Madagascar Fly Fishing From The Beaches

[WazzyP]

Hi all,

I'm heading to Madagascar in just over a week. We're travelling around the islands off of Nosy Be for 7 days on a "house boat". During this period we'll either sleep on the boat or on their beach camps on the islands.

This will give me a chance to walk the beaches fishing. Anyone know how good the fishing will be off the beaches? Any tips/tricks? Hopefully I won't be wasting my time.

I'll also hopefully give the reefs a try when we stop to snorkel. Thankfully its just my fiancee and I so I will hopefully be able to fish them and/or cast. I've got a drop shot rod which she'll be fishing with.

Lets just hope she doesn't catch too much more than me

Any advice on the area would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Warren

[nicholas]

Hi Wazzy my mates there at the moment working on the new water plant, have to check which side of the island that is, but he said the fishing was not up to much on his side, but he said that in general he had some good fishing in other areas, i will see if i can get hold of him and let you know, when you going.

[WazzyP]

Hi Wazzy my mates there at the moment working on the new water plant, have to check which side of the island that is, but he said the fishing was not up to much on his side, but he said that in general he had some good fishing in other areas, i will see if i can get hold of him and let you know, when you going.

Thanks Nicholas

[dizzy]

Wazz, not sure if the search function is working properly yet, but a while back, Gael posted some info on Madagascar. He was working there for a time.

[WazzyP]

Wazz, not sure if the search function is working properly yet, but a while back, Gael posted some info on Madagascar. He was working there for a time.

I did find a few threads Dizzy but information was vague. I was also wondering more about fishing from the beaches which the threads didn't seem to cover.

[jock0]

My advice - take an 8-10ft travel spinning rod, a 5000 size shimano grinder loaded with 20-30lb braid, some leader material and a collection of plugs, spoons and dropsshots... It's a much quicker way to determine if there's anything swimming where you are fishing than lobbing a fly and will allow you to target fish further out, in poor conditions, off a moving boat etc.

[JadeDsantos]

Yo Dude

I have been to Nosy a few times, and its epic fishing. Are you heading South or North from the island? Funny thing is you will land in Hellville on Nosy be, have a laugh.

I would take a small variety of rods, there are definite GT's from the side, and you can dredge for some reef fish too. Take lots of surface poppers and jog rigs. There are so many fish there it is out of this world, but I found flyfishing a bit tougher, you dont sight fish so much. Very jealous man, I will be going there next yr again I think.

have a great trip!

[WazzyP]

Picking up my dropshot rod later this week jock0.

Awesome! Thanks Jade. Sounds very promising.

Any ideas if I'll get fly tying material through customs? Or don't they like natural materials?

[nicholas]

Hi Wazzy, sorry mate still waiting fro my mate to get back to me communication from Mads a bit up and down, will let you know as soon as i get a reply.

Nick

[JadeDsantos]

I'm not 100% sure.

Listen, I was dumb when I went through customs the last time. It was during one of the many coups. I was wearing camo shorts, a cuban military hat and green fishing shirt. I was taken to the side from my group, escorted through customs by armed guards with all my fishing gear, rod tubes and allot of lead; they search every member of my group but me, including my 11 yr old cousins. I even got my passport stamped with no questions asked, by some guy in a backroom. No one said a word to me. It was freaky.

The place is a zoo the times I have been. In Tana airport you get guys offering you cabs and woman before you even hit customs. It might be better now, but it was still a hell of a disheartening affair.

Hellville is much more relaxed. If I was going, I would take everything pretied, and take no materials. Its not worth the aggravation if they cotton onto the radiation and bugs thing. Getting lots of hooks and lead through has been hard enough in the past.

Expect a wild taxi ride from Hellville airport - its out of this world awesome.