Madagascar GT's

blaasoppie#1

Senior Member
Howzit Guys,

I live in Antananarivo, Madagascar and fish a place in the north called Mahajunga which is the closest good jigging spot to Tana; a full 9 hour drive which my mate John and i normally do after work at 17h30 on a Saturday, arrive at 02h30 motor out to the drop for 3 hours, jig for 8 hours, motor back for 3 hours then drive back to Tana for 9 hours and get back to Tana just in time for work on Monday's - this jigging is a serious disease!

The fish in Mahajunga are not as plentiful as further North East in Nosy Be area, but we often catch 30 - 60 fish in a session and always get cleaned up at least 2 or 3 times.

When we have a full weekend off and the vrou is back in SA we camp on the beach which is so awesome and is one of the safest places i have been. The guy we hooked up with charges us $75 per day plus fuel which is an absolute bargain!

Herewith some pic's of GT's, Rosy Jobs, barracuda etc. from Mahajunga

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The smallest Doggie you ever saw, but i am going to catch one 100 times bigger at Nosy Be in 2 weeks time!

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FREE THE FIGHTER

Senior Member
Brilliant Mark - great pics, thanks  - great that you guys make the muther effort to get out on the water - that place is "full up".  I'll be back  hopefully sooner rather than later.

Now go bust those Oshkosh Doggies up north.::S
 

fedu

Sealiner
Madascar seems like fishing paradise.

Great stuff.

P.S. - Did I see a Blue Rose and a JM rod there ? Allways had a doubt about those small local boats & jigging, do you use a portable sounder or the spots are so well know that you don't even need a sounder ?
 

ignatius

Sealiner
Well done!
30 - 60 in a session, for me it will take a life time to achieve that.
Please provide more details?. Seems you are anchored, how deep?. Info on tackle, is fedu spot on as usual.
 

Dingleberry

Senior Member
Beautiful pics and great report. Thanks. I rectum I could've outdone you for the smallest Doggie comp - I was too embarrassed to post it!
 

Tataena

New member
Good stuff B#1, nice fish and good effort getting there. hard enough flying in there, driving must be a story. Looking at your pics - drop shot, plastics. Are you using trace, what set up are you using, size jig heads etc.
 

fedu

Sealiner
Blaa, another thing.

If there was an award for jigging dedication/madness you would get my vote!!!

18 hours driving to fish in 1,5 day ?? and still have the stamina to fish for 8 hours !!!

Out of this world!!

That is really working for your fish!!
 

blaasoppie#1

Senior Member
Fedu,

I never go anywhere without my Lowrance LCX 15MT and i have a suction cup on my Airmar P-66 transducer; i hate fishing blind and honestly would not jig without a fishfinder.

I have heard that there are huge amberjack on the east coast 10miles off Tamatave, but it has been a mission trying to arrange a boat as they all want Euro 700 which i am no way in hell going to pay. My mate showed me some long line type hooks that were straightened by fish when the guys were fishing live baits and i could not believe that a fish actually straightened those hooks.

The drop shots are 10" Fin-s fish from http://www.Lunkercity.com and the 4.5 and 6oz heads are made by my mate in PE. They work like a bomb, especially on the AJ's.

Light Blue Rose is a S535R and i had PE2 (30lb) YGK Ultra 450m spooled on a Stella 8000FA. Just got my new Stella 8000SWPG and filled it with 400m of PE3 (47lb) YGK Ultra so i am so looking forward to the next trip.

My heavy Blue Rose is a S60MD with 500m of YGK Ultra PE5 on a Stella 20000SWPG which is such an awesome set up.

John, my fishing mate is a JM fan and has a 250g and has just received his 400g and Stella 20000SW. John had a JM300g overhead and a Shimano Ocea Jigger 4000p, but he was not comfortable with the overhead setup and just sold it to a guy in OZ.
 

tauruck

Sealiner
Incredible.

Is there anything you didn't catch?.

It must be worth all the hassle getting there!.

Mana to you Blaasoppie
 

fedu

Sealiner
blaasoppie#1 wrote:
Fedu,

I never go anywhere without my Lowrance LCX 15MT and i have a suction cup on my Airmar P-66 transducer; i hate fishing blind and honestly would not jig without a fishfinder.

I have heard that there are huge amberjack on the east coast 10miles off Tamatave, but it has been a mission trying to arrange a boat as they all want Euro 700 which i am no way in hell going to pay. My mate showed me some long line type hooks that were straightened by fish when the guys were fishing live baits and i could not believe that a fish actually straightened those hooks.

The drop shots are 10" Fin-s fish from http://www.Lunkercity.com and the 4.5 and 6oz heads are made by my mate in PE. They work like a bomb, especially on the AJ's.

Light Blue Rose is a S535R and i had PE2 (30lb) YGK Ultra 450m spooled on a Stella 8000FA. Just got my new Stella 8000SWPG and filled it with 400m of PE3 (47lb) YGK Ultra so i am so looking forward to the next trip.

My heavy Blue Rose is a S60MD with 500m of YGK Ultra PE5 on a Stella 20000SWPG which is such an awesome set up.

John, my fishing mate is a JM fan and has a 250g and has just received his 400g and Stella 20000SW. John had a JM300g overhead and a Shimano Ocea Jigger 4000p, but he was not comfortable with the overhead setup and just sold it to a guy in OZ.
Blaa,

Great setups there, BlueRose & Stellas, can't go wrong.
Don't say bad things about overhead setup's here, the guys are gonna kill you, they even managed to put me jigging with overhead setups :)

I see in most of your pictures that while your are having your photo taken, you friend doesn't stop fishing and smiling, you guys don't waste a minute :)

I'll have some questions about the portable fishfinder solution, but I'll put them on a separate post.
 

blaasoppie#1

Senior Member
Fedu,

I  am not dissing overheads -John comes from a bass fishing background so for him to come straight to a large Ocea Jigger was a little uncomfortable; for those of us that come from a conventional saltwater background it's no problem and its really up to each individual on what style you like. I came very close to purchasing a Alutecnos Gorilla 12, but decided to stick with the spinning outfit.

Discussing overhead vs. spinning is a bit like discussing religion; you are never going to reach consensus.

I have an awesome method of making a transducer bracket from a cheap glazing suction cup that sticks like hell to the transom - will wait for your post.

The Airmar P-66 transducer that i have is a huge improvement on the standard skimmer model that comes with the FF, but then again mine could just have been bad.
 

Nepptune

Sealiner
Great images Mark, stoked to see you've joined us here on Sealine!!!

Thanks for ruining my Monday again with your awesome pics!!! :)

Looking forward to the reports after the 27th too!!!
 

blaasoppie#1

Senior Member
Nepps,

Thanks for the welcome; a lot of my posts are already on the other jigging forums, but i guess the Madagascar info will be more beneficial to our SA members.
 

Nepptune

Sealiner
Mark - Great to have you here mate... And not just for your Madagascar posts, but you have a pretty unique open minded attitude, with alot of really great ideas, from your knots ( that braided thing ) to your Steel Assists, and your posts on your Noodle Rod and more that I know members here can really benefit from, I know I have, so if you get the chance to post those up, please do....

We need to start a "Silly Stringers" Club here on Sealine... I know you and FTF and I would already be in there, but I'm sure we can add a few more once they see just what this tackle can do on beast fish!
 
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