Alphonse Island:
Bonefish: 797
Giant trevally: 14
Moustache triggerfish: 10
Yellowmargin triggerfish: 4
Milkfish: 7
Permit: 5
Sailfish: 13
Week 13 and 14 of the Alphonse fishing season saw the teams bringing in some sizable and notable catches, while ringing in the festive season in style!
Milky Way produced some excellent triggerfishing with Tommy feeding a massive 53 cm tailing yellowmargin, showing off his previous guiding skills when diving in and dislodging it from a hole. The GT’s were around in great numbers and proved that the finger flats were the place to be, where fish succumbed to the fly in true Alphonse fashion, most of which were in the 70 – 97 cm mark.
With the weather being mostly post-card-perfect, we had the ultimate setting for the atoll to prove its diversity, with light and calmness in our favour. The bonefishing, which is described as a continuous river of flowing fish, proved just that and the teams landed an exceptional 575 bonefish! Permit were the order of the day for 5 skilful guests, with the golden-glisten going to Petrus Gouws who managed to bag two of these beauties.
On the outside of the lagoon, milkfish madness pursued, and 5 beasts were brought to the boat, the biggest landed by Christian with a 40 lbs fish. Bills and Bones was another favourite for these teams and a whopping 12 sailies were landed and safely released.
Week 15 brought favourable conditions and tides which transitioned from neaps to springs. The GTs were a little scarcer on this week although the fish that were tamed were all bigger than 77 cm and were seen cruising with guitar sharks and rays.
Again, the triggerfish played fair and one notable achievement goes to Lea, a third-time-returner to Alphonse who landed her first moustache. Hologram was the place to be this week for bonefish with the biggest measuring in at 67 cm! It’s not often that we have guests that come to Alphonse to target milkfish only, but the buddy-team of Noah and Scott came and conquered, each landing the fish of their dreams.
Astove Atoll:
Bristling with anticipation and keen to build on the success of the previous week a full house of six rods came to Astove for the fourth week of the season. With the neap tides moving into springs fresh opportunities came to fish all areas of the lagoon and to spend plenty of time walking in the surf.
While the GT fishing on the flats proved to be tough, this week all of the guests made the most of the other prospects on offer. Paul and Miles spent much of the first day bending into bones in the skinny water of the lagoon and raked up over one hundred fish.
GT champion of the week was Leo who tamed two fish from Paulies while casting from the shallow coral shelf into the deep blue of Astoves’ wall. Mike brought Mikey along to Astove to experience his first fly fishing trip, three times Mikey bent into big GT’s of over a metre and twice these big fish came within touching distance, only to break free in the dying stages of the fight, leaving Mikey a newly spawned fly fishing enthusiast already with much unfinished business in the salt.
Miles and Paul took the chance to head to North Point to get their GT fix and in quick succession brought three GT’s to the boat, 80 cm being the biggest.
The sunny weather broke on the final day and as the forecast threatened the heavens opened, but this didn’t stop Paul from landing a good-sized moustache trigger and Miles from hooking two.
A fun week had by all and we look forward to welcoming them back to Astove!
Cosmoledo Atoll:
The new moon spring tides were in full flow for the week. The first few days of the week were wet and windy but as the week wore on the weather made a turn for the better, bringing sunshine and happiness.
Bill got his week off to the perfect start. His first GT ever just so happened to be the first metre plus GT on the flats for the season which put his tackle to the test! Kyle Guilford wasn’t too far behind him, landing a perfect 101 cm fish. Kyle continued his great week by landing his first milkfish as well as a indo-pacific permit. Hakan, a long-time-returner for the Alphonse Fishing Co crew, made hay while the sun was shining and boated two milkfish on the same day. After a few trips to the Seychelles Ryan finally managed to get the trigger-monkey off his back by landing his first moustache triggerfish. Josh Bowser and Eugenio followed suite with Eugenio landing a monster 51cm yellowmargin triggerfish.
This was followed by the week before Christmas and man oh man did Santa deliver for our Russian friends Nikita and Dimitri, Maxim Rubin, Vladimir and Nikita, Rodion and Sergey. It was full moon spring tides with absolutely flat calm weather for the week and the team took full advantage of the great conditions.
Nikita must have been extra good this year because Santa really came to the party for him this week! On day one he managed to land not one but two indo-pacific permit within 10 minutes of each other. He followed that up with another 70 cm indo-pacific permit the next day. He then went on to land his first milkfish and then went on to slam, catching a bonefish, a handful of GT’s and three moustache triggerfish. An absolutely incredible week of fishing for one angler.
Sergey followed suit and not only did he land a monster moustache triggerfish and a 100 cm GT but he also landed a beast of a napoleon wrasse that measured 105 cm and on the last day of the week he managed to subdue a 110 cm GT cruising a grassy flat, a fish that will live in his and the guide team’s memory for a long time to come!
Vladimir had an encounter never to be forgotten. Standing on one of the infamous Storm Ridges of Cosmo he made a cast at an absolute behemoth of a fish. The fish engulfed his Garlic Butter fly and tore off through the surf at a rate of knots, heading for the horizon. With only a few turns of backing left on the reel all hope was lost but somehow Vladimir managed to stop the run. The fish turned and made its way back onto the flats. 15 painful minutes later and the fish was tailed. It measured 123 cm. An absolute dinosaur and even more remarkable was that it was landed in some seriously gnarly surf.
A week of giants in the Land of Giants as we come to a close for the first half of the season on Cosmo. It seems the atoll is just reminding us of what is still to come for the rest of the season as we all take a well-deserved break for Christmas and New Year!
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