Fly Fishing Blog by Alphonse Fishing Co™

ALPHONSE ISLAND FLY FISHING REPORT | 04 JAN – 11 JAN 2025

The second week of 2025 was an interesting week of fishing in that we had some of our most consistent weather in recent times but the fish were not quite as hungry as what we’ve grown used to. Nonetheless, our guests made the most of some beautiful neap tides and the awesome weather, managing to land some great fish.

The angler who enjoyed the most success this week by a long way was returning guest Chris Griffith. Chris carried his recent GT form from his Cosmoledo trip back and got to work on St Francois. His first day saw him land three GTs, the biggest of which was a 93 cm beaut which ended up being our biggest geet of the week. Chris would continue to strive on the GT front and landed two more during his week, bringing his tally up to five for the week, some incredible fishing given the fact that only three other GTs were landed during the week. In addition to his hunting of the local GTs, Chris was eager to target some of our triggerfish when the tide was right.

His guide for the day took him to Milky Way finger where the two were walking in some waste deep water, scanning the grass patches and potholes for triggers. Not long after the walk began both Chris and his guide started seeing a lot of fish, and knew that if they were patient and made the right casts some luck would definitely come their way. Chris managed to hook and lose two fish, frustratingly, but knew that there were plenty more chances to come. His guide then spotted a solid yellow-margin feeding on some dark grass, its head completely buried and unaware of their presence. A great cast was made ahead of the fish, and Chris let the fly sink and drift with the current slightly towards the trigger. He began stripping at the right moment which bought the fly very close to the feeding fish, which looked up and furiously attacked the fly. Chris went tight instantly, and the fish surged off the edge of the finger in an attempt to escape, but Chris was armed with some strong leader and managed to turn the fish very quickly and bought it into the net. It was a cracking margin of 48 cm, our biggest of the week and an amazing catch. Chris wasn’t done just yet, on his last day he caught our only two moustache triggers of the week, one of which was a very respectable 40 cm. Well done on your incredible week of fishing Chris!

The milkfish continued to show their faces again this week, and this time around in even greater numbers than previous weeks. Interestingly, it seemed as though the milkfish had disregarded the tides as they were seen throughout the day, in the deep water around both Alphonse and St Francois Atolls. Seeing large groups of milkfish feeding along the surface, with mouths wide open, slurping as they go is a sight that gets the adrenaline pumping, it was very difficult not to run out to St Francois every morning and have a dip at one of these silver powerhouses, or have a go when the flats fishing got a bit slow. Well done to Peter Rippin who caught two milks in two short sessions, Jacopo who caught his first ever milk, Gavin on his beautiful 90 cm milkfish, Jason on the biggest milk of the week – a 95 cm beast, Alexey on adding another milk to his extensive list and to Mike who caught one on his first ever session targeting them. We hope you all had a great time catching these machine-like fish!

The only other yellow-margin triggerfish caught this week was landed by Jason Miller whilst on the hunt for permit, this beaut was caught on some very light leader and made for an epic fight on the white sand flats, measuring around 47 cm. Congratulations on this special catch Jason! And lastly a big well done to David Koo who caught two GTs in two days and Mark Hyatt who landed his first ever GT!

We look forward to a new week of fishing and at the moment the conditions are set to be fantastic, we’re certainly hoping the fish fire up even more. Stay tuned for next week’s report.

Tight lines, Blue Safari Fly Fishing

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