“We had an EXTREME weekend”
READ MORE ABOUT THEIR ADVENTURE
READ MORE ABOUT THEIR ADVENTURE
We started this fishing charter southwards to the large coral reefs around Mafia Island. Guided by our friends’ desire to catch deep-water bottom predators, we traveled towards places with appropriate depths. Moving away from the shore, we noticed many flocks of birds on the horizon, which meant large tuna shoals were looking for food in those waters. Some of us wanted to try casting for tuna but, guided by our friends’ greatest passion–jigging techniques–we continued to the jigging sites. We enjoyed observing the tuna as we passed.
We arrived at the planned location and started catching as soon as our lures reached the bottom. Our most common catches were various types of Snappers and Groupers as well as Amberjacks. We also caught some good sized Giant Trevallys.
Fighting fish with the slow jigging equipment from this depth was an emotional experience. We kept changing the depths and trying out different types, weights and colors of lures. We discovered the culprit for several lost lures by catching a Spanish Mackerel. Green Jobfish, Rusty Jobfish, Emperor, Two-spot Red Snapper and Barrakuda created a diverse catch for the day.
Over the following days, we continued catching fish with various fishing styles according to our friends’ desires: nice specimens of Tuna and Mahi-mahi on casting, and Wahoo, Mahi-mahi, Yellowfin Tuna, Little Tunny Tuna and Green Jobfish with trolling. We also came across several areas extremely rich in Giant Trevally. Boat sonar clearly showed shoals of the large fish at suitable depths for fast and slow jigging.
Each of us was able to experience of catching Giant Trevally with light slow jigging equipment. In a few hours we caught more than twenty Giant Trevally, several Groupers, Two-spot Red Snapper, and Bluefin Trevally. It was not uncommon to have fish on all four rods at the same time. For the rest of our stay, we returned to these places to catch more of these wonderful fish whenever we had the opportunity.
In the last days of our expedition we decided to visit Latham Island. The island is a paradise for seabirds and is surrounded by vast areas of shallow coral reefs and crystalline blue water, creating great opportunities to catch a monster Giant Trevally. The first strikes hit shortly after we started fishing with casting lures, but unfortunately we were unable to recognize them as we needed some time to adapt to fishing with hard topwater lures. Soon after, we caught the first trophy Giant Trevally and Bluefin Trevally. Damaged hooks and topwater lures and many caught fish created unforgettable memories.
It was a highly productive fishing charter with a huge variety of fish species caught. All desired fishing techniques and equipment were tried. The smiles on the faces of all my friends showed a desire for future meetings.
