FARQUHAR FISHING REPORT
Week four of the season started off with ten guests from across Ireland, USA and the UK. Good fish were seen, and several anglers made their shots count, coming away with many bell ringer’s during the evenings ceremonies.
Firas and Peter both kicked their trips off with a great start landing their first GT on fly. Laurel also joined the list of firsts and landed her first bonefish on Farquhar. Day two proved tough with some trying overcast conditions, Peter kept the hopes up and landed himself another GT.
Day three was sure one for the books with Curtis landing his first GT for the week. James and Bill paired up on guide Chad’s boat, James landed his first GT for the trip and Bill took the angler of the day award. Landing his first GT on his first cast of the day, he then backed it up with another great specimen, with both anglers having landed fish Chad convinced Bill and James to go look for a big fish in the deep. Polling towards the first coral head it was apparent that multiple large black GTs were scattered amongst the corals. Bill made a cast into the middle of the black mass of fish and chaos ensued with multiple fish seeing the boat and spooking, after a great recast further from the boat a hefty black GT broke the surface violently and the black and purple brush fly vanished from sight. During the commotion of the fight Bill managed to lose the top section of his fly rod, with cool heads and some heart stopping moments the fish and the top section of the rod were netted together. Bill came away with a true gangster of the flats experience and became a member of the metre GT club. A stocky and healthy 100 cm GT!
Firas also had a day to remember, teamed up with guide and manager Shaun, he started his day with a juvenile permit just to get the fish sense tingling. A little later in the day while having lunch, Shaun and Firas spotted a large permit patrolling the beach on a very specific route that Shaun had noticed before. Having identified the permit as one he had been after for some time. Shaun ran down the beach with Firas to line up a shot, armed with a white flexo crab, Firas laid out two casts and had no reaction. The third cast worked a charm though with a perfect cast and a few strips, the permit ate the fly aggressively. Firas played the fish carefully and Shaun kept a close eye on the sharks in the area, managing to keep them at bay until Firas could tire out the fish enough to be netted successfully. Neither Shaun nor Firas could believe what had just happened. A 71 cm Indo-Pacific permit and a trophy that only a short list of people have managed to claim. The GT count continued to tick over on day four and five, with Peter, Bill and Curtis all landing another and Simon joined the club with his first for the week.
Day six proved to be a memorable one for a few of our anglers finishing a phenomenal week of fishing on a high. Firas, Curtis and Peter all landed another GT each, ending their trip on a high. Andrew put all the stakes on the table and was able to catch a GT in the nick of time before weeks end. He and Simon then had an offshore session to remember when guide Chad spotted a bait ball just offshore. Racing out to the birds with GT brush flies in hand, hundreds of flying fish were spotted breaching the surface and taking flight, most likely escaping from yellowfin tuna. Simon and Andrew both managed to hook multiple tuna and in the end, three were landed. Two for Simon and one for Andrew, finishing the day off with a bang!
