The week couldn’t have started any better, the weather played its part allowing for perfect spotting conditions with bright sunny days and Paris Felezanis from the well-known online magazine ‘This Is Fly’ catching a permit on his first day of fishing Alphonse.
Some of the group had fished St François on previous trips and knew exactly how to entice the various species on offer. The GT’s were around in good numbers to test the arms of our regulars – some of whom had forgotten exactly how hard they pull – and they were up feeding on the flats with 145 sightings and nine landed for the week, including three fish of over a meter: a 106cm by Scott Richards, a 103 cm by Joe Wilson and Nathan Boyd just made the 100’s club with a beautiful 101cm fish. Joe also landed the biggest bonefish of the week, which was one of the 352 caught and released for the six days of fishing on St François.
The flurry of triggerfish continues from previous weeks with 14 falling prey to a well-tied crustacean fly; Garry Robinson landed a veteran yellow margin of 10lb while star guide Yousuf continued on from last week’s triggerfish onslaught taking four triggers with Andy Wright in one day. This week, while guiding Nathan Boyd, they landed five in a single day, which is virtually unheard of, except for on St Francois!
The highlight of the week, however, had to be Chris Hamaway’s ‘Grand Slam’, which was the first of the season, when he landed a milkfish, GT and bonefish, then added a wahoo and big bluefin trevally to the count all in one day. The milkfish have been a bit sporadic so far this season making this achievement even more memorable and the week got even better when Joseph Theobald caught the second permit for the week.
The fishing offshore was equally as good as on the flats. Joe Wilson took full advantage and landed this season’s first sailfish on fly as well as a bunch of wahoo. We had a very special farther and son team fishing Alphonse for the week, Grant and 13-year-old Caleb Dryden, who had a fantastic introduction to saltwater fly fishing when he added a wahoo, yellowfin tuna and GT to his first ever bone and triggerfish – along with a variety of other species.
Once again it’s been a week of fantastic results both on the flats – and around the bar!
Tight lines until next week from Keith Rose-Innes, Devan Van Der Merwe and the Alphonse team.
