Well what can I say, as I sit here reflecting on a trip that quite honestly blew my mind.
It’s been over 48 hours since my line was last in the water and yet the aches and pains from doing battle with super hard fighting Tuna, Coral Trout, GT’s and many other reef and pelagic species, are still very much present……and I didn’t fish half as much as some of the guests we had last week! Rodrigues is one insane fishing destination.
So how did our trip pan out?
We started of course, with the long journey out there. A three stage adventure that began with a short hour long flight to Paris, centred around an 11.5 hour stint to Mauritius and finished with a 1 hour 40 minute flight to Rodrigues.
Once on the island, we were met by the very friendly Charline, who sorted out our 20 minute transfer to the Cocotiers Hotel. Here we would relax and sort our fishing gear ready for the first few days fishing.
Days 1 & 2:
The first few days followed a similar pattern, trolling for 1.5 hours out to the reefs. Although this method was slow on this occasion, it still passed the time nicely and resulted in a couple of Wahoo and a Barracuda.
Once on the reefs though, it was speed jigging tactics all the way…..the faster you could work the jig, the better the results. To say fishing was good on these reefs would be a huge understatement.
Between our group, we boated dozens of huge Coral Trout to over 50lbs (All members of the group getting fish this size), Dogtooth Tuna to over 70lbs (Simon getting the best of the bunch), a handful of Lyretail Grouper (Glenn in particular having a knack for these), a single Yellowfin Tuna, a single Black Skipjack, a single Bluefin Trevally (Glenn) and a few other small reef dwellers.
Days 3 & 4:
Pencilled in as rest days on the original schedule, we could have taken some time out to relax and enjoy the beautiful surroundings of Rodrigues, or even gone to see the local population of Giant Tortoise, but of course we went fishing.
I actually managed to book a local skipper with the help of Charline again for the two days. This was real inshore stuff, often fishing in water no deeper than 12m, but it was no less intense. Both days we chose to popper fish for GTs and both days we saw some action.
On the first day, I was lucky enough to boat a nice fish at 16kg, whilst Paul managed two fish at 14 and 13kg. There were 2 fish hooked and lost too.
On the second day, unfortunately only one fish was hooked up, which after a solid fight ended in a reefing for Simon. We were all gutted for him, as he’d also has some bad luck with one the previous day. He’d make up for it though over the next few days…
Days 5-7:
This was the main event. A 60hr mega trip to the Hawkins bank. It’s not for the faint hearted, I must say. The steam out to the bank is around 120 miles and takes 11 hours each way. Sleeping on the boat can be rather fun in the swells too, but we were so tired from the fishing, this wasn’t really an issue.
Once on the bank, fishing was just incredible. Over two days we boated in excess of 70 Yellowfin Tuna using trolling and fly tactics (topped out around 60lb), over 30 Dogtooth Tuna to around 60lb using jig and trolling tactics, a dozen or so Black Jack’s to 15lb on the jigs, half a dozen Blue Trevally on jigs, half a dozen small Amberjacks on jigs, a couple of Wahoo trolling, a few two spot Red Snapper on jigs, a few Jobfish on jig and the highlight of the week, a 450lb Blue Marlin, which Simon expertly played to the boat after an unbelievable first run. So many fish and memories, it’s still hard to get over what happened.
Before we knew it though, it was time to head back to the island. All aching from head to toe, we knew it had been an epic adventure, but my god was it worth it.
I’ve now got 36 hours turn around before it’s back to Norway for me. No rest for the wicked hey!
Already looking forward to Rodrigues 2023 though! A trip id highly recommended to any serious angler.
CONTACT US
Does this sound like a tour that you could handle? If you would like to learn more about the stunning lodge and fishing available at Rodrigues Island, additional information can be found about this tour here. If you have any questions please feel free to call our Big game fishing experts in the office on 01603 407596 or by emailing us at info@sportquestholidays.com.
