Author Topic: St Lazarus Banks September 2019 (Read 6482 times)

CRANKMAN · « **on:** September 28, 2019, 10:51:05 AM »

A quick report on what has become an annual pilgrimage for me to St Lazarus Banks.

CRANKMAN · « **Reply #1 on:** September 28, 2019, 10:53:31 AM »

A bunch of old Zim’ school friends, my brother Mike and I fished The Banks 16 to 21 September. For 4 of the crew this was their first offshore fishing experience. As always I used Island Adventure Charters, but due to their season being so busy we were not on the usual boat, Pelagic 2 – instead we used their smaller power cat Ocean Pirate. Although narrower, and therefore less stable on the water, she was a great platform to fish off with big flat decks, a grippy surface and no rigging to contend with.

CRANKMAN · « **Reply #2 on:** September 28, 2019, 10:54:31 AM »

Our trip started with a bang when a decent Saily took Paul’s surface plug on almost his first cast. Fortunately he is an experienced angler and soon landed, photographed and released the fish.

CRANKMAN · « **Reply #3 on:** September 28, 2019, 10:55:37 AM »

Things got a bit tough after that. All the usual spots were not producing. The currents and winds had been very variable in the build up to the trip and this seemed to have muddled things up. We had to do a lot of searching to find the feeding fish, and then you only a brief shot at them before they disappeared. We landed some rather unusual species, I think as a direct result. I got a weird looking Trumpet fish on jig, Matt got an AmberJack (our skipper said the first he had ever seen at The Banks) and Paul got a Short Billed Spearfish. Sadly, despite getting it on board we never got a pic of this beautiful fish as after we removed the popper it thrashed wildly and went overboard.

CRANKMAN · « **Reply #4 on:** September 28, 2019, 10:56:53 AM »

The tuna were abundant, but popped up briefly and then disappeared again. We only got a few casts in at each shoal. I think they were also struggling to find fish. There were some monsters in the mixed shoals and we were smashed up by a few. Some good Wahoo were in the mix too.

CRANKMAN · « **Reply #5 on:** September 28, 2019, 10:57:52 AM »

Paul had a massive smash on his popper as it hit the water – we didn’t ID the fish on the take so an hour later we were thinking he was into a big shark as he just couldn’t break the fish. Anyway after an hour and forty minutes of battle he finally landed a massive Tuna of at least 60 Kgs. Both angler and fish were buggered, so this big boy was filleted and went on to feed us for the rest of the trip.

CRANKMAN · « **Reply #6 on:** September 28, 2019, 10:59:21 AM »

Unlike our last trip, jigging did not produce many decent fish. We got Yellow Spotted Trevally, Bluefin Trevally, Amberjack, Goatfish and some other random bottoms. All in all we got 18 or so species. We just couldn’t find the GTs though. I had the hooks pull on a decent GT early in the trip, and the rest of the guys got a few small ones.

CRANKMAN · « **Reply #7 on:** September 28, 2019, 11:00:57 AM »

Luckily on our last afternoon we found them on the Southern side of The Banks. Rob was the first one on with a 102 cm GT. In the end everybody got decent fish, all in and around the 100 cm mark, so we were able to leave the banks smiling.

CRANKMAN · « **Reply #8 on:** September 28, 2019, 11:01:35 AM »

We made it back to Pemba in time to watch the Springboks opening game in the world cup. If only we had won that, it would have been a perfect end to another brilliant trip.

CRANKMAN · « **Reply #9 on:** September 28, 2019, 11:04:53 AM »

I can't wait till next year!

HooknCook · « **Reply #10 on:** September 28, 2019, 03:47:14 PM »

Awesome trip, certainly sounds like a bucket list trip!

SAfish · « **Reply #11 on:** September 28, 2019, 04:52:42 PM »

Great report and catches!

REEFMAN · « **Reply #12 on:** September 30, 2019, 07:36:31 AM »

Great report and good fishing Sean!!

maganything · « **Reply #13 on:** September 30, 2019, 09:02:41 AM »

Thanks for the report..
Bucket list trip for me...

L Hooker · « **Reply #14 on:** September 30, 2019, 10:56:33 AM »

Awesome Sean congrats bud, looks like you guys had a great trip

colin · « **Reply #15 on:** September 30, 2019, 11:51:11 AM »

great report

ianf · « **Reply #16 on:** September 30, 2019, 01:51:50 PM »

I was drooling...……

FishStyx · « **Reply #17 on:** September 30, 2019, 02:57:35 PM »

Luvly stuff there matey...

MIKE PIKE · « **Reply #18 on:** September 30, 2019, 07:31:42 PM »

.. nice catches and report Sean and co ... man that hat of yours is something else..

peterblace · « **Reply #19 on:** September 30, 2019, 08:40:10 PM »

thank you for the report...good times!!!!