The Alphonse season is one of our longest, stretching from the early weeks of September through to the end of April. The fishery never ceases to amaze and is right up there with the best fisheries in the world. Thousands of bonefish, hundreds of milkfish, triggerfish, permit and GT’s kept our guests busy throughout yet another exceptional season. Roughly a dozen anglers fished each week, with the odd standout rarity, a striped marlin, a record wahoo, and probably one of the best bluewater seasons to date.
Bonefish were the backbone of the season, with roughly 6,000 landed across twenty four weeks. The number of fish caught weekly ebbed and flowed throughout the season, from a few hundred in some weeks to over 200 fish, with the highest number of fish caught in a week at a whopping 348 in early February. The bonefish of the season went to Bill with an impressive fish of 72 cm in late October. Beyond the numbers, bonefish delivered some of the season’s most heartwarming stories: Steven and Jenny, both completely new to saltwater fly fishing, went from landing their very first bones on day two to boating over 40 fish together in a single session, while countless other first-timers celebrated trophy bones over 65 cm on their very first trip to the atoll.
Permit remained true to form and kept every angler on their toes. That said, an impressive haul of over 50 fish were landed this season, and a remarkable number of them were first ever catches. The season’s largest fish came early, with a 69 cm fish landed by Dirk, some other notable mentions include a fish landed by Ed, breaking a ten-year personal endeavour, and Beto’s coming in close to Dirk’s largest fish, with an impressive 67cm specimen. Vitto landed two fish over 50 cm in a single trip, and Caroline finally got the skunk off her back in April after years of trying, and Murray closed out the season with a 64 cm trophy permit as part of a full flats slam.
The milk fishing around the Alphonse group is as consistent as ever, and it firmly remains the best place in the world to target this species. The season total ended up close on 150 fish landed, with several of them being first for our clients. Landing a milkfish over a meter is no easy feat, with a good few landed during the season in this size class. David took the season’s specimen, though, with a fish of 110cm, a true monster of a milkfish that gave him a good workout on the front of the skiff.
Moustache and yellow-margin triggerfish combined for around 175 catches across the season, with the season’s best week accounting for an insane 19 fish landed. Father and daughter duo David and Maddie alone landed seven between them in their week. The biggest trigger of the season was tied with two yellow-margin’s at exactly 54 cm, landed by Gareth and Maria, respectively. Kyle, who is no stranger to these fish and guided many in his lifetime, joined us on the flats as a guest and landed three moustache triggers in a single session. As always, we welcomed many a new angler to the beauty of trigger fishing, some left with a debt to be settled with these fish, while many others ticked their first trigger off the list.
The Alphonse group has never been known as the place to catch GTs; however, the opportunity is always there, and when it arises, some anglers made it count this season. Including some large specimens over the 1 meter mark, Antony, Ken, Mark, Colin, Houston and Donald all joining the club. Richard landed the fish of the season though with an extremely impressive 121cm fish. Among the big fish, we had multiple other fish landed, with many an angler ticking their first GT off the list this season, an impressive accomplishment on the Alphonse group.
Catching a batfish is something the team on the Alphonse group recently caught onto; this species ebbs and flows throughout the season, with higher abundances being in the transition periods between our seasons (September/October and May). Over 20 fish were landed throughout, which is an impressive feet from 1 or 2 a season a few years ago. The specimen of the season was a 52 cm fish from David.
This season was probably one of the best offshore seasons we have seen around the Alphonse group, the sailfish, wahoo and tuna provided endless action on both fly and trawling gear for our guests throughout. Some of the noteworthy seasons included Ken and Tommy, who landed 14 wahoo, two sailfish, three tuna and two barracuda in a single day, the same week Jeff and Don landed the biggest wahoo ever recorded on the Alphonse group. A family outing later in the season produced a prized striped marlin, the first caught we know of.
Alphonse and St François Atolls showed us the world-class fishery it is yet again, incredible bonefish numbers, phenomenal permit numbers, GTs, a significant number of triggerfish and as always, the best milk fishing in the world. Countless firsts and personal bests for guests from around the world. Thank you to every angler who joined us this season. We look forward to welcoming you back to Alphonse soon.