St Brandon’s Blog: 25 October – 3 November 2010
With all the positive feedback we get from many of the internationally traveled anglers who fish with us, there’s little doubt that St Brandon’s is one of the finest Bonefish & Indo-Pacific Permit fisheries on the planet. Every trip leaves our clients amazed at the sheer quantity and impressive size of St Brandon’s “Grey Ghosts”.
But just when we thought it couldn’t get any better- the fishing gods decide to prove us wrong. Our second trip of our 2010/2011 season was one of those trips where the GT’s also played their role. We thought we were lucky when Mark Hatter (a professional fly fishing photographer and journalist) landed a GT of 118cm on our first day of the trip. He had certainly set a precedent for the week, but Vince Wiseman promptly landed another brute of a fish which measured 125cm. To put it in perspective, if we’re lucky we usually land a couple of GT’s every trip, but this week was to be an exception. By the end of the week we had landed 4 GT’s over 118cm! A 118cm, 122cm, 125cm and the largest was taken by Ole Per Helgesen at 127cm. It was our last full fishing day, with Ole already having lost 3 large GT’s when the hook finally stuck and he crowned off a truly exceptional trip with a fish of lifetime. As well as the incredible size of the Bonefish, should you be fortunate enough to encounter a GT at St Brandon’s it’s more than likely going to be “Super Sized”.
But that’s not all! Guido Sesani was the first angler on St Brandon’s to achieve a St Brandon’s Grand Slam – a Bonefish, Indo-Pacific Permit and a GT all in the same day. Mark also slammed with his catch of a Bonefish, Permit and a Bluefin Trevally…. another unbelievable achievement many anglers spend years trying to obtain.
To add to these notable achievements, 6 beautiful Permit, numerous Bonefish over 10lbs (including Vince’s 12.5lbs slab) were landed. The Bluefin, Goldens and Greenspots were unusually scarce, but this may be due to the influx of big GT’s which were prowling the flats.
Finally thanks to everyone on the week, especially to Mark for sharing his beautiful photographs with us. Keep an eye out for his photographic expose on St Brandon’s in a future issue of Fly Fishing in Salt Water.