Apart from a few short spells of heavy but much needed rains, at times along with briefly high rising winds and occasional thunderstorms, this March offered decent to nice weather conditions. Subsequently a lot of fishing was done that would have made for a nice, long edition. Still, due to an unexpected, much too early and very sad passing within my most inner circle of fishing and beyond friends, who have become as close to family here as it can get, I feel not in the state or mood for a lively report. Thus, hoping for your understanding, I will refrain from much text, and just present the catch pics of the active boats. Before that a short reminiscense to the February edition though: you will have seen this pic of that shore GT from Praslin, but with the angler`s blanked face. Turned out a day after the upload that the angler was `Billy´who had inquired with me on shore fishing prior to his trip. I was especially glad that not only my input looks to have been valuable, but also that the GT was released and swam away. Billy made some more decent catches, see here:

Also those days a couple of anglers from Israel fished from La Digue shores. That big Bluefin Trevally is also a very special shore catch, and some more good ones came on top.

As usually the recipe for success was the abundance of baitballs within casting reach. On the boat fishing side of things Greg was active on his boat TopWater and successful along his mixed inshore fishings.

Mervin also was on the water a lot but went a bit unlucky especially on the Drop Off jigging side of things. Somehow he was out there at every single of those bad weather days in about unfishable conditions, and else his anglers got reefed by all the really large Doggies he found for them. But that Bonefish on speedjig out of 60m depth was a special catch even for him who has seen and done it all.

Last but not least Brandon skippering Fayth had a lot of jigging trips to the Drop Off with really great results. The Sailfish was caught on jig, and a few times he found some early Yellowfin to cast at. Excellent job by him.

Only so much for this month, as my tribute to a lady that is not only a sadly missed friend, but above all was the pillar, soul and sunshine of her family. Rest in peace T.

In my now one and a half decades here I can not remember such a pleasant February as far as the weather is concerned: (rather too) little rain, but in the first line wind mostly in the 10-12kn range and rather rarely so much higher that it hampered fishing or even made it impossible. One of these brief exceptions came right along the first couple of days. But by the 3rd it was okay so Jan from Germany started his quest for a Seychelles GT with Greg & Andre. Sadly along 4 half days until the 14th he had no luck with these raising only very few and missing a big one. Not due to any lack of effort or fishing skill as I witnessed on two of the trips. Very strange that the Geets were so inactive over such a long spell, or it was just a ton of bad luck. Still he caught a number of presentable other fish, and while wondering what might have been wrong with the target fish we hope he was not too disappointed. You wont`t be able to tell from his face as he asked to remain unrecognizable which of course we respect.

Meanwhile Mervin trolled the Drop for Marlin on the 6th and reported 3 of those that all threw the lure plus 5 Wahoos caught. Next day it was 2 raises but no hookup. And on the 9th trolling again, but just a half day around the islands and with another guest, fortune turned with a Marlin plus 2 Sails released. Add the 5 Dorados and 6 Wahoos for an action loaded morning.

This day was obviously highly productive as the boat Delfino also did very well with a Yellowfin Tuna in the 20kg range, Dorados and Wahoos plus a Sailfish.

On the 11th it was day one of Drop Off fishings for returner Markus, his brother Roland and their buddy Michael from Austria, so with Mervin we went. Jigging bite was good right upon arrival but slowed gradually towards the late morning low tide. Casting and trolling a bit until the water rose again produced nothing at all but with the tide the jigging bite came back nicely. Just one very small Doggie, but some quality fish beyond and a good variety. Fun start in perfect weather with the really relaxed and cool group.

Two days later they went again to find the jigging somewhat slower but not bad. A very good Amberjack was in the mix as well as a Wahoo, but the fish of the day was surely that Thresher Shark which they fought in turn til they had it up. While I don`t like Sharks on the end of a fishing line much, I regretted not to have been there to see this beautiful one.

Having had an obligation onshore that day it was just a bit of fly fishing in the morning for me, and thus much smaller fish to deal with. That Permit though was actually not as miniscule as it looks on the pic at close to a foot length. Caught a couple more of those and had a shot at a clearly better tailing fish but spooked it. Was quite relieved to see it was a Golden Trevally which I would not have minded catching, but not the big Permit I am craving for.

Also that day and the following one Brandon had been jigging the Drop. Like along the previous days the bite slowed drastically from 10am onwards, but nevertheless they caught some decent fish.

On the 15th I went again with Mervin and the Markus group in a rather rough sea and finding over 2 knots of current at the Drop Off didn`t help the case. Once more the anyways rather slow bite died around 10am for hours and the Sharks taxed them heavily. Bit of trolling around low tide produced a Wahoo, and then we were entered and thoroughly searched by the Coast Guard. Quite a show as they were standing masked and fully armed on their big patrol vessel and then sent 4 on board by a dinghi while the surveillance plane circled us. But it turned out that Mervin and crew knew most of them from childhood days so all was rather relaxed eventually. After that with the rising tide the jigging bite returned for a short while until we had to leave and Mervin shone with two decent Amberjacks on a small PE4 outfit. 

Their last trip on the 17th was extremely tough. Some 17kn of wind from north and a strong current heading NE at the Drop Off made controlled jigging nearly impossible for them. Bite was not too good on top, and the lousy Sharks took about every reasonable fish. Mervin got a nice Dorado on popper and by 11am we trolled back getting one more. We jigged for the last 3hrs off the Sisters and only shortly after getting there we saw Sandro and Brandon also already speeding home. Our jigging inside at least produced some nice fish. Even as after their good first day fishing quality gradually went downhill trip by trip, the all relaxed and pleasant chaps were very happy with their week. Which is the most important thing. 

Later I spoke to Brandon about those nasty conditions and was surprised to learn that they only went home early as the guests were tired from their travel. Until then they had enjoyed jigging to some degree and despite the current: no Shark trouble at all and subsequently some decent fish caught. Well done! 

Brandon also mentioned their other boat Unreel had good trolling with a Sailfish among the usual smaller gamefish. Similar result for Bertrand meantime btw. So it looks we were a little cursed that day. On the afternoon of the 20th the wind dropped to nothing until the next morning and then picked up from the east. That change did the fishing no harm though as Brandon proved with some more jigging catches.

Also the trolling boats continued to do well with mixed bags of the odd Tuna, plenty Dorados and especially Wahoos like this massive one by Greg & Andre.

And some Saifish are of course around as always, this one they also caught and of course released.

Most unusual for this time of the year that the wind even came from southeast for good parts of these two days. Sunday then saw the first of 3 scheduled trips for Austrian returner Christian and his girlfriend Luzia with Mervin: half day GT popping as a warm-up. Things looked sort of dim after 2 proper GTs dropped the  poppers seconds into the fight, a couple more misses and 2 Sharks released. Then came a baby GT and at long last nearly at noon already the mission was accomplished properly. Well fished and a new GT pb with this good size specimen.

The day before I received the following pic from a regular guest and friend who got it from another chap, whose buddy caught that GT from shore here on Praslin. I know the spot (which I regularly recommend to shore anglers btw) so can confirm it was really here. This is the very first big GT from shore on Praslin that I got aware of in my 15 years on the island. Of course there have been plenty anglers informing me that they caught a `pretty big GT´ but the pictures always revealed the common but of course still decent Brassy Trevallies in the 5-10kg range. This one is a proper GT though without doubt. Congrats to the angler, and as I don`t know him and neither got the pic with his permission to show him, I covered his face. But I thought you should see that foto as the catch is so special.

On the 25th then I joined Christian and Luzia for their second trip, so with Mervin we went to the Drop Off in prefect weather conditions. First drop of jigs, first fish instantly, it all looked set for a great day. But then things went the wrong way step by step: any bigger fish but those you see below was taken by Sharks, the bite slowed and completely died towards low tide again, but this time with the later again rising tide it did not come back. Despite 3 anglers jigging hard I think it was half a dozen fish caught between 10am and 3pm. Some days even here the best weather, boat, skipper and gear and the spots visibly full of fish on the sonar don`t guarantee a great day. Nothing doing.

But how quickly things change: Yesterday Brandon had great jigging at the Drop with a steady bite and loads of fish of which these are just a small selection. They lost a +50kg Doggie close to the boat on top. Most stunning though that they had literally no Shark troubles with just a single of many Amberjacks taxed. 

So far we thus really can not complain here even as the fishing had some ups and downs. But charters were plenty and the weather was really decent for a February. Remains to be seen what the next month brings but at this moment it all feels good.

For the preceeding reports check the archive.