Hi guys,
first I want to apologize for the delay of this report. Oli, Carsten and I fished in the May at the St. John´s Reef, in the south of Egypt. The german version of the report got published, and here is the english Version
Jurassic Park in the north of Africa
or
„One of the last, real adventures of Big Game Fishing“
Finally our adventure takes place. For several weeks we had intensive preparations for our trip to the St. John´s reef. A long time ago we infected all our friends, partner, parents and a lot of other people with our special tension, a tension that only can be produced from angler with a very special passion for their hobby. And now, finally we are in the airplane, with only one direction - “to the south”. Our flight from Berlin to Hurghada (Egypt) takes nearly five hours. Five hours in a good mood, with a lot of loud laughing and suggestions about the upcoming Adventure.„We“ Well that are two ladies (Katja and Claudia) and three angler (Oli, Carsten and myself Uwe). Our plane lands in time and some friends of our host supports us with the entry formalities. After a short transfer we arrive in the very nice house of our host “Sherif”.
Sherif welcome us on his marvelous property and for the first time I have the opportunity to talk with this interesting man.
Starting with a small restaurant in Hurghada this man became a very successful businessman. His strong cultural (Egyptian) roots combined with an world-open attitude helped him very much. During the whole journey Sherif was an outstanding host and friend for us. Thank you very much Sherif! Mr. Ahmed, his friend for many years, supported him. After few hours in Sherif´s house we got to a mini bus, that will bring us to the south, closer to our long-awaited destination, the St. Johns reef.Now we become acquainted with the Russian group, which will accompany us with this journey. Natalia is a blond, beautiful young girl. Evgeny is a very humerous and pleasant man. The two are accompanied with Alexey, „the uncle “of Evgeny.
Our bus-drive takes four hours to Marsa Alam. The trip on Egyptian roads is a rough experience. Especially at night J
Claudia prepared us very well for the trip. We got a booklet with a lot of very helpful informations. Moon phases, a short introduction to all the participients of the journey, the cabin-allocation of our mothership and many interesting things more. The time passes by very fast and soon we turn on a small dusty dirt road, directly heading to the sea. After we got agitated very hard, we arrived at the “harbour”. Immediately some guys, who asks us about our goal-ship, showed up. After we told them „M.Y Patriot“ they nodded uncertain and began to stow our luggage in their small dingies. Few minutes later we arrive at the M.Y Patriot, a big luxury diving-ship. We refer our cabins and then we have a very good lunch.
Then we went in our bed and the ship started in south direction. Around 03:00 AM we get our wake up calls, because we meet the two Big Game boats, which are already waiting for us. It is really a genuine adventure when the headlight of our boat searching the night for the two boats in the fog. The fog is caused by the warm water and the cold outside temperatures. The scene has somethink spooky, I could smell the extremly pure adventure in the Midnightair. 1st Fishing Day We stored our fishing tackle on the smaller boats, tackling up our gear , ready to fight any sizes of Fish and the two boats move (again in south direction). Our mothership will follow tomorrow. After very few hours of sleep (it is about 06:30AM) we could begin with the fishing.
Oli puts out his „Oli-Spezial“ (a combination of an Ilander Bullethead and a softplastic ballyhoo). The other two rods we armed with two Ilander (Sea Star & Black Hole) . I fish my 30lb-tackle with a Mann´s Lure and an Ilander`s “Sailfish catcher” . We are ready to hear the screaming of our Reels for the first time here at the St. John´s reef. We`ll meet our mothership around Noon.
At 06:50AM my reel begins to sing her wonderful Strike-song. BITE! Oh wow, I take the rod and I can feel a nice fish on the other end of the Line. After few minutes, a big barracuda comes to the boat. What a wonderful start. My joy is unbelievable. The big fish measures 135cm and has a weight of 35lb! Barrac uuuuuuuu da!
What a wonderful feeling! We celebrate this wonderful Warm up with a fresh made morning-cafe. And this tastes like „this is the right time at the right place“. And the Red Sea approved my feeling, so Oli´s reel plays the Accurate-melody. The lure? Of course his „Oli Spezial“. quickly he jumps to his rod, the fightingbelt around his hips and the fight begins with his hell bent custom rod. We all are fishing stand up and Oli has an aware smile on his lips. Actually, after few minutes we see a bulky Shadow behind the boat. The fish comes in much deeper then the barracuda and soon we can spot the species. A very nice Dogtooth Tuna. I´m totally fired up. One of my favourite fish-species, and the first one I see „alive“. The weight of the fish is about 20 kilo and it is (like all the other fish we caught in this week) very good fed. The fish comes in the icebox and we are looking forward to a delicous meal.
For two more hours nothing happens and so we enjoy the „silence before the fight“ with very good conversation, when the Accurate-melody plays again... This time Oli´s opponent is much bigger and stronger. The rod bents and the reel works simply “accurate”. The fish takes line, Oli arrange the bring line back on and again the same procedure... The fine selected tackle works perfect and after 8 minutes the fish in on the boat. Again a doggie, but now a size bigger. We estimate the fish to 30kilo. Unfortunately, the scale broke after reaching the 25 kilo Mark. But it´s Ok for us, it definitely is a very good fish.
Ok, Ok, it is still early in the morning but…the following beer tastes fantastic. But there is no time to waste, the sweet music of Accurate yelled over the deck. It is only 10:00AM and on the „Oli Spezial“ another nice tuna. But this time it`s a Yellowfin. A very good statistic, four hours fishing and four good fish. Unbelievable! But the show is still on. At 11:00AM another strike, now on my Lure. And again a good fish on the other side of the line. The fish takes line, I get some back on and the fish goes very deep. Again a very nice doggy. Not as big as Oli´s doggie, but still in the 25 kilo range. My deafening Cheers (because of my first doggie) is really….loud. Loud`n Proud On the way to the mothership we took that picture…