Rodrigues Hawkins Bank Nov 2011 Report

[Kaiser Pro Shop]

Kaiser Pro Team was up in Rodrigues, an awesome multi-fishing destination once again this year.

Weather was very good, too good perhaps the seas a little bit too calm but we still managed some nice fish on jigs!

Chris did exceptionally well with a 50kg doggie landed on very light gear with a Hooker jig...a Venom 250FT...Amazing stuff!

Another 50kg doggie landed with a Williamson's abyss jigs at night on a Synit Venom 550FT.

Other nice catches include Caranx up to 20kg, yellowfin up to 20kg on trolling and wahoo up to 20kg also on trolling.

We had a nice hammerhead close to 80kg on bait and the usual monster coral trouts close to 30kg.

Jigging at Jurassic point at Hawkins was amazing!..multiple bust-offs, some due to sharks and some due to bad luck...several monsters were hooked up on jig but we were unable to turn them.

Deckie steve managed to break the IGFA all tackle world record for 2 spot red snapper (red bass) with a nice 16kg specimen although the fish was not caught conventionally so not submitted for ratification.

[Mark Harris]

Excellent report Mark and thanks for sharing.

A 50 kg Doggie on a little Synit Venom 250?  Wow! How long did that take?

I noticed you guys did a bit of trolling (no doubt to give the arms a rest). Does that mean that there are decent top water casting opportunities at Rodrigues as well as the world class jigging?

Top effort and well done to everyone involved.

[Kaiser Pro Shop]

Excellent report Mark and thanks for sharing.

A 50 kg Doggie on a little Synit Venom 250?  Wow! How long did that take?

I noticed you guys did a bit of trolling (no doubt to give the arms a rest). Does that mean that there are decent top water casting opportunities at Rodrigues as well as the world class jigging?

Top effort and well done to everyone involved.

Hi Mark,

Thanks. Must catch up with you in Bali soon, wife wants a trip there! Good to hear that you are better too!

Yes, Rodrigues is a multi-fishing destination. Yann will not do 100% jig trips, Yann wants Rodrigues to be known as a multi-fishing destination.

Rod Fishing Club has 4 different world records on 3 different techniques.

After breaking the Marlin record, an angler from the USA wanted to charter Black Marlin for 2 weeks...just to troll for Marlin. But Yann declined because Rodrigues is a multi-fishing destination.

However GT enthusiasts on this forum might want to note that GT popping around the high reef is not good anymore so if you main aim is to pop for GT then Rodrigues isn't the place.

A lot of big fish there and records waiting to be broken. We must have smashed the 2 spot red snapper (red bass) record twice this trip!

cheers,
mark

[Kaiser Pro Shop]

Chris took about 15 min to subdue the 50kg doggie with the Synit Venom & a heavily modified Boss reel.

[Brad Anderson]

Mark
That trout your hanging is insane. Pound for pound these must go hard trying to get back to the safety of the plates.
Do you loose alot of gear fishing the coral and knowing these monsters are around? or gear up and skull drag them out?
Some great photos mate
Cheers
Brad

[Mark Harris]

Red Bass of that size must be really good sport. 

With all those top water fish caught trolling it has be worth throwing stickbaits and poppers.

Did you manage to get many Dogtooth back into the water alive or were they fight to the death jobs?

If Mrs Richards fancies a trip to Bali, that is great news. You and I can disappear for a day or 2 .

[Kaiser Pro Shop]

Hi Mark,

Just sent you an email about Bali.

Yes, we released the smaller doggies, quite a few of them but no pictures as we didn't want to waste time when the bite was on. The smaller ones take well to release but the bigger doggies often surface belly-side up making release very tough unfortunately.

Yann has had a few customers who have tried top water casting at Hawkins. Some have managed to hook Doggies and GTs but nothing massive on topwater at Hawkins. Maybe if a pod of YFT swims by...

There are no rocky outcrops or a high reef at Hawkins...just a bank, shallowest at 50m or so, not much structure to cast to...

best regards,
mark

[Kaiser Pro Shop]

Mark
That trout your hanging is insane. Pound for pound these must go hard trying to get back to the safety of the plates.
Do you loose alot of gear fishing the coral and knowing these monsters are around? or gear up and skull drag them out?
Some great photos mate
Cheers
Brad

Hi Brad,

Yes, those coral trouts grow to monstrous proportions in Rodrigues...really massive!

The big one i'm holding found it's way into a rock hole and needed some coaxing to exit! Yes, these guys pull damn hard at the bottom and we were using very high drags generally for the whole trip because we had many strikes which just peeled meters and meters of line...drag at strike around 12kg+.

We probably lost close to 20 jigs? Some to sharks for sure...but some?!? We will never know....

cheers,
mark

[Dan Konig]

Impressive fish - also impressive work getting that hammerhead onto the game chair without him messing anybody up!

[Chris Webster]

I am extremely envious. Thank you for sharing.

It is reports like that that inspire people to get out there and have a go..... not that many people on this forum need inspiration.

Awesome.

Chris

[Scott Stonex]

Great pictures Mark thanks for sharing.