Hey there,
this forum has given me so much in the past so it's time to give something back. And - as people were recently saying - it's a shame that no new reports are being posted. So let's end this with something new and different: a report from my trip to Djibouti!
Just take a map and check where it is and you will wonder whether it is really a good idea to go there. Isn't that a little too close to Yemen? Isn't that where pirates are kidnapping ships? Yes, it is close to Yemen, and yes, you can actually hear the bombings, and yes, it's a discomforting experience. The pirate attacks on the other hand have moved away from that area further towards to horn of Africa. In fact, Djibouti is a small country and it is full of international military forces: Americans, French, Japanese and a multinational anti piracy force. So it's like a little fortress surrounded by not so stable surroundings. And I am quite sure no one around wants to mess with these massive military forces. So I think it can be considered quite safe. At least, it felt so to me. So there you go: everyone has to decide for themselves.
So was it worth going there? Yes! Being my second time there in a row says it all. Fishing is good and it's relatively affordable. As last year, I went there with a group of French anglers; some great guys to spend my time with and all like-minded fishing fanatics. And that's what you have to be if you want to enjoy yourself there because besides fishing there are not many good reasons to go there. It's a hostile environment with temperatures above 40° C, no shadow, hardly any plants, only rocks, sand and dust. Our accomodation was very basic and there is nothing around but the sea and the desert. So all you can do is fishing and try to sleep (which is hard at more than 30° C during the night).
There are three types of fishery that we practiced during the trip: heavy surface popping, jigging and light-tackle spinning on the reef. Our focus was clearly on heavy surface popping. Light-tackle fishing was reserved for those times when the wind blew to hard for getting out to the big fish spots. And jigging was rather a try (because it is rather uncommon there), yet a successful one.
Heavy surface popping in Djibouti is all about throwing big poppers and stickbaits (150-200gr) aiming for big GTs. Besides GTs we would also catch king mackerels, barracudas, bluefin trevallies, bohar snappers and sharks this way. I would say the average number of GTs per angler per day must have been around 3-6. On a good day a single angler could catch more than 15 GTs on a bad day just 1. So usually you wouldn't go to bed without having caught one. The average weight of the GTs was between 15-20kg (~100cm length). Our biggest fish of this trip was in the mid 30s. Last year we had one around 40kg. The zone was known for 50+ GTs but we didn't encounter any of them. So from what I have experienced it's not a dedicated trophy GT location but it is quite consistent.
Light-tackle fishing on the reef was big fun. With light stickbaits one would catch a fish on every second cast and get multiple attacks per cast. We started competitions of who would catch the most fish in half an hour. Most fish were around the 0,5 kg mark: different types of little snappers, loads of ultra-aggressive needlefish and other small reef dwellers. Yet, sometimes we also hooked juvenile GTs, bohar snappers, barracudas or juvenile black tip sharks on the reef that gave us good fights on the light tackle. In fact, if you don't care about big fish and you just want consistent light tackle fun, then this is the best I have ever experienced.
Last year we had already tried jigging but we didn't catch a lot (only noteworthy catch was a huge jobfish) and so we favored spending our time on heavy GT popping. This time we had prepared ourselves better with detailed GPS coordinates and we were more lucky. We found a spot that consistently produced yellow amberjacks between 5-10kg. Being located between two good popping spots our new amberjack jigging spot provided a good change from popping. We saw local fishermen catch a +50kg grouper there (with sardines on a hand line) but we didn't touch any them. On the last day someone told us about his secret grouper spot (telling us that we could only catch them with real live or dead bait) but we didn't have the time to try it out. Anyway, the amberjacks were certainly fun.
For heavy popping we used PE8-10 material, for jigging we used PE6 material and on the reef we used PE 2-4 material. We had no issues with GTs cutting us off on the reef so we didn't lose a lot of lures on GTs. The only challenge were bohar snappers on light tackle on the reef. Since the sharks we encountered were rather small (up to 1,5m) we also didn't have issues with sharks attacking hooked fish. So all in all the conditions were rather easy apart from times with a lot of wind and apart from the arduous temperatures.
The zone we fished is called "Les 7 freres" - the 7 brothers archipelago. It's a zone that is not fished a lot. Until this year there was only one French tour operator offering fishing trips to this area. From this year on there are more operators fishing the zone. I am curious to see whether and how this will affect the quality of fishing. From what I have experienced the 7 brothers archipelago provides very good fishing. Yet, with more fishers this might change within the next years. Let's hope that the zone will still deliver in the next years. If you are looking for consistent GT fishing, you should consider it before it gets overfished. If you are looking for trophy GTs, then you might want to look elsewhere. At least, the last two years didn't produce a lot of beasts. Maybe they currently hide and relax around Socotra? Who knows...
Here are some pics. Enjoy!
Robert
