Fly Casting for Kingfish

April 7, 2011

Madagascar - Day 8

I literally lit up my computer here to type away at today’s blog and an obnoxious cockroach that was obviously attracted to the light blocked out the screen! Yikes! It would have been worth it if only he hissed as I swatted him away. Shucks!
Anyway, there’s not much to write about today. On George’s advice we dedicated the morning to fly fishing for kingfish. A kingfish is what most of the world refers to as “trevally”. In many parts of the Indian Ocean, particularly South Africa, Mozambique and apparently Madagascar; they call all the trevally a “kingfish”. And a king he is. I can contest to that because in 1996 I landed a 90lber on Paris Flats in Christmas Island. Luckily, on that day I was specifically targeting them so I was using a Ross 12-weight. Had I not been, I would never, never, never had even a remote chance. They are extremely powerful fish. (Now every bug of night is attacking my headlamp. This will be very fast.)

We hit about four of Georges favorite trevally spots. All were rocky islands with beautiful coral reef and strong tidal currents. I got tossed around pretty good launching casts first with big poppers, then big streamers and then finally dredging with heavy Warpath Jig flies. Not only did I not see a fish. Not even a follow. George and his mate were dragging a live sardine suspended behind the boat while jigging bottom with bait and all they caught were two little groupers like the one in the picture – absolutely gorgeous. I wish I could have nailed one of those on the fly. But fishing was truly SLOW. The sea can definitely go quiet on you. Tides change. Weather, which has been beautiful, can also change in ways we don’t notice such as wind and barometric pressure.

Unfortunately we fished for trevally unsuccessfully all the way till about 1 PM. Our original plan was to go till noon then bottom fish like we did yesterday but time slipped away. We then began the slow trip home hunting for birds and tuna. We found a school of feasting yellowfin right away and Granny got one good cast to them without a strike and we never saw them again. We travelled slowly for over an hour before finding our next flock of diving birds. This time there were frigate tuna everywhere and Granny and I each picked up a mere one. Then they were gone. There must be plenty of natural food in the water and they just wouldn’t eat our flies. In fact, one tuna puked up an assortment of foods from tropical fish to baby squids. Well, at least we didn’t get skunked and have Carpaccio again for appetizers for us and the crew at camp!

Today was our last fishing with George. George was a real treat to fish with. It’s hard to know if you are hiring the right guy when visiting a remote country like Madagascar but we lucked out. Not only was George very knowledgeable of where the fish live in his waters but he was a great guy with a lot of fun ideas to make our days enjoyable. I'd recommend George to anyone wanting to fly fish in Madagascar.

Damn! The cockroach just spun out in my beer glass. It’s time to turn off this headlamp and enjoy a cold one in a new glass with the Carpaccio and Granny and the staff. We don’t need to get up early in the morning so time to have some fun. Tomorrow we are chilling out as they say. That’s tough for me to do so we’ll see. I’m sure I’ll fish from the shore here and do some snorkeling. The snorkeling is supposed to be some of the best in the world.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing Website

100 Meters Under the Sea

April 6, 2011

Madagascar - Day 7

The orb spiders here in Madagascar are about as big and impressive as any spider. We have a few outside our room. In the morning when you are the first to walk down any path or walkway, you better have your eyes open. If not, you’re likely to be wearing one of these frightening yet harmless spiders across your face!

We took off with George and his mate at 7 AM. The seas were calm so we went to where we wanted to go yesterday, a reef 25 miles out. The reef is 30 meters deep but surrounded by waters over 300 meters. George felt it would be a good place to sight cast to sailfish and marlin as well as dredge for a dogtooth tuna.

On the drive out, we stopped several times so I could strip my little tuna fly through schools of bait. I expected to catch more skipjack tuna but instead I caught several leatherbacks. Leatherbacks are closely related to queenfish and even have the distinct black diamonds down their sides. Both can be found both inshore and out in the blue water. George wasn’t too high on these leatherbacks so we proceeded onward.

After about an hour, we reached Georges spot and in about the first minute we saw a sailfish. The sail was cruising with the outer ridge of his sail just breaking the surface. On this particular fish we didn’t have much of a chance to get a cast because we didn’t see him soon enough before he saw us. It was exciting though and I leaped up front with my Ross 12-weight and my line stripped out and was ready as we cruised along to look for more.

We must have slowly zigzagged George’s reef area from the 30 meters of depth to the 300 meter drop off hoping for another big fish to cast too for an hour but never saw one. George’s next move was to anchor up on the 30 meter hump so I could sink my fly very deep while he, his mate and Granny bottom fished with bait. I was anxious to see what they would pull up from the depths so I was thrilled with the idea.

While I dredged away aimlessly with flies, George and Granny were tearing up all kinds of unique fish from down deep. They must have caught eight or so cool species. The best was a green jobfish that Granny landed. I’ve always wanted to catch one of these elongated snapper like fish. I nearly did in Christmas Island once but the fish turned away from my fly at the last minute. Then, last November I saw a giant jobfish at the Zanzibar fish market. Granny’s however was the first one I could really observe alive and up close.

It was unbearably hot. I mean like 100°! Here we were 25 miles out to sea and there wasn’t even a breeze to help cool us. The water was so clear that I could see the flashes of my fly coming up through the water column at least 40 feet down. It could have easily been more. That fact that I could see so well into the water and not see a single fish did not give me much confidence in blind casting. Finally, I reeled in to rest.

Granny reeled in so many fish that she was ready for a break. Just reeling a heavy weight and a small fish up in such heat is exhausting. I took her rod and soon I caught my share of cool deep water fish consisting of snappers, emperor fish, baby grouper and even a couple different sharks. Then I thought I hooked bottom. George firmly told me to be careful and here I was stuck already. I simply fed my bait to bottom and attempted to reel up but I couldn’t. I braced myself to get some leverage to try to free my snag and then something felt weird. I was able to lift the weight slightly off the bottom. But it still felt like bottom because it wasn’t fighting yet it was definitely coming up. I know, that barely makes sense. Finally George saw me playing and asked me what the heck was going on.

“I don’t know George?” was about all I could say. “I’m stuck on something but it’s coming up like a carpet.” George watched closely. Then whatever I had started to give in. I cranked on this fish up and down for three minutes. Then, just as George screamed big grouper, the clutch in his ancient-worn reel let loose and the fish retreated to bottom leaving me with a backlash. I swore a few times as I fumbled too untangle the mess. George too helped dig away and by complete miracle we freed the line. I was certain the grouper would be lodged 100 meters below in his home. But I started pumping him back up. Things were looking good. Then, like before, the grouper came in sight. He was a huge leopard grouper appearing near 50lb! I couldn’t believe how spectacular this fish was! The colors! The size! It was unexplainable! Then like before, tragedy struck only this time the fish slowly retreated from sight swishing a massive tail and we were no longer connected. The hook broke! Are you kidding!!!!

At first, I was extremely disappointed. George and his mate were shocked as they glared at the snapped hook. But as crazy as this sounds, after only a few minutes, I was glad. My joy may sound stupid but I guarantee that gorgeous giant was seconds from seeing Georges gaff. No one releases a big grouper in Madagascar. You would be looking at a photo of me struggling to raise a bloody grouper, but instead I can tell you he got away. As I speak and hopefully for years to come, my monster grouper is alive and well and contributing to the health of his species.

Although the fly fishing has been slow the last two days and doggie dreams of last night have escaped me, the adventures with George continue to be entertaining. Being the fish species fanatic that I am, just seeing today’s bottom dwellers from deep under the sea was a kick. Now it’s time for some rest. Tomorrow is our last day with George.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing Website