The Blue fins and the Gt’s wer rare throughout the trip. We managed a few kingies with Jaco catching the most and Matt the Yankee catching the biggest one. It is said that pound for pound the Blue fin fights harder than a GT and that I can believe as they like to show you your backing. On the flats while fishing for triggers the Blue fins would suddenly appear out of nowhere. We would then cast the trigger fly at them and give it a fast strip, that did the job almost every time, well for Jaco in any case. As we walked next to each other looking for triggers and Blue fins, he would outcast Daniel and me every time by half a meter putting his fly just in front of ours and they will grab his and turn before getting to the other!
On the drop-offs we would tease the fish in from the deeper water, what this means is that the guide cast a hook-less popper out into the deep blue water, retrieves this popper back towards us at a speed causing a splash on the water that attracts the hungry fish’s attention. As the popper comes within casting distance you have to cast your fly as close as possible to the teaser. The guide then rips the popper out of the water and we have to strip our flies like crazy. If there are any fish following the popper they will hopefully take your fly as there is no more popper to chow. What added to the challenge here is that by this time of the day the wind has picked up and caused the dunes in the deep water to become rolling waves on these shallow reefs. Wow, this gave us a good workout every day trying to cast a 12# rod at a moving target while the waves smash you around like a high school bully on the sharp coral that you are standing on.
They can tease anything from a big GT, Bohar snapper, Blue fin or small reef fish into the shallow water and you have to be ready at all times. On these drop-offs we fished 150Lb tippet and locked drags so if the fish take your fly they shouldn’t be able to run you over the coral edge and cut you off. We would hang on to the rods, lean back and fight the fish all around us until we can land it, this caused for a spectacular show of water splashing all around you as the fish try to turn and get away.