...some giants landed and lost

Cosmoledo Atoll Fishing Report  - 21st November - 28th November 2019

Week three welcomed the return of the three Irish brothers back to Seychelles,  Mark, Greg and Niall, seasoned angler Bill, David, Greg, Dan, Nick, Allen and Peter.
 
The weather played its part for most of the week with a few passing squalls from time to time, however that didn’t dampen spirits as fish were caught throughout the week. A grand total of 92 GT’s were landed this week on Cosmoledo, two of them well exceeding the one-metre mark, along with a moustache triggerfish and some bonefish were thrown into the mix.
 
Sadly there were some large fish lost during the beginning of the week, however, the last few days produced two fish over 100 cm. Dan landed his biggest GT, a very impressive 114 cm GT smashing the popper. Peter topped that with his personal biggest, a monster 118 cm GT in the surf, truly a fish of a lifetime. Allen had a stellar week by landing several decent GT’s as well as the only moustache triggerfish of the week, on the last day.

In all, it was a great week with some exceptional Irish and Scottish whiskey enjoyed by all in the evenings over the recent war stories of fish landed and fish lost, with the latter always seeming to be bigger than the fish caught...

Tight lines,

Alphonse Fishing Co. Guides on Cosmoledo Atoll

Farquhar Atoll Fishing Report - 27th November - 4th December 2019

An interesting week of fishing on Farquhar has come to an end. The weather was definitely a challenge this week with a huge weather system inbound to the Seychelles and conditions changing by the minute meant that the weather was not on our side. High wind speeds and lots of clouds, seeing fish and casting to them was not easy, but we made the best of good conditions when we had them. Tides started off in new moon springs and transitioned into neap tides at week's end. Despite the difficult conditions, our guests and guides made it happen, landing 30 GT’s for the week.
 
Guests Charlie and Graham lead the way with 11 and 12 fish. Charlie landed two fish over a metre with a 104 cm and 106 cm. Ken, Toshi, Gerhard, Angelika, Larry, Heinz, Patrick all landed GT’s. In total 38 bonefish were caught with Graham's personal best measuring 67 cm topping the list. Larry also caught a personal best bonefish which measured 63 cm. Elaine landed her first triggerfish and Patrick landed a trophy 55 cm triggerfish. Two bumpies were caught this week with one being caught by Elaine, which was her first bumpy and one by Gerhard, also his first. Both bumpies were 90 cm plus.
 
Our weather being so unpredictable there was no bluewater fishing this week, but some good species angling was had by all anglers. A very impressive 80 cm bohar snapper was caught by Charlie.
 
Thanks to all our guides and guest for an excellent week! With many personal bests, firsts, losses and triumphs had during this week it was truly a pleasure and memorable for all involved!

Tight lines,

Alphonse Fishing Co. Guides on Farquhar Atoll

Alphonse Island Fishing Report - 23rd November - 30th November 2019

It has been an extremely wet week on St Francois Atoll. The week started with a spring tide and 12 enthusiastic anglers most of whom are Alphonse Island veterans having fished the Atoll since the very beginning many years ago. Although the anglers had to deal with strong winds and a lot of rain they managed to keep their rods bent, drag systems screaming and their spirits high.

The anglers managed to land a grand total of 298 bonefish for the week. Dr. Anthony (Tony) who is known as a legendary St Francois fly fisherman managed to land the biggest bonefish of the week measuring in at 65 cm making it the largest bonefish landed so far this season.

Day five was an excellent day on the water for all anglers, many bonefish were landed as well as an awesome 87 cm GT landed by Mike. Day six worked out perfectly for Peter who landed an impressive 83 cm GT on the last day with only a few minutes left to spare on the water.

A few anglers were brave enough to test their skills bluewater fishing. The week turned out to be very productive for sailfish and wahoo on the fly. Peter landed a massive sailfish, Russel managed to land two wahoo and one sailfish and the bluewater champion of the week was Kevin who managed to land three sailfish and one wahoo.

Another fantastic week was spent at Alphonse Island fishing St Francois Atoll. Memories were made and bonds were formed that will last a lifetime. Stay tuned for next week’s report as we are sure you won’t want to miss it.

Tight lines,

Alphonse Fishing Co. Guides on Alphonse Island

Astove Atoll Fishing Report - 25th November - 2nd December 2019

Week three approached with the first full camp for the season, for the guests it was nothing new as they were all repeat guests. They knew what to expect and on the first day wasted little time at the lodge, eating some lunch, finishing tackle set up and hitting the water. After the first day's practice session the guys were ready for the first guided day to start.

The spring tides this week meant lots of water and lots of walking, the group spread out on the outer areas of the Atoll, seeing good numbers of GT’s and triggers. Tom and Mark came out on top for the day, with Tom landing a 70 cm GT and Mark a 45 cm giant triggerfish. As the rest of the week progressed the weather got a bit tricky with a cyclone hanging off Madagascar, sending us some heavy rain and windy conditions. This didn’t stop the group and as they all got involved the fish numbers went up. Gabriel fishing the Seychelles for the first time dominated his species count. By the end of the week Gabriel had eight different species of fish with an impressive 60 cm bonefish and a 75 cm GT.

Tom continued to dominate the week catching two more GT’s and a very nice giant triggerfish. John, not wanting to be outdone by his son, stuck to his guns and pushed hard to catch the GT of his dreams. John had a lot of bad luck losing six GT’s before finally on the last day catching the fish of the week an impressive 108 cm GT.

Tight Lines,

The Alphonse Fishing Co. Team on Astove Atoll

Amirante Charters Fishing Report - Week One: 2nd November - 7th November 2019, Week Two: 9th November - 17th November 2019

Week One:
Our first A'mani outer island adventure was with our father and son team, Jeff and Ryan. Jeff and Ryan were our first group of guests to return to our Amirante Islands so there was a feeling we were in for a treat. We set out to St Joes tackling up and making flies as we went. The first morning we encountered multiple groups of permit allowing the guys to slowly get the cobwebs out of their casts. Ryan started our week off with his first Indo-Pacific permit of 55 cm, a perfect specimen. There was a huge rivalry between father and son so now the competition was on. 

When the water ran away and permit were nowhere to be found a few of the very healthy St Joes bonefish came out to play. We had one last day on St Joes where, while Jeff was watching in the background, Ryan made a spectacular shot that got him the permit of the week which measured 69 cm. With Ryan firmly in the lead, we headed to Poivre Island. We arrived at the flats in anticipation of seeing many tailing permit and as the tide receded the tails started to emerge. Over the next two days Ryan caught another two beautiful golden nuggets, one of 68 cm and another one in the mangroves of 60 cm.

It was a great introduction to flats fishing before they headed to Cosmoledo.

Week Two:
Our next group of guests included Vladimir, Vadim, Gregory and Sergey. We started our trip with a double strike on black marlin. Vadim fought one of the marlin for around 45 minutes but unfortunately, the hook pulled at the boat. We arrived at St Joes, tackled up and were ready to go.  The overcast conditions made it difficult to locate the permit. Gregory started the team off with a 50 cm permit, which he was ecstatic about. It gave him hope for the days to come. The afternoon pushing tide pushed in a large bait ball and an estimated group of 20 GT’s was terrorizing them. Without much persuasion, Vladimir made a cast and was rewarded with a one-metre fish. Unfortunately, it was the smallest fish of the group that ate his fly. 

St Joes holds many schools of permit which sometimes congregate around coral heads and when you can find the school it is an awesome experience. Vadim and Sergey managed five permit off this school getting some lovely double-ups. So six permit up and we were headed to Poivre.

The tailing permit were driving the guys crazy having up to 30 shots in a day. Sadly we had bad luck with some really good fish that were coming unbuttoned and hooks opening. Until next time!

Tight Lines,

The Alphonse Fishing Co. Team on MV A'mani