Providence Blog: 22-29 November 2022

The 6^th week of our season saw us welcome a group hosted by our friends from Mavungana in South Africa. After a short crossing over from Farquhar our guests were ready to get their week in this outlandish place off to a running start and that is exactly what they did…

Day 1 delivered opportunities for the atoll’s giant trevally and although not all of the shots ended in success 3 of our guests – Nick, Rob, and Chris all managed to land a giant trevally for the day. Action was had on the offshore front too, Johan caught the standout catch here landing an immensely powerful 119cm dogtooth tuna. The day was rounded off with some exceptional fishing over the deeper coral bommies providing our group with exciting entertainment to end the day.

Day 2 brought with it an improvement on the GT front with our guests tasting success on 7 occasions for the day. Nick, Chris, Calum, Craig, and Jono all managed to land a fish each while Rob went one better with 2 for the day. The infamous bumphead parrotfish were also out in good numbers and Jono made his shots count landing a large bumpie. This was no mean feat as it was done using a dry fly imitation that our team had been working on for some time. The very first bumphead parrotfish ever caught on off the surface and a very special moment for both head guide Tim Babich and Jonathan. The fishing off the coral heads was on fire and apart from all the weird and wonderful grouper and snapper species landed there were also 2 napoleon wrasse landed by Jono and Craig, respectively. We had seen some sailfish activity offshore in the days prior and this led to Henk and Johan both landing their first sailfish on fly. Well done, guys!

Day 3 saw yet another improvement in the GT fishing with a total of 11 landed for the day. Craig and Calum continued from where they left off on the previous day landing a GT each. Nick also got in on the action but went one better with 2 GTs. The day, however, belonged to Rob who enjoyed a very busy session of fishing converting 6 GTs to cap off a productive day on the flats.

Day 4 brought with it several opportunities for the atoll’s resident bumphead parrotfish. Henk and Johan’s efforts paid dividend with both managing to land their first ever bumpies. Well done, guys! The sailfish were around again in good numbers – Rob, Roland, and Calum all came right with these acrobats of the open ocean. Back to the flats and the GT action provided our guests with multiple shots to these impressive predators with our group tallying a total of 6 for the day. Craig, Calum, Chris, Nick, Henk, and Jono shared the spoils between them.

We experience tough conditions on day 5 with high winds and limited visibility due to thick cloud cover. Henk found a couple of bonefish on a sand flat and the second fish he caught stretched the tape past the 26.5 Inch mark making it a 10 lber, well done, Henk! The tricky conditions resulted in a single GT brought to hand for the day, a feisty fish caught by Roland.

The last day of the week saw the weather improve slightly and our guests were all itching to end the week on a high. Jono ended his time at Providence in style by landing a powerful trophy GT that measured 100cm. Rob enjoyed success too and landed a triggerfish and another Sailfish. Roland’s persistence paid off as he finally managed to land his first bumphead parrotfish after being fascinated by these fish all week. This brings us to the end of a challenging week’s fishing on the flats of Providence. Tough conditions certainly didn’t help our cause however we thoroughly enjoyed the time spent with the Mavungana group. We look forward to exploring these flats with you all again in the near future.