – more bad luck!
Day 6 and the Varatraz wind was howling – it would have made offshore fishing very difficult indeed, so there was little choice other than to fish the more sheltered shorelines – I was happy giving this a go with my OR stealth outfit, casting K-ten minnows – light tackle fun!
I was really chuffed to get this mangrove snapper – a new species for me, and I do enjoy working the K-ten around the rocks.. I Didn’t manage anything else of note other than a few small couta.
We then moved on to the leeward side of one of the islands in the archipelago, and proceeded to get stuck into the GT’s, when the Couta were not stealing jigs that is..!
This is an interesting one – every now and then you pull up what look like very slender GT’s – I has assumed they were just this, but Alain is not so sure.... so the question is, is the fish in the above picture a GT..?
Really happy to get this one – new species for me – I am guessing it is an African pompano, but I welcome any comments or thoughts...?
We then spent the last hour or two around the rocks again – fishing light with the K-ten – I was on my second as my first was donated to a shark that within seconds of me hooking a small bohar snapper, was there to cash in..!
Small bohar snapper – a bit of fun to end the day..
Day 7 was similar conditions wise – howling winds meant once again we were restricted to inshore fishing for the morning..
I was chuffed to get this blacktip trevally – modest size, but a new species for me once again!
Ditto for this acrobatic garfish – a first for me, so slowly adding to the species tally..
I then took this grouper – I am almost certain this is once again a colour variant of the blacksaddled coral grouper – they do indeed be able to take on a number of different colours...!
We worked the bay a little more, and all I achieved was losing my second K-ten minnow to a big Couta – not a great result..! We then decided to head out to a spot not too far away from camp, to see what we could get on the jig. We trolled along the way, in not particularly conducive weather, and as we approached our spot we had a sailie interested in the Williamson diamond advocate – unfortunately he didn’t have enough conviction to hook up! We also had a sailfish come and look at our jigs, but again, wouldn’t take them either..!
Jigging began – I got a juvenile yellow-spotted trevally, which went down as a live bait – 5 minutes later this horse barracuda took the bait...
I then got this guy up amongst the yellow-spotted and modest size GT’s – I guessed at first that is was once again an African pompano, but now I look again at the fish I am not so sure – it has a long wispy anal fin, plus the head shape and colouration are a little different – any guesses..? Maybe a pennant fish, or just a juvenile African pompano (but it’s not that[/i] small..).
I then picked up this barracuda on the jig – not nearly as big as the one before, but on the jig it wasn’t too bad I thought..
We then decided to troll a little – look for bonnie’s etc, but it wasn’t happening, so we took the decision to return to the spot we had been at before, and put out a few feathers to trap a few needlescale queenfish, which was what we suspected the sailfish were feeding on. We got a couple, and out they went as live baits – half an hour later (yes, they were dead baits by then!) we got the desired result, and a 30 kilo sailfish was a nice reward. Unfortunately it had been hooked in the gills, so we couldn’t release it – always a shame.
On the last day I took decision to try and fish bonito livebaits / skipbaits to see whether there were any marlin about. Unfortunately the weather once again was not kind – and we had no interest from the marlin – we did have two sailfish hooked up briefly, but both managed to throw the hook. We caught a couple more dorado, and then jigged for a while before heading back to Nosy Be – nothing special was caught – predominantly green job fish, and a few trevally etc.
So all in all not a bad trip – it was hard work at times, and there were not huge volumes of fish caught as there often can be in the area on same days – the GT’s were noticeable by the fact that they were not on the bite – I would not say that they weren’t there, judging by the sonar at most spots, but they just weren’t keen on feeding too hard! That said however, the species count was impressive, and if I include species such as bonito, skipjack and needlescale queenfish, and a few modest sized rusty jobs and pickhandle barracuda, it takes the species tally to over 30 for the trip – 32 if my count is correct - quite impressive, and takes my Mitsio species tally very close to 40...
I was a little disappointed that the marlin were not ‘on’ – but the weather broke our efforts too often, and the lunar phase wasn’t good either.. Ditto for the doggies and AJ's. Thanks to those of you that provided me with advice on how to target these fish – much appreciated, and I would have like to have put a bigger effort in if the conditions had been better..
Ah well, that is enough reason for a return voyage at some stage...! :fishn
