Farquhar News: 3 - 10 April 2011

This week was one we'd looked forward to for quite some time. Besides still having Rob Ramsey, a good friend of the FlyCastaway team, stay over for another week, we had Dan Vermillion from Sweetwater Travel Company. Tourette Fly fishing's Keith Clover and Rob Scott also joined us. We worked with them over the Yellowfish challenge at Sterkfontein at the beginning of the year, and we couldn't wait to spend some more time on the water with such class fly fisherman.

Paul and Chez (AKA Kenny & Spenny) were back as well, after hearing us talk of flats fishing while on the Zambezi they finally decided it was time to give it a bash, which was great news. They're a helleva laugh. Paul (Spen) proved this by jumping into the shoal of pet GT's we have near the camp and received a couple scars on his elbow for his efforts. It seemed like a good idea at the time.



Having a bunch of great guys on an island together was going to lead to an interesting week and Ben got right into it when a Trigger to a generous chunk of his thumb with one bite while the fly was being pulled out. In Ben’s defence it was a rabid Triggerfish, hell bent on revenge. Then of course there was Paul's GT incident. We took a step back, evaluated the situation and decided on the following, the fish were getting cocky and some severe punishment was in order. Again Ben took it upon himself to execute swiftly, and landed a 114cm GT without so much as breaking a sweat. His guide however was experiencing cold sweats and nausia, possibly due to the copious amounts of chewing tobacco Ben had given him minutes before having to run and fetch the boat in order to chase the monster fish down.

The week ended with close to 30 GT's landed, the prime specimen being Rob Ramsey's 124cm behemoth. Keith and Rob Scott also got stuck into two massive fish offshore. Jako found a shoal of fusiliers just behind the breakers and both Keith and Rob sent out their entire fly lines over the shoal. Rob, keeping his eye on a magnificent, giant manta, heard Jako shout GT's! Simultaneously two massive GT's parted the shoal of baitfish and slammed both flies. Caught completely off-guard, Keith's fish headed straight for a submerged wreck and won the brief battle by parting the leader on the wreck itself. Rob's efforts to turn his fish also proved to be in vain. Before a word could be said, the fish ran over the reef edge, the sharp corral taking care of 150lb leader like it was cotton thread. Silence, slack jawed, shocked and ultimately hysterics followed.

After a quiet week on the Bumphead Parrotfish last week, we found some fisherman who'd decided to take the Bumpies seriously. It can be a frustrating fish to target, seemingly impossible with a 9wt and crab on 17lb fluorocarbon. Sure enough though, those who stuck to their guns, after losing many fish ultimately landed the famous Bumpy, and all of them will attest to their sheer power and speed.


All in all…. a helleva week and a great way to end off an epic first full season at Farquhar. We're looking forward to heading back with full confidence that we've worked most of the Atoll out. Next week is St Brandon's, so be ready for news of big Bones, lots of big Bones!