Despite some tough weather, the second week of 2023 proves an exceptional one on St Francois with some record fish landed. Cosmoledo is fishing well with good weather and spring tides offering up plenty of action. Read on for the full reports.
Alphonse Island – 7th to 14th January 2023
The second week of the new year has been a trophy week here on St Francois and although we’ve been plagued by the weather this week, the fishery did not disappoint! The week started off as usual with plenty of bones coming to the net with a couple of geets caught off mudding rays here and there. It seemed like it would be a hard week with strong winds and a decent amount of rain, but the anglers stayed optimistic and it paid off.
St Francois’s head guide, Warren, and angler James set off first thing midweek in search of a milkfish. It didn’t take long to find them as they were all over the eastern side of St Francois on the dropping tide and soon James had hooked into one of them. They managed to land a 95cm milkfish, thereafter they went for a couple of bones to set them up to search for a GT to complete a Flats Slam in the afternoon.
Warren decided to fish Petite Le Pass, one of the channels, as the tide turned and started pushing. A beast came up on James’s second cast into the channel and ate the fly. After its first run well onto the backing, they both knew it was a big fish. Warren quickly got the engine going and followed the fish to make sure they stayed on top of it to avoid being cut off by any coral. The fish fought hard and stayed deep for a long time, they hadn’t even got a glimpse of the fish until the end of the fight. Eventually, the geet came up and Warren jumped off the skiff to net the fish. So far, the biggest fish of the Alphonse season, this GT measured 130cm. The fish of a lifetime that will go down as one of the biggest fish ever caught on St Francois!
Excitingly, that wasn’t the only trophy for the week. Guide Jason Carstens and angler Jim managed to land a 68cm permit on the drop, the biggest permit of the season so far.
As the week progressed the atoll started firing. On Friday morning the guides arrived on the mother ship soon to realise there was bait inside the lagoon. Waiting patiently for the geets to catch on, we followed the bait and hung around but nothing seemed to happen just yet.
On Saturday, only two skiffs went out to fish, the bait was still there but something had changed. The geets had caught onto it… Guide Alex and his guest JT, landed a total of seven GTs for the day with the biggest measuring over 80cm. David arrived on Saturday and headed out for the afternoon, a bit late to the frenzy but also managed to get a GT of 74cm and a bluefin of 70cm, so by the end of the day eight GTs were landed. The atoll is alive and the guides are, as always, looking forward to next week to see what it holds.
If you would like more information and availability on Alphonse Island, please contact Charlotte Chilcott or Peter McLeod or call us on +44 1980 847389. Alternatively click HERE if you would like us to contact you.
Cosmoledo Atoll – 5th to 12th January 2023
Good weather and spring tides were thrown our way this week and they materialized into some exciting catches.
Ryan Veurink had an absolutely phenomenal week. Earning his nickname as the triggerfish whisperer, he ended up with two moustache triggerfish as well as a big yellowmargin triggerfish. His giant trevally tally was a whopping 15 by the end of the week, a decent dent in the 71 tally of all the anglers.
Tenche Coxe set out on the first day having never caught a giant trevally before and ended the week with a total of nine, an epic first week of GT fishing in an absolutely remarkable destination, it’s safe to say he is hooked. Tenche also had a good go at the smaller species and managed to land a beautiful moustache triggerfish as well as seven healthy bonefish.
Chris Jansen also got in on the triggerfish action and landed a lovely moustache triggerfish as well. Chris racked up a total of nine GTs for the week, waiting till the last day to end with a bang he caught a 106cm fish, an amazing way to end his trip.
Ralph Smith had his share of fun catching seven giant trevally and four bonefish. He also took a liking to the blue water fishing action on the outside of the atoll and managed to land the saddleback grouper, a very special fish.
If you would like more information and availability on Cosmoledo, please contact Charlotte Chilcott or Peter McLeod or call us on +44 1980 847389. Alternatively click HERE if you would like us to contact you.