Providence Blog: 14-21 March 2023

The second week of our March-May 2023 season saw us welcome back the familiar faces that join Aardvark Mcleod on their annual hosted fly fishing trip to Providence. Excited to explore the fishery with our friends from the UK we set about preparing everyone’s gear for the 6 days of fly fishing that lay before us…

Our group landed a total of 10 GTs during the first day of fly fishing as well as loads of action on the tailing species, with 5 Triggers and 7 Bones landed. The standout catch went to Fred who managed to land a trophy Bonefish of 10lbs, well done Fred! Other highlights from the first day included a flats slam for Tom consisting of 2 GTs, a Triggerfish and 3 Bonefish. Peter M also tasted sweet success during his day out landing 2 Triggerfish and 2 GTs.

Day 2 saw our group enjoy jaw-dropping weather conditions with clear skies and a light sea breeze. The group made the most of the favourable conditions landing a total of 13 GTs, 8 Bonefish and a single Trigger for the day. The team of Peter, Fred, and Andrew all enjoyed the action on the flats with Peter converting 4 GTs and 4 Bonefish, Fred managed 4 Bones and a GT, while Andrew landed 4 Bones and a Trigger. Great job guys!

Day 3 delivered a variety of catches under perfect bluebird skies and almost no wind whatsoever. Impressive catches of GTs, Triggers, and Bonefish were shared amongst the group with Mark and Piers landing 2 Triggers each. Joern added 3 GTs to his tally while Brummy came close to a slam landing two GTs and a very large Bone that tipped the scales at 10 lbs! The boat team of Peter O, Tom O, and Fred climbed into the GTs and managed to land 7 between them for the day with the standout catch going to Fred, his trophy GT pulled the measuring tape to 101cm. Awesome job, gentlemen!

The 4th day of the week provided our guests with numerous shots at GTs with a total of 17 brought to hand for the day. Peter M and Jim came into a rich vein of form and managed to bag 4 a piece. Andrew landed the only Triggerfish for the day, a beautiful Mustache Triggerfish that he managed to fool into eating his fly early on during the fishing day. The catch of the day, however, went to Joern who had been hunting his Indian Ocean nemesis for almost 15 years. On this Saturday, he finally found himself and a trophy Napoleon Wrasse in the same image, his trophy measured 94cm. Well done Joern!

Day 5 was filled with action with a slam and 16 GTs caught. Peter McLeod found himself in the land of giants when he hooked and eventually landed a monster GT that measured 116cm. He then went on to add another 4 to his tally, well done Peter! Peter’s boat partners, Jim and Brummy also had their share of the action with the pair landing 3 and 2 GTs respectively. Peter M’s knack of finding himself in all the right places continued as usual bagging a slam that consisted of a GT, a Triggerfish and 4 Bonefish. Great job Pete!

We decided that GTs were going to be the primary focus for the final fishing day. This gamble paid off big time with 25 GTs brought to hand. The father and son pair of Peter O and Tom O managed to land 3 GTs between them while Jim brought a lovely specimen that measured in the high 90s to hand. Peter M continued his rich vein of form and landed 6 GTs while his boat partner Piers managed to convert 5. Mark matched Peter M’s efforts with another 6 including 1 that broke that magical meter mark measuring 101cm. This brought a cracking end to a diverse week of flats fishing on Providence Atoll.

As always, we enjoyed our time with the good folks hosted by Aardvark McLeod. Thanks for joining us and we look forward to welcoming you all back to the atoll again next year.

Our catch tally for the 2nd week of the season was: