Providence Blog: 21 – 28 Nov 2023

We welcomed a near full boat of return guests, some from South Africa and some from New Zealand, along with Tony who was about to start a 2-week stint with us.

After an early dinner and a good rest, all the guests rose on the first day to storms, rain, and almost no light. The teams headed onto the flats to look for bonefish and other tailing species. Despite the conditions, Chris M got off the board with his first GT of the week with the rest of the group enduring a torrid time on the flats due to the weather. Eventually after a massive storm we all scampered back to the safety of the Dugong in the early evening.

We had great hope that would be the last of the weather, but the second day held much of the same. With the tides still okay for a few bonefish, we tried to make do with what we had. Chris M landed another GT while Tony added a perfect GT of 92 cm to the tally. The boat grouping of Charles, Richard, and Craig found a few bonefish, it was however Charles who enjoyed the bulk of the action landing 5 bones, 2 Napoleons, and a barracuda. Richard meanwhile joined a unique club, the Bills and Bones Club, landing his first of each. Well done guys!

By the third day, we had become low light and strong wind specialists. Craig, Rich and Charles continued to enjoy the bonefishing despite the weather hammering us relentlessly. Craig managed to finally land his first GT as well as a powerful Napoleon. The father & son team of Chris and James managed 2 bones, a special moment shared between the pair as this was James’s first-ever experience with a bonefish. He later added a GT to his catch tally for the day. Tony found a triggerfish somewhere in the haze and did very well to land it while his boat partner David landed another Napoleon.

We finally rose on the fourth day to what looked like a little bit of a break in the weather, with some patches of blue sky showing up amongst the clouds. Tony and David did very well; Tony landed a GT in a channel of 85 cm and later he landed a speedy sailfish. Chris W, Chris C, and Pete managed to land 1 GT each for the day while Richard finally got the monkey off his back when he landed his first GT of the trip. Well done Rich!

The fifth day saw us battle the wind, rain and lack of light once again. Restricted to a few white sand flats available to us we managed to scratch out the odd opportunity for the iconic species we were after. Catches of note included Chris W’s 2 GTs, a handful of bonefish for Tony and David as well as a big dogtooth tuna landed offshore.

Before we knew it it was the final day of the fishing week and we finally had some pleasant weather consisting of manageable wind and patchy sunlight. Chris C was the rod of the day landing a beautiful 101 cm GT. His fish was encountered as it attempted to cross a shallow area on an isolated flat. With a full quarter of its body exposed, Chris’s fly went down and the fish rooster tailed 10 meters in a second to smash it. A lengthy battle ensued and eventually the fish was landed – A tremendous fish for the week despite everything thrown at the group! Chris C’s success didn’t stop there, he along with his fishing buddies Chris W and Pete got stuck into 3 enormous grouper, culminating in an awesome triple, a massive Napoleon wrasse, an even bigger saddleback grouper and a large bohar snapper. Later, Pete would add yet another trophy Napoleon to his tally for the day. Special stuff guys, well done. Chris W then, in the dying moments of the last fishing day managed to hook a sailfish that actually spooled him. With the fishing gods on his side, the knot to the reel spool held strong just long enough to gain some line on the fish and then eventually land it. What a way to end the fishing week!

Week 6 goes down as one of the tougher weeks we’ve encountered. Hats off to the guides and guests for hanging in there, all while laughing, joking and fishing hard every single day.

The week’s catch tally was: