An Island with Continuous Rainfall and Wind, Wind, Wind…

Rodrigues, February 2013

Four years after a tragic boat accident I ventured back to the isle of eternal winds. My fishing pal Klaus Liedtke, who did most of the organization work, and my wife Martina also came along. We stayed at a marvellous hotel called the “Tekoma” which was opened only a few months ago – most recommendable and guaranteed to make you feel comfortable. We had booked five outings on “Why Not” in advance but our eight-day stay was unfortunately marred by a cyclone passing through with its accompanying high winds and heavy rainfall. Reef fishing with poppers thus had to be cancelled completely.

On our five trips we caught about 30 tunas up 100 lbs., some wahoos, skipjacks, dorados, barracudas, 2 marlins and some toothy reef dwellers while jigging.

We had a total of five marlin strikes and caught one 335 lb. black marlin which took our “Little Grander” lure and one small blue marlin of around 120 lbs. (subsequently released) which fell for our “Striker” lure. One blue marlin weighing an estimated 250 lbs. threw the hook some twenty minutes into the fight and one very big marlin was hooked on our “Little Grander” lure but snapped the Dacron line after a 700 meter sprint and dozens auf wild jumps due to a blockage in the reel’s drag system – very, very annoying and completely unnecessary. It really is so simple to keep your fishing gear in good condition and this particularly applies to the charter boats. The fifth marlin attack was a classic missed strike in the strong winds and high waves. The black marlin estimated at about 500 lbs. missed the “Striker” lure and its mouth got tangled up in the leader. It was gone after a couple of jumps.

Summary:

Over this period we were the only charter fishing boat at sea and, had the weather conditions been better, would certainly have been able to make some sensational catches. There were masses of tuna schools. We were greeted at the drop-off every day by thousands of birds and at times had two or three tuna on at the same time. There is one scene I’m unlikely to forget in a hurry. We had a triple bite and large marlin lure, a “Grander 1238”, was still in the water hanging off an outrigger. There were about seven tunas attacking this lure and one of them finally hooked itself. There was always a chance of a marlin turning up in these tuna schools. Regrettably, we were never able to fish for more than three hours due to the long time it took to steam out to the drop-off. We were unlucky to lose a very large yellowfin, which had taken our “BWF Special Combilure”, right alongside the boat just before it was to be gaffed – the hook slipped.

Unfortunately, they still fish in the classic Mauritian style after a bite – this means fighting the fish from a stationary boat. Nobody down there knows anything about manoeuvring in reverse gear or parallel to the fish. A further disadvantage of this boat is the difficulty in wiring specimen fish in rough seas because of the two outboard engines fixed to the stern. It does have a small depth sounder to find the drop-off but unfortunately no fish-finder specifically for jigging. Lines are fished until they snap and in my opinion too little attention is paid to regular servicing and maintenance work. With charter prices now exceeding 500 euros they ought to be paying a lot more attention to this. In my assessment you could have plenty of surprises over the drop-off with a properly-equipped boat, a captain with international experience and a suitable crew.

Stephan Kreupl, February 2013