This year's fishing expedition to Alphonse got off to a
rough start and almost didn't happen. I had made a decent flight
arrangement with Emirates Air since Qatar was not yet flying the route due to
the war in the Mid East. But when the Iranians continued to lob missiles
and drones into UAE air space, they were forced to make relentless alterations
to my flight plan, and two days before my planned departure on the trip, their
last change moved the flight to a date and time that would never get me to Mahe
in time to make the early morning Saturday local connection flight to Alphonse.
That involved booking an airline I had never liked in the
past - Etihad - but this turned out to be my only option to make the journey, so
I went ahead and tried it. The Etihad flights worked out fine, but with
their having American Airlines as their US partner, I was stuck using them as
well. And while unfortunately American lived up to its reputation as one
of the worst operations on earth, I'll leave any further comments at that.
OK. We did make it to the island on Saturday as
planned. Got there around 11:00 AM, and I got checked in and hoofed it to
my favorite bungalow, unpacked, and set up a pair of 8 weight travel rods, one
with a sink tip and the other strictly a floater.
Walked down to the point and started wading out towards
the center of the reef at middle tide and no expectations other than wanting to
warm up my casting arm(s). Yes I'm lucky to be decently ambidextrous which
helps while blind casting for hours - along with the wind shifting across the
left or right shoulder and often right on my nose.
1000 BONES!
Yes, that's what I basically ran into mid afternoon on
the reef. They came in schools of 100-200 from all directions and
coalesced around me on the flats. Had never encountered anything
like this in the past at Alphonse. My first cast brought a good hookup
until the bone's run broke the tip top section of the rod. Impossible!
Apparently there was a knick in the tip section that was just waiting to rear
its ugly head. Panic. I exited the water and raced back to the
bungalow, rerigging the other rod and racing back to the reef.
Most of the fish were still there, so I had a bunch more
hookups and released a handful of fish before they left the weedy flats and
headed for deeper water to wait for the next incoming tide. Not too bad a
start to the trip.
Worth mentioning that there were three types of tides
this week - starting out with two days of neaps, two days of normals, and three
days of modest springers. It made for interesting and not always pleasant
forays into the water. And that ignores the virtually non stop 20 knot
winds every day and night.
So the next six days brought tough casting, some unwanted
batches of rain showers, and stretches of time when a few hundred casts didn't
even result in a bump. The opposite was also true. When the schools
of bones were moving, it actually got too easy to hook them, and that's almost
as bad as no strikes at all. I really enjoy having to earn the releases by
changing flies, tactics, retrieves, and locations at different water levels.
So what kind of results did I have this year?
Pretty darn good for bones - am guessing to have played at least a couple dozen
each day none of which got into the double digit lengths as has sometimes
happened in the past. Caught no bluefin trevally (which is my favorite
reef fish), hooked two giant trevally in a weird way (really fun to catch those
fights on the video camera). Probably released 15-20 other species, mostly
the sweet lipped grunts that occupy the same space as the bones and nibble on
the fly like bones do too. Had no luck with milkfish this time around.
Was unable to get to the edge of the lagoon reef due to
the lowest of the spring tides, not being minus tides. Also too much high
wind on the nose when trying to cast into the lagoon. So it really was a
mixed bag, but definitely a worthwhile trip which I hope I can make again this
coming September (assuming the war winds down by then).
Here are a few quickie videos from the trip:
Attack of the apex predator giant trevally.
A peek at some of the Aldabras I ran into one day.
Some comments about fishing at Alphonse.
How about some mouth watering food on the flight, from
the lounges, and from the resort.
This year's fishing expedition to Alphonse got off to a
rough start and almost didn't happen. I had made a decent flight
arrangement with Emirates Air since Qatar was not yet flying the route due to
the war in the Mid East. But when the Iranians continued to lob missiles
and drones into UAE air space, they were forced to make relentless alterations
to my flight plan, and two days before my planned departure on the trip, their
last change moved the flight to a date and time that would never get me to Mahe
in time to make the early morning Saturday local connection flight to Alphonse.