St Brandon Blog: 10 – 20 Sept 2024

So we headed into week two on what is surely one of the most remote and beautiful places on earth. Joining us were a group of fresh and very excited anglers who would spend and share two weeks with us on this world class fishery, having opted for our two week package option. We unfortunately faced challenging conditions at the start of the week, with strong south easterly winds and rain. Tough conditions for sure, but the guests stuck at it and as the week progressed the weather improved and so did the fishing.

On the bonefishing front, we found good numbers of fish. Schooled up fish as well as quality singles and doubles. Our anglers managed to land a fair number of fish presenting to the schools around the landmasses on the atoll, however the singles and doubles we encountered on the submerged flats were a bit more weary and on the spooky side. As such, long, accurate casts were the order of the day. The biggest Bonefish for the week was a beauty, pulling the scale to 11.5lbs. Congratulations to guest angler Sonya on a magnificent specimen.!!!!

The permit fishing was nothing short of world class, both in terms of overall numbers as well as fish tailing.The flats as well as the islands presented us with a great number of solid opportunities at pods of 3 to 6 fish, and although the catch records don’t suggest it, we enjoyed some of the finest Permit fishing one could hope for. We did however manage to trick a few and get them into the net. A very well done to anglers Mark and Alan on landing their coveted Indo-Pacific Permit.

The trevally fishing this week was very exciting and maybe somewhat of an improvement from the previous week. We saw good quantities of big Bluefin cruising and slamming into bait fish on the flats as well the coral edges, and despite big Bluefin being some of the smartest fish going around we managed to land a few good ones between 60 and 70cm. Some rather large GT’s were seen on the flats and around the islands but none were converted and others did not hang around long enough to have a good shot at them.  The only real physical GT interaction this week was a brief one, when angler Scott hooked an emperor which was almost at our feet, when a big GT came out of nowhere and decided he wanted it a lot more than more than we did…..

Overall, conditions were a little tough and at times unsettled, but on a positive note the water is cool and everyone is super excited about what the atoll has in store for us for next week and the rest of the season.  All of us here on St Brandon had a great week, had loads of fun and established some new terrific friendships.

Until next week

The St Brandon Guide Team

Our catch tally for the week:

Bonefish – 88 (largest 11.5lbs)

Permit –  2

Bluefin Trevally – 7