Fishing
You have 3 different ”fishing routes” to choose from, depending on the season and your wishes.
- The north route
Is your main goal to catch a big GT on popper or stickbait? Then this is the place to visit! Our partners report annually catches of GTs over 50 kg in this area and they also hold the record in Madagascar with a massive fish of 64 kg!
Besides GT, there are plenty of dogtooth tunas, king mackerels, groupers, snappers and other cool looking fish. We’re exploring the areas around the famous Courrier Bay, Bench Intermediate or Cape Amber. Although this is the route for those hardcore topwater anglers, there are also excellent opportunities for jigging. The best period in this area is from October to June. - The banks far west
40-50 km northwest of Nosy Be, the famous ”Bench Leven” bank is located, a fishing ground that extends over 2500 square kilometers which constitutes by far the largest “offshore banks” of Madagascar. On Bench Leven and the other nearby banks there are countless ground peaks that extend up to only 15 meters below the surface with gigantic depths around the bank. For the jigging enthusiast, this is an eldorado!
The biodiversity is exceptional out here, however the fish that are most attractive to catch here is the extremely powerful dogtooth tuna that patrol the ledges of these banks. This is the place for those massive dogtooth tunas that will empty your spool in no-time, so hold on and pray that you have enough line on the reel!
There is also the opportunity for casting topwater lures for various species and if you need a break from the ”active” fishing, trolling for Marlin, Sailfish and Dorado is also an option. The best period in this area is from November to the end of April. The normal time for yellowfin tuna is around March/April.
As the catamaran anchors out on the bank, fishing is also offered during evening / night time. This can be a very good time for dogtooth tunas and big sharks… - South route
Depending on the length of their stay, you fish down to the area of Bay Narinda, Mahajanga or Radama. Here you can fish all year round and it is usually very good conditions at sea with more or less completely flat water. Here you can try many different fishing techniques such as topwater, jigging, live bait or trolling. This area is probably the richest in numbers of fish, but the average size of the fish is slightly lower than the other 2 areas listed above. But, of course, there are some really big fish in this area too.
The above are guidelines on what to expect and when fishing is at its best, but variations can of course occur.
We are happy to help you with the advice in choosing your fishing program depending on your wishes.
*NOTE, our partner reserves the right to change the route for best possible experience due to weather conditions.
Many anglers are attracted to Madagascar for Giant Trevally, also known as GT in among anglers and catching these giants on topwater is truly adrenaline-boosting and challenging.
To trigger a bite from such a fish and also manage to land it is not as easy as it sounds, but the chances here are are very good that you will succeed.
Of course, these fish can also be targeted on jigging or live bait fishing, which is usually a very good complement when the surface activity is low.
There is also plenty of dogtooth tuna, one of the hardest and most challenging fish to land, thanks to its powerful first run and raw strength that cannot be compared to any other fish in these waters. They do not only exist in abundant quantities but grow also really big here, which makes the area a very interesting fishing area for jigging, the method that is the best for coming in contact with the Dogtooth tuna and also the method where you have the best odds of landing one…
However, you should be aware that the large specimens over 50 kg are quite often lost after during first run due to broken lines, snapped rods or by just getting spooled.
Because the area around Nosy Be has such an incredible variation on the structure of the bottom, lots of groupers, coral trouts, jobfish, snappers, king mackerel, wahoo and many more species are found around this underwater reefs, plateaus and deep ledges. In recent years, slow jigging has been performed with great success for all bottom-living species. For those of you who have previously been speedjigging and know how exhausting that method can be, we highly recommend you to try slowjigging, which is considerably less strenuous and is often also more effective on most of these species when it comes to the number of fish being caught. However, when hooking a larger caliber size fish, the odds are not in your favour but really big fish are regularly caught using this method too. There are also good opportunities for those who want to try trolling for Marlin, Sailfish or Dorado.
