The first half of the month wasn`t only as windy as one should expect, but also we saw very unusual amounts of rain for a September. As last year`s hot water temperatures don`t apply and thus can not serve as an explanation, we were scratching our heads. Enough time to do so as fishing was completely off at that time. Even for the small commercials, so fish to eat was rather tough to get and prices went through the ceiling. On the 14th conditions looked like it might just work for a day of GT popping so German angler Florian gave it a try with Mervin. He fishes a lot in Europe but has specialized on Perch and said his heaviest rod that he hardly uses has a casting weight of 40g. So PE10 with those heavy poppers was a bit of challenge to work especially in that rather rough water and rolling boat, but he got the hang of it quickly and a small GT came early.
While the conditions in terms of wind and also tide kept improving gradually the fishing did not. A couple of half hearted attacks and misses were all that happened for long hours and even the Sharks remained a no-show. But once more at the very end of the day the harbour spot delivered. First cast there produced a miss by a proper GT and the next cast a fish was on. Smaller than the one we saw moments before but bigger than the morning one, so providing a nice finale and deserved reward for Florian`s hard work.
Mervin had two more trips for GTs along the following days. One ended quickly as it was just too rough but the other provided a GT in conditions that were nothing less but a battle.
Else it was rather quiet here on the fishing side. The two somewhat calm days around the 20th were used for a couple of trolling trips that produced the usual mixed bags of pelagics. Sandro and guests meantime dared two trips to the Drop Off for jigging. Catches were fine with Amberjacks and the other usual suspects.
The much rougher of the two trips on top prodcued this decent Doggie on top.
Else I hear from Mahe where there are more tourists just by size of the island and thus a few more trips done, the fishing has been really good considering the conditions. Drifting with Mullet for bait produced Sailfish in good numbers and also the jigging around the island was productive with many good size Yellowpotted Trevallies and Bludgers around. These also look to keep the Black Marlin in the area. So with October and thus hopefully friendlier conditions around the corner we are rubbing our hands and sharpening the hooks here.
As inidcated in the last and somewhat depressing edition I was abroad for my annual trip to Germany and only returned last weekend. Had been observing the weather forecast for Seychelles which showed a typical Southeast Monsoon with winds mostly in the 15-25kn range but a few slighlty kinder spells that offered opportunites for the seasonally typical trolling trips, even out to the Drop Off. The Yellowfin Tuna are around in good numbers and reasonable sizes as you can see from the following pics provided by Brandon.
Fishing on Unreel he and his guests had a good and even spectacular time. Notably when the guest fainted after 2hrs of fight with a Marlin to lose it and the next one coming to check out the spread of lures only minutes later. But it wouldn`t take and no-one on board was really sad about that as the angler was already done. Marlin encounters to different ends were sevetal. Bertrand got one to the boat as did Sandro while another straightened his hook. But another day he also was outdone by a big specimen when he was out with an unexperienced friend just for fun. Sandro fought that fish on 80lb standup gear for 4 hours with the youngster on board rather useless. That big Black had come up for a first time after 1.5hrs and then once more 2hrs later but went deep again. With time running out Sandro increased the drag bit by bit in a do-or-die attempt to bring it up and it went badly. Sailfish were plentiful and at times very cooperative. Brandon`s catch of 8 in a half day will speak for itself.
Besides these trolling trips even a bit of GT popping was possible along that last weekend. Friday the 23rd Mervin had informed me about a trip with 3 caught and 5 lost out of 13 raises.
And it was not just one lucky day as Sunday on just a half day he came up with half a dozen more.
That was the day of my return and I had already seen the flat seas from the plane. Any hopes of going fishing were shattered though as since the following day it has been blowing at 20 knots or more. So as I managed to bring along and install the most important boat spare I am just waiting for an opportunity to at least jig a few kitchen fish. And generally speaking it all showed once more that the Southeast is one of the most productive times for fishing here – weather permitting.
For the preceeding reports check the archive.