Fishing In Mauritius

Thats right, I did go fishing in Mauritius in June this year. How lucky am I to have had that opportunity.  So let me start from the beginning.

For one week in June my better half and  I were able to enjoy all the sun and fun that this tropical Island had to offer and for one of those days I was even luckier to have been able to go Fishing In Mauritius in pursuit of the ultimate game fish, Marlin, Sailfish, Dorado and GT are all game in the warm seas of the Indian ocean.

With all the big game available for me to target all that I needed to do was ensure I chose a day that had the ideal fishing conditions as well as select an affordable charter that had a good reputation. The company that came highly recommended was Hooker Deep Sea fishing  an outfit run by Sebastian Lagane out of Le Morne Anglers Club, Black River. They have a selection of boats to use and we were on the Hooker V a 38 ft rig with all the amenities you would need.  My excietment grew from when I first booked the trip two days before. Building in excietment to the final night where I could not sleep because it was like the night before christmas. My beautiful wife agreed to come along for the day probably because I had convinced her that it would be an experience not to be missed. Lets just say I am pretty sure she is pleased that she came along.

We needed to be at the Angling club for 7;00 am to ensure that we were on the water no later than 7:30. Our taxi drive would take at least an hour and a half so it was a fairly early start for Justine and I, admittedly not so bad for me because I am used to waking up early to get a couple of hours fishing in before I hit the road for work. Normally the drive to any type of fishing is filled with excitement but this particular one was excruciatingly painful for me as it felt as though the driver took extra care to drive as slowly as he could, at one point I am sure I offerd to take over the driving responsibilities just to ensure we would get there on time. When we eventually arrived we were greeted by the friendly Sebastian with a hot cup of coffee and an explanation of what we could expect for the day.

This explanation went something like this… “In all my life as an angling captain on these waters which has been 15+ years I have not know the fishing to be this bad, we have had the highest of high tides and the lowest of low tides that have been recorded for the last 100 years”  Me “..Gulp..” Sebastian ” ok so now you know the conditions how lucky do you feel?” to this I laughed and replied ” Im feeling lucky” Sebastian smiled and he wished us farewell and good luck as we roared off with the hope and excitement of the day ahead. Now having done some fishing in the Indian ocean before and seen how productive it was my expectations were probably very high even after having had the speech of doom and gloom given to me before setting foot on the boat. This expectation would soon diminish as hour after hour of trawling passed us by with no sniff even with 7 lines out it felt as though I would be doomed to go home empty handed, to top this off the weather was not ideal as we went through a few rain showers.

After about 3 hours of trawling, countless questions from me to the captain about the various rigs on the boat and various other fishing related stories I was getting desperate for anything to take one of our baits. Just as all hope was leaving me that beautiful sound shrieked though the air! one of the smaller set ups was getting absolutely shredded and the line was screaming off the reel. I dropped whatever I was messing around with and ran over to the rod, I remember hearing both the captain and the driver shouting over to me to leave the rod as they wanted to ensure the fish had taken the bait properly. When they gave me the all clear I was able to strike in to the fish to ensure the hook was set and the battle was on. It became immediately clear that this fish was of no real size and as I reeled in and had the first glimpse  of the fish, that unmistakable brilliant colouring went blazing across the water, it was a Dorado of no more than 10lb but you can imagine my relief at having actually finally caught something. After about a minute of reeling in the fish it was nearly time to land the fish and before I write this next part I admit I was happy this happened. The captain reached over the gunnel with the gaff to land this beautiful fish and  can you believe it he not only missed the fish but he also was able  to let the fish swim free off the hook because the tension between the fish and rod was lost whilst he held the line.  Well you could not get a more embarrassed and apologetic captain but I said to him there was no harm done I would not have been happy taking such a beautiful fish out of the sea in the first place. Just to be clear on this point I only go fishing for the sport and operate on a catch and release basis as I don’t like killing any fish unless I am going to eat it for dinner, so for me this was a bonus that I did not end up killing this one

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My day was made, my heart was pounding I was smiling from ear to ear and again found myself staring at the teasers in the water in the hope to see one of the big game fish smash the lures. This was not to happen for the rest of trip back to the Angling club but there was more excitement on the way home.

My wife and I were extremely lucky to have been able to spend about 2 minutes watching a lone sperm wale surfacing and blowing his air funnel. I know it was a he whale because my wife was so amazed by the shear size and spectacle of this whale the she needed to know more and so Google came out and the interesting facts rolled for the rest of the day one of those facts being that the adult male sperm wale is often found travelling alone. When the whale passed it was not long before we had a pod of dolphins swimming along side and under the boat for a while as if to say farewell and thanks for coming and spending a day on our seas.

It was one of those fishing days that although I did not have an amazing catch I felt very privileged to have been Fishing in Mauritius, studied a sperm whale and had a pod of dolphins wave me good bye.

In my next story….”Dedicated To Fishing Small in Mauritius”

Do you consider yourself to be a hard working patient angler?  I am going to tell you about a couple of guys that have to be the most hardcore anglers I know targeting the smallest fish around for often ridiculous amounts of time.