Providence Blog: 7 – 14 Nov 2023

For the fourth week of the Providence season, we welcomed a mix of seasoned guests and first-time Indian ocean fishermen to the Maya’s Dougong. Julius and Rob stayed on for a second week to see what they could find, while Mike, a seasoned Providence guest, joined Mark and James as first-time anglers to the Indian Ocean. We were also excited to welcome back the Mako Reel team of Justin and Matt who made up a two-ball while Vladimir and Gregory, both seasoned anglers finished off our roster of guests for the week.

The first day of week 4 started with a bang for both Mark and Mike. The pair managed to land their first GT and several bonefish. Julius, now entirely in the swing of things, got his first Providence Slam consisting of a GT, bonefish, and triggerfish. Well done, Julius! Matt and Justin got stuck into the GTs, landing 12 for the day and 2 bones and a triggerfish, resulting in a Providence slam for Justin. Gregory and Vladimir landed 3 GTs, a trigger, and 1 milkfish.

On the second day, we woke to beautiful weather, clear skies, and almost no wind. Mike kept the momentum going by landing 4 GTs. Gregory landed his second GT of the trip as well as a large yellowmargin triggerfish. Justin chipped in with a huge trigger, while Julius did the same adding another trigger and a bonefish to his trip’s catch tally.

On the third morning, we rose to yet of the same weather-wise with low winds and good sunlight. The team of Justin and Matt did incredibly well to land 1 milkfish and 1 sailfish each for the day. Vladimir got himself a beautiful GT of 95 cm with several bones while Gregory added a lovely triggerfish to the catch tally. Rob and Julius landed 3 GT’s, 2 milkfish and a triggerfish.

On the fourth day, Julius and Rob got off the mark in spectacular fashion, with a GT double…..the fish measuring 107cm and 101 cm respectively. This incredible achievement was made even better by 2 more GTs for the day. The cherry on top of Julius’s day was a speedy sailfish he managed to get to hand in the dying moments of day 4. An absolute cracker of a day shared between father and son. Well done guys! Meanwhile, elsewhere on the atoll, Mark managed to get another GT and Justin and Matt’s team added 3 more milkfish to the score, as well as 1 bumpy and 1 GT… A busy day on the flats indeed!

The fifth day saw us deal with tricky conditions in the way of weather, with strong wind and rain making for incredibly tough fly fishing scenarios. Thus, Justin and Matt were the only team to catch any of Providence’s iconic fish, each landing a single GT for the day.

The final day of the fishing week saw Justin and Matt keep their good momentum going. Justin landed an outstanding catch in the way of a 60 kg dogtooth tuna as well as a fantastic GT of 98 cm. Rob and Julius managed to land a couple GTs, 1 triggerfish, and sadly, lost a sailfish. The trio of James, Mark, and Mike managed one each for the final day.