St Brandon Blog: 30 April – 10 May 2024
We have reached the halfway mark of the season, hosting our two eager guests from the United States and South Africa. The tides for the week will see us moving back into springs where we expect to see more action around the islands with slightly shorter windows of opportunity on the flats. Our wind direction has shifted slightly from the previous weeks being more from the south as opposed to the prevailing south easterly.
The bonefishing got off to a tougher start than the previous weeks with the fish sitting a bit deeper than usual, schooled up in high numbers and reluctant to move up onto the flats. We still managed to find some nice skinny water tailing fish during the first couple of days on the afternoon dropping tide. There were big pods of bones surrounding the islands and coral ridges with the guests making the most of the situation, targeting fish on the edges, picking out the biggest ones from the schools. As the week progressed the bones started moving into the shallower sandy sections of the flats with some larger fish seen. Our average Bonefish for the week was between 5 lb-7lb with the biggest coming in at just over the 8lb mark.
The atoll’s famous Indo-Pacific Permit were out and about during the higher water and feeding happily on the coral ridges and islands. Many good fish were seen in various scenarios and our anglers had some great shots, often making pin-point casts but the fish just did not want to play ball. On the last day of the trip, Brent’s persistence was rewarded when he finally landed his first Permit, and to top it all off he hooked and landed a second shortly after that ending his trip on high.
With the higher tides and increased current through the Atoll, good numbers of bluefin were seen herding bait around the islands and sand spits. There unfortunately weren’t as many GT’s around but the few we did see were big! On the second day of the week Bill had a great opportunity at a true giant but just couldn’t get the right shot in as the fish started sliding away into deeper water following a big Nurse shark.
We end our week with the tides moving from springs into neaps. This should give us more time on the flats in the coming week, allowing us to target Bonefish and Permit for longer periods. With the cooler water temperatures around we feel the fishing will continue to improve as the season progresses and we are looking forward to what the rest of the season has in store for us.
Our catch tally for the week:
- Bonefish- 24
- Indo-Pacific Permit- 2
- Goldens:- 1
Yours in fishing,
The St Brandon’s guide team.
The cold water along with some welcomed low water brought the Bones back onto the flats. Good numbers of fish in the 8lbs range, along with a couple over 9lbs including angler Derrick’s 9,5lbs trophy provided some really exciting fishing. 
The permit were however very elusive this week, with only one being landed by Ryan.
The bonefish schooled up this week which made it a bit tougher to find them in skinny water and on the flats. We did however still manage to land some good fish, with Peter landing a beautiful fish of 9lbs. Well done Peter!
The trevally were still around in good numbers …most notably the Bluefin. Mike however managed to spot a school of GTs during one session and despite hooking up, it was the smaller fish measuring 85cm which got his fly first…oh what could have been!
The mornings provided some good bonefishing, with a couple of very nice fish caught. We unfortunately didn’t get any double-digit fish during the week but we got some double-ups on fish which is always fun.
The trevally tides were in full swing with many bluefin around keeping those rods bending and smiles all around. We managed to land one GT this week, with angler David hooking into a fish of 101cm which was landed after an intense 20 minute battle. Congrats Dave on an epic fish!
We enjoyed very good fishing for the different trevally species that call St Brandon home. The sand spits fished particularly well, with loads of sightings of large Bluefin and GTs smashing bait along their shorelines. Eugene found himself in the thick of the action here too, landing the one and only GT for the week, an incredibly strong fish that measured 100cm.
This week saw our guests enjoy the fly fishing experience St Brandon’s is most famous for; skinny water bonefishing. With cool water and loads of hungry bones around, our guests got stuck into the action from the moment their boots hit the white sand. Typical encounters included fishing for the bonefish while they tailed and worked their way up the gradual taper of the flats with the morning’s pushing tide. With productive fishing sessions enjoyed by everyone, we managed to rack up a very respectable catch tally for the week. As for the big fish, our standout catch on this front went to Trent when he hooked into a silver missile that not only ran him into the backing several times but also tipped the scales at 10 lbs! Great job, Trent!
Permit fishing is a cruel pursuit and although we had our shots, were only able to get 3 of these elusive creatures to hand for the week. Justin was the only fisherman this week who could convince the fish to pounce on a fly and he landed all 3 himself, 1 of which was a genuine trophy, weighing in at 15,5 lb! He managed to pick up this beauty while it followed a large stingray near a storm ridge. A very special catch late in the day. Well done Justin!
We experienced decent action on the trevally front as well, with favourable conditions in the way of good light and loads of baitfish found around the landmasses. This set us up nicely and we enjoyed several shots at large Giant Trevally. 1 of our anglers enjoyed all the spoils here, landing 2 beautiful fish, 1 of which stretched the measuring tape all the way to 105cm.
