Going, Going, Gone to Madagascar!

 

Opening day of baseball is one of my favorite days. My Fantasy teams (all three) are ready to rock. The Cubs are still contenders and life is great. But this opener is more special than ever, Granny and I are on our way to Madagascar to celebrate our 20th anniversary. How did she do it!

Yes indeed this is a fishing trip. Is there anything else? We chose Madagascar because from what I saw on web images, there are some of the most exotic looking palm covered beaches I’ve ever seen. Furthermore and most important, I Google Earthed the place and noted that the surrounding waters look to consist of flats, coral reef, channels and plenty of blue water. It looks absolutely incredible for fly fishing! And being that this tropical island is less than 1000 miles from the ever so famous saltwater fly fishing waters of the Seychelles, this could be epic!

If we travel this far, why not just go to the Seychelles? Well, it’s as simple. The Seychelles fishing packages are super expensive and winging it like Granny and I often do, is next to impossible. Madagascar however is cheap and it appears you can wing it. So off we go.

The bad news is however, research on the internet has not been all that promising. Although the blue water fishing for marlin is first class, the inshore fisheries where we can fish on our own may be dismal. The only reports we found (and very few) were that all water you can walk to has been virtually fished out. Not good news for us. However, we aren’t scared. Sometimes places get bad rap from anglers just because they don’t have the “popular game fish” such as bonefish. It can be like; an angler says his fishing stinks near his home because there’s no trout. Yet this very angler has a trophy bass lake a block from his house. Anglers can be pretty stupid sometimes.

We’ll see. I’m not too worried about catching some fish and having a great time. Our goals are feasible. Granny and I both need to see that famous cool-as-heck-rotating-eyed Chameleon. We’d like to see some lemurs. And if we’re lucky some bad-ass snakes. We also need to get some rest. A winter of constant work, shows, travel and a postponed Brazil trip have taken its toll.

Most important to me however, I want to catch five new species on the fly. I’d love one of them to be a milkfish, an Indian Ocean triggerfish or a dogtooth tuna. The other four species can be anything cool from a small colorful grouper to a new trevally species. I'd also like to get some killer photos and come home with another great PowerPoint presentation to take on the road with me next season. That’s about it.

Granny and I said goodbye to the snow at 4 AM this morning. We drove over Teton Pass and flew from Jackson, Wyoming to Salt Lake City and now we are headed to Atlanta. We have a four hour layover and tonight we board the 15 hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. We will overnight in Joburg then Saturday fly to Nose Be, Madagascar which is a small island on the North West side of the main island of Madagascar. From there the plan is to catch a boat for a tiny island called Sakatia and there’s a bed and breakfast type place that we will base out of for a week. From there we plan to head to the mainland and take in a National Park. Then to an island of Madagascar’s east side called Isle St. Marie. Whether I have internet access along the way is unknown. However, stay tuned. I will write about every day of the trip and post them when I can. Like other journeys that many of you have followed before, every day will e accounted for even if I have to post some when I get home.

The “Currier’s Blog” is back on track!

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing Website

A New Camera for Norway

July 6, 2010

Part of organizing for this trip to Norway is getting familiar with a new camera. I feel like this adventure will be one of the best ever and getting great photos is a must. The cameras I’ve been using were not up to par with what’s available these days. On that note, even though I couldn’t afford it, I bought the new point and shoot Canon PowerShot G11. Reviews rave about the incredibly clear photos it takes and its ability to shoot both RAW and JPEG format. It also has many features that standard SLR cameras have.

I read the manual the last two days and today it was time to take some pictures. At first I tested it around the yard but then I wanted to test it on some fish. We have terribly high water on most our major rivers so back to the brookie streams I went. Joining me was, Mark Kuhn, better known as Milkfish. Milky and I drove towards Ashton, Idaho and started wetting lines in random small streams. Unfortunately, even the small streams are presently raging and although fishable, they were slightly off color.

My standard fly for blind casting small streams for trout is an elk hair caddis or a yellow sally. I’ve seen a few sallies around lately so I tied one on my 7 ½ foot 4-weight Ross Worldwide youth series rod. Ross sent it to me a few months back and today was a perfect place to test it. By the way, I was very impressed.

Milky did about the same and neither of us had much activity at first. Then, as a pair of sandhill cranes were scolding me from the bank with some God awful cackles, I caught my smallest fish of the year – a 4” brook trout. Such a pretty fish was a perfect test for the camera.

That was the only fish Milky and I caught. This surge of warm weather has melted the last of our high country snow and water levels have risen for the last time. Our small streams are about a week away from being excellent fishing and the major rivers will follow just after. Luckily, our tailwaters like the South Fork of the Snake will be prime in just few more days.

On the way home, Milky ran over a rock. We were backing up through some sagebrush and unfortunately there was a beast of a rock that tore up the bottom of his car. After we thought all was good, we proceeded down the dirt roads and his car was yelping a sound that was very similar to the upset sandhills I met earlier this afternoon. We made it back to Victor but I’ll be curious as to what is really messed up.

I just downloaded all my practice pictures. I’m very pleased with the results and I think with some practice with the camera settings the pictures will only improve. I just hope that next week the viewfinder is full with a huge Norwegian Atlantic salmon!

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing web site