St Brandon’s Blog: 27 April – 6 May 2015

It’s a tough act following an opening week like the one experienced on St Brandon’s a few days prior. Everyone, including the guide team, however had high expectations, especially when you’re fishing one of the finest wade fishing destinations on the planet. That said, weather, tides and of course accurately predicting where and when the fish will do their thing would determine how we got one.

Excitement levels were high as the plan for the first few days was to focus on the skinny water Bonefishing the early morning and late afternoon low tides would provide. On the first day Greg and William had an awesome session fishing to big singles and doubles on one of our notorious pancake flats, that was until a shoal of six or seven big GT’s showed up demolishing everything in their path. Greg managed to get a pig of a fish to eat the fly as it hung under his rod tip, before the brute quickly spat the fly due to the lack of pressure. Moments later another two fish charged in, with the largest of the two climbing over the top of the smaller fish to engulf the fly. Greg managed to set the hook with a solid few strip strikes and all hell broke loose. The massive fish then however made a beeline for the drop off, parting the fly line in two as it nicked some coral on the way out. William was up next and after a few follows managed to stick a smallish GT which he quickly gained control over, the end result being a 80cm fork length fish that brought about plenty smiles. That evening on the back deck of the Gryphon stories of big fish landed and near misses echoed over the calm waters of the lagoon.

As the low tide moved later into the morning our clients enjoyed the classic skinny water Bonefishing to big singles, with the odd nice Golden Trevally adding some spice. William once again was in the thick of the action when he hooked a massive 20lb Golden Trevally 8 weight setup. After a lengthy stalk and a battle of epic proportions the fish was landed more than a kilometer from where it was hooked on the flats, a truly magnificent fish and one which he will never forget.

The anglers were gob smacked with the numbers and size of fish they were tangling with each and every session, the overall beauty of the St Brandon’s too clearly making it’s mark. So much so that most evenings included some fine single-malt whisky and cigars as part of the celebration for their biggest Bonefish, Golden, Yellow-dot and Green-spot Trevally

Although we were having good opportunities at GT’s during the trip, some groups getting ten or so opportunities during a day, we sadly were not able to convert. Greg once again managed to get another big GT to eat the fly, however a fly line wrap around the butt of the rod ensured the fish’s quick release. Thankfully the big Bluefin Trevally were slightly more forgiving and we managed to land and release some quality specimens.

The Permit too were around in fair numbers by St Brandon’s, most of our guests getting opportunities on a daily basis. But Permit being Permit they are never easy to get. Dave however managed to land his first Indo Pacific Permit, which together with his first Yellow Dot Trevally sealed a truly red-letter day. John Yelland from Upstream Fly Fishing in Cape Town managed to hook two Permit during his trip, one of which was on for a substantial amount of time before devastation occurred as his fly popped out just before the fish was ready to be landed. Our condolences John…we will need to rectify the situation in the years that follow.

The trip flew by and the last night aboard the Gryphon was filled with stories of close encounters with double-digit Bones, massive GT’s, Permit, together with a spectacular sighting of one of our large resident Tiger sharks. Needless to say everyone had an incredible trip, some awesome fish were landed and most importantly new friendships between guests and guides were cemented.

Thank you to everyone involved, we had a terrific week!

Until next time

The St Brandon’s Guide Team