St Brandon Blog: 3 – 13 September 2024

It’s that time of year again! Big bones, tailing Permit, monster Bluefin and hopefully so humongous GT’s. Welcome to St Brandon and our opening week of the Sept – Nov 2024 season where we welcomed a group of very eager anglers.

The week started off with some really strong wind which made things challenging despite some perfect ice cold blue water, however later in the week the weather settled and the fishing conditions became a bit easier. Tidal wise we were moving away from springs and into the neaps.

On the Bonefish front, we found good numbers on the flats during the first couple of days, with fish swimming in singles and doubles in some skinny water which is always really nice. Some of the fish were however a bit spooky (potentially the numbers of other predatory fish around), not letting us and the anglers get close to them. As such, the casts had to be long and accurate to convince them to eat the fly. Later in the week the Bones started schooling up in smaller pods of 5 -10 fish, our anglers managing to get a couple of nice fish throughout the week. Average size ranged around 5/6sbs, with the largest fish for the week being a solid 8 pounder.

The Permit fishing was really good this week, with plenty of fish around. We saw a lot of them in pods of 3-6 fish, whether they were tailing along an island or a submerged flat. Rob had a great time this week, landing three during his week on the atoll, the largest a beautiful 11.5 lbs prize. Brian also managed to get one and so too did Dave, his Yellow Permit coming through on the final day. Well done guys!!!

The Trevally fishing was tough this week. We saw a lot of big Bluefins cruising along the flats and the coral ridges, but for some reason most wanted nothing to do with our flies. We managed to convince a few though, the average size ranging between 60cm and 70cm. We did also see some big GT’s but unfortunately none were converted.No doubt the trevally fishing will get better as the season moves on and the water warms up.

To sum up the week, we had a ton load of fun with a great group of guests, and although conditions didn’t make it easy, we’re very optimistic for what lies ahead. We have spring tides up next and the weather forecast looks promising…until next week!

The St B Guide Team

Catch Tally: