Mauritius - a quest for new species!

It's always exciting planning a holiday, and one of the most important factors for me and my Dad is choosing a destination where we have the chance of catching as many different species as possible, preferably on lures and flies. Prior to our holiday, we normally spend some time researching the internet and looking at Google Earth at rivers, lakes and shorelines in different countries. My Mum, Dad, Nan and I decided Mauritius was somewhere we'd all love to go, as not only would it be a great place for my Mum and Nan to chill out in the sun, but from what we'd researched, it looked the ideal destination to bump up our species list.

Our good friend, Keith Arthur, had recommended a good guiding company, JP Henry Charters, who he'd fished with before in Marlin tournaments, and although we weren't so interested in billfish, we booked two half days and a full day fishing with them, jigging over reefs and deep water drop-offs for various species, in the hope of Dogtooth Tuna, Emperors and many others.

On arrival, our hotel looked great, but better still, there were plenty of interesting looking spots right on the shorefront, including jetties, rocks, walls and some small islands that we could wade to. That's not forgetting the beach! All of these places looked ideal for catching new species.

On our first afternoon Light Rock Fishing, using the new Shakespeare Agility 7' LRF rod, coupled with the Abu Revo Premier 10 reel, we caught 9 new species - Lizardfish, One Spot Snapper, Blackspot Sergeant, Mauritian Gregory, Yellowtail Goatfish and Broadstriped Cardinalfish, to name a few, on chopped pieces of Berkley Gulp! Sandworms, and Powerbait Shrug Minnows, rigged on tiny Berkley Rock Heads.

Occasionally, a group of four or five Giant Trevally would charge the shoreline in front of the hotel, chasing shoals of baitfish, but this would only last for moments at a time. We managed to catch a couple on Sébile Magic Swimmers and Sébile Stick Shadds fished very fast and erratically, which was very exciting!

My Dad also hooked a GT whilst flyfishing for smaller species on his 8wt, and what a fight! It ripped off plenty of backing and took him all over the place, including around some sharp volcanic rocks. Using only 8lb fluorocarbon, he did really well to land it and got a standing ovation from a crowd from the hotel that had gathered behind us!

A couple of days later, Dad and I were picked up from our hotel at 5am for our first day of guided fishing with JP Henry Charters. Pascal Henry, whose family has been running the business for three generations, also runs the famous La Pirogue Fishing Club in Black River. Decorated with historic photos of huge fish and tournaments, IGFA world records as well as replicas of enormous Sailfish and Marlin, it's a great place to chill out and have a beer after a day's fishing!

Using many of the soft baits we use to target Pike, Perch and Zander (Berkley Ripple Shads, Berkley Power Tubes, Flex Rib Shads, Havoc Grass Pigs, Gotam Shads and Sébile A.T Minnows) we had a great day fishing inshore over reefs in around 30ft-50ft of water.

We caught some colourful species such as Lyretail Grouper, Sky Emperor, Blackspot Grouper, Blacktip Grouper, Honeycomb Grouper, Cigar Wrasse, Wedge-tail Triggerfish and a few others - one of which I've yet to find the name of! We must have caught at least 30 fish that day, which was great fun on light jigging gear.

One of the main reasons we'd chosen to holiday in Mauritius was because Dad and I wanted to try and catch and Dogtooth Tuna, but for our best chance of catching these and other larger species, we had to head further out in to the ocean and fish over drop-offs in around 200ft of water. Two days later, we were back at Black River aboard a different boat of the JP Henry fleet, called the Moana 2 - a 42ft Bertram, which is the most luxurious boat we've ever fished from, with an air conditioned cabin, toilet, beds and even a shower!

As it took about 2 hours to reach the drop-offs from Black River, our guide Babooram and his son recommended that we troll out to the areas that we were going to be jigging, and within 20 minutes of starting, we had a blistering run on one of the rods and I found myself in the fighting chair, playing one of the fastest fish in the ocean - a Wahoo! I was well chuffed as it was my first ever Wahoo, and a nice one too at around 50lbs!

Not long afterwards we arrived at the drop-offs. We both started with 4.5" Berkley Flex Rib Shads in Purple Chartreuse and Natural on 35g jigheads (1 1/4oz) and dropped down. Almost instantly after hitting the bottom, Dad was hooked up and battling what looked like a decent fish. It turned out to be a beautiful Spangled Emperor.

On our next drop down I also hooked in to a fish. As I looked below the boat, I could see I was playing a nice Grouper. At first, it looked dark grey, but as it got closer to the boat it began to change colour, to a glowing red/yellow/orange - it looked like it had been Tango'd! It was a Lyretail Grouper, and what a stunning looking fish!

I decided to change soft bait to a 6" Berkley Hollow Belly in Orange, and after dropping down, hitting the bottom and a couple of jigs, I had a savage take. Even though I had the clutch on my Penn Spinfisher set very tight, it tore off and I wondered when it was going to stop!

After a few minutes of more runs and lots of head shaking, I finally managed to pump it up from the depths. It was an amazing looking fish - quite different to anything else I've ever caught before, nicknamed a 'Captain Fish' by the locals, but as I've recently found out, the real name is a Longnose Emperor.

We had a great morning's fishing and caught a few more exotic species including a Golden Hind and Mackerel Tuna, or KawaKawa, before we had to head back in. Luckily, we had the following morning booked too for some offshore jigging, and this time we decided to try speed jigging as well as jigging soft baits. Our first fish of the day, which my Dad caught, was one of the species we'd been hoping to catch - a Dogtooth Tuna. It wasn't a big one by Dogtooth standards, but it still gave my Dad a great fight on the speed jigging outfit he was using.

Not long after, Dad also caught a colourful Lyretail Grouper, again speed jigging.

Unfortunately, on the second half day, we lost the odd fish. However, on the last drop down, Dad hooked in to a hard-hitting fish, which turned out to be a Giant Trevally, to round off what had been a brilliant few days fishing.

I managed to film a few of the fish we caught jigging offshore, including the Wahoo, Longnose Emperor and GT on my GoPro camera and put together a video - here's the link:

We thought that was going to be the last of our offshore fishing, but on the plane we'd met a fellow fisherman called Jon Walker, who happened to be staying at the same hotel as us. When we got back from our morning's fishing, he kindly asked us if we'd be interested in joining him on a trip the very next day with a charter boat not far from our hotel, on the hunt for a Marlin. An offer like that is very hard to turn down, so we were up again very early, ready for another trip!

After a few hours trolling with no sign of a Marlin, we decided to change over to crankbaits and target Wahoo and Tuna. Unfortunately, I lost a Wahoo, but both Jon and Dad caught some fantastic Yellowfin Tuna. A big thank you to Jon for inviting us to fish with him - it was a great day!

Although we ended up fishing most days for at least a couple of hours, we did get round to some sightseeing. Strangely though, whenever we go sightseeing we always seem to end up near water, and our taxi driver, Rajiv, decided to take us to Grand Bassin, a Hindu Temple beside a beautiful lake. He'd mentioned that if we took along some bread, we would see some large Eels - they weren't large, they were HUGE! They were the biggest freshwater Eels we've ever seen - they must have weighed between 20-30lb, maybe bigger. They looked more like Congers! What surprised us more was they were gulping bread off the surface just like Carp, which was amazing to watch. Unfortunately though, you can't fish Grand Bassin as the lake is sacred!

As well as visiting a volcano and a tea plantation, we ended up at another Hindu Temple called Sagar Shiv Mandir, situated on the estuary of a river. Just by chance, we happened to have the Shakespeare LRF rod and an Abu Rocksweeper 7' in the boot of the car. After looking around the temple, out came the rods!

We couldn't believe it - almost straight away we were catching new species we hadn't seen around the hotel. I even talked my Nan in to having a go and she caught a Ring-tail Cardinal. The Hindu Temple was probably one of the most unusual places I've ever fished, but it was excellent fishing!

On our penultimate day we asked our taxi driver, Rajiv, who had been very helpful, if he could take us back to the temple, but also try a couple of other places on the way. We wanted to try and catch some freshwater fish, so he took us to an allotment, fishing in some drains/ditches that were connected to a river, to provide the allotment with fresh water.

Although we saw some big Tilapia, they were very spooky and weren't interested in our tiny soft baits, but we did manage to catch lots of Glassies, and Dad also landed a Widehead Sleeper on a curtail.

After fishing in the allotment for an hour or two, we followed the river downstream to the estuary where the Hindu temple was situated. Jigging Berkley Shrug Minnows, Gulp! Sandworms and Berkley Johnson Beetle Shads and Tubes, some of the new species we caught included Blacktail Snapper, Thumbprint Emperor, Creole Damsel, Dusky Spinefoot, Ring-tailed Cardinal and my Dad even caught a small GT on a Berkley Beetle Critter!

After fishing one more spot and catching five more new species - Doublebar Goatfish, Indian Ocean Pinstriped Wrasse, Blue Chub, Grey Demoiselle and another I'm yet to find the name of, we were back at the hotel by 2pm, adding another 10 species to our lists that day! Dad and I also filmed 14 different species we caught Light Rock Fishing and put together a 3 and a half minute video:

We had a fantastic time in Mauritius - it's a beautiful country with very friendly people, and a place I'd love to back to again sometime. I think we only scraped the surface as far as species are concerned, but we still managed to catch 43 in total - 28 new ones for me and 35 new ones for my Dad.

Santa Craws!

In last month's post, I mentioned that I've been studying for my Level 2 Coaching Course, and as part of the qualification I have to run four sessions to participants, whilst being assessed by a current Level 2 coach. I held my sessions at Get Hooked on Fishing Ealing where James Thornhill, Ealing's Project Manager, watched over me. For the first two sessions my participant was Aaron Sokhi, and for the last two was Michal Dziemianko from the Polish Angler's Association. Prior to the sessions I hadn't fished at Ealing since the last Angling Trust/GHoF Family Fishing event there, and with the weather cooling down significantly since then, the fishing had become harder. Aaron and Michal were great participants, and a big thanks to them for coming along and helping me with my assessment - also thanks to James for assessing me too! Taking my Level 2 Coaching Course is all part of the GHoF Bedfordshire project, and I'll be able to reveal more news about the initiative after the new year, including a launch date!

Apart from one full day's fishing on Pitsford a fortnight ago, our trips have been short afternoon sessions close to home. Interestingly, this Autumn we've found that Crayfish imitations and creature baits have been very successful for both Pike and Perch along our local rivers. The Berkley Rocket Craw and Berkley Crazy Legs Chigger Craws have been two of my favourite soft baits this year and we've had some enjoyable short afternoons fishing these Texas style on Owner Ultrahead Finesse Ball Weights. The biggest Perch we've caught was by my Dad - a chunky stripey weighing 3lb 4oz, falling for a Rocket Craw.

A couple of days after Dad caught this Perch, we had an afternoon exploring a lake we'd never lure fished before. Dad started jigging with a 2" Berkley Ripple Shad, intended for Perch, whilst I was using a heavier set-up targeting Pike. Within 20 minutes of arriving Dad hooked in to a good fish on his light Abu Veritas spinning rod, which gave him an exciting fight - it was a stunningly-marked Pike of 16lb 11oz, which took his 2" Ripple Shad!

Shortly after, I also hooked in to a good Pike, but my run of losing fish continued - I'm guessing this fish was around 15lbs, and it came off right at the net! Apart from a small Rudd on a tiny curltail, that was all we caught, but I'm looking forward to going back and giving it another try!

Our only reservoir trip over the past fortnight was to Pitsford. Ken Brewster, Pure Fishing's Sales and Marketing Director, asked me if I could take him lure fishing for Perch, in the hope that he would catch a fish over 2lb. We'd had a trip to Grafham the previous week and caught lots of small Perch and Zander, but nothing big, so although we hadn't fished Pitsford for a couple of months, we decided to give it a try.

I fished with Ken whilst my Dad fished on his own in another boat. Throughout the morning we caught quite a few Pike on Berkley Ripple Shads and Sébile A.T Minnows, but no Perch.

However, at around 11am we noticed Dad about 80 yards away playing what looked like a substantial fish, again on his light Abu Veritas spinning rod. The fish had swum in to a big weeded so not only was he playing the fish, but a huge blanket of weed too! He eventually netted the fish (and the weed!), and I think it was probably one of the fattest Pike I've ever seen, weighing 21lb 9oz! It took a jigged Sébile A.T Minnow in Coffee Cream.

After releasing the Pike, we found a few smaller Perch and also caught a few more Pike, but the bigger Perch didn't switch on until the last hour or so. I landed a stripey of 2lb 15 1/2oz on a jigged Ripple Shad, then right at the end of the day, Ken caught a cracker of 3lb 8oz, again on a Ripple Shad, which smashed his previous P.B!

For my birthday a couple of weeks ago, I was very lucky to get a GoPro camera from my family, and earlier in the week I used it for the first time fishing a local river. During the afternoon, Dad and I limited ourselves to using only one soft bait, which has become one of our favourites over the past year - the Sébile A.T Minnow. It was fascinating filming bites, playing fish and getting underwater footage of the A.T Minnow. We caught lots of small Pike and Perch, then right at the end of the day Dad caught a Perch weighing 2lb 15oz.

Not long after, I also caught an immaculate stripey of 3lb 2oz, however there was so little light and although we got it on film, the footage was too dark to use, as you could hardly make out the fish - it was just a black shape! At least we managed to get a photo!

Here's the video...

2014 has been a big learning curve for me in many aspects, and I've enjoyed every minute of being involved with Get Hooked on Fishing, Pure Fishing, the Pitsford Pirates and the Team England Lure Squad. I hope you all have a great Christmas, and tight lines for the new year!

The 'few' that got away!

This past month, I've been working on the new Get Hooked on Fishing Bedfordshire project, as well as studying for my Level 2 Coaching Course, and squeezing in time to get afloat or on the bank seems to have been just as hard as the fishing. Disappointingly, when my Dad and I have gone fishing, and one of us has hooked in to a good fish, they've frustratingly come off - a couple of these we clearly saw, which were very big Perch. The most recent of these happened on the River Lea, when my Dad hooked in to a big stripey on a crankbait, which at first he thought was the bottom. It came up to the surface and shook free of the tail treble, which was a real gutter!

After losing that Perch, we returned a few days later for a short afternoon session. Unfortunately, the stripeys didn't play ball, but after changing to a Berkley Havoc Rocket Craw (which Dad had already caught a couple of small jacks on), at the end of my first cast a Pike swiped at the lure and missed - I then let the Rocket Craw fall to the bottom, which was followed by the Pike. One twitch was all that was needed and WHAM! It weighed 12lb 10oz, which is a good Pike for the Lea.

Not long after releasing the Pike it began to get dark, so I changed colour and fished a white Rocket Craw. After a couple of casts to an overhanging bush, as my Rocket Craw hit the bottom I felt something take. At first I thought I'd hooked in to another nice Pike as it tore off downstream, but as the fight went on, I began to realise it was likely I may have hooked a Carp, and as it broke the surface, my prediction was right!

It was a cracking fish, and after a couple of photographs, I put the fish back in the water whilst Dad went to get out the scales. I must have switched off at that point, because I let the fish go, forgetting that Dad was on hand with the scales. I turned around to him and said "it swam off fine" and he looked at me a bit shellshocked! I have no idea why I let the fish go without weighing it, as it was certainly my biggest lure caught Carp, probably around 14-16lbs in weight. I think I just wanted to get fishing again!

We've managed a couple of trips to Grafham and caught lots of Perch, Zander and Pike from a couple of interesting features we'd found on our Lowrance HDS, although none of these fish have been huge. On one of the days the reservoir was flat calm - almost like a mirror.

The biggest Perch, which Dad caught, weighed 3lb exactly, that took a chatterbait with a Berkley Pit Chunk trailer. Shortly afterwards, he lost yet another big fish, which we think was an even better Perch!

On the 31st October, Ketan Sanghani, a volunteer for Get Hooked on Fishing Ealing, embarked on a challenge to try and catch a fish from every GHoF project in the country over the course of two days, using a different technique or method with each Project Manager. My problem was that GHoF Bedfordshire is yet to be stocked with fish, as it was dredged last year and the fish were removed, so after meeting up with Ketan, who was also accompanied by Charlie Moore from GHoF Ealing and Sarah Collins, we quickly showed him around the project before jumping in the car and heading to a free stretch of the River Ivel about a mile or so away. By the time he'd arrived at GHoF Bedfordshire at 10am, Ketan had already fished with James Thornhill at GHoF Ealing and caught a Bream!

Ketan only had an hour to catch a fish, and we were hoping to catch it on a lure, so after targeting Pike and Perch for half an hour with no success, we switched to drop-shotting a Berkley Power Maggot and with just minutes to spare, Ketan caught a Dace!

After releasing the Dace, it was time to say goodbye as Ketan and Charlie headed to Cudmore Fisheries for the next leg of his challenge. The great news is that Ketan caught many species and completed the challenge, raising over £1000 for the Get Hooked on Fishing charity, which was match funded by Barclays bank! What an achievement Ketan and Charlie - well done lads!

We stayed and fished until dark, and it was probably a good idea we didn't continue to fish for the Pike and Perch as we only caught a couple, but I did land a chunky Chub on a Sébile A.T Minnow.

A few days later, Chris Gadsden, known as Crispy Duck to many of his friends and a good friend of the charity, had managed to get special permission for the three of us to to lure fish Royal Berkshire Fisheries for a day - a venue near Windsor with a reputation of producing big Perch. The day had been planned for quite a while and we were really looking forward to trying a venue which had never seen lures!

The night before, there had been the first hard frost of the year and it was also very foggy, so we arrived an hour late because of the traffic on the M25. We had a great breakfast in the café on site with Crispy before starting our fishing. It was very bright and sunny in the morning, but as it clouded over in the afternoon, we started to get some bites. Interestingly, we found that despite the coloured water, we caught most of our fish on very dull soft plastics, and when Dad changed to a really scaled down drop-shot rig with tiny soft baits, he started to catch almost one a chuck, although the Perch were only small, plus a couple of nice Roach. He did catch a couple of larger stripeys though, one of which was 2lb+, on a jigged Berkley Ribbontail Grub.

I stuck to using larger baits and didn't catch as many, however I hooked in to a very big fish, which boiled on the surface before throwing the hook right at the end of the day - I was gutted! I checked the hook and it was sticky sharp, so maybe it was just one of those things. Our luck has got to change sometime!

Crispy had also caught a couple of small Perch drop-shotting, and then fished with bait late in the afternoon, along with Eddie Edwards, Alan Bailey and Bill Rushmer, and it didn't take him long to catch a lovely Perch of 2lb 6oz, whilst Eddie and Alan landed lots of cracking Roach and the occasional Carp too.

Another angler also caught a 2lb 10oz and a 2lb 7oz Perch - maggots and prawns seemed to be the top baits. A big thank you to Royal Berkshire Fisheries for allowing us to have special permission to lure fish, and thanks again to Chris, Eddie and Alan for a great day!

Finally, last week I gave a talk on Wednesday evening to the Bedford region of the Pike Angler's Club of Great Britain. It's a bit daunting telling stories to seasoned anglers and thankfully, I didn't see anybody run out the door! Thank you to Andy Syddell for inviting me along - my next talk will be for the Suffolk PAC on January 6th next year.