Fishing Madagascar (1)

[Bushpig]

Fishing in Madagascar :woohoo: .

Greetings to all at AFO. A little over 21 months ago I left Queensland for a Project on another of the World’s largest islands, the island country of Madagascar. As is often the case my departure was heralded with promises of submitting fishing reports and updates, well I have to hang my head in shame; I have been somewhat tardy in the report writing department. Madagascar is situated off the East Coast of Africa just off from Mozambique and is surrounded by the urine warm waters of the Indian Ocean. The West Coast of Madagascar faces the Mozambique Channel and the East Coast faces the islands of Mauritius and Reunion. At first glance one would assume that this is fishing heaven, flying over the coast one is stunned by the view of endless beaches and turquoise water, wonderful. Alas the illusion is shattered once the plane lands. I was primarily stationed just outside the city of Tamatave or if you prefer Taomassina on the East Coast. The coast line here has been raped, the pollution is unreal and the rivers and estuaries are chocked with debris and fishing nets. Modified UN issue mosquito nets are used to trap everything that moves in the rivers and estuaries, not even the smallest fish survive this daily massacre.

I was fortunate enough to accompany a few friends for a day’s ‘off shore’ fishing, which I must admit I enjoyed. We launched from the harbor in Tamatave and headed off parallel to the coast line. The coast is unusual in that it’s fairly shallow between 40m and 60m until about eight nautical miles off shore where it drops off dramatically to a depth in excess of 1 000m, it was here at this drop off that we decided to trawl for skipjack tuna.

'Bushpig' with skipjack tuna.

Pickings were decidedly slim but we were fortunate to at least land a few moderately sized skipjacks. Unfortunately the only rod and reel I had brought with me was my trusty four piece bass rod which was not suited to fishing off the boat and I had to borrow a rather tatty boat rod with a nondescript reel from the skipper. I have absolutely no idea what line he was using and as he spoke only French and I only English the chance of me finding out was nonexistent. I used a basic leader with a red and white plastic stick bait (make unknown) approximately 150mm long. We spent most of the morning trawling while two colleagues (who shall remain anonymous) fed the fish and provided a steady flow of chum. Getting sea sick is one of the few things one cannot do with dignity and these two proved just that. There’s nothing like trying to land a fish while one of your buddies is dry retching in an attempt to expel his sigmoid colon through his nostril.

'Bushpig' with a moderate Dorado (Dolphin Fish) destined for the BBQ.

As the day progressed the fishing dried up and the endless trawling accompanied by a stiff breeze and huge swell aided in us making a call to return to the harbor a few hours earlier than we initially planned. While returning to port we noticed a flock of seabirds about six nautical miles of shore and decided to have ‘one more run’. Eventually the reel screamed and we were into a school of Dorado (Dolphin Fish), these fine animals are one of my favorite fish and I have nothing but respect for their spirit and beauty. I invariably release all I catch however on this occasion the fish ended up destined for the barbeque. Lovely stuff, fresh Dorado, cold beer and great company, what more could we want.

[Young_fella]

HAHA! "attempt to expel his sigmoid colon through his nostril. "

What do the "healthy" estuary's over there hold? It's a shame about the polution everywhere, is it just that side of the island thats been destroyed?

thats a ripper dolly! :woohoo: The idea of beer and BBQ'd fish is making my mouth water. Looks like alot of fun.

[Bushpig]

... Sadly pretty much the whole coast line has been destroyed by overfishing and dare I say it overpopulation. There are isolated areas that are fairly clean but they are few and far between. The infrastructure is poor throughout with the vast majority of the population not having basic services, litter is just dumped anywhere (and this includes nasties like old vehicle oil etc.). Any source of protein is utilized, that means just about anything that crawls, walks, flies or swims = food. The island is in desperate need of an enema ... :woohoo:

[Bushpig]

... forgot to mention, a large number of beaches (especially those near villages etc.) are used as ablution facilities so the ecoli count in the water must be astronomical ...