Welcome to Sporting News

The week of April 6-12, 2013

Weather Conditions:   Sun dominated throughout the week, a few clouds arrived on Fri.

Air Temp: Mean temperature in the low- to mid-80s

Water Temp: 81-83
Wind:  Wind from the ESE of 5-15mph, with gusts 15-25 mph on the 10^th and 11^th

Tides:  A high tide at 8 a.m. on the 7th put high tides in the morning all week

 Moon Phase:   New Moon April 10

Turneffe Flats had a slightly European feel as a world-travelled group of anglers based in London visited to sample our fishing.  Coupled with anglers from the U.S., Turneffe Flats sent out 8 boats each day this week for a total of 16 anglers. 

Bruce M. and Lefty W. of Mich. wasted no time getting down to business fishing with Dubs.  They have fished together for nearly 15 years and have stayed with us at least five previous times. Bruce landed his first permit on his third cast and the hot permit action continued throughout the week.  They hooked permit nearly every day with Bruce landing a big fish on Fri. afternoon to put the icing on a great week. 

Doug P. and Malcolm H. of the U.K. fished with Daniel for the week.  Malcom landed permit on consecutive days with his first permit on Mon. and a second, a larger fish, on Tues.  Doug and Malcolm split their time casting to bonefish on the flats and poling for permit.  Malcolm landed his third permit on Fri.!

Other anglers in the European contingent included Yves M., France; and Duncan W., Gerry S., Alexander K., Andrew W., and Ronnie B., from the U.K.  This energetic group of anglers rotated guides and fishing partners each day and were fishing with oft-requested guides, Michael, John, Capt., and Willie. 

Yves, hooked his first permit on Tues. fishing with guide Michael.  With the flyline sizzling through guides, they noticed a loop at the back end of the line which resulted in an “early release.”   They poled after the school of permit and found the fly line … with the fish still attached!  While they were trying re-attach the line to the backing, the fly pulled out, leaving angler and guide with nothing but a good story to tell.  On Thurs., Yves and Duncan had some good permit fishing with Yves(pictured)  landing his first!  They spent the afternoon searching for tarpon, but to no avail. 

Ronnie had some tough luck hooking several permit during the week, but failing to get one to the boat.  In addition to bonefish and permit, the group caught a variety of other species including snapper, barracuda, jacks and even a kingfish.  The group relaxed post-dinner each evening with a sip of rum on the veranda.

John B. and Lenny B. of Mich. enjoyed their first flats fishing trip fishing with Dion.  They made progress each day and after beginning the week targeting bonefish, they spent the latter half of the week fishing for permit.  Although they did not land the permit, they did report seeing and casting to fish, especially on Wed. and Thurs.  We hope to see them back next May.

Todd and Gary E. from Wyo. split their week fishing with Capt.  This father-son duo had no prior flats fishing experience and they were anxious to spend time on the flats.   After bonefishing the first couple of days, they focused on permit for the rest of the week and reported seeing large schools of permit in the lagoon.  Under the tutelage of Capt., Todd landed a very nice permit on Fri. afternoon - his first on a fly.  Congrats Todd!

Return guest Mark S. from Texas paired with Geoff A. of Mass. for the week.  Led by veteran guide Pops, these anglers mainly focused on bonefish.  They reported consistent fishing action throughout the week and also mixed in a bit of snorkeling and diving. Geoff spent part of his week working on his Open Water Diver Certification with Emi which he completed on Fri.  Mark’s wife Cherie was part of our Atoll Adventure program and also joined him on the fishing skiffs for an afternoon.

For further information please contact Tarquin Millington-Drake on 0845 299 6212 Ext 1 or at tmd@frontierstrvl.co.uk

To read about Tarquin Millington-Drake's travel to Kau Tapen Lodge with his group...click here.

He talks through the whole trip from departure in London, travel in Buenos Aires and down to Rio Grande and all the high and lows of the trip.

If you want the full details on a trip south, this is where you get the details and can see all the photos!

For further information please contact Tarquin Millington-Drake on 0845 299 6212 Ext 1 or at tmd@frontierstrvl.co.uk

To read about Tarquin Millington-Drake's travel to Pica Zuro Lodge with his group...click here.

He talks through the whole trip from travel through Buenos Aires and on to Cordoba and all the highs and lows of the trip.

If you want the full details on the big dove extravaganza, this is where you get the details and see all the photos.

For further information please contact Tarquin Millington-Drake on 0845 299 6212 Ext 1 or at tmd@frontierstrvl.co.uk

Alphonse Fishing News 30 March – 7 April 2013

The big GT’s are around and they are hungry as the team found out last week! Journ Heiner and Maria Mazura joined us for their 4th week this season and were duly rewarded with 2 monster fish. Journ landed a magnificent female GT of over 80lbs, after an hours fight, which dragged them further than a km off shore. Maria while fishing with guide Wayne Hasleau spotted an almighty shape slowly sliding down the flat with a school of milks. “I jumped out of the skiff and turned the skiff to an angle that would enable Maria to make a good cast. The cast went out perfectly to entice the fish, which rushed the fly, exploded out the water right next to the skiff and engulf the tan brush fly. As the fly was set the fish headed off on a 300 meter run, with us chasing behind. We almost got spooled by the almighty first run and no amount of drag could slow its pace. We followed the fish while dodging coral heads and gaining line slowly.  Maria is no stranger to big GT’s as she already held the record for the biggest GT caught by a lady angler on Alphonse. True to form and in an amazing 20 minute fight she had the 118 cm, 80lbs trophy fish beat” enthused guide Wayne Hasleau.

Joern had some unsettled business from his last trip in November and successfully landed a large sailfish after a spectacular flight. The permit where also around in good numbers as anglers had plenty of shots. Permit being permit they didn’t eat last week so lets hope they get hungry soon. The bonefish tides were superb all week and the big tailing fish were ravenous on occasions. The population is as strong is its has ever been with numerous seasoned “Alphonsians” insisting that the fish are getting bigger and more plentiful. In the past few weeks some anglers talk about having landed 50 plus bonefish in a few hours, which is incredible for any part of the world.

For further information please contact Tarquin Millington-Drake on 0845 299 6212 Ext 1 or at tmd@frontierstrvl.co.uk

The week of March 30-April 6, 2013

Weather Conditions:
Air Temp: High 70s to mid-80s

Water Temp: 78-80
Wind:  5-10 mph from the ESE becoming 5-15 from NNW on Tues. and Wed.; winds of 5-15 mph shifted back to ESE on Thurs. and Fri.

Tides:  A high tide at 1:12 p.m. on April 1 kept high tides in the afternoon throughout the week

 Moon Phase:   New Moon starts April 10

Warm temperatures, bright sunlight and light-to-moderate winds dominated the first half of the week, while a slight cold front entered the picture on Tues. morning, bringing haze, clouds, and breezy conditions for Wed. through Thurs. morning.  Thirteen anglers plied our flats with the majority fishing the entire week.  Four anglers were with us for partial week stays.

Return guest Bill V., SC, gave requested guide Dubs a bit of déjà vu when he arrived.  Bill was a guest with us just three weeks ago before deciding to return for another permit chase.  Bill was here with just one goal: permit.  His focus was tested at times, but he stayed committed, connecting with 10 of them during the week!  Although he struggled to keep them tight all the way to the boat, Bill did land his 1^st permit on Fri. afternoon.  The fish put up quite a tussle, peeling off many yards of backing and trying to enter the mangroves before being led to open water and back to the skiff.

Caspar and Marc B., our return guests from Germany, finished their Wed. to Wed. stay at the pace they started.  They hooked permit 5 of their 6 days with us.  Marc landed his first permit during their stay.  Between the hot permit action they also caught bonefish, blue runners, jacks, and barracuda while fishing with veteran guide Pops. 

Return guest Peter C. from Calif. requested Tflats senior guide Capt. to fish with him on this visit.  Mixing the pursuit of permit and bonefish daily, Pete succeeded in landing both species during his stay.  His wife Stacy joined him and enjoyed the Atoll Adventure program.

Upon leaving, they were already looking forward to their next visit.

Joe and John L. from Colo., fished with guide Willie during their full week stay.  Combining spinning and flyrods, the father/son combo had a mixed bag of targeted species.  Bonefish, barracuda, and snapper as well as a few other critters all found their way into the path of these two fishermen.

Todd R., Ned S., Eric V., and Don C. from Texas arrived at Turneffe Flats for a quick stay of two nights and two fishing days.  This group rotated boats and fished with guides Daniel, John, and Michael.  Don and Eric had minimal saltwater fishing experience, but they both landed multiple bonefish over the course of their stay.  One thing they agreed on: They wished they were able to stay longer. 

Darby B. had his self-proclaimed “Best day of saltwater fishing ever!” on Wed.  A return guest from Texas, Darby landed a large permit in the morning and had a fantastic afternoon of bonefishing under the watchful eye of guide Dion.  Way to go, Darby!   He landed two permit during the course of the week and had consistent bonefishing throughout.  His friend and also return guest Sherry R., joined him and was part of our diving program.  Incidentally, the two met as guests at Turneffe Flats a few years back.

If these stories don’t get you prepped to come fish with us, you need to check your pulse. 

For further information please contact Tarquin Millington-Drake on 0845 299 6212 Ext 1 or at tmd@frontierstrvl.co.uk

Villa Maria Lodge – Fishing Report

Fishing Report (March  23rd to 28 th, 2013) – By Gastón Guglielminetti

Unfortunately we got to our fishing number thirteen weeks very close to the end of a great fishing season in Rio Grande. This past week we received four fishermen from around the world, they traveled from Japan, New Zealand, Germany and USA for challenging fishing for sea trout.

We started the week with good weather conditions typical of southern Patagonia for this time of year, moderate winds, cloudy and cold. The forecast for Estancia Jose Menendez anticipated 20 mm of rain, but in the Andes was precipitating further. Fishing during the first four days of last week was excellent, we could say that catches beating numbers, comparing same week last summer.

But then in the middle of the week we had heavy rain showers for during a day and night throughout the Andes and the resulting watershed brought about a very sudden rise of particularly muddy water. Villa María Lodge is being affected by the dirty water coming from not only the Menendez River, the main Rio Grande’s tributary, but also the Rama River, Erminita, Ona River, four of them which have their origins in the Andes.  All this resulted in a rise of over twelve inches!!!

Consequently, after studying both the level and muddy, brown color of the river, we were forced to change fishing tactics, big fly, seek shallow water and not very fast and take advantage of sunshine have more chances to catch, we knew that with good numbers of trout in our waters and especially fresh, unfortunately did not have success.                         

All fish landed a total of 45 sea trout and ten were lost in the first four days of fishing, that's why I'm safe to say that was a fantastic week!

The good news, however, is that with high water we should get fresh fish from the sea in no time.

The last one big run of the sea trout of the seasson coming soon , we are looking forward.

Tight Lines  !!

Gastón Guglielminetti, Fishing Manager –Villa María Lodge

For further information please contact Tarquin Millington-Drake on 0845 299 6212 Ext 1 or at tmd@frontierstrvl.co.uk

Kau Tapen lodge’s Fishing report :

13^th Week: from 23rd to 30^th of March:

We had a good week at Kau Tapen Lodge for our 13^th week despite the rising and coloured water we had most of the week. The rain we had made the river rise quite well and a good number of fish have been travelling upstream to reach their prime spawning ground. The river is packing up with fish while the season is coming to an end and we had a good amount of surprise this last week with some great fish!

We had for our 13^th week a group of people from Argentina, Austria and France.

It was a nice group of people all of them new to Kau Tapen lodge despite Peter who have been here with us the same week last year. The atmosphere at the lodge was great and it enjoyable to be at the bar with such a great group of anglers having fished all over the world.

We started the week with cold but clear water and the fish were on the mood and took our flies pretty well. The water temperature has been from 5 to 8°C, which is quite cold for sea trout but if you present the fly deep and slow, they’ll take it! Right from the beginning the French team got some very nice fish as a 20, 18, 18, 14, 16 and other fish over 10 pounds for their first couples of days. Our guests Roberto and Francisco decided to switch and exchange their single handed rod to Spey rod as recommended! We taught them how to cast flies with a Spey rods and the loved it so much that they bought their first double handed rods!

The 20 pounder fish, biggest fish of the week has been caught by Georges from France on the lower beats using a dead drifted chartreuse leech on a very heavy sink tips as the water was around 6-7°C. We have been using leech all week as for cold and clear water nothing works better than a chartreuse leech and then also later in the week when the water got coloured and high. On Tuesday afternoon the river started to rise due to heavy rain in the Andes Mountain and the water came up very quick. We had to fish very deep, big and slow to be able to catch some fish and the first day was quite tough. But as soon as the water cleared up and the visibility was up to 30 cm, we started to be more successful.

We used 2 leeches tied together or several tubes flies together to have some volume and weight. When the water is very coloured of very cold or both at the same time, there no other option to attract the sea run coming closer to shore in those condition than using the heaviest sink tip or line and the biggest fly you can cast to be able to interest a sea trout. We used 15 foot of T14 sink tips to put the flies down and we had to walk downstream to be able to have the fly to be close to the bottom, the only way to catch fish in such high, fast and murky water and it worked well!

We had the full moon and high tides in the same time combine with rising water, which brought a good amount of fish to our beat and despite the very coloured water, clearing up quickly though we have been quite successful and rewarded by some good catches! A good number of fish from 10 to 20 pounds have been landed this week for the pleasure of our new guests discovering the magic of the Rio Grande. Off course it was not necessarily the condition you could have expected but once again, even in tough condition, with cold and coloured water, the Rio Grande provides great fishing! All of our guests when back home with some good fish and also the experience of being in such a nice lodge where the quality of service and staff is also a reason why our guests keep coming back to Kau Tapen Lodge!

We are now starting April month and ending the season soon, but also trying to catch some of the biggest sea trout of the world as they are now everywhere in great number. End of March and April are cold months and tougher condition for a fisherman but also a good time to catch some big large trout. The world record sea trout is probably swimming somewhere in our pools and guides and guest will have few mores days to try and dream about it!

Looking forward to seeing you,

Happy Easter!!

Best regards,

By Jean Baptiste Vidal

Fishing Manager, Kau Tapen Lodge

For further information please contact Tarquin Millington-Drake on 0845 299 6212 Ext 1 or at tmd@frontierstrvl.co.uk

As you can see, space is getting tricky already for autumn season on Alphonse and we are taking bookings for January, February and March almost daily. Here is a list of where there is still space...

Autumn Season (space available)

12th - 19th October
19th - 26th October
2nd to 9th November - 1 rod only
7th - 14th December - 1 rod only
14th - 21st December
21st to 28th December
28th December - 4th January

Spring Season (there is currently space in all weeks EXCEPT the following)

1st - 8th Feb
8th - 15th Feb - one rod only
1st - 8th March
8th - 15th March - one rod only
15th - 22nd March
29th March - 5th April
12th - 19th April

Price is $7,650 per rod single occupancy. Frontiers continue their VIP meet and greet and free day room offer.

to book your space now and for further information please contact Tarquin Millington-Drake on 0845 299 6212 Ext 1 or at tmd@frontierstrvl.co.uk

Alphonse Island Fishing News 23 - 30 March 2013

Alphonse’s magnificent fly fishing both on the flats and offshore speaks for itself. It’s the magical ambiance and unforgettable experiences, which the Alphonse team creates to attract both new and old fishing friends to repeat their annual migration and join us each year.

Amazing memories like when David Grahams went out on his birthday and caught two Permit in one day. Jan Hradecka arrived for his 5th weeks fishing on Alphonse this season and had an experience that he is sure to not forget. Serge was photographing Jans second GT of the day and unbeknown to them they had left his black brush fly dangling over the edge of the skiff.  Before they had time to realise they had made a fatal mistake a big Bohar Snapper come up, ate the fly, pull the rod off the skiff and then disappeared into the depths. The amazing part of the story is that the following day Serge dove the outfit out. 

Jans luck continued as he went on to add another Dogtooth tuna and 25lbs milkfish to his already growing tally. The species count continues to impress as anglers had shots at triggers, milks, barracuda and a variety of trevally. The GT’s were around during the week and Peter Robinson and Steve Priestly each got a nice fish while on the  “lollypop wreck surf walk”. John Mc Millan ended his week on an incredible note by landing two big fish on the last day.

The constant exceptional bonefishing on Alphonse is what makes the hotel so special. Mike and Jenny McGrath took a day on Alphonse to enjoy what they describe as a “really amazing experience”.  They fished to big hungry tailing bonefish as the tide fell in the morning and later in the day snorkelled a well known spot called the Coral Garden, which is known for its variety of beautiful coral, fish, stingrays and turtles.

For further information please contact Tarquin Millington-Drake on 0845 299 6212 Ext 1 or at tmd@frontierstrvl.co.uk

Desroches Flats News - Permit Frenzy!

The catch reports from the last 2 weeks of March speak for themselves and echo the sentiment that the Amirante permit fishery is the best there is in the Seychelles. The results have been exceptional and in the 6 days when our guests took a break from the luxury of Desroches to venture out, there were 5 Permit landed on fly. Andrew Lewis fished exceptionally well and landed 2 permit in the 2 days he fished, Helmut Ulrich landed the biggest of the season and Ilya Scherbovich followed with his first permit on fly.

The Bonefishing has been really good with both large schools of fish in the deeper water as well as tailing singles and doubles when the tide is out. The flats have also been alive with other species like Bluefin trevally and Yellowspot trevally, which adds to the excitement of big fish on small rods. James Coates had his first bonefishing experience and on the same day landed an exceptional Bluefin trevally on a small Spawning Shrimp, 15 lbs leader and a 9 weight fly rod. Bjorn Viedge also had a remarkable day on the flats of St Joseph’s by landing his first bonefish and a bunch more in skinny water, before adding some variety with a Yellowspotted trevally.

As we head into April and towards the South Easterly season the fishing will continue to impress as the waters cool slightly and the weather stabilises. Tight lines from the Desroches Team.