May is the month we have to expect the Southeast to set in and it did. Not as suddenly and harsh as last year but rather picking up in steps and swings. The first week of the month still saw some trolling charters in quite pleasant wind conditions even for the late Easter tourists and occasional anglers. Catches were very much allright for most of them with the usual smaller gamefish like Wahoos and Dorados often enriched by Sailfish like this one caught on Lady C.

The second week brought the very last hardcore popping group coming in to fish on exactly that boat with Mervin. Tomas who came last November with other friends for their first Seychelles fishing experience and to gather footage for their movie obviously liked it all a lot so he returned with another Tomas and Mirek to fish for a week. Before coming to that: the movie is up on YouTube now. Has turned out really cool and the English captions that can be switched on are also great. Not just fishing but also a lot of additional info. For a next time I requested a make-up artist though. Watch here, despite my visage it`s definitely worth it. While the weather was perfectly calm for their filming stint this wasn`t the case this time. Day one on the 8th was spent popping for GTs but only two raised without a catch meaning there is nothing to show. The next day we headed to the Drop Off in rather a lot of wind, swell and along the second half of the day heavy rains. Fishing was tough and the jigging bite not too great but at least a few Tuna and a Dorado came on poppers.

That Sailfish on the new Tomas´ jig would have been a welcome addition to the catches but when it leaped and we all yelled at him to crank like crazy he just gaped in awe. Happens to about everyone first time and next time he will know better. The poor chap also didn`t like the conditions too much so with the following day cancelled due to too bad weather he still opted out on the next trip on the 11th. Jiggig was a little better much to the pleasure of the Sharks but the Tuna againturned up at the surface so it was loads more fun in better weather. 

The next day saw their last trip for this visit and it was pretty much the same story. Just that this time there was a much bigger one among the Tuna which rounded things off nicely for the group which I am sure we will see back here rather sooner than later. 

Meantime a full grown cyclone had built up not only very late in the season but on top right on the equator. Luckily a good 1000NM east of us just south of India but how the heck could that happen right in the middle of the cyclone safe belt? 

Such should be impossible and we were lucky it did not happen here. In those days I received two non-fishing friends from Germany and with my girlfriend here also making it three ladies in the house there was next to no time for me to fish. I just sneaked away for a few hours to get some kitchen fish for the always hungry bunch and was pleased to find a bigger one in the mix.

The two days later I dropped them at Cousin Island Nature Reserve and instead of sitting on anchor for those two hours rather gave it a try popping. The time was short and the tide on top rather useless but that Bluefin Trevally must have been unaware. I didn`t mind.

Else I kept antennas up for how other boats on the very occasional trips were doing but there weren´t too many. Interesting though: I happened to bump into Henry from Fins Tackle on Mahe who was here for a day and stated that the Marlin fishing out of that main island along the southern Drop Off had been exceptional. We had wondered all along the season to see and hear so little of these fish but it seems they were just late this year but then came big time. You might remember the closing lines of the last report on the crazy numbers raised and caught by the boat Alati. Now Henry told me he was out there one day on a boat without even outriggers and just three rod holders but they still raised 10 and 4 Sails on top. He also mentioned that other Mahe boats had similar experiences when finding the activity that moved back and forth along the edge. Here on Praslin we got next to nothing of that except for Sandro who got one but it was a Black. He also had some more Sailfish which also other boats managed. This one was caught by German angler Manuel.

Beyond all that it was only some inshore fishing done by Andre and Greg on Amberjack which produced the usual spinning catches but on top two exceptional events the same day. First they hooked a Milkfish on a 120mm popper clean in the mouth. Sadly it came away close to the boat. The guest had mentioned to have seen a sort of misbuilt Bluefin Trevally snorkeling nearby the previous day and see what they caught only moments later. Must have been that same fish he saw as I can not imagine it had a twin.

Such inshore spinning in the protection of the island will probably be my only option to fish from the boat for the coming months. The Southeast with it`s swell and the subsequent fast drift of the boat make it risky as such. But my shoulder, still buggered and not allowing me to perfom a single freestyle swim stroke, limits me to really calm areas as in case I fall out of the boat I will never catch it on breast stroke. According to the forecast the very last chance for the time being to poke my nose a little further out is today so off I am now. In case anything noteworthy should happen you will find out in the next edition.

For the preceeding reports check the archive.