St Brandon Blog: 30 April – 10 May 2024

We have reached the halfway mark of the season, hosting our two eager guests from the United States and South Africa. The tides for the week will see us moving back into springs where we expect to see more action around the islands with slightly shorter windows of opportunity on the flats. Our wind direction has shifted slightly from the previous weeks being more from the south as opposed to the prevailing south easterly.

The bonefishing got off to a tougher start than the previous weeks with the fish sitting a bit deeper than usual, schooled up in high numbers and reluctant to move up onto the flats. We still managed to find some nice skinny water tailing fish during the first couple of days on the afternoon dropping tide. There were big pods of bones surrounding the islands and coral ridges with the guests making the most of the situation, targeting fish on the edges, picking out the biggest ones from the schools. As the week progressed the bones started moving into the shallower sandy sections of the flats with some larger fish seen. Our average Bonefish for the week was between 5 lb-7lb with the biggest coming in at just over the 8lb mark.

The atoll’s famous Indo-Pacific Permit were out and about during the higher water and feeding happily on the coral ridges and islands. Many good fish were seen in various scenarios and our anglers had some great shots, often making pin-point casts but the fish just did not want to play ball. On the last day of the trip, Brent’s persistence was rewarded when he finally landed his first Permit, and to top it all off he hooked and landed a second shortly after that ending his trip on high.

With the higher tides and increased current through the Atoll, good numbers of bluefin were seen herding bait around the islands and sand spits. There unfortunately weren’t as many GT’s around but the few we did see were big! On the second day of the week Bill had a great opportunity at a true giant but just couldn’t get the right shot in as the fish started sliding away into deeper water following a big Nurse shark.

We end our week with the tides moving from springs into neaps. This should give us more time on the flats in the coming week, allowing us to target Bonefish and Permit for longer periods. With the cooler water temperatures around we feel the fishing will continue to improve as the season progresses and we are looking forward to what the rest of the season has in store for us.

Our catch tally for the week: