To start this edition with, here is a selection of catches made by Brandon and guests on February 29th  which reached me in the afternoon when the last report was already up and out but should not go unseen.

That afternoon was eventful other ways, too. I was awaiting my buddy Marco from his week in Cosmoledo to spend a few days at my place as usually. But just a couple of hours before his arrival I sustained a deep cut in my foot that needed stiches and blew all plans made for the time ahead. So I was condemned to sit at home leg up and watching simultanously unfold a proper infection of the wound and some of the best fishing I have witnessed in my nearly one and a half decades here. Missing out on Marco`s and also present Stephan`s trip with Sandro on the 1st was not too bad as their plans did not work out. Sailfish to raise to teasers and catch on fly gear wouldn`t come and the jigging done in between was rather slow.

But from then on both foot and being sidelined really started to hurt. Marco spent the time fly fishing without me and while the weather was not ideal in the beginning but improving all along, he got to catch some decent fish and saw lots more. I checked around, but neither a good spare foot nor a full body condom available anywhere.

On the 5th I was due to tag along with German angler Marc-Andre for a half day GT popping on Mervin`s Gamechanger. Would have loved to be onboard especially as it went really well with 3 proper size GTs and a good Bluefin Trevally coming off near the boat.

That same evening Brandon skippering Faith that day provided the following pics that indicated the Drop Off jigging drought during the past weekend had picked up again.

This turned out only the start of a prefect week as far as the weather and also the jigging out there is concerned. Sandro with a group of hard fishing and heavily equipped Russians sent me some picks in the evening of the 8th.

Decent fish but several really big and eventually too big Doggies got away. This one they got, though, and I think it deserves to stand alone here. What a barrel!

Next evening he reported again. No such monster caught this time, but again some hooked and a bunch of quaity fish of all sorts caught. This is only a small selection.

Brandon was also jiiging there again that day but with a not quite so sophisticated and lighter equipped group. They also ran into the big Doggies but had their issues and did manage `only´ fish that were still decent I think.

Not just far out there the fishing was lively, though. Greg and Andre on Amberjack did some of their inshore trips mainly for casting and a bit of light jigging in between. No lack of action to complain about here, too.

This was all much nicer to observe than the cauliflower happily growing in my foot wound despite a first round of antibiotics. Luckily the chaps kept feeding catches and pics for my distraction. Next day it was Mervin providing me with some remedy. As the Israelis came back to fish he had good old Yoni along, and despite the guys as usually fishing light and thus losing lots of fish, they also managed one of the massive Doggies.

Those big beasts seemed to be queueing up those days as Sandro proved that evening. Such a massive Grouper in between is also very nice of course.

After this in every aspect tremendous first third of the month the weather turned somewhat erratic again. Seemingly perfect days were suddenly spoiled by heavy fronts bringing mostly short lived but heavy rains and crazy gusts. Regular wind speed outside those messes had also risen to the 10-15kn range The subsequent fast drift made it harder for the guys to keep an upper hand on the big Doggies as it was much more difficult to stay vertically above the fish. Couple days were an absolute mess also that allowed for no trips but all in all the fish of all sorts kept coming. These pics were from Brandon again.

Especially nice to see the Yellowfin already. These were not coming to the surface yet for casting and most were rather small but Brandon`s anglers struggled for 1:45hrs on a monster. They saw it 15m under the boat and Brandon estimated high (kg) double digits but then the beast took off on a 400m run spooling the PE4 gear while several of the chaps were desperately holding on to. Such also a guest of Greg`s & Andre`s had to do for a good long time but he managed to get his fish. Such Yellowspotted Trevally weighed at over 17kg is already a cool catch but to catch it on a #8 fly rod is simply fantastic.

Meanwhile Brandon kept taking his group to the Drop and they kept catching. Or re-rigging every so often when the opponents were too strong. Still those monster Doggies of course.

Just to break up that avalanche of Drop off jigging catches a little, here are some from plateau fishing. I was due to be part of Ilse`s three trips on Zero with Elcid. Had been looking forward to that as I have not yet been out with that skipper nor boat. But even more so as Ilse from Austria is a real lady and I find it impressive that at her senior age and despite some health issues coming along with that, she fishes with so much enthusiasm as I had learned already a year go. And she was well rewarded with a variety of nice trolling and bottom fishing catches.

Along those days the jigging with the hardcore groups usually trying to avoid the Easter holiday high season slowly started to dry up. Brandon sent this nice mix of fish on the 24th complaining about more huge Doggies lost.

Those days also Sandro got a well deserved break after having fished several more days. But after the monsters he did not really bother any more to take pics of the average size fish. Kind of decadent knowing that plenty anglers would give an arm and a leg to catch one of those Doggies even if they don`t surpass the 50kg mark. Along last week the type of anglers and trips then changed as expected to indiviual trips, often half days, of rather occasionl anglers as far as our kind of fishing is concerned. Or so to say the typical high season holiday guests. The mostly performed trolling went better on some days and slower on others but there was still one more highlight. Set once more by Andre and Greg with two Sailfish same morning caught on fly. Cool stuff again, guest was of course over the moon.

To have missed out on all that plus a trip booked a year ago to Farquhar for fly fishing really sucked. But a couple of rounds of antibiotics, IV at times, helped eventually and right after finishing this report I will slowly start to approach water. In the shape of a shower without a bloody plastic bag around the foot for a humble start.

The whole first week of the month the weather was perfect with a light northerly breeze and no rain at all but with very few tourists around hardly anybody made use of that. Along the only small trolling trip I was aware of, a guest caught this Wahoo and a few other fish with Greg on Amberjack. 

The second week saw somewhat shifty conditions which, due to the lack of guests, was not a headache for anybody but Mervin fishing with his regular Jean-Daniel on Gamechanger. They tried this and that depending what the weather permitted but with a very slow jigging bite at the Drop Off it was tough stuff. Mervin sending just these two pics from a small handful of trips should tell all you need to know.

Around mid month things came to life a little thanks to Sandro hosting guests on Frenzy for a couple of trips. The weather remained sort of erratic so they did not always have an easy time. The trip on the 16th was rather pleasant in every way with a Marlin and a Sailfish released plus a handful of other trolling and jigging catches.

The day after Sandro managed this good size GT popping.

And the next day they released another Marlin. Nice stuff and what a really cool pic.

Early morning of the 20th I flew to Mahe to meet up with my buddy Marco. He was due to head on to Cosmoledo two days later and wanted to spend these fly fishing with a local fly guide providing his expertise and nicely set up skiff. When I joined them after some admin errands in town at around 10:30am they had seen a handful Bonefish but got no clear shot. Sadly along the following hours the clouds came heavy discharging some rain so visibility was bad and of the two more Bones still spotted by Serge we got no take. 

Still it was an interesting experience for me as I had never fly fished from a skiff before and there was another day ahead. But the weather gods were not with us as the wind had come up at 15-20knots with stronger gusts and after mere minutes of sunshine the sky got dark and it started pouring. We were drifting fast enough to troll and even sharp-eyed Serge had no real chance to detect any fish any more. So we moored the skiff and used the car to find a somewhat protected spot on the other side of the island as to continue fishing by wading. Conditions there were also far from ideal, after a while the rain came extremely hard and never stopped, so we called it a day. Most disappointed was Serge who is an incredibly pleasant guy. His competence was beyond doubt anyways after he had been guiding for 20 years on the Outer Island before starting his guiding operations on Mahe. His level of attention and service was just perfect. Most impressive on top is his skill of spotting fish in conditions I would only see them if they jumped my lap. 

He is definitely worth my recommendation and I look forward to fish with him again. Hopefully in much better weather of course. How bad it was might reveal that I needed 1.5hrs driving time for the just 5km to the airport through in places a foot of water on the road and having to move around stranded (or rather drowned) vehicles. Flight operations were disrupted and many flights cancelled. Among those was of course mine but was lucky to be squeezed into one that should had departed hours before. This way at least I managed to get home to Praslin after three changes of boarding passes and several hours of delays. So no lack of adventures along that short trip. Next day the weather was perfect and Mervin made good use of it with this GT for his guest.

The nice weather did not last though. Greg had an inshore trip with some fish of which this Bluefin Trevally looked best.

Sunday the 25th Mervin reported a jigging trip to the Drop and found the Amberjacks in good sizes and numbers among some other catches in halfway decent weather that started to deteriorate along the day.

Next morning I woke up and my curtains were horizontal in the bedroom despite nearly closed windows. Whole day the wind howled and the rain came down not in buckets but barrels. Learned later that both Sandro and Mervin had tried to go out but surrendered within no time. For the night a real storm was predicted and it came. Was short lived though and in the morning the wind was completely gone. Sandro went to the Drop again reportng good jigging with Doggies and stuff in the evening. Should have received a few pics from that but they never came, and the last two dys nothing further happened on the fishing side.

For the preceeding reports check the archive.